Life As An Act of Courage

Here's a thought I had a few weeks ago, again at the Mukilteo beach (I need to keep going there). It all came to me as I sat to watch the waves and sky ...

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It definitely wasn’t to take in the sunset, as the clouds hung low and obscured any chance of a brush stroke on the horizon. No, it was just to break out and feel a sense of connection with nature that I coiled myself against a large piece of driftwood and watched the boats and ferry go by. Off to my left was a guy chatting with his girlfriend about a new job he had just started that day; to my right, an older couple hoping to see a streak of pink on an otherwise grey canopy of sky. Sprinkled here and there were children of all ages, laughing and testing their skill at trying to skip rocks on the water’s surface. Though the clouds blocked any chance of a pinhole in the curtain of dusk, it was still a pleasant evening, having just come off another day in the average mid- to upper 70s. Yes, at last there was a sense of contentment in my being; no struggles going on in my mind – no quest for finding some obscure answer to an equally obscure question.

Perhaps it was in that moment of having nothing to focus on that an interesting and bizarre scenario flashed into my head. My wandering eyes stole a glimpse of everyone on the beach and my mind placed us in the Afterlife. I had, imaginatively, switched the notion of us as living beings playing around on a beach here in this world to us as people who had lived some kind of a life on earth, had died, and were enjoying a beach scenario in the Afterlife. Why not? There would be people of all ages there, as some would die as children, some as teens, others as adults.

What an eye opener! I noticed I had a whole newfound respect for everyone (I thought that was weird). It was as if, from the aspect of existing in the Afterlife, that everyone had graduated from school. Granted, I didn’t know anyone better than what I did a moment before the thought came into my being, but when I considered the notion that each and every person had lived some sort of life on earth and were now a living being in the spirit world, what an incredible difference that made on my perception. I guess at that point, there’s an even greater sense of compassion and camaraderie when one considers the similar nature of experience – birth, life, death, and rebirth in a spiritual realm – that if this were a real scenario, each of us would have gone through.

No matter that their earthly lives may have been completely dissimilar to mine, when I looked at these spiritual beings, I couldn’t ignore the idea that they came with a known history from their earthly existence; it wasn’t shed at the moment of their transition. I think it was this idea, this sense of history attached to the people, that led me to the sense of “graduating.” If this were the real Afterlife, I would be tempted to go and talk with some of them as to what their earthly lives had been like. It seemed to me that the ability to approach a stranger was more easily accessible once one was “out of the game” so to speak. Yes, we may have lived different lives, but we each had lived a life, experienced a death, and were now carrying on with a sense of relief that we are eternal and boundless, and all connected in that way (if we’re going to play the game of keeping separate personalities).

Then – as my mind often does – I decided to twist it just a little. I considered the idea that we, in a linear expression of existence, will consider coming back down to earth. Here is the whole idea of “choosing your parents, your lessons, various relationships, etc. etc.” before incarnating. And then I recalled, most people on some level will accept the reality that they will forget their spiritual heritage; lose memory of their immortality and abilities as a divine creator when they chose to reincarnate.

Another eye opener! Now, placing my mind back on the earth plane, I looked at everyone on the beach and considered that thought. These people, from a linear expression, knew that when they birthed back to earth that they would lose memory of where they came from and what they were – and they were willing to accept that amnesia to be here! THAT, my friends, is courage. To step foot out into the forest and be willing to forget the path back home while you are on the journey takes some real guts. Yes, in the end we are still immortal and divine, but when you purposely forget that and choose to get caught up in an illusion – knowing that you’re getting caught up in the illusion – that’s some serious cha-cha. That certainly inspired another sense of newfound respect for my fellow humans sharing the beach with me that night. Every man, woman, and child, at that point, became the bravest people I knew (and yet, that was the only thing I knew about them). They, from the spiritual realm, were brave enough to say “I am willing to forget all this about who I am; about my place here and its ultimate meaning in my life; I am willing to go to earth, naked, and start another life from the perception of nothing before me, and an earthly perception of perhaps nothing after me accept a hope and a dream.”

This is the COURAGE that YOU came here with – that you ARE. This shows just how much you DO believe in yourself and know of your VALUE and WORTH. You were willing to forget your past lives, your past in-between lives in dimensions of spirit, and the dogged scientific assuredness of an afterlife. You were BRAVE enough to bury that so deep and still come here to engage in potential extremist conditions – wars, disasters, mega-love, and mega-hate. It just goes to show, there is nothing you aren’t capable of facing and going through. You chose to be born, and for many, to forget so much.

If anything, ponder that for 5-minutes today. Then give yourself the love and compassion you so richly deserve and honor your being for what you had chosen to forget in order to be here.

As always, you are a PERFECT being. Until next time …