Something I have been thinking about a lot lately is light – the light that is me, that is you, as spirit. It started around Thanksgiving and I have been focusing on it as I meditate and go through my day. It all began with thinking about my soul as the light within my physical body. During my training, I learned to center myself by first seeing that bright, beautiful spark of light that is me as spirit. What does it really mean though to be that spark of light? I understand a bit, but I still felt I was only scratching the surface of the whole matter. Then two things happened – I started reading an amazing book and I heard a wonderful podcast (thanks to Jim Brown on Heart Centered Loving!). Both made me realize that to fully embrace myself as spirit, thinking will only get me so far. I also have to feel it.
At the beginning of last year, I bought a book and started reading it. I struggled through the first few pages then simply put it down, knowing I wasn’t ready to read it yet. For some reason I can’t remember, I started reading it again around the holidays and realized it is all about that light!! Perfect timing! The book is called ‘Discover the Power Within You’ by Eric Butterworth. It is about the teachings of Jesus in understanding who you really are as spirit and all that it means to be a spiritual being. I’ve been blown away by how much sense it makes to me. Here’s the funny part of this. Anyone who knows me can tell you I’m not a religious person. I had to go to church and catechism until I made my confirmation. By that time, there were so many things that didn’t make sense to or didn’t sit right with me that I stopped going to church and thinking of myself as Catholic. Since then I’ve been trying to figure out what feels right to me and made it a point to learn about different religions along the way. My beliefs are a spiritual mish mash of all the things I picked up along the way that felt right to me. Why am I telling you all this? My point is that even though I’m not part of the Catholic faith, I can still recognize and accept things within it if they feel right to me. So if you see the word Jesus or God and immediately think “that’s not part of my faith”, “ugh, here’s something religious” or “I don’t believe in that”, I get it. Don’t think I’m trying to advocate a specific religion or make you even believe what I believe. I’ve been down that road of ‘this is what you will believe’ and I didn’t like it so I wouldn’t do it to others. I would encourage you to go with what feels right to you. My hope and intention is that what I write sparks something within you, whether it’s a question, a thought, a “yes, I’ve had that happen too”, or even an a-ha moment. Something, anything that helps you along your own path. The only thing I ask is that you keep an open mind.
Ok, back to the light. One of the things that Jesus taught is that God is within you, not outside of you. I had never thought of it that way. For me, God has always been out there, a separate entity somewhere out there. When I talked to or connected with God, it was like a telephone line that was either connected or unconnected. So I was wrapping my brain around this – thinking my way through it. As I thought about myself as that spark of light, I kept remembering Sylvia Browne referring to that light as ‘a spark off the Divine sparkler’. With God as the source of light, when my light (soul) was created, it contained a part of the source. It’s like a child having the DNA and genes of the parents. You and I have the energetic DNA and genes of God. I am by no means saying that we are God, just like a child could not say they are the parent. However, we are all made up of the essence of God, so God is within, not outside of us. Once that made sense to me I moved from thinking to actually feeling it. A few weeks ago I decided to give myself a little homework. Every day I would take some time to feel the Divine within me. That homework was a great idea because I feel it now! I’m not even sure how to describe it… I just know and it feels right. I also feel like there has been some subtle shift within me, but it is manifesting in a big way outside of me. Discover the Power Within You talks about when you change within, the world outside of you will also change and reflect back what is inside. I believe that is what I’m experiencing. I’ve noticed that some things that bothered me before don’t so much now. Things that didn’t seem beautiful before now do. When you don’t have anywhere else to shovel the snow, but can still look at a snowfall and see the beauty of it, that’s saying something! If I’ve been able to see this change in only a few weeks, imagine what it will be like in a couple of years! I can’t wait! I continue with my homework every day and encourage you to try it yourself. You don’t have to meditate for hours. Take five minutes to sit quietly, clear your mind and just breathe. Don’t think about it, feel it. I’d love to hear from you if you give it a try and want to share what you experienced.
