Just because you are seeing divine light, experiencing waves of bliss, or conversing with Gods and Goddesses is no reason to not know your zip code.
— Ram Dass
I just finished my morning chat with God and came away with a simple recognition of some basic truths—the kind that are so easily overlooked and sometimes even forgotten in the noise and chaos of this world.
I went into the conversation with a heavy heart.
There is so much fighting. So much certainty about who is right and who is wrong. We fight over politics and religion, over how other people should live and love, over whose truth is the truth.
So I said to God, “Help me. I need some Divine guidance here! I just wish everyone would stop fighting and be nice. I wish we’d stop hating, stop hurting, stop bullying one another.
“Sometimes it feels as though the only way to survive all of this is to close my heart, and I don’t want to live like that. It hurts too much.
“Help me stay in this fire with my heart open. Help me recognize the incredible Divine Presence within everyone—even those who frighten me with their anger and hate.”
God leaned in close.
Soon I felt the sweet comfort of her Presence as she tenderly wrapped her angel wings around me, pulling me deep into her heart.
And I rested.
I rested, suspended in that place of radiant, vivacious Love as she gently whispered, “Sit here with me. Sit here and just let it go for now. The answer will come when it comes. You’ve got this. I promise.”
I have no idea how long we sat. I neglected to check the time.
Soon the answer came, though not quite the one I expected.
I seem to keep waiting for one of those Hollywood-kind-of-miracles. You know—Moses parting the Red Sea and all that.
Instead, I got lost in the warm embrace of Love.
My heart opened and filled with compassion. The rigidity in my body softened. Hot, passionate tears streamed down my face.
Then I heard giggling.
Wild, reckless giggling!
And realized it was me.
I knew I was home.
What is the purpose of life? To return Home.
— Papaji
No.
No parting of the sea.
No message written across the sky.
Just pure, unadulterated Joy.
Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.
— Marianne Williamson
What I remembered that morning, floating there in God’s Grace, was that I didn’t have to figure everything out. I didn’t have to fix the world before I could open my heart to it.
Nothing to do for this moment.
Just be here.
Now.
Good to have had that conversation, God.
Thanks.
And so here I sit.
Mr. Murphy, my three-legged orange cat, snoozing on the ottoman beside my feet. Me sipping my yummy morning coffee. Beautiful, soulful music filling the air.
And my heart filled with a deep, abiding gratitude for this amazing life.
I surrender again.
And again.
I loosen my grip on how I think things should be and allow myself to rest in what is.
Surrender gives way to peace and to that delicate spaciousness that is my birthright.
Here I sit, wrapped in the silence, knowing—
there is only Love.