354 Days to Go - Wet and Vulnerable

This is me today. How are you doing?

We all struggle. We are told it makes us stronger. Well, I am this chick, full of desire and initiative, but vulnerable, wet and cold. This chick's survival will depend on what it does next. Mine will too.

Survival techniques are built deep within each of us. ...

The question today is: Do We Always Have to Survive? When does autopilot take over and we stop fighting what lies within us? Or the circumstances we find ourselves in? Where is the Inner Peace? This chick will find its way as it rests and shakes out the wetness, going toward the warmth of the light or the mother hen. There it will rest after its hard struggle to be born.

Today, I have no place to rest, no warmth to dry my wetness. I am exposed to the elements. I am vulnerable.

In "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert she says, "The Yogis, however, say that human discontentment is a simple case of mistaken identity. We're miserable because we think that we are mere individuals, alone with our fears and flaws and resentments and mortality. We wrongly believe that our limited little egos consitute our whole entire nature. We have failed to recongnize our deeper divine character. We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme Self who is eternally at peace. That supreme Self is our true identity, universal and divine. Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line from the Greek stoic philosoper Epictetus: 'You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.'"

Struggling has it purposes, and God has a plan for that as well. I like the concept expressed above. To me it means that even through trials and hardship we can be "eternally at peace". When our divinity is acknowledged, our trials give us perspective and opportunity. Accordingly, without the use of our divinity, our trials bring us despair. Really? My mind is working to place truth to this. The pieces fit. Warmth envelopes me. Hey, it that my divinity shining through? The Father knows His child and brings comfort.

Now, as I see the newborn chick, my understanding deepens: Like the chick there are some things that I must do alone for my own growth. The reward, the warmth, will come as I do what I came into the world to do. In the case of the chick, break out of the confines of an eggshell that has feed and protected the chick. In the case of me, struggle that I may grow stronger, leaving the confines of previous comforts to become something greater.

My mind rambles on ... Lesson in progress. Thought provoked. Still wet and vulnerable ... and yes, a bit ugly, but willing. The laws of nature, the laws of God have provided all that we need. Believing that, finding that truth and accepting the divinity within us will provide the warmth we need to grow into our next stage in life. Each stage will come with its set of challenges. Each adding to our ability, to our divinity.

My conclusion: I seems to me that all things may be temporary as we progress on - temporary being the key. Since we have divinity within us, may we remember and act accordingly, never hesitating to be silent and hear the Eternal Peace that already dwells within us. We will all struggle because God wants us to be strong and capable. He has plans for us. Knowing this may not make our trials easier, but it may give them a purpose that we may not have seen before. Perhaps instead of focusing on the trial, we might focus on the lesson and what God will do with us next.

May we each find our Eternal Peace. ...
To Me, I say, "I can't give up! If a chick can do this, I can!"