zeroinspiration.com

You are you, no matter when or who.

One day, a little water droplet awoke to find herself surrounded by the great blue Ocean, reaching out from her as far as her eyes could see. At first, she delighted in exploring all the sights, sounds and sensations the Ocean had to offer, but after a time she became restless.

The droplet went to the Sun and said, “Sun, I would like to become a Cloud. I wish to soar the sky and be adored by all the World.”

The Sun said, “Imagine soaring the sky and you will be.”

So the droplet climbed to the top of her Ocean, closed her eyes and thought soaring thoughts. When she looked again, she was flying high in the sky. She looked down at the great blue Ocean and asked, “Sun, what is the Ocean made of?”

“Water,” Sun replied.

The droplet seemed satisfied with this and enjoyed soaring the sky and being adored by all the World. After a time, however, she became restless.

She went to the North Wind and said, “North Wind, I would like to become Rain. I wish to fall to the Earth and bring life to all the World.”

North Wind said, “Imagine falling to the Earth and you will be.”

So the droplet climbed to the bottom of her Cloud, closed her eyes and thought falling thoughts. When she looked again, she was falling to the Earth. As she fell, the droplet looked up at her Cloud and asked, “North Wind, what are Clouds made of?”

“Water,” said North Wind.

“Oh,” said the droplet, a little confused now.

Once she landed upon the Earth, however, she busied herself with bringing life to all the World and forgot about what the Sun and North Wind had said. She was quite happy for a time, but—after a while—the droplet became restless.

She went to the River and said, “River, I would like to know who I am. I have been the Ocean, and the Clouds, and the Rain and now I even bring life to all the World, but I still don’t know what I am supposed to be.”

River said “Follow me.”

The droplet joined River and soon found herself returned to the Ocean. The droplet was dismayed by this and cried, “River! I don’t understand! I have already been the Ocean!”

River said, “When you were Ocean, you wanted to be Cloud.
When you were Cloud, you wanted to be Rain.
When you were Rain, you brought life to all the World and yet,
you still became restless and wondered what you were to do.
Know you are Water and—in being Water—you are the Ocean, the Cloud, the River and the Rain.”

And, from that moment forward, the little droplet knew she was Water and felt peace, no matter what she decided to be.

“There are two mistakes that can happen along the road to truth–not going all the way and not starting”
~The Buddah.

I recently met a young man who is actively seeking a career in motivational speaking. As he and I were talking, it quickly became clear we agreed on a good number of points ranging from public speaking, to personal development, to our approach to life, and so on. In that brief exchange, the only thing we seemed to disagree upon was our approach to knowing who God was. The young man stated he didn’t want to invest time in figuring out the unknowable. That’s fine, I thought; that’s just where he’s at.

Following that conversation, I questioned myself, however. After all, doesn’t it sometimes feel like an exercise in futility when we begin to try and understand God and the nature of Divinity? What’s more is, who is to say we’re even right when we think we’ve hit upon a truth!? How do we know? Can we?

Well, it was here I arrived at my deep inner desire to know God and to know my own nature–and the nature of all things, as a result. For me, it all begins with knowing God. Know God and all else will be revealed. Through knowing God, we will know how the stars and planets and universe work. Through knowing God, we will know the why’s and how’s of the world around us. We will understand the seasons, evolution and the life and death of it all. We will understand why our parents, teachers, priests, leaders, family and friends were who they were. We will understand who we are. We will know why we are.

Albert Einstein says, “I want to know how God thinks. The rest is just details.” For me, quite often, it’s the details I get caught in. It’s the details I allow to weigh me down. It’s the details to which I attach myself. It’s the day-to-day grind, the high’s and low’s, the drama and fantasy of life; that’s the stuff I find myself focusing much of my attention and energy upon. That is the roller-coaster I step off when I slow down, take time for myself and look quietly inward. And it’s in those moments where I feel closest to God.  In the silence and calmness. In the “just being”.

