The Madness of March

Through the Trees 1 (©Ziggy Robideaux)

"The soul cares not for the truth of the mind,

The soul cares only for the experience of Love, Joy and Bliss"

I sat at the Center for Spiritual Living  this morning contemplating the end of winter, the rebirth of spring, the joy of "March Madness" and how it is all a circuitously cycle of events, experience year after year.  I struggle with my love of college basketball. How can I strive for spiritual awareness and lose myself in 40 hours of the insanity of what is known as the March Madness. Perhaps it's because I see past or blissfully ignore how big colleges make the millions of dollars at the expense of college athletes. Never mind that kids are being scouted in jr. high school to be played in big name colleges and universities. A lot of these kids have opportunities to go to school, get an education, and then there is basketball. Granted most of these kids will never go pro. Only about 1% of college players go pro and only a small percentage more get a job playing overseas.So then what is all the madness around the Big Dance. It's 2 weeks where it is one game at a time to get to the next round , where Cinderella teams end up in the sweet 16 or the final four. For some of these guys winning the final will be there sport highlight of their lives. But those 2 weeks, the dreams, the dance and of course never knowing who will end up on the big stage and play in the final. So what does that have to do with spirituality? This is my life, except I don't play basketball, but I do play in this game called life. I feel so much bliss in the excitement of the game. Especially those games that are won in milliseconds at the end of the game. You know- where your driving down the court and the clock says 0.6 seconds and you fire from mid-court and the ball finds the net, a silent swoosh. I feel alive in that excitement, the opposite of my deepening meditation practice, where I work hard to quiet that current of excitement, that is constantly running through me. The current I call life. I am reading again "The Alchemist" by Paul Coelho and I read this last night. "...when each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives everyday." My days are never the same, except in the fact that the sun rises and the sun sets, but even that happens differently, even if it by a minute in the beginning and the end of the day. And yet, with a focused meditation, my day is never the same. I refuse to let them be the same. So many good things happen in between the sunrise and sunset and I capture it all in a gratitude list, day after day.  I talked to my sister tonight, and mentioned I had been laid off in November, and she said she had no idea that I had been laid off. She said she couldn't tell by my Facebook posts. She said they were always positive. I like to keep it that way. It's true, that we all suffer. It's true we all have our own journey, but what energy do I want to choose to live in. What do I do to lean into my suffering, to embrace it, to see what it has to offer me, and then to let it go.

     What does my authentic life look like? I believe that my authentic life looks like how I participate in my souls life. And how do I actively participate and show up in this experience called life. First of all I embrace my freedom. In this freedom I can see my path and  I walk it through discernment. Discernment is grace. "Discernment: means the ability to see and understand people, things or situations clearly and intelligently." By practicing discernment I commit to the practice of spiritual wisdom. And spiritual wisdom is keeping things simple. When I make spirituality the focal point of my life, it keeps everything simple. I  can then keep my meditation simple, my work simple, my relationships simple, and my play simple. Why, because all of these things are in this large container I call spirit, a handbag or a backpack for my soul. It is simple when I just put everything into my spiritual practice. Work on a project, call in my soul to help with some infinite creativity. Want to paddle board in unknown water, call in my soul to tap into infinite joy and bliss. It's a simple formula, which becomes more and more powerful, the deeper and deeper I delve into what is possible. The universe is infinite and expanding and so are the possibilities. My only job is to follow my souls guidance- and my soul want to experience love, joy and bliss. So as I continue to delve deeper into consciousness, my responsibility is to continue to cultivate love and joy and share it with others. The more I share with others, the more I receive from the universe.  And that means to stop looking for shortcuts to joy. Joy can not be bought or sold at a fair market price. Nor can love or bliss.  To stop trying to beat the system, which tells me, I am not good enough, I am not pretty enough, I am not loveable enough. To participate in my life, means I show up everyday with a breath of gratitude for all the amazing things in my life. To appreciate what I have and the moments I share with like minded companions, and to see the Divine Consciousness in everything I see and in everyone I talked too. To be in alignment with my authentic self, my soul, means to find first and foremost-forgiveness for myself and to all those in my life, past and present. "A true act of forgiveness is a leap into mystical consciousness, an initiation into the Divine trust", Caroline Myss

     All I have to do is to take a leap of faith, drive down the court in the milliseconds of the dwindling game called life, throw the ball and have gratitude for playing the game whether the ball goes in or not. For this is the big stage called life, and it is a dance and I dance with love, joy and bliss that is called March Madness.

Through the Trees 2 (©Ziggy Robideaux)