I recently was on a walk that was gorgeous! As I stopped on a little bridge and looked into a stream the sun was to my side. My gray hair had fallen before my eyes and created prisms. I was literally seeing rainbows before my eyes. How cool is that! Anyway, it was delightful with honeysuckle leafing out but there was also a lot of mud. My mind went to the crossing of the Reed Sea and how the people complained about the mud. I understood because in the thickest part it could easily have taken off my shoes. Maybe some people got so stuck they couldn't move. Just so in life. People can get so stuck in obsessions or thinking badly about others, feeling disrespected, resentful, all that negative, self absorbed goop. Amelek tendencies attack us from behind. Those transcendent moments are incredibly important for spiritual connection and enlightenment but eventually we all, even Moses, have to come down the mountain.
When I was at a religious service this year at a bay, everyone was oohing about the myriad of fish darting back and forth. Soon I realized that what they were seeing was not the fish but their shadows. The light was such that the actual fish were virtually invisible. So often we focus on the shadow. We get fooled into thinking it is real. Some of us find it an easy way to fool each other, fool our family, fool even ourselves but we cannot (and I think this is of critical importance) we can never fool God. Creator knows everything, our very thoughts. All the rationalization justifications doesn't matter, we and our actions and attitudes are seen for what we are. On my walk I noticed that out of the mud was sprouting the skunk cabbage. The lesson was that the trick is to rise above the shadow, rise above the mud. Even when we know, see and maybe even experience it, understand that it does not have to influence or anchor us, we can just let it be and let it go and pull ourselves into the light. We can understand our connection to that Source of all and be the person we really are. This is where God knows us, in truth.
God doesn't want any of us to beat ourselves up, just get better and better, stronger and stronger in who we are - above the mud, beyond the shadow, in the Light. It is only when we are above the mud and shadow that this can be fully realized. And if we make the effort, God is there to help, the door is open.
