“…Sometimes the changes we seek are slow and require long periods of repeated experience in order to become established within. Sometimes years or even lifetimes are needed. But the gift in this, no matter how long it takes, is the knowledge that everything is available for our healing if we are open to it. God’s life is magical in this regard, and becomes even more so as we embrace it. When we ask for help to change, life becomes an even greater partner in our healing and presents us with repeated opportunities for growth and learning. The task, then, is to be present to life, to be present to what is so that we may interact with it gracefully instead of wanting it to be some other way.
Though God’s light is always present in life, as it becomes stronger due to changes on the earth and also within our own bodies and hearts, it penetrates the thick walls of habit, resistance, fear, and isolation that we have created around our heart and begins to melt away resistance and pain. This is the purpose of purification— to bring to us the gift of light that can transform life. Many of us have waited a long time for healing to occur in the wounded places of our self, realizing that change in the deepest areas of pain or fear would not be easy. Purification allows us to begin to see how to change and what to let go of, recognizing that all is possible now.
When we begin the process of purification, we ask to be shown what we need to see about ourselves in order to heal. This asking brings to us the inner and outer events that are needed in order for us to let go of past perceptions and projections. It is for this reason that all that is needed in the way of healing can take place in the present. Purification teaches us about the hidden places of our self that have been fearful of exposure to the light of awareness. It also reveals to us the planfulness of life, to bring to us learning of a specific kind so that we may learn in ways that have not been possible before.
In order to be fully open to the purification process, it is important to live in the present so that we can fully witness the events brought about by God’s grace and light. If we are preoccupied with the past or with the future, or too busy with other things that claim a higher priority, we can allow much to go by while remaining unconscious. The choice for consciousness must be made again and again concerning our thoughts and feelings as we witness things that we have not seen before. As transformation begins to take place and awareness expands, life becomes a perpetual unfolding of the new. Indeed, we find ourselves always becoming new, and our journey continually offering to us opportunities for growth and healing.
To be ‘present in the present’ is something that must be learned at deeper and deeper levels of our being. For many, it is a completely different way of life — a way that is conscious rather than unaware. This new way of life involves, among other things, the following factors: being visible, being responsible, and being grateful.
Visibility in life means showing ourselves — expressing who we are in all the many ways we have for that expression. It means being seen. For some, there is fear and difficulty in doing this, and so becoming present is a spiritual task that often must be learned in increments.
Responsibility in life means claiming the space that we occupy and that our bodies inhabit. Assuming responsibility for the shape of our life and for the space we inhabit are basic tenets of purification. These principles are based on the understanding that we are uniquely suited to the life that we have been given and that on a soul-level we have chosen, and that we therefore have a responsibility to God and to ourselves to interact with this life in the highest possible way.
Gratitude involves appreciation for what life brings to us. It reaches out to life and causes us to want more life. Such wanting fosters presentness much more than if we were indifferent or resentful. Gratitude allows us to return life to Life in a gesture of thankfulness.
To become present is the challenge of purification and of healing. It is to be willing to see with new eyes and to hear with new ears. It is to be willing to risk new insights. What we see may not please us. We may see the limitations we still carry in every area that opens before us. Nevertheless, supported by God’s holy love and light, no matter what we see, we are sustained, for this love allows us to expand past the barriers we have formerly created for our own protection, enabling us to go further beyond them than we had previously thought possible…”
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