The Universe is Perfect

Envision a steamroller. The steamroller is moving at the exact speed it needs to for the best results. You are walking next to it as it is going along. There is nothing you can do to make it speed up or slow down. You can try as you will to push it, pull it, kick it, stand in from of it. But no matter what you do, that thing is just going to keep going and if you are not careful it will take you down. That is life. There is nothing you can do to successfully change its pace.

What keeps us from finding happiness is this belief that things are not as they should be. And the desire to continuously change, upgrade, improve, and alter everything around us is a symptom of this belief.

We continuously make changes to look how we want to look. The majority of us have experienced it. We want to dye our hair, update our wardrobes, slather our face in make-up or have a doctor cut into our skin to make our body fit an image we believe is better. And how many of us wish there were more time in the day? Or just one more day in the week to allow for relaxation? If we want to blame our problems on the fact that there is not enough time in the day, does that not sound silly to anyone else? Hasn't there always been the same amount of time in a day? And if there was more time, wouldn't we just fill that up too? Then there is the desire to change the minds of others. Through sales calls, convincing, evangelism, arguments and manipulation humans are more often than not, trying to get other people to follow their way of thinking.

But how often do we consider that perhaps things are just as they should be. In reality, life is a forever changing thing. Change is inevitable, so why do we try so hard to make it happen? The wind blows on its own, the river flows when there is water, and we evolve at the right pace when left to do so. Then still, why do we lack content?

We lack content because we do not know, understand or believe one very important fact. That the Universe is perfect. 

Yep. The Universe is perfect. Just as it is. Right now in this moment. And by nature, the Universe will not be the same even just one moment from now, but the one thing that will remain is that it will still be perfect.

Even with all this pushing, all this pulling, all this desire for things to be different; The Universe is perfect. Each struggle, each hardship, each time we step over the edge too far or not enough there is a lesson. There is something teaching us about our nature. We gain understanding of ourselves, our families, our friends and neighbors. It's perfect!
Now you may ask, how can the Universe be perfect when there is so much pain and suffering and brutality?
Because the most painful things are often the most helpful. They are the biggest teachers. Perhaps this is because the painful things are the things we have the hardest time ignoring. Pain is hard to ignore. So why try? You can put as much alcohol, drugs, food, new clothes, and sex as you want on top of that pain to hide it. But it is not going anywhere. Instead choose to look into it. What is it teaching me? What can I learn? Can I learn compassion, can I learn empathy, can I even learn how to take the pain away?

When we go through hard times we are not meant to just look down, close our eyes, put our head in the sand and wait for it to go away. We can't make the steamroller go any faster. We are meant to be present in the hard times just as we are in the easy times.

When we learn how to feel pain, when we learn how to walk through the storm, this is when we find peace. This is when true self love can happen. We are learning how to experience our humanness. When we learn how to feel pain we no longer have to suffer.

I Have Always Liked Fall the Best

What I thought was "the tree starts to fall,"

and I see it never was the tree all.

The leaves get all the glory.
They begin as blossoms of varying shades of pink, purple and white.
They grow and transform to vibrant greens and sometimes reds and purples.
Then even in their dying they steal the show. Reds, yellows, oranges fill those heavy wooden arms before they gracefully fall to the ground.
But I am enamored by the trunk. The strong wooden branches. This is the element that stays true through the harsh, cold winter months.

While it is only a loose comparison, the analogy of the tree is an opening. Aren't we like the tree? The tree creates the leaves, but the leaves are not the tree.

I posted a quote on Facebook yesterday from C.S. Lewis:

"You don't have a soul.
You are a soul.
You have a body."

It earned many "likes" as clever sayings often do. But how many of us truly live our lives from this understanding? The body, like the leaves, is what the world sees. The way we present ourselves is very much tied to the body. However, the body is not who we are at all. And by body, we can include everything from the body: our words, our actions as well as our body of work, our portfolios. These are not WHO we are. They are simply expressions of our Soul. Our Soul - the piece of us that is in direct connection to God. The piece of us that IS God. . .

Now before I go on throwing that word around I should share with you that I will use the terms "God" "The Universe" "The Mother" "Prime Source" and "The One" regularly and I will mean the same thing every time. You say pot-ay-to I say pot-aw-to.

. . . But back to this idea that our body, our life even, is simply a physical manifestation of who we really are. In any given moment who we really are is guiding us as a human to live out a life that represents our highest expression. With that being said, it is our responsibility to learn how to listen to this guidance. One of our challenges however, is that everywhere we turn there is someone or something trying to influence our decisions and actions. Much of it comes off as advice. Much of it is with the best of intentions. Often times it IS helpful. But to learn how to distinguish between what the world says and what our truth is... that is our goal. We care what our parents think of the career we chose. We allow our friend's opinion to sway which color of shoes we buy. We take the promotion because it will earn us more money and notoriety, but will it bring us the joy that comes with living an authentic life? Even when the people in our lives are not intentional in their influence, the effects can be just as contradictory to where our soul is guiding us. And while taking advice from the world may not lead us to immediate harm, the harm that is caused when we turn our backs on God, the voice inside us, is far more damaging.

The idea here is not to suggest that all advice is bad. It is not to shut out your loved ones. The idea here is to ask Yourself: Am I even asking for help from the The One inside me? Because the reality is, You already know the answers to Your questions.

We don’t need to quiet the world, we just need to identify what we are listening to.

Maybe this is why I have always liked Fall the best. Perhaps it is the shedding of that which is temporary that wins me over. This getting down to the foundation. Because in Fall what we see is so easily distinguished. The separation of leaves from the tree. We can appreciate the leaves, but we see they are not what withstand the inevitable changes of season. All the colors and the death remind us that we can start fresh.

It reminds me of what is real.

 Photo by Jhonathan Florez