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It's ALL Spiritual
"I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least,
Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.
Why should I wish to see God better than this day?
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,
I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign'd by God's name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that whereso'er I go
Others will punctually come for ever and ever."
- Walt Whitman
An element of living a life of wonder and joy is the practice of seeing the divine in every moment and in everything. Our tendency as human beings is to classify and categorize our experiences and aspects of the world as "spiritual" or "not spiritual." As Walt Whitman reveals in his poem above, it's
ALL spiritual. There isn't an element of our existence that isn't an aspect of our spiritual journey. We can see God's presence everywhere and, especially in ourselves, if we simply open ourselves to see.
It is not always easy. There is much in our world that we perceive as not worthy of God. We see injustice and violence, indifference and hostility. The world does not appear to us as fully divine. But it is God's world. It is all divine. Everything that we think is the opposite of "Godly" is indeed
a divine opportunity for something higher, for love, for compassion, for generosity to appear.
True faith requires that we accept and embrace the world as it is, knowing that even when we do not understand God's purpose in what we see that the purpose is there, perhaps to be revealed later. It is in being able to embrace the "not knowing" that we have the opportunity to demonstrate our faith
and to experience a deep sense of peace.
In her book, "Everyday Grace," Marianne Williamson says, "Judgment is like an eclipse of the sun, which blocks its light. Spiritual light, it has often been said, is like the light of a thousand suns. We come from the light, and will return to the light, when light is all we choose to see."
It is, in fact, judgment that allows us to see division in the world between what we perceive as spiritual and what is not spiritual. The light is never "not available" to us. It is in our perception that we separate ourselves from the spiritual. It is a choice on our parts or, more frequently, a
misinterpretation of what is around us.
The misinterpretations have been given to us, passed down from generation to generation and, in fact, generated in new generations. There are new misinterpretations being created today. Good, bad, right, wrong; all choices in perception that allow us to see a world that is somehow, in our judgment,
not completely God's world.
Try it on. For today, awaken to the possibility that it IS all spiritual and use your new eyes to see what you have not seen before. Open yourself to the opportunity in that which you have judged. See if you can see how what you know as "wrong" can be "right", how what you've labeled "bad" can be
"good". Try this perspective on, just for today and be in wonder and joy.
© 2006, Davis Virtual Assistance. This article may not be reprinted or copied on any type of media either in part or in whole.
Dina Crawford is a personal life coach, seminar leader and writer. For more information visit http://www.wingsofawareness.com.
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