Eternity – It's All In Me

We Are Born In the Moments

September 3, 2017September 3, 2017 Higher Up IDEAL8 Comments

quotes324 Below is a poem written by my 9 year old daughter, Calista, a sensitive soul and one of my best friends ever. I say that because I can relate to her more than I can relate to most people. I guess it is similar to my relationship with my own mother. Our relationship transcends familial bonds. In a lot of ways I think if we were to relate to one another simply in that way, it would actually place a limitation on our ability to learn and grow together. Of course I respect my mother according to certain societal prescriptions and I ask the same of my daughter for me.

However, from a spiritual perspective, I understand that I cannot limit our ability to teach one another simply because my mother was born before me and I was born before my daughter. After all, we are more than simply these corporeal expressions traveling through time. The greater part of us is eternal–beyond time and therefore each of us has at our disposal access to the infinite wisdom of our Source, our Creator with whom we eternally. From this perspective, as one whose ideal is to live a life that expresses the “On Earth as it is in Heaven” design, I’d be a fool not to see every being as a potential gateway to greater awareness of God’s grace and revelation.

C.S. Lewis said:

“For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which [God] has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity or with the Present–either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.”

I believe that this is the essence of what Calista’s poem conveys and it is to this awareness that I am convicted. Children are very present centered beings. If what Brother Lewis is saying is accurate–and I believe it is–then this aspect of how they encounter the world is precisely why Jesus said that the entrance to the kingdom must be approached as a child.

When seduced by the illusion of temporality, we place a premium on chronological order–the first is the first and the last is the last. In realm of the eternal the first can be the last and the last can be the first, what once was may never be and what has never been can be, and the beginning and the end are One. I say this to say that the Divine Order is not limited to linearity. Thus is the way of the eternal. And so in this moment out of which I am being reborn, I am hoping to follow my daughter in remembering that I too am from the moments where I am most present.

Where I’m From

by Calista Monterra FitzSilva

I am from my little sister’s sweet little giggles
when I tickle her and her big smiles,
Her brown eyes as brown as a grizzly bear’s fur.
I am from my little sister pulling my hair
And trying to talk and crying over her pacifier

I’m from my mom’s sweet banana bread
Warm out of the oven, the steam rising
The chocolate chips melt into chocolate sauce.
I’m from my grandmother’s magnificent apple pie on Thanksgiving eve.
And the fluffy pancakes she makes when I visit her and my grandpa

I am from the sweet apple cider we sipped
before we skied down the mountain in Boston, Massachusetts
I would fly down the mountain, woosh!
The wind blowing in my face.

I am from the salty air of Aruba
as the ocean splashes up on me and soaks me
I am from early Christmas mornings
when the outside world is cold and damp
I’m from climbing the huge rock in my cousin’s backyard
and finding shiny rocks

I am from these moments.

There’s A World

December 17, 2016December 18, 2016 Higher Up IDEAL8 Comments

There’s a world we all are living in
But not everyone can see
A World of eternal spaciousness
Where everyone is free

Inside that world is another world
Where people choose to live a lie
“Special people”claim to know the Truth
And teach the “forgetting” we can die

Some of those people know the Truth
And twist it tight for so called gain
Telling us that we can’t get along
And that the Other causes pain

Their clarion call is “SAVE YOURSELF”
So that’s what many of us try to do
We can’t see it’s just a cattle call
And all they want to hear is “MOOOO”

They have no purpose if we’re not scared
“Can’t you see that there’s a threat?”
They know that we will sell our souls
Only as long as we’re fearing death

They tell you they’re here to protect us
That’s the job for which they’re paid
In exchange you can focus on other things
But you lose consciousness in the trade

The world of lies that we think is real
Does not objectively exist
Like a picture of a sumptuous meal
On which no one can subsist

Meanwhile in the eternal world
One is the Truth that always reigns
~~“divided houses”~~ do not exist
And there is no loss or gain

No one’s seeking for the joy in life
For Joy is the Cause of Life itself
And value isn’t used as we use it here
Since everything springs from eternal wealth

There also is never a use for Welcome
Because there’s never a time that we aren’t here
We can tell ourselves that we’ve gone away
But to Truth we’ve never disappeared

Like children with their hands on eyes
Who think they’re unseen when they can’t see
Here we can choose to chain ourselves
But that doesn’t make us less than free

We’re only bound by the limits that we project
Our own judgments become our jail
But our sentence is never for our entire life
Because the Truth always prevails

Fighting Over Crumbs

September 19, 2016 Higher Up IDEAL4 Comments

All things to All things
Nothing is denied
But we’re fighting over bread crumbs
Because someone believed a lie

So now we kill each other
In our constant pursuit of more
We believe we are “consumers”
Because we don’t know what we’re for

Infinite Creation
Nothing more or less
But instead destruction follows us
When we put us to the test

