December 17 – Refreshing your Outlook: Go find a tree that you can climb and climb it … Sit there a bit a look around. Notice how everything looks quite different from a higher perspective. [note: climbing a tree isn’t required – any view “from above” is OK]

Note: It doesn’t matter how high you climb — though, like every other act, the more courageously you engage it, the more potent it becomes.

It is somehow “programmed” into humans to want to climb things – to be safe on “higher ground”, to “look out” for possible enemies, and to “get a better view”. Not surprisingly, this desire is perfectly reflected in our spiritual seeking as well, where we yearn for the “pinnacle of enlightenment” that will somehow lend us “clarity of purpose”.

Of course, if we are climbing in unknown territory, we tend to becoming deathly afraid of falling …

… and so we end up thinking about climbing more than actually elevating our Selves.

Admittedly, sometimes life gets so frightening (or feels so meaningless) that we scamper up a new slope (not to humbly get a “fresh look” reborn, but to selfishly flee from discomfort).

And sometimes, we greedily hunger for the peace of mind that someone else has attained from their own climb. So we copy them, hoping to get the same reward.  This doesn’t work so well either …

Sometimes we experience immense pleasure and think we have reached our summit …

… only to return to our old, self-centered ways and plummet again into dis-ease.

Today’s task was designed to awaken each of us to the gift that is always ours to open: the ability to see our lives anew without altering their circumstances. Today, I learned that it is not necessary to climb a high mountain to “elevate myself” and gain fresh perspectives on my life …

Buddha sat under a tree and “climbed” the ladder of Oneness …

Some folks can “climb” ladders of internal Joy (getting “higher” while serving others during their own “hard times”) …

… while other folks “rise up from the depths” of depression by choosing to be grateful for life anyway.

And some folks, like me today, “climb” to higher awareness simply by looking verrrry closely at the wonders at their feet; the brilliant Beauty that always surrounds us, but that is so often overlooked.

The key, I found, was not found in obtaining “new heights” by manipulating a radical change in my physical surroundings, nor was it found by “going deeper” into some esoteric “understanding of self”.

They key for me, it turned out, was simply realizing that I am already on my summit – and that I simply had to look around with “new eyes” to see it.

Now, time to go act accordingly!

See You when I see you …

… and until then, Be Now!

Scaughdt

Filed under: 366 Days of Kindness by Scaughdt