Spring Awakening (No, Not the Musical): Talk of Light and Spirit within the Earth, Counseling, and Our Shared Humanhood

!!!!!!!!! SPRING !!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!! SPRING !!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhh,
Everything is blooming,
and radiant,
and smelly --  only the best of kinds!
(Well maybe not my sweaty feet that I'm actually using more to walk again. Tmi? ;] )
Ah, but my eyes, my nose, my  ears...
I can't get enough of it all!

---

In those natural Spring ways, I feel like I'm blooming along with everything too.

It was a tough winter,
on Indiana's stomping grounds,
her residents,
and for many of us, in all those personal ways--physically, emotionally, spiritually.

I've been climbing out of my own ruts the last few months, but noticed a sharp alivening within the last few weeks.

The metaphor became more real when I noticed these guys
in our front yard...

We have Tulips?!
I had no idea we had tulips!

Got me thinking about That Thing --that essence-- whatever that  is hidden in the earth,
or in the plant skeleton,
resting and invisible
until...
Emergence!!

Same with trees...

... the seemingly dead...

  ...to suddenly alive!

And same for those non-tulip flowers that pop up in just the right conditions.

That got me thinking about That Thing--
that essence--
within each of us too,
resting and invisible
(sometimes),
until just the right conditions allow for
That Thing to peculate, then externalize the most inward activity-- the life blood -- which only seems to be dormant from those noticing from the outside. 

---

Mother Earth, you make me feel understood.
Thank you, Spring.

Sometimes to be seen as so stagnant--maybe by others, but mostly by self--the new plant life reminds me that the "new" was really never new, but a continuation of that something deeper which has been going on within all along;
that something resting, attempting to emerge, or in this case, for me, feels like it has emerged over the last few weeks.

Taking a many months of the peculating to get there, of course.
Not to say its going to be sticking for crazy long either ( personal winters don't usually follow a predictable cycle). 

This talk of essence was taken to broader levels in Group Psych last week, when we talked about the spiritual meter within a group.

           My professor quoted Banard McGinn definition of spirituality as:
                               
"The humanward side of faith".

Its That Thing-- below the surface
of the dogmas,
doctrines,
creeds,
boundary of theological language.
The participation with that essence that is in me, allows me to talk to you about that essence which is in you, despite what differing doctrines or thinkers who  opened up our mind and heart to get towards that deeper vocabulary and spiritual practice in the first place. We all stew in our own simultaneously heavy and light-baring existential thoughts! A community of people who can share the same words and approach to living which allow us to reach to our inner core is so important, but
WE ALL have it-- that inner core.
We all have it.

I discovered in World Religions Tuesday Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel backs up this same way of thinking:

"The religions of the world are no more self sufficient, no more independent, no more isolated than individuals or nations.
We are all involved with one another."

Crossing over to theologically speak, most religions, in one form or another, would hold this belief of a "More", shared and base, within all things: 

Hinduism:
Namaste- "I see the God in you" or "I honor the place in you where spirit live".
Christianity :
Christ within you.
Buddhism:
All's true Buddha Nature.
Mystical Judaism:
The Divine Spark in us all.
Lakota Tribe:
Mitakuye Oyasin, "All are related".
Sufism:
"You and the other are One".
(and you guys might know one of my current favorites by now)
Taoism :
The Inextinguishable light is within everything.


     I understand this is a favorite topic for some of you loved ones, and a very touchy one for others.
                                                                                                                                                                   Stick with me.

No matter the look of it, from the outside--a different color, or tone, or  just barely unrecognizable --everything holds within their self a great light, and it of endless worth.

I think this is why I feel so settled in the idea of continuing pursuing the counseling field. Thus far, it is a vocation which keeps me accountable to what I believe is our true human purpose:  to recognize, & honor, the divine light in all, even when it might seem extinguished. 
If it ever stops holding me accountable, I need to change my occupational direction.

---

And part of that vocation is the way of being supportive, DESPITE all differences of values or belief systems. Besides, there is no need for force of beliefs, if we trust that God is present, and has the capacity to function beyond human language,
doctoral statement,
or legalistic labeling of God and God's Characteristics.

Someone might have been harmed in the name of God, and can no longer feel true peace from such a name. Does that mean they are not experience or obtain their own human sanctity any longer? No!! (I'd say).
We all have different defenses and triggers for those defenses but all are caused by a common human experience of pain. My professor put it perfectly,

"We all have a right to our defense mechanism.
They became what they are for a reason."

Why is it so much easier to forget to see the Divine when belief systems are the topic at hand? A warm and available presence is needed just as readily, if not more within the potentially vulnerable and isolating topics. Topics which ironically were originally constructed to remind humanity that we are not alone.
That we are all of the same substance,
We are all peculating--
if only on the invisible inside.

Heschel would continue to say:

"Spiritual betrayal on the side of one, effects the faith of us all".

That which we do to the other, we do to ourselves.
"You and the other are One", as the Sufi says.
I say this all sheepishly realizing, I might come off as spiritually betraying some of you. These all are beliefs in themselves, which many disagree with. And, despite the soapbox feel to this message, I am not trying to sway anyone.

The main hope for me, as we touched on in Group too, is to take the blossoming of spirit and keep weaving it into the daily actions. Our spirits should be more about what we do than what we say/think we are-- how we treat ourselves,
our relationships,
our world,
and others around us.
::Gulp::

Grace, to me, and to any when we aren't being the avatar for our spiritual body.
(& Lord knows how sadly frequent missing that mark is the case for me..)

As painful as it is, I'm discovering through the times I'm actually willing to face my faults the act frees a little part of me, and makes room for others to try the same.  I suspect this counseling program has a secret agenda for students' outcomes being to expedite our blooming process; to open us up to our essence  by piercing through our darkness, so that we might be able to create a type of rootedness within ourselves--
as humans,
as counselors.
This then has the ability to create just the right condition for others,
our patients,
our relationships,
our world,
so that they might do the same (Let the spirit bubble up and out,
and when they have feel secure enough, sync spirit with the external actions so to become that safe environment for others).

(Metanoia- the process of changing, opening, softening our heart, together-
is what I found out the process is called :})

So, after all that,
Lets make smooshy hearts together &
Bloom, my Loves!!!! ;]
I pray we will!!!
Its ok, if its your winter though -- that life blood probably just needs
a little more hibernation time.
Enjoy Mother Nature's Spring, at least!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The sun is totally the only guy I would ever have an open relationship with!
I will let him kiss me all day & will only be completely ecstatic for you if you allow him to do the same to you   ;]

xxxxxx