Tag: belief

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Healing

Let’s say the point wasn’t whether you or I believed in the historical figure of Jesus. Or that every word captured and recorded was done so correctly. Or that there were changes made to the content of what Jesus said.

Let’s say that the point was what his life could mean to us personally, if our minds, hearts, and spirits were open.

And while I’m saying this, let’s also say we did the same thing with other important figures, like Buddha and Mohammed.

What would happen if we allowed ourselves the opportunity to hear the broader message? And what if we could hear messages without having to qualify them or put them in a strict religious context.

What if we rested our minds and opened our hearts and paid close attention to the essential messages and how what they said could impact our lives.

Imagine how we could be transformed if we didn’t get hung up on minor discrepancies, but gave ourselves freedom to see the bigger picture?

Perhaps a practical example would be helpful.

Rather than focusing on the authenticity or correlation to specific Bible passages, invite yourself to read this with your heart and listen for what speaks to your spirit about healing.

This story is based on Luke 18:35-43, about a beggar asking for healing from Jesus.

A man came and stood before me, broken by the world, and burdened by shame given him by others. He could not remember having harmed another. Not ever. But they said he deserved his blindness. And none would weep for him. Nor would they guide him or hold him. He had been cast out, away from them. They saw only his difference, never his sameness.

He said to me, “Teacher, I am not worthy, but I know if you wish it, you can make me well.”

He moved closer to me. “Please, please, make me well.”

The others near us heard his request. They said to him, “Why do you bother Jesus, he has more important things to do than take time for you. Leave him alone.”

But I said to the crowd, “Your eyes are closed. If they were keen you would see that I have come for him and for all those like him. He alone among you knows the truth. Knows who I am. Blessed is he. Blessed more shall he be.”

I reached out and gently lifted his chin so that his face would meet mine. I could see the change in him the moment I looked into his eyes. I spoke these words so that others might know the truth. The truth he had already perceived.

“Your faith has healed you. You have listened well to the spirit inside of you. The inner guide who can release all untruths you’ve been told and all untruths you have accepted as your own. The light you see in me, has released you, for now you know the truth is up to you to decide. Nothing more stands in your way. You perceive in me divine connection and perfect health. You know to your depth that you are also divine. Your faith in me has shifted to your faith in your own divinity and the love the divine has for you. Go and be well, live and teach others this truth.”

Many heard these words, but few understood their meaning. For those that did understand, their worlds were also changed, and their hearts were healed. This you can do also.”

To me, the essential meaning rests in how we are healed by our own beliefs and our own faith. Jesus came to teach us to recognize and accept our own divinity and our own personal relationship with the divine. Through this truth and awareness, we can be healed.

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Holding and Releasing

I’ve been thinking about what it means to hold onto things and the value there can be in releasing them.

Here’s a simple, quick test for you.

Stand up and pick up something in each hand, like a book or other small object, then raise both of your arms, stretching them away from your body at shoulder height. Okay, now hold this position for as long as you can. You can also modify this if you can’t stand up at the moment. Simply hold the objects as if you were standing.

It’s incredible to me how fatiguing this exercise can be, despite the limited amount of weight you’re holding. Of course, the fact is, you’re also holding up the weight of each of your arms. After a little research, I discovered a 190-pound persons arms weight about 10 pounds each, which adds to the difficulty of sustained holding.

Why does any of this matter unless you are a body builder and need to increase your strength? Well, for me, it’s because the physical challenge of this exercise has emotional, intellectual, and spiritual ramifications.

How, you ask?

Imagine that instead of physical weights, you substitute something else. Here’s a few examples I’d offer, but if something more personally relevant strikes you, please use it in place of what I’ve provided.

Imagine someone in your life just said something mean to you, or you remember a time a year ago, ten years ago or from your childhood where you felt ignored, abused, or devalued.

If it was easy to conjure up this image, it’s clearly something you’re still holding on to. Something that has weight and the longer you hold it, the heavier it gets. You may think you’ve let it go, but if you still remember it, you probably haven’t.

