Musings for the Open-Minded: Experiencing Grace

Ida Lawrence,
Contributor - Waking Times

“The intensity of your need calls what is needed to you.” Do you believe that statement? To me, it has
shown itself to be true a few, remarkable times. Of course it requires that we remain open, because the ego’s need, or the intellect’s need, or the emotion’s need might not correspond with the true need. It is the energy/information/feeling of us that informs the universe of our true need.

So… we may not be fully aware of what our heart has called for, and it may come to us in a completely different form than what we have sought, or what our opinion tells us we are suited for, or even what we are ‘supposed’ to want. If we are open, we’ll recognize it… a way is a way, love is love. Usually, if we accept that a need is being fulfilled, and we are willing to experience it, we’ll know also that this must lead to change… sometimes a great deal of change.

When I started this writing I was thinking about change, and my mind was on the words ‘satisfaction and dissatisfaction’. There is a story I’ve heard about a time in the past, when a great number of people were dissatisfied with their administration. When the dissatisfaction reached 70% of the population, the seed of a new way was conceived in one person, and from there it spread until it reached thousands.

The new way was born, and eventually it displaced the old way. Unfortunately, the new way wasn’t any more satisfying than the old. It was seemingly the opposite of the old, and so therefore conceived as a solution, but somehow it became almost the shadow self of, or dark side of the old.

So that takes me to wondering… what are the ways of producing change? It appears that one way would be the attracting power of true need arising from one’s energy/information/feeling. We can refer to this one as ‘call and response’. The other way would be the reaction and solution of one’s intellect/emotion/opinion, which we’ll refer to as ‘best laid plan’.

The intellect works within the problem, reaction, solution world. We conceive of an idea, make plans, gather information, determine what is needed, and get to work. We believe that if we work hard enough, and long enough, and plan well enough we can bring about a change. Sometimes we succeed, and as we settle in to our solution, the work begins on keeping it from becoming corrupted. Corruption: it’s the ‘wherever you go there you are’ problem.

The obvious answer is talked about all the time… change you. Change what you trust, change what you align to, change what you dedicate yourself to. Overcoming the world really means overcoming the self-discouraging voices in your head, put there by conditioning and programming.

Our journey is to become, or return to, our true selves. Although we talk about this a great deal, many of us are really challenged by it. We are challenged by loving ourselves as we are, and trusting where transformative work takes us. We have been battered, I must confess. I see it in myself and see it in others all the time. Beloved damaged humans. Tears well up as I say this… and a prayer of gratitude for those magical times when the universe has responded to my, and your, true needs.

Well… back to the subject. Spirit takes up where intellect and the ‘best laid plan’ leaves off. That’s why the heart’s ‘call and response’, arriving in your life, can seem so magical and make such a profound difference.

When an opportunity that suits our evolution offers itself to us, taking it on indicates trust in something beyond the mind. We’ll know that we’re leaving the old, crossing the river so to speak, accepting that when we step off the ferry we’ll be met with challenges. But we step up to it because we feel the fit in our heart. Yes, I called, and yes, the universe came with a gift… one I never envisioned, one I could not have imagined, and yet I trust it.

Moving from reliance on the intellect and the ego’s opinion to reliance on the intuitive, perceptive, feeling response is what the journey is about.

How do we change and what do we change? We change the energy of us, which is the information of us, which is the ‘feeling’ of us.

And if we wish to experience ‘call and response’, how do we recognize it when it comes and not overrule it with reason? How do we find the courage to act upon it? Trust… this is the key to stepping off from where you are to where you have never been. Trust in the wisdom of the heart, trust in your true self and then utilize staying power.

I’m including a song for you. It’s an old song about a river crossing that brings about great change. The harmonic is melancholy… and I have no problem with melancholy. To me it is a prayerful chamber in the heart, a believing and knowing place. To visit there and contemplate is to accept for a brief moment that this, too, is part of our true self and its feeling in the earth plane.

We are changing… and we are experiencing Grace. Love yourself… trust yourself… trust that the ferry is very familiar with the river crossing. The new way of being that we approach reaches far beyond problem, reaction, solution into the realm of all possibilities.

About the Author

Ida Lawrence is an author, blogger, copywriter and editor based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has contributed to and edited two books on racial justice and human rights, and numerous articles on human rights, self-empowerment and related subjects. Her latest book is entitled The Warrior’s Way to Heaven on Earth. Ida has also published a companion book of blog favorites from http://talk2momz.com/.

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