Hope Takes Many Forms

This is the angel, HOPE.
She currently stands in a healing garden of a small hospital in the high desert.
She was created by an artist who has had a heart's desire to help heal healthcare through beauty, wisdom, and the creation of sacred space.
Heidi Kujat, (www.heidikujat.com) is a remarkable woman who infuses her pieces with powerful energies that can radiate this to the spaces that they occupy.
Some of these spaces are people's homes. Some are in office buildings. Others are like this one, in a healing garden where patients and families can visit and experience HOPE firsthand.

When I first visited HOPE in her new space, there were special stones that someone had placed in her hand.
It was as if the individual were being asked to be 'held by hope', be 'carried by hope'.
So many these days are feeling separated from HOPE.
Through challenging life experiences, they have become disconnected from the Divine.
They may need help in remembering the ever present Spirit that is always present and always in attendance of our lives.
Our Creator does not distance from us...we allow this to happen, but we can choose again...and allow the closeness that the Creator desires.

This angel serves to remind us...to invite us to reengage HOPE.
It is so important that this be held in our hearts and that we share this with others.

May we open to HOPE.
May we radiate HOPE.
May we share our HOPE.
May we be HOPE.

Honor the Guardians

The trees are the Guardians...those that are identified as the 'Standing People'.
They are those that hold space for our becoming.
They surround us with their protective arms and remind us to 'reach' for the sky.
They teach us to dive deep into the Earth with our roots so that we might be grounded and stable.
They remind us to 'stand tall'.

The Guardians are our teachers, our guides, our partners.
If we draw close to them and ask them to whisper their secrets, they will.
They share with us patience, strength, fortitude for the challenging times that are upon this Earth.
They remind us to always stay connected to the Creator and to the Earth that generously gives us our foundation.

Some Guardians stand alone in the forest, as if to define themselves separate for some deep reason or purpose.
Some stand in Circles, showing us the power of connection and community.
Some shed their leaves and remind us to release all that no longer serves us.
Others stay evergreen, and 'hold space' for others to return to their 'green' again in the Spring.

The Guardians have been with us for many many moons.
They have seen the comings and goings of the people.
They hold the Earth's sorrow, joy, wisdom, and visions for tomorrow.

Honor the Guardians...they have been holding us close to their hearts for so very long.

Creating Connection...

Recently, my family took a little trip to Northern California where we visited a Monarch Butterfly Reserve.
It was breathtaking.
As you move into the grove of trees that 'house' the butterflies, you can feel their energy as they spiral around in the branches above you.
They have chosen a beautiful spot on the coast and come back there every year.
They fill the trees with a beautiful orange glow and cluster together in community.
The Park Ranger there explained to us that there are butterflies of different age groups there but their average age is about 17 days.
They create such beauty in the world in just 17 short days.

He explained that they search out milkweed plants on which they create their cocoon.
It's amazing that they choose what we would call a weed (milkweed), to create
their place of home.
They 'know' just the right amount of time to spend in creating this cocoon and just the right amount of time in staying within.
They 'know' just the perfect amount of time to wait to dry off their wings when they are coming out of the cocoon and just the perfect amount of time to wait to launch into flight.

There is so much to learn from these beautiful, wise and delicate beings.
They have developed such a sense of timing and rhythm.

They know how to create connection with others and form community.
They travel together and support each other on their journeys.
They do no harm.
They offer their wisdom to all that will take the time to engage them.
They are gentle and 'tread lightly on the Earth'.

So much wisdom...such a gift to our world.

Gifts from Mother Nature

Mother Nature has many treasures that are available to us as we take
the time to learn about them.
In the ancient Celtic healing traditions, wild mint was used as an herb that was particularly effective to 'clear out bad energies' and all manner of 'ills'.
The ancients had to depend on the land to support their healing, their food, their shelter.
Because of this, they treated the Earth with great respect and admiration and held deep gratitude for Her generosity towards the support of their lives.
Wild Mint was a particular treasure because it could be used as a drink, a medicinal to be placed on wounds, and a scent to clear the air.

In the Loma Linda Hills, we are fortunate to have Wild Mint.
The other day during my morning hike, I came across a beautiful mint bush that was covered with frost from the frozen mist of the night.
Its tender leaves held the frost delicately and shared their beauty with me as I entered a narrow canyon.
The scent in the air from the mint bush was very heavy because of the lingering mist in this little canyon.
I found myself transported back in time to a dimension where these bushes represented healing and wellness.
How precious a creation.

