LOVE MONTH: DAY 11: “The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.” – Buddha
We are especially chosen, I believe, to be allowed this gift of grace. This gift of recovery. This being and doing of life that is guided by those 12 steps and the Power we are here to become acquainted with and with whom we strive to develop a relationship.
We may go to churches or synagogues or mosques or temples or shrines or ashrams in this search. In every single one of those, we will hear a differing story on where and how to achieve this connection. It is the purpose with which we begin the very first step.
When we have had that connection and it is strong enough, we carry THAT message. We carry the message that we have worked through this process to the place of spiritual insight and connection. Not until we have done these things can we carry that message to another person.
Love is a powerful word. It is the healing of all things that are NOT spiritual. It is the culmination of many, many hours of working through Ego and Fear and Judgment and the things that are made manifest from those places.
Love lets me look deeply into another person’s eyes and tell them that, “Yes, I do understand. I have been there too.” Even the times when I felt what that person is feeling were given to me in love by that Power that never took the solution away from me.
Only I can do that. I buried my heart in so much fear and ego that I could not find the loving solution. Twelves Steps give me that solution, a tiny bit at a time, so I can find Love again. Real Love doesn’t come from family or friends or anyone else. It is buried deeply in my heart and in my soul. So, I have to do these things to uncover the source of that Love.
I have always known that the Power was not outside of me. It is one of the few teachings from my childhood that resonated with me.
Why else would all the greatest traditions I have found insist that the path to that Power was through meditation? I have to access the quiet to hear the things that are going to bring me deep peace. They are not for sale in the mall or the grocery store. They do not exist in any other place or person. They are only in my heart, buried and waiting until such time that I do these things to get to them.
What a great thing that is! There is no great Being sitting on a cloud, waiting for me to ask, as if from a Santa Claus kind of dude, for the fix of my broken life.
I would never have prayed for the best solutions I have been provided. I did not know of them. I would never have been able to create the kinds of solutions that have amazed me with their miraculousness over these years. Miracles are not in my personal repertoire.
I would rather allow Power and Love to be the creators of my life. I do very little these days to run my life. I only accept what comes and see how it unfolds. Whenever possible, I want my response to be with Love and doing the next right thing. Not for me, because that is not how Step 12 works. But for the ones around me who do not know all about what I get from these Steps.
I want to carry the message of Love. And I do what I can to allow others to feel something I could never share before. Not in meetings, but in the world. I want to always be that person whose response to fear and ego is love, just love.
Dolphin Hug 