Embracing What Is
by Nancy R Bowers, RScP
“Do you assume things will work out, or do you brace? Do you feel suported by life, or challenged by it? These reactions are not choices. They are expressions of identity…. But idenity does not respond to evidence. Evidence responses to identity.” ~ Anushka Srivastava, How Consciousness Creates Reality
“Control is a response to the belief that life cannot be trusted to move in your favor unless it is managed closely.” ~ Anushka Srivastava, How Consciousness Creates Reality
“Trust is not a task. It is a result when you stop standing in oppostition to life.” ~ Anushka Srivastava, How Consciousness Creates Reality
“There is no such thing as a probelm without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems becuase you need theri gifts.” ~Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
God/the Universe/Life is forever unfolding exactly as it should. I may not see that. I may not feel as if that is reality, but my failure to recognize the gifts being offered does not mean they are missing. It means that my ideas of what should be don’t match my perception of what is. I have assigned a meaning to life that arouses suffering. I am fighting rather than surrendering.
But if God is eternal Goodness/Perfect Love/Neverending Peace, then what exactly am I fighting? I am behaving as if Life is against me rather than for me. I am steeped in fear rather than trust. I have temporarily forgotten who/what I am. I stopped resting in pure awareness and have slipped into a victim role. My reptilian brain has been triggered and lied about perceived danger. I have forgotten that my life is mirroring the identity I’ve been embracing. I’ve forgotten that my words have power. If I am bracing against what is, then the underlying assumption is that there must be something wrong. I’m trying to make God wrong!
Breathe. Return to the place of trust. Return to the knowingness that I never need to argue with reality. I need only step back far enough to see the gifts being offered. I need only be the witness to life to invite Spirit in. There in the stillness of simple observation, I inherit the space of peace. There is the quiet of no judgment, love arises and I rediscover laughter. The egoic mind desparately coats reality with fear and when I see what it is up to, I cannot help but laugh at the contortions of a mind identitfying with the character I’ve been playing. Is it the role I want? No? Choose again.
“I could see peace instead of this,” A Course in Miracles reminds me.
God is Love. I am That. Therefore my life is a miracle. I appreciate it. I allow what is to be my guide to my next step. I let go of thinking I need to control anything, or figure any of it out. The truth is even when I think I understand things, I am still making up a story about what I believe based on my assessment of evidence. Yet that evidence is merely showing me what role I’ve choosen. It’s not good or bad, it just is. Am I enjoying the experience?
I am so very graetful that I don’t need to figure anything out. I am so grateful that I don’t need to control life. I need only recognize what voice I am listening to and go with the flow. It’s so much easier. I love it!
Releasing this prayer, I embrace God’s plan. I step back and let Him lead the way.
And so it is. Amen.