To Build Up or Break Down

01/08/2012

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When the weather reached nearly 60 degrees last week, Juliet suggested that we visit the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  It was the perfect outing for the sunny and unseasonably warm day. There is a lot less to do and see at the Gardens in the winter, but we were enjoying the peace and quiet when we came upon a tractor digging out the ponds. The water had been removed and the giant tractor sat at the bottom of the pond scooping up soggy mud from one side and moving it to the other side.

We stood there in silence for the longest time, the kids and I, lost in the rhythm as the tractor would swivel, scoop, swivel, dump… swivel, scoop, swivel, dump. We waited and listened for the tractor to dump the mud, which made a most satisfying sound as it plopped into the mounting pile of brown sludge. We watched as the earth gave way and swallowed up the incoming muck, buckling out in giant ripples. We were entranced.

What astounding power we have in this life and on this planet – the power to create or destroy, to build up or break down. We can take whatever lies before us and sculpt it into whatever we can conceive of in our minds. It’s as simple as swivel, scoop, swivel, dump. With an end goal in mind we can proceed to move and shift one small load of muck at a time, gently molding our own future as we go. Swivel, scoop, swivel, dump… swivel, scoop, swivel, dump…
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Wearing God Goggles

10/20/2011

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I’ve never worn a pre-made costume from a store and no one has ever sewn a costume for me. Instead, as a child I created my own costumes. Every October I would decide what I wanted to be for Halloween, and then my mom would take me shopping at flea markets and used clothing stores until we managed to find all the pieces that made the whole look come together perfectly.

It was a tradition that I took for granted. It was simply one more wacky thing that my family did just a little differently from everyone else’s family (like making our own pizza instead of ordering it from the pizzeria – but that’s a whole different story). Now that I’m an adult and a parent myself, I see that the annual ritual of creating my own costume held a wealth of spiritual lessons.

  1. If you see it you can be it. Halloween is fun in the first place because it allows you to be anything you want to be, if only for a few hours. All of creation begins with a single thought. This alone is a valuable lesson, and one I still might have learned had we simply hopped in the car and bought my costume at the local Target or Walmart. But then I would have missed out on most of the rest of these lessons.
  2. God is in the details.Almost anyone can create a grand dream on a broad scale. But it’s harder to take that dream and extract the tiny details – what color dress does the Disney princess wear? What style shoes does a pirate wear? The Universe likes to work with specifics – the more specific you are, the more likely you are to receive what you’ve asked for. I once had a friend who affirmed “Riches of all kinds are drawn to me.” She began meeting lots and lots of men named “Rich”. She would have been well-served to have been more specific in her vision.
  3. Open my eyes that I may see. Each year, after setting my vision and working out the details of it, I would set out to actually find all of the pieces. Looking back it sometimes seems amazing that I could walk into a huge Goodwill store, full of all sorts of random stuff, and find the exact red wig, jeweled necklace or gold pants that I needed to make my costume work. But I instinctively knew to follow my heart and open my eyes, and low and behold I would find what I needed each and every time.
  4. Wear the costume! The costume that I worked so hard to create was only a costume if I dared to wear it. Otherwise, it was just a creepy pile of wigs and glasses and dresses sitting in the back of my closet. The Universe provides us with so much, but sometimes we fail to take advantage of it. We pray for a new job, and yet we’re afraid to say yes when a challenging new offer comes our way. We ask for a new car and then complain when our current one breaks down, rather than seeing it as a sign to move on to something newer and better. We beg for a better relationship, and then fail to step up or own behavior and choices.

Our human experience is surrounded by abundance. The question is – an abundance of what? You can choose to walk into the Goodwill store and see a bunch of discarded junk. Or, you can align yourself with Spirit and be divinely guided to find exactly what you need and want. Because I guarantee you, what you are looking for is out there. It is simply a matter of looking at things through your “God Goggles”.

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