Category: Abundance

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Blessing

Lord, why do I struggle so over the notion of blessing?

Early on, you were introduced to Me as Judge, as Angry, as Someone to Fear. What if I told you that wasn’t Me at all? Not just that you misunderstood or that you were little, so I looked Large and Scary? What if I told you, you were kidnapped and the one whom they said was God was not Me at all–but I was there, working to free you? I was every hand that helped you escape. Your freedom and safety meant more than any law, any rule. I mean only to bless you. I mean only to sustain you. I mean only to hold you in love.

What if you lived a long life without illness, and then–suddenly–in one glorious moment, your heart just stopped and you stepped across into your heavenly life? If you could begin believing for that destiny, you could let go of so much fear, so much anxiety. If you could believe you will always have more than enough, you could enjoy your blessings and enjoy sharing with others as well.

Lord, customers said recently, I bet you can’t be kept inside. It’s true! I do love the outdoors. They could see that, in the work.

Trust the right people to see. Who says a publishing executive can’t wander into the gallery? Who says you can’t be discovered? Let Me lead you to blessers and let Me lead blessers to you. Be ready to receive, not only blessings, but blessers and benefactors. And be ready to become a blesser and a benefactor to others in turn.

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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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Capacity to Receive

Lord, all that is happening now feels like a new day.

Yes, this is what I am giving you, giving you both. A new day. I want you to really enjoy this. Revel in it. The “Turn Tide Turn” you have prayed for others–I AM speaking it over you. What about them? I will give to each one as much as each can hold. Pray that they will increase their capacity to receive. That is what I Am doing now in you. I Am increasing your capacity to receive. Your gratitude, and your wanting blessing for others are big keys, but your feeling unworthy or somehow undeserving has been the big obstacle and that is what I am removing now. Those others have different obstacles, like jealousy or anger or grief. You have been trying to move those obstacles within them. Don’t focus there at all. Just keep asking over and over, God please increase so-and-so’s ability to receive. For every health, financial, or life need. And then, let them go. You don’t have to keep begging Me to be Who I Am. Ask once, and then remember, this IS what I Am doing for them. Then say, “Thank You God for increasing so-and-so’s capacity to receive.”

Ok, Lord, well there is…and … then there is …

Sssh. That’s enough. Enough for one day. I Am focused on you. I will inspire you. This is a Creative Partnership. Think of Me as your coach–we are doing this together. But you are not a puppet–you, in fact, are brilliant. You are; you shine. You do. Announcing, your bright glorious future starts now.

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Easter Vigil Blue Moon

Lord, thank You so much for today. An over-the-top day, in what is really, spiritually speaking, an over-the-top season, an over-the-top weekend. I have so many thoughts swirling around in my head, things I need to be sure I don’t forget, things I need to tell staff, things I need to arrange, things I need to do. Last month when we were in Philly, I said then, that my need-to’s fill my thoughts, but You fill my heart. That is so true. And You said to me then, I Am as close as your breath.

Hope and faith are like a bridge. Sometimes that bridge crosses turbulent water; you have had your share of that. But bridges are not a place to stop and camp, certainly not a place to build a permanent residence.

I don’t understand. Isn’t faith and hope where we are supposed to be living?

Remember how Scripture says, Hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? I want you to live in Sight. I want you to live in Hearing. I want you to live in Assurance. I want you to live by Experience. I want you to Know My Presence. I want you to understand beyond knowledge, and to Love beyond understanding. I want you to cross the bridge, use the bridge for what it is designed for–to lead you into My Presence, not at the end of your life’s journey, but NOW. I want you to come into a fuller experience of My Presence with you, NOW. I want the now of your days to expand into moment after moment after moment after moment.

Tonight, when the moon rose, what happened?

Well, I couldn’t see it at all on the horizon. It looked clear but there must have been clouds or haze on the horizon. It finally peeked through briefly after about 10 or 15 minutes and then went behind the haze again. Then after another few minutes it rose above that layer, clear. Perfectly clear and full, the second blue moon of the year.

