I write almost everyday. Generally I write over 1000 words each time I write. I don’t make an outline, I don’t plan what I’m going to write … part of “honorthismoment” is being IN the moment, whatever it is, and expressing how I’m feeling. So when I start out each morning to write, I take a deep breath, I connect to the stillness within, and I just start typing. It flows out of me in an effortless wave of words that I am sometimes surprised about. Occasionally I think “wow. I did NOT plan to write that.” or “huh … that was good.” I don’t feel that I am writing as much as I am tapping INTO the flow of the universe and I am expressing THAT space.

There are many mornings that I sit at the keyboard and feel slight resistance. Almost like I am unable to connect right then, and on those mornings I breath deeply, I sometimes close my eyes, I look at quotes that I love that inspire me and always (every time) inspiration comes and flows and the words take shape.

I love that I am so connected to the flow. It isn’t hard to write when you’re in flow, it is easy and almost effortless. Flow is a continuous smooth movement. It isn’t “hiccup-y” it doesn’t stutter and stop, it is like an undammed river … it just flows. Continuously. Perfectly.

For many years now I have felt that flow in my life. I have gotten a lot of guidance through my writing. I used to call the writings/inspiration I would receive “downloads.” I would sit and meditate for a minute and then just start writing and it would flow out of me in a perfect stream of guidance and direction. From the moment I began receiving those downloads I figured they were from God, or Jesus, or the Universe, or my “higher self” or my guardian angel … or something like that. (my perception of “who” they’re from has changed as I have grown, just as I would expect.)

I have always been a “faithful” person. I have always felt God energy in my life. I have changed though …  I have shifted and altered the words I use and thoughts about what that higher guidance is, but I haven’t changed my faith in that guidance. I look at the changes that have transformed my life and I know they are good. They have brought greater clarity … they have EXPANDED my understanding, they have opened up my mind to a more peace filled way of living, and you can’t argue with peace. That it’s present in my life is an indication of where I am on my journey.

Change is necessary in progression and growth. So I see the changes to my life as essential to my “eternal” divinely guided pathway. Without change – without growth – I would be damming the flow of the river.

There is not flow if there isn’t movement. There is not flow if there is no growth … the flow IS the growth, the flow IS movement, the existence of flow within my experience is an indicator that I am progressing. If I am not changing, growing, expanding, etc. then I am NOT progressing and I have “hedged up the way” – I have stopped the flow, which means there is stagnancy and the ABSENCE of movement.

When you look at your life, if you have peace, if you are growing and expanding your understanding continually, growing in joy, moving forward in healing and love (greater healing and greater love) then you can know, with certainty, that you ARE in flow. That you ARE moving forward. That you ARE progressing. Expansion looks like new knowledge you didn’t know before, greater understanding you didn’t have before, it is continually receiving transformative perception that alters the way you live in a beautiful way. It continually moves you forward into new thinking, greater unity with others, move love, healed relationships, expanding compassion, always greater PEACE.  

If nothing is changing, if your life is stagnant, if you feel like life is happening around you and you have no control, if you are frustrated and stressed and fearful, if you feel an absence of flow – an absence of inspiration – if you don’t KNOW that you’re moving forward and have CERTAINTY by the presence of that beautiful peace in your life, then change. Do something different. Look at every aspect of your life and see where there is a hedge that is barring the flow and remove it. Look for ways to be more open, to increase in love, to let go of the fear, to be inspired. BELIEVE that those are available to you and then, through trial and error, TEST different ways of thinking and living until you find what fills you with peace. The peace is the indicator – the gauge – to help you know that you are on the right path.

Don’t be scared of change. Yes, change can be awkward because it’s different and unfamiliar. But just because it’s different doesn’t mean it isn’t good for you … give new things a chance … don’t cast them off right away because they don’t look like what you know. You can’t GROW if you stick with what you know. A seed couldn’t fulfill its potential of being a flower if it stayed with the familiar and continued being a seed. Fulfilling its potential REQUIRES change – new life, new perspectives, new views, new understanding – new ways of BEING. As is the way though, there is a perfect “plan” for you to help guide you … all things can be “tested” through living them.

When I first started meditating, and I knew that getting up earlier in the morning would be the best time for me, and I was tired and not wanting to get up, that “download” voice … that higher understanding, the inspiration told me to get up earlier and that the time I spent meditating would give me more energy than that hour of sleep would … I had to test that. I had to try it for a time to SEE if it would bear good fruit or not.

It was hard. I was tired. I didn’t WANT to give up sleep … it felt like the OPPOSITE of what would give me energy. But my understanding of meditation and the energy that comes through connecting to the flow of existence told me that, yes, that guidance I had been given was truth and it WOULD be more beneficial for me to get up early and meditate than to sleep.

So I did it. I forced myself to set my alarm for an hour earlier than I needed to be up and I made myself get up and meditate. And you know what? I’m STILL struggling with sticking to that guidance, but I have SEEN the fruit of that inspiration and it is good. It gives me more energy and well being to get up early and meditate than to sleep in for that 60 minutes.

All inspiration that comes to you SHOULD be tested by you to witness to your understanding that it is either “good fruit” and delicious to your soul and peace giving LIFE …. or it is “bad fruit” and stunts your growth and “dams” the flow of that essential LIFE within you.

And you know how you know if it is LIFE or the absence of that Universal life that is part of all of us?

The peace.

The peace, if it is present tells you “YES! This is the way for you! Do THIS! You’re getting warmer and lighter as you follow this amazingly beautiful peace. Continue on!!” It is within you for a reason, and when it is sparked it is YOUR witness that you are fulfilling your soul’s most divine potential for that spot you’re in.

Remember that the peace is YOUR witness. You cannot follow another’s peace … their peace is not your peace. Their way cannot necessarily give you peace. Their peace cannot be transmitted to you. You must find it for yourself. It is a unique journey. You have to let go of comparing and judging and just be you and allow all others to be them and YOU follow YOUR peace.

As you do that, as you realize how EASY the way is when you use the peace within you as a gauge … you will love life. You will look at the sky in wonder and awe and laugh out loud at the ridiculously amazing plan it is. You will see that it is PERFECTION and the other way, the way you had been living, is so much less than perfection. This way is beautiful and surely and perfectly named “divine.”

I continue to feel what “limitless expansion” means and I have this depth of gratitude in my heart continually that I cannot even express in words. Words are less than and unequal to what is in my heart. The perfection and beauty and loveliness is beyond human expression and the peace is so wholly enveloping. That scripture in the Bible where Jesus says he gives peace but not as the world gives peace? It’s that. That’s truth. Whether you call the peace Jesus’ peace or Universal energy or love or well being or whatever .. the words, the descriptions, the symbols for that peace don’t matter. They are sad attempts at describing something that is indescribable.

It is real. It is abundant. It is SO wholly part of you that if you just connect to it, within yourself … not looking outside in any way in any form … trusting what is within you and knowing it is there for a reason … connect to THAT space. Find THAT space. Expand THAT space and you will know peace. And the words you use to describe it will fail to express what is in your heart, but you will try because it is so wholly transformative and so beautifully simple and so so close – you want ALL to feel this peace. You know ALL will be transformed by this peace. The term “world peace” is so perfectly true and you hope for it and picture it and begin to see how it is possible and the peace expands. Continually.