"Turn the beat around..."
Gloria Estafan's "Turn the Beat Around" feels like the perfect keynote for a piece about detaching from messages of pain, depression, fear.
I was sitting at an outside table, at a small bakery/café around the corner from our house wondering if there was anyway to contact the person I had gone there to meet. My head was pounding, and I really wasn't sure if I could stick it out until she arrived. I'd been praying all morning, and although I was certain of my right to be pain-free, I just wasn't feeling it.
Then, just as I was looking through my contact list for her number, a tricked-out car with a huge sound system -- bass notes pounding and thrumping through every molecule of my being -- pulled up at the stoplight nearby.
At the same moment my phone rang. It was a good friend who was struggling with some very deep emotional issues (she has given me permission to refer to this experience) and wanted to talk.
I suddenly noticed that my foot was tapping out the beat of the song on the car's stereo system, and I was feeling the percussive bass tones within my chest.
It was clear as bell that the music was not "in" me. I decided, right then and there, to stop tapping my foot. The rhythm wasn't in me. It was originating, emanating, coming from, the car -- not my chest, or my thinking. It was not part of me.
With that realization, I was also able to disconnect from the painful pounding in my head that I'd been dealing with all morning. Although it had seemed as if that pain was so much a part of me - it wasn't. It never more than a suggestion originating outside of my thinking. Outside of my body of knowledge or belief.
Just like the car's music was suggesting itself from the stoplight. And not only did it originate outside of me, I could decide to NOT feel it -- just the way I had decided not to feel pounding of the car's bass tones. I could see that my freedom started when I chose to stop tapping my foot -- as if the rhythm was in me.
I decided that peace was my natural state of being. Peace, flowing as a clear, calm undercurrent through the course of my day. The truth was, that the kingdom of heaven was all that was within me, within my body. It had been there long before, during, and after the pounding in my head "drove up," and tried to get me to believe that it was "in me" and that it could make me react to its noise, forcing me to cancel my appointment -- or tap my foot.
The song playing from the car's speakers was projecting its suggestive message to everyone within listening range. For me, it was the beat that insinuated itself as a rhythmic message. But I could imagine that someone who knew the words to the song, might find themselves singing along -- whether they agreed with the song's message or not. I remembered a time in college when a particular song had been running through my thoughts for days and suddenly I found myself on the verge of acting out its message -- one that was antithetical to my own values.
All of this thinking happened in the few moments that the car was stopped at the red light. And the most wonderful part was, that I was able to share these insights with my friend. We both laughed at how we'd been hoodwinked into believing that our pain - or sadness - were within us. Her heartache ceased and we talked briefly about how we'd each felt as if we were helpless to oppose what we thought was truly and actually in us, originating as a broken head or heart.
Lately, whether it is pain, heartbreak, anger, fear, or depression -- it has become so clear to me that it is not originating in the mind or body of a child of God, mine or anyone else's. The only thing singing through our being is the song of peace, the poetry of stillness, the Word of God.
Or as Mary Baker Eddy says:
"Beloved brethren, today I extend my heart-and-hand-fellowship to the faithful, to those whose hearts have been beating through the mental avenues of mankind for God and humanity; and rest assured you can never lack God's outstretched arm so long as you are in His service."
I also love that she encourages us to:
"feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life with regeneration..."
and to trust that:
"the music of Soul affords the only strains that thrill the chords of feeling and awaken the heart's heartstrings..."
This is the only beat I am allowing to set the rhythm of my life. It is all that I am accepting as the driving beat in my heart. It is the only syncopation that can cause my being to dance -- it is the music of the spheres.
Peace is not the absence of noise, it is the presence and power of a divine Voice, the constant, conscious awareness of God's presence. It is the song we hear as we lie still in Her loving arms and feel the soft beating of Her heart whispering, "Peace, be still my child. Peace, be still."
This is really all that is within us -- because it is all that is within Her. We live, and move, and have our being in the sanctuary, the kingdom of Her love. Unless what I feel singing its song within me has the nature and character of Her voice -- peace, beauty, kindness, trust, satisfaction, joy -- it is simply a suggestion, projected noise from outside of the I AM. In this I AM of conscious being, I am at one -- in perfect, harmony with the rhythm of Her being.
It's time to turn the beat around and reclaim it for our God. Love is the constant, persistent, and ceaseless song of our lives.
always with Love...
Kate
I was sitting at an outside table, at a small bakery/café around the corner from our house wondering if there was anyway to contact the person I had gone there to meet. My head was pounding, and I really wasn't sure if I could stick it out until she arrived. I'd been praying all morning, and although I was certain of my right to be pain-free, I just wasn't feeling it.
