Author: evetureknaturephotography@gmail.com

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Shine

In the shower this morning I was remembering that verse, which we used to sing, the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn; it shines brighter and brighter until the full day. I’ve lived that, as a photographer. Watching the light come. Watching it grow in intensity and reach. And I’ve lived the opposite, which is how a lot of us think about our lives, I think, especially as we age–like the light of dusk, shining dimmer and dimmer until the full dark. But that is not what You said. Like so much of what You say, it is the exact opposite of what I would think. I would think ending and dusk and dark, and here You are, saying beginning and dawn and light. Full Day. So when we do think Full Day, we think Heaven. What I want to know is, what part–or is there a part–of Full Day life, of shining brighter and brighter life, is meant for here and now?

It is all meant for here and for now. The whole idea is, brighter and brighter. The culmination is Full Day, yes–but most people miss the brighter and brighter part. So those people may still have some concept, some idea, some hope, of a hereafter Full Day, but you are correct in thinking that people expect their path to grow dimmer, not brighter, as their bodies and minds age. Imagine for a moment an opposite reality. Imagine as your physical strength begins to diminish, that your spiritual sensitivity and strength ramps up and goes into overdrive. Imagine an acute awareness, a heightened perception, of My Presence, of all that Light and Bright implies. Imagine living in More Love, More Joy, More Peace, day after day after day. Imagine your connection to My Presence with you and within you growing, not dimming. Imagine the reach of your influence as you live your life in such increasing brightness. What you share with others would change. You would, in fact, become what I called My Children to be, what I Named Myself to be–the Light of the World. So your word for today is Shine!

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Fire Seeds

Lord, I lift up my own need of…my own need of You. Thank You for a beautiful morning. You can fill the void–darkness on the face of the deep, and God said–and there was. What You spoke came into being. So, Lord, I’m praying. Lord, I am Yours. I am all Yours. What would You say?

You cannot carry results. You are not planting full-grown crops. You are planting seeds. You are planting seeds in the confidence that within the seed itself is the possibility. You are planting possibility. You know My heart to water and nourish, but it is up to each field’s steward what happens to the seeds. Some seeds lie dormant for years and only fire awakens them. These seeds, like those of the bristlecone pine, are seeds called healing. Called forgiveness. Called grace. It is not that these seeds call forth the fire, or relish it. The miracle of these seeds is that they will replenish even the most ravaged landscape. You planted some of these types of seeds long ago, and you are planting more now. Having access to the field is huge. You walk so softly, so gently. You have gone out mourning, carrying your seeds. Part of what you are reaping now in joy, is access to the field. Keep loving the field no matter how hard and dry and stoney it looks. I Am the Superfund Champion. I can cleanse and transform any field that yields. By yielding even slightly to the seeds you plant, the field is yielding to Me. Keep positive, stay gentle, and you will also enjoy the bountiful harvest, in time–meaning in this life, on this earth, in your experience, of those lives transformed. Don’t ever stop believing for that, for My Promise is True. It does take two–and they have you and Me. That is the twosome that will create miracles.

 

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Envisioning

Lord, here I am. Another notebook filling up. Calendar pages turned. I am coming here, I am going outside, I am trying to be faithful.

You are being faithful in that you keep coming to your Source, Who is Me, the Great I AM. But you so quickly unplug and move into your daily. I so want you to stay connected, stay aware of your connection, and you still don’t know quite how to do that yet. What you see is your weariness, and what I see is your tenacity–and your beauty. How you come, over and over. How you choose to bless, how you want others blessed. How you pray. How you struggle for others and take on their concerns and their causes. In so many ways, you are still waiting for the full flowering of your own creative life. Every time you sense there is more, you vacillate–between thinking I Am trying to hurry you along, or thinking you must hurry yourself, or thinking you need to hold back. There is no hurry. I mean for you to enjoy the journey.

