morning program

here's a lovely morning program -- it's served as the way I experience those first waking moments of consciousness, every morning, for the last several years:

upon realizing that you're awake, start chanting any prayer you really love, asking the divine to use you as its instrument for the day.

the Guru Mantra is the prayer I use in the mornings, reminding myself that I am completely NOT in control of my own day and whatever happens is really in god's hands. the best I can do is surrender to god's will for my day, and be a willing instrument of healing, love, truth, and hard work, no matter what's happening. and to take care of whoever comes in front of me, or whatever situations materialize throughout the day, to the best of my ability.

starting the day off this way, acknowledging the creator/creatrix, and putting myself completely in their hands, makes each day a sacred adventure.

there are literally days when I can recognize, actively, that every person with whom I come into contact is speaking to me as a representative of the divine..... and that every situation that occurs is either a reflection of my own karma, or some divine testing, or both, or some opportunity to wash out whatever illusions (like fear, egoism, jealousy, blaming, anger, etc.) I'm carrying.

then there are those other days, when despite the best intentions in the world, I can't see much beyond my own emotions and ideas about how things are...and it seems that the divine is quite far away, or at least, elusive, on those kinds of days of forgetting.

in a nutshell, there's the human condition. we are divine characters who are so fogged over, at any given time, that we completely abrogate our divine natures and forget what incredible light creatures we are. (and often act like idiots out of that forgetfulness! *grinning* )

for human beings to wake up, acknowledge their soulful connection to god, and set an inner intention to function as a being in the flow of the divine will -- it's a powerful step toward recognizing the inner divine that is always present within us, whether we are consciously aware of this, at any given moment, or not.

one final thought, a joke I've loved for years and STILL laugh at:

Do you know how to make god laugh?

Tell him/her your plans for the day!!!!!!!