I woke yesterday morning from a dream feeling certain that it is possible for all of humanity to awaken in an instant and for the world to be transformed.
And I realized: this is possible!
Remotely possible? Yes.
Unlikely to happen in an instant? True.
But it is possible.
Just imagine:
Every person on the planet shifting from fear and hate to love and compassion.
Everyone feeling a natural innate urging to be kind.
Everyone seeing beauty and feeling wonderment for life and all creation.
Imagine:
Shackles of shame and blame falling away.
Weapons dropping. Wars stopping.
People everywhere laughing
and crying with joy.
A remote possibility? Yes.
Unlikely to happen in an instant? True.
But imagine. Can you sense that it is possible?
I believe we do all have within us not only the potential but the calling to "wake up."
Consider Sleeping
Beauty, who fell into a deep sleep after pricking her finger on a poisoned needle. After many years of coma-like slumber, in an instant she was awakened by True Love.
In a way, like Sleeping Beauty, we’ve been poisoned and put to sleep by toxic messages. We are asleep to the amazing beauty of life, to our own beauty, and to the beauty of one another. We are asleep to the truth that we are dwelling in an amazing Living Earth and to the Good-ness, the God-ness, in all creation and that we
are a part of it, not apart from it. Many of us, much of the time, take life for granted. We even complain and curse aspects of it sometimes. But, like Sleeping Beauty and the entire kingdom around her, we too can wake up by True Love, with True Love, to True Love.
Consider now how an instantaneous wake up happened in real life on March 18, 1958 to Thomas Merton. Here is how he described it:
“In Louisville,
at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy
to me that I almost laughed out loud… I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”
Imagine, you and I and all human
beings shining like the sun.
Now, beyond dreaming and imagining, let’s intend to wake up - either in an instant or little by little - and see this way.
Until we do see this way, with faith, let’s treat ourselves and one another trusting that it is so.
Believing,
Charlene
PS - Yes, this is an unusually long reflection. But I very much wanted to share this dream with you. May we all experience awakenings this year - little ones and big ones, whatever we are gifted with - and be grateful for them all.
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