Right now you feel in another creative slump. The cure for a creative drought is daring. Daring to believe, daring to climb, daring to put new work out there. Your strategy is to diminish and withdraw, but My Call is to expand and grow and share. Over and over I have called you to name your heart’s desires, and over and over you keep them bottled and locked, hidden away from your own knowing. You are burying yourself alive when you do that. Your creativity goes into hibernation in self-defense.

I Am here to awaken you again, but I want for you to hear Me: Write out your Vision Quest. Write down your heart’s desires, all of them. Be honest with yourself and with Me. Make vision boards. I cannot bless what you will not let awaken. Look how Pete has supported you as Photographer. You think he will not support you also as Writer? Put it all out there. The first time you really did this, really let yourself dream, was 1993, and the west, and Pete himself, are all part of the flowering of that time. The last time you really did this, really let yourself dream, was 2003, and your life now, as owner of Yellowhouse and SeaDragon, as a wildlife and nature photographer, is a direct outflowing of that time. It is time to let yourself dream again, in the now. As then, so now. Dream. Be real on the page. Don’t hold back. Start envisioning. Trust Me to help you open the eyes of your own heart. I see already, and what I see is glorious, is magnificent. As I told you so long ago, don’t be afraid of it, just be faithful to do what I tell you every day.

Ok, Lord. I am hearing Yoda–do or not do; there is no try. I have “not-do.” I need to do this. You keep asking, You have been asking, so You must have a reason. I need to trust You for what the exercise reveals. I feel a small flicker of joy, of hope. God, I can’t go here alone. And I hear back…

You are not alone. You are never alone–you’re with Me.

Thank You Lord. I hear You. You, Who are Timeless, whose Word is Timeless. I hear You.

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A Time to Speak

I was thinking about Ecclesiastes, where it says there is a time to speak and a time to keep silent. I wish I knew which was which, or should I say, which was when. And that makes me think of times when it seems as if You are silent. So are You really, or am I just not hearing You?

Think how many words, how many timbres of voice, how many conversations you hear every day–in person, overheard, on the radio, on the television. Think about the voices of nature around you, from the different meows of your neighborhood kitties to Kaylee’s different barks for different reasons, to birdsong and the sounds of wind and water. And think about wind for a moment, how different wind sounds in a forest or by the sea, depending on what the wind is interacting with. The very tone of wind is different, depending on location.

Yes, all that is true. 

Humans are not very adept at speaking and listening at the same time. Hence the advice in Ecclesiastes. But I Am able to both speak and listen at once. I can speak to you while listening to your friend halfway around your world. I can hear all the voices, all the sounds, on your planet, in your universe, and all the voices in My Eternity, and all the voices of all created beings, including the angels, all at once. I have Miraculous Hearing! I hear your thoughts, I hear your motives, I hear your silent cries, I hear you whether you are silent or speak aloud. And I know your voice distinct from all other voices, just as you know the voices of those you love. When you think I Am silent, I Am just listening, and preparing your own heart to hear. Just think about the implications of what I just said. If I can hear your thoughts as well as your words, and simultaneously hear everyone else’s thoughts and words, and yet at the same time also hear all of creation, distinctly, and as a part of that, also hear the sounds of human invention, all the machinery, all the noise of creation and maintenance, of transportation and exploration, and still be able to distinctly speak back into everyone’s need to hear, then you need never fear that I will give you the Silent Treatment. That is what you were thinking, when you quoted Ecclesiastes. What if God suddenly goes silent–then what will I do?

I can no more go silent than I can cease to be, not in the ways you imply. Silence in that sense is a metaphor for disconnection, non-involvement, a decision not to communicate or participate. But I Am invested in humanity. My Spirit permeates your world and even your own bodies and souls and spirits. For some, it is true, who are more attuned to Me and My Presence, it seems as if My Spirit is with them in greater measure. But the truth is better stated this way: I Am. I Am no more with you, and no less with you, than with anyone else on the planet.

I need ears to hear, then, Lord. I mean, even more than I have now–which is more than I used to have. Is it possible to hear You in greater measure? I guess I mean, greater and greater measure, with greater and greater accuracy, as we age? Can our hearing grow, in other words?

