Those of us who choose the spiritual path always think it’s going to make our lives easier, at least most of us think so when we start out, but too soon we get it that living our lives in a sacred manner is no walk in the park. At least that’s been my experience.
The next person over may have an easier time of it, but for most of the people I know it’s not written on their birth certificate that “this one shall have an easy life.” For most of us it’s the opposite, and we get to wondering why life can sometimes seem so difficult when we’re such good people and trying our best to be better.
I know the answer to this. “Let go. Go with the flow. Be One with All. Stay in the Moment. Stay in the Love. God/Spirit/Creator, your angels and guides are all with you. I know. I know. I teach this stuff. But teaching and living it are not necessarily the same, and sometimes life is just plain hard.
Even when I know how to make it easier, life can be a challenge that I don’t always feel up to meeting. Now I have to admit it has gotten easier the more I practice what I teach, or at least the times of angst are shorter and maybe a little less severe. I beg and plead and stomp my feet less and say thank you more.
I have to admit though that most of the time I’m pretty happy and may go for months in a state of deep contentment with long periods of feeling a jumping-up-and-down excitement and joy. Still there are those times when I walk-off-the-front-porch-and-get-lost-in-the-woods as I refer to the getting lost in worry or sorrow or fret about something or feel stuck when I want to be on the fast track.
Fortunately, these days I don’t stay lost in the woods for too long, but it wasn’t always so, and I remember those times well. Times where I would wake in the middle of the night afraid of what I didn’t know. Afraid of being able to pay the bill. Afraid of getting sick or afraid…Just afraid. Times when I wondered if I really could wake up the next day and get through it. Times when I didn’t want to wake up the next day to get through it.
These times may come back, but fortunately they are not here in this day, and that’s the point—those days of the dark night of the soul do not always linger. Our lives may never be the Garden of Eden and Nirvana may only be glimpsed now and then or may even only be a promise of something that could be, but a promise nevertheless that we can hold onto in hopes of a better tomorrow.
And this is, I believe, what the spiritual path is—a sacred walk through all the human experiences to find that true heart’s desire—union with God, with the Light. It isn’t always about life being easy. It is about continuing to take that next step regardless of the hardships, perhaps even maneuvering between them.