It wasn’t until the late nineteen sixties that my vision expanded significantly and it was traumatic. It came through tears, fears and a little help from my friends. It came through wars, closed minds, command and control authoritarianism, segregation, marches on Washington, fixed mindsets, deep love, experimentation, mountains, hitchhiking, loss, gain, oceans, forests and a broken heart that sought solace, strength, pardon and renewal. My vision of life expanded from a small town perspective to a global one. It became part of an evolutionary process.

Forty plus years have passed since I left my small Mid-Western town environment. I’m not the same naive twenty something I was then and don’t see the world the same now as then and yet, part of him still lives within me. I now look upon a much wider horizon that extends into the cosmos of both outer and inner space while also looking in this moment with greater focus. I can now zoom in and out for a more comprehensive perspective. This wider view has generated more interconnectivity and less isolation, more love and less fear.

Over the past few years I’ve been traveling back to Michigan to spend time on and near the vastness of the Great Lakes. I saw the curvature of the Earth over the waters of Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water on the globe. I spent two weeks sailing on Lake Michigan experiencing the turbulence of the waves while also seeing the calmness of the horizon. The turbulence wanted to bind while the calmness wanted to cradle. The rhythm of life was in the air, the water, the sailing vessel, the crew and the moment. The vision was expanded beyond me.

I realized in these awakened moments on the water that turbulence and calmness is always present when we’re moving through life. The contrast helps us come to terms with our own fears and cheers. It helps us know that no matter where we are we have the choice to contract and expand depending on what’s called for. When the waves are up we can be on the deck feeling each wave and spray of water or we can be below deck hanging on for dear life. By being on deck the horizon expands and so do we. Embracing the adventure makes us stronger.

What’s the wider horizon you’re being asked to look upon? What’s the fear that’s bound up in you that keeps you stressed? What’s the isolation you’re experiencing and the wider view that will help you feel more connected to the conscious circle of creation? How are you choosing fear over love, contraction over expansion, hiding over revealing, heaviness over lightheartedness, closing over opening? Expanding your vision  is done through a willingness to engage all five senses, your heart, your soul, your body, your mind and beyond.

I sit here on another grey inland morning looking out over the horizon that leads me beyond the troubled waters of my present life situation. In this expanded vision I see the vastness of water and boats sailing by. I feel the breeze gently flowing through the trees and see other new places, warm embraces and smiling faces. I see contrast leading to reconciliation, harmony, new ways of being and doing, lovingkindness, adventure and great prosperity. I see expansion and contraction leading to new birth and feel an aliveness and willingness to engage the edges of human consciousness. I see you and me expanding and enlivening; a whole new reality.   

• Sit quietly for eight deep breaths. As you approach the eighth breath begin to envision the life you’d like to live. Allow your imagination to be inspired and go there in your mind’s eye. See it, smell it, hear the sounds of it and touch it. Taste and see what’s here, enter into it and let it enter into you. Feel the feeling of being here. Breathe it in.

• When you’re ready, slowly zoom back to where you’re presently sitting and bring the sensations and feelings with you. Continue to breathe in the feelings. Know that they are real and take note of how they came to be. Allow this expansion to live within you and return to it often as a touchstone to your heart’s desire and your soul’s code.

• Awaken to the truth that it’s about what you felt on the inside. This space within is here all the time. The vision is only a portal through which you enter this inner realm of expansion. The more you love and live within this wider horizon the more you can experience its’ height, depth and breadth. Expanding your vision then is ultimately about expanding your love, your life, your joy, your abundance; pure awareness. Ahh.