Every time October rolls around I think about Halloween parties, about the masks we wear, the costumes we put on and our delight in showing off this other persona. Imagine showing up at a costume party as yourself, as your unique and radiantly unadorned, inner Self! Probably people would ask, “How come you didn’t dress up?” What if, in response, you said, “Yes, isn’t it marvelous, I came as who I really Am and there was no need to add or detract anything from myself!”
Most of us are accustomed to stepping into the roles we play during the course of any given day. By doing that, we often end up leaving the best of us at home. If I do spiritual practices such as meditation, sacred reading, affirmative forms of prayer…if indeed I have a personal relationship with what I feel is the Divine, I don’t always retain that steady, meditatively mindful and prayerful state, when I close the door behind me and prance forward to play my part as mom, husband, daughter, father, teacher, electrician, plumber, minister, etc. I may be inclined to keep my spiritual life out of the rest of my life. What a waste that is, since Spirit is designed to be incorporated and assimilated into human existence. That’s why the teacher, Jesus, the Christ said of himself, “I Am in the world, but not of it.” Meaning, I Am here to: 1) Consciously stay connected to the Source of all LIfe and…2) to experience my divinity through my human experiences without getting caught up and stuck in them. The art of being more centered, patient, creative, energetic, wiser, and more compassionate is cultivated spiritually and the purpose is to let these gifts filter through all we do. Thus we become the God that we want to see in the world! I know sometimes it is just plain easier to “go along with the crowd.” To agree with the casual, meaningless conversations, to participate in gossip and to join the doom and gloomers who fully expect the complete demolition of our civilization at any given moment.
Living an outwardly directed life focuses attention on the tangible assets and evidence of where we are on the socio-economic ladder of success. Thus we don the mask of “looking good” and hiding our soul’s desire for enduring joy, freedom and fulfillment. When the mask goes off, when the private spiritual practices become embodied to the extent they are revealed through our everyday experiential living, then our lives open up. Suddenly, not only do we think differently, but we’re compelled to give up selectivity as to who we say what to, and we simply speak with the voice of Truth…anchored in the realization that there is a certain God-like Essence of boundless inspiration that takes us into each and every moment. Our responsibility is to choose to maintain constant, conscious contact with this Godliness and to reveal Its own brand of energy, intelligence and love! Welcome to the buoyancy and light of the indwelling Spirit. Doesn’t it feel wonderful to unmask, to simply be your Self and to live from the inside out?
AWARENESS CONTEMPLATION:How about today instead of going into automatic pilot mode, you raise the question, “What does the Divine Self that I essentially Am, honestly desire to eat, wear, do today?” Start being attentive to the subtle and obvious ways in which you think, feel and act differently when you continue asking probing questions of your Soul… and have an authentic desire to invite the highest, mightiest and finest aspects of your nature to emerge.
AFFIRMATIVE PRAYER:Since I take myself with me wherever I go, I choose to take the best of myself out into life today and every day. That is why I identify with my spiritual nature and with all its qualities of being; such as intelligence, creativity, joy, aliveness and love. I Am a blessing wherever I go. I express my deep faith in the growing and expanding awareness that wherever I Am, God Is and all that God Is, I project through what I say and do. I navigate the gap between my humanity and divinity by letting go and trusting God to work for me, by working through me, for the greater good of myself and all humanity. I give thanks for new blessings that go forth from me and return to me, multiplied. Life is good…all the time…and I give thanks this is so and so it is!