EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE

An invitation to consider how loving surrender leads to softened hearts. 

It is true that each of us will die, and yet 

I am certain of this, neither death nor life, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, not any height nor depth, nor any experience eternally created thing can ever come between us and the love of our own nature. Consciousness is all of creation including every creature and is infinitely eternal. 

We are born with a longing, desire, and deep hope that this thing called life could somehow last forever. It is a simple calling from something eternal that is already within us. Some would call it the soul. It is what is unwavering and within us that makes us desire this return, this daily rebirth, to wholeness..  

Yes, the temple of the body is going to die, but we have already been given a kind of inner guarantee and promise right now that death is not final and it takes the form of love. 

Deep in the heart and psyche, love, both human and divine, connotes something eternal and gratuitous, and it does so in a deeply mysterious and compelling way. We see this in simple acts of love in the everyday and in times of crisis. Isn’t it amazing how a small act of love or gratitude can imprint a deeper knowing on our soul?

The Franciscans, led by John Duns Scotus, even claimed that instead of a “necessary sacrifice,” the cross was a freely chosen revelation of total love on God’s part.  

On the cross, the Franciscans believed, God was “spilling blood” to reach out to us! This is a sea change in consciousness. The cross, instead of being a transaction, was seen as a dramatic demonstration of God’s outpouring love, meant to utterly shock the heart and turn it back toward trust and love of consciousness, the god within us all. 

The cross is not just a Christian symbol, it is far older than Christianity, and it is still an image for our own time: 

We are invited to gaze upon the image of the cross to soften our hearts toward all suffering. The cross beckons us to what we may call “healing work,” holding the mystery of our own pain, without suffering, and look right at it, and learn from it. 

With softened hearts, our own God consciousness within leads us to a simple and yet profound daily rebirth, a moment by moment derp compassion and understanding of all fellow creatures.