February 20, 2018 (day 7)
Home late from a monthly meeting that I always enjoy and look forward to. People I somehow landed on the same page with at this particular time in our lives that I would not otherwise know. There is good news and progress there, and always pending questions and bigger picture off on the horizon scenarios that will continue to unfold. It is a place in which I learn about trust. Trusting each other, trusting capital G Goodness, good orderly direction, God and the universe. (I think that is what Anne Lamott says?!) Anyway, this little photo jumped out of my phone tonight while I looked for a photo to share. This little dish has been with me for many years. I bought it in Bethesda, MD when I was first out of school working in D.C. I was an English major and just loved the calligraphy and poetry somehow written onto an old little dish. And now more than 25 years later, it is part of my household altar and intentional reminders of what is so. Earth is crammed with heaven. I catch glimpses and remember. Tonight it was the crescent moon as I bid my friend farewell from our meeting. A text sharing good news about a friend’s work situation. The spring like air today in Boston that brought some spring to everyone’s step I interacted with. Rosemary sourdough toast. Reading a post about a friend’s class writing her a birthday note. It IS crammed with heaven and IT is also rough terrain.
Ms. Williamson reminds me today that “Love in your mind produces love in your life. This is the meaning of Heaven. Fear in your mind produces fear in your life. This is the meaning of Hell.” Pretty simple and yet I was a slow learner in this arena. I didn’t know fear was normal and I didn’t know I could be real about it. I didn’t know the acronym of False Evidence Appearing Real. I didn’t know that I could gather a toolbox to learn that my mind could change direction if I worked with new tools. I didn’t know that often when I said, “I’m afraid of xyz” out loud, that it was lessened in saying so AND/OR someone else would say “ME TOO”. Me too?! What a miracle. I was spending so much time thinking I was the only one, I was missing out on a team of Me Too instead of Only Barbie.
The backdrop of the photo is a tiny sliver of a vision board I made when a friend/coach/angel sister encouraged me to do one. I showed up with a little teenager attitude. I’m 47 and it feels like you’re asking me to make a collage for my best friend. But the people pleaser and curious soul in me showed up anyway with my magazines and scissors and glue stick in hand. Maybe I was afraid. It now hangs above my desk and has expanded. And I’ll tell you what. Earth’s crammed with heaven right here hanging above this glowing screen.
The words “See the light, don’t have to be commonplace. Unleash your inner little guide. Cozy karma” also ingredients to the recipe. I didn’t know it was a recipe. With the glow of a winter photo taken in New York at the Flatiron Building. More light.
I smile as I remember I was just about my son’s age when this little trinket and message fell into my hands. And today, the words still simple and yet deeper having traveled the terrain a bit longer. A beautiful net of Me Too’s sharing the path.
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