When I asked to learn more about unconditional love, my Spiritual Teacher sent a special messenger. As it turned out, he also taught me about communication and much, much more.
Many summers ago, I moved to Denver, Colorado, to work with some friends. The snow arrived early that year, and I decided to return to rainy old Oregon. Before leaving Denver, I followed an inner nudge and drove south to explore Colorado Springs.
I stopped just north of that city to fill up with gas. As I was getting back in my car, Divine Providence stepped in. A large sign caught my attention. It read: “This way to the Garden of the Gods.”
For many years I believed I was worth only what I had at the time. I was convinced that my destiny held nothing more than hard times and struggle.
“It’s all you deserve,” I would tell myself. “Don’t think about what you would like to have. Settle for things as they are and forget about it.”
I believed there would only be hardship and struggle…and that is exactly what there was. I did not understand that by limiting my imagination, I was limiting my possibilities. When I finally surrendered these self-limiting ideas, I began to see myself in a whole new light. I discovered that I was, and always had been, a spiritual being. I had not allowed myself to see my true worth.
One of the many things I experienced while living in Hawaii when I was in my late twenties happened on the Island of Kauai. I saw the most beautiful rainbow I had ever seen. Rather than eliciting a feeling of joy, I felt an indescribable longing stir deep within my heart. I was longing for a love that I could not identify.
As I gazed up at the magnificent rainbow arching across the sky, I wondered: Where is the other half, the part that would make it complete. Shortly thereafter, I wrote the following poem.
If you want to be good at anything in life, you must become a good learner. This includes learning to listen when the lessons come, learning to trust what you know and what you’ve learned, then demonstrate your learning by taking action. Enter the snowstorm and the “relentless” inner nudge…
Driving through the Great Rocky Mountains of Colorado, I came upon a challenge that beset my fingertips to tingling. Standing before me was a massive 800-foot, free standing, solid rock wall. Because I was no stranger to the practice of free-climbing, I carefully scanned the best route for my intended climb and began my ascent, which by my calculations should, if all went well, take no more than a couple of hours.
An acquaintance named Timothy shared with me his experience of losing his wife to cancer and his journey into spiritual healing. A turning point came when he received a message from beyond. I’ll let him tell his story in his own words:
Recently, I was grieving the loss of my beloved friend, Jen, and asked God if I could see her again in my dreams. Could I get a hug from her there? Jen gave the best hugs. She was a kind friend who helped me in a very difficult time of my life. Her passing came unexpectedly, and it was a shock for me and so many others who loved her big and loving heart.
Every day, my husband, Mike, and I open a book at random during our morning contemplation. We usually alternate between Spiritual Exercises for the Shariyat book One and book Two. One of the exercises suggested focusing on Divine Love, and we asked our Inner Teacher, “How can we love you more?”
Later that cold and rainy morning, Divine Spirit sent us some unexpected visitors to show us how to expand our capacity to love.
Sharon Sheppard’s husband, Pat, takes their Siberian Husky for walks every morning and late afternoon either to a wooded area or along the rolling sand dunes and sparsely populated beaches near their home on the Oregon coast. Pat enjoys contemplating and singing HU, an ancient love song to God, as Sitka runs through the woods or along the beach. One day, their normal routine was interrupted when Pat spied a murre bird lying motionless at the tideline.