I was reminded again of the beauty and power in the Earth.
I was reminded also of our need to remember this and not continue to disregard Mother Nature's gifts.

I offer my gratitude to the Creator for the opportunity to witness the beauty of
Winter and the Mint Bush.

Christmas Blessings

What a wonderful opportunity we have each year at this time to reflect on the wonders and miracles of life on this planet Earth.
It can be a time for us to remember those that have come before us and have sacrificed so much so that we might have the life and experience that we do.
It can be a time for us to remember the 'gifts' that we have received through our ancestors that have allowed us to build out our own work in the world.
It can be a time for us to remember all that it took to get us to where we are and honor those that have helped us along the way.

It is a time to remember our Source...our Creator...the presence of the Christ on Earth...the bridge that was built so that we may have a life full of abundance, hope, and possibility.
The gift of Christ makes all things possible.
It creates the 'Way' for us to move forward in the world.
It allows for a partnership with the Divine.
It blankets us with the support needed to make the world a better place.
The Christforce is the power to reach over to the other side, knowing that a loving God is always there, patient and compassionate...open and accepting...inviting us to engage more fully in relationship.

Just as the tree drives its roots deep within the Earth, let us recommit anew to honor the Earth with every part of our being.
Just as the tree grows strong in its trunk, let us grow strong in our connection to the Divine and in our commitment to being instruments of peace, joy, love and healing.
Just as the tree extends its branches and leaves to the Sun, let us recommit to reach out in service to others and sew seeds of 'only love'.

Engaging the Other...

This powerful image came from a conference entitled, Engaging the Other.
The words themselves are powerful.
They convey the power of connection with aspects outside of ourselves.
They invite us to wonder about the world that exists beyond the boundaries of our 'usual' selves.
So often, we draw our circles of experience so small...so exclusive...so narrow in focus...
But the world beyond our 'usual' experience is beckoning us to draw our circle wider and deeper than ever before.

Each new day comes with an invitation to choose to see with eyes that engage a new experience...eyes that release the old stereotypes.
Each day comes with an invitation to hear with ears that open to the suffering and the joys of others and learn from this experience while releasing all judgments.
Each new day comes with an invitation to smell the roses...to take the time to widen our experience by slowing down long enough to get the scent of a new world.
Each new day comes with an invitation to taste the sweetness and the bitterness of the delicacies that life has to offer.
And each new day comes with an invitation to touch in new ways...to engage the beauty, the wisdom, the love, the light, the courage, and the peace within the other...and to see it for the first time as a reflection of that which resides within us.

The richness of life is out there as well as in here...
It invites us to visit and get better acquainted with the other and with our own selves.

Take a Moment to Wonder....

Take a moment to hold this image in your mind...
Notice the textures of the colors...the dimensions of different aspects of the image...
Notice what part of the image you find yourself most connected to...
Allow yourself to move 'into' this part of the image and 'feel' it.
What kind of experience is this creating for you?
Does it make you feel good, happy, sad, fearful.....?
What stories does it bring up? What symbols does it create?

Try moving with the image...how is it 'inviting' you to move?

Do you sense any sounds coming from this image?
What do these sounds remind you of?

All of these experiences create a pathway for your intuition, your sixth sense,
to express itself.
By allowing yourself to 'wonder' and consider something in a deeper and more meaningful way, you allow it to teach you about itself.
You create a space that allows for consideration of the unseen world.
You choose to develop a relationship with those aspects of life that require a wider and deeper view.
By deepening your experience with this image, you may find yourself looking at all images differently in the future.

So it is with our life experiences...
If we take a moment to ask a few more questions and wonder more deeply about whatever we are doing, we will find a larger wisdom than that which exists on the surface.

Just as in the Ocean, the richness of life lies beneath the sea...

Balancing polarities

Within the world, there are forces...solar and lunar, masculine and feminine.
When these forces are balanced, the harmonics that result can be felt everywhere.
When these forces are out of balance, the lack of harmony can be felt everywhere.

For so many years, the solar forces, those that represent a focus on 'doing', have dominated our existence.
The natural state of 'being' associated with the lunar forces, has been in hibernation.
Our Earth, has rapidly become a land of compulsivity, always focused on 'more' and how we never have 'enough'.
We push, pull and tug to move ourselves forward, never waking up to realize that our struggle is getting us more stuck.
By quieting our minds and Spirits, we give ourselves a chance to quiet the world
around us as well...
To create a sanctuary right where we are...
To relish in 'no-thing'...
To celebrate 'no-sound'...
To make room for the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, even if for just a few moments.

