It is the ongoing, daily living of a spiritual life that has meaning. Our progress may range from dull to spectacular, but we must accept both. Each and every day should be linked together, strung into a long line of prayer beads.
In life, you don’t know how many beads you’ve counted already, and you don’t know how many are yet to come. All that matters is fingering the one that comes to you now and taking the spiritual significance of that moment to heart.
~365 Tao Daily Meditations, p. 226, Deng Ming-Dao.
A daily ritual when I was a child, weather permitting, was me and grandma taking a walk. We lived in the country with over twenty acres of land, cut with numerous footpaths and trails in various states of upkeep, backed up to the house.
Grandma was a weathered sage. She knew the hills and valleys and old worn paths like the back of her hand. I was a small hyperactive child bursting at the seams with a mix of fear, excitement, and wild running energy.
At the bottom edge of the yard, behind the barn and horse shed, past where the last terrace row of garden ended, was a lush green span of grass with a path down the middle. A few feet farther on, the paths split into two with a huge growth of honeysuckle vines in the middle. Each path ran separate for a ways through the overgrown fields and beginning wood brush, eventually merging into a single, larger path that took us into the deeper woods.
The path to the left was the one we took most often. It was wider, well-worn and clearer, the underbrush and briers cut back, and easy to travel two abreast. This one was easier for Grandma, a calmer walk for a woman in her seventies with a small child to keep up with and protect.
But, the path to the right was always my favorite. I loved its’ crazy, crooked twisting beauty. It was a single, narrow, rocky path with a steeper slope and brier bushes everywhere and near its end sat the Rabbit Gums my granddad kept which mesmerized me. It was a challenge even for me, and I’m sure (looking back now) a rigorous effort for my grandma at sixty-five years my senior. But we took this path a lot if she was in the right “mood” and I begged and pleaded and promised I’d be careful enough times!
These two paths came together at a grove of smaller Pine trees where the actual forest began — a beautiful surreal mix of moss-covered Oak trees, towering Pines, peeling-skin Sycamores, fire-leaf Maple trees, and Christ’s blossoming Dogwoods. This ancient-feeling place of trees, animals, rivers, ridges and a million different sights and sounds was an amazing, comforting place to me back then. It was always alive and welcoming and safe. I knew we were okay there. My grandma usually sat on a log or tree stump, and I played for hours, investigating and touching and climbing. Just living and being immersed in pure, absolute curiosity and joy.
Eventually, as I grew older and learned all the trails and paths, Grandma would let me go play by myself. I spent hours alone with the forest and its animals and the quiet hush and Presence of the Divine in those woods. These are still some of the happiest memories of my life. Ironically, my grandma only gave me one rule to memorize and keep back then. And it never failed me.
Always stay within sight of the main path … and you will always be able to find your way home.
I think back on the child me that God / Higher Power / Divine Presence created, knew, and loved unconditionally way back then ( just as my Grandmother did).
And I think of those two paths as a metaphor for my tendency to always pick the hard roads in life to find my growth and understanding. Sometimes, my Spiritual Journey is dark and shadowy … I am too far from the path and it is but a thin line in the distance. But, I realize this and edge closer. We all have to find our own way through the trees, briers, and rocky roads.
Still, I believe that we all have a right to our own “path” and that those paths all lead back to the one path filled with beauty, amazement, and the loving safety of Divine Presence.
TODAY in Recovery is the awareness that my Grandma’s words still hold true … there is only one rule I need to memorize and trust.
Always stay within sight of the “main path” (that is Divine Presence / Higher Power / God / the Way / I AM) … and you will always be able to find your way home.
Divine Presence, how may I be of service today?
Useful Links:
Al-Anon Family Groups http://al-anon.org/
Alcoholics Anonymous https://www.aa.org/
Adult Children of Alcoholics http://www.adultchildren.org/
Co-Dependents Anonymous http://coda.org/
Today’s Hope http://www.todays-hope.com/
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer Website https://www.drwaynedyer.com/
Red Moon Diary 