Creation Spirit

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Spirit Noodles

Jim Young

• An Early Warning
• Introduction
• Our Daily Bread
• On Abandonment
• On the Lie
• On Life and Miracles
• On Ego
• On the Moment
• On Inspiration
• On Marriage
• The I’s Have It
• On Listening
• The Lord of Hearts; Our Collaborative God
• On Integrity
• On Being at Home
• On Active Meditation
• On Being One’s Heart’s Content
• On Living the Heart’s Desire
• On Drama
• More on Listening
• On Being the Art Within
• On Inner Work
• On Life and Miracles
• On Life as Metaphor
• On Living as the Artist’s Way
• On Perfection
• On Shaving Your Head
• On the Judgmental Attitude
• On the Purity of Love
• On Will Strength
• Lit by Love Renewed
• On Crucifixion
• More on Being a Bridge

AN EARLY WARNING!

This book of essays entitled SPIRIT NOODLES is composed of an ever-evolving array of essays dealing with some spiritual aspects of life. The nomenclature of noodling comes from the challenge that often emanates by noodling about an idea or concept intellectually. In this case, however, the noodling about comes from testing ideas and concepts in a spiritual context, and from a spiritual mindset. Simmered in the broth of spirit for a time, the ideas and concepts season until they feel ready to consume, or at least taste, to see if the ingredients actually are ready for consumption and assimilation. The preparation is the same, whether for a gourmet meal either of exquisite foods, or the food for thought expressed as exquisite spiritual delight.

The questions or suggestions which follow each essay are offered as spirit noodles that could well challenge the reader to actively participate in this collaborative venture of assessing the degree to which one’s most natural state of spirituality is ready to be tasted. In a very real sense, we’re all in this soup some call life together, like it or not, so we might as well see if we can improve the flavor by mutually contributing to it for the betterment of all concerned.

I suggest that you don’t overdo it with the spirit noodles, no more than one should overindulge at meantime. Simply sit with each exercise and be absolutely honest with yourself while exploring it. Remember, you need not share your responses with anyone else, so you can be perfectly candid. Perhaps this will be the beginning stages of being completely honest with yourself. This can be scary at first, but once you find that you will not only feel better about yourself when you have let go of the lies we all routinely tell, and all the guilt and shame that accumulate to the telling and living of them, you will find that living only your Truth greatly enhances your quality of life, self-respect, and your own dignity. Another funny thing happens: people begin to see you in another light, the powerful light that emanates from one living with integrity of heart and soul. Happy dining!

INTRODUCTION

FROM THE ROOTS GROWS THE TREE OF LIFE

From the beginning of this book I have striven to reframe ideas about Life, as but one way of suggesting that until and unless we do change our outlook on Life and the global condition, we are destined to have it changed for us, in some far more dramatic and doubtlessly more catastrophic ways than if we regain control of our wits and live from the depths of our spirituality once again. I’ve suggested that the roots of our spirituality are found not in the literalization of life, but in reconstituting a figurative, symbolic, metaphorical vision to how we characterize the dignity of Life and demonstrate It’s Essence in every action, which is the actual Word of Being. The words that come out of our mouths have no real bearing on much of anything. It’s what our actions say that is our Truth of Being.

I have spoken about some of the various means of reframing our spiritual vision and bringing the ideas and metaphors into daily practice. The essays and the descriptions are only suggestive, and each of us must make the choice to try them in our daily lives or not, to exercise these pragmatic means of achieving peace and respect for the dignity of all forms of life–or not. Of course, there are as many more ways of Being in a Loving state than there is room to elucidate here. More than likely, if we simply remain alert and aware we all will be finding them along our journey in one form or another. The main point here is that we agree to make ourselves aware of both our need to Be Loving, and to practice making Love, of creating Love, each moment of each day of our lives. Is so doing, we bring glory to Life, to Loving, and our ego needs fall by the wayside, as do the temporary satisfaction we only sometimes obtain by following the illusory demands of the ego.