And what about a time when you couldn’t get something done because it was too hard. You didn’t understand it or didn’t have enough time or a good enough teacher to help you. And because of this, you failed. How heavy is the feeling of failure to you?

Can you visualize a time when your spirit suffered because you felt too weak or too small? Perhaps someone else convinced you that you were not spiritually worthy, not lovable, not valuable. I suspect the weight of this cannot be measured.

So, what is the antidote?

From the title of this post, you may realize that, in my view, it is the act of releasing, of letting go of the weight, setting it down or setting it aside, that is the antidote.

Easier said than done, you might be thinking. Or you may be entertaining the question, how is it possible to release what you are still holding?

As with all things, I believe it begins by making a conscious choice, recognizing that you have the power to choose the direction of your life. The decisions and actions of others are their ‘business’, not yours, and you needn’t have any investment in them.

Because you have ‘free will’, you are in charge of what to keep and what to release, no matter what others tell you. And you are the one to decide if you take anything personally that others say to you. You have the freedom to choose, and you can exercise this freedom in every moment of your life.

Some things that we have absorbed over the years have taken root in us, but we can make a practice of releasing them. Each and every time they surface, we can acknowledge them and the weight they place on us and bid them farewell, knowing they are no longer necessary in our lives. We’ve experienced them enough and can let them go.

This may only take one time, but it may also have to be repeated, before we are free from them.

I wish you well with your practice.

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Limitless

My friend, Cheri Warren and I, created a Four Word Question Deck for Self-Discovery. It’s based on an Instagram series of four-word questions I created and beautiful background pictures Cheri designed. We created a 52-card deck that asks questions with the intention of serving as a springboard for going deeper into your inner awareness. They act as a kind of prompt for your intuitive side to tune into knowledge and wisdom you don’t normally experience. If they sound like something you’d be interested in purchasing, information is available at the end of this post.

The reason I’m mentioning this at the beginning of the post is that I recently shuffled through the deck and randomly selected one card to focus on. It read; “is your life limitless”.

I’ve pulled several cards in the past for review since we made the deck and each time it starts out as a mystery why the card appeared. I began with an assumption that they would always make immediate sense to me, but they don’t. And now that I’ve had a chance to reflect on it, I’m glad they don’t, because it encourages me to engage more deeply with them.

In this case, my first reaction to the card, “is your life limitless” was that it depends on what I choose to believe about the whole concept of limitlessness.

I could defer my choice and allow my cultural training to govern my answer and my life path, or I could make an entirely different decision. It was difficult for me to get beyond the idea that my answer has to be, ‘no, my life is not limitless’, regardless of how much I want it to be otherwise.

There are in fact plenty of limits for me to contend with. I have obvious physical, emotional, and mental limits. I cannot defy gravity and fly on my own. I cannot imagine being able to emotionally handle losing family and friends because of a war or other tragedy. And I cannot understand calculus or quantum physics. There also happens to be other significant things I feel limited in performing, which makes me wonder how the answer could be anything but, ‘no’.

And yet I want my answer to be ‘yes, my life is limitless.’

How can I justify this outrageous claim?

I thought about this for quite a while and asked myself, what are my life limits? Can I become a millionaire, walk on the moon, travel around the world, be kind to everyone I meet, sit under a waterfall in the mountains?

It occurred to me that one of the values of considering this question is because it assists me in determining what’s important enough to me to push my limits. Sure, it’s easy to see I have defined limits, but am I allowing my assumptions about them to control the outcomes I experience in my life?

The answer to that for me is ‘yes, I am’. So, I have to wonder, why is this my choice? Am I afraid to push beyond what I believe is possible? How is that worthwhile for me?

So, despite my initial reaction to the appearance of this card, that of course my life is not limitless, I want to shift my awareness and make a conscious choice to test my limits to see which of them are real. I want to collect up all of my assumptions, place them in a bag and tie a tight knot at the top so they can’t escape.

I want to explore the magnitude of my capabilities. How else will I ever know what my actual limits are? If I answer too quickly, I know I will feel smaller than I am. If I listen to everyone else around me, I will fall prey to those who don’t want me to experience too much success. And, if I resist trying to grow, I fail before I even begin.

