I want to thank one of my regular readers, Carla, for the book recommendation Return to the Sea by Anne M. Johnson. It is a really good, interesting book and it was a perfect part of a healing day, as I spent a lot of time resting, and slowly absorbing this book, yesterday. There is one chapter in the book that really stood out to me, called “Channelled Whelk”. In this chapter, the author reminds us that all of our emotional experiences happen from within us. They are not created by external things, as much as we want to believe that fact. Our joy, our sorrow, our excitement, our fears, all bubble and churn within us. We react to external things with thoughts, and those thoughts in turn, create our feelings.
In “Channelled Whelk”, Anne Johnson describes a little lake cabin, owned by her husband’s family, that she loved to escape to, and to nurture herself in, for maybe a week out of any one year. She talks about the fact that so many of us, have that same fantasy place. We all have that private, little, peaceful lake cabin, either in reality, or in our imaginations, that we long to go to, in order to disappear from it all. We tell ourselves that if we could only just have some time in a private little faraway cabin, that is where we could really relax, and finally get back to our own selves and to our own peaceful centeredness. We spend a lot of time longing to really get in touch with the deepest part of our souls, and we often think that we have to disappear to some private, little getaway with no distractions, in order to get back to our peaceful, centered selves. But what if there is a storm right over top of the cabin? What if a family of birds has found a way to nest inside of the cabin and they chirp away and loudly, and fly back and forth from the high rafters? What if we get to our private little paradise and actually find the experience to be lonely and fearsome, and not quite what we expected?
Everything that we feel, comes from an internal place. A warm puppy, a sleeping baby, a placid lake, doesn’t make us feel comforted and tranquil. It is our internal response to the puppy and to the baby and to the still waters, that make us feel harmonious and right with the world. Think about it. You probably had a loving vision of a puppy or a baby or a beautiful body of water, when you read my words and you probably had some sense of quiet joy and bliss, yet there was no physical representation of any of these things, on your computer screen or your phone. Right now, you are just reading my words, but your feelings are probably swelling with some peace and comfort.
Do you remember The Wizard of Oz? Dorothy and her companions travel all over Oz, looking for the external things that will give them the feelings that they all most want, like courage, and heart, and intelligence, and the feeling of “home”. What they find out, in the end, is they had these all of things, all along, right with them. These feelings were their internal birthright, and these attributes were planted right inside of them, from the moment of their creation, like a well-spring, constantly replenishing itself.
What are you craving externally right now? Are you sure that a private, cozy cabin far, far away will bring you peace and happiness and security and relief? We live in a very strange time period, right now. Nothing feels certain. Nothing feels simple. Nothing feels safe. Maybe that is because right now, the world is so focused on the externals and trying to solve the external problems, with more externals. But the truth of the matter is, every single one of us is a walking well-spring of the same beautiful matter, capable of bringing the highest sense of peace and calm and beauty and comfort and joy, to the surface of ourselves, and to our surroundings, and to this world, right now. This matter, this energy at our core, is the same in all of us. It is Creation. It is Love. And it resides, continually, in the deepest part of Every. Single. One. Of. Us.
It’s just that we always forget that fact. We get distracted by the externals. We think that if we just get this particular job, or a particular relationship, or car, or piece of jewelry, or faraway vacation, we will find our bliss. And we might feel a temporary, fleeting bliss with some external things, which keeps us hooked, much like gambling does. But the true reality is, we carry the ability to bring our bliss to the surface, all of the time, wherever we are, and regardless of anything going on outside of us, even during worldwide pandemics.
Right now, think of three things/people/places that you think make you happy. There, you are feeling better already, aren’t you? Notice that those things didn’t make you feel happy – you did. You brought your happiness (the happiness that’s been churning and bubbling underneath all sorts of layers of fears, and responsibilities, and beliefs, and racing thoughts, and false fronts) up to the surface. You have the ability to do this for yourself, all of the time. You choose your response to external things and happenings. You choose what you focus on. Thus, you chose what internal waters are going to flow to the surface, all of the time. Don’t block the flow of the real you, that has been in your vital core, since the moment that you were conceived. It is the only part of “you” that remains eternal. Don’t chase this love/peace/joy feeling outside of yourself. This feeling is safely at your core, untouchable and un-harmable, by any outside force. You are the only one who has the power to keep your well-spring tamped down, and you’re the only one who has the ability to release it. You can release this peace/joy/calm at any time, and as often as you like. It is yours. It is replenish-able. It is infinite. This center is the real You. It is your beautiful spark of Love and Creation which allows you to have this living experience. Don’t deny it. Don’t keep chasing after it. It is already yours for the taking. And here’s the kicker, once we all really, really let this reality sink in, and we start going to our own internal cabins of peace and joy whenever we need to, won’t the world be a better place for it?? Won’t decisions and solutions be easier to conjure? Won’t everything flow more naturally? The internal creates the external. We can do our part to create a more beautiful external world, by keeping the stream of our our most beautiful internal waters, flowing to the surface. When we make an effort to keep these internal, healing, cleansing waters always in our consciousness, all of the time, the world can’t help but to be shown in a new light. It will be shown to be the beautiful, miraculous creation that it truly is. Love is. It just is.