There is a basic premise that underlies these essays, and it is that we are to become bridges which hold a safe space for others until they can forage the fields of Life for themselves. From to time I have heard ministers of all kinds, both lay and religious, implore others to be bridge builders, bridges of harmony, kindness and consideration between themselves and others. I take umbrage at the suggestion, primarily because when one builds bridges, the process is fraught with potential for them to be destroyed or abandoned. Plus building bridges only speaks to what we’re doing on our outside, when the real transformation begins on the inside, with the Spirit. When we, instead of building bridges, become the bridge upon which others can travel safely from earth to Heaven and return, we maintain the role and affect of bridgeness without any possibility of being destroyed.

Being a bridge is much like hope: no one can destroy the hope within another unless that person is willing to give it up for despair or indifference. Being a bridge is what we strive for, and are, when we let Christ mediate for us, mediate between Heaven and earth. It is Christ, the loving way, which is the bridge upon which we walk, until we are the loving way ourselves and thus become the bridge for others; showing compassion until they also become the bridge of the loving way for still others, supporting their own journey over the gap of separation until they, too, are able to replicate the safe structure for yet more to follow and become.

In this sense, being a bridge, the Loving way, is our purpose in Life, with all whom we are touched by, day by loving day. Our task then is not to build bridges, but to be a bridge, so others, by example, are emboldened to do likewise, bringing all the glory to God, the supreme act of loving. By building bridges, we establish validation external to ourselves, and expect others to connect the bridge to their shore. Some have said that there is no reward for being a bridge-builder, and that it is too easy to destroy the bridges or abandon them, and that people often forget who built the bridge or why. This kind of thinking comes out of a life based on egocentric external validation and affirmation. When we are the bridge, serving only the glory of God, of loving, in our obedience to the call, the only validation necessary is the internal affirmation that we are Loving as we are called to be Loving, that we are exercising Christ as mediator. This is a Self-image that is build on the foundation of Life as our Truth, rather than leaning on the weak reed of external approval for our Self-worth. When we are a bridge, we hold the space for Loving acts of reconstruction and transformation of Life through the renewing form of conciliation with God. What more validation is necessary? We will have heard and obeyed, and God’s heartfelt presence affirms the truth of our Being, our Loving ways. Not a bad audience that. External validation is thus reduced to a mere figment of our egocentric desire, observed now as but an illusion–and vanishes into thin air as an unnecessary ingredient in our life as a Loving bridge.

When we pre-form our lives with Loving, that is, shape our entire Being from a basis of Loving before we try to demonstrate Loving, but then, in that order, exercise Loving with all that means, we are acting in our full capacity as the Essence of God, the Essence of Life. We honor and glorify God, Life and Loving in our demonstration. Oft’ times, however, we find ourselves at odds with the Being of Love. We are exhausted from overextending ourselves, from doing instead of simply Being; we are put off by comments from another; or by the seeming inability of some to correspond in Loving ways. On and on it goes. Mostly, we respond to others in much the same ways, until and unless we become aware we are out of sorts, not with our brethren, but with Life, Loving, God, Truth, whatever name we give this process of creating out of Lovingness, the naturalness of our Loving nature which is built into the Essence of Life.

So, what can we do about this misalignment? What can we do to reconcile the difference between what we know we Are and how we are currently mis-demonstrating that knowing? Conciliation is a nice, clear, powerful word and concept: it means simply to draw together and unite. Draw together and unite what? With whom? The most common response, given what we have been studying herein, would be that we need to re-concile, unite with, our brothers and sisters from whom we have separated. That’s a good answer, as far as it goes, but it is premature. At the root is the need to conciliate with God, Life, Loving. I don’t mean conciliation with God, some human construction like us, but much larger in scope. No, if we have learned our reframing lessons well, the conciliation we make is with our own nature as Lovers, as Beings of Life and all It is, of honoring all Life is in every moment, under every circumstance, in each instance, with our every Loving breath.

