Available
At hand and among you – tangible and touchable.
An invitation – near and knowable.
Streams unveil that ease is My pace.
Gladdening light, My soil and vase.
“Like this.” “Like this.” “Like this.” “Like this.”
Fire, flowers, and flow insists.
Smile speaks Me.
“Beauty” mirrors Me.
“I Am”.
Are you?
Re…spect.
It doesn’t mean to kiss up.
It means to look…again.
Re…spect. In other words, re…eye.
To respect is to take a second look.
The second look finds a book under the cover.
The second look sees the soul that swims beneath a role.
The first look shakes hands. The second look holds hearts.
The first look just sees shoes. The second look is now wearing them.
Look.
Again.
Whatever is renewing,
whatever connects,
whatever is kind,
whatever is lovely,
whatever can give us eyes,
whatever allows us to taste,
whatever is original,
whatever is gentle,
whatever is healing,
whatever is freeing,
whatever names the nameless,
whatever moves us,
whatever changes us,
whatever unites us,
whatever is present,
whatever is the song of your soul,
whatever is the poem in your pulse,
whoever you are…
do that.
“Our eyes are not viewers. They’re also projectors that are running a second story over the picture that we see in front of us all of the time.” Jim Carrey
The second story that we tell ourselves in the moment is where we invite frustration, suffering, and misunderstanding.
So how can we attempt to prevent the second story from closed captioning our eyes, our minds, and our hearts?
First, let’s begin with what you want.
Do you want to fight a battle?
or
Do you want to befriend beauty?
Your answer here frames the plot for every moment of your existence.
Think about it.
If your story always starts with “in the beginning I wanted a war” then it’s highly likely that your story will end with “and there was a winner and a loser.”
But if your story begins with “in the beginning there was something beautiful at play” then you’re probably going to somehow end up with “and something beautiful transpired.”
In our home we have what we call bedrock beliefs. These beliefs help us navigate such questions. We believe that life is happening for us. We also believe that love has our back. And we believe that a posture of wonder and awe is infinitely more enjoyable than the constant pursuit of games that end with win, lose, or draw.
We attempt to make these beliefs the rhythm of our hearts so that when the moment in the day arrives where we might start projecting a second story over the moment we can reclaim our eyes and actually usher into existence what is trying to transform us.
If you want a war, you’ll ask, seek, and knock for a war.
And if you want beauty, you’ll do the same.
We need more beauty askers, seekers, and knockers.
I think that’s the only way we’ll find it.
…if you don’t allow yourself to be seen.
Or what if we asked it this way?
What if there’s something that we haven’t yet seen, known, experienced, or danced with because you have kept yourself from being seen?
We are all a part of the collective tuning up.
Think of what 7.5 billion candles would reveal.
Ashton.Gustafson 