The Everyday Mystic

Global Forgiveness Day is Thursday, August 27, 2009.  Started by CECA, the Christian Embassy of Christ’s Ambassadors, a non-profit organization in Canada, this day is set aside to promote the healing power of forgiveness.  Here are a few things that you can do to celebrate this day:

• View the Global Forgiveness Day’s movie about Forgiveness here.  Ponder the thoughts and inspiration offered in this lovely production.
• Listen to Kristin (me!) being interviewed about forgiveness on The Queen of Dreams radio show at 9:00 pm EDT on Thursday, August 27. You can access the broadcast at no cost in real time or listen to it later here.
• Use the test for forgiveness to identify opportunities for you to forgive.  To perform this test, think of someone or some incident in your past that angered you. If you don’t feel a surge of adrenaline, your shoulders tensing or think an angry thought (which will manifest in your body somewhere), you have achieved the peace that comes with forgiveness.
• Journal about your forgiveness opportunities.  Write about your feelings of anger, bitterness, revenge or hurt.  Get it all out.  Then burn the paper in a symbolic ritual of putting those thoughts and feelings behind you.  Use an outdoor grill or someplace that is safe for a fire.
• Pray for the healing power of forgiveness to wash over you. Pray for or meditate on those who have hurt you. Pray or meditate on the areas of the world that need forgiveness.  You might wish to use the meditation I offer in this post.
• Consider purchasing my book called “A Forgiveness Journal.”  This inspiring book walks you through a seven-step process of forgiveness.  Rather than telling you to “just do it”, it will walk you through many exercises that clear your emotions, provide you with perspective and alternative viewpoints, release your anger and allow you to achieve the profound peace that accompanies forgiveness.
• Remember that you forgive primarily to benefit yourself.  And, the power of your heart, which becomes open and compassionate in the act of forgiving, blesses everyone that you encounter.

May you be blessed on Global Forgiveness Day!

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Peak moments can be described as life-changing spiritual experiences that typically involve perceiving a light that shines in everything, understanding - no, really understanding at a cellular level - that all is one and having an experience of the “peace that passes all understanding.” Some examples are the conversion of Paul (from the Christian Bible) on the road to Damascus and Eckhart Tolle’s spiritual experience that he describes in the introduction to his book, “The Power of Now”.  Barbara Bradley Hagerty, in her book, “Fingerprints of God”, describes them as quantum changes, and tells many stories of such occurrences, including one of her own. Hagerty cites statistics that suggest that 18% of Americans report having spiritual experiences that are so bizarre that they might be considered evidence of mental illness.  These earth-shaking experiences change the person from the inside out; people report they they never are the same after.

Then there are the rest of us, those who don’t have earthquake-proportioned spiritual experiences, who may have peak glimpses that are tantalizing but can be measured only in nano-seconds. I am one of the rest of us.

If you are in the majority that hasn’t had a quantum change, but still considers yourself a spiritual seeker or mystic, you can’t help but feel somewhat second-class. Why hasn’t Source selected you for such a mind-blowing experience?  Why can’t you attain that bliss?  Are you a fraud?

Just like we are all given many talents and strengths, so are we given spiritual gifts.  My gift, and perhaps yours, has not been, at least up to now, to have a peak moment that shatters my misperceptions and leaves me completely changed. My gift has been to recognize the peak glimpses instead and to be grateful for them.

Peak glimpses can be the feeling of gratitude in nature, in playing with young children, or seeing someone’s smile.  Peak glimpses can come to you in a tingle on your face, a sparkle of light when speaking to someone.  It can be the aha experience of seeing the Divinity in a person.

Living with your eyes and heart wide open allow you to become aware of the peak glimpses.  That is what most of us must be extremely grateful for.

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Little words and actions have tremendous power.  We bless or curse others by the small things that we do or say.  Sadly, we are often unconscious of, or unintentional about, the potential consequences of our words and deeds.  Reminders of this give us pause, and allow us to ponder the importance of living consciously and choosing words carefully.

This week, I was reminded of how our words can bless while talking to a colleague about a conversation we had several years ago.  He remembers telling me that he couldn’t imagine himself taking on a leadership role in the IT department where he was working. According to this person, I questioned his assumption by simply saying, “Really?  Why not?”  I have no recollection of our conversation.

Today, he is a leader in an IT department, in the exact role that he previously could not imagine. He credits his career development in part to my questioning his self-doubt.

I remember hearing a similar but more dramatic story about a depressed, suicidal young man who decided to take his own life by drowning himself in the river. On his sad march down to the riverside, he encountered a woman going the other way.  She looked him in the eyes, smiled and kindly said, “Good morning!” to him. He was so touched by this simple gesture, thinking that if even one person considered it a good morning, then he had something to live for. Instead of killing himself, he returned to his apartment, eventually enrolled in medical school and became an Emergency Room physician. How ironic that this young man evolved from wanting to end his life to fighting for other’s lives - all because of the simple, everyday kindness of one person who probably doesn’t remember the encounter. 

Was that woman an angel?  To the young suicidal man, she certainly was. Or perhaps Source energy flowed through her in a way that made her a momentary angel, just like I was to my colleague in questioning his assumptions.  Unwittingly, we bless those around us.

The opposite is also true: our words and deeds can hurt others in unintended or unconscious ways. If you are a parent, it can be terrifying to think of the unintended consequences of your actions or words.

Be conscious of your words and deeds, as they can become unintended blessings - or unintended curses. This is the goal of conscious living - to live with eyes and heart wide open, intending harm to no one.

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