The value of this card has shown itself to me. Within these four words there lies the promise of expansion outward into the greater world. My life may not be entirely limitless but there is still so much beauty, magic, and radiance for me to experience.

In my heart, I believe the same is true for you.

Should you be interested in purchasing your own Four Word Question Deck for Self-Discovery, please visit my website:

www.messagesforinspiration.com and click on the Four Word Question tab, then click on the picture of the box. From here you can place your order directly.

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Grace

Are you familiar with the idea of grace?

Perhaps the most common usage, would be the ‘saying of grace’ before meals, especially dinner.

I wondered where the practice came from. It wasn’t hard to discover. It appears in most Christian traditions and is a short prayer said before a meal. Saying grace comes from the Latin phrase ‘gratiarum actio’, which means an act of thanks.

Some traditions believe that grace and thanksgiving impart a blessing which sanctifies (makes holy) the meal, while other traditions focus on the belief that humans should thank God for the food and other blessings they receive.

I’ve never really been entirely comfortable with either of these concepts. I am very grateful that there is food in the world for me and I want it to create health for my body, but there’s something underneath the idea of saying grace that is bothersome to me.

I feel as though I need to take a big step backwards and perhaps ask myself several questions. I use questions as prompts. They challenge me to think deeper and delve into new territory.

Does saying grace change the flavor of the food? Does it change the power of the food to create better health in me? If I don’t say grace, do I lose some of the value of the food?

And then there is another side to this. When I say grace, who am I saying it to?  Is God the granter of grace? If so, does God speak everyone’s language and grant everyone’s wishes?

If you are with a group of people and grace is said, do all of those present have to think, feel, and believe the same thing for grace to work?

Maybe I tend to think too deeply into issues, but it feels like something important is waiting here for me to discover.

As I lean into this whole idea, I sense the word ‘grace’ has more far-reaching implications for me.

In the religious culture I was raised, ‘grace’ has a very specific meaning. God offers us grace as a free gift because God is willing to forgive us and bless us, even though we all fall short of living righteously (a good life). Further, grace is viewed as the love of God shown those who do not merit love.

These statements, and the concept of grace as it’s used, touches a nerve in me.

Who does not merit love?

In my world, there is no one who does not merit love. Some may act from places of hurt so deep that they appear cruel and heartless. But there is a place within them that is human and lovable. Every one of us comes from love and returns to love.

In my view, we all came from heaven and return to heaven. We are all parts of the whole, the holy, the one. We all deserve love and no one is excluded.

The way grace is used implies that we are missing something and need to be supplemented from outside of ourselves. This makes us dependent on someone or something else to be whole.

This is the part that challenges me because I believe that god lives inside of me (and inside of each of you), therefore I am not dependent on an external force to grant me grace.

I believe that each of us is connected to each other and to the world. We extend love because inherently, we are love. None of us is ‘less than’ or unlovable and so none of us needs grace from the outside. It is always within our power to offer love to ourselves and to remind each other that ultimately, love is who we are.

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What If god Is Bigger Than We Think

I grew up Protestant, first Presbyterian, then Dutch Reformed. In college I majored in Religion and was set to go to seminary and afterwards into the ministry. That is until my whole world broadened and exploded in college.

I discovered the enlightening fundamentals of Buddhism, the inner strength of yoga, experienced the raw, untamed beauty of nature, explored the psychic world, and embraced the essence of love. Overwhelmed with these experiences, the constraints of specific religious dogmas felt too limiting to me. More than that, it felt far too small to be applied to the world at large.

During my life I’d been taught that ministers, priests, and rabbis and all the other religious teachers were somehow closer to god. They’d studied and learned things ‘regular people’ hadn’t and were experts who could help us make sense of what god wanted.

For the most part they appeared to care for their congregations and did their best to help interpret religion so that it could assist others with living their lives.

The difficulty is that ministers, priests, rabbis, and other religious leaders are also human. Despite their best intentions, they fall, just like the rest of us. Sometimes, they fall harder, buried under the weight of needing to be shining examples and god’s emissaries.

