Trailing clouds of glory

Many of us are familiar with the internal criticism and gnawing insecurity we feel when we take the next step in our work or life. Rather than being constrained we can observe our thoughts, let them go and return to the truth of who we really are. William Wordsworth reminds us of our only true home:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory we come
From God who is our home "

Coming home to our true self, at any time, is our lifework. We get distracted thinking about the promotion, work, or finish that e-book/workshop/project is the important thing. Of course, making certain activities is necessary, however, the state of our being as we go and do the task is more important to get the job done.

Walk in the Graveyard

Returning to our breath - our wire to God - we reconnect to our true home. Similarly, taking a break from our everyday world and take a walk in a cemetery can re-establish our soul. Seriously - try it! As I did last Sunday morning after I dropped my husband off to work.

I felt under pressure to get the job done like my husband was working and I was not. Also, I felt resentment I "should" wash the car, shopping, understanding the best compiler e-book, buy it and start learning the software and writing that e-books. Worse, I felt martyred do this Sunday. Usually, though not a big church goer, I like to keep holy Saturday nourish me and my spirituality.

Like the "a-" do litany continued to ruin my morning I heard my little, yet the voice whisper, "Walk in the cemetery." Almost driving from the cemetery, my decision was quick. My energy "busy replied:" Ok. Go to the cemetery and on your way over. "In hindsight, reflecting the complete" do / get the "fire power that horrified me. My daily walks are not intrinsic to my emotional and spiritual well-being - an exercise of the body to do!

At first I felt empty this morning sun as I walked the perimeter of the cemetery to "exercise the utmost." Then, after another intuitive impulse I broke out "strategy of operation" and diverted to a tombstone that has always haunted me. There was buried a young man, only twenty-seven years old, musical notes adorning his tomb and the words: "Even so, - is well with my soul." Ah, the face of so much pain and loss, "Even so, - is well with my soul. "Ah ... these words of comfort.

The next tombstone read, "... here there are those who are called to God for His purpose ..." and at that moment I knew that each of us have been called to God with my hand on my heart and tears her cheeks hours walking slowly, my militant march now a sacrilege. Then again, I stopped. Play! Play! Gay, birds chirping filled the whole world! They had just started? Or had lost the first hearing? The scent of vanilla from Ponderosa pines looming filled my senses.

Keeping the Sabbath

With my hand still on my heart, I was fully present, fully alive among the dead quiet. Suddenly there was nothing to do, no urgent tasks without time pressures, no voice direction, only this time the full, delicious, sweet soul. On Saturday he had come. I went on the Sabbath. 've Been home.

We can take this Saturday all day, every time? How much richer would our communications, work, relationships and actions to be if we did our best to work from this God-centered rather than hard power, demands for fear?

In the next step from "Circle of Stones, Woman's Journey to herself" Judith Duerk gives a roadmap to return to our God that I believe applies to men and women.

"Clear grounds of being a woman in itself as allegations of his time, moment by moment, of being inside it, as if you can touch and hold as stated ... his time of being, not forced an hour longer now can include, but listening with a sense of balance and restraint, that each task be safely met with break before and after a parenthesis ... for her to reflect, to be present to itself .

Being present to our self, our God, moment by moment is our lifework.