Angel K Will

~a pondering (from last week)~

It is mid-March in West Michigan, and we’re having an unbelievable week of sunshine and warm temperatures. When I went outside to get my mail, the shining sun was so gorgeous that I felt a walk around the neighborhood was fate. Michigan’s winters tend to be dreary and drawn out—damp, cold, and gray skies—so if spring unexpectedly presents itself, a frolicking party is called for!

The square block I stroll has one sidewalkless section where I’m left to walk in the street. Today, when the sidewalk re-emerged, I didn’t veer back as I normally do. I gazed its direction but decided to stay on the wide path, which had me thinking…

From an analogy perspective, the wide and narrow paths were switched. The wide in this situation was more like the narrow (meaning uncommon) and the narrow more like the wide (meaning common). How easy it is to let appearances deceive. We must be on guard not to lock our thinking into what is presented before our eyes.

Our five senses – sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch – are for us, yet they can also lead us astray, locking us into the sensory world of appearance. So we must be willing to be still, be solitary, be silent, and attune ourselves with our sixth sense – intuition, spirit within, our innate nature – which leads us beyond man’s logic and reasoning.

Our five senses are provided as organic tools so that we – as individuated forms – can experience fully all that we are. But they are not who we are.

As I write this, I’m now lounging in a beach chair, grounding my feet in the grass, and basking in the sun, enjoying its warmth on my face. Oh, how I do love that feeling! But that which warms the skin can also burn it if I stay too long. Life is truly a balancing act—like walking a tightrope—between motion and rest as well as proper perspective as we engage our five senses.

It’s quite common to get distracted by all the magnificence of the world around us and become addicted to the go, go, go mentality. The five senses may be how we soak in this earthly experience, but the sixth sense is how we cultivate proper balance.

I’m reminded of a quote from classic hymn lyricist Fanny Crosby …

“It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.”

I can attest to the five senses leading me astray at times. And only by submitting to the sixth sense, did I get back to the uncommon path which is unique to me and for my best.

This reminds me of yet another classic, the poem by Robert Frost …

The Road Not Take

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

May our five senses add to our earthly experience, not detract from it. May they expand the beauty of God’s goodness and truth of oneness, and not lock us into the illusion of duality.

May we each walk the uncommon path placed before us, no matter its appearance, trusting our sixth sense is leading us safely Home. Deeper and deeper, wider and wider, closer and closer into oneness and wholeness with God.

As I sit and meditate on this Allness, the heavens kiss earth and I balance myself in the truth of who I am, and so too who you are—pure, divine light.

Traverse your uncommon path my friend. May you feel it fully with all five senses, being guided to remembrance by your sixth sense—spirit within.

with Love, Peace, Joy
-akw-