Yes, you can learn to hear Me even more clearly amidst all the other sounds of your days. We have practiced this a little already, you listening for My words even with the television playing, or with other conversations happening in the background. The earth is always spinning on its axis, and always orbiting the sun. You are always in relationship to Me, from My end, My perspective. How close we are, how close we get, is up to you. I Am closer to you than your breath, for even at your last breath, what you will see and feel and hear and know, is Here I Am.

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Timeless

So, Lord, I have been reading “the archives” again–old journals, at Your direction, this time dating from 2009. I was wondering what to read, I heard You say 2009, I went to my shelf of notebooks and chose one at random, and yup, July 2009 was page one. And in thinking about all You said then, and all You are saying now, and how fresh those 9 year old words seem, I remembered You are Timeless. Somehow that word impacted me this morning in relation to Your words. What You said, what You say. Timeless. So sometimes You give me direction that is or seems very specific for a task at hand. But sometimes, like these entries I am reading back through now, the words do seem timeless, as if You spoke them now. They seem applicable in today’s circumstances just as much as they did back when I wrote them down. Sometimes, in fact, they seem even more appropriate now! And I have been remembering an old, old lyric:

Oh, Lord, You’re Timeless,

And when You touch my heart

Words like end and start

change meaning

Oh, Lord, You’re Timeless,

And I need to let go

of what I think I know

to meet You…

What do you think you know, that you need to let go of?

Hoo boy! Uh, I don’t know how to answer that. I think I know You are Good. But that is not something to let go of. Oh! I just thought of something. I think You are disappointed in me, in my effort or performance, in my choices. In how I spend my time, in what I do or don’t get done…

Like an earthly boss, you mean?

Ooof. Ok, so at that I stop typing, stop listening, fidget with my fidget ring. 

Is that the kind of boss you are?

No! I mean, no I sure hope not.

Why is that?

I hope I am compassionate. I hope I am understanding. I hope I understand that mistakes are just that, mistakes, and don’t warrant punishment. I hope I can set a good example in effort and attitude. 

And you think I Am less than that?

No, of course not.

But isn’t that what you are really saying, when you assume I Am disappointed in you? When you think I Am going to judge you for simple, honest mistakes? When you work hard but can’t seem to finish what you start before it is time to start something else?

Now I abandon the ring and start spontaneously picking at my fingers, and then stop, take a breath, and type instead. Hanging my head. Good thing I can type without looking at the keyboard or the screen.

Look up. Look here. Look into My Eyes. Hold out your hands. You are looking down. I said, look Up. I want you to remember your kitty, Gandalf, what you used to say to him. I want you to hear Me say that to you, right now. I love you. I love your ears. I love your eyes. I love your nose. I love your voice. I love your hands and your feet. I love everything about you… What would Gandalf do, when you told him that?

He would purr. Every time! Purr like a kitten! I would kiss each thing, his ears, his nose, his paws, and he would purr and purr and purr. It was as if he knew exactly what I was saying!

He certainly knew what your heart was saying. Hear My Heart. Hear what My Heart is always saying. I Am usually telling you what and who I Am. Hear now what I Am Not. I Am Not Disappointed. I Am Not Ashamed of you. I Am Not Disgusted. All the things you say of yourself to yourself, and then imagine I might be saying those things too, all those things are a lie. My Timeless Word to you is YES. Yes, I Am Delighted in you. Yes, I Am your Source of Strength and Peace. Yes, I Love you. And yes, I Am your Healer, in all ways. Sometimes you need physical healing. Sometimes you need emotional healing, and sometimes your thoughts need healing, and sometimes your spirit needs healing. Sometimes that healing comes as discernment, like a dietary modification. Sometimes it comes through a physician’s skillful diagnosis. And sometimes it comes through the wisdom of others. If I were standing before you now, and you could see Me with your physical eyes, and hear Me with your physical ears and touch Me with your two hands, what would you offer Me for healing?

Gosh, a number of things race through my mind, and they are not all me. I mean, not all my needs. But You are asking me to ask for myself, aren’t You?

