The topic I had been chewing on before this guidance(?) came was “humans as creatures” but I didn’t really have a point, so after this guidance(?) came, I thought maybe the two together could yield a dynamic synergy. Here goes…
Last week, when I stood in the long holiday line at the Post Office with only one clerk (!) available, like this...
That creatureliness of humanity got me to thinking of the holiday upon us that celebrates God coming as child, as human. Since my paradigm shift many years ago that sees everything at its core as divine, this incarnation holiday has lost a lot of impact. To me it’s no longer special that God is in only one person—I see and experience God in all.
However, the intuitive hit I got at the USPS of all places, brought some of that impact back. God as creature. God as animal. God as human animal with all the idiosyncrasies that brings, with all the wonderful things that brings (the unconditional love our animal companions demonstrate to us), and with all the complications that brings (instinctive fear.)
And thus, I spiral back to the Fear Not guidance(?) I mentioned at the beginning. We, as human creatures, have instinctive fear hard-wired into us as Nature’s way of keeping alive: running from prey, stampeding away from earthquake tremors about to strike, climbing up trees (walls?) to feel safer.
Perhaps this is why the angels and Jesus repeatedly said,
Except that because we are also Divine Souls in addition to being earthlings, we can awaken to the Divine Within, and can then embrace a larger picture even when the human herd wants to react in fear to any perceived threat. (I may or may not be speaking about recent events that have many people wanting to blame specific religions, specific events, specific politics and keep us in fear.)
Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. Do not be afraid. There is no need to worry. All is well. These are words we need to hear again and again as we grow the Divine Within to embrace and transmute all of our creaturely tendencies and habits, even fear, into Divine Creature—All Love. No Fear.
Have a Blessed Holy-Day Season!
Here's a beautiful story, "Claimed by a Wolf" that captures the idea of Divine Creature in Humans and Animals perfectly.
"I think over again my small adventures, my fears.
Those small ones that seemed so big.
For all the vital things I had to get and to reach.
And yet there is only one great thing, the only thing:
To live to see the great day that dawns
and the light that fills the world."
Monica McDowell is a dynamic speaker, author, and practitioner in alternative wellness and spirituality. She is the author of the award-winning, The Girl with a Gift, Confessions of a Mystic Soccer Mom, You are Light (internationally published by 6th Books in over 14 countries) and My Karma Ran Over My Dogma, and has the distinction of being the first ordained minister in America granted civil rights by a federal ruling. She lives in Seattle, Washington, USA, and can be reached at monica@monicamcdowell.com.