While meditating on my prior post (Steadfastly Connected), I found myself led to tend to a new part of my inner self … or rather, an old part; but one that had been left abandoned and newly rediscovered.  I am truly amazed that, with ALL of the things that children are taught about success … tending to our inner health is not one of the mandatory topics!

For a very long time I was routinely spiritual, but I just felt like I wasn’t making any headway.  Sure, I’d have a wonderful spiritual experience here and there, and I was connected to God in a relationship … but it was a relationship that was based on my own needs.  I never actually did the inner work that was really necessary to stay in a place of constant connectivity with our Creator.

I’ll explain how the process began on an intensive level for me.  There was something that came up in the news that brought up extremely troubling memories from my childhood … a case involving sexual abuse that was EVERYwhere in the news.  It was all anyone could talk about.  It was a constant barrage and I found myself becoming irritable whenever the topic would come up.  I finally realized that I needed to do some meditation … just to get a clear head and maybe also try to work through some of this.  Wow, was I in for a surprise!

I could feel that a pain in my abdomen over this issue.  So as I meditated I focused on that area, the second chakra, right behind the belly-button.  These types of meditations really take a lot of patience, but after a while of letting my mind grow calm a sort of vision unfolded.  I saw an old, abandoned well that had been boarded up.  As I got closer I saw that it was more than just boarded up, it had blockades built up all around it.  So I began removing all of this stuff.  It took a while, but I finally get everything cleared and removed the grate over the well.  It was just solidified sludge, no water.  I got the urge to remove it, so I grabbed hold of it and began to pull.  It wouldn’t budge, but I refused to quit … finally … POP … what seemed like an endless amount of sludge came loose and water came pouring out.  The effect this had on me physically was intense … my entire body stiffened like a board, and my breath instantly sucked in as if I had been slugged in the stomach.  It was very emotional; lots of tears.

I realized that these were all the emotions I had shoved down and locked away as a child; from the time I myself had been sexually abused.  All these feelings washed over me, and then I let them flow out of my space … needless to say, the rest of the day was quite the emotional day.  I felt like a new part of me had been opened up … like I had twice the space inside of me as I was used to … a very odd feeling.

That was just the beginning; the clearing out stage.  Once I felt how freeing it was to actually remove all that crap, I was on a mission … I began to seek out these places within me that were ancient blockages, and removing them.  Over the period of months I went from those kinds of meditations to a new place, one where I had basically removed my blocks … but the place within me looked like a bunch of bombs had gone off.  In one meditation session I actually saw my Inner Child huddling within a shattered cathedral.

I realized that I had to build that Inner Child a place to grow, and love.  I built up the cathedral, and brought Jesus there, and my mother, and anyone else I could think of to make that Inner Child happy.  In time my Inner World became a place of beauty.

It took a long time, and a lot of work … but that was the beginning of my journey toward learning how to be in a constantly open state of connectedness with God.  I had to remove my ancient blockages, and create a place of beauty.

My mother used to sing a song to me as a child;

“I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.”

Now I have that garden within me … and I walk there with Jesus, and my mother, and amazing spiritual men and women whom I discover or meet. It is very important to do this work within ourselves … to allow ourselves to be re-made within.

It is impossible to be happy in the midst of a mine-field.  Today I did a little more landscaping … and came away that much happier for it.

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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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