Today I Am Open To The Presence Of Miracles

Today, I am commencing the 21 Day Meditation Challenge from Oprah and Chopra Deepak.  In fact, I am starting this challenge with a dear friend and kindred spirit, and it was this friend who invited me to join her on this particular journey.  The purpose of day one is entitled, Miraculous Journey, with the objective being to begin to open yourself to the presence of the miracles that surround us each moment of every day.  Those of you who have been following my blog, will already know that I talk about this, and that I see it as just one of the amazing and enriching by-products of following your heart.  Today, as I sat down to meditate, with the intent of being open to miracles, something extraordinary happened.

Most evenings, when the working day is completed, if I have time, I like to cycle down to the beach at Playa Flamingo, and to watch the sun, as it sets slowly over the Pacific Ocean.  It is always a beautiful sight, and I love the quiet calm that transcends over all of those who are watching.  It is a time for thought, for reflection on the day, and for thinking about what tomorrow will bring.  It brings peace and tranquility to all life.

This evening, I sat on the sand watching, and it occurred to me that right then, in the glow of the evening sun, was the perfect time to meditate, to open my heart, and to think of the miracles of life.  I looked at the sun, as it dropped below the line of clouds that stretched across the horizon, changing the grey to hues of purple, mauve, and orange.  I saw that the clouds were lined with a brilliant shine, reminding me that every cloud really does have a silver lining.  I looked at the rippled surface of the ocean, and I saw the reflective glow of the sun, as the water shimmered with the breeze, giving the illusion that the ocean was on fire.  My eyes fixed on the volcanic rock formations that line the coast of Flamingo, and then further out, I looked upon the Santa Catalina Islands.  I turned and looked at the land, at the rocky headland, covered with a sea of green, all the trees carrying the lush foilage of the wet season.  I watched as the waves broke on the beach, their waters racing up the sand, reaching out as far as possible, clawing their way over the grains, until they could hold on no longer, and could only fall away and recede once more.  I saw people on the beach, playing, watching, taking photographs, laughing, smiling, talking, sharing.  A flicker of movement and my eyes glanced down to my left, to fix on a small shell on the dry sand.  And as I watched, that shell turned itself into a crab, that scurried forwards, then stopped, and abruptly became only a shell once more.  Then, in a flash, it transformed, it ran and had become a crab again.  I followed its path and my eyes saw that there was not just one crab, there were many, all intent on their end of day business,  every one of them hiding down at the slightest movement, the lightest tremor, to become simple shells again.  And in this moment, I smiled to myself.  I smiled because I understood and I knew.

I knew that I already could see the miracles that surround us each and every moment.  I smiled because my heart knew the truth of it, and my heart, in that moment, felt at peace, and it felt happy.  It was grateful that I was there, that I dared to dream, and that I had the courage to reach out for that dream.  In this moment, my heart was open.  In this moment, I was surrounded by life, by love, and by the countless millions, the infinite billions of precious miracles.  I absorbed all of this in a single instant of time, I took it all in and I let it flood into my heart. And, during this blink of an eye, because my heart was open, I let love flow out from me.  I let the energy of the universe out, so that I could keep the balance within.  I released my light, and in that single moment, I was brighter than the sun, I shone more brilliantly than the greatest star in all the universe.

Afterward, I felt an urge to create and so I scribed some words into the sand.

I saw life and it was good

I opened my heart to the miracles

That surround us each and every moment

Let your light shine forth

Because that light is pure love.

~ ~ ~

I do not know what day two of the 21 Day Meditation Challenge will bring to me.  Perhaps it will be a new lesson.  Perhaps it will be an old lesson.  Some how, of my own volition and experiences, I have moved along the path towards the light.  I have become spiritually enlightened, without trying to do so.  I did not read any books to learn what I know.  Rather, I opened my heart to possibility, I opened my heart to my dreams, and I took a chance on life. 

_________________________

Reading The Signs Of Life

Life is full of signs.  Learning to see them, to recognise them and to understand them is a necessary part of the learning process of the walk along the path.  Heeding the signs, that is probably the hardest thing of all.  But heed the signs we must if we are to be rewarded with the miracles of life that lie along our path, waiting for us to discover them.  The other day, life showed me two signs and by reading them, and more importantly, by heeding them, I discovered two miracles.