Yes, I Am. This time, I Am. This isn’t about intercession. This is about intention. What would you intend I do…for you?

I think of three things. Like three wishes, ha! One is physical, one is mental, one is emotional. I don’t know which one to pick.

Why don’t you tell Me all three of them?

Ok. Well, physically, I would ask that whatever is causing my legs to cramp at night be healed. I go to bed every night in the fear that they might seize up, and I am doing everything I can think of to prevent that. It did not used to happen, ever. Now I am in constant awareness of how my legs feel day and night, and am always wary when it comes to bedtime. Maybe that is one reason I am staying up later and later. I dread trying to lie down. Then mentally, I seem less organized than ever, and I am trying to juggle a lot of information and need-to-do’s, and inevitably I am coming up short. So I need a better system, obviously. Then emotionally, and this might be related to the other two, I still struggle with anxiety. I seem pretty high-strung in my own thoughts or emotions. On edge, a lot of the time, still. And I feel like I am calm in phases, or stages, but I would like to live in that calm center even more than I do now, which is sporadically. I know better, and I want to choose better. And that relates directly to my fingers, frankly.

So you would come to Me with those three needs?

Yes. Yes, I would.

Then why don’t you? Why are you reluctant to really ask My Help in those areas? You start to ask, then draw back. Or you ask one day and then the next day, you talk yourself out of believing I would help you. Why do you do that? You do that because you forget My Timeless Yes to you. You think Yes was for Yes-terday, Yes-teryear. Yes is for Always. Yes is for Today. And Yes is for Tomorrow, even the tomorrows you dread. If you let Me hold your hand, your precious hands, really feel the reality of I Am Here With You, I promise you, you would never pick your fingers again, never tear at yourself again, never tear yourself down again. Let Me build you up, not in arrogance, but in confidence. Hear Me say, again and again, I love everything about you…

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Barren vs. Bountiful

Lord, I know we just talked about sailing. About sending out dispatches. Today I am seeing this vast field, a field of abundance, of plenty. And part of the plenty is Joy, and part of the Joy is in knowing there is plenty, knowing there is abundance, knowing there is more than enough for everyone. I am at the edge of this incredible field, and I am laughing, because it stretches beyond the horizon. There is so much, so much, and I step in, one tiny person in the midst of Huge, and I am giddy with the impact of the scale of the vastness. I can’t mess it up or ruin it. I can enjoy it and invite everyone–everyone–in. We can all spread out; we won’t crowd each other here. This is a place of provision, of joy, and of delight. I wander nomadic and find within this field groves filled with fruit. Sunny glades. Peaks of piercing beauty. This is like heaven, a feast for each sense. Lord, thank You for this field. Is FIELD an acronym? Something You want to tell me? I can’t figure out the D. What are some good, great D words? Like Decide. Or Devotion. Or Delight, as I just said. L can be Live or Love or Learn or Light. Luminous. Land. D for Day, too. For F I thought of Find. Could be Follow. Could be Faith. Whatever it means, I can still see it, still feel it. F is for Feelings, too. Everyone I have ever loved is here. And “here” they are whole, hence happy. Complete. There is no striving or straining. I can see this exists; is this only afterlife? Is this only a place whose door is death, into this life? I see barrenness now. Is that like our earthly life?

Barrenness is life for so many. They try to scratch out an existence in a void, in a vacuum. The field is a metaphor for what I intended life to be–a continuum, life here on earth in union with Me into what you call afterlife, in union with Me. I never pictured or created or intended the barrenness. I am Creator, not destroyer. I am Finisher, too. When people are living in Barrenness, they haven’t come far enough forward.

Think of the Creation Story differently. Think of it as a metaphor for your awareness, physically and spiritually, with increasing understanding, resources and companionship. There is always an adding-to, a building-on. Think of your life this way. What Day are you in now? The Sixth Day–you see yourself as toiling, as having to toil. It is all here, everything you need, but you think you have to toil for it. That creates barrenness in your thinking and in your heart. Move into the Seventh Day–rest. The day when you enjoy, where your life flows, where it runs like clockwork, smoothly, oiled by My Spirit. Trust My Oversight. You can play in the field. You think you have to bring in great lights and work all night. I mean you to have fun, joy, delight.