Create the balance that will bring health, wellness, and vitality and abundance.
Offset the 'doing' with 'being'.
Bring yourself back into rhythm with the Heart of the Earth.

Drum Making - the Pathway of the Heart

All of us who participated in the Drum Making Workshop at Grace's House sensed that what we were doing was the work of the Heart.
As we focused on each aspect of the creation of the Drum, it became clear that this was no ordinary experience....
The Hoop of the Drum represented the Circle of Life...it gave us each an opportunity to honor our own unique journey and celebrate the challenges that we faced along the way.
The animal hide that became the 'face' of the Drum represented for many, our own skins...that which we have lived in for many moons...it was the physical part of our being, that which gets pushed and pulled on this walk of life.
As we stretched it over the hoop and began to tie the edges together, we each started to 'see' how the different aspects of our lives come together to make a meaningful whole.
As the laces crossed, so did the intersection of experiences of our lives, that were all so necessary in order to create the picture of who we have become.
Tying off each piece of the lace, represented tying off different segments of our lives and created completion for a job well done.
Creating the central handle, gave us a 'handle on our lives'...a place to connect, something to hold on to...
For each person, that handle was different...for some it was family, for some it was a job that brought meaning, for others, the search was still on for that handle to grasp onto...

And the awakening of the drum...well, that was the magic...that was the connection of the life to the heart...that which provides the emotion to energize the life, to in-spire the life, to set the life free to become all that it was intended to become.

Listening to voice of the heart of the Drum for the first time was like the sound of a little baby's first cry...it is an opening up, a coming forth, a moving out into the world.
It is a declaration that 'I am'...
It is a miracle of uniqueness, of beauty, of pure joy.

It is a new beginning...a chance to start over and embrace life fully and without reservation.

Drums - the Heartbeat of the Earth

Recently, we had the remarkable experience of being led in a Drum Making Ceremony.
Tony Robichaud, who was our guide, shared with our group the Native American tradition of creating your own drum and then awakening it.
We each wrote prayers or intentions on the inner hoop of the drum and then began the process of tying and lacing the drum from each of the four directions.
Tony explained that each time we beat the drum in the future, those prayers and intentions would be sent out into the Universe.

As we experienced the magic of creating such a wonderful instrument of peace and love, we each found ourselves moving inwards towards our own centers, reexamining why we are here, what lies deep within our hearts, and what we want to bring forth into the world.

We spoke in the Wisdom Circle, of our own unique gifts and how we would use the drums in the future.
We blessed our drums and then took them home to allow them to 'cure'.
We were instructed to turn them a quarter turn each day for four days, honoring the North, East, South, and West directions.
Then we were to awaken our drums which represented our 'new hearts'...we were to be gentle with this rebirth experience just as if the drum was a new baby being brought into the world.

The Drum Making experience was such a spiritual experience.
It gave us an opportunity to reconsider our journeys and give thanks for the life we have lived, the teachers that have appeared on our pathway, and the guidance that we have received.

The drums opened our hearts to a new way of being, full of openness, rhythm, balance, sound, beauty, gentleness, power and wisdom.

Freedom.....

Freedom is something we so often take for granted.
It is priceless.
It is what allows us to be who we are.
It is a foundational piece of the framework of the Universe.
Everything depends on it.

What does freedom feel like?
It feels like the wind to me.
It is what carries us to places unknown.
It gives us opportunities to expand into a larger version of who we really are.
It carries seeds of who we are becoming to fertile fields ripe for planting.

What does freedom sound like?
It sounds like national anthems proclaiming freedom.
It sounds like the songs of birds at sunrise as they welcome a new day.
It sounds like the 'YES' from a graduating senior student.
It sounds like the opening as one approaches a trusted friend.
It carries with it the song of openness and possibility.

What does freedom look like?
Freedom is an ever-widening ring of consciousness.
It looks like it knows that there is always more.
It looks like wide open spaces.
It can move and freely express itself.
It is constantly recreating itself.
It is never the same twice.

Freedom can be whatever you want it to be.
That's the beauty of freedom.

Cherish it always.

Could You Give Me a Little Boost...?

