Earlier this morning, God, I was thinking about Touchstones. Touchstones are kind of like keywords, like shorthand in a physical object sense. The rocks I carry, they are touchstones. They connect me back to the place or the person I received them from. The fox statue at the entry to Yellowhouse, that is a kind of touchstone, too, and it connects me back to my life with our mother fox at “old Yellow” years ago. That lost-and-then-found butterfly earring. Photographs can be like touchstones; they are visual reminders and connectors back to experience, to moments that were amazing or precious or extraordinary. These pages, these conversations, they are hearing-based, not touch or sight based. But they function sort of like touchstones, too. I come to the page in a routine of what has become expectancy. Not the expectancy of taking for granted, at least I sure hope not, but in a kind of glad confidence born out of love. Actually, now that I say that, that is what touchstones are for me. What makes those objects special isn’t magic. It’s the sense of loving connection each one represents. Is that why the word Touchstone resonated so much with me this morning? Is it a keyword?
Connection is a keyword for you. You are like a powerful magnet. You have chosen to magnetize yourself in particular ways, ways that attract into your world experiences that help reinforce what has become your life-view and your life-purpose. You have heard, opposites attract. This puzzles you. You fear it means that you will attract into your world people or experiences that are your polar opposite. But I say, you are attracting that which mirrors your soul. Let Me ask you a question. Would you rather be in the presence of Love or Fear? Of Peace or War? Of Kindness or Cruelty? Of Calm or Agitation? Of Friendship or Enmity? You see? You are attracting the very qualities of My Nature and My Kingdom. In some cases you are transforming situations around you. The goal isn’t to balance fear with love, or to balance cruelty with kindness so both exist in a kind of push me/pull you dichotomy, where neither is more influential than the other. The goal is to build My Kingdom Come. The goal is that Love overtakes Fear, that Peace defuses War, that Kindness softens Cruelty, that Calm envelopes Agitation and that Friendship transforms Enmity.
My Cross is a Touchstone for many. Bowls of Water are Touchstones for many others. Because you view nature as a doorway into My Presence, all of nature has the ability and opportunity to become a Touchstone for you. And because you view the world in this way, nature itself has the opportunity to be elevated to a higher place and purpose than many allow it to be. Because you don’t look at nature merely as a collection of resources to be consumed, but as a living playground that reveals My goodness, nature responds in kind by showing you the best of itself. If you expect the best, you tend to receive the best.Touch