I've noticed that people sometimes shift from the word God to Universe in order to get away from old, unwanted aspects of the religion or concepts of divinity they were brought up in, but they do little to change the actual content of that concept. They plug in Universe, perhaps with a somewhat softer or more expansive touch, wherever they used God before.
Hiding in that unconsciously partial switcheroo is the likelihood they still see life as judging them and punishing them, or (perhaps more subtle but still often ill-conceived) as teaching them lessons and testing them; and they think in terms of merit or needing to earn grace or guidance or goodness. They're still separate from the fabric of existence. Where are you in this? I'd like to invite you to a concept of the Universe that embraces the idea that you could equally pan out to the most vast expanse of the cosmos or drop in to the tiniest atom in your own body, and know that you are part of all that. The whole of the Universe and the whole of you are not separate. Someone once told me she didn't have a parking lot god, then patiently helped me understand what she meant—that God didn't open up parking spaces for her when she was in a hurry or really wanted a great spot close to her destination. The idea was, I'm just not that special or important, and God has bigger fish to fry. But do you have a fish-frying God who's tied up with great affairs while you remain small? That's still the old dichotomy. Try this on: I am one with the Universe and all the workings of the cosmos, which include what is expressed in a single atom in the microcosm that is my own body. Thus, my living in alignment could most certainly, at a given moment, look like a parking space opening up for me in that right-place-right-time magic. It could equally land me all the way across the parking lot—in which case there'd be some gift for me in the journey (anything from a chance meeting with a person, animal, or vista to the opportunity to drop speed and efficiency and simply get present to and value the mundane reality of being a woman on planet Earth, walking across the expanse of a lot dotted with cars). Please note that my object here is to make clear my terms and my position. My aim is not to convert you to a specific belief system (and I actually seek, in mine, to keep a lot undefined and unspecific). In this rich Universe of multiple belief systems, my intention, as a coach, is to support you to understand your own belief system, to experiment and align with your own belief system—as it stands to date in a dynamic process, perhaps characterized by presence, curiosity, absorbed engagement. I'm most interested in supporting you to follow your guidance system, which will always be aligned with what's truest for you, and will keep getting you to new and better expressions of what's truer for you, for your becoming right now. Guidance comes in now for now, and when we connect to that and follow it, what ensues is truly brilliant. |