As we travel along life's highway, sometimes we may need a little boost.
Mentors, coaches, spiritual directors can do just that.
They can 'see', 'feel' and 'sense' what we might not be able to identify...or
they can help us sense it for ourselves.
One of the skills that they have is they 'hold space' for us.
Holding space entails just that...holding the potential of what can be in an expanded form.
It does not require them to know what specifically that might look like...
You might say they just hold the 'belief' or 'knowing' that there is something greater that has the possibility of happening.
This creates a powerful energy field that supports our own beliefs as to what is possible.
As we 'tap' into their 'beliefs', we shift our own 'belief' about all that is possible.

Sometimes, this help is like getting roadside assistance.
I remember the last time I had car trouble and called AAA.
I remember the wonderful feeling that there was someone I could call that could transform my rather unpleasant situation into one of peace.
It was amazing how quickly the AAA truck driver came...and the dispatcher called to make sure that my 'help' had arrived right away.
The gentleman was tremendous.
He knew exactly what to do.
His experience with others just like me exuded a type of confidence that was very reassuring to me.
I felt more confident just 'being' with him.
The outcome was great and it made me commit to myself that I could always know that assistance is very accessible to me.
It reminded me that there is so much help available to all of us at all times.

So the next time you are in need of a short 'tow', another opinion, more water in your radiator, just call on your guides and angels, coaches and directors and give them an opportunity to share their wisdom and give you the assistance you need.
The world is full of support for all those who will open to ask.

Your Hands Can Be Instruments of Love...

What a blessing to have hands...
Through our hands, we experience the world.
We experience other people.
We experience textures, depths, dimensions, temperatures...
We form things with our hands.
We reach out with our hands.
We create with our hands.
We speak and communicate with our hands.
We tell stories about life with our hands.
We hold things.
We support.
We put together.
We break down.
We clean.
We write.
We move.
We hold still.

Our hands are instruments.
They can be instruments of chaos and destruction and hurtfulness or...
They can be instruments of healing and repair and redesign.
Every moment we choose.
Which will they be?

What a gift they are to us.
Do we truly appreciate how amazing they are?
All the different ways they can move and feel make them agents for miracles to happen.
They allow us to enliven our existence and make every experience so much richer.

When I hold the image above in my heart and let it speak to me, it tells me about the importance of our hands communicating the love in our hearts.
Our hands can 'speak' love by a gentle touch, creating connection.
Our hands can 'speak' reconciliation by a gesture of support.
Our hands can 'speak' of unity with the Divine when we hold them up in prayer and gratitude.

Hold your hands before you...look deeply at the beauty they hold...see them as if for the first time and wonder about the miracle they are...send gratitude for the gift they are in your life...promise to take good care of them for as long as they are yours to have and hold...and honor them always in being instruments of peace in the world.

How Empty is Your Cup?

In order for Spirit (God) to fill your cup, it must first be emptied of all those things that are in the way of your receiving all that you desire.
In my experience, the things that tend to 'get in the way' include my ego, my sense of not having enough time, other things that take first priority...and the list goes on.
When I forget Who made me and Why I am here, I get my priorities all mixed up and wind up filling my cup with all sorts of distractions.
Then I wind up needing to spend focused energy on rearranging my priorities and finding my center.

Creating ceremony can be very helpful in releasing all that no longer serves you.
Utilizing ceremony invites in the 'sacred' and creates a larger space for Spirit to enter.
My favorite releasing ceremonies include a candle that represents my own inner light and its connection to the Divine.
Incense further shifts my energy to the sacred as I inhale purifying scents of sage or peppermint or rosemary.
I often use a cup or a special chalice that I was given many moons ago.
I use the empty cup to remind me of the emptiness that I desire as I release all that is in the way of Spirit fully entering my being.
Entering a prayerful, meditative state with an open heart and mind connects me further with my Maker.
Then, I focus on allowing the power of the Christ force to come within me and guide me into a space of full surrender.
Experiencing emptiness brings a sense of true peace and stillness.

And then when I am 'full' of 'emptiness', I can begin to remember how to receive.

How Full is Your Cup?

Whenever I see an image of a cup, I am reminded of a dear friend.
She said one day, 'it isn't that my cup is half full....it isn't that my cup is half empty...the truth is I don't even have a cup...'
She was sensing that she was so 'empty' and drained that she didn't have any way to hold her own Spirit.
She tried to refill her thirsty soul by going on a silent retreat.
She found herself happy in the shower one morning and started singing.
Later that day she was reprimanded for not being 'silent' in the shower since it was a 'silent' retreat.
She tried reading spiritual books, going to spiritual services, and on and on...
She really worked hard at 'trying' to fill herself back up again.