Addicted to the thought of conquering
Sixty steps till we unlearn
That the truth of life is obvious
When we’re not looking for our turn

In the mean time there’s confusion
We’re told we have to choose a side
Contests between “us” and “them”
Where the winner doesn’t die

But what if someone told you
That everything is yours
And everything is everyone’s
And no one’s keeping score

The House is not divided
Upon the Rock is where it stands
Never to be shaken
By unreasonable demands

But because it can’t be broken
It won’t resist what it is we do
We can lie all the hell we want to
Because all of it’s untrue

Though we deny the Absolute
It simply continues as it is
Fully realized. No need to strive.
For it’s the life that we all Live

It’s the Bread that’s not devoured
Though we eat it to our fill
Diminishing every sense of loss
Like nothing ever will

The Up Side of Down

December 7, 2015April 7, 2017 Higher Up IDEAL2 Comments

I am done with my pretending
That One can ever be a two
Two is just a false multiplicity
Of all that isn’t true

We claim a world based on division
Of what can never be divided
We think that we can take the All that’s One
And make it double-sided

But the distance never happened
Not even in our dreams
Oneness yielding separation
Infinity bursting at the seams

I can see it all so clearly
I can feel it in my bones
I am still “In the Beginning”
And I’ve never been alone

We is a singularity
Plurality is just a method of expression
The All that’s One seen in many ways
Casting infinite reflections

That’s the Up side of Down
They are One and they’re the same
Like life and death and all that’s left
Are simply links in a single chain

Move a link and see what happens
You move one and you move them all
And so it is in every realm
Rising as we fall

Our Guardian Whose Art Is Heaven

May 31, 2015July 28, 2021 Higher Up IDEAL1 Comment

Our Guardian Whose Art is Heaven

On this and every other plane

Thanks for calling us into being

And holding us in Your Name

We seek to find your Kingdom

We live for it to come

A world beyond division

Where all are known as One

A place of infinite creation

Where all that’s good will last

Our future and our hope

Without the burdens of the past

Thy will for us is done

By Your Heaven born Design

As soon as we surrender

And walk the narrow line

By Your Word You feed us daily

With everything we need

Satisfying Holy hungers

That this world could never feed

You share the joy of Your forgiveness

By instructing we do it too

Forgiving others when they trespass

For they know not what they do

This frees us from temptation

From error we’re delivered

We enter into the Kingdom

When we imitate the Giver

In that State we behold Your Glory

And Your unassuming Power

That’s been our Light in a world of darkness

Preparing us for our hour

You’ve been creating us in Your Image

Though invisible it may be

Teaching us to practice the Art of Heaven

That only opened eyes can see

Nothing Is What It Seems

May 29, 2015 Higher Up IDEAL1 Comment

Nothing is what it seems

There’s always something underneath

Hidden worlds in every event

Taking action to be released

All you might see is what’s in front of you

Meanwhile a mystery unfolds

While you’re focusing on the “important things”

Secret stories are being told

Like the alarm that you just slept through

That will you make late to that early meeting

You will experience as an inconvenience

When in truth it’s an Angel’s greeting

Or that relationship that ended

That you thought would be forever

May be causing you a lot of pain right now

But it would be worse if you stayed together

Or what about that job of yours

That leaves you daily stressing

You think it’s about how much you’re paid

When it’s about how much you’re blessing

Your child who will not listen

That one who never stops debating

May be getting on your very last nerve

But you don’t know what they’re cultivating

This is what I remind myself

When things don’t seem to go my way

That God is shaping something in my soul

That is not always on display

And this isn’t true for only me

But for everyone around me

Even the people I consider not so nice

May have souls that would astound me

That’s why Abba tells me not to judge

My sisters and my brothers

Because we might see what our bodies do

But most times we can’t see each other

Of course you may not like this line of thought

I’m not suggesting that you should

All I want to do is encourage you

Because there is underlying good

It may be difficult to fathom

Especially when looking at the past

But even if everything went your way

It still was never meant to last

This world is like an incubator

That’s meant to help us build our strength

Not a place for us to make a home

Or seek to stay beyond its length

And everything that happens here

Is always more than it appears

Because we’re learning how to better choose

Between what’s from joy and what’s from fears

We’re being prepared for our true nature

That was not meant to stay in time

We are practicing being human

So we can handle what is Divine

Pain and Loss

May 20, 2015May 20, 2015 Higher Up IDEALLeave a comment

There is a place where what we think we’ve lost

Is right here with us all along

Never not within our reach

Out of view but never gone

It’s a place that’s called Reality

It isn’t hard to find

All you need to do is reimagine you

And accept that time is not a line

It’s not even a circle

More precisely it’s like a sphere

Expanding all around you

So that any now is always here

With your focus on a center

Life moves in and out like breath

On the inhale you touch eternal life

While the exhale feels like death

But of course that is illusion

The in and out are wholly one

Try to divide them into two

And what you wind up with is none

But that is just a moment

In an infinitude of more

As soon as one ends another begins

That’s why no one’s keeping score

Now some would see this as their freedom

“I will do what I want to do.”

