Sow What?

Every man's world picture is and always remains a construct of his mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence.

Erwin Schrodinger, Quantum Physicist

On this first day of spring, I have been enjoying the warm sun while lounging in the backyard (somebody has to work this way), musing about this message.

These weekly messages, like all the greenery around me, start with a seed of an idea. I have frequently started writing willy-nilly; hoping that out of the flood of disjointed thoughts and feelings, a nugget of inspirational clarity will drop out and show me the course to pursue. This sometimes works, but more often these days, I open my mind and heart like a sail and wait patiently for the winds of inspiration to set a course and get me moving.

As every writer and sailor knows, there are times when you are "dead in the water" and you must sit waiting patiently for something to fill your sails. The winds always return, thank God. But the mind can begin to haunt when "too much time" has elapsed with no progress to show for it. All too frequently when this happens I'll begin to run an old inner tape about inadequacy, "who do I think I am trying to write when I can't even begin", or even more horrifically, "I'm empty!” Then I need to do some quick self-therapy or my sails will remain limp for a very long time.

That therapy comes from our innate capacity to choose how we construct our world with whatever is before us. Our surface mind tells us that we see the world as it is, and the quality of our experience is dependent on the quality of our circumstances. You may recognize this perspective. It's the victim mentality, the world determines my experience. Yet wisdom teaches us that we are not victims of the world we see, we are victims of the way we see the world. Quantum science corroborates asserting that there is no objective reality out there, apart from our perception of it. Shakespeare recognized it too when he said, Nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Jesus said Do not judge by appearances but judge by righteous judgment.

You and I have a whole committee (of thoughts) in our heads who willingly and forcefully chime in with a host of preprogrammed opinions about what any particular situation says about us, or other people, or the way the world is, etc. None of these opinions are based on Truth, all based upon past conditioning, almost always fear based perceptions that bear witness to a world of suffering, limitation, and I'll never be good enough.

Like the dandelions in my yard, they all started as seeds and if allowed to remain embedded in the soil of my consciousness, will flower into full-blown neuroses, or worse. The way we can deal with these errant seed thoughts is not identify with them. It takes awareness, to recognize that I'm thinking poorly about myself, and an even deeper awareness to notice that I am not my thoughts! I have thoughts, but my true self, the I of me, the one who observes the thoughts, is not those thoughts. If I do not attach my sense of self to those thoughts, I remain free, I remain creative. I am able to construct my world in the best possible light. This is what Jesus referred to as righteous judgment.

What we sow, we reap. It's a law of life that will not be mocked. We can however be conscious in our planting practices this spring, sowing and nurturing only the most nourishing thoughts that reflect our God given nature. No, it won't always be easy. But the difficulty will be well worth the effort when we're enjoying the sweet fruit at harvest.