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The Wind and the Pine Cone

Rev. Peggy Booth

Today I was given two touchstones while biking to work. They came when partway through my ride, I asked Holy Spirit to show be a symbol from nature for healing my mind. They are the wind and the pine cone.

The wind made itself known as I was struggling ‘from the get-go’ this morning against a moderate head wind. Over and over I became aware of it and my struggle against it, and I reminded myself to relax, gear down, and enjoy the beautiful ride. It was when I did that, that I noticed pine cones here and there in the gutter — something I’d never noticed before, perhaps because the wind had blown them there or perhaps because I’d just not noticed. I was moving pretty quickly before it sank in that a pine cone could be a tangible touchstone to keep in my pocket. By then I’d passed the scattering of them that first caught my eye. I didn’t want to go back and thought maybe I’d look for one on my way home.

Somewhat disappointed or unsure of my choice not to go back, I pedaled round a corner perhaps another block and there was a mostly unopened, small cone in the gutter. I quickly stopped, picked it up, and put it in my pocket. For much of the rest of the ride to work and home again, I thought about the wind and the pine cone and their meaning to me.

The pine cone intrigues me in being partly open. It’s when a cone is fully open that its seeds come out. Perhaps it’s representative of my spiritual journey — I’m on my way, I’ve made progress and had insights – I’m partly open, but I have a ways to go before my life is fully open to God. That is, I have a ways to go in remembering to listen to Holy Spirit. It’s interesting that a pine cone, once it starts opening, can’t close again. I feel that my life will never go back to being closed to God and Holy Spirit. Without a doubt, I have started to open and will never be the same. The pine cone (as any carrier of seed) is a transitional life form. It has within it all the potential needed for rebirth. Being born again for me is becoming fully spirit. The seeds in the cone need soil, water, sun, and warmth to grow. I need Holy Spirit, mindfulness, teacher-learners, and forgiveness among the key ingredients for my spiritual growth.

More learnings may come from the pine cone, but let me now write about the wind.

At first, I wondered if the wind was a proper symbol. You certainly can’t put it in your pocket. But, the more I was with it today, the more appealing it was as a learning aide. I could imagine it from the tiniest whiff to the gale and everything in between, whether outside or an inside air movement, as being a ubiquitous expression of Holy Spirit – even my breath moving in and out. I could be reminded of the wind as the breath of Holy Spirit absolutely anytime, anywhere without needing something in my pocket.

Even with these thoughts of exciting potential, I was still riding into the wind the whole way to work, inescapably being reminded of its strength compared to me — though it wasn’t even that strong by measures of wind. I was constantly aware and I was having to work and even struggle a bit.

The forecast had indicated the wind would continue out of the east today so I mentally expected a tail wind on the way home. What I found was that at my tail it wasn’t particularly noticeable. But, I did move enjoyably and fast. Then I recognized that under many circumstances without the struggle I don’t notice the wind or not and it’s easy to assume that I’m just doing it on my own. Life can be like that. When I’m sailing along, everything is going my way, ‘life is good,’ I can become unaware of the wind or Holy Spirit. I can assume that I’m ‘so good’ at just doing what I know how to do best. I’m just ‘tooling along’ ‘I’ve got it made’ — who needs to work on any lessons, who needs Holy Spirit.
 
Conversely, it is in those times when we seem to struggle and are aware of every little pain that we most remember God. The funny thing is that life is easiest and most joyous when we listen to and go with Holy Spirit and just let him move us/blow us along. Things — in that perspective — are not of our power. It certainly helps to recognize that and ‘Let go and let God.’ While it’s in the midst of the struggle that we are more aware of God, it’s useful to see that the whole journey is harder when we’re fighting it. Metaphorically, the key seems to be to pay attention to the Holy Spirit and follow his lead and direction, letting him do the work of blowing me where I am to go.

The next day, the winds are calm. I am reminded “be still and listen to the Voice.”

Rev. Peggy Booth, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Minneapolis Minnesota.

© 2008, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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Rest Awhile with Me

by Rev. Theresa Tomlinson

Rest awhile…
for your Spirit smiles
To know such Peace within…

The troubled path you’ve traveled
on, you’ll never walk again.

There is no ‘place’ you need to go,
No ‘thing’ that you must do…
So as you wish child, ‘play’ in joy,
for this day is given you!

The gifts of Love you kindly gave
Are forever more returned
For the Love is all you truly save
Of the lessons you have learned.