Life is truly full of signs.  Some of them are simple, like seeing dark, heavy and threatening clouds on the horizon, usually means that rain is surely on the way.  When the leaves begin to change colour and fall from the branches of trees, then we know winter is coming.  These are two very simple examples of the signs of life, but they are signs sent to us by nature and therefore by the Creator of all things.  We know them and we trust them.

In the ocean the other day, during the first dive of the morning, I was leading my divers around the north end of the rock formation and dive site known as Los Sombreros.  The visibility in the water was very good for this area of the Pacific, around 15m (50 feet) and coming around the north end, there lots of schools of fish to be seen in the water.  The north end of Sombreros is always an interesting dive because here, the ocean floor drops down to 23m (75 feet) and the currents coming around the rock attract large number of fish.  Due to those conditions, this dive site offers some great surprises and this day would prove to be no different.  As I passed to the side of one such large school of grunts, suddenly and as one body, all of the fish darted away.  Something had got them very spooked and that could only mean one thing - a large predator.  Immediately, I swam out towards the fish.  My instinct told me that there was something out there, lurking out in the deeper water.  My instincts were not wrong.

As I scanned out through the water and across the sand bottom, cruising into my view came a large shark.  My initial shock led to surprise, which led to disbelief.  We have sharks here in the waters around Playa Flamingo and those are usually white tip reef sharks and nurse sharks.  White tips are easy to distinguish by their, well, white tips on the top of their dorsal fin and tail and by their overall shape and size.  This was no white tip.  Nurse sharks tend to hide away during the day time, preferring to seek refuge and sanctuary in holes under rocks and in sheltered channels.  To the best of my knowledge, neither of these sharks is usually a direct threat to so many fish and cause the panicked reaction that had occurred.  I noted the shape and the tail of this shark.  It was large, possibly 8 - 10 feet in length.  It never came close enough for me to get a great look, but I had seen enough of it to know that it was something out of the ordinary.  My gut feeling is that this was a bull shark.  The reaction of the fish leads me to this conclusion, as does the tail shape and the general view that I was given of it.  Bull shark sightings here are very rare.  This was a privilege to witness.

The second dive was at a rock pinnacle known as Dirty Rock.  Here, there is a large population of king angel fish, that act as cleaners for the manta rays, when the manta rays are in season (December - March).  The angel fish pick off the parasites that live on the manta rays and essentially, clean them.  On this particular day, as the group of divers came around the rock, I saw that there was a small group of angel fish on the wrong side - they always tend to be on the sheltered side of the rock pinnacle, and this is where the manta rays come for their cleaning.  Almost at the moment that I noted that to myself, this group of angel fish swam passed me, clearly with some intent.  I turned around and there behind me was an almost entirely dark grey/black manta ray, probably 10 - 12 feet in wing span.  A second miracle of the morning had occurred.

This blog post is not meant to be a post about scuba diving and the joys that this activity brings to my life.  I used these two examples to illustrate only how life places the signs before our eyes.  Instead, what is important are the signs of life and the ability to read them and to understand them.  You see, life shows us the way.  Whether that is in the oceans, the forests, or the deserts, the signs of life are there for you to see.  Learning to read see the signs, to read them and to comprehend their meaning, is a necessary part of the journey that we all make along our one true path.

I believe that the signs that you need to discover are littered throughout your journey.  If you pass one by and fail to see it, then it will come again later on.  Perhaps not exactly the same sign, perhaps not exactly in the same way.  A sign might be an overheard conversation, it might involve the meeting with someone new and an exchange of information, it could be as simple as the shape of a cloud drifting slowly above you head.  The signs are there, they always have been and always will be.  I know that the Big Guy gave me many signs on my own journey and by being able to read them, I moved my life on.  I was able to evolve my spirit, to learn the lessons that I needed to learn.  I'm also sure that I have misread or even missed completely other signs and I know that these will come again, when I am ready for them.

If you travel along the path too quickly, always in a rush to be some place, you will miss the signs that have been laid out for you.  Rather, take your time, look about you, see the world for that which it truly is and as you do so, then so too will the signs begin to appear.  And how do you know when the sign is the right one for you?  You hearts tells it.  And your heart is the best reader of the signs that there can ever be. Trust it. Listen to it.  Follow it.  Your path, your one true path is out there, just waiting for you.  But then, you knew that already.

_________________________