Since we’re taught to defer to their religious wisdom we often don’t grow on our own and we’re tempted to take the easy way out and let them stand between ourselves and god.

For me, I couldn’t do this. I still can’t do it.

I’ve always felt that, as a part of god’s creation, I have a bigger part to play in the grand scheme and I always wanted my own direct, personal relationship with god, not one where anyone else was filtering the flow of divine information.

Growing up I was trained to accept what others told me, but what I wanted to know was, how did they know what to teach me?

The instructions I received sounded very limiting, as if god could only behave in prescribed ways and that our relationship was based on master/servant rules. If I did not act in certain ways, god would be unhappy and would punish me.

I was taught that, by myself, I would never be good enough, after all I was born a ‘sinner’. No matter how good I was, I would always fall short of what god expected of me.

The underlying message was that god was to be feared and the ultimate threat of going to hell hung in the balance.

It took many years for me to see the real truth that god is all about love. It was not until I began having my own intimate, direct conversations with god that I began to understand the importance of our relationship.

Rather than feeling confined to the previously understood set of rules I’d been taught, god shared with me that god loves me no matter what and always will.

God then reminded me what ‘free will’ means. God told me I was open to explore and move in any direction I chose, without any risk of separation. Of course, some of my choices might lead to frustration, suffering or pain, and yet in every situation there would be teachings for me to learn from, to spur my spiritual growth and help me become the person I want to be in this world.

Because god and I have had thousands of conversations, I’ve come to realize that god is far bigger than I was taught and far bigger that I could ever have imagined.

I ask that you not accept anything I have to say at face value, because for you to know your truth, it’s important for you to explore your own divine relationship. It’s only then that it becomes a part of you.

NOTE:

If you need some help establishing your own personal, intimate connection to god, I’ve written a book, talking with (god), that shares a way that has worked for me, and it may also work for you. talking with god is available on Amazon (books) in both print and eBook versions.

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Post #291 Love Bucket List 07162023

Recently I wrote a post and mentioned that I’ve had a bucket list for a long time and have had the opportunity to accomplish many of the items on it. Of course, I keep adding new things, which probably means it will never be complete. I’m okay with that.

You may have your own bucket list and be working your way through the joys of checking things off and loving the experiences you’ve chosen. I certainly hope so.

What struck me the other day was that I want to create an entirely new kind of bucket list. One that reaches deep within me, all the way to my core. It’s a bucket list filled with actions I take that connect me with others. Each action is powered by love, asking nothing in return, simply extending the love I feel inside me and offering it outward into the world.

My whole life I’ve heard that love is the most powerful, valuable, important thing in our lives. I’ve heard sermons, read books, seen movies, all focused on love. I’d be willing to bet you’ve encountered the same thing.

The downside of this for me is that what I hear and see is too generic, too ethereal, or too subtle.

I recognize it’s very difficult to capture the essence of love. It’s such a huge concept. How can anyone measure its depth, explain its mystery, or share its wonder?

Perhaps it can’t be done. But what I think can be done is to live it and show it through my actions. This is the reason I decided to create a Love Bucket List.

I’d like to share some items that showed up on my list with you.

One) when speaking with anyone, look into their eyes and connect with them.

Two) when someone is sad, offer them sympathy, not just with words or a card, but with a light touch, a hug, or a reassuring glance.

Three) when someone is hurting, regardless of the reason, offer empathy and a shoulder for them to cry on.

Four) encourage myself to offer acts of kindness no matter their size, because they all mean something to the receiver.

Five) forgive before being asked for forgiveness, allowing your heart to be wide open and free.

Six) offer compassion to everyone you meet along your path, knowing life can be difficult and beyond one’s limits.

Seven) extend warmth and caring in simple acts, like buying lemonade from a child or opening a door for someone.

Eight) remember you come from love and return to love so that you can assist others during the tough times they face, offering reassurance that, in the end, all will be well.

Nine) walk next to others, not ahead or behind, but next to them, offering support and comfort for their journey.

My list continues from these beginnings, taking on a life of its own and allowing me to extend further and further into my heart and back out into the world.