In effect, we exchange our separation from one another by holding the dignity of Life and Loving as prime values. When we reside in the bedrock of the ego, the demanding nature of being in control and totally self-absorbed, we hold those characteristics and manifestations as our prime values. And the results, perpetrated by the need for control and power, can do nothing but provide separation between and among us, stimulate competition among us, drive wedges of emotional and spiritual space between us. On the other hand, when we hold the dignity of Life and Loving as our prime values, then all our actions validate the dignity of Life and Loving. We are thus re-conciled, re-united with one another, with Life and Loving. From this reformed Oneness, then, falls re-conciliation with one another. It is impossible to Be otherwise–at least if both or all parties to the dance of Life are willing to act upon the prime value of Life and Loving.

This is what is meant by Being a bridge between Heaven and earth: conciliating, re-uniting, drawing together in a common bond and related means of making Love; creating and honoring the dignity of Life, all forms of Life. Life is a process of energy constantly creating, constantly changing. Loving, as a form of energy, is the same. When we exchange these terms of Life and Loving for the base term, God, we come to see God not as a human-like figure larger than ourselves, but an Essence, an all-powerful source of energy that is constantly changing, and all it forms or creates has the same characteristics, constantly creating, constantly changing. In this sense, the God we formerly cloaked in our image transforms into the configuration of each of its creations, ultimately making us One in Being with every one of them; different in appearance, different in the individual way each portrays its existence, but One in the Same, nonetheless. This makes us all One, all Godliness, Lovingness, Life unfolding, moment by moment. It also characterizes us as immortal, infinite, perfect in our Being. And when we can learn to see ourselves as the Bridge we Are, we act like the Bridge, serving as Love and Life and God in all we are and do with one another, including the environment that supports us all. This conciliation is tantamount to returning to our roots, as the eternally Loving Beings we are.

On a very practical level, when we are faced with questions about whether to clear-cut a forest, dump chicken waste in our rivers and streams, or consume primarily empty sugars as our daily nourishment, we ask the only question that really relates: How is this going to support and bring glory to Life and Loving? Each time we start to light up a cigarette, or open yet another bottle of rum, we ask the same question: How is this choice I’m making going to support and bring glory and respect to the dignity to Life and Loving? And when one sets out to reek revenge on another, strike one’s spouse, or to sexually abuse a child, this needs to be asked before taking action: How is the choice I’m about to make showing respect for Life and Loving as the primary value in Life? No matter how the question is worded, it all comes down to practicing Loving and respect for the sacred nature of Life, instead of that which demeans Loving and Life. Making the choices to give glory to such low energy examples causes internal stress and a high degree of separation instead of allowing the Grace of Loving energy to glorify Oneness and nourish our souls. To choose ego-centeredness as the primary value in our lives is like creating an egg without it innards: we are left with nothing but an empty shell and no substance–and we feel that emptiness throughout our being.

So we must be ever-vigilant in observation of how we are thinking in the moment, how we are feeling about what was just said or done, how we are reacting or responding to another’s behavior. As we practice looking within ourselves, and not at others whom we heretofore would have blamed for our thoughts and feelings and reactions, we can easily discern whether or not we are Being Loving, honoring Life, and living in our Essence of Godliness. When we feel “bad” about our part in any of it, feel twisted inside, filled with doubt, angst or fear, we are out of character with our Natural State. When we find that we are out of sorts, that we have separated ourselves from the Essence of Life and Loving, it becomes a simple matter of slowing down and choosing different thoughts, ones that correspond to dignifying Loving and Life, rather than dignifying pessimism, depression, anger, resentment, difference, separation. It’s the re-uniting, conciliating with, our True nature of Loving that then manifests readily to re-uniting with whomever we feel separated from.
When we understand that this a choice we can make, and do so, we bring our world back into Loving perspective: relationships are restored, and eventually flourish. Because we no longer feel separated Within from our Essence of Loving and honoring the dignity of all Life forms, we automatically no longer feel separation from any Life form, no matter what it may have done, no matter how someone or some thing has behaved. Our place, after all–our purpose in life–is to Be in the Loving mode, and we are not responsible for how another behaves in response to our Loving. It is our job only to be Loving, out of our respect for our own dignity–and thus all others’. Loving thy neighbor as thyself thus becomes Reality. The rest is nothing but useless details.

