Thursday, May 21, 2009

Joyous Encounters With the Divine - More Than One Door To God

After my post yesterday about opening the God door, I had to share something.

I was given a couple of glimpses of God today by people for whom, I'm sure, opening the God door was the last thing on their minds.

The first came early this morning as I was walking into the office. A few yards from the door, I heard behind me, "She's running...she's running! She's running to catch up to YOU!"  I turned and saw a friend running toward me. We laughed, shared our good mornings, and when she asked how I was, I responded (as I often do), "Fat and sassy!" 

She immediately replied, "Oh, we've got to eliminate that phrase!"

Me: "Oh, but it's a good thing!"

Friend: "Does your subconcious know that?"

Zing! Bullseye! Just the reminder I needed to pay attention to the messages I send myself. Funny thing is...I was just thinking about that very topic as part of a workshop I'm in the beginning stages of developing about how we claim to believe that words have power, yet we're careless with how we use those words, especially about ourselves. Even though, conciously, I infuse postive meaning into the words, I'm not sure my subconscious knows any other than the literal meaning of "fat." I don't mind being sassy, but fat is not a state I want to perpetuate. Shame on me, and thank you, Teresa, for being the voice of God this morning.

Next...standing in line in the company cafe, waiting to purchase my oh-goodie-it's-quiche-day breakfast...a woman turns and smiles, one of those hopeful, please talk to me smiles. I shared my joy about quiche day, and she asked, "How do you eat quiche and lose so much weight?"

Now, I didn't know her...don't remember having seen her...but she had noticed and watched my weight loss. And by commenting on it, she not only made me feel good, she gave me an opening to share my frustration at having gained a portion of that weight back. We then talked at length, sharing our frustrations, struggles, and hopes, our successes and continued efforts. It was a shot in the arm, better than any weight loss drug ever invented. And she reminded me that we are influencing others all the time, even when we're not aware of it. Thank you, Lisa, for being the smiling, sharing face of God for me this morning.

Blessings are all around us, all the time.  Sometimes God wears business casual and runs on the sidewalk.

Wishing you joyous encounters with the Divine, every day...and an open, aware, and grateful heart with which to recognize them.

5 comments:

  1. We all need these kinds of reminders. I hope I am able to bless others with my words.

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  2. Thank you for the comment, Robert. I'm more and more convinced that our words are having impact on others all the time, whether we know it or not. Speaking truth with love is the only way. Thanks for singing along!

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  3. I want my words to be kinder, more encouraging to people. This is a good reminder of how we effect others.

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  4. Thanks for this beautiful post. You are right, we might want to believe that our lives is only for us to live, but if we just look a bit harder we can figure out that we so many others living with/through us.

    Last week I was having a very bad day. I write, urban fantasy and paranormal romance mostly. I submitted a short story to a contest and I didn't make it. I wrote a post on my LiveJournal about how I was going to pick myself up and continue trying. No one read the post--or at least I thought so. Then yesterday morning I got an email from a good friend. She told me that she had been ready to give up her writing. She is on her 40s and has never been published either. But when she read about me getting rejection after rejection and still going, she felt that she could do it to.

    To be honest, I wrote that post for myself; to remind myself that publication makes authors, not writers. But it seems that it was meant for more than that. After reading your post, I wondered how many other writers read that post and felt that they also could take another rejection and go on.

    Thanks so much for sharing.

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  5. Thank you for singing along, Indigo and Megaly.

    Indigo, I know you and I am so grateful for your heart and your desire to be kind and encouraging...and you ARE...even when you have your own burdens and concerns. I love you, sis.

    Megaly, welcome to the choir! I love what you said,,,"publication makes authors, not writers." And you are so right; we really have no idea who is watching, listening, taking strength from us, even when we think no one is paying attention. That's a humbling thought, and an exciting one in that we have the ability to influence the world around us from right where we are with what we have..no waiting to reach "influential status"...we're there.

    Blessings and gratitude,

    Heartsong

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