“No loss must mean no consequence.”

But actually it isn’t true

Despite the fact that all is here

And that time lasts longer than forever

There is a flow to how it goes

Which keeps it all together

There’s a pushing and a pulling

That manifests in waves

That creates alignments with likes and likes

Creating masters bound to slaves

Some people call it karma

I call it reaping what we sow

God probably calls it “It is what it is.”

But it’s a mystery we cannot know

It maintains itself through veiling

As we approach the truth we feel it shifting

Causing us to look again

Because now it feels like something’s missing

It’s not trying to be evasive

Even though that’s how it seems

Truth’s just trying to keep us moving

So it can pull us from the dream

There is really nothing to lose

This is the one thing we can gain

To wake us up from the fear of loss

Out of which we make up pain

No Such Things As Endings

May 16, 2015May 21, 2015 Higher Up IDEAL5 Comments

There are no such things as endings

There are only transformations

Ascending or descending out of view

As we enter new vibrations

If one’s in peak and one’s in trough

We may experience disappearing

But Presence remains for the One in joy

Absence only to the one who’s fearing

From the Highest Heights eternity is…

Encompassing all dimensions

From the lowest low all one can see

Is line of sight from their descension

From this point of view we see a world

Where we define things by their borders

But from what I’ve heard from other worlds

We are living out of order

For a man once told me after death

That he was still alive

And that he could see what I could see

Without the use of carnal eyes

He pointed out that I could dream

Seeing things while eyes are closed

So it shouldn’t be too hard to see

That eyes are not where sight arose

Breathing without nostrils

While walking without legs

He taught form is never who we are

Despite what attachment to it begs

We enter into being

Through a door always ajar

Expressing the lesser part of us

The greater projected from afar

The comings and the goings

Emerge from a place that’s always still

Including the death that many fear

But the truly living never will

This revelation did not amaze me

I got the sense I always knew it

That I was playing as if I didn’t know

Till body and soul became congruent

Now that the hour is upon me

I cannot maintain the lie

There are no such things as endings

I cannot treat you like you die

And it’s not just who we call the living

All things that are will ever be

Conceived in eternal consciousness

That extends beyond what eyes can see

But it is not beyond the knowing

If we surrender to human limits

Receiving the Life that has always been

With eternity embedded in it

This is the truest Destiny

Living life as it unfolds

And folds and then unfolds again

The entire story never told

What Is Your Name?

May 9, 2015 Higher Up IDEALLeave a comment

The day we were born we were given a name

That may not be our own

A signal for people to get our attention

And pull us out of the zone

In time the name’s defining

When people hear it they think of you

Attaching thoughts and judgments

Regardless of if they’re true

Sometimes this is in our favor

Other times it takes us down

The name signaling who we used to be

But negating who we are now

And what if the name we’re given

Was attached to another person first

So that people projected that one on us

From the moment of our birth

Well that hardly can be called fair

It’s like we never had a chance

First having to assert that we’re not them

Before we can ever take our stance

For some this is a challenge

We cannot be that strong

To resist how people are shaping us

With the thoughts that we are wrong

It’s like any definition

We are limited by what we’re called

Unless we transcend all definitions

By assuming the Name that can exalt

It’s a name given in secret

By the Name above all names

That within contains the very fullness

Of the Origins from which we came

This Name does not define us

It simply reminds us of who we are

Disintegrating any thought that we are less

Than that which shapes the stars

Sometimes the name we’re given

Is the first lie we’re ever told

The life we live subsequently

Is just watching the lies unfold

But we do not have to claim this

Just because that’s all we know

Just ask Hashem who we really are

Then let the you that’s not you go

Ask the Creator what your Name is

Then live into the highest vision

Day by day receiving clues

Until you come into recognition

Then one day you will know it

The Name that’s truly you

Live this Name within your heart of hearts

Until your transformation comes into view

That’s when you are living the revelation

Knowing the eternal you as you are known

Freed from the limits of temporal judgments

Attached to a name that was not your own

Give Me This Day

May 7, 2015 Higher Up IDEALLeave a comment

How can I trust You today,

While still worrying about tomorrow?

Never present in the All that’s Now

When from the “future” I try to borrow

The day is sufficient unto itself

With all the fullness therein lies

Giving me all that I could ever need

If I could just see beyond my eyes

There is truly nothing missing

I am all I need to be

All absence revealing a greater Yes

From the view of eternity

There is no need for striving

All is accomplished in my vision

When I close my eyes to all that’s not

By making the One Decision

The gap in all things closes

Divisions now have ceased

When accepting You as the Soul Provider

And the Author of my Peace

On Earth as it is in Heaven

My hungers all have gone

Except the One that urges me to You

But is fulfilled when it comes on