All my life I claimed you as close friends, but I never took the time to learn your names.

I took ownership of my apathy and excuses one stunning afternoon this past June. I have been spending a lot of time in Yosemite Valley and purchased a naturalist guidebook to trees and plants common in the Sierra Mountain range. I realized during a short conversation with some Yosemite employees, that I had been lazy and apathetic towards growing in my knowledge of nature. I did not even know the names of the trees I have hiked through all these years. I realized I had been blaming my parents for not teaching me! I’ve had 20 years to begin a journey that was truly mine. It makes me ponder what other areas I could take ownership of and stop blaming others for my choices. This apathy and victimhood serves no one and is unhealthy for me. What is of great value to all of us is owning our life, our choices and moving forward within our intention and power.

 

Trying to figure out each trees name has enriched my experience of hiking and camping this season. I had seen the bark, needles and pinecones, but connecting these details cultivates a childlike wonder and awe within my heart. Taking ownership of the spaces I inhabit is empowering practice that I have been growing in awareness of. This process empowers me with a fresh responsibility and optimism that I can use my intention more often to craft a better reality for others and myself. What gardens have been left unattended I personally ponder? We can always start with the soil of curiosity and cultivate this ground of being.

 

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” John Muir

 

I have over sensationalized what it means to be lead by Spirit. I believe we need to follow our curiosities and see where they lead us. Quite possibly this could be what it means to be lead by the Spirit. I’m coming to believe following the Spirit is very simple, I would suggest this process starts with paying attention to our curiosity. God invites us to go deeper into the geology of our own heart and this can be a powerful way to cultivate union with our source. By becoming grounded with in our own curiosity we become grounded in pure source. Our creator is closer than breath, closer than skin, and so much connection happens when we investigate our personal curiosity. These inclinations are well explored by Liz Gilbert in her book, “Big Magic,” and the concepts I borrow from her and Rob Bell on this matter have been empowering and life giving.

 

Where our interest leads us may be healthy or may illuminate our need for healing. Wherever yours leads you, own it and move into your curiosity as a child does with intention and excitement. Take joy in what the Spirit reveals, because it is what you need to understand in this present moment. Stop, search, carve out the time to just breath… you will remember, you are invited to dwell, the great spirit is present, the holy one is near, radiating from within and from all around you… this is our sacred moment. Take ownership of your life and start in this very moment!

 

God has planted his spirit with in each of us his children. It’s up to us to cultivate this seed, growing in awareness, and blossoming into a meaningful expression of his presence in our world. Those who use this gift for their own gain will reap weeds of soul. However those who celebrate and cultivate this gift realize that the gift of life is about unity with each other and unity with our creator. This reality is worth daily considering, cultivating and giving yourself to. Any early follower of Jesus said this,

 

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life,” Paul of Tarsus.

 

Jesus of Nazareth taught us through simple stories these eternal truths. We are the ground of being; we are the soul where the words of the eternal God grow. We are one with him as he is one with his father and we enter into this profound and wonderful mystery with Christ! We become vehicles of life or death based on the choices we make. We have been wisely invited to be about life, others, and to be the hands and feet of God. This is the good news that God is with in, we are enough, we are acceptable, and God is close and available. We are apart of nature not over it. We are apart of God, not God.