Second to this, for me, is the sharing of insights of a spiritual nature. When I have a deep, powerful, connected conversation that raises both the other person and myself, I feel ecstatic! Thrilled! I’m back on the roller-coaster, sure, but it’s a great place to be in that moment! It feels inspired, God-centered and whole. In Matthew 18:20, Christ says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am.” Have you ever felt this phenomenon? I do it all the time now and–as I speak more about Divinity–more people come up to me to share their own experiences. On top of that, the more of these conversations I have, the more I see Divinity’s Presence in the world around me. And, the more aware I am of Divinity around me, the more centered in Divinity I feel.

Epilogue: After my counseling session with Dr. Christopher today, I was walking out of the community church where these meetings are held. The building is set up in such a way one can access the conference area downstairs or the classrooms upstairs without ever seeing the chapel. In fact, I had never seen the chapel before this afternoon, having apparently walked past it several dozen times. On my way out today, however, I looked up and noticed the printing over a doorway that leads down a darkened hall. What I noticed for the first time were the symbols “Α” and “Ω”; the statement that God is the Alpha and the Omega–the Beginning and the End. I saw blue light coming from a room down the hall, so I followed it and discovered the large, empty chapel. The blue light was from the stained glass that lined the walls. The chapel was modest, even down to simple wooden chairs for the clergy, saving the ornate for the massive set of organ pipes that filled the front wall. I stopped for a moment to soak in the stillness, then walked to the front and sat down in the third pew from the front. There I sat in silence for a bit. I considered the contents of the altar, where stood a simple metal cross and a bible, displayed open, upright and facing the congregation. I stood, genuflected, and approached the altar. This was the first line I read:

Psalms 27:8 – When Thou saidst, “Seek ye My face,” my heart said unto Thee, “Thy face, LORD, will I seek.”

And so I will.

When we feel alone in this world, know that feeling of aloneness is just that; a feeling. What do we know about feelings? They are temporary! Contrary to what we might perceive when we’re heightened by a strong emotional reaction, we are not our feelings and our feelings are not us. Feelings are vibrational frequencies generated by judgment. A judgment may occur in an instant, but it must happen in order: event (input), judgment (filter), emotional reaction (output). We must hold an opinion about something before we can have an emotional response to it. Whether we’re receiving good or bad news (input, a.k.a. stimuli or content), we first

1. receive the information (in its pure and free-of-judgment form),
2. process it by running it past the filters through which we view our worlds, by which we access our past experiences related to that information and–pulling from that file–we
3. form the “how I feel about this” response and release it into the world.

Depending on how emotionally-charged we find the information, and depending on many other factors swirling around us in that moment (including our emotional state prior to receiving the information), the severity of our emotional reaction will vary. We may feel happy, pleased, thankful, melancholy, angry, sad–we run the gamut.

Adversely, if we are clear–truly at peace–there is no judgment, and without judgment, we don the role of the “silent observer”, allowing ourselves to step back from information we are receiving, consider it, and let it pass without attachment.

I offer that emotionally-charged responses have their use! They are great for manifesting our intents. The challenge is–unless we’re aware of our judgments and the manner in which we’re directing our emotional energy–we could be manifesting the very things in life we don’t want.

For instance, I went a long time being unaware of how connected I was to my own abundance. I would look at my bank statement and upon seeing the balance, I would believe I only had enough money for this-or-that; seldom did my thoughts include this-and-that. Usually the “or” fell between something I wanted to do and something I felt obliged to do. During an EFT tapping session, a mentor of mine, Dr. Christopher Henley, helped me uncover this. It took me a moment to fully grasp the concept, but once I got it, I really got it. I realized I had been doing this for years! More, I realized I had seen my mother do this when I was a young boy. When it came to buying new clothes for herself or putting my two sisters and I through private school, she worked to achieve the latter and often sacrificed the former. She, herself, was the oldest of seven kids. Her parents had seen the Great Depression. My grandfather worked two and, sometimes, three jobs at a time to support their family as a Detroit fireman, a house-painter, and a purveyor of other odd jobs. My grandmother stayed home and watched the kids. My mother’s family grew up knowing sacrifice. Is it any surprise then that we grew up knowing sacrifice? Is it any surprise that it was many years before I really began caring about my own wardrobe? I believe this is what is meant when certain religions talk about paying for your ancestors’ karma. The thoughts, words and deeds we hold today telescope well into the future through those around us, especially our children. This is the reason I believe raising happy, healthy children is one of the highest responsibilities we have in life.

