Mercy. I recently ran into a friend from some thirty years ago. He has not changed one iota...no wrinkles, no grey hairs, no hitch in his get-along, and I remembered that he had shared a secret with me all those years ago; namely, his age. He looked thirty then, he looks thirty now.
Interestingly, our conversation was all about age and aging, the effects of age on our thinking, feeling, doing and being. As we talked, it became clear to me that his secret was still his secret, as in he dodged mentioning That Number...and, therefore, so did I.
I thought he seemed to be a not unhappy man, and there are worse stages of life to live in, but happy is way better. I figure he is not unhappy because his secret is still protected, hidden, secure. But, oh my, the effort that takes...keeping the god of our understanding a secret is some kind of hard work. And that is what a secret is...our god. Our entire focus is on that secret, hiding it, protecting it, in effect nurturing it.
A secret is, in fact, just fear...pure and simple. Chances are (there are no guarantees), my friend could be a happy man if he'd loose his secret and let it go. Just to see what the feared consequences would actually be if for no other reason.
I thought about secrets this morning and keeping them. Because they are based entirely in fear, it is our ego's need to hide them . Our spiritual need is to disclose them...to exchange them for freedom, freedom from the fear we clothe ourselves in.
Take it over to Egypt and set it free. Loose it and let it go. Take it to the river, put it in a basket, and let it float away. All of these are my very imperfect images from the Bible, all referring to us being the god of our own understanding until we let that very idea go.
There is only one God. It is love, It is unfathomable, It is the air we breath, the light within us, without us...and so much more. It is I.
It is not fear, and that is no secret.
Thank you.
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