Have you noticed your dreams have come true?
A Motley Mystic Monday Moment on why you might want to revisit your old vision boards ...
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Welcome to the Motley Mystic Monday Moment. Each week I'll be providing you with a tool you can use for your spiritual growth and giving you an invitation to think differently about your spirituality and how you're connecting with the Divine (God, the Universe, the Holy – however you may understand this overall life-giving force).
The last vision board I created was a few years ago – and in reviewing it recently, I see a lot of it has come true – a beautiful home, a loving relationship, a satisfying career – all the outward safety and happiness I ever wanted.
I'm sure something from your past vision boards or dreams are now part of your every day experience, whether it was a relationship, a job, a home, a financial windfall. Something you dreamed about years ago, maybe even months ago, is right here in your present moment. Have you said thank you? Have you taken the time to appreciate it?
Maybe this is the first time you've thought about an old vision board or some of your dreams from the past. You're not alone in not noticing when some of the things we yearned for yesterday show up today. Our egos keep us too busy looking for the next thing we want. What we have in this moment is never enough for the ego that lives for the next hit of proof of its physical security.
I invite you to take a moment this week to be satisfied with everything that is here with you right now. Stop telling this moment that it's not enough or that you need more or something better to be happy. Let's take this time to a step outside the ego's frenzied world of never being satisfied for longer than two seconds and instead, really take time to consider all the dreams that you had in the past that are true in this moment. What are those things? Write them all down and share them in the comments, if you'd like, so we can celebrate together.
According to A Course in Miracles, in Chapter 6, the Holy does not need our gratitude, but we need to develop what it calls our "weakened ability to be grateful." If we cannot be grateful for the amazing gifts we're being given in this present moment, the Course says, we will never be able to appreciate God.
"You cannot love what you do not appreciate, for fear makes appreciation impossible."
It goes on to say: "When you are afraid of what you are you do not appreciate it, and will therefore reject it."
This is the heart of the matter. We do not take time to appreciate all the things we have – all the dreams and desires that have manifested in our lives – because that will remind us of who we truly are. We are not our needy, greedy, never satisfied ego. We are co-creators with God. We are infinite spirits who have the ability to create time and space as long as our will is aligned with God's.
Remember God is love and will is thought – so when we live aligned with Love, we understand our true nature as the light of the world and we live in a constant state of gratitude.
The ego, of course, hates this kind of living. It needs you to keep chasing the next thing that it says will satisfy it so it can go on running – and ruining – our lives. When we are run by that fear, the Course says, all we will teach is rejection. We will teach fear and separation over unity and love because our whole lives will be about chasing the next thing and the next thing and never appreciating what we have in each moment.
So, stop now and look around. Appreciate all that has been given to you. We create our future by the energy we generate in this present moment. Are we in an energy of lack and wanting, or are we in an energy of gratitude and abundance? What follows in the next moment comes from the energy you're feeling right now.
Here's the thing about vision boards, though. I noticed a lot of what was on my last one was made up of external things – possessions, relationships, prestige. There were only a few internal goals such as more peace, to be more loving, generous or gentle in the world. The great thing is, though, many of those have come – or are coming – true. I have been doing my inner work to become more peaceful, more loving, more gentle, more generous, kind and caring – beginning with myself so the world will mirror that back to me.
The rule is the same, though, because the ego can corrupt even our most pure motivations. Even as I feel I'm making spiritual progress, the ego pipes up that it's not enough, or I'm not doing it right, or all this is spiritual bypass woo-woo and I'm just fooling myself.
This is the ego's stock and trade – to make us doubt ourselves and pull us out of a state of gratitude for the dreams, the desires and the spiritual gifts that have come into our awareness in this moment.
I invite you this week to take some time to meditate, to reflect and really hone in on what dreams and desires of your past are now true in your present, whether they are external or internal. A practice of gratitude connects us back to God and to our higher, Divine Self. When we do this practice, the Course tells us, we will be pulled from the ego's hell of seeking and never finding into heaven, because, "What is Heaven but a song of gratitude and love and praise by everything created to the Source of its creation?" (ACIM, T-26.IV.3:5-8)
Music for the Journey
Kind and Generous by Natalie Merchant
About the Motley Mystic:
The Motley Mystic is an online community for people who have realized that the truth speaks with many voices. There is no one religion, philosophy, institution or dogma that captures the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. No one needs to swear allegiance to one line of thought or belief to discern Truth, because Love is the only thing that’s real. That’s what we explore at the Motley Mystic - all the tools and strategies we need to remove our barriers to Love and live fully as our true, Divine Self.
Candace Chellew is the founder of Motley Mystic as well Jubilee! Circle, an interfaith spiritual community in Columbia, S.C. She is also the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians published in 2008 by Jossey-Bass. She is also a musician and avid beer drinker.
What a great reminder. When wanting to create change, I have found it is easy to fall into the ego trap that says that this is not enough so I have to change it. So of course, I keep running around the bush. Thank you for this great explanation and reminder of how the energy of Love really works.
My dream was to have something to marvel at every day, To marvel at the marvelous. I thought i had to be in the woods, on the appalachian trail, or hiking some other far away place, before spotting a surprise that would take my breath away. Today, in my backyard, bluebird babies flew from the nest. My heart thumped and i'm still shaking.