I woke up angry this morning. I was dreaming about an incident that happened fifty years ago and used it as an excuse to hold a grudge against someone I was presently in conflict with.  I then spent an hour writing in my journal and was finally able to work through my ugliness. In so doing, I had an epiphany about a direction I needed to follow this very day rather than put it off again. This inner reflection stirred me to metaphorical kneel and kiss the ground. In thanksgiving, I was able to resolve two conflicts in one, make a decision to act and resolve both on this very day.

This afternoon, while looking for quotes to use in this vignette, I stopped with Rumi, one of my favorite sages, to read the above quote. What struck me was the “hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” Becoming conscious of this mornings’ justified anger and foul mood, I saw how far away I was from any beauty. How I’d been blinded by my own self made misery. In Essence, by awakening to this, I knelt and kissed the ground which gifted me with something I never could have attained had I not awakened to the beauty I saw through the illusion of my own ugliness. 

What did the conflict I woke up to have to do with what I was experiencing in today’s decision? As I reflected upon both, it became clear to me how I felt justified in being ugly because I felt the beauty I wanted had been taken away from me. In the taking, I somehow needed to ‘get even’ for a wrong that was done to me even though it was done fifty years earlier. . . In this psychic soup there is no time, just raw emotion from unresolved conflicts. This insight helped me see the necessity to drop the energy I’d been carrying for decades so I could open a new portal into LIFE.

To direct us to “let the beauty we love be what we do” is to help us awaken to our abilities to transcend any and all the ugliness, pain and unresolved conflict we’ve taken on in our lives. We all have the innate gifts of transformation within to ‘wake up’ any moment and be the beauty we are in our very Essence. Most of us however would never look within to find this beauty, this Energy, this Illumination. We’re constantly looking away from our inner aliveness to look at the pictures we paint to convince others of who we think we are rather than who we really are. 

As we reflect in this Autumn season, look to Nature to see the beauty and consciously be the beauty. Notice the coolness of the air and how you feel a new aliveness. Give witness to the leaves changing colors and how the trees are subtly drawing down as the light grows shorter and the darkness grows longer. Open time to give the outdoor flowers attention and notice their changes. Listen for the birds and hear how some have gone away while others have come again to stay. Give attention to the changing beauty here, there and everywhere within and without.

To kneel and kiss the ground can be a literal gesture. It can also be a subtle mindful gesture. To simply bow our hearts, breathe a sigh of reverence and wonder at the magnificence and beauty of creation can be a gift of nurturing affection. As we reverence the revelation of this ever present support system in whatever ways we choose, can we not stop daily to ‘kneel and kiss the ground’ in a way that say YES to LIFE, YES to LOVE, YES to ILLUMINATION? Can we not give thanks for the awareness of knowing that we too are the beauty? That we too are the sun, moon, stars, flowers,  flowing rivers and streams? I say ‘Yes’ with great awareness, for us to Be the Beauty!

• As you move through this day, slow down long enough to see the beauty wherever you are. Stop from time to time and look closely to wherever you gaze lands. See the beauty!
• Before you go to bed tonight, stand in front of a mirror and look deeply into the reflection of your face. Notice the grace of the lines, the grace of your face. Let go of your dislikes and simple see deeply into the depths of your being to see the wonder, the beauty!
• Close your eyes when it’s appropriate today and breathe deeply into the cave of your heart. Put both hands over your heart and breathe into the depths of your being, Ahh!