When Phil suggested this song for the ending of our music series, it was perfect because the journey for all of us is a long and winding road; wherever we are, wherever we're going, and wherever we've been doesn't really matter. What matters is that we are present, we are alive, we twist and turn through many of life's challenges, but we are not the challenges. We are more than them. We are life everlasting eternal. We forget that at times, but this is really about your soul's journey. It's not about your personal journey. It's not about you. It is about that greater essence of who you are, the spirit that is alive in each of you, that is what life really is.
In this life, we're faced with many, many challenges that create fear and anxiety and make it so that we can move through it and all that we do. So it's not something working against us. I really want to be clear about that. There is not a presence greater than us that is working against us. There's not a presence greater than the universe that's working against any one person, circumstance, or situation. It may feel like it at times, but that's not the truth.
This is a road that we are born into in order to journey down with the path illuminated for us, we have to know who we are. When Phil suggested this song, I said, yeah, it takes me back to some memories. It was a song we had at my high school prom. That was our theme song, The Long and Winding Road. I knew on that day, when that song was chosen, that that is so true because we had our whole life ahead of us. We were high school students. How powerful do we think we are or how insignificant do we think we are - depending on where you were at that point in your life?
Yet the journey goes on.
It goes on beyond us and the essence of us. It goes on as spirit and it is reawakened. It is rebirthed every day in us, in each other, in a newborn child. Christ consciousness is an awareness of our journeys.
There is no wrong journey. There is no wrong path. Even in the pandemic, there is good. We find the good. We live out the good in our lives. I didn't say it was easy, because it's not. If we can remember that, it's really about the greater self. So in Unity, a lot of times we'll talk about the big T little t. So the big truth, little truth. Well, the big T is the big self, which is spirit, the divine mind, God, whatever name you want to give a universe and universal energy, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we know that it's there. It's the essence of life, period.
Then the little t would be our own self, that little self, that little s is the personality that we are developing. We are developing because it's a continuous path of growth. We don't stop one day and say, "Okay, we're done." And just live out our life. There was always the next thing. As long as we are breathing on this planet, there will be challenges for us to move through individually and collectively to come to that place of peace and humanity. And we're not there yet. We still have the journey.
There are lessons. We have to learn about ourselves. That makes the journey a little easier when we come back to spirit, to that awakening, to that knowing of oneness. So how do we do that? What are they? It's nothing new. I'm not going to tell you anything today that I haven't told you in the past. So we have to observe ourselves, observe our own thoughts, observe our actions. How am I carrying myself in this world? What are the choices that I'm making? I don't know if we don't recognize ourselves, we have the right to choose again. So if we are living from that personality, instead of from our essence, how are we doing? What are we doing? You can get along like that for a long time. At some point, there will be a huge awakening come into your life. I see it every day when I come to church, I see the houseless who are lost, their little self lost in the observation of the world that is against them. They have yet to awaken to their power and the truth that can carry them through it.
It's disheartening sometimes. Then, I have to remember it is their path. I can't do it for them. We each get to choose our own way. It's called free will. Sometimes it really irritates me. I don't know about you, but I really get irritated. When I see people in my observations, in my point of view, who are not doing what I want them to do. Anybody else got that? Right? Whether it's your kids, your family, somebody on the street somewhere else, you know, why can't you just do it my way? It'd make life a lot easier. Well, guess what? That's not true. We each have our own way and we each get to grow into the essence of us. I have to remember that. So the second step is self-remembering. I have to remember that I too am an expression and manifestation of the source. Sometimes my ego can get in my own way. That aspect, that I have all the solutions.
Sometimes I have to remind myself of that though, that the real guidance for me is within.
I was blessed as a child and have had an opportunity to live a life of gratitude.
To some, I am fairly privileged. My sister and I would disagree and that's okay. We had this discussion recently when I was with her because we had a lot of challenges growing up. The one good thing we had in our life was Unity, a way of life that was different from everybody else's. It gave us a different perspective. It gave us different tools in our toolbox to recognize the essence of who we are and to live in that space of gratitude for that because not everybody got that as children. We got told we were beautiful children of God every day and that we were the essence of life every day. That is a true blessing. I am so grateful for that opportunity. When the challenges were there, we could remember that it wasn't about us. That's all going on in the outer.