FIELD is a place of Fun. Inspiration. Enjoyment–and Enlightenment. Laughter–and Love. Delight. That’s the FIELD. Your tractor–the camera, say–is to help you explore with ease, not exploit, not even engineer. My Field doesn’t need engineering. Just exploring and enjoying. I say again, let Me surprise you. I have  waited, in human terms, a long time for those who will allow Me to delight them daily, to share My bountiful world, to play with Me. I am inviting you to be that someone, one of those someones who can model this lifestyle of freedom from fear, from worry, and from anxiety. Freedom to play and revel and run and laugh. Let your body be covered in butterflies. Frolic. The Field is a place of frolic. Even your rest will be energized, alert and attuned, so there is no more fatigue. I want you to be more than sustained. I want you thriving.

Speaking of bulletins, you get bulletins every day from Barrenness. Pay them no mind; they are in a foreign language. Allow yourself to lose the ability to translate or to understand. Speak in tongues, literally and metaphorically, and learn the new language whose underlying structure is laughter. Live it here. Live it now. You don’t have to wait. You don’t have to be in Ocracoke, or in Florida. You don’t have to be out west. Call it in. Approach everyone and everything with love, and you are filled with love. My Love does not run out, or dwindle, or dissipate, or dim. It increases. The taller you get, the bigger the Field is. You will never outgrow it. Revel and roll like a young child. This is your world. This is your every day, your “this day,” your today. Your now, Now. NOW.

Now? Wow. You have said these sorts of words to me before, Lord. I recognize pieces and parts from years back, even. And I think I hear You, and then I forget. I slip back. I’m sorry.

Just keep your ear, your eyes, and your heart open. I will never stop calling to you, and if you let Me, I will never stop calling through you.

Ok, Lord. Ok. 

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Setting Sail

Lord, I can see how far You’ve brought me, and it really is all You. You are the reason I can hope, and believe, and rejoice. You are the reason I can look forward and look around with anticipatory gladness and gratitude. You are the change in me, dear God. It’s all You. So that is how I can continue to set my compass, isn’t it? To set my sails?

I Am not asking you to sail in the direction others are sailing. I Am asking you to stay on course. Everything in you wants to rescue those you love. That’s My job.

But Lord, it is stormy and windy and there are rocks and I see them sailing–so often–straight for disaster, or straight for rough seas, and I can see this haven, this calm, this beauty…

You cannot help them from inside the storm. You always think you can, that this is the way. Follow Me, sail safely with My guidance, and keep sending dispatches. Keep broadcasting your coordinates. Let them find you. As long as you keep broadcasting, you have not abandoned them. You always want to share your bounty, but you cannot tow them to safety while they are motoring in the opposite direction. Just keep broadcasting your coordinates, where the New Country is, and what the weather is here. You don’t have to leave your safe haven to go get them–any of them. the instant they truly decide, and for as long as they decide, to sail in a new direction, the storm will subside for them–each of them, all of them. You don’t have to plead with them, or try to trick them, or try to force them. Just be honest about what your life is like. “As for me and my house…” That’s your story. “This is all I know–this is how it is for me.” That’s your storyline. That’s your storyline for everything–retreats, sharing in the gallery, your blog, this journal. You are sharing your experience, a full life, lived joined with Me. Your strength, which is My Joy and My Peace and My Love together, forms your hope. That is why folks listen to you. You share your truth, and your truth is life. You broadcast your coordinates. They are seasick, storm-tossed, and not comforted, as the scripture says. Frightened. You are safe, nourished, protected, confident and living in abundance. This applies to every storm: health, physical and emotional safety, finances, your most intimate relationships. Your creative and spiritual life, and your sharing with the world. You have landed in Paradise, dear one. And I Am Here–that is what makes this Paradise for you, and a foreshadowing of the Paradise to come.

