Pause and Patience

Pause . . .

When we drop into the moment and breathe with our full attention, touch things with our full attention, look at things with our full attention, everything expands. It’s as if Father Time clasps his hands behind his head, leans back and relaxes his vigilance. There becomes space. That space becomes miracles…the place where the divine can slip in small synchronicities, magical moments, and surprising insights. The ellipses “. . .” in life allow for possibilities we have yet to consider — the maybes, and the what ifs. All that is required of us is pause and patience.

Outside my window, the birds are chirping, calling back and forth, caught up in the deepest part of the moment. They aren’t over-thinking things, worrying about money, or contemplating their relationships, they are just experiencing and expressing their best bird-selves now.

Beauty is beheld in the pause not in the action. Appreciation happens upon reflection. Love flows from stillness not from doing. The heartbeat can only be heard when we stop to listen.

Inner transformation works this way as well. We must slow down, PAUSE, LISTEN, NOTICE.

With every rotation of our planet, the urge of our spirit calls us to awaken more, and more, and more. Can you feel it?

For many, it is a pressurizing catalyst for change. For others it feels like a time of disconnect, discontent, meaninglessness, or emptiness. For a few, it’s a thrilling time to explore the expansive aspects of our greater-selves.

As we stand upon a planet floating through a cosmos full of unseen forces propelling us to expand, we can’t help but feel untethered and off-balance as we collectively shift from rung to rung on the galactic monkey bars. 

We are collectively attempting to raise our consciousness and jump to the next rung or level. Some of us feel pushed, pulled and tugged into a new way of being. We feel odd and out of sorts in our own skin. We long for the old days and feel trepidation about our futures.

At the same time, there exists a level of clarity, a palpable sense of a different type of belonging, and perhaps the budding feeling of a new purpose being birthed with us.

This is a still-point, a pregnant pause. . . like our breath is suspended. The wise men and women call it Kumbhaka or the retention of the breath either in our out. This pause is pulsing with the creative life force, new possibilities. At any time we can be like a garden in the spring – fresh green shoots sprouting up all over the place – an explosion of life. As we move higher in consciousness we are able to access new levels of energy and create more beauty and peace.

As we ascend in consciousness the heavens descend to meet us and pull us along, inspiring us to reach to the next rung, and the next. The finite is becoming infinite and the infinite is dropping down to help. All each of us needs to do is to pause with faith in the unknown then reach up a hand.

I have been climbing like this for years – 20 plus. In October of 1999, in Millis, Massachusetts, I sat, my young boys on either side of me, in front of Yogi Bhajan, the founder of Kundalini Yoga. I requested to meet him face-to-face for the obvious reasons but specifically to receive my spiritual name. After a few minutes of talking about a number of things he said with a smile, “Prem Pyar. Your spiritual name is Prem meaning infinite love and Pyar meaning finite love. It’s like Applied Love or Love squared. Your job is to bring divine love to others.” At the time I didn’t know what to think because I really didn’t feel like I was too great at love especially since I had gone through a divorce that year. It seemed like a cruel cosmic joke, in fact.

Much of my climb was grueling and there were times I felt I needed all the gear, fortitude and faith of a Mt. Everest climber. From where I’m standing now things appear similar with my eyes but the resounding aliveness and renewed appreciation for my own foibles, challenges and convoluted journey casts a rosy optimistic glow on all of it and I must say the view is breathtaking. I must say that am growing into my spiritual name little by little. Perhaps Yogi Bhajan was referencing the advent of my use of the Diamond Light. Who knows? For today, my advice is simple . . .

Pause…Close your eyes…Breathe…Appreciate… and your heart will change. Maybe not instantaneously, but soon . . .