Mom was really good to remind us of that. I'm grateful for that also because we had the lessons that a lot of people move through in their lives with a family of addiction and anger in the world. But we were taught that it wasn't the truth of who we were, that challenges were coming from within the soul of our father and the experiences that he had on this planet. So that allowed me to recognize the good that was in it. It wasn't always pretty, but I could see the good in it. It allowed my father an opportunity for growth to move through it and to walk away from addiction and to find peace within, instead of in the outer. That was a blessing for me and our whole family. So when we can justify and see ourselves as the essence of our truth, we begin to have a relationship with ourselves. And that's what happened with my dad. He began to have a relationship with himself that was different than the relationship that he grew up with.
I probably told you all this before he was in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed in World War II, and it left a devastating effect on him for his entire life. In the end, he recognized that that was just part of the journey and it wasn't who he was. He was allowed to let that go, but it took many years. His experience affected me. Because all of that chaos that goes on within a person in your household effects you energetically, even though you are separated from it. It allowed me to view life in a different way. I've had challenges, not to the extent that my father did or his father before him. I also recognize when I've had challenges. A lot of them, I created it in my own self through my own thinking about what was going on outside of me, about what someone else thought of me about what someone else might have said, or an action that they took, that I then interpreted against me. I continued to do my own spiritual work and to go within and ask for guidance. I was led down a path of love.
I am so grateful for that because, in the worst of my challenges of healing myself, I didn’t know if I would survive the next morning some days. The pain was so overwhelming. I was paralyzed for many, many days. To be able to recognize that one of the tools that I had been given I wasn't using, came from the essence of who I am. It was that reminder that there's something greater than you. That will heal you back to your perfection of homeless. And many of us forget that because we live in that 90% personality and 10% essence. And we really have to live in a balanced world. I learned that the hard way, and I really try not to forget it. You can't live totally in the spiritual world. I can't live in meditation every day. I mean, you can choose to do that, but then you sacrifice another part of your journey when you do that. And when we live totally from that personality, we sacrifice our spiritual essence, learning the balance of prayer is essential to our soul's growth.
Prayer always leads us back to that awakening, which leads us back to that door which was talked about in the song, that leads me back to you - to that divine essence of the truth of who I am, who you are - wherever you are in your journey.
We all get to make choices.
We get to live in faith with gratitude, or we get to live in fear, hiding from the world. I choose to live in faith with gratitude. It's scary because I never really know what's coming at me. And I say, yes, sometimes when people are looking at me going, "You did what, why did you do that?" Well because it felt right. I was inspired to go with the flow and I live in the flow of that river every day. Sometimes it is scary and it gets a little rocky and a little turbulent. I know with faith that it will become a smooth divine flow to the abundance, not only for myself but for this spiritual community and beyond for the world. We all have to find that essence and take steps to live on the path, illuminated by spirit. Where am I? Where am I right now today? What is my deepest desire? What is that that I am most grateful for in my life?
When you figure that out, "Am I willing to do the work to reprogram myself, my habits, my brain, my thoughts to recreate who I am and who I want to be, and return to my spiritual journey on that long and winding road to a wonderful world that we get to manifest along the way to create the roadmap?" If we recreate it using our GPS system, which is our God right positioning system, our God power and strength is the way I like to see it. Because when I go to that essence of who I am, there is an all-power frame and powerful strength within me that will take me through any challenge that passes my way, that allows me to unblock any obstacle so that the river of good can flow. The river of life can flow.
I have to remember to be me. I can't be you.
I can't be someone else. I get to be me. This is the door to your awakening. And each door is different. We're all unique. You are waiting for you. You are seeking your own essence. Whether you know it or not, that is your truth. It is a long and winding road. But if you commit to yourself and you're willing to change, manifest that confidence, that inner power, that strength that you have, you can meet your challenges and let them go and tune in to all the good in the universe to that abundant life that is awaiting you right now in your awakening. Tune into that wonderful world, that wonderful life. I know that every step of your journey, life is yours to live and to be so live out loud and joyfully expressing blessings. You are a beautiful being filled with love to create a wonderful world. Where skies are opening. Our love flows like a river.
Namaste.