By corresponding in this fashion, we release the personal nature of our communications, that is, we take nothing anyone says or does personally, for they are only acting out their current state of Beingness. And if they act out of fear, or vengeance, or feelings of abandonment, that only shows the condition of their Beingness, their inner view of themselves, and has absolutely nothing to do with us. Their behavior only speaks about them, about where they are on their own sacred journey, and it says absolutely nothing about us, so there is nothing to take personally, ever, under any conditions. Unfortunately, because of rather expansive feelings of separation between so many of us, generated mostly out of the competitive nature of egocentricity, we learn to take everything people say and do personally, seriously. From this, we come to take ourselves way too seriously. Simply put, Life simply isn’t about us. Life Is us! And no one has the right to reconfigure what we are into their own image. God, Life and Loving have already defined our image for us, and that is all we Are, Loving Essence, no matter how anyone else perceives us, or projects onto us from their own internal imagery, their own self-concept.

There is a wonderful story conveyed by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer in his latest book, THE POWER OF INTENTION, which I highly commend as a source for powerfully reframing your Life. While referring to the necessity of not taking ourselves too seriously, Dyer points to this illustration taken from THE ART OF POSSIBILITY, by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander.

“Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: ‘Peter,’ he says, ‘kindly remember Rule Number 6,’ whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes and withdraws. The politicians return to their conversation, only to be interrupted yet again twenty minutes later by an hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words: ‘Marie, please remember Rule Number 6.’ Complete calm descends once more, and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology. When the scene is repeated for the third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague: ‘My dear friend, I’ve seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule Number 6?’ ‘Very simple,’ replies the resident prime minister. ‘Rule Number 6 is ‘Don’t take yourself so goddamn seriously.’ ‘Ah,’ says his visitor, ‘that is a fine rule.’ After a moment of pondering, he inquires, ‘And what, may I ask, are the other rules?’ ‘There aren’t any.’”

This reminds me of a bumper sticker that is sure to become a favorite: DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK! We think all kinds of thoughts, most of them, I suggest, that at the very least verge on stress producing thoughts, that drive us apart from our Lovingness. We take those low-energy thoughts of making ourselves too important, and certainly more important than the next person, and create stress with them, primarily because such thoughts are not Truth. They’re only illusions, figments of our imagination. From our position of low self-esteem they seem to make us feel better by pushing others down on our self-centered ladder of so-called success. Such thinking resides in our bed of separation, and keeps us separate, precisely what such thinking is created to do, so the ego can be satisfied.

When we are careful to observe our thoughts, all our thoughts, and notice those of the stress-producing kind, we can make a choice to change them to Loving thoughts, thoughts that dignify Life as we now understand it. We can take a thought like, “I deserve to be waited on, I got here first,” and choose to change it to, “Everything is according to Divine Order here, so I’ll just give my energy to listening in the fullness of presence to the offerings of my lovely wife sitting across the table from me.” That may sound like a far-fetched example, but if we would only observe carefully what’s happening around and within us in this instance, we’d notice that no only would we feel better about the situation and ourselves, but our significant other would be handsomely appreciative of the attention we are paying him or her, and our relationship couldn’t help but be Loving in nature, even if only for the moment. The Truth is that these moments can stretch into hours, into a lifetime of making Love, as long as we keep our thoughts, and our significant others likewise, on Lovingness. Why make stress? Why turn to thoughts of resistance to Love, when you can instead be making Love?

