Posted on June 16, 2023

When Whitman wrote, "I sing the body electric"

I know what he

meant

I know what he

wanted:

to be completely alive every moment

in spite of the inevitable.

we can't cheat death but we can make it

work so hard

that when it does take

us

it will have known a victory just as

perfect as

ours.

~ Charles Bukowski ~

The sun rises over the horizon and bursts into my room asking, begging me to awaken! An invitation to enter into a conscious relationship with life,

I open my weary eyes and notice that a joy is arising in my chest and a smile slowly emerges as I realize it is a new day. Another 24 hours to experience the magic of my ordinary life and to experience the sacred right here, right now!

I am often asked how does one live a sacred life as if living life in a sacred way is a different road map than the one you are on. The road you are walking right now in your life is a direct pathway to the sacred and holy. The difference between my life and perhaps yours, is that I am present to how sacred every encounter, every challenge, every single moment is. Even the perfection of the trash in the street or the traffic jam slowing me down and making me late to an appointment is part of a sacred life. It comes right down to consciousness and intention.

We live in a time when our society, our culture has lost touch with what is not only important but what is sacred. Perhaps we have lost our understanding of what “sacred” even means. There is a quote from the Bible that says: “God was in this place, but I, I did not know it.” That’s it right there. This very place is holy ground. Spirit, God, Great Mystery, Great Heart, Great Wonder is right here, but you just didn't notice.

Our lives are so full of distractions. Children needing to be cared for, complicated schedules organized, work commitments, bills to pay, meetings to attend, and of course emails to answer along with tweets, Facebook and Instagram postings and let's not forget Wordle! We have lost, or perhaps just forgotten, that we are not just our mind, and for those of you who use your body, we are not just our body either. We are spiritual beings living within a body accompanied, guided, directed and encouraged by a mind and the great mystery of life.

Our bodies live within a “body politic” that has become our moral, emotional, and cultural touch-stone for living our lives. The culture we are living in, however, distracts us from what is essential. Rather, we are accosted by advertising, news, noise, distractions and the quickening of time that takes us away from our self and directs our attention out "there" someplace.

The goal of any lifetime, the world’s spiritual traditions teach us, is to journey toward self-discovery and in that self discovery to find that which you are called on to serve. On that journey you ultimately arrive at the shores of your own destiny to find your “Self” standing there. For most of us this takes a whole lifetime. It is when the last days of your life arrive and the angel of death is at your door that you ask yourself; “what was this all about? How do I leave all this that is SO precious to me, when I never really realized just how precious life was?” Of course it is the small things that, at that moment, become tender hearted: the scent of a rose, the song of a bird, the kind gesture of a friend, the smile on your child's face, the smell of toast toasting, the falling golden leaves in autumn, or the chill of a winter rain. At the end of our days we might take a moment to realize that the love welling up in our heart at the sight of our son or daughter or our grandchild or partner is precious beyond words. But, in the day to day unfolding of our busy lives, all that is so precious to us at the end of our life, is usually skipped over most of our life.

When you stop, listen and feel the moment right now – the sanctity of this now moment becomes palpable. And, when you take time every day to smell the roses, to feel the love for your family right in the middle of your chest, or take in the sound of the breeze blowing through the trees, you are able to absorb the blessings in your life – in this very moment, you discover that your life is sacred and so are you.