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Wisdom Saying
Sometimes all we can do on the spiritual path is summon enough faith to hang on, realizing that everything is in transition…. Wise men and women let go and have faith that things are simply passing through.
*Lama Surya Das, Awakening to the Sacred, 93.
Musing of a Modern Day Contemplative Mystic
How can I consecrate this moment to you, unless I am mindful of the moment? How can I consecrate myself to you, and wed myself to my life, also, unless I am mindful of the moment?
Here I sit, wearied from boxing up books, again. Here I sit, moving, again, for the fifth time in two years. How can I face another transition? Other goodbyes? Other strange faces? Other many details in leaving, arriving, and adjusting to a new place?
Possibly, the next question is the most demanding to ask myself. Brian, how can you, again, do this alone, as a single man, without a companion to share and help in all this change?
Even writing this, a lively faith begins to permeate my body. I feel in my bone and sinew, "I can." Why? "I have consecrated this to you." I feel the muscles in my face loosen, as though they are breathing, again.
This move is part of a pilgrimage. That makes it more than just a geographical transition. This move is part of consecrating my sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious, but always adventurous, life to you.
And I can invite this doing it alone, and not see that as a problem. I can see it as an opportunity to once more prove my resilience, faithfulness, and strength.
Yes, in some sense I am just hanging on. But being mindful of hanging on is being in prayer. Being mindful of hanging on is a rite in itself, without my saying a word, of consecration to you.
When I consecrate to you, that act in itself, with or without religious trappings, says, "I love you." It says, "I honor and appreciate this life you have given me."
This hanging on will pass. But my life will be no better when it passes. My life is full in this moment, as full as I am open to receive it as gift. I love my life now, sitting here in a room filling up with boxes to move in less than two weeks.
I love my life, while sitting here alone. I love my life, for I know I have wonderful family and friends.
I may be hanging on. But I am so blessed! I may be single, but I live in Love. Grace kisses me each morning. Kindness guides me each day. Faithfulness watches over me at night.
Yes! I am awake to the Sacred! ... How blessed, I AM!
Suggested Reflection
What feelings arose in you during this reading?
How do you practice living awake to the Sacred?
What is "the Sacred" to you?
What does it mean to be awake spiritually?
What is meant by my saying that being mindful is prayer?
Why is being mindful of the moment essential to consecration of your self, thoughts, and actions?
See next page for Invitation to writer's contemplative village, purpose of OneLife, data on ordering author's book and upcoming devotionals 2008, and material on citations.
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