Were you taught how to discover the truth of who you are or, like me,  were you told who you should be and how you should behave or act?

I did my best growing up to meet the expectations of the adults who loved me, the teachers who saw my potential and sought to define it for me, the religious leaders who claimed to know God's will for me. I really did try to live up to all that was expected of me.

I suppose, to some degree, I was successful. I know that, ultimately, I disappointed many of them because I had to be me. I was well into adulthood before I realized my own truth. I turned my life upside down and inside out in the process of discovering and embracing my True Self. Even though my intention was never to hurt others, my choices brought unhappiness to some and confusion to others. Their hurt and judgement brought me deep sorrow yet my true spiritual journey had begun and going back was not an option for me. Why?

Because Divine Love was filling my mind and heart with It's...

Emerging into and from True Self is the adventure of a lifetime. The initial discovery of the truth of "I Am All That I Am" is like the high we experience when we fall in love because that is exactly what we are doing. We fall in love with ourselves because we now understand that there is no judge, no condemnation, no punishment. There is only the unfolding into the depth and width of this True Self, this divine being currently having a human experience.

This morning as I rummaged through several drawers looking for a journal with study notes, I came across one with entries from 1996. They all were from a series of retreats that involved long periods of silence and solitude. At the end was a short poem I wrote from my heart, without thought for rules or forms, though it actually rhymes! I will share this and trust it touches a chord in others as it did in me. There is a blessing in looking back for a moment to acknowledge the beginnings of our awareness and to see how far we have...