When I reread this list another important thought occurred to me. These items appear to be extensions of myself in an outward direction, but I also need to extend love inward, to my own heart. I need to support my own growth and treasure my own inner essence.

I have come to learn that love is a deep well connecting me to my divine source. When I depend solely on my own strength and power, I quickly experience an exhaustion of what I have available to me, but when I sit still and go within and connect directly with the divine, I am never exhausted and there is always love present, both for me and for the world.

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Garage Sale Insights

It is my personal belief that every single thing I encounter in my life has meaning. The fact is I miss most of the learnings I could be experiencing because I don’t grasp them at the time. Occasionally, something will connect after the fact, but I sense the majority passes me by.

How is it for you? Do you feel that you’re missing some of the valuable things happening in your life? Would you like to find ways to change this and live a richer life?

I’m trying to change some of my ways I experience my life, to deepen my awareness and to connect the dots, so that my life expands, grows, becomes more joy filled.

Now, you might not expect to find anything valuable in hosting a garage sale, but for me, many gifts presented themselves. Perhaps it was because I intended to find them. I chose to open myself up and look closely, believing gifts would appear and enrich my heart.

I wondered, if it is as simple as that, why don’t I do this all of the time? Maybe it’s an issue of practice, as well as attention.

My daughter and I share many traits, one of which is a giving heart. We agreed that we would let every customer pay whatever they felt items were worth. We both recognized this was an unusual choice, since most of those who organize and hold garage sales are trying to maximize their earnings. For us, we wanted to release the things we were selling and have happy customers.

Although we did price some items, if someone asked for a reduced price, we granted it immediately. For the rest of the items we sold, we accepted whatever the customer decided to pay.

This was one of my first learnings.

It seems everyone loves a bargain and there were in fact many who were quite happy to be able to purchase things at minimal costs, but there were also many who would not buy at the deflated prices we suggested. It was simply too good a deal for them, so they paid more than we asked.

Curious…why do you suppose that is?

One conclusion I drew was that they wanted a fairer trade and did not want to take advantage of our generosity. Maybe there are several explanations for this, but it was always fascinating to watch their faces and try to read their thoughts.

Another learning was about the value of human connection.

My daughter, Jenny, and I greeted everyone who came to our garage sale, young, old, and in between. This seemed to surprise many who stopped by. They stood for a moment, looked at us, smiled and said ‘hello’ back. Seeing their returned smiles lit me up and made my day. No one passed by without acknowledging us. It was a beautiful thing, and I am still energized by the recall of it.

It shows me that all of us here on earth can get along, we can make valuable contact with each other, we can extend ourselves, even if just a little bit. This fills me with hope and wonder.

It was also fun to meet neighbors and catch up with friends who stopped to check things out. There is something magical and mysterious about our human connections and I constantly find that I am overwhelmed (in a good way) with how much we want and need each other. Despite enjoying my alone time, I love feeling deeply connected to others, even if it’s during a garage sale.

Jenny and I both felt very satisfied to have released our grip on the things we own, to share them with others and to make a little money for ourselves.

An idea surfaced for each of us, to only buy something new if we were prepared to give up something old. I’m not sure if it will stick, but I’m sure we’ll learn something valuable no matter what happens.

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Staying In Your Own Lane

It’s interesting to me how various phrases come into our working vocabulary. One I’ve recently heard is the phrase, ‘stay in your own lane’, by which the person generally means, mind your own business, and stop interfering in mine.

There can be especially troublesome moments, at work and in other settings, when someone who has an insufficient knowledge or ability to handle things, attempts to interject themselves in tasks that are not assigned to them. Although it’s difficult to redirect these folks, it’s often necessary in order to inform them that you have things covered and it’s your job, not theirs.

Overstepping is particularly challenging when the person refuses to stop, either by their intentional or unintentional actions and it may require supervisory intervention.

Why all this focus on ‘staying in your own lane’?

The answer is, because I’ve been having conversations with Lia, an ethereal feminine voice of god who has been offering me wisdom and guidance about this very subject, but from an entirely different direction.

How so, you may ask?

