Have you ever known someone who had an inspiration? who brought it into the world with power to inspire others as well? It might have been an invention like the light bulb, or an idea for a movie, or a theory of how the sun works. It might have been a grand vision of a better world or a way to experience the divine. Large or small inspiration is a part of life. If you are listening Spirit is always present.
What happens when the ego gets hold of this inspiration? It knows something great has happened but may think it rare as well as precious, something unlikely to happen again. Becoming attached to this inspiration, the specific form and detail.
It is very human to do this; we think we have learned, we think we know, and if it comes from Spirit, even more so, it is certainly The Truth. But here in this world of flux and change, truth is always relative, even when something comes from Spirit. We receive a gift or vision, which we breath life into, but then insist on preserving it in that moment of the realization or inspiration, rather than letting it grow and evolve.
All things have to grow and change to stay alive. We are so protective of the communication, that we close it down. Fearing that we won’t receive any more, rather than accepting today’s communication for today, while allowing that tomorrow there can be something new, we cling what we have received today. Which becomes yesterday.
If you can’t allow for today to be different, there is no life in it. The Sun comes up today as it has for billions of years, but the experience of that sunrise is always different, if only a little bit, from all the other sunrises. The season is shifting, the sky is different, there are more leaves on the trees, or fewer, and mostly you are not the same as yesterday, and so you experience it differently.
When the experience of your favorite meditation is allowed to unfold in the moment, it will be unique and you will be truly alive. You are alive in the dance of yourself and the universe, the giving and receiving of attention that gives rise to inspiration, creativity, joy and the magic that makes today uniquely different and engaging.
Try checking inside each morning to see what’s true today. Mostly its the same, but not exactly. Open to what’s new or different. This means being comfortable with change and uncertainty, with learning curves and new directions, with releasing our ego attachment to what has gone before. As humans this is hard, often it seems impossible, but it is when we come truly alive, being in the moment and open to magic and ongoing inspiration.
There is a balance between old forms and new life, between stability and change. We do learn and grow, and we can put yesterday’s lessons to use today. But they will only really fit today if we pay attention to how they flow today, and how they are uniquely different. This breath, right now, pay attention, perhaps its the same, perhaps its different, it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is how intimately you give yourself to the experience of it, the allowing of the air to flow into you and release out of you. How does this breath want to be breathed? Listen and live, allow the inspiration of this moment to be new and fresh.
Let each breath bring life, joy, love, and perhaps new guidance.
(© 9/2012)
