Wholeness

It isn’t easy to maintain a strong sense of Self. It isn’t easy to view oneself as a whole person- not when the world pulls at you, dis-integrates you, through the growing-up years. And so, isn’t the ultimate goal of healthy spirituality the life-giving integration of mind-body-heart-soul when the world wants to pull you apart? Isn’t it a daily reminder that you are whole, healed, and complete when the world tells you you’re unworthy, lacking, and unlovable? When the world tells you that you need more, healthy spirituality reminds you that you already have everything. You are enough.

The journey of Life and the return Home is to the True Self (not our ego) that we couldn’t have known except by living into the experience of living. And it’s in the contemplative re-cognition (seeing again; or as Steve Jobs put it “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”) that we learn the difference between existing (having objective reality) and being fully alive (accepting the reality of death and embracing the fullness of every moment until death).

And as moments of full aliveness cascade into the existence, the ensuing contrasts are both astonishingly beautiful and achingly painful. Holding the tension of the “both/and,” when time and space and numbers start to have multiple meanings, can be mind-blowing. But thank God the heart space expands out 9 feet, and the soul is infinite. Through those heart and soul ways of knowing, the tension and expansion can be held without falling apart. The “both/and” is held safe in the Silent Mystery beyond everything that is known and partially known.

Trust. We are invited to trust that in reaching out to the Unknown, we can receive Knowing. We are asked to trust that in detached openness, we receive what is truly ours. We are called to trust that full surrender brings an abundance that control could never conceive. 

We can trust in all these things when we embrace an Eternal Love that is unconditionally merciful, wildly generous, and full of grace.

This Eternal Love is a stark contrast to the love that many of us have experienced- where love is earned, conditional, and fearful. 

But True, Eternal Love … the one we celebrate today… the unconditional, unearned, wildly generous Love outpoured upon the cross of contradiction and suffering… opens our eyes to a shimmering possibility, parts the veil of mystery, and calls us to be fully alive.

It’s the Eternal Love that kisses our lips with every in and out breath of our lives, and whispers with every kiss… 

You are honored.

You are cherished.

You are chosen.

You are safe.

You are free.