I really do mean for you to live here, to fulfill My intention, so My Dream of blessing for my children can come true. Now I Am saying Please. Please stay in the promise, and let My Will in all its manifest glory come true in you, and so through you, for others as well. But not by leaving My country. by sending dispatches, bulletins, broadcasts–everything from here.

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Touchstones

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

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Sees Far

God, SeesFar, that is an Eagle Name. Not a Fox Name. Or a Deer Name. Or a Mouse Name.

Yes, you have eyes in both worlds now.

Lord, in the story, Mouse gave up both its eyes eventually—to Wolf and to Buffalo—and then Became Eagle. But Fox, fox did not give up an eye to Eagle.

Nor have you given up both eyes. No sacrifice for Love is ever wasted, even if not received by the originally intended recipient. I take all those gifts to Myself. And I never forget. So Fox’s missing eye Eagle has received and made its own, and given back to Fox as extraordinary vision. Vision in the Extraordinary sense.

Like, Vision.

Exactly.

Oh!! So I have…

So you have a Fox/Mouse eye, and an Eagle eye. You have eyes in both East and South.

And my ears?

You have ears in the West and North.

Oh.

You hear language and music. You hear nature and My Spirit. You hear within and Beyond, just as you see here and Beyond. You see what is, and what will be. You also see what can be. And you hear in those directions as well. You hear what is, but you also hear what can be, and what will be. You hear My Heart. You have tuned your heart to My Rhythms. Now I want you to finetune your focus, your vision, on My Vision, just as you have tuned your heart to My Heart. Do You Understand?

Probably not. But I am willing.

That is enough.

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Seeing Green

God, there is some commercial out now, I can’t even remember what the product is, just the tagline. It says something about finding and celebrating what makes you different. The premise reminds me simultaneously of the Fascinate: Advantage book and personality test by Sally Hogshead and also of the quote about being yourself because everyone else is taken. What got my attention was the way it got my attention! As if there was some layer of meaning or message I need to, well, pay attention to. Something I am not doing, or not doing consistently, or not doing enough. Not a reprimand so much as a course correction, that is what the sense is, emotionally, every time I hear it. So that leads me to ask You, what? What are You trying to say? I know well enough now that You can and will use anything, any opportunity, to emphasize a truth or to draw out of us a question that You really are asking us. So, what?

What, what? The question is clear: what makes you different?

Isn’t that a little like asking what makes my heart sing?

Not necessarily. Humans are big on comparisons, and on contrasts. What makes you different?

I can think of two ways to answer that question. One answer really dovetails with something Pete and I were talking about earlier—once upon a time, seems like long ago and far away, I suffered from depression. I had circumstances to blame, sure, but I also seemed derailed and unable to think clearly, to focus on solutions or even on tasks at hand. I scared myself, actually. And I don’t think the person I was then is the same person I am now. I do think I am different, and what makes me different today, is the kind of relationship I have with You, and how You have led me to focus on gratitude. Honestly, I say it a lot, but it is huge, huge, huge for me. And it has made me a bigger and better version of myself for sure.

 The other sense of the question, which could be worded what makes you unique, is harder for me to answer. I said to Pete last night, something like, isn’t it fun, living with an elf? And then I laughed! I think…I think my trying to stay upbeat and positive, which really is an outgrowth of coming out of that depression years ago, I think that makes me different. Say you grew up in a desert. Lots of drought. Very little rain. Very little green. And then you somehow are transported, or maybe you walk yourself, out of that desert into a much lusher, greener, growing landscape. But you never quite forget drought, forget that others live in that desert. And you meet them every day, people who still live there, in their viewpoint, even though they are surrounded now by this verdant, vibrant life! I think maybe what makes me different is that I can see the desert in the rearview mirror, and I can see it in others’ eyes, and at the same time, I can see the green grassy open fields. It’s almost like a fantasy overlay, God, like parallel universes or something. And I live in the greener one, most of the time. And, ok, here is what makes me different. Not that, not what I have said so far. What makes me different is that I KNOW, I just know, the green world is true. Real. And available. Available to live in. Available to thrive in. And I know it not only for myself, but for everyone around me, and so I try, in my little ways, to mirror that possibility back to those who are still, for whatever reason, living in drought. I think that makes me different.

