DO NOT DISMISS

I’m driving 60 miles an hour and something catches my eye, there in the distance, shrouded in snow. I am already 95 feet past the object of my fascination and arguing with myself before I turn around.

Do not dismiss the thing that calls to you,
The bent man shuffling. The dream remembered.
The sentence tucked inside a thousand words that steals your breath.

Stopping the car, I plod through the slush and melting snow in shoes engineered more for window shopping than stomping through neglected fields.
My eyes are wide now in the searching, my whole body tingling with the feeling that something important is just out of view.

Do not dismiss what is meant by it,
Make no assumption that others see it too.
This secret message is an offering for you alone. 

In the clearing I see it. This tiny shack. There is nothing inviting in its neglect [It strikes me that we are all neglected, mainly the condition of our souls and mainly by our own doing]. There is no welcome mat and still there is this overwhelming feeling that what lies within is mine. It is waiting. 

This wave washing over is evidence,
Your heart knows what to do.
Clock that time.
Regard it.
Pay attention.
More than all, respond.

This strange and almost audible question comes into my head, “What is the name of this place?”
There is no breath between what is asked and what is replied. “Glory,” I whisper.

Glory—The halo of our essence…who we are on the inside depicted or manifested in the world/on earth/in our lives.
Glory—The Manifestation of God’s presence as lived by humans on this plain.

Do not dismiss the grand that can be born
from the seemingly insignificant.
What transpires around you
is there to inspire you
to become you.

I am staggering in the snow. I can see my breath and I am breathless.
Everything I am in this moment, was intended for this moment.
“The halo of our essence.” I feel my naked head under my hat.
In the bleak of winter. Unrehearsed. Unappointed. The Creator of everything has called me to an empty shack to remind me, “You are not abandoned.”

I don't need to enter through its doors to benefit from what’s waiting inside. I already know.

Let what enters you
change you,
move you,
motivate you.

The gifts are endless for those who do not dismiss,
who train their mind to follow their head when it turns,
to register what is seen, 
and then see it with the heart.

Lord God, Creator of the Universe, Author of MY Universe: 
While things are changing at the speed of light… 
let me slow my world to the cadence of my breath. 
Help me to remember that not everything is meant for me,  
but in your miraculous and mystical way 
remind me that some things are meant ONLY for me. 
Slow the pace so that I don’t miss the presence of you, the life-giving message you have orchestrated 
for my transformation... and for your Glory.

AMEN