Callin’ all angels….

Hmmmm….you must play this song while you read this post…It’s acoustic guitar the way I seek to play it and singing the way I seek to voice it. But beyond those two elements, when I listen, I hear pure beauty radiating from three very gracious and beautiful women: The Wailin Jennys. Their melodies and individualities embody much of what I perceive when I think of what beauty means to me: tenderness, grace, poise, gentleness, strength, dominion, perserverence, and so much more.

I met the Jennys when I heard them play live at a venue in Cambridge in the Fall of 2006, a time that felt really trying for my heart and life. I’d recently said goodbye to someone who’s journey and mine needed to part ways for a time. And I was feeling really lost, empty and alone. I probably teared up much during my listening to them because afterward, Ruth came up to me and hugged me. And just offered a few genuine words of hope “Whatever it is, she said, “It’s gonna be okay. Have you ever read Pema Chodron, “When Things Fall Apart?” I hadn’t. But she nodded and said “You must. It will help you make sense of your now, whatever it is.”

And she too had a tear in her eye. And I didn’t pry or ask her what was up. She was off to embrace other listeners. But I do recall feeling a shared moment of sisterhood, of humanity.

And that’s what I feel now every time I listen to this song…moments of hope, reassurance of inevitable peace and a triumph and victory over any and every burden that may be weighing heavily on thought at this moment.

So as Ruth said to me more than two years ago, I’m reminding myself and you of now. Hope is …and we share it because we know that what we long for is not unrealistic.

But I’m learning that what is hoped for is right now accessible too because it’s less an external thing and more a really deep conviction in the reality of good, present, accessible good –that allows you to stand and to keep standing.

My former post spoke of defending innate innocence and grace in one’s quest for  real beauty. Tis true. Innocence and grace are inherent and need only to be lived more genuinely to begin to feel them consistently.

And say you’re seeking security and feel rather insistent of it coming from steady income or say you’re feeling lonely and a-lone and feel emphatic about finding someone to fill that void.

Do you see the pattern with both yearnings?

Both define a need and then seek to find something outside ourselves to fill that need, to feed the hunger and fill up the void.

And while everyone’s circumstance is different and I can’t offer a formulaic method or quick fix approach to either or both, I will offer this:

To the degree you steer thoughts inward and focus on cultivating your sense of spirituality, your connection and all that it means with the one Mind or Being responsible for creating, sustaining, governing all, to this extent you will find that all that you yearn for–security, love, and otherwise is being met and fed and supplied.

Both come from within, from your relationship to the one Mind that creates and sustains you. As you cultivate awareness of both are you able to exude both.

And this doesn’t take the place of a job or a life partner. More does this awareness fill you up with conviction that you are never walking around lacking love, lost in despair, alone or vulnerable to emptiness….though I know, I know. It can often feel like this. I’ve so been there.

Mary Baker Eddy describes angels this way ..”spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality.”

I appreciate her insight so much. For it’s when my thoughts focus on uplifting ideas, I feel liberated and can act that way.

For example, when I’ve felt I’m in dire need of income (and you name it, if it’s legal I’ve done it…from cleaning houses to cocktail waitressing to washing cars to babysitting and housesitting and takin- care-of-everyone-else-sitting 🙂 to teaching to advertising, sales and marketing ) what has eradicated that fear hasn’t been the job. It’s been the wake up call to insist on the present ‘in-coming’ angels or messages of truth–in whatever form. The more I would take apart my thoughts and insist on presence of good, I would feel it and see it and hold onto it, even if that was my only ‘income’ for that week.

And I could name a zillion number of ways I’d insist on seeing it–in my life or in my day to day–whether I noticed it in a father’s tender embrace of his child to a busy seeming person slowing down to helping a senior cross the street, to the phenomenal tapestry of clouds in the sky on a sunny day.

Now I’m not for a moment suggesting that those instances alone, and my recognition of them delivered a check to my mailbox or inbox which gave me funds from which to pay my bills.

I am saying that when you begin to recognize abundant good, you become conscious of its constancy and all the many forms that you are being cared for.

Those instances of seeing present good  won’t in and of themselves pay your bills. Expectation of good and comprehending inherent ‘in-come’ of supply will open up your thought to the right now opportunities for your talents, your uniqueness, your worth, your value, your purpose. And acting from that conviction does bring you out of feeling afraid and into living moment to moment aware of how cared for you are, how cared for each one of us is.

Same with feeling alone, empty, unloved.

Sometimes that one is harder to shake. We are so conditioned to think that feeling loved means you are getting tangible expressions of warmth from another.

But again, go within. Defend how loved you are this moment, whether you feel it tangibly or not. You are never separate from the constancy of love that created you nor are you ever for a moment unable to feel this perpetual presence. But you sometimes have to get still and you often have to shut out of thought everything yelling and blaring that you are alone.

I promise to write longer posts on both of the above…but for now, I offer this: The next time you feel afraid, ugly, alone, unsafe or unloved in ANY way, stop and pause..and shun those thoughts. Their exact opposite is what is so very true of your spirituality and real individuality. Defend your truth moment by moment. Even if you have to really do so vehemently.

Surely this is what the Jenny’s are doing in their song. and surely what we’re each capable of right this moment….

So give it a listen…What are the angels singing your way?

As always your comments are so welcome….and if you wanna chat more privately, email me at tre at thought by thought dot net.

Til next post, be well…..