Connecting with the World Around You

I find myself guilty of this as often as those around me. I get to running around my busy, important life and forget the rest of the world around me. Oh, I am aware of the person driving slow in front of me, or the one cutting me off at the intersection. I’m aware of the things around me that are difficult or inconvenient, but I forget to look at the little things in the world that make life truly worth living, that makes the difference between “existing” and “living”.

When I am in a good place in life, I find that I am noticing wonderful little things about the world; the smell of fresh cut grass; a flock of baby starlings following their mom around the yard, begging to be fed; a little chipmunk with overflowing cheeks peering at me from the notch of a tree. Suddenly the person driving slowly doesn’t seem so bad, I have time to look at the horses standing in a field of buttercups, or to notice two deer with their fawns romping and playing in crazy circles.

All it really takes is for you to STOP, even just for a minute, and look around. The natural world is not separate from us; it lives side by side with us every day. It reminds us how life lived simply is probably the most effective and functional life there is. Taking a trip to the park to feed the ducks will create more good memories for your children than how high they can score on their favorite video game. A walk in the woods will do more good for your blood pressure than a dozen pills.

Take a few minutes each day to appreciate the nature around you, from the ladybug on your roses to the spotted calf at the dairy farm you pass on your way to work. Your day may suddenly seem a little brighter, and who knows, you might find yourself stretching those minutes into hours!

Your Life as a Universe

Our bodies are in essence a universe of cells, microscopic organisms, going about their daily life in their own small world. Do they give a thought to the fact that they are a part of a greater consciousness? Do they just go about their jobs, without thinking what part it is they play in that universe? Or do they understand fully that their lives are part of a great tapestry of life that becomes the human body? Do they understand that for that expanse of time whether it be a day, or 80 years, between creation and death; that they are part of something much more?

Aren’t humans just as significant? We go about our daily grind. We feel insignificant, useless, like we aren’t filling a greater purpose. Yet, aren’t we, by simply being, by contributing to the world around us, no matter how simple or how complex that contribution, fulfilling just as important a role in our world as a single cell contributes to the beating of a human heart? If we simply ceased to be, wouldn’t we leave a hole that would need to be filled?

When I say I believe that We are God, and God is Us, this concept makes perfect sense to me. Aren’t we just as likely the atom or the cell that has its purpose in the Universe and that the Universe is just as likely something as simple as a single cell in the Being we call God, the Creator, Great Spirit or Allah? If so, isn’t the homeless person on the street just as much an important part of the structure of that Universe, of the Creator, as the Wall Street Executive, the Convenience Store Clerk, the Waitress, the Doctor? Is one cell more important than the other? Don’t we all need each other on some basic level? Do we learn humility from that homeless person? Do we get courage from the acts of others? Would there be any point to the world if we were all one simple cell, doing the same job? What would that create? Does one kind of cell make up the whole human body? Does one kind of planet make up the whole solar system? Is there only one kind of star in the universe?

To this I make my point. No one is insignificant. Even if you feel like you aren’t fulfilling your idea of what your purpose in life is, you are still fulfilling a purpose. You still make up a part of the world around you. You are still a part of each person around you as much as you are a part of God, and God is a part of you. We are all attached by the Web of Life as much as the planets of our Solar System are connected to the Sun, and as much as all the Solar Systems and Galaxies out there are connected to some single source, something that is the point of Creation. This is the thing that drives us all to put a face, a name to that connection, to that source. We find our Religions; we find the names and the faces that fit into what makes us comfortable with that infinite connection. We call them Gods and Saints and Messiahs. We look for answers. Some of us find them, some of us give up, and some of us spend our lives searching for the answers that were within us the entire time. God is within us, we are as much a part of the creator as the mountains, the animals, the trees. You are fulfilling your purpose simply by being here. Once you let go of the idea that you must somehow FIND your purpose, it will come to you. Because just like the cells that make your heart beat, you are here for a reason, and it will come to you as naturally as the beating of your heart…