Heaven and Earth

Today I had a brief conversation with a fellow teacher regarding our bodies as machines and how they need regular maintenance because we need them to survive our entire lives. Later, I was in the shower sitting on the edge of the tub looking down at my legs and this thought came to me again, but this time on a different level.

As I looked at my body, it wasn't as if I was looking at my body, but more the experience of looking at is as my machine, like my car. And I guess it really is my 'car', after all it is the vehicle that carries me through this world, yet it was quite refreshing to experience it as something somewhat detached from the usual internal judgment of it's appearance, how it's failing, or how it's not quite how I wish it would be. It simply became my vehicle, and suddenly I cherished it.

This is a spiritual awakening in it's own sense, to experience oneself as not 'self' but of something larger than the small confines of one's own body. I mean you can't really believe that what you see in the mirror can possibly contain the beauty, complexities, and vastness of who you really are, do you?

We are in a constant dance within the human experience between heaven and earth. The earthly experience of responsibility, the reality of the mundane, routine, and day-to-day life. It is easy to get stuck here, to go through the motions of living without really experiencing what it is to be alive. Then there is the heavenly experiences of connection, divine beauty, trust, and inner knowing that can grace us with the reminder that there is greater meaning to this life. A reminder of the spectacular harshness, and astounding beauty of what it is to be alive in this world and that you are a part of it. So we tip-toe and dance between the two worlds, feet firmly grounded in the real, our hands reaching towards possibility and purpose. After all, we are all made of stars...