So here is My second promise to you for the year: Just as the full moon appeared after what seemed a brief interlude of waiting, of having faith, of hoping in its appearance, so all you have worked for and hoped for and had faith for shall appear in your reality, bright and round and full like the moon tonight. I have seen your efforts and your labor, and I declare to you, they are not in vain. And more–they are not vanity on your part, either. This life you are living is My Gift to you, and through you, to the larger world. The second full moon of March, appearing right at the end of the season of Lent, right on the cusp of Easter and your own commitment-day, signals an important shift for you. Did the moon struggle to rise, or did it merely move in its circuit, as it was created to do? Did the clouds really have power over the moon, or was the moon’s reflected sunlight brighter than the clouds? And did the intensity of that reflected light not color the waves below? So shall your own life in Me be. Prepare for a full, rounded, reflected, bright-shining life. You watched the waves dance upward in their meeting with the pier pilings. Life shall be less a struggle and more a dance for you. The more you play, the more you sing, the more you breathe, the more life will dance for you. The more creation will sing to you, the more the plants themselves will breathe for you, the more at home you will feel in the Garden, remade and replanted, right where you live.

Tonight is Moonrise. Tonight also, at midnight, just minutes from now, many in the church will celebrate SonRise. Others will celebrate at dawn. Celebrate every day, every morning, every evening. Cross the bridge. Live as if My Kingdom IS come–in you and for you and through you. Extend My Kingdom by your love and your gentleness and your generosity, to everyone you encounter. Rise Up in My Rising, with a new assurance of My blessing and My Presence with you.

Prepare for a larger life. You think, I am bursting at the seams already! How can I hold more? There will be more crops for you to reap and more to sow, more to plant and more to share, more to sell and more to give away. That is the message of this full blue moon for you: More. And don’t forget, we have a play-date tomorrow!

I haven’t forgotten, God. I am actually really excited about it!

Me, too. Now sleep well. Tomorrow is a Big Day. You’ll see!

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Close Encounters of the Pelican Kind

Father God, I am having the best kind of deja vu. I am reading old journals, pouring over words we shared ten, eleven years ago, and two things are happening simultaneously. First, I am marveling at how what You said then, in advance, unfolded over the following months and years. How signposts You hinted at then came into full, glorious view later. And second, I seem to be reliving in real time now, what You said then, or what was happening then, but at a different level, like circling round a mountain coming around to the same view but different, because I am at a different plateau point now than I was then. I’m astonished, really.

Remember what I have told you: faith is the EVIDENCE of things not seen, or not seen as yet. The whole reason I speak in advance is to water and nurture your faith, so it can grow. Faith grows as a child grows, as a plant grows, with care and attention and the ideal conditions. I Am not interested in blasting your growth with blight or drought or pests to see if you persevere, if you are hardy enough. I Am interested in you bearing much fruit, and in creating the conditions where your fruitfulness flourishes. Above all, I Am interested in your growing into the self I see when I gaze deep inside you, the self that loves, that lives in peace, that exults in joy, that abounds in hope, that rejoices with others’ success as much as with your own. I see much growth in you, but the reality of living in eternity is that there is always room and opportunity for more growth. Your love can always expand. Your peace can reach wider, your joy can jump higher, your hope can cover more ground.

Ten years or so ago, I was rejoicing at my very first opportunity, in Ocracoke, to photograph pelicans at close range. Today, TODAY, after seeing a glimpse last fall, and hearing reports over the past couple of weeks, I had the chance to approach a lone pelican, on the dock in Duck, at close range. It was such deja vu, and made more so by what You said to me at that time. Lord, it was so key then, and I have the feeling that it is key again now. So here is what You said, what I felt, in those moments.

          “This morning I had this thought, this insight, about abundance, about living simply and doing with less, versus abundance. About being grateful for so many pelican pictures and thinking, that’s it, that’s too many, I can’t or shouldn’t have or want more. And the thought came, no. I am as grateful today for new pelican pictures as I was yesterday. I got to watch preening up close and at length. Wonderful. And the thought, to turn aside, not receive more, not look for more, was strong on one front, and its opposite was to receive, to celebrate, and to be grateful. Largess. Thank You Lord, for the time, the experiences, the photographs. This is expansive thinking. I have so much to understand here.

And then You said, You have so much to experience. You’ve relied too long on understanding, on others’ understanding. When you experience, you will know, and no one will take that knowing from you. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. The Bible word for intimacy is to know. You will become one with this truth. A depth of experience–this is how you will know.

So Lord, I have to ask, why now? What is it that You are trying to say to me, now? All over again, an encounter with a pelican and all over again, that infusion of joy, of such deep gladness. 

