Everyman's Journal 2011

Everyman's Journal 2011 # 70

November 7

The most honest acknowledgement of grace that I know of is continual gratitude.

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As an artist, I participated in a publicly promoted large-scale big-city event this past weekend that had extremely disappointing attendance. Therefore, many of us 'vendors' had to face the reality that the projected and hoped-for results of the time/money investment were not materializing, and I listened often to both my mind and other minds 'complaining'. It is such a waste of a moment of life… to use it complaining, but it is a standard operating procedure of our minds.

As I live committed to being surrendered to 'what is', and to 'allowing and accepting' as a practice, it is fair for the universe to test me occasionally. What I am grateful for is the way this process ultimately confirms and strengthens me in my knowing of my knowing.

All seeming breakdowns contain gifts, clearly visible if we are quiet enough to see them. Of course, complaining is not 'being quiet'. Thank God, by grace of long practice my detours into 'non-present mind' now have built-in boundary triggers that generally go on alert and wake me up when I start bumping into them. So it was this past weekend. As I listened to other complaining minds, I found myself recognizing how blessed and lucky I am to have been led to the life I have… a life of service (albeit with numerous disguises operative). Just listening to the world's complaining conversations for a while, it became quickly obvious that for many people life is full of intensely pressurized suffering, sourced in the breakdown of unfulfilled expectation. And most people do not know that this world is not real. Especially, most people do not know that they have any choice in the matter of how they experience this world.

Yet we absolutely do, and in fact, I experience that our world occurs to us exactly as is needed by our core being for its growth. If this simple perspective is used as a view, nothing has the same power to disturb us, upset us, or create fear within us. This simple perspective shifts the moment from one of being attacked by life to one of being given a gift…. a gift leading to only our best growth outcomes, even if we cannot see where the path we are upon is going. To continue upon the Way is then our conscious action of choosing to trust.

So the summation of my lesson from this past weekends event is this: When the world seems 'not right', the right thing to do is: STOP…. and let it slow down. As we release our personal struggles for control over the world and allow the Divine Goodness to replace it with its order, peace and mental quietude are again accessible.

Therefore, in all that we do, let us acknowledge that Great Spirit that gives us Life, lest we forget. Forget? Yes, lest we forget our true Source, and in that forgetfulness, suffer the inevitable consequences of believing in the impossible, the 'separation of God and Man'. Inevitable because 'believing in' is creative, whether true or not.

To restate the opening, the most honest acknowledgement of grace that I know of is continual gratitude. Such gratitude is also powerfully creative.

Namaste,

David

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My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on its way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you.

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Rev. David Seacord

Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag

david@davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord.com

(my fine art website)

www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com

(archived writings and poetry, circa 2002 to 2004)

www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com

(archived 2010 writings on the lessons of A Course in Miracles)

www.everymansjournal2011.blogspot.com

(archived entries of this years Everyman's Journal)