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CHAPTERS ONE THROUGH ELEVEN OF THE BLOG BOOK -
TITLED THE CRYSTAL PATH - QUEST FOR A POSITIVE,
PERSONAL AND CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY
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It is choice and free will - our ability to create
ourselves out of our desires - which often
underscores the complexity of being human,
of being alive. We can conceive in our minds
the full blossoming rose - wine red with petals
of silk - and we are astonished by the beauty
arriving from one seed. Or the squirrel, the star
of the brief note below, who knows the pure
pleasure of being a squirrel and offers us
a simple nut of wisdom.
I wrote this note below for Ann on a sleepy Sunday
morning, looking out at the gray sky, the snow
on the lawn, the oak tree outside of our sunroom,
watching a squirrel navigate a nut along a long limb
and marveling at the simplicity and the complexity
of existence. Almost like a Zen master, I jotted
down the following note without explanation,
leaving the mystery of its meaning to the reader.
THE SQUIRREL
Through the sunroom window
I see a squirrel maneuver
the limb of the tree –
how wondrous –
the squirrel being exactly
what the squirrel should be –
a squirrel.
How perfect the life of a squirrel –
never desiring to be anything else
but a squirrel and succeeding.
As you can see, the note is shorter in length than
my usual Affirmative Thought notes, which are
usually first written for Ann before I publish them
on the blog. When I presented Ann with the note
later that morning with her first tea of the day,
she read it and gave me a half-smile and a casual
thanks as she tossed it gently on the dresser.
She turned and said, “I guess you didn’t have much
to say? I said, “perhaps more than is apparent."
Half joking I said – “I just receive the messages
from God, I don’t take responsibility for the length
or content.” Ann gave me a half-laugh.
Almost two weeks later I am having dinner with Ann
at a local Italian restaurant, the kind of place we all
go to get a quick meal close to home, and Ann is
talking about work and she says, “you know, I have
decided to be a squirrel - I am no longer going to
try to be a rabbit or a dog but just the squirrel
I was made to be.” I almost dropped my fork
full of pasta, thoroughly surprised the squirrel
had surfaced again.
Ann admitted that when I gave her the Squirrel
note she had dismissed it, thinking that I was just
tired or did not feel like writing that morning,
but the image of the contented squirrel kept
appearing in her mind. As time went on, she
decided the squirrel was being what the squirrel
was meant to be - fully authentic, and that was
why the squirrel was so happy and succeeded.
Ann said she then decided she was going to live
her life asking a simple question – “I am a squirrel,
am I trying to be something else by doing this?
Am I trying to be the rabbit someone would
like me to be?" Ann said she had decided to commit
herself to always being just a squirrel? For Ann, the
squirrel had become a symbol of the authentic Ann -
the Ann she was meant to be.
In the end, I also learned a great deal from Ann and
the squirrel. I do believe in our souls – we are born
with a divine spiritual instinct along with our genetic
predilections. When we know this Soul – this Divine
purpose - our authentic purposeful life will shine –
we will discover the “Squirrel” in our hearts.
All we then need to do is ask Ann’s simple question –
are we being true to the squirrel we were meant to be?
WITH LOVE, G.
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