Anything Is Possible!

portil1410rtx
© 2014 Anne S. Katzeff / Artist

So many of us grew up listening to Judy Garland sing “Over the Rainbow” in the classic film The Wizard of Oz. Her character, Dorothy, was dreaming of a better world, a land where dreams come true. We took those words to heart, we children of the 1960s and 1970s who marched for freedom, peace, and human rights in the U.S. and around the globe. Individuals across time have believed in that better world and worked tirelessly for a vision they held in their hearts as possibility. Because of them, the world we live in now is very different than it once was. No, it is not perfect; racism, sexism, homophobia, and the violence that accompanies them still exist. But things have changed, and we are continuing to evolve toward that vision, more and more rapidly.

Case in point: The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision for national marriage equality (supported by a majority of Americans) seemed to be nothing short of a miracle. After so many years of extreme hatred, ridicule, and cruelty directed at lesbians and gay men, the shift in public consciousness in a relatively short period of time was almost unbelievable. I couldn’t help but feel that if entrenched attitudes like those could change (and still are changing), then anything is possible…. President Obama voicing support for the rights of the LGBT community in a televised speech…. Rainbow lights on the White House. Indeed, rainbow lights appeared across the country in support of this opening to a greater love and acceptance for all people. From San Francisco City Hall to Niagara Falls, rainbows lit up the night, showing the world that anything is possible. To me, that is the deeper meaning of marriage equality—to dramatically demonstrate that the time has come to embrace everyone for who they really are at heart: unique, unrepeatable souls here to live authentic lives, full out and freely. At this key transformative time on the planet, that truth is taking hold with growing power.

So if marriage equality can occur, what else is possible? World peace? Social justice and economic parity? Universal love? Why not? We get to the possible by courageously and lovingly living the impossible. Imagine a better world and live in it. Treat your neighbors with kindness and generosity. Treat Mother Earth and her children with gentleness and reverence. Love your friends and family as sweet reflections of life’s beauty, and remember that everyone you meet is family. Live as if you only had one hour left on this planet. Would you waste it with complaints, judgments, and hatred? Or would you appreciate every moment (every person, every tree, every animal) as precious and sacred—a miracle to be celebrated and treasured?

We have been conditioned to believe that suffering is inevitable, that change is impossible, that utopian dreams are unrealistic. But Dorothy always sang a different tune, and we never forgot it. “Over the Rainbow” is the iconic song of remembrance and inspiration for all of us. Dare to dream and the world opens up before you. Live your dream into life with every breath you take. Over the rainbow is here now, right in front of our eyes. That multicolored rainbow—magical symbol of diversity and possibility—still inspires us all to never stop dreaming. Anything is possible!

The Silent Nature of All Things

Haleakala photograph © Peggy Kornegger
Haleakala photograph © Peggy Kornegger

I spend countless hours outdoors in my yard every day in the spring- and summertime. It is a deep inner calling that brings me peace of mind, heart connection, and balance between being and doing. Nature in its silent presence teaches me stillness and reminds me of that same place inside myself. When I stand quietly within the natural world at my doorstep, I am a part of all that I see, and I feel the stillness at the heart of everything, whether stone, tree, bird, bee, butterfly, human, cloud, rain, wind, star, or planet.

Indeed, the universe itself is complete stillness at its core. I experienced this primordial silence in a very powerful and unforgettable way once when I was hiking into the dormant volcano Haleakala on Maui. If you walk a ways down the trail that winds gradually to the bottom of the crater and then pause to listen, you hear absolutely nothing. No sound at all—no wind, no birds, no human activity. Nothing. I felt as if I were present at the birth of the planet, before anything existed except sandy red lava fragments, ocean, and sky. I’ve never forgotten that profound sense of eternity in the silence, and now I recognize it within all things, everywhere—if I pause long enough to feel it within myself, in my own breath.

That inner stillness is the spirit of life, our soul’s home. It is what calms and soothes us on our human journey. In silence, the soul witnesses our actions, thoughts, experiences, and emotions; our challenges and celebrations; our pain and joy. When we become lost in stress or suffering, often some mysterious force leads us to turn inward, to seek the silent solace of the soul. The human soul or the soul of nature, one and the same. We live at a time in which an increasing number of us are hearing the call to connect with our innermost being, a part of All That Is. A shift in consciousness is occurring, an awareness that opens us to choosing harmony and balance in our lives. I find it a hopeful sign that people are evolving to the tipping point of remembering the being part of human being.

I sense that thread of hope and remembering within my own life. When I balance activity or action with timeless time in nature or meditation, then I begin to live a seamless oneness of being and doing that are not in opposition to each other but exist naturally side by side. Doing that arises from being, not imposed by the mind’s tendency to overthink and plan, but organically part of the creative flow of all life, within and without. I experience internal harmony when I include moments of silent connection and presence continually throughout my day.

In fact, continual (“intermittent”) is gradually becoming continuous (“ongoing”). As my awareness expands and evolves, along with everyone else’s, the separations and distinctions of a world based in polarity and duality are fading into the background. Life becomes a divinely inspired stream instead of an on/off spigot that we think we control. And the source of it all is a peaceful stillness that we can access in each moment of our lives just by taking a deep breath and observing the true nature of what is right in front of us.

