The light relief of Summer is upon us and as it reveals its brightness and hope and our hearts beat a little faster with the expectation of a little more freedom after a long year of hibernation my attention is turned to just that, our hearts.
What is important to us? What is at the heart of who we are? What do we want to achieve in our lives? I am pulled to these thoughts because I have recently lost someone dear to me and like many in the same position, life takes on a different hue. We try to make sense of it on another level, from a different perspective. When those dear to us leave us and become memories in our minds and hearts it offers us a passage to considering our own efforts in life and what really matters.
We often speak of life being short and before you know it time has passed and there is a review of how far we have got in achieving our expected goals. We look at what we are working on and sometimes hold back. This may be for many different reasons, maybe we feel we are not good enough or not studied this or that or maybe we haven’t got any idea what we are here for and what we want to do.
This turmoil we have all recently lived through has indeed given us all new perspectives. These experiences were not all under the positive label. It has however taught us all something about the lives we had before. How we treasure those small moments and that is sort of what has coloured my new perspective. I have observed at first hand recently how our existence becomes much smaller at the end of our lives. Gradually the huge amount of physical capabilities we have at the peak of our lives are reduced to a few small movements and then just moments in the mind and our words and feelings then become reduced too until we are just our essence returning home as a soul, a light being.
I am not being morbid in this observation it is a goal to have a peaceful end but in observing the end it offers an awakening that what is at the heart of the matter is simply this. “Get on with the things you can and want to do” because life isn’t only short, it is precious. It has the capacity to be full, open and unlimited with a little imagination and a brave heart. Life is about living from the heart, being real, being true to yourself and those dear to you. It means forgetting about being this or that and instead feeling this or that. Really it is all about heart, feeling, and emotion.
Those beginning on a path to a spiritual life often ask “What is it that I need to do? How can I become more spiritual?” There is a simple answer to the start of this exploration. Firstly you are who you are as you are; now in this moment and part of that is your Spirit. It is not what you become after death; it is a part of you, your essence whilst you are here in physical life. That is the heart of being spiritual, you already are! Now what you do with that awakening, that awareness is the key. Perhaps the real question that should be asked is “How can I best use the wonderful spiritual essence that I am?”
For me that is at the heart of being spiritual. How can I use the full vibrancy of my energy, my body, my mind and my Spirit to its best at this moment regardless of the supposed limitations around me? We can think out of the box in all circumstances, which has been seen over the last year if we look at the many positive charitable deeds which have gone on globally. In fact the box has been thrown away and reinvented because people worked from their hearts. Bless them all.
Following your heart may be daunting but from my renewed perspective it is scarier to live without heart. Life is challenging but it is so many other feelings too, some which we forget to explore. We are so blessed with all sorts of creativity and opportunity.
It seems there are various paths to tread with spiritual work. All of these wonderful teachers, healers, guides fulfil a need to anchor ideas and offer steps for people to find what is within them already, to enable that which is at the heart and soul of them. It doesn’t mean spiritual explorers have to follow certain paved out learning but instead find guidance that offers the tools to reveal what is already there and to expand this into unique ways of working with the Spirit within. Then they in turn can do the same and so an unravelling and release from the idea of a path that must be followed to become spiritual is replaced by an opening of heart energy, allowing confidence to become and grow into true spiritual self.
Many spiritual ideas seem recurring, heard before. There is reason for this, there are no new ideas of how to be spiritual we have all heard these things before in many ways through many lives because we are all connected to the heart of where spiritual ideas come from. We are all connected to Source energy, Creator, God whatever name you wish to apply. The energy is just the same. Spirit is you, you are Spirit. Parts of the Universe created by Source and so we all have that spiritual connection already.
So, the heart of being spiritual is feeling what we are going to do with that precious life energy we already have. Those precious moments on this beautiful Earth, because soon enough our world will become smaller. Each of us will have our time, a certain number of heartbeats to get on with what our heart holds dear. Maybe now as summer beckons us towards feeling lighter and brighter, more passionate of heart, maybe now is our time to get on with what is at the heart of the matter of being spiritual, being our own true spiritual essence and finding a place to reveal that to the world.
Pat McDowall
Author and More to Life Elder