Well, once I realized I was operating financially from a this-or-that paradigm, I quickly realized I treated my time the same way. I saw myself as only having time for this activity or that. If I spent so much time on web work, it would take away from my spiritual work. If I allowed myself to work on the spiritual efforts, the web work suffered. I had effectively built myself into a construct where I could feel my limits all around me. That would lead to feelings of being overwhelmed, guilt-ridden, torn, depressed, tired, burnt out. Obviously, not where I wanted to be. Once I saw this error of this thinking, however, things began to open up for me. I began seeing possibilities where, before, none seemed to exist. By more fully realizing my connection to Divinity and my own abundance, I was able to shed this-or-that thinking and things began to happen very quickly.

As for getting free and clear of judgment? I think the quieter we can be on the inside, the less we will be affected by the outside. The less we are affected by the outside, the more present we become and the more open we become to receiving Divine inspiration from within.

Speakers’ speaker, John Childers, talks about the three ways we represent ourselves when we speak publicly. The first way, he says, is to present ourselves as the Expert. This usually means we’ve been in our field for a while and we have amassed a body of knowledge and experience from which to speak and teach. This is the role most people think of when they think about a public speaker.

When I first considered public speaking as a profession, I immediately discounted myself on the thought I was not an expert at speaking about God or spiritual matters. I had 16 years of web design and online marketing experience and if you had asked me to teach a full day seminar on that subject, I could have gotten up, formulated the curriculum and delivered a workshop right there on the spot. After 16 years in that industry, I could speak easily about web design, content management systems, search engine marketing and optimization. But to hold a 20-minute lecture on God and matters of the spirit? I didn’t feel terribly well-equipped, even though I was fairly comfortable in my relationship with God.

Fortunately, “Expert” is only one of the three roles John discusses.

The next way is to present yourself and your message through the Reporter. The Reporter–just as it sounds–studies other sources of information and inspiration and reports out on them. I am speaking to you now primarily through the Reporter role. Upon studying John Childers’ material, something resonated with me and now I am bringing that material to you in the hope it will help you in your own life. It is my desire you will be able to connect with what I’m saying and use it to find your own voice (if you’re in the process of discovering it, as I imagine I will always be.)

By being a Reporter, you shine the light on someone else’s work, giving credit where credit is due, while bringing a deeper level of substance and credibility to your own message (providing you’ve chosen your source well.) Additionally, you remove some of the burden of having to “know it all” and you share that mantle with your sources. Don’t feel like you’re an expert on something? Share the spotlight with someone you feel has something expert to say and bring that value to your audience.

The third role in speaking is that of the Student. When you speak as a Student, you place yourself at the same level as everyone else around you. You share your experience and your ideas, but you do so in a very open, humble way. This role is less used to lead your listeners to a particular conclusion or insight, and more to share, intimate and normalize. When you approach as a Student, you say to your audience, “Hey, I’m making my way, just like you. Here is what I’ve seen.” I feel the Student role is, by far, the most intimate of the roles we take on.

So, there we have it; three roles: Expert, Reporter and Student.

When you speak, do you pick one role and stay in it? No, not usually. You’ll find most people will move very fluidly from one to the next. We use these roles without thinking, and we do it whether we’re before an audience or having a one-on-one conversation.

When I first learned about these different ways to present our ideas to others, I was relieved. I found it was easier for me to get started presenting spiritual material through the Student role. This allowed me to remove myself from the pressure of the Expert’s spotlight and humbly approach my audience as one of them. I still try to bring that humility to my audience when I talk, as I 1.) am quite aware I don’t know it all, and 2.) I feel the speaker-audience relationship is a sacred thing. You have sought me out or allowed me into your experience for however much time we have together and for that I am always honored. I love my audiences and I see them as a reflection of myself and I, a mirror back to them. I believe we would not be here, together, if it were not a part of the Divine Plan.

One final thought: I think it’s possible to whittle this list of three roles down into one. It feels like it may be possible–even preferable–to dissolve the Expert and Reporter roles into the Student. After all, if we approach our audience with humility and an earnest intent to serve by bringing value and insight, I believe the natural result of that research, self-analysis and preparation will organically lend to the easy expression of the Expert and Reporter roles. For me, that originates from working and speaking from the Student.