This is still all about Being a bridge. First, we must build a solid foundation of understanding about Loving and Life, assimilating it into our every fiber, establishing a spiritual bridge between our inner Heaven and the outer earth, so that our supraconscious functions automatically demonstrate all aspects of Lovingness and Life (God personified) without. Then, and only then, are we ready to Be bridges for others, in witness to their growing ability to be their own, both for themselves and others. In all of this, as we practice making Love all day, everyday, we must re-member with the idea that what we see on the outside, either from us or others, is nothing by symbolic representation for the condition of Spirit within the creator of that spirit. It will clearly be either Spirit, a sacred, passionate reflection of compassionate Oneness, or just plain vanilla, a mere reflection of the malaise within, which we simply would have created for ourselves.

Noodling about, then, is really a simple process. Such an admonition is nothing more than encouraging you to open your mind to other ways of thinking about life–stretching understanding by accessing your heart rather than merely residing in your intellect–so that perhaps some deeper connections and understanding can show their way into your life. It’s simply about allowing another perspective on life to speak to you. All it really takes is suspending judgment on ideas newly presented, so that they have a chance to connect with a place of understanding deeper than pure intellect alone. In seemingly no time at all, you will learn to “read” the truth of such ideas for you by listening to their resonance deep within. A clear connection with the rightness–or not–of a particular idea will come to the fore, thus also teaching you how you can live from your inner Truth, Divine Authority, rather than merely by figments of your intellect. Staying with such a process for just awhile can enrich your life beyond measure. I urge you to give it a try and compare your life’s journey to that you traveled before you opened yourself to living from this sacred space. And I welcome comments on your newfound guidance, so we can all benefit from the gifts we are to one another.

On Abandonment

You are what you are and nothing but. When we speak of abandonment we are speaking about it on several levels. On one level, we abandon ourselves when we leave what we actually are and always have been. We do so most often in order to think about or manifest ourselves as someone else would like us to be, or what we at least think that is. Or, at the very least, we often leave what we are for some figment of our own imagination. In any case, when we chose to demonstrate or manifest anything but what we are, we are practicing abandonment from our soul’s unique calling for us. That probably is the most inflammatory form of abandonment. Think about it for just a moment: soul continually calls us back to the truth of our being, while we continually strive to be something we are not at all to be.

Striving in this sense is tantamount to following the dictates of our ego, to compete with the outside world, using its dictates as our measuring stick for whether or not we are yet good enough. All of this stems from the fear of abandonment we felt as children, the potential for abandonment that we felt when our mother stopped breast-feeding us, for example, or the abandonment we felt because either our father or mother were not present for us, either physically or emotionally–or especially spiritually. The greatest fear of abandonment, however, is that attached to our fear of abandonment by God, which translates to our fear of death, for if we have no God, how can we stay alive? Or, if we have no life, how can we have God?

After all, as a babe in the woods, our parents seemed bigger than life to us, seemed like gods in themselves. When they “abandoned” us in some fashion, or at least that’s how we easily could have interpreted their absence to our needs: it seemed like God Itself abandoned us. The pain of this separation, of all separations, is extraordinary. Who except a sadist would want to inflict such pain on oneself time after time? While I have absolutely no research data to support this statement, life has shown me, both within myself and in relationships with others, that fear of abandonment is the most damaging imagery most all of us deal with in one form or another. Just as assuredly, each of us, because we have our own unique history and purpose, would interpret this emotional-spiritual scar tissue differently, through the only lenses we have, the various shades of life itself.

