In my meditation time today (reflecting on the words of Helen Keller from my prior post) I was surprised by where I ended up.  This frequently happens though, if one allows themselves to follow the proverbial “rabbit down the rabbit hole”.  I ended up with a visual of Tarot cards … specifically at the Hopes/Fears placement for a card.

I realized that often times, in terms of accepting things in life, we tend to focus on our fears.  The fears and anxiety can seem so insurmountable at times, that we often forget about the hopes.  In a lot of ways it is every bit as difficult to embrace the totality of our hopes and dreams, as it is to overcome what troubles us.

In my meditation I found myself visualizing that which I wanted.  I kept thinking to myself, “Okay, enough of that frivolity, get back to the real business at hand here.”  After a few times of this happening, I realized that this was a subtle prompting … a prompting to stop fighting my desires.  It had never occurred to me that this is what I was doing … I knew they were my desires; my utmost desires, so I didn’t feel that I needed to give them meditative time.  I was wrong.

It is not enough to overcome our fears … we must embrace our desires as well.  Even if they scare us.  Often times our greatest desires coincide with the most treacherous of paths … so while we might admire them from a distance, and fix them in our minds as something we want.  We don’t actually do the work of making them reality.

Why is this?  Well, if you truly give everything you have to that which you desire most … and fail, or get rejected … that will ultimately be FAR more painful than the majority of trials we try to overcome.

However, our dreams. passions, and greatest desires were given to us for a reason.  We were created for those things.  Those are most likely the areas that God will be able to use us most powerfully … whether it is Love, or Art, Philosophy, or Business, or whatever it may be … who is to say what God will do when we are open to guidance and moving in the direction of our greatest desires?

So embrace that which you desire most … even in the face of failure, rejection, or trial.  Do not give up the flame that is in your heart.  Even in the turbulent times when we must let go of the tangible manifestation; that flame of passion needs to blaze.  God wants to use our passions for the things, or people, that we love … however the situation resolves.

(special thanks to Rev Dani Lynn, whose post on a quote from Marianne Williamson, which I re-blogged under the title “Our Deepest Fear”, also factored in to my meditation time today)

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!

There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.

By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

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