“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are”
– Joseph Campbell
“Appreciating that privilege and being grateful for the full spectrum of possibility in each moment is the ultimate connection to grace.”
- Oprah Winfrey
Precious Human Birth
Of all things that exist, we breathe and wake and turn it into song.
There is a Buddhist precept that asks us to be mindful of how rare it is to find ourselves in human form on Earth. It is really a beautiful view of life that offers us the chance to feel enormous appreciation for the fact that we are here as individual spirits filled with consciousness, drinking water and chopping wood.
It asks us to understand that no other life form has the consciousness of being that we are privilege to. It asks us to recognize that of all the endless species of plants and animals and minerals that make up the Earth, a very small portion of life has the wakefulness of spirit that we call “being human.”
That I can rise from some depth of awareness to express this to you and that you can receive me in this instant is part of our precious human birth. You could have been an ant. I could have been an anteater. You could have been rain. I could have been a lick of salt. But we were blessed – in this time, in this place, to be human beings alive in rare ways we often take for granted.
All of this to say, this precious human birth is unrepeatable. So what will you do today, knowing that you are one of the rarest forms of life to ever walk the Earth? How will you carry yourself? What will you do with your hands? What will you ask and of whom?
Tomorrow you could die and become an ant, and someone will be setting traps for you. But today, you are precious and rare and awake. It ushers us into grateful living. It makes hesitation useless. Grateful and awake, ask what you need to know now. Say what you feel now. Love what you love now.
- Mark Nepo, “The Book of Awakening”
Devote your one precious life to gratitude and behold the miracles of manifestation.
The Power of Devotion
Gratitude is a powerful form of positive input – it can generate new brain cells and open new pathways. These new pathways give us the physical basis for seeing and feeling the state of grace and of opening up to more love.
As you test out the experience of being more loving, a feedback loop is being set up in your brain. You are training it to notice something new, and the more it notices, the more sensitive, alert, and perceptive you will become in matters of love. You are on a path known in Sanskrit as Bhakti, the path of devotion. Devotion is entirely about finding love in everything, as a universal quality.
- Deepak Chopra
This week I heard the word “devotion” several times, both in conversations and in meditation…and whenever that happens, I pay close attention. As it turned out, my healing journey offered a powerful opportunity to witness and experience devotion. I was fortunate to benefit from the skills of my surgeon, which she cultivated through a devotion towards her vocation, and it was a privilege to receive the care and support that my husband and my children devoted to me in my time of need.
The more I sat with devotion, the more encompassing it became. Like grace, devotion touches a person in a way that cannot be explained, but it can be witnessed.
Though associated with discipline, devotion, it seems, is a propelling force that comes from a very different place. When a person is devoted to a task, he or she does it with a lightness and ease and joy that no amount of disciplined and concerted effort can ever create.
Devotion, it seems, opens up the doorway to a higher power. A power that turns “shoulds” into “wants”.
The image of a sailor comes to mind. A disciplined and determined sailor can raise his sail, set his point, and expertly tack and jibe… but try as he might, he cannot create the wind. The devoted sailor is patient and trusting in the process and knows when to turn it all over to grace.
This got me thinking about my ongoing struggle with “self-discipline” and the frustration that I feel so often from failing to follow through on my daily “goals” (for example to meditate, do qigong, do yoga, exercise, stay off my phone, eat more vegetables).
Could it be that, like the anxious sailor, I have mistakenly believed that I alone have to put the wind in my sail?
And then it dawned on me.
As with gratitude, true devotion unlocks the power of grace.
And grace turns discipline into dedication.
The famous author, Robin Lafever summarizes this beautifully:
”Devotion implies joy and zeal and ardent affection. I think of it as the big yellow Labrador puppy approach to writing. It is a process oriented stage. It encompasses dedication and can appear from the outside to look a lot like discipline, but its origins are very, very different.”
True devotion, like gratitude, has very little to do with things in the external world. Though we can be grateful for our circumstances and devoted to our crafts, it is gratitude for life itself and devotion to the source of life that manifests grace and, indeed, can change the world.
And, now I would like to share a true story, shared in the poem below.
What struck me most about this experience was the depth of devotion and gratitude that I felt from my ancestors…
June’s Moon
It is the first of June
in this very strange year
of change and contrasts
of hope and fear.
The scent of lilacs
pink cherry blossoms
small blue eggs hatching new life.
Events unfolding
senseless suffering
inflicted on humans, by humans,
again, and again, and again.
It is after midnight and I toss and turn
sleep is not coming easily tonight.
An email message from my dear friend, June:
“Trying to sleep,
thinking of you,
I opened the blind and saw
the moonlight reflecting on the venetian blinds
like teardrops.”
I wrap myself in a blanket
and step outside
the wet grass is cool beneath my feet
the sky is clear
the air is pure
cleansed by today’s rain.
There it is,
the waxing moon
the same moon
that beckoned June,
the same moon
that has borne witness to it all.
And, then I feel their presence
a circle of women stand around me
my sisters, my ancestors
wise women from millenniums gone by
lit up by the moon
I see the lines on their faces
I can feel their stories
their pain
their hardship
yet, arm in arm, they stand
in forgiveness
in gratitude
in love.
Relentless
Steadfast
Committed
Devoted
these warriors assure me
“we are here, our work continues on”
- Patti Wardlaw
I leave you today with a quotation from Martin Luther King Jr. that, I hope, opens your heart to faith and hope and ignites a new sense of devotion during these important times on earth.
Devotion
With a grateful heart,
I bow to you,
the One Heart
that beats and breathes
life into all beings.
With a free heart,
I choose you,
the One Heart
that knows only
benevolence and compassion.
With an open heart,
I devote my life to you,
the One Heart
who’s devotion to me
has been
and always will be
unwavering and unconditional.
Your love for me
brings me to my knees
and,
knowing I am worthy,
I receive
so that I may give.
- Patti Wardlaw