Let me add a layer to this scenario. In another essay I have spoken about the makeup and role of the ego. Through prayer I have discerned that the ego takes on our emotional imagery and establishes an emotional data bank which feeds our outward behavior. It appears to act like a movie projector, casting out images of our woundedness which act like magnets. Only these magnets don’t attract iron filings like they did in our junior high school experiments. Instead, they attract incidents and people to us that mirror our spiritual-emotional state within. Unless we are continually vigilant in monitoring our internal affairs, and most of us do not, for it would indeed be a full time job, we are in the need of some method to gauge our internal status. The way it happens is that the ego broadcasts out whatever image we are operating from as our base in the moment. This image, much like a magnet, attracts persons, incidents, and circumstances that offer themselves as mirrors to reflect back what is happening inside us, so we can clearly see it and do with it what we must if we are to absolve ourselves of it, either by transforming our inner pattern or transcending out old beliefs and ideas about life.

For example, if I find myself regularly in the company of people who are manipulative, and it rankles me that this is so, this is a clear message that I, too, am manipulative, perhaps not in the same manner, but at the very least, capable of being manipulative nonetheless. If I find myself with people who are carefree and spontaneous in their character, it more than likely is because that’s how I either want to be, or already am behaving in the same fashion. If I find that I am, in some fashion, irritated by that kind of behavior, however, then more than likely I am denying that same thing in myself–perhaps even secretly wanting to be that way rather than living life by some intricate, convoluted plan that hides that from me and its expression.

So, if you have attracted to yourself a relationship with someone who has significant abandonment issues, you can be assured that you, too, have them, but perhaps just haven’t looked carefully at them in this context. Obviously, if you have no trouble with abandonment, are past it, then you wouldn’t be attracting a person of this nature to your midst, unless your participation in it were to be of some assistance in this regard. On the other hand, others may be drawn to you precisely because you have been through the mill, so to speak, and need enlightenment from your experience in order to get themselves started on the right track. But if they don’t pick this up, that is, that you are available to them to help ferret out their issues, yet simply project their own onto you, then it will be a very difficult relationship, indeed.

The main point here is to learn to discern what’s happening within yourself. When you are living in the moment instead of fishing around either in the past or future for your entertainment, your issues simply appear as a blip on your contemplative screen. You see it for a moment and then, when recognized–no more than cognition and acknowledgment is necessary–the demon from the past disappears into the ethers. Simply bless it and thank it for having served you in some fashion, and let it go. Life’s scars heal much more rapidly this way, both in terms of the numbers of them that pass though you for cleansing, and in terms of the how quickly they release their burden on you.

If you simply dismiss such images as nonexistent, you have abandoned your inner need to express itself so you may be cleared of all such ill-nesses. If, for example, you are one of those is going ninety to nothing all day and don’t take even a moment to make an assessment of what’s happening in your life, then by all means begin to pay attention to who and what has come into your life. See all of it as metaphor for what is happening within you and you’ll soon see what it is that you are being told by your ego’s projections.

The ego works on yet another level. When you feel fear of abandonment, it is layered with the fear that ego feels about abandonment. Think about this for a moment. Let’s say you are on the fast track for spiritual renewal, have engaged in a new prayer method and have drawn to you a relationship that is totally supportive of this path for you, and lives one precisely like it, so you can live in spiritual harmony. This is alarming to the ego, for it feels you pulling away from its control. Ego wants nothing more than for you to work on your issues end on end, for when you are, instead of simply letting them dissolve in “in the moment presence” with Godliness, you don’t have time or energy to let yourself simply be what you are, and this keeps the ego in business.

It’s all a matter of discernment, and when you find yourself on the golden path, at some time you most assuredly will feel the fear of abandonment. More than likely it will be nothing more than a layered image projected out onto your spiritual-emotional screen: a layering of your emotional remembrance of some kind of abandonment as a child, showing its head as the fear of that repeating itself, plus the ego’s casting of fear of you abandoning it for the better life. Rest assured, however, that you will get past this. You can even assist it by being compassionate towards yourself and your ego during the interim.

