Are You Awake?
Photo Credit: Zdenek Machacek
“What I say to you, I say to all—stay awake.” ~ Jesus Christ
Today’s blog may spark memories of previous musings for my regular readers, yet I feel inspired to return to this theme of wakefulness. It’s persistent, like the hummingbird who visited me every day when I was falling half-asleep again, last November, in Panama. I beheld the luminescent creature’s beauty every day in awe, but I was blind to the message she carried on her wings— of love, perseverance, and healing. I had forgotten what I’d known. What I vowed I would never forget again. Until I did.
I guess that’s why Matt Kahn’s YouTube video, Are You Awake, struck such a deep chord within me. In his opening, Kahn states that self-realization is the process of remembering who you already are— what he describes as the Divine light inside you. It is a layered process, that we have to constantly return to because our lives on this planet continually steal us away from awareness. The world is so distracting, busy, and consuming. It’s rooted in science and technology. We forget there is something more, that there is another dimension.
Kahn goes on to say that nothing about our past can limit, hurt, harm, or threaten us because all suffering is transformed by this Divine Light. It doesn’t mean it was okay; it just means we are healed. He believes that the fundamental delusion many of us believe is that there is something wrong with our creation. That we have to control, change, or fix by our own will. He encourages us to turn our attention to our hearts. To rest in the spaces between words, thoughts, feelings, and breath. To trust the Divine and relax into the knowing; you are whole, perfect, and complete.
Motivational speaker Brené Brown speaks a similar message, using different language. In her YouTube video, You Are Powerful Beyond Measure, she urges viewers to recognize that everything they need is already within reach. We don’t have to chase our destiny; we attract it by living from the heart, in flow with our truth.
Instead of light, Brene speaks of clarity. Instead of Divine, she prefers Universe. She talks about listening to your inner voice, that everything is as it should be, and of your soul’s purpose. She asks us to surrender to something bigger than ourselves. To shift from chasing to attracting, from fear to faith, and from doubt to knowing. To receive the hummingbird’s message.
In his podcast, Every Person Contains the Seed of Awakening, Eckhart Tolle transmits these messages from his broad spiritual perspective. He uses the metaphor of a seed for the process of awakening and describes the Kingdom of Heaven as the tree that is the seed’s destiny. Instead of the words remembering or listening, he substitutes perceiving. Eckhart also believes awareness arises naturally when we are still long enough for our seed to settle into the soil and take root.
What Brené Brown describes as your soul’s purpose, Eckhart calls the soul of the world—the vast intelligence of Divine creation. He asks us to listen with awareness to the things we cannot see in our world, or what he calls the horizontal dimension. To go deeper, and then rise higher, into the vast intelligence of the inner, vertical experience. He believes the world is not here to make us happy; it is here to grow our consciousness.
Everywhere I turn, this same message appears. In the novels I choose to read, and the podcasts and videos I select. Stories about what trees teach us—of our own seeds of awareness and the need to plant them in fertile soil so we can grow into our magnificence. To live and die and live again. To embrace the Divine. Everything is as it should be. I surrender in faith to something bigger than myself. I perceive the hummingbird with my heart, and I remember. I am awake.
COMING UP…
Books & Projects:
· All four of my books are available online at Amazon, Chapters-Indigo, and Barnes & Noble. You can also find them at select Chapters-Indigo and El Hombre de la Mancha bookstores.
· I am pursuing representation from a traditional publisher for my fifth literary fiction, a psychological drama that explores the complexities of mental illness and trauma. Stay in touch by signing up for my blog or following me on social media to find out when it will be published.
Reviews & Interviews:
· You can read, listen, or watch a large selection of reviews and interviews on my website.
Events:
· There are no events currently scheduled in my calendar.
YouTube Channel:
· Watch The Rogue Scorpion trailer.
· Watch The Holding trailer.
· Watch The Healing trailer.