Embrace the vision
your pure heart sees
For there is nothing to atone…
All is well within your Soul
As you rest… in Me…
at Home

Theresa Tomilson is a Pathways of Light ministerial candidate living in Nova Scotia, Canada

© 2008, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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Jesus — I am no longer walking upon the earth in human form, but you are.

Rev. Barbara Rogoski

You are my eyes in the world
to see suffering and bring
comfort to the lowly…

You are my ears in the world
to hear the cries of the poor
and ease their pain…

You are my arms in the
world that can lift up those
who dwell in darkness and despair…

You are my hands in the
world that can carry peace and
love out to those who need it most.

Now your gifts and talents are needed more than ever
to bring light into this troubled world,
for you are my modern day disciples.

Rev. Barbara Rogoski, O.M.C. is a Pathways of Light minister living in The Netherlands.

© 2008, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Down the Rabbit Hole — Again

Rev. Myron Jones

You know how you can have one of those days when, spiritually, you are just on a high? I was having one of those days.

I had asked the Holy Spirit for a new way to see something that morning and had received an answer. I had shifted from a problem to the answer, not through thinking, but through grace. I asked and it was given, and I was flying! Just in joy and peace.

I was driving down the road having visited a customer and on my way to see another. The customer I was planning to see next had a problem I was going to have to work out. It was, potentially, a serious situation depending on how things went.

As I was thinking about how to handle this I had several thoughts really fast. I thought that this customer was putting a damper on my mood. I thought that if I did not do this right I was going to be in trouble with my boss. I thought how unfair that was and how much I resented him for putting so much pressure on me in a situation over which I had little control. I thought how I wish that I was home writing an article or talking to a student.

All of those thoughts took only a few seconds and I might not have paid much attention to them ordinarily. Just ego monkey chatter, the random firing of neurons that goes on all the time.

The reason I noticed this day is because suddenly I was no longer feeling happy and peaceful. It was the change in my feelings that caught my attention. Since feelings always follow from thoughts I went back over the thoughts I just listed to see what changed my mood.

I began to see that it was like I had been walking on clouds and suddenly I fell into a hole. My immediate thought was Alice falling into the rabbit hole. Now I was following strange roads which were leading me deeper and deeper into a fantasy world of danger, fear, doubts, and blame.

How did I get here? How could it happen so quickly? More importantly, how do I get out of this hole? And then suddenly, I was out! Just like that, I was out. I laughed to think of how easy it is to fall into ego stories and at the same time, it can be just as easy to let them go if that is what I really want to do.

I started paying really close attention to my feelings and my thoughts the rest of the day. Each time I realized that I had once again fallen into a rabbit hole, I looked around at the landscape to see what got me in there.

Something that became very clear to me is that noticing quickly where I am and making a different decision is a lot easier than wandering through the illusory landscape for a while before I decide I want out. The longer I stay in the illusion the harder it is to find my way out.

If I stay in the story long enough, it starts to feel so real and so compelling that it is difficult to let go of it. After awhile I become lost, and confused. I think vaguely of extricating myself but something else in the illusion grabs me, or I am hooked by the certainty that someone is wrong and must be punished, or at least admit their culpability. Or I begin to enjoy that little surge of adrenaline I get when I feel righteous and decide to enjoy it while it lasts.

There are so many distractions and so many hooks in this fantasy land. It is just one drama after another. When I am no longer able to sustain the rush, I get from feeling like I’m right, and the drama loses its glamour, I look around and wonder what to do now.

It must be what one feels coming off a bender. Where am I, what happened? I feel a sense of shame and guilt and fear that I’m stuck. If I have stayed long enough and gotten too hooked into the story I might doubt my self worth and think I don’t deserve Holy Spirit’s help — again. Do you know that feeling?

No matter what ego thoughts are racing through my mind, the only way out is to want out. I have to want out of the hole more than I want to stay in it. That’s all there is to it.

I become very aware of what I am thinking, I ask the Holy Spirit to help me see it differently, I allow that change, and poof! I’m out.

I practiced this all day long and it got easier and easier. In fact by the end of the day I was no longer falling in the hole, I was standing over it and noticing it without any temptation to fall into the story at all.

I enjoy finding these little visual aids to help me go quickly from the story to the truth. Now when I become tempted to believe in an ego story I just picture Alice falling down the rabbit hole and this takes me right through the process of deciding differently.

Rev. Myron Jones is a Pathways of Light minister living in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  Read more of her inspiring Healing Journal articles on the Pathways of Light web site. Web site: http://www.forgivenessisthewayhome.org

© 2008, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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