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This morning I reluctantly woke up to go to work. I skipped meditation and exercise to get the extra hour and a half and still felt grumpy. As I turned the corner onto the street on which I park and pulled into a spot, I stopped myself. An internal dialog started.

*Me: You know you’re choosing to be grumpy don’t you?

me: Yeah, yeah, I know.

*Me: Well, it’s okay as long as you know you’re choosing.

me: Actually, it’s not. Grumpiness only takes me down a spiral. I don’t feel much better once I start down that path. I think I’ll choose to feel TERRIFIC. Yes, that’ll be my word today, TERRIFIC.

*Me: Terrific no matter what? Whether or not you get a lot of comments or clicks? Whether or not you get deluged by tickets? Whether or not you’re micro managed?

me: Yes! Terrific!

Now you may think that all this is just hocus-pocus crap, and it might be, but it worked. As soon as I made the decision, a squirrel jumped in front of me and startled me right out of grumpy. By the time I got half way up the block, I really was feeling terrific. I started smiling for no reason. I even let out a chuckle as I attempted to describe the weather. By the time I got to the security desk, I was beaming.

Guess how the day went? You betcha! Several comments and clicks, a light day at the desk, and a long lunch which allowed me to join a group for meditation. It was TERRIFIC!

How are you choosing to feel today?

In Spirit,
Nneka

Those are words from one of the first prayers that I learned as a 2 year old at the Catholic Montessori school. At the time, I had no idea what the words of the famous Lord’s Prayer meant.

When asked by his disciples how they should pray, Jesus responded with these words:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

I pray the Our Father as it is written when I feel separate from God. It helps me to clear the seeming space between us. It reminds me that God is always with me, ever near.

Recently, I have been paying attention to the line, “on earth as it is in heaven.” As I grow in the understanding that I am an expression of God, that line makes the most sense to me. It’s as if I am asking to dust off the stuff that I have between my highest good and what is manifest in my life.

Last year, as I set my goals for this year, I concentrated on that phrase until one day I realized that my goals were already manifest in “heaven”. The process of achieving them this year would be much more than going through the motions to check off tasks. It’s about deepening my awareness of Spirit and letting it shine through me freely.

Heaven, in this context, is not a physical destination in some time in the future. Heaven is the unseen realm of All there is. It is the space in which God abides. The place of radiant health, unconditional love, infinite supply, joy, harmony, and all good. It is like the steam form of H2O. Conversely, earth is the manifest realm. The place that we see, smell, taste, hear, and feel. We may experience challenges and triumphs. It is like the ice form of H2O.

Between the two is our lens. A space of our own creation. The prayer, “On earth as it is in heaven,” helps to thin the layer between, or clear up the lens so that we may experience all that there is in the invisible.

In Spirit,
Nneka

Do you have any prayers that you learned as a child, but have come to understand as an adult?