Your quest for meaning, to make meaning, is great. It is one thing I love about you. But like anything else, even a great thing can be carried to an extreme where it is out of balance, and hurts the whole. What if I just wanted to give you a gift of joy? What if I just wanted you to play a little (or a lot)? What if I Am delighted with your delight, and rejoicing in your joy, and intending to catch your attention so you once again pay attention to your intention (all those plays on words intended). What if I came to you today disguised as Coyote, the Gentle Teacher, and the “gotcha” is to tickle you into rest by showering you with joy? Jesus disguised Himself for one moment as a Gardener and for another moment as an Itinerant traveler even His close disciples did not recognize. Imagine the joy when the Aha! was revealed. What if your current Vision Quest is to reveal to you once again the joy you experience when you just let go and be yourself, outside. What happened, after you saw the pelicans, in 2007?

Well, You asked me what else I would like to experience. And I said dolphins. And then we saw jumping dolphins up close in the Sound and surfing dolphins in the ocean, incredible!

Then, I was trying to persuade you about an important truth about Myself, and about you, about your capacity to receive. Now, I Am trying to do the same thing. You have received so much, and are so grateful, that paradoxically you are beginning to do the same thing you did eleven years ago. You are beginning to shut down, beginning to entertain a belief that says there is a limit to what you can experience and enjoy here on planet Earth, and that you are dangerously close to that limit, so you better ration out your blessings, lest you run out of blessing before you run out of time. Absurd, isn’t it, when you hear it expressed in such plain words?

I’m sorry, Lord.

Don’t be sorry. Just believe. Just believe I Am with you, I have much to show you and teach you and give you, and just believe that for all you receive, you don’t diminish either your later blessings or the blessings I have to bestow on everyone else. You are already struggling with the idea of abundance and largesse. The truth is even larger, more staggering, and the truth is infinity. But for now, let’s just concentrate on abundance, and on your willingness to say yes to more.

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Blessings

Another gray day, and cooler. I do feel sorry for the folks who are here this week. More northeast winds and drizzle turning to real rain coming. But I saw my first osprey in Duck for the season, hovering over our cove. And I heard birdsong when I got back home, an hour or so before dusk thanks to Spring Forward time. So what would You say to me tonight?

Quit apologizing for My blessing. Quit being embarrassed over My largesse. You are so grateful for small, for little, for glimpses. Be grateful for large, for big, for vistas. You hold back telling of your blessings out of fear of others’ judgment. You think they’ll think you are ostentatious, that you are boasting, that you are snobbish. No one who comes to know you will ever think that. Anyone who believes that doesn’t know you. You’ve been faithful over little. Just rejoice and receive the “much” that is the fulfilling of My promise. Much opportunity, much blessing. It is okay to be astonished, but not to feel embarrassed, as though you do not deserve My blessings. You are getting a glimpse of this truth: everyone does. So model this.

 

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Flow

Lord, my friend from halfway around the world, she wrote, said she was praying for me, talked specifics which she could not know on her own, only from You. Why did You do that?

I want you to know, by experience, that there is no distance when it comes to My Spirit. No distance, no separation of time, no boundary.

Lord, she felt led to pray for health, for me. God, this is really hard to say. I was just reading back in an older journal, four years ago in fact, when we were moving into our new location, and I got word of the award for Meditation, and You said a keyword for me then was Receive. So this is my perennial struggle. How can I ask, how can I receive, when it seems as if others don’t?

Don’t?

Don’t receive. What gives me the…what? Blessing? What gives me the right to a blessing that others need, too? How can I say yes to receiving?

By your logic, the world would be reduced, not enlarged. Everyone would have to grow smaller and diminish. The world would shrink, and shrivel, instead of thriving and expanding.

But…but it is hard to talk about Your blessing, of any kind, of saying, I believe I have received x-y-z, it is hard to express outward gratitude, not because I am not grateful, but I am painfully aware, and I mean painfully, of folks whose circumstances are more difficult than mine. So I tend to want to hold back.

I have told you before, the best evidence is a good and consistent example of the life I mean for humans to enjoy. If you decide to model sickness, stress, hunger, poverty, as a result of joining your life with Mine, what does that say about Who I Am? It says one of these things: I have no power, I have no interest, or I have no compassion. It says, I am sorry but I cannot help you; or, I have power but I really don’t care what happens to you; or, I have power, and I care what happens to you, but you are not worthy of My blessing, because I Am the Great Withholder, instead of the Great Giver.

Okay, so what is the great obstacle then to receiving? Why don’t more receive?