So it is with so many of us.
We spend so much time 'doing' things to fill ourselves as if it is a job
that we must accomplish.
In my experience, what has worked best is to first create a space for receiving from Spirit.
For me, that translates into creating intention, setting aside time, choosing a place that connects me with my Creator, and creating ceremony that moves my inner Spirit into a mode of receptivity.
That most often involves music and sacred objects that remind me of why I am here and what my service is in the world.
When I create this experience, all that is left for me to 'do' is show up.
The presence of the Spirit of the Creator is so very available and accessible
by any open heart.
It is a place to rest, to receive, to remember and to renew.
Come drink from the cup that invites you to thirst no more...

Can You Sense What is Hatching Within You?

Within each of us is the potential of who and what we are becoming.
It sits expectantly, awaiting our command to come forth.
It may take the form of fully mature, or it may appear to us in an egg that needs maturing.
Either way, the potential is ours to call forth.
It cannot be 'birthed' until we create the intention for its opening and we act on our intention.

The beauty of the fully mature substance that we call forth is that when it 'appears', it is often ready to 'rock and roll'.
It comes forth in a form that is almost operational.
It presents to us an idea in motion, already on its way to being.
Sometimes that takes the form of a job, a gift, a home, a project, a relationship.

The beauty of the immature egg, is in the substance that it is made of.
The substance is not yet solid.
It is asking for support and nurturance to be developed.
It comes forth as a gift to be grown and loved and cared for.
It is only with this care that it can achieve what it was originally designed for.
Sometimes the 'egg' takes the form of an idea, a concept, a form.

Whatever is resting within you, let it speak to you of its nature, its desires, its hopes and its potential.
Let it awaken within you a desire to become more of who you are here to become.

Say YES, to the joy of exploration.
Say Yes, to dancing with the mystery of the unknown.
Say Yes, to the spark that is igniting the passion of service.

There is no better time than this.
The invitation has been sent.
What thinkest thou?

Equal Distribution

I have been working on my sprinklers lately to make sure that all the grass and the scrubs and the trees get adequate water as the weather gets warmer.
In the backyard, I had to replace most of the sprinkler heads that were along the back wall.
They had become clogged with debris and dirt.
Several along the edges of the grassy area had become stuck and didn't 'pop-up' like they are supposed to do.
In the front yard, I had a challenge with distribution of the coverage.
There were some areas of lawn and greenery that were covered well and there were others that were getting next to no water at all.
There were other sprinklers that had been partly 'grown over' with grass.

So, now that I completed my assessment, it was time to make a trip to the hardware store and purchase the needed replacement parts...
This was certainly not as easy as I expected.
There seemed to be way too many choices and from the standpoint of an inexperienced consumer, I was a bit challenged.
But along came a wise old soul who was about 30 years old and saw my distress.
He proceeded to ask me what my problem was and then ever so carefully, went to the appropriate bins and chose the specific part.
Wow...what relief...
But then, how was I going to install these parts that all looked the same to me.

I called in the angels that help those that are not adept at sprinkler installation and proceeded to try to act confident.
Certainly I could do this...I am a nurse and have had to handle lots of human 'plumbing' problems and this couldn't be that difficult.

Well, the short story is that I made several more trips to the hardware store and sought the counsel of the wise young man.
He was gentle with me and helped me better understand what my 'real' problems were and what I needed to fix.
One of the biggest problems was the distribution.
Once I addressed distribution and even allocation of sprinkler responsibility for watering, then things starting going much better.
It became more and more clear where each type of sprinkler should be placed for maximum benefit and I wasn't oversprinkling some areas and undersprinkling others.

After getting totally soaked oh so many times, I finally sat down and asked my angels what this experience was really all about.
It was all a life lesson about how to build equal distribution in order for the grass and the trees and the garden of life to grow.
If there isn't even distribution for work, responsibility, energy consumption, etc., then the garden will suffer.
There won't be enough for some and there will be too much for others.
And the wisdom of the wise young man spoke to me also...it said, 'it is really important to know clearly what you are trying to 'fix' before you go out to acquire the 'fixers'.

The angels of the sprinklers taught me to review my current life responsibilities and make changes where there is imbalance or unequal distribution.
I may go back to the wise young man in the hardware store to get another consult too...his deep listening to my distressed Spirit was such a gift.

