The Shift

I’ve been a long time away from writing my weekly Lightmails. 

It is important to know when to shift gears.  It is important to read the events in our lives and take appropriate action.  When circumstances change it behooves us to change with them.  I went with the flow and the Okanagan Centre for Spiritual Living has grown remarkably, which suggests that I possibly made the right decision. 

But such suggestions can be wrong; what makes my decision right has been in the measure of fun I have had building our new Centre.  I got to do a whole lot of things that a spiritual practitioner would not typically be free to do.  I got to do dry walling, mudding sanding, patching building and even a little painting.  I got to do an amazing number of other odd jobs too; still most important to me was the dreaming. 

Every day when I showed up and looked around for the most pressing job of the moment to sink into I also thought of the people it would touch.  I thought of an ambiance, I thought of the art, I thought of people I’ve never met who would come  walking through our new doors; and I got dirty, sawdust, gyproc, metal, dirt and paint became my colours at days end.  Those who showed up found their spiritual director disguised as a builder, a labourer, a general renovator.

It was a great and busy summer and the work is now pretty much done. 

Once again I reach that point of shift where I get to re-evaluate my time and priorities.  I know this is important because I find myself in that old familiar place of expectancy.  It probably feels like this when an astronaut experiences zero gravity; choices all around but somehow disconnected and needing a push to get me moving.

And then as if the great big gravity switch is flipped on, suddenly my world snaps back into its new direction, my stomach suffers a severe jerk, like entering a new world, I’m caught again in the demands of the moment. 

I’m really wishing I hadn’t been eating so much.  And I’m really wishing I had read a few less of those science fiction short stories.

Now ‘though I am back on my track, I have made my decisions, refocused my vision and like a race car coming into the straight stretch I am once again moving forward and gaining speed (and trusting the driver knows what s/he’s doing ‘cause this feels really fast).

The race car is such a perfect metaphor for how life unfolds when we have a clear vision, because there is such a powerful motive driving us forward.  In a true vision we have already exercised our free will, we have said to ourselves this is my path and it’s worth following until I hit the finish line.  There is definitely no room for changing my mind and there is no room for second guessing.  There is a daily, moment to moment thrill as the unexpected leaps into perspective and, with uncanny regularity proves itself to be our divine opportunity of the moment. 

Still there has to be a willingness to stay with that vision, to keep our foot on the expectancy pedal and avoid the fear pedal, the brake.