I was sitting by a lake with a new friend I share an eternal connection with, just breathing, just being. The lake was peaceful in the early morning light, smooth and still, and that’s exactly how I felt at that moment. It was one of those moments you instinctively understand that somehow everything is always perfect, regardless of how you might feel.
But not just intellectually, mentally know it…you feel it within the very fabric of your breath. It runs through your veins. It sits there in the silence that precedes your next thought. Moments like this make it easy for that truth to reach your core and make a permanent impact; shift something within you, making you somehow new again.
I was looking at the water, the sky it was reflecting and the birds sharing that sky with us down here. I noticed people, their boats and the wrinkles their movement created on the surface of the lake – every little detail of it perfect. And from within that Peace came a thought.. well, not really a thought, but something deeper, some insight that was always there, but got buried away under all the layers of everyday mental noise. And with that insight came a wave of awareness. Everything seamed brighter, more colorful, more meaningful, more beautiful.
I started noticing so much beauty around me it overwhelmed me completely.
There are signs everywhere, if we only bother to look at anything properly. It becomes obvious once we silence the perpetual stream of useless thoughts that dull us. It makes every person we encounter and every thing we touch beautiful beyond what words can express. I picked a fig from a tree nearby, felt its sweet gift on my lips and tongue. How can we take it for granted, something so sweet? I touched the stone beneath my feet, felt it rock a bit as I shifted my weight. I looked at the world around me, suddenly new and fresh and more divine than ever.
Every little thing we ignore, every ray of sunshine we loose, lost within our own mind, every smile of a stranger we fail to notice and reward… We are walking through the world blind and ignorant, while it offers something wonderful at every step. The lake, the sky, the air in our lungs… the grass under our feet, the trees and their shade; flower growing through the asphalt; cars running by; endless stream of people. So much Life, everywhere. We are showered by beauty at every step of the way. All we need to do is become aware of it, step outside our little minds for a moment and look around, feel and breathe. Stop running. Stop complaining. Stop hurting. Look.
There is love in everyone. There is beauty within every pair of eyes, hidden or not. This life is a gift, as is everything that surrounds us. If you can’t feel it within you, look around, If it’s not reaching you in your office, step out, take a walk. Notice everything. Expand and allow yourself to feel. Your breath, your body, the ground it walks upon; the grass, the trees, the flowers; animals, big and small; the rivers and the sand, oceans and the ice, mountains and caves, both natural and man-made… the Sun and the stars… planets, galaxies, nebula’s and the vast amounts of “empty” space that somehow holds it all together. All of it there for us, complete with a Gift to feel it all and understand our piece of it. All of it there to wake us up. God made visible.
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