Spirit of the Garden

Photograph © 2015 Peggy Kornegger
Photograph © 2015 Peggy Kornegger

In my flower garden, I encounter all of life on a daily basis. I am also continually given opportunities to practice classic spiritual principles: Be in present-moment awareness. Accept what is. Let go of all attachments to a particular outcome. Each one is perfectly applicable to both gardening and living. Nature doesn’t play by human rules or expectations. Nature just is. Entering the natural world that surrounds us brings us home to a part of ourselves that often gets lost in the clock-centered busyness of daily life.

When I walk through my back door in the early morning stillness, I am met with a presence that I would call sacred. Neighbors still asleep, traffic sounds distant and minimal. I am alone with the beauty of the green and growing Earth, my eyes clear and open to all that is before me: nature in living color and infinite variety. Immediately I am completely engaged and present. Thinking has faded to the background, and I am just being. When I look at each blooming lily or rose, there is no separation. The flowers and I are one in the spirit of life that flows through us. Standing beneath a towering maple tree, I am drawn into the silence that holds both of us in timeless being. I AM. The tree IS. We are both part of a consciousness that links every living thing on Earth and in the cosmos. Each morning becomes a meditation in slow motion that centers me in the now and eases me into my day.

The actual work of gardening—seeding, planting, weeding, pruning—is another practice that both engages me and teaches me acceptance of all that is. The past winter’s cold has killed my butterfly bush as well as several other perennials. My native honeysuckle, covered with bright red blossoms, has aphids that are eating the new buds. Finding replacement plants and removing insects and dead leaves are all part of gardening. Within that process of letting go of the old and welcoming the new, I surrender to the flow of life, with both sadness and celebration. The garden teaches me to hold it all in my heart without judgment or distress. Every day is a new opportunity to embrace each event in my life and in my garden. When I have sudden unexpected expenses or a painful migraine headache, I am reminded that living includes these challenges as well as the joys of laughing with friends, listening to music, or watching a glorious red sunset after a dramatic thunderstorm. To be human is to encounter all parts of the experiential spectrum.

Gardening immerses me in nature, but it also aligns me with divine presence. My soul is with me in the garden. In truth, my soul is with me everywhere. And it is being in presence within my garden that teaches me this. There is nowhere and nothing that is not filled with spirit, that is not God experiencing life on Earth in a multitude of forms and expressions, including human. We are so much more than we think we are, and it is only in not thinking but just being present that we experience that expansive awareness. Heaven is here on Earth, and when we realize that, we see paradise everywhere we go.

 

Soul Vision

Photograph © 2015 Peggy Kornegger
Photograph © 2015 Peggy Kornegger

There are moments in my life when I become acutely aware that there is a greater Presence behind and within everything. Often it occurs when the beauty of nature opens my heart, and I perceive life with such expansive love that it feels as though God is seeing the wonders of all the world through my eyes. Or, put another way, God seeing God through God’s eyes. In those moments, I feel in the deepest part of my soul that every single thing is divine, inner and outer.

Spirit breathes through us, and when we take a deep breath and know ourselves as that soul force, then we see the miraculous unfold in every second of our lives. We become aware of Spirit—God, the Great Mystery—whenever we let go of thinking and slip into just being. Present-moment awareness, as it is called in meditation practice. When I consciously breathe and drop down into the stillness at my core, the connection between my human self and my soul becomes illuminated and unlimited. At times there is only infinite floating awareness, beyond the boundaries of my physical body. What I was before birth and what I will be after death. In truth, what I am now. What we all are. Our experiences of limitless soul beingness will increase, and we will remember them more and more—until we live in that state of awakened awareness continuously. We are gradually becoming conscious spirit in physical form, what we came here to embody at this key time on planet Earth.

It may sound esoteric and unattainable, but really it isn’t. As growing numbers of us experience moments of deep spiritual connection and consciously integrate them, it will become more accessible and commonplace. It is part of our human and planetary evolution, why everything is unfolding the way it is now—at times chaotic and catastrophic, at times flowing and expansive. Birthing pains include all of these extremes. A new age is being born in our lifetimes, and we are both the midwives and the newly birthed. We are the witnesses and the participants. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” The wait is over; it is happening now.

When I see the world through God’s eyes, my heart fills with so much love and gratitude that tears stream down my face. I feel myself part of something beyond the physical plane, and within that soul vision, life is a streaming flow of birth and death and becoming in which I am one drop of consciousness in the greater eternal consciousness spiraling upward and outward. I am here to be a thread in the tapestry of cosmic creation—to experience and evolve, not to understand or control. The orchestration of the universe is beyond my human comprehension. Yet, there are times when I hear the transcendent notes of the music of the spheres in my soul, and I sense how I am one with everything, seen and unseen, in this extraordinary multiverse we are passing through, on our way home.

 

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway!

kornegger-loseyourmind-cover-front-final-150pxIf you don’t yet have a copy of my new book Lose Your Mind, Open Your Heart, here’s a chance to get one free. For one month, it is part of a Goodreads Book Giveaway. Enter to win a free signed copy! Ten winners will be chosen on August 19. Link: http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/145991