Look at yourself. You think up all sorts of reasons why you “cannot” receive. Some have to do with you, some have to do with others and what they think, some you believe–erroneously–have to do with Me. I want you to picture once more My Will as a compass. I want you to picture My Will pointing toward a direction, and on the path of that direction is everything a human being needs to thrive during a lifetime here. Think about that for a minute. Everything a human being needs to thrive. That means nurture from the moment birth-parents realize they will have a child. That means nurture from birth into childhood, through school years and beyond. That means health and a sustainable life out of poverty. That means safety–in the home, on the street, in the larger world. That was My Original Plan. So that is My Will. When Jesus came, did He ever, even once, refuse to heal on the grounds that it was My Will that the person be ill? Did He ever say, I am sorry, but this sickness is from God, and you must just bear it? Did He declare, this will make you stronger and increase your character? Or did He say, over and over, in word and gesture, I Am Willing, be healed. Rise up. Stretch forth your hand. Take up your bed and walk. Be cleansed. Be whole. Be strengthened. Be well. Blind eyes, see. Lame limbs, leap. Mute tongues, speak and praise God. What did He do? What did He say? And Whom did He say He represented on your earth?

Now, picture that compass, pointing a direction. And picture magnets, powerful magnets, called public opinion, ignorance, bigotry, prejudice pulling humanity off course. Picture magnets of leadership gone awry, wanting control more than wanting to serve–both in and out of what calls itself My Church, a community that was originally intended to replicate Jesus’ message and modus operandi. And what was the message? Fear not, God is with you. And what was the m.o.? Be healed, be fed, be free, be whole. Be who you were created to be.

In the middle, the center, of that path is everything I ever intended for humanity. Folks talk about being in the Center of My Will as a sort of criteria for receiving and what they usually mean is, I will withhold My Blessing unless their lives line up just so in perfect order. But what is true is more literal than that: the blessing flows in the center, so come to the center and you are automatically in the flow. That is why practices like intention and affirmation and gratitude are so powerful; they place the practitioner in the center of the Flow. The Flow of My Will for humanity. Unfortunately, many good and wonderful people have been pulled away by fear, or by believing what others in leadership tell them, even if it is far from My Truth.

So Your Will is healing?

Yes.

For…everyone?

Yes.

Ok, here is a dumb question, then.

There are no dumb questions.

Ha, my friend Judy says that.

She is correct.

Ok, well…how do we die then, if Your Will is health?

Just like the butterfly emerges from the cocoon, just like the chicken pecks its way out of the egg. Transformation. Resurrection is all about transformation. In My Original Plan, there was no death, remember? There was life unto Life, glory unto Glory. “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn; it shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” And remember, in My Sight, all are created righteous; and in the final hour, all are declared righteous. So My Will always was, glory to Glory. Light to Light. Humanity to Eternity. Step across the bridge, easily and rejoicing. That was the Plan.

Gosh, God, we are so far away from that. In all ways.

Not so far as you think. For you, the final moments will be that easy. That gentle. I have promised you that before.

I want that for everyone.

Keep praying. Keep asking. And keep modeling the life I intend. For right now, that means being willing to receive. Receive so you can give. One of your gifts is Hope, remember? Be willing to have a testimony. Not to draw attention to yourself, but to Me and Who I long to be in every human life, in every human heart. Believe, and keep believing. Receive, and keep receiving. Be a big ripple in the pond! Help others believe and receive. You cannot do that by standing on the bank of the River, longing. Only by living in the Flow.

OH! I see it. Sort of.

Yes, you do.

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Autumn Lessons

Lord, what is my fall lesson, my West lesson, on the wheel? I remember West stands for introspection. Isn’t that exactly what I am doing?

Remember the wheel is about balance. Think about what your friend wrote to you about the balance of a bicycle wheel. What is the first thing you think about when you hear the word “west”?

I think of the opposite of Looks-Within, actually–which reminds me visually of a cave. I think of wide open spaces, big skies, big mountains, huge canyons. I think of Big, period. Expansiveness. It is shorthand for huge, and abundance. And You know how I feel when I am there, as if anything is possible. I wake up differently there. I have all these creative ideas, visual ideas. Being west gives me this infusion of creative energy.

West feeds your soul, your inner self, in a different way than any other landscape does. And what comes pouring out of you from the west is different as well.

Music lives here in me I think, though I never equated the two before. But west is the seat of hearing, isn’t it?

Yes, West, the inner sanctum space in some cultures, is where you connect at your core with My Voice and with your own, and for you this connection thrives in spaces that mirror expansive thinking, and experiences of grandeur, grand vistas.