It all started with a conversation about the challenges I felt about being able to stay connected to the divine. What I want most in my life is to feel a direct, unwavering, deep connection with the divine, so that the whole of my life revolves around it.

What I discover on a daily basis is that there are numerous distractions that push or force or entice me away from this straight line. There are so many of them that I easily get caught up in them and lose my focus. Although I tell myself that they are worth my attention, what really happens is that they sap my strength and dissipate my power, which makes it difficult and near impossible to maintain my true aim, union with the divine.

I cannot stay in my own desired lane.

No outside force is doing this to me. They may try, but because I have free will, whatever happens is either because I allow it, or I choose it.

Of course, I turned to Lia and asked for her guidance. Here is what she told me.

“Until you practice ‘staying in your own lane’ (in my case, paying attention to my most important aim of deeply connecting with the divine), you think it is not possible, but as you practice, you see that it is possible. When a distraction arrives (anything I initially perceive as not heading me toward the divine), the first and most essential step is to take notice of its arrival. Spend a moment truly seeing it for what it is, an opportunity to teach you something valuable. Allow it to offer you its insight, thank it, then move back into your lane.”

I wondered if there was more. There was.

Lia continued, “Distractions are not permanent, but rather temporary events, guideposts to help redirect you with a greater awareness, and improve your focus.”

That made sense to me, especially if after some practice, it became a relatively quick process for me. If I could make the choice to acknowledge them, see their value and release them, I would easily be able to return to my straight path and then stay in my lane.

I expressed a deep sense of gratitude to Lia for sharing these valuable insights with me and I hope they are of worth to you as well.

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Endings and Beginnings

It occurred to me recently that there are a lot of examples of endings in my life. Some of them are okay with me, but others are filled with sadness. Perhaps you face the same thing in your life, despite our examples being different.

I’ve been spending a great deal of time preparing for a garage sale that my daughter, Jenny and I are having soon. It involves a huge number of decisions on my part. Maybe like others, my basement is a certifiable disaster area. Years ago, we had a flood and I had to throw out a ton of stuff but felt other things would be safe. It turns out, they weren’t. Over the years they’ve acquired a terrible, damp, moldy smell and they have to go.

Fortunately, there are salvageable items. Enough so that I had to make literally 50 trips from the basement to the garage.

Among the items were my golf clubs, which generated my first ‘ending’. I’ve kept them in the basement even though I haven’t played in years and am unlikely to ever play again. But I kept them there because I wasn’t ready to admit to myself that I was done playing. I have very pleasant memories of playing golf, being out on the course, walking on the freshly cut grass, among family or friends, sharing both the good and bad shots. Even though my back won’t tolerate playing any more, I was reluctant to give them up. It was too sad an ending for me.

On several racks, taking up a lot of space, was all of my camping gear. My best friend, Doug, and I did a great deal of camping and canoeing together, and we both loved it. Being out in nature, testing ourselves and our skills against the challenges, was a wonderful experience. To put these things in the trash or the garage sale meant I was done with them. That it’s over. More sorrow for me.

There are other endings that surround me.

When I was seventeen and on my high school’s JV soccer team I was on the field and got hit directly in the face with a soccer ball. It hurt but I recovered. Unfortunately, my two front teeth took the brunt of the force, and both were damaged. Over the years they discolored and a couple weeks ago, my left front tooth had to be extracted. I’m now left with a big gap until it can be repaired. The surgery and recovery were quite painful, and I really miss my tooth. I can’t bite anything with my other front tooth at this point, so have to cut up my food. I miss eating like I used to, and it feels like an ending to me.

Other endings surfaced when I started thinking about this topic. Among them are the loss of friends, whether to cancer or suicide or moving away. No matter the reason, it’s hard to take because they each represent an ending to me and are filled with sadness.

I needed to sit back, to pause and consider, what does all of this mean to me? Where do I put the pain, sorrow, and sadness? What other way might I see this to gain a different perspective?

The answer that showed up was, that all endings are also new beginnings. Or they can be if I allow and encourage them to be.

I wondered what I would have to do to make this real. Perhaps it was as simple as telling myself it would serve me best to make the shift.

