An Awakening

When Our Center Changes, We Begin to Change

“I heard what sounded like a choir. Everything around me was singing. The sun. The waves. The trees. Even that little bird that shared its song with me earlier. They were all joining together in one song, Odigo. And I could see the gentle and loving invitation of the waves continually beckoning the rocks to join the song, as they are. That is when it hit me. The invitation is not only for the rocks. The invitation is for everything and everyone. And these waves are all around us. They surround us and patiently wash over us to smooth out our sharp and jagged edges. But they are beckoning us to join creation’s song together. Just as we are.”

“That is real freedom, Thura," said Odigo. "The ability to see the world as it is without needing to judge it. To see its every part and embrace its frailty and brokenness. To discover its naked beauty and love it anyway. Sometimes even despite itself. I’m not sure anyone could have said it any better."¹

When Divine love is our center, it changes how we see the world and others.

While our egos work to fragment this life into labels, categories, and hierarchies of rightness and wrongness, worthiness and unworthiness, sacred and profane, Divine love invites us into a reality that transcends it all. When Divine love is our center, we can live, breathe, and experience this life without living in fear or feeling the need to protect every illusory boundary or edge. Within this love, we are intimately connected, united, and one.. if we could just awaken to it.

Divine love transcends our affiliations, hierarchies, identities, nationalities, and cultures.

We are loved despite being Protestant or Catholic, religious or atheist, fundamentalist or liberal, Democrat or Republican, or Conservative or Progressive.

We are loved whether we are Americans, Russians, Chinese, Taiwanese, or Iranians, or whether we are Tutsis, Uyghurs, Ukrainians, or Tibetans.

We are loved whether we identify as legal citizens or illegal aliens, Black Lives Matter or All Lives Matter, privileged or underprivileged, gay or straight, transgendered or cis-gendered.

No matter who you are, you are in this love.

And I am absolutely convinced that nothing can ever separate us from this love or keep it from becoming our center and our reality. Yes, we may disagree with one another, but Divine love transcends our every difference and loves us despite ourselves.

Question

1. Take some time during your meditation or centering prayer to invite Divine love as your center. How might this love change how you think about people who are different than you?

Peace,

Brandon

1. Andress, Brandon. What Can’t Be Hidden. Quoir Publishing, 7 September, 2021.