Vacation in the Whole

I fully intend to wander all over the place in this post.  But bare with me.  We'll get there.

Let's start with the idea that if you don't think humanity is under seige by the higher forces cranking things up so that eventually we can no longer live by the old patterns and are forced to metamorphasize to a whole new way to experience life, then simply look at the major crises that it seems almost everyone is having to field right now.  Maybe I just get to talk with too many people in crisis.  But it seems that life is almost getting unreasonable in quite a number of people's lives.  If we are not facing a number of amazingly demanding difficulties, everyone of us knows someone who is.  The pressure is mounting.  Drivers on the road are on edge.  It seems humanity is being pressurized to see how much we can take.  The only answer is to "break".  And when the old breaks, the new and better is formed.  What an interesting time we chose to incarnate.

Ok, that little tirade is over.  The old addage applies, We are never given more than we can handle.  And yes!  We came here specifically to be part of one of humanity's most volatile times, to usher in the transition to a higher order of life on earth.  Of course, it will take more than our lifetimes to fully usher in a new era.  So in a sense we volunteered to live life as best we could specifically through these challenges that I feel are above and beyond the call of duty for those I am here to support.  Personally, life often goes easy on me.  But, it pains me to see what those around me must go through.

So with all this in mind, What do we do when the heaviness of life becomes truly burdensome (even if it is just realizing the burdens of those around us).  Well, it's time for a vacation! Right!  But the vacation I'm talking about can't be found in a place here in the earth.  It is found by leaving individual expression behind for a few moments and entering the whole.  When you abandon yourself and every other individual expression to live for a few moments in the whole of every expression united, there is a sense of ecstasy that rises and lifts us above the demands of individual life.  Somehow that momentary escape revitalizes us and recharges us so that we can accept freely the tasks before us and those around us.  Basicly it allows us NOT to "choke" on them.

This leaves the question, How do we get beyond individuality and into the whole?  How do we actually take this much needed vacation?

I take the first step by "being alone".  There is a strange truth that when you are with no one, you have begun to be with everyone.  "I am never alone, for God is always with me."  And of course, you can be alone in the midst of many people.  I used to have to go to a remote mountain valley to truly be alone.  And I learned the luxury of true "alone-ness".  It is amazingly strengthening.  However I've come to understand that only a beginner needs to be physically separated from people to enter this re-vitalizing alone-ness.  In the end, it's all about leaving the personal conflicts and interactions of individual self behind in order to immerse yourself in the blend of it all.  The moment you are nothing in individual expression is the moment that you are One with everything.

There are a million different ways to do this.  I'm sure you already participate in this kind of vacationing in some way that is comfortable to you.  Tonight for me, it took the form of walking around that lake in downtown Altamonte Springs.  It's always filled with runners.  I think it's a mile if you make the complete circle.  Tonight was no exception.  I walked alone.  There were people passing me at a faster rate and others going the opposite way around the circle.  There was music and hubbub everywhere.  Shopping, hotels, apartments, & businesses dotted the lake front.  The Walkway went across water and wildlife exerted a presence.  Traffic buzzed by on adjacent roads.  Yet there was an utter beauty to being in all its midst, part of everyone and everything, while walking alone.  For those moments, life was that wonderful kaleidoscope that just keeps turning and making new designs without pausing on any one of  them.  The esctasy lifted my heart and I didn't even need to share this with someone, because I was already sharing everyone.

It's a timeless experience.  There's no analysis - just experience.  Each picture enters for a moment and it is gone.  And it is complete in that fleetingness because I am not the individual expression I am the symphony of the whole.  I used to rely on physical isolation to allow me to lose myself and be one with life.  I'd use nature because people were too distracting.  It's nice now to experience people as part of nature and still be able to be one with the whole. 

In any case, this short beautiful reprieve has refreshed me.  I guess it's time to pour myself into individual expression again and all the challenges it presents.  After all that is why we came here.  So, for me it's time to start putting together the eulogy for the 23 year old that grew up in our congregation and just unexpectantly passed.  And remind myseld that no matter how crazy it gets, we are spiritual beings (all of us - those facing devastation and those of us who support them) and we can handle anything this physical world throws at us.  Somehow it is part of carrying humanity to a whole new understanding of reality.  And if it seems too much again, each of us can escape into the whole for those few moments of spiritual vacation that give us the strength to carry on - moments that can pour the "oil of joy" even on the experience of mourning.