There is still another layer worth mentioning, and that has to do with how you might have interpreted the alleged abandonment by one or both of your parents, or God, for that matter. For example, let’s say that on some level you made the determination that it must be you aren’t good enough, for if you indeed were good enough you wouldn’t have been abandoned. This is a commonly held belief in such situations. Think how that has operated in your life since this pattern of thinking set in. How did it drive you to be good enough? How does it affect your relationships when you feel threatened in them, or perhaps sensing that someone is getting ready to ditch you, or fire you? Such impressions can either nourish, or diminish, us.

What is the counter, the antidote for this imagery when that is necessary? You can start by letting all other demands, self-inflicted and otherwise, fall by the wayside now. Simply be what you are, instead of thinking about and striving for something that will make you famous, or feel more important, hoping that eventually these kinds of external fixes will somehow make you feel like you are good enough. What you need to understand, imprint on your heart, is that you indeed already are good enough, for God has made you what you are, and all God has made is good. The only things that distinguishes you from another is appearance, like the imagery of coloration, physique, and beauty, none of which make any difference at all. Of course there is the difference in how people see life, determined largely by their personal history. In this case, all you have to do is recall how situations and circumstances have impacted your life, and you will then have compassion for how such things have impacted others on their journey as well.

Most haven’t even begun to scratch the surface on ferreting out these images and how they effect their behavior. Yet because you are a magnificently loving and talented person, it is important to know that all of your history has contributed in some fashion to this becoming so in you. You have strong character because of them; you are sensitive to others because of them; compassionate and passionate; aware of God in all because of them. On and on it goes. You are what you are in the form of never ending love, and all of these things have added scintillating flavor to the delicacy you are. The same is with others: their history contributed mightily to what they have become. This is to be admired, not used against them as being something they really are not.

All of life contributes to how each views life. Spiritually or metaphorically speaking, some are far-sighted, visionary; some are nearsighted and can clearly see within themselves; and some have aberrations in their vision, like astigmatisms, which blur how one sees themselves in life. For example, if you had an astigmatism, this could well relate to seeing yourself as not good enough, which has at its seat the fact that your mother and father didn’t really pay much attention to the real you, weren’t around that much for you, didn’t support you for what you really wanted from life. Thus you gauged that you mustn’t have been good enough, or you would have had all you thought you needed. This constitutes a warp in your spiritual vision, for you are in fact a perfect creation of God. As a child of God you have the entire Kingdom of spirituality as your inheritance. You are in no way not good enough, so much so that someone would abandon you. If someone abandons you, that seemingly dastardly act says nothing about you at all. They merely did what they did for themselves; it had nothing at all to do with you. This is a sign that they have a need to abandon, perhaps before they are. In human life, however, it feels like you were abandoned and this is all that matters, humanly. The antidote here is to continue on your path of spiritual discernment and live from that understanding instead.

In the human dimension, feelings are what drive all to their conclusions, and the feeling of abandonment is the strongest of all, for it reconstitutes itself in the form of fear of abandonment time and time again, relationship after relationship. Cast this fear aside now, for it is nothing but a creation of the ego. Once again, when you become close to another instead of paying attention to ego, ego sets itself up with the fear of abandonment, feeling that you might abandon it for the other in your life. Particularly if you are an empath, you take on this ego-creation as fear of abandonment in yourself. This is NOT yours, but if you take it on as such, it is sure to happen; that is, as long as you carry this feeling you will attract others to you who are guaranteed to make it happen. Like attracts like so you can see exactly where you are stuck. Be stuck no more with this one, and many, and I mean many, related themes will also disappear.

It’s like the time when I had twenty-six allergies removed using acupressure. When a major one fell aside, many others related to it also abandoned me, so to speak. Taken in the context of abandonment, just know that this is the largest thorn in your side, for if you have been at all attentive within, you have removed most of the others already, and this one will extract an even larger portion from your midst. The mere fact that this has now come to the surface for-gives it, gives it up to God, loving essence, while you go on happily through the rest of your life.

