Inner and Outer Changes

Sunday morning, as I awoke and sat with my cup of coffee, I caught a portion of a television program. The woman speaking was discussing the inner and outer changes that occur as we walk a spiritual path.

She did not call them choices. She spoke instead of speaking the Word of God.

Something in what she said caught my attention.

She used the analogy that when we first step onto a spiritual path, we do not suddenly look different on the outside. If we are bald, wear glasses, are skinny or plump, we usually continue to look much the same.

The transformation begins within.

She did not take the thought much further, but immediately I saw the opening of the heart.

Perhaps that is one of the first true changes.

We begin opening the door we have kept closed. We begin lowering some of the walls of protection we have built around the heart through disappointment, fear, pain, rejection and experience.

Those walls once served a purpose.

They protected us.

But eventually there comes a time when protection can become limitation.

For me, the heart must begin to open before the mind can truly shift from being led primarily by the protector to becoming directed by the deeper Presence of the soul.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if beginning the spiritual path also meant our hair suddenly grew back, every ache disappeared, and we immediately became younger, healthier and exactly the size we wanted to be?

Usually, transformation does not happen quite that way.

Our relationship with the body can certainly change as we become more conscious of what we carry, how we care for ourselves, what we release, and how we choose to live. Yet the deeper transformation begins within.

It begins in awareness.

It begins in alignment.

It begins in choice.

The woman on the program also spoke of angels surrounding us, waiting for us to speak the Word of God so they might work with us.

I heard that through my own understanding.

What if the “Word of God” is not merely the recitation of words from a sacred text?

What if it is Love, Compassion, Truth and the caring of the Oneness of Creation being expressed through us?

Then our words become more than something we say.

They become something we carry.

This is where mindfulness becomes important.

Before speaking, before reacting, before acting, we can become aware of what is actually present within us.

Am I speaking from anger?

From fear?

From judgment?

From bitterness?

From the need to defend myself or prove that I am right?

Or have I taken the time to return to my heart and listen for the quieter guidance of Presence?

We can speak beautiful and sacred words, but those words still pass through the consciousness of the person speaking them.

If I speak of love while holding anger in my heart, some of that anger may travel with my words.

If I speak of compassion while judging the person before me, they may feel the judgment more strongly than they hear the message.

If I speak of peace while fighting within myself, my words may say one thing while my energy communicates another.

Perhaps this is why going within matters so deeply.

We learn to find the still place.

We return to the heart.

We allow compassion to soften us.

We remember Love.

Then, when the words come, they do not merely speak about Light and Love.

They carry something of them.

This does not mean we must become perfect before we speak or act.

Perfection is not the requirement.

Awareness is.

We can become mindful of the energy we are carrying into our encounters with one another.

We can notice when the protector has taken the lead.

We can pause long enough to ask what Love would say.

What Compassion would say.

What Truth would say without needing to wound.

What Presence would choose.

Perhaps this is one of the deeper meanings of:

Are we walking the walk, or merely talking the talk?

And as I sit with that question, I realize it is also where my next Dig Deeper begins.

Not simply understanding these things.

Not simply writing about them.

But living them on a whole new level.

I AM Quinara