Lou took time off the trail this week to write a personal reflection. We hope you take a moment and reflect on these words for your own personal growth. Share if you are led to and let us know how it impacts your thoughts.
YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW
Recently I purchased some hives and have become a beekeeper. The more I study and learn the more there is to learn. A new world has been opened up. And it is a world where so many questions still exist, so many things yet to be discovered, experienced, utilized, and known. The awareness of my ignorance has become increasingly evident in my mind…in so many areas of my life.
One of these areas is that of my soul. There is the intersection of the spirit, physical, and emotions but I do not believe the combination of those three attributes are in fact my soul. They are my conscious outward expression of my soul. Lou, do you know Lou? For the most part, I do not even know my soul because I believe it can only be identified in solitude, in stillness. I would like my soul to lead my flesh, not have my flesh lead my soul.
It is easy to be inundated with advertising, people’s opinions, even influenced by my own voice until you have become still enough to know otherwise. Stillness speaks. It is an awareness of your own presence. It is also an awareness of a spiritual presence…or lack thereof and hence a need to be filled. It is this aloneness that I most value when I am hiking, the removal of the distractions, to commune with myself.
In my daily life I find satisfaction in accomplishment, in staying busy, going from task to task. I have found it almost impossible to budget quiet meditation time into my life because my lifestyle prevents me from doing so. I have to be struck by illness or an accident unless I intentionally make time to hike…alone. When I lose touch with myself I embrace the world, creating dissatisfaction, that I am not enough, that I have to have more, do more, look better, accomplish more, make more money, be bigger, better, smarter, stronger, younger!
There is an element of living in the present but that is not what I am talking about here. It is not just hearing the song bird, the fragrance of a blooming flower, the laughter of an infant. Rather it is an awareness of the mystery or holiness of my presence itself. That in itself is a world of infinite discovery.
Until next time,
Lou
Questions for reflection:
- Who are you? Is your conscious self different than your soul? I believe it is!
- What does it mean that we are created in the image of God?
- Is being converted a point in time or just a beginning of a journey? A new awareness?
- What does this verse mean to you right now in your life: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Ezek 36: 26-27.
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