Your Seed

Since our Source is invisible to the human eye, how do we find the seed of our Source in order to plant it and encourage it to open and grow? Well, we can feel the seed of our Source within us. We know it when we are feeling good. I felt it as a child. I felt it when I played outside, visited the ocean, spent time with my family, and ate ice cream.

I also felt it in churches. I felt a Presence — something bigger than me and bigger than my family. That Presence felt all loving and all powerful to me. When I was ten years old, we attended an Episcopal church that I loved. It was a large church, and it was elaborately decorated. There was deep carpet down the center aisle, with dark wooden pews on either side. The ceiling was arched and accented with wood carvings. The front of the church and the altar also had carved wood and beautiful, colorful statues. There were large stained-glass windows in the walls of the altar space and smaller ones along the outside walls. Before entering our pew, we knelt or kind of curtsied and crossed ourselves. I loved that part. Crossing myself made me feel holy and uplifted. I felt connected to God when I was in that church. I was easily connected to the sense of awe, to the idea that I was part of something bigger than myself. In that beautiful building with hushed tones, singing, and ceremony, my seed of Source opened. I felt good.

At that stage in my development, I perceived God as being a loving force outside of myself who wanted to help me. The feeling that image conjured made my heart feel happy and my burden feel light. I was part of God's family.

Feeling like part of God's family gave me a sense of security. I liked feeling secure. I had the good fortune of attending churches where that conviction was emphasized. I know there are many churches where people walk away with feelings that are not positive. Rather, they feel fear, lack, degradation, and suffering. Fortunately, those were not the experiences I had. I knew even as a child that if God was all loving, then feelings of fear, degradation, and suffering didn't apply to him. Since they were not part of my belief system about God, fortunately, I didn't run into them much.

When I was growing up, my father was a pilot in the US Navy, so we moved every two years. He had been raised in the Methodist church, and he chose to no longer attend church. My mother had been raised in the Catholic church and had ascertained that the rules were man-made, not God-made, as purported, and therefore, she had lost her faith in that belief system. However, I think a religious and spiritual education for us was important to her, and she also craved that connection to her Source. So she took us to a different Christian church every two years. Each time we moved, we attended a different church. We attended a variety of Christian churches, including the Episcopal church I described earlier and a Unitarian meeting. I am so appreciative of that opportunity to experience the different ways people celebrate and acknowledge their divinity. What a blessing that was. Thank you, Mom!

As a young adult, I continued that exploration of churches and religions on my own. Since I had had the good fortune of attending a variety of churches, I developed an internal compass to decide what made sense and rang true for me and what didn't. During this time, I found myself in the pew of a Unity church. As the service progressed, I felt increasingly happier and more uplifted. It was the feeling of homecoming. What the minister was saying about God matched my thoughts and feelings about my God, my Source. What I heard was the following: "God wants us to be happy. We were put on this earth to prosper. God is all loving. God wants only the best for all of us. God is there every moment to support us in whatever ways we need. When we ask, it is given." Oh my goodness! And I heard detailed, practical information about how to access that feeling of a Source who wanted only the best for me. That message and the reading materials I availed myself of rang true for me. My sprouted seed began to grow.

I also experienced the camaraderie of like-minded souls in that church and what it was like to be part of a community. That might have been my first experience of recognizing God in others. One of my favorite expressions from that time was "The Christ in me greets the Christ in you." I learned this phrase as a silent acknowledgment to practice with other humans. It was the beginning of my understanding and feeling that what was in them was also in me. We're all made up of the same stuff. We all come from Source.

In those days, though, God was still something and somebody outside of me. I felt him in church, I felt him when I was outdoors, I felt him at the ocean, and I felt him when I was with people I loved. The connection I felt in church was familiar, so I sought more of those experiences. I continued to visit new churches and new religions. I discovered A Course in Miracles, published by the Foundation for Inner Peace, which I studied with others. The course taught me that God is love, and therefore, so am I. And therefore, so is everyone else.

My seed had popped open, sprouted, and begun to grow. I liked the way I felt, and I wanted to experience that uplifted feeling more and more of the time.

What encourages each person's seed to pop open and sprout will vary. Below, you will find resources and exercises that will encourage your seed to open. I have found that writing about my experiences and my thoughts and feelings around those experiences can be very helpful. So I encourage you to write about your experience with each exercise using the blank pages provided in the back of this book, a journal, a piece of paper, a napkin, a computer, a notepad, or whatever is easiest for you. And I encourage you to do the same with each of the exercises in this book. Enjoy! Explore!

I offer the following resources to help your seed sprout: listen to music, meditate, spend time in nature, go to church, hang out with loving friends and family, and read books that inspire (about mindfulness, metaphysics, healing, and spirituality).

Sprouting Exercises

1. Do something that inspires you. Do something that makes you feel good all over. Look at beautiful things or places in your home, in your neighborhood, online, or in print. Watch a YouTube video of one of your favorite speakers. Put on music, and move. Feel the connection to your Source.

2. Go outside when the weather suits you. Do what you want while you are there — maybe walking, maybe gardening, maybe biking, maybe swimming, maybe sitting, or maybe reading. Just go outside. Follow your own lead about what you want to do while you are there.

3. Breathe. Breathe deeply. Breathe in. Breathe out. Do it in a structured setting, such as a yoga class or guided meditation, or just do it any time you remember to.

4. Attend a church. See if you can find one that helps you feel uplifted. Meanwhile, pick up the gold...