Receiving
Fresh Thinking, Inspiration, and Vision on the Process of Spiritual Transformation
I was walking with a friend recently and sharing some hurtful thoughts and feelings I’ve been working with for most of my life. It was about receiving—or, I should say, not receiving.
I was the eldest in my family, born into a family that seemed to be in constant crisis—maybe they weren’t but it seemed like that to me. I learned very early how to give to try to keep everything from falling apart. I became a person who is good at unconditional giving. So I have that down flat.
Giving is a virtue, and I’m not suggesting anyone stop giving. However, I was finding that there was something missing. Something inside felt incomplete. My friend invited me to be part of a new story—a story that includes the ability to receive, to be open to receive. When you are open to receive, it can be a little tricky because you have to pause from what you’re giving out. You have to just be present to receive.
It seems to me that spring this year at Sunrise has been a perfect time to do that. I have never seen so many lilacs. The odor in the air is superb and penetrating—everywhere you go you can smell lilacs. So I began to practice receiving by smelling the lilacs.
Heaven truly is around us everywhere we go, right here on earth. It is especially present in our friends. But if we’re not receiving it, who knows it? The Cosmos or God or the Creator—or whatever you wish to call the energy that gives spring—gives fully to everyone. The same amount of spring is given to everyone. How much of that beauty we receive is up to us.
I was walking by a friend’s house where there was this glorious dark-purple lilac. I put my face right in it and smelled every inch of it. It filled me from the top of my head down to my feet—the fullness of receiving.
This consciousness has allowed a new story to come through me. What had been in the past was no longer present. It’s in the past. What’s here now is the glory of spring, the glory of the lilacs, the glory of my friends, and the glory of the spirit that moves and moves and moves. I don’t know how I could have missed it—it’s everywhere! It’s the way life was designed.
Another example of this spirit being present is when we share an attunement. An attunement is a sacred healing practice that Emissaries have offered for years. During an attunement you hold your hands over the person’s body, starting at their head. The moment you hold your hands over their head, you can feel the energy move. There it is, completely present. There is never a moment when there isn’t the glorious energy of heaven present. How could I have missed it?
So here is my message to myself and to you. “Receive first the glory that’s around, receive first the evidence of heaven, and then you can give.” When you breathe in, you can breathe in enough so that you get tight and stiff, but when you breathe out it’s a given you’re going to relax and breathe in again. That’s how life works. You can breathe in the glory and the beauty, or you can breathe in the latest thought you just had, which maybe isn’t so glorious. It’s a wonderful thing to know that in every moment the choice truly is ours. Nobody else can make us breathe in what we breathe in, or breathe out what we breathe out.
There are reasons for not being open—fear of being hurt again or fear of being told what to do, or perhaps not believing that heaven is present. Given all these factors, it is still your choice to be open or to be closed.
I see myself as a conduit to receive heaven and to release it. Welcoming the many visitors who come to Sunrise is part of my job. Some of these visitors ask, “So who are these Emissaries? What’s this all about?”
Sometimes I answer with a one-liner: “An emissary is responsible for bringing heaven onto the earth.” We all know a little heaven on the earth would be a good thing! But if it’s not inside me, I can’t bring it onto the earth; I can’t give it out. And it won’t be inside me if I don’t receive it.
I’m wondering in this moment how much heaven we bring into this space to receive what’s yet to come? What is the inner essence that’s coming from our experience? How open are we in this moment?
Our job is to be open and receive what is present. Then we can be assured that we have filled the heavenly atmosphere that is ours to give into our world.
June 2nd, 2009