So, I sat and consciously, intentionally, reviewed each ‘ending’ and reframed them as new beginnings. I recognized that I could get lost in the sorrow of each of my endings, but I could also shift my perspective and view them as new beginnings and the start of new adventures.

I decided to give my golf clubs to my grandson, Evan, so that they can be his and that he can have a bit of my legacy. I decided that although I wouldn’t be camping outside in the same way as before, I could go anywhere and do anything I wanted. There are thousands of VRBOs and Air B&Bs available to me. I decided that even though I have lost some friends, I am capable and desirous of making new friends and sharing new adventures with them. And I’ve committed to believing that there will be good bone growth, so that a new tooth (crown) can be placed where there is currently a gap, restoring my dental health.

What I discovered, while allowing myself to feel the full weight of the sorrow of some endings, was that I have other choices too. I can release the sadness and embrace the enchantment of new beginnings, making my world a better place for myself.

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A Long Walk

You may remember, if you’ve been reading my posts lately that I’m going to take a very long walk on August 19, as a part of a challenge I’ve offered myself. Along with my son, we’ll be walking a local rail trail from end to end and back, a total of 18-19 miles.

In preparation, I thought it would be a good idea to get in some practice walks, so a few days ago I set out with my lunch, snacks, plenty of water and a few other things stuffed in my backpack. I had a route planned but wasn’t exactly sure what length it would cover.

It turns out it was just over 8 miles in length. I felt very happy that I could walk that distance in my first time out.

Surprisingly, my walk revealed several things to me, unrelated to the challenge to come and I thought I would share a few of them with you.

The central focus was about being present while I was walking.

I discovered that there is such a difference between driving and walking. Driving is certainly a great way to get from place to place quickly but you generally sacrifice not seeing what you are passing. Walking offers you a chance to slow down and notice things. You can pause and consider and explore.

The main road I was walking on extends straight for about three miles. At one end I stood trying to see all the way to the opposite end. I couldn’t. As I walked, I would occasionally stop and look behind me at where I’d been and then ahead to where I was going.

I found it a curious thing to consider, because we are always somewhere in the middle of our journey here on earth. We can only see just so far. I wonder, would we want it any other way? I’m not sure I would, because the mystery and magic of not knowing, of being surprised by the next turn or path change might rob me of some powerful source of wonder.

As I continued on, I became aware of the stores, offices and houses I was passing, each with their own personalities. I wondered, were the color choices deliberate? Did their owners make them in order to attract those passing by?

I also wondered about the various signs they posted out front of their properties or in their windows. Ads tempting me to buy sugary drinks, tasty foods, quick deliveries, caring medical services, beneficial financial products. I thought about what I was drawn to and how easily I am influenced by advertisements. I believe I was much more effected because I was walking and could take my time to consider. When I’m driving, I don’t notice things as much, since I’m more interested in getting where I’m going.

This raised several questions in my mind; how do we ‘market’ ourselves, what signage would I put up to ask others to choose me, and what reasons would I offer them?

Another thought came to me.

What if I chose to walk everywhere, or at least to all of the places relatively close to my home? As I considered this, it occurred to me that within easy reach are my chiropractor, attorney, bank, eye care, doctor, grocery store, restaurants. Why do I always choose to drive to them? Is it because I save time or that I’m too lazy to walk instead? What would I gain if I walked? Better exercise, save the planet a little from my car emissions, notice more about the world I live in?

I also realized that slowing my pace by walking allowed me to be much more observant. I noticed so many beautiful flowers, the patterns in the way the grass was cut in yards I passed, the look and feel of the woods along the sides of the roads and how so many vines drape themselves from the branches. I noticed the condition of the houses and wondered what that suggested about the folks who lived there and the lives they lead. I noticed the speed of the drivers and how they occupied themselves while waiting at the intersections for the light to change.

I discovered that slowing my pace provided me the opportunity for some empty space to show up inside of me. Space I didn’t rush to fill. I just left it there, liberated, and free.

Perhaps, if you get the chance, some mystery and magic is waiting for you when you take your next long walk. I certainly hope so.