Lord, it feels like fireworks going off! I have ideas and energy! So why, how can I phrase this, why am I not feeling this now? I mean, I realize I MISS the west, literally. I have always had this sense of missing since my first visit in 1993. Pete and I were last there in 2011–seems so very long ago. But from a spiritual perspective, why am I not feeling what the West imparts?

Because you are viewing the West–which is also a metaphor for your autumn years, the years you are living now–as a closed, dark, constricted space rather than as a broad, wide, bright expansive place. Sunset can be as vibrant as sunrise–and can reach all across the sky as you have experienced. The harvest of your life experience now, at this stage, is brimming over with fruit, but you have been so focused on giving to others you have forgotten to partake yourself.

Lord, just thinking about “the West” I felt a surge of energy. The same surge I feel photographically when the light is magic. But that is just adrenalin, right? I mean, it is not sustainable.

It can be. If you can shift your focus up and out from the macro world you have been living in, of checklists and chores, and re-inhabit the larger world all around you, just waiting for you to notice and be present, you will have much more energy and enthusiasm even for those mundane chores. They will get done faster, leaving you with more creative time, which is what you crave.

Ok, Lord. Thank You. 

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Coin of the Realm

Lord, I can’t seem to get quiet inside. My thoughts are bouncing off tasks like pinballs.

 

The Coin of the Realm.

Okay, what does that mean?

If your coin is like a Peace Shield, whose likeness is on the coin?

Uh, Yours is, right? Some artist’s interpretation of You?

So you are an artist. You are interpreting My Kingdom, My realm, which for you is the peaceful connection, the call and response. The counterpoint.

Right…

So the coin of the realm for you is what you offer from those connections. You do give-away. Your blog is a huge give-away. You give-away your heart, your best self, in every encounter. There is a coin of the realm, and it is okay to receive this world’s coin in exchange for the treasure from My realm that you provide. You could, right now, be living a fully-connected heavenly life–but I need you, on earth. I need you to live that life on earth, where you are. I need you to be willing to barter, this earth’s food, this earth’s shelter, this earth’s technology, in order to sustain your physical life and health so you can share your spiritual and emotional life and health. And your venue is creativity because it is a gentle, still, small voice. It is not the loudest voice in the room. But it is very, very powerful. When you “share” the implication is that there is enough for you and for someone else to be nourished, to receive. Your sharing doesn’t mean giving all away. It is not a call to sacrifice. It is an invitation to others to come feast with you, to share the abundance of life with you.

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Or/And

I may have written this before, but…I have been living in OR. But the word, my word, is AND. Maybe this dichotomy thinking stems from an only-child childhood when my whole existence was supposed to be AND. AND with a twin. But, if everything happens for a reason…if things happen like they are supposed to…

I didn’t say everything happens for a reason. I said, all things work together for good. There is a difference. I never intend abuse, but I can overcome it, and I can create beauty even out of brokenness.

Ok, so, if I was meant to live AND.

You still can. In fact, you must. You and your life are larger than OR implies.

I think of another OR. Secular OR sacred. But it’s both, isn’t it? Meaning, my secular life is sacred; my ordinary life is extraordinary. The land of AND. Gosh, my OR mindset is everywhere. I don’t have to choose between writing and photography. I can do both. I can do music too. Lord, I have been very attached to lack. To “not enough” which is an OR way to think, actually. I can do this OR that, have this OR that. AND is a whole new world.

I want you to think for a minute about all the AND examples I have given you, in your scriptures. Four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke AND John, each one contributing to the story. Paul AND Silas. Disciples sent by twos. When I went up to the mountain, I took Peter AND John. In the beginning, I declared it was not good for humankind to be alone. Think about that for a minute. In the story, after I created a human man, I communed with him on a regular basis in a place you have come to think of as paradise. And yet, despite communion with Me and communion with all of nature, there was a missing component, and that was union with another, like and yet unlike. You humans need companionship. You need mates, friends, and families. I created you with this need, much deeper than biology or prolonging the species.

Here is a Mystery. As I AM a Trinity, so are you. So is humankind.

You are a Being in three parts—body, soul, spirit. You need union with Me, you need wholeness with yourself, and you need to join with other humans.

There are other ways AND plays out in your personal lives. For you, one aspect is to acknowledge the seeming opposites that you love: sea AND mountains, east AND west, having roots AND traveling. Yes, writing AND photography. Solitude AND community. As you model a life ever more connected to Me, you will also be modeling and living a life more connected to others and to the natural world. OR cannot conceive—or receive—all I Am or all I can bestow. OR cannot live the Triune Life I Myself AM, the life I Am inviting you to live also.