Sacred Movement

So much of our lives we spend stationary.
Our 'sitter' is placed carefully on a chair, and we move into an experience of relative inactivity.
We respond as little as possible to distractions in our environment, and continue trying to maintain this very important motionless position.
What do we accomplish? We manage to put our wonderful bodies into a state of disconnect because the body was made to 'move'.
It was Divinely created to be in a dynamic state of movement and shifting and lifting and lowering...
Just like what we see in Nature.
Look at the those creations that inhabit the ocean.
Because of the water element they live in, they are in constant motion.
They shift their habitats as well as they connect in with the rhythm of the tides.

Our bodies are mostly water.
They want to move.
They want to breathe deeply.
They want to explore.
They want to become renewed.
They want to experience diverse conditions.
They want to change and metamorph into other life forms.

Sacred Movement is a way of consciously connecting with Spirit through movement.
It can become a prayer, a meditation, of gratitude for the gift of life.
Sacred movement can be simply an opening of the Spirit to allow the sacred dance within to be expressed.
There are no 'rules' as to how it must be 'performed'.
The beauty of it is that it is a way of giving the body permission to move authentically and freely in any way it so desires.
It is a way of facilitating Self expression.
It is a way of facilitating healing as we move in ways that we haven't since we were children.

A dear friend of mine regularly uses sacred movement to help her create 'movement' or transitions in her life.
When she wants to take a leap of faith, she gets up on a table or chair and 'practices' taking leaps of faith.
When she wants to 'stretch' her Spirit, she does just that...she imagines herself stretching her Spirit as she stretches her body in ways that she hasn't stretched it in many moons.
She practices opening her heart by listening and free dancing to songs of the heart.
When she wants to be inspired, she pretends to be an inspired dancer performing a magnificent ballet.
When she wants to feel deep peace, she becomes the sacred movement of the ocean.
When she wants to move mountains with her work in the world, she dances a volcanic eruption like has never been experienced in the world before.

Movement and Dance are ways to open to new experiences, to create new aspects of life for ourselves and others.
By witnessing the authentic movement of another, we witness their unique style or gift of being in the world.
We honor their way of being as Spirit-filled.
We 'see' the Divine within them and help them open to more of its expression.

Sometime soon, when no one is looking, pick a favorite song, and dance your heartsong like you have never danced before.
Feel the magic...feel the wonder...surprise yourself...allow yourself to 'be' in a whole new way...and then invite another to experience this for themselves as well.

Create Your Own Community

The joy in the journey can be enhanced tremendously if you choose to create a community to share it with.
This community might be a 'religious' community, a 'civic' community, a community of folk that share a common experience.
There are so many different options of what you can create.

The synergistic healing energy that is created when human beings come together is powerful.
Opportunities to help each other with all manner of challenges comes up and solutions present themselves, often before the problems show up.
What develops is a true sense of support...not just in an emotional sense, but in all manner of tangible other ways.
Last week at our Wisdom Circle, Doug brought tomato plants to share with the group. He encouraged all members of the group to begin to experience the magic of working with the Earth, and harvesting the fruit.
Many of us haven't had the courage to attempt such a feat.
But from Doug's invitation, my sense is that several new 'green thumbs' have been birthed.
Last year, Steve and Shirley brought their homegrown tomatoes to 'seed' our interest which inspired us as well.

We can help each other in our circles of community in so many ways.
We can provide opportunities to learn, to grow, to plant, to reap, to harvest, to fail, to leap, to fall, to get back up again.

Create your own community that you will love to 'play' in and 'explore' with...you will never be the same again...

Come on in the Water

Sometimes we spend time on the sidelines, watching others in the 'water'.
That's just fine.
Other times, it can be great to just get 'wet'.
Getting 'wet' gives us an opportunity to experience firsthand....to learn from seeing, feeling, hearing and touching the elements of this experience.
Younger folk often find this easier than those of us that have been around for a half a century or more.
There are fewer 'battle scars' in the younger years sometimes and there are less 'tapes' in our head that tell us it's a bad idea to get 'wet'.

But consider what is being missed...living life to its fullest...

Our God experiences life through us. God has an opportunity to 'taste' all that life has to offer as we 'taste' it.
So when an opportunity 'knocks' gently or not so gently on your door, consider if your Creator would enjoy a more invested experience.
And if you were God, what would you appreciate.

Consider an offering to your Creator a wider view, a larger vision, a deeper relationship with All That Is.

and then, 'go ahead and get wet'...