Now you will more than likely attract only those people into your life who will enrich you, nourish you, adore you, all for the right reasons, and not just so you won’t abandon them. You see, if you have been suffering from the abandonment issue, you have attracted persons into your life who have also feared abandonment, so they could mirror yours for you, so you could see it in yourself. I can tell you from experience that I have attracted into my life people who mirrored abandonment for me, without question. Each interpreted abandonment differently. The reasons mattered not, only that they developed the same feeling set that I had, abject fear of it happening again. In one case, for example, the person translated abandonment into a large sense of entitlement, so that others were held responsible to provide what still others had failed to provide. In spiritual terms, we know that no one can give you anything you really need for yourself, only you can provide that by trusting in your relationship with the one who will never abandon you: God. As I have said in another essay on this topic, when we trust solely in God for our daily bread, we are taken care of as never before. You know this now, so live in this now. It’s important to know, as well, that none of this changes the fact that God is in all. See that truth above all and live in your own truth, for that is what only you can live. As my father used to say: “If I put my head on your shoulders, you wouldn’t be you.

When you fully realize this, you will come to live only with compassion–for yourself, as well as all others. Everyone has a major issue they are sorting out, and live with the impact of that issue on them. Each issue is responded to differently by each person, even though the issue may be similar. As a matter of fact, the most frequently manifested one is fear of abandonment, but in this life it is the reflection of fearing ultimate abandonment by God, fearing the pain of separation yet again, and the ultimate separation of a seeming death. The relationship to one’s parents is only a metaphor for God as the Grand parents.

See how complex this seems? Yet is it quite simple when you follow your understanding that life is nothing but metaphor, whose only intent is spiritual in nature. In this case, this means that all of life is metaphor about relationships with God, and how one feels about those, one way or another. See your loving, passionate and compassionate ways as the result of your relationship with God, merely demonstrates on earth with the God that is in all others. When you are clear about this, you will TRULY be at one with God in all. Actually you already know this. The only lack of clarity stems from your lack of re-membering with it, of uncovering the layers of ego-involvement that have clouded the Truth from view.

When you do re-member this truth, within a few days you will be precisely in harmony with this knowing, this multidimensional understanding, and it will operate within you on all those levels, changing you as you have never before, all for the better. Any warp in your vision and the need to have things magnified for you will no longer be necessary, for your vision will have been cleared fully of all that conflicts with absolute clarity.

Live in this revised truth about yourself, letting it seep in throughout the day. In a very short time you will feel healed of the major impediment to living your full truth fully. I say you will feel healed simply because there is really nothing being healed. You are simply learning to see yourself as you already are, always have been: a perfect spiritual being. By your example, teach this to others as their truth as well, for this is the revelation that will free many from any subjugation to their fear of abandonment

SPIRIT NOODLES

1. Write a brief history of abandonment in your life.
2. Identify with any sense of abandonment you have felt. Record each and sit with each separately, feeling what you will about each. Note what the feeling is and where you are feeling it in your body. Release any ill feeling in that location about the suggested abandonment.

3. Look carefully at how you have defined abandonment and see if your definition at this point reconciles with the feelings you have identified from another era.

4. See if your feelings change any when considering that another’s actions have absolutely nothing to do with you; they are only about doing what one needs for themselves.

5. Bring yourself to a place within where you feel God’s presence. Sit in harmony with this feeling for a time and repeat this meditative state frequently, until you can both recognize this feeling, this freedom from disconnection or separation or abandonment, at will. Each time the feelings of abandonment from the past show their faces, reconnect with the deep, compassionate, loving space with God and know you have not been abandoned by the real connection of Life. Know, too, that because God is in all, that you have not been abandoned by the God in any other.

6. Take time to review the brief history of abandonment you wrote earlier and rewrite the ending so that it fits with your new view of abandonment.

7. Release any ill feelings toward others and yourself that you have harbored. Know that understanding is for giving to these issues and that when understanding is perceived, this renders forgiveness unnecessary. The heart automatically opens up in the framework of understanding, rendering what was formerly thought as unforgivable as the illusion it was.