05/17/2026
The process of life, living the cycle from birth through to the peak of vigor and then to the transition of death... It is a gift and it is a cross to bear in some instances. Peaks and valleys, day and night, full moon, and new moon, summer solstice and winter solstice, positive and negative, the height of joy and the depths of despair, delight and rage, the moments that fill us with such gratefulness and the things we experience that we know are ours to resolve and heal on behalf of our entire lineage. This up and down on the waves of life is like a "churning", a pulsing, an expansion and a contraction. Sometimes we are skillfully surfing it all and surprising ourselves at how gracefully we can calmly discern as we navigate. Other times we are being tossed around rather violently on the wheel as it turns through the cycles of experience. Both are part of the path. Both are great teachers.
Why are we subject to this churning? For the evolution of being. Think back now to the child you were and feel the evolution that has carried you through to the person you are today. Sense the great shifting as you have traversed. Your life has been a school, and you have been refined through the rigorous lessons. You must be proud of all that you are and all that you went through to become more whole and balanced in yourself. As we are churned, poisons are released, poisons that are impurities that had been hanging on to our body-mind-emotions that we may have taken on from culture, family, traumas, past experiences. The churning shakes them loose, brings them up, and gives us an opportunity to resolve them, release them, and choose differently. And as we become more clear in this process, the churning also brings up the hidden treasures that were within us all along. The treasure I refer to is the blessing of peace, presence, and life in the Grace of God, the Great Oneness. One question is, "How do I know the difference between the temporary happiness of the peak of the duality wave and the happiness of the True Treasure of the Grace of God?" The Treasure is calm, the consciousness expands, All is One, the drop of separation joins the Great Ocean of Love. The happiness of duality feels more temporary, excited, and unstable and is sometimes accompanied by a tinge of anticipation or fear that it will end.
And so this morning as the birds sing their dawn song, I steep in the abiding expansion. I savor the senses. I thank God for this, for all the blessings we have received. We are continually guided, protected, and provided for. The Great Truth is the center of it all and is the very fabric of our life experiences. The ups and downs occur within the embrace of the Great Truth and are divinely orchestrated and delivered to us with such precision. Let yourself be churned. Know you are part of a great process that is a gift. Trust that, if you let it, this process brings out the very best in you. As you reflect on that path from being a child to who you are today, you can't help but see that without what you were given to overcome, you would have remained naive, infantile, and incomplete. As long as we breathe and walk this path of the arc of a human life, the churning never ends. As Abraham Hicks says, "You'll never get it done and you can't get it wrong." Because even when we get it wrong, the recalibration of our course and the lesson learned was right!
And when you receive this treasure of peace, linger in it and allow the walls of separation to dissolve in the Light of All Lights, like a morning fog getting burned off by an Eternal, Resplendent Dawn.
Travel well, my friends.
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Art by Shakti Penelope
“Renewal”, Digital Collage
“A Surprising Sunrise over Harmony Lake”, Watercolor
“I Am Joy”, Watercolor
Learn more about the work of Shakti Penelope at https://wisdomsourcewithin.com
(Shakti Penelope’s art and writing is always made with O.I. also known as Organic Intelligence. It’s made the good ol’ fashioned way in which a creative idea moves through an organic vessel (in this case, named Shakti Penelope). She expresses through her organic creative process that has been part of her since she was a little girl. In the finished product, Shakti Penelope conveys the message of her original inspiration to the best of her ability. Enjoy!)
