Physically Apart – Together in Heart
Although COVID-19 has limited our physical gatherings and much of our day-to-day activities, it has not separated us in either Spirit or Heart. We have been able to connect through the wonders of technology, including video calls and live streaming church services. Additionally, we have been encouraged to go outside, to walk our dogs, to take walks with people with whom we live. And here is what I’ve noticed on those walks.
There is a peaceful quiet in the neighborhood that feels simultaneously good and somehow foreign. I don’t remember when I’ve felt such a powerful stillness in the city. I suspect it was some lifetime ago, as a child playing in a neighbors yard. It is quiet, the birds are singing profusely, and neighbors are stopping what they are doing to say hello. And not just hello. There is a smile, a look of knowing of one another’s need to feel connected that leaks through that smile and touches my heart. In this time apart, we are truly connected by the heart.
Did you know that when two humans interact with one another, their heartbeats begin to synchronize? It seems that close physical proximity draws our heart energy into a matching rhythm. But this coherence of heart does not have to remain limited to physical proximity.
When we take time apart – not from one another – but from daily tasks, media reports, and worry, by going within to that very same heart space, we connect. We connect with our spiritual being, the divine spark that dwells within each of us. We connect through a network of Spirit that exceeds the Cloud, hosted by the Allness that we sometimes refer to as God, Allah, Spirit, or the One.
In the Allness, there is an infinite connection; each of us is like a strand of Light reaching outward into the world of form and returning back again. In this turning back again, we find rest, wholeness, and a thing called dominion.
In the Book of Genesis, God grants humankind dominion the earth and all the things that creep upon it. The most basic interpretation of this passage reveals a gift, one that allows humanity to rise to the top of the food chain. But there is so much more to this message.
Dominion means the ability to control or govern. Metaphysically, the plants, animals, and things that creep represent thoughts, words, and actions. Thoughts and ideas that are fruitful and in coherence with the Allness produce experiences of abundance, creativity, and well-being. Thoughts out of alignment with the wholeness of God may, when given much attention, create experiences that lack wholeness and well being.
Created in the image and likeness of the power that created the universe, we, too, are creative. Our thoughts, words, and actions create our experiences, the quality of our relationships, and ultimately, our world.
Certainly, fleeting thoughts like “what would happen if a dinosaur entered the room right now?” are not likely to manifest. Why? Because we don’t give those kinds of thoughts, much attention. They pass through our minds, we smile or frown, and then we think something else.
It’s the thoughts we give a great deal of attention to, the ones we allow to occupy our minds and hearts, that produce more of the same. Our thoughts are contagious. They grow and multiply – and they tend to manifest in our bodies, our experiences, and our world. So, why not choose those thoughts carefully, from a higher consciousness?
What if Love and all the ways it harmonizes, draws together, and replicates itself, were our most prominent thought? What if kindness and compassion and the assurance of abundance occupied the most significant space in our minds and hearts?
The thought would become contagious. It would expand and open those channels of Light that connect us one heart to another. The resulting energy would become so strong that nothing could interrupt the flow of Love and Light from one heart to the other. Nothing out of alignment with this integral connection with God would have any power or ability to manifest or replicate. We would be choosing to exercise dominion over all that manifests in the world. We would know that, at times, we may be physically apart, but always, we are together in the heart and mind of God.
© 2020. Eileen Patra.
Eileen Patra is an ordained Unity minister and the author of The Mystical Ark: A Vessel of Blessings. She is currently serving as co-minister of the Spiritual Life Center in Troy, Michigan, and working on her second book, Living as the Ark.
COINS, flat metal discs that symbolize a measure of abundance have two distinct sides, typically called heads and tails. The heads side alone is not the COIN. The tails side alone is not the COIN. The COIN is a multi-dimensional object representing at least two distinct sides to one idea. In our lives there are a variety of thoughts, ideas and feelings. Each have more than one side, more than one perspective. The idea of abundance for instance has two sides; giving and receiving. They are equally important. One cannot fully exist without the other. If there is no receiving, nothing has truly been given. If there is no giving, nothing is received. The space in which we live fully in the abundance of God lies in the balance between the two sides of the abundance COIN. What idea, feeling or emotion is tugging at your consciousness today? How many sides does it have? Is it like a COIN with two distinct sides; each having equal importance? And where is the point of balance between the two? How can you move yourself into that place of balance and experience what is whole? Could a simple flip of the COIN be the miracle in your life today?
WATERMELON. A juicy, delightful miracle of fruit. I recall watermelon as the highlight of picnic lunches and family reunions as a child. It was not an everyday occurrence so it seemed extravagant and especially exciting to see those juicy red slabs ringed with white then green, dotted here and there with large, inedible seeds. Today I think about the relatively small size of those seeds and how they contrast with the enormous fruit that stems from them. It is miraculous to me that one small seed can produce so much fruit, juice, excitement, and joy. As I ponder what my next thought might be I consider how like the watermelon seed my thoughts are. One small seed can produce a day filled with joy and glory. And one small seed can, if I allow it, produce a day of challenge and struggle. The WATERMELON is a delightful miracle of pink pulp, sweet juice and seeds. My thoughts are also a miracle producing experiences enfolded within their nature. And even more miraculous is my ability to witness and choose the thoughts I hold in mind. I can see them crop up and choose to plant only the ones that will produce what is joyful, enormous, fruitful, delightful, sweet, and extravagant. Planting delightful WATERMELON seeds in my mind and in the world today. Affirming the same for you.
TIME, precious time. TIME It is relative to my perception of it. TIME races, TIME marches, TIME moves ever so-o-o-o slo-o-o-wly. TIME fights me. TIME is on my side. The miracle of TIME is both bound by the laws of physics and transcendent of them through the way I choose to experience it. TIME is relative, an illusion that I can allow to have power over me, or I can use in a way which empowers me. In Truth, there is only one moment, the NOW moment. Centered in the NOW moment I transcend the boundaries of TIME and space. I visit the past. I travel to the future. Both are malleable from this now moment. I can, right now, change the past by the energy I hold it in. In this now moment I can rewrite the past from a new, empowered perspective thus changing my experience of it. The future is also changeable by what I write in my mind in this very moment. Forgiving the past, opening to love in the present, writing my thoughts and feelings from a place of oneness and wholeness I create a vibrant, abundant and harmonious future. TIME is an illusion that has no power over me. I am the master of TIME and I write my story from a place of oneness and wholeness in Spirit.
Eileen Patra 