Do you know what makes the desert bloom? Water. Rain. You know how the verse, she who waters will herself be watered, always resonated with you? Here is a reality some will not understand—I will use many means to communicate with My children. It is no accident, the date of your birth. You are born, for those who pay attention to such things, in Aquarius for a reason. You are a water-bearer. You bear My Living Water, and you carry it to all living things. You carry compassion and hope in very particular ways. You see future potential and possibilities where others see only dead ends. They see a path leading to a wall or a precipice, and you see a path leading to a doorway into expansiveness. They see a trickle and fear it will run dry, and you look upstream to see the spring that feeds the waterfall that plunges into the river that rushes into a meandering stream that eventually narrows to a trickle that nonetheless causes a flower to bloom. You follow the trickle upstream with your eyes and your heart and eventually with your feet and you come to a place of such beauty and power it could generate enough electricity to fuel a city! Your vision of reality is not skewed or distorted as much as it is unbound by time. You see forward. You have been accused of wearing Rose Colored Glasses. They are not rose-colored, they are Risen-Colored, for you have embraced all that resurrection entails, for your own life and for the planet you call home. Remember what I said in Narnia—Father Time was his name while he was sleeping, and now that he is awake, he shall have a new name. You are seeing beyond Time at times. Don’t let that scare you and don’t let that stop you. Your job IS to see, and to share. That’s what makes you different.

God, You told me a few nights ago that You aren’t in absolute control, in the ways we might think, or want You to be. So how can I see beyond Time if everything is random, if nothing is in Your control. I mean, how can anyone see? Or know? It doesn’t make sense.

I didn’t say nothing was in My Control. I said not everything was in My Control. Imagine this. Imagine a landlord with a set of keys, each key opening a door in a building he owns. That landlord doesn’t control what happens in each of those separate units, especially if the inhabitants want nothing to do with him, except to begrudgingly pay their rent, and to be left alone. Imagine further that some of those tenants don’t take great care of their units. The landlord winds up getting blamed for the state of the living space, when the tenants themselves have created a lot of the issues they then have to deal with. Now imagine a friend of the landlord comes to live in the building. They greet each other in the hallway; they share meals in the friend’s apartment; they do things together whenever they can. The friend takes great care of his unit, in part because that is his inclination, and in part because he does have this close relationship with the owner. His view of the landlord, of the building, and of the world at large, will be far different than the view held by the aloof renter down the hall. You are like that friend. Now imagine sitting down on a regular basis with the owner of the building, who shares his ideas and plans for the space as well as his hopes and dreams for other properties around the city. Imagine that landlord talking about building a whole community around principles of sharing resources and green space and parks and conveniences located nearby. Wouldn’t the friend get excited? Wouldn’t the friend want to live there? Wouldn’t the friend want to be a part of the development and the planning, if he were invited to be? Again, wouldn’t his view of the future, as well as of the present day, be far different than the view held by the more aloof tenant? And if he were able to somehow change the viewpoint of that aloof tenant, wouldn’t that be incredible and fabulous work?

That is the way in which you see the world I, Myself, hope for. That is the way in which you have a part in building that world, what I have called My Kingdom. See forward. Hearken to Jeremiah’s words, which you love so much, and which promise you that I do have plans, and they include giving you both hope and a future. Another way to say that is, to grant you true hope, not a mockery of hope that disappoints by never being fulfilled.

Gosh, God, You have given me a ton to think about. And all of a sudden I am tired, with that tiredness that comes from letting go.

Yes, this is enough to talk about at one sitting. Go rest now. And remember, I shall never run out of things to tell you or share with you. Our Companionship is Eternal. Never shall you tire of Me, and never shall I tire of you. So rest in that truth for tonight.