DIVINE SHAPING

Posted by: zanemaser | March 21, 2012

DIVINE SHAPING

This morning we awoke to unexpected snow—again! While our white and wet world is beautiful, I found myself starting to stress out about our large collection of shrubs and small trees, now quite weighted down with this heavy, moisture-laden snow. Many of the smaller varieties, like the Hebes, with their flexible, (to some extent) bendable branches, are flattened to the ground. Will they rise again and resume their characteristic form? How will they be altered? Will it be beneficial? Will I be happy with the result?

Trust and faith are wonderful things, though I am tested about them on such a morning! To trust that each shrub or tree or the daffodils with their faces in the snow are responding and acting according to their own true nature, to what is best for them—not to how I think or feel they “should” be. To be able to adapt in such supple ways to the changing environmental conditions, from day to day, month-to-month in the annual cycle, is a beneficial evolutionary strategy, one that strengthens and allows the individual plant to account for and flow with all forms of Divine Shaping.

God is shaping our garden. However it turns out,
we’ll love our plants just as they are.
Chris Maser

On the human level, a literal physical or emotional “snowstorm,” “high-wind,” or “flood” experience can hit and knock us to our knees temporarily. It can take us moments or weeks (or years for some) to catch our breath! Lifting our heads, we shake ourselves a bit and exclaim: “WHAT was THAT?”

Whenever we endure any serious dark passage, in whatever specific form it manifests, it can engulf us with despair and uncertainty, hopelessness and lethargy, grief and numbness, later to release us into greater clarity and abiding strength, something we would not possess as an unshakeable personal asset had we not navigated this dimly lit night of the soul.

The focalized energy of Divine Sculpting can be excruciatingly painful—or not. This is the power of our attitude, in the moment. We get to choose. Either way, God’s Chisel is the same—tender, respectful, loving.

These surprising, unforeseen events—coming to us from the planetary realm of Uranus, the great Awakener and Liberator—stop us long enough to perhaps consider a new perspective, one that may be more limber and open to new possibilities and a broader vision of our self. We enter a crossroads to reassess: “Am I on the right Path at this time in my life? If I truly listen inwardly to my Sacred Center, what is calling to me now? Where do I want to focus my valuable energies?”

The man or woman who will receive the greatest good
must learn to accept all that comes with thanksgiving and joyousness; and the deeper, the more shattering the experience,
the grander the ultimate reward. You are privileged to be
living in these days, although there are many who would
prefer quieter and more peaceful times. But these are days
of great awakening, great spiritual force and power.
White Eagle, On Living in Harmony with the Spirit

And so the “snowstorm” that showed up during the night, unanticipated by the weather experts, is a personal watershed when viewed through the wiser eyes of Spirit. By letting go of resistance and lower vibrating emotions, such as distress, sadness, anger, fear, or envy, we say “yes” to moving on to the next level. These evolutionary, restorative events allow new parts of our self to be born—divine aspects that flower in the light of acceptance and freedom. Above all, these “apparently” crushing events always present an opportunity to love our self unconditionally, as does an adoring Mother, and to feel the grace in the “new version” of us with its increased, ever adaptable capacity to love others—just as they are. It is realizing that whatever we offer ourselves in forgiveness and acceptance, we offer to all others unequivocally.

Whether we welcome it or not, life—beautiful life—with all its variety of energetic signatures, has a way of “showing up,” as Jennifer McLean so often says, and in whatever form it does show up, it’s perfect! Life is a diamond. The facet of the diamond that greeted us this morn was ultra heavy, soaking snow and sagging vegetation. God IS shaping our landscape and us. And IT is perfect! It IS perfect! It is PERFECT!

Look forward to everything that is good,
and whatever comes, know that it is just and right,
and there is something for you to learn from whatever comes.
White Eagle