These words are from the song “Anywhere Away From Here,” written and sung by Rag’n’Bone Man and Pink.

Don’t know if you notice,
Sometimes I close my eyes
And dream I’m somewhere else
Anywhere away from here.

The song addresses the question felt by many people about whether they belong in the world they find themselves in. And they feel an urge to escape from that world. This Pulse of Spirit is our answer to that question.

The Sufi writer Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee says this:

The eternal moment is outside of time, is not a part of our past or our future, and yet it is lived amidst all our everyday activities…. It is in the eternal moment that love is born…. Love does not belong to time, and its timeless quality is well known to all lovers…. The lover has to learn to still the mind in order to catch the moment and stay true to love’s unfolding…. Wayfarers tread a path that leads from the illusion of time to the eternal moment that belongs to the soul.

                                           (from The Signs of God, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee)

Here we are in this eternal moment, considering how a human being could desire to be anywhere away from here, anywhere away from this present moment. How a human being could come into the world, innocent as an infant and then a child, and at some point wake up to the fact that they don’t feel at home in this world. And who of us have not had that experience at one time or another? Thinking, I am not from here. I am not part of this web of lies that gets spun in human culture. I am not at home. I do not belong.

And so, there is a reconciliation that goes on, and so often a compromise that happens in the human soul.

Some of us wake up to the fact that we are in this world for a reason, but we are not of it. We were planted here, but the essence of who we are is not of the culture. We are not made of the stuff of the lies of the culture in which we live. We are a being who transcends all that, bringing something beautiful into the culture.

In the world in which we live, people spin out. They leave the vivid awareness of the present moment they had as a child, where Love is known and the truth of themselves lives. For we who are incarnate in human bodies in the world of space and time, that place is in this physical world and in the culture. We were planted in human culture as a member of the human race. And yet, at the same time, we have the opportunity to realize that we are not just on earth—we are in heaven. This present moment is not just of the earth. This present moment is heavenly. There is Love in this timeless Reality. And so, being planted in the present moment is not just being stuck in the earth or stuck in human culture. It is being planted in Reality, in the midst of heaven on earth. When I accept Reality, I am not just accepting the physical forms of my life. I am not just accepting what was put on the news this morning. I am accepting a larger Reality, and I am embracing that. I am getting planted deeper and deeper into that.

We see people becoming so lost in the affairs of the world, losing an awareness of the present moment. And it all makes so much sense from one perspective. This is the way it was reported in the recent news of events of Israel and Gaza.

They threw rocks at us. We threw a stun grenade into their mosque. 

They invaded our sacred place. We launched rockets. 

They launched rockets. We dropped bombs. 

Retaliation seems to make sense, at least to the people directly involved. But in the longer arc of the story, what is happening? Seen from the perspective of this present moment, what are we doing as humankind? From that larger perspective, it makes no sense at all.

We are here, not to run away from what is happening in our culture but to be right smack-dab in the middle of it and face what is transpiring. There is clearly an intensification happening on our planet today, and it is going on inside the body of humanity. That intensification is causing some people to spin out—to attempt to escape. The tremendous power of Love coming into the human experience causes people who are not firmly planted in Reality to want to run. And yet that same intensified energy that causes people to blow out could empower them to be ever more planted here, now, in Reality—ever more centered, ever more present, ever more powerfully an expression of Love in the world. We are here to blaze that path.

And so, this is what we say to our own souls and to anyone who feels the urge to escape. Truly, there is no place to be, other than right here in the middle of Reality. Come, get more firmly stuck in that. Get more firmly planted here. Use all that power and intensity you are feeling to bring all that great Love into this Reality. Stand planted in the midst of the garden and allow the creative field around you to proliferate. Let your garden grow because you are here, feeding it with your Love.

And so, we are here both to open up to the Highest Love, to the Wonderful One within, and to speak for our world and say, Come into your garden. Come into me. Come into this world. My Beloved is welcome here.

As this is our openness, we find that we are the Beloved for our field, here to come into our garden, Love our people; to enfold, bring care, surround, and to shine the Light.

I invite you to join me in saying these words to our world.

The essence of you is in this world but not of it.
We are not only present in the human world. We are in heaven on earth.
You belong here—in heaven on earth.
You are needed here.
You are wanted here.
You were sent here.
You are Loved.
You are surrounded and empowered by Love to be here and bring what is yours to bring.

We are reversing the urge to escape. We are using that energy that goes into escapism for what it is designed for, to Love—to be fully present as Love, as Light, in this world. To be ever more centered spiritually in the Beloved, ever more open to the Love of the Beloved, ever more open to the Light and the Life of the Beloved, and ever more powerful in bringing that Love, that Light, that Life, into this garden, where we are standing in the midst. And to penetrate this world with the greatest Love of all.

We are ever more here. This is our answer to the urge to escape felt by so many people. We are ever more here.