Sunday Celebrations

In this dance of life, we have so many self-help outlets to return to wholeness. It may look like overcoming an addiction. It may look like attending workshops on worthiness. It may be breaking down barriers through books. It may be spear-heading issues of social justice.

With all of these opportunities to recognize our authentic self and go beyond recognition, but to actually accept the totality of who we are, how would it feel to be OK with being OK? Do we wear a badge of honor because we are in dialysis due to our own self-destructive behavior? Because we use another drug to get off the one that has been hurting us? Because to be ok does not show our stamina for years of self-abuse? That we conquered our demons? That we are still battling our own adversary?

What if instead of looking at ourselves in sorrow, looking at the world in sorrow, looking at how we have turned out or the road we are turning down, what if…we simply looked? What if in our looking, we could also see the unfolding of a bloom tucked deeply down in the greenery of Spring? What if we could watch the air move in the top of the trees? What if we could follow an ant along the crack in the sidewalk? What if…we could turn our attention away from that which is not working, and just allow it all to be for just a moment? What if we could find peace in that one moment of everything being ok?

What if instead of looking far, far away for the one day when the world would be at peace, or one day when we get our act together, or one day when…we just accept what today is on our own street, in our own house, in the very place where we are seated, in our own consciousness? We don’t judge it as good or bad. We don’t judge it at all. We just be ok with it in this moment.

What if we stretch ourselves that we don’t have to fight with others’ expectations? We don’t have to be anything other than who we are. We don’t have to embrace one politician’s poison or even a group in which we have no connection. We simple be who we are. We simply accept who we are in one moment. 

Show me you can risk being completely at peace, truly okay with the way things are right now in this moment, and again in the next and the next and the next…[Oriah Mountain Dreamer, The Dance]

Some psychologists say it takes an average of 66 days to form a new habit. As easy as it has been to learn how to treat ourselves with disdain or distaste, how long would it take you to treat yourself gently and with great love? Could you do it without an outsider? Could you practice loving kindness to yourself with your own words? With your own behavior? Could you give yourself a break? Could you look into your mind of imagination and create thoughts of being ok in this very moment?

I learned recently that butterflies need something on which to rest above the liquid they so desire so as not to get their wings wet. Wet wings do not fly. In this instance we were talking about a tiered waterfall made of multiple bowls, one flowing gently into the one below. It was suggested to put pretty rocks in the bowls so that butterflies would be attracted to the colors and rest on the rocks without getting their wings wet and then be able to sip deeply of the trickling water. How cool is that? My imagination went a million places. Now this waterfall of remembrance of a loved one passed, became a new state of glory for our kids to paint rocks and invite butterflies to come drink. Imagine sitting nearby, under the cascade of trees, in a personal moment of reflection, listen to the tinkling of a waterfall and a butterfly came to drink beside you. Could you be ok with being ok in that one moment?

What began as an honorarium for a loved one has now transformed into a butterfly bath house, the spring of sips. Our thoughts began in one train of pattern, and through a moment of imagination, transformed into a palace of pleasantries.  This may sound airy-fairy, and what if it is? What if we took a moment of being kind to ourselves and imagining the outcome to be what we would like for it to be. Sit and soak in the emotions that flowed from that instance. And then be in the moment of those feelings. Would that be ok?

Tell me a story of who you are, and see who I am in the stories I am living. And together we will remember that each of us always has a choice. [Oriah Mountain Dreamer]

What are the stories about who we are? Is it possible if someone you knew told a story about you, it would merely be their perception based on their own lens of life? If you were to tell your own story, would it differ? Sure, it would. We create the blend of people we invite into our lives, even the stories on the news. Everything filters through our lens of consciousness and sometimes, unconsciousness. Focus on what you want to create. Invite in what you want to witness. We as a people are interrelational even when we are alone. 

Sit beside me in long moments of shared solitude, knowing both our absolute aloneness and our undeniable belonging. [Oriah Mountain Dreamer]

The thoughts continue and sometimes we need a time out. We call from within a time to collect our thoughts, to reflect, to contemplate what holds meaning for us. In this midst of this meaning-making, what if we gave ourselves permission to simply be ok with being ok even for a moment?

Beholding the Sacred You,

Rev. Tracey