Day 29 Coincidence and Grace (My Sacred Life)

All too often, the things I believe I want in my life just aren't good for me (though this awareness usually shows up long after the fact). The older I get, the more grateful I am that God's simple response to my most fervent (yet often foolish) prayers is a loving "No" ... because I've come to know that her vision for my life is greater than anything I might imagine for myself (a most humbling recognition of how "grace" works).

“How do you know which of your intentions is likely to be fulfilled? The answer lies in paying attention to the clues provided by the nonlocal mind. Notice the coincidences in your life. Coincidences are messages. They are clues from God or spirit or nonlocal reality, urging you to break out of your karmic conditioning, your familiar patterns of thinking. They are offering you an opportunity to enter a domain of awareness where you feel loved and cared for by the infinite intelligence that is your source. Spiritual traditions call this the state of grace." ~Deepak Chopra

I've heard coincidence defined as God's way of remaining anonymous. I've come to see coincidence as grace in action ... something we learn to recognize over time through experience ... and pass on (or not).

GRACE
The beauty of grace
is that you receive blessings
for no reason.
As above, so below.
PRACTICE random acts of grace.
Give to others for no reason.
Offer kindness to those who are undeserving,
love those who no one else loves.
Practice grace.
Daniel Levin, Zen Cards

These days ... I realize how much better my daily life becomes when I pray ... "not my will, but thine, be done" ... simple, but not always easy.

"Slow down
and everything you are chasing
will come around and catch you."
~John De Paola

Day 5 Embracing a Larger Vision (My Sacred Life)

Sometimes the Daily Email from Renaissance Unity takes my breath away and leaves me humbly considering the staggering possibility that God might have bigger plans for me than I do for myself.

Today's affirmation is: "I am the light of God shining in the world."

What an audacious thought!

Seven years ago, "early retirement" allowed me to step out of an overly busy life into a slower-pace contemplative one. Although challenged at first, I learned to say "No thank you" graciously when asked to take on responsibilities I no longer found engaging, and to release associated "guilt" and "worry" through journaling & meditation ... so that my life is simple, joy-filled, and relaxed these days.

In THE LIFE YOU WERE BORN TO LIVE, Dan Millman writes of "Nine-Year Cycles" beginning that chapter with this quote:

The power of the world always works in circles,
and everything tries to be round.
The sky is round, and I have heard
that the earth is like a ball,
and so are all the stars.
The wind, in it's greatest power, whirls:
birds make their nests in circles,
for theirs is the same religion as ours.
The sun and moon, both round,
came forth and go down again in a circle.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing,
and always come back again to where they were.
The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood,
and so it is in everything where power moves.
Black Elk

If Millman is correct about the timing of things, perhaps I can give myself continued breathing room as I make gradual changes in the next two years of MY "Nine-Year Cycle" before emerging as the Butterfly I choose to be?

In the meantime, I shall "let my little light shine" here and elsewhere ... remembering it might be bigger than I realize.

Blessed Be -- and so it is. Thank you very much. Amen