There is eloquence in the tongueless wind, and a melody in the flowing brooks and the rustling of the reeds beside them, which by their inconceivable relation to something within the soul, awaken the spirits to a dance of breathless rapture, and bring tears of mysterious tenderness to the eyes. Percy Bysshe Shelley
The subject on which you choose to focus gives birth to the predicate that composes each sentence of your life’s narrative.
Focus on the oft-overlooked treasures pulsing in nature and your soul may stir, leaving you rapt and composing the poetry of the ages.
Focus on the money not present in your bank account and your ego will be in agitation, producing frustration within and self-centered wrecklessness without.
The subject of our focus is our choice. Which means the predicate we live is our choice as well.
Today – we will focus on the hidden treasures all around us that offer themselves as the subject of our focus. To find them, we just need to dig.
Source Scripture
Treasuring: Luke 2:8-20
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate. Albert Schweitzer
Kindness is a divine force that moves people. Grace, a radical form of kindness, transforms.
Formally defined, kindness is intentional goodwill freely offered to another without an expectation of reciprocity. Grace is the demonstration of unmerited kindness, often in such a way that it involves great risk or is offered to someone undeserving.
The ego-centered life wrestles with kindness. It is cautious, determined to seek a return on its investment – if not from the recipient, then from a tax deduction or boost in reputation or the like.
The ego even has trouble with receiving kindness, because it lives in suspicion of its obligations to return the favor. Each ego fears the expectations of the other.
And if kindness is rare, grace is impossible to the ego, because it sees no opportunity for return at all. To the ego, grace is nonsensical madness.
The soul-centered life thrives on grace because it is a natural tributary of the river of divine presence that flows from the God of the Universe through us and outward to others.
Today we will see multiple examples of amazing grace that invite us not only to observe, but to participate.
Source Scripture
The Birth of Grace: Luke 2:1-7
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. [One] experiences [oneself] . . . as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of [one’s] consciousness. . . . Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. —Albert Einstein
Presence is what happens when we choose to bring the full attention of our soul to the soul of another – and the other does the same. In that moment, the two souls come together, creating presence: a tangible flow of spiritual intimacy.
Creating and maintaining presence is not easy. It requires the full attention of our soul, – not our ego or any of its attachments.
The ego is full of self-promotion, self-defense, hidden agendas, hideous masks – and a host of other things only break presence. But the soul is raw, authentic, vulnerable, full of love and acceptance. You might say presence is what is birthed when two or more souls come before each other in only naked truth in the naked now.
The goal of today’s podcast is to help us open our presence to others, and, taking it a step further, to assist others in unfolding their own potential to open their presence as well.
Source Scripture
Preserving Presence: Matthew 1:18-25
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. – Albert Einstein
Wonder is a quality of attention that rises above and outside normal rational thought. And once we have wonder flowing through us, we find ourselves with access to its tributaries: love, joy, peace, gratitude, and many others.
Today, in wide-eyed wonder, the goal is to get us through the wilderness of ego-driven attachments to that river. There, we can not only experience wonder in the present and future, but we can also reframe our past in a way that lets us reinterpret even the most painful moments through new lenses.
Source Scripture
Newborn Wonder: Luke 1:57-79
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. – Joseph Campbell
Joy. We all want it. We chase it. We devise formulas to reproduce it. We do our best to seize hold of it.
But where is it?
Ask the wrong question and you will never find the right answer.
Joy is not something we chase, or concoct, or grasp. It is something to which we yield. In order to experience it, we must let go of what thwarts it.
You don’t find joy. You yield to it and it flows through you.
Source Scripture
Joy Flows When Souls Connect: Luke 1:39-56
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. – Author Unknown
Grasping this – and learning to live by its truth – is what we’ll call soul-centering.
An ego-centered life is like a black hole – everything is pulled towards itself. Nothing escapes. Not even light. It’s pure darkness.
A soul-centered life is more like a star – everything is radiating outward. There is only warmth. And light.This is how we’re meant to live.
Source Scripture
An Angelic Encounter: Luke 1:5-25
For Further Study
Living from the Center: Galatians 5:16-18
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist – each song correlates to an episode.