Then, just as I was looking through my contact list for her number, a tricked-out car with a huge sound system -- bass notes pounding and thrumping through every molecule of my being -- pulled up at the stoplight nearby.
At the same moment my phone rang. It was a good friend who was struggling with some very deep emotional issues (she has given me permission to refer to this experience) and wanted to talk.
I suddenly noticed that my foot was tapping out the beat of the song on the car's stereo system, and I was feeling the percussive bass tones within my chest.
It was clear as bell that the music was not "in" me. I decided, right then and there, to stop tapping my foot. The rhythm wasn't in me. It was originating, emanating, coming from, the car -- not my chest, or my thinking. It was not part of me.
With that realization, I was also able to disconnect from the painful pounding in my head that I'd been dealing with all morning. Although it had seemed as if that pain was so much a part of me - it wasn't. It never more than a suggestion originating outside of my thinking. Outside of my body of knowledge or belief.
Just like the car's music was suggesting itself from the stoplight. And not only did it originate outside of me, I could decide to NOT feel it -- just the way I had decided not to feel pounding of the car's bass tones. I could see that my freedom started when I chose to stop tapping my foot -- as if the rhythm was in me.
I decided that peace was my natural state of being. Peace, flowing as a clear, calm undercurrent through the course of my day. The truth was, that the kingdom of heaven was all that was within me, within my body. It had been there long before, during, and after the pounding in my head "drove up," and tried to get me to believe that it was "in me" and that it could make me react to its noise, forcing me to cancel my appointment -- or tap my foot.
The song playing from the car's speakers was projecting its suggestive message to everyone within listening range. For me, it was the beat that insinuated itself as a rhythmic message. But I could imagine that someone who knew the words to the song, might find themselves singing along -- whether they agreed with the song's message or not. I remembered a time in college when a particular song had been running through my thoughts for days and suddenly I found myself on the verge of acting out its message -- one that was antithetical to my own values.
All of this thinking happened in the few moments that the car was stopped at the red light. And the most wonderful part was, that I was able to share these insights with my friend. We both laughed at how we'd been hoodwinked into believing that our pain - or sadness - were within us. Her heartache ceased and we talked briefly about how we'd each felt as if we were helpless to oppose what we thought was truly and actually in us, originating as a broken head or heart.
Lately, whether it is pain, heartbreak, anger, fear, or depression -- it has become so clear to me that it is not originating in the mind or body of a child of God, mine or anyone else's. The only thing singing through our being is the song of peace, the poetry of stillness, the Word of God.
Or as Mary Baker Eddy says:
"Beloved brethren, today I extend my heart-and-hand-fellowship to the faithful, to those whose hearts have been beating through the mental avenues of mankind for God and humanity; and rest assured you can never lack God's outstretched arm so long as you are in His service."
I also love that she encourages us to:
"feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life with regeneration..."
and to trust that:
"the music of Soul affords the only strains that thrill the chords of feeling and awaken the heart's heartstrings..."
This is the only beat I am allowing to set the rhythm of my life. It is all that I am accepting as the driving beat in my heart. It is the only syncopation that can cause my being to dance -- it is the music of the spheres.
Peace is not the absence of noise, it is the presence and power of a divine Voice, the constant, conscious awareness of God's presence. It is the song we hear as we lie still in Her loving arms and feel the soft beating of Her heart whispering, "Peace, be still my child. Peace, be still."
This is really all that is within us -- because it is all that is within Her. We live, and move, and have our being in the sanctuary, the kingdom of Her love. Unless what I feel singing its song within me has the nature and character of Her voice -- peace, beauty, kindness, trust, satisfaction, joy -- it is simply a suggestion, projected noise from outside of the I AM. In this I AM of conscious being, I am at one -- in perfect, harmony with the rhythm of Her being.
It's time to turn the beat around and reclaim it for our God. Love is the constant, persistent, and ceaseless song of our lives.
always with Love...
Kate
I loved your blog!!! What I loved the most was the simplicity of your healing. I loved what you said here about the car's music not being in you, "Right then and there, I decided to make myself stop tapping my foot, as I realized that the pounding and thrumping of the car's bass speakers, was not IN me. It was originating, emanating, coming from, the car...not my chest, or my thinking. It was not part of me."
ReplyDeleteIt is such a helpful thought for me. It is easy for me to see how the sadness, anxiousness, etc. are not in me or a part of me and so cannot affect how I act or react.
I really LOVED what you had to say about peace and how it is not the absence of the noise but that it is the presence of God.
"Peace is not the absence of noise, it is the presence and power of a divine voice, a constant, conscious awareness of God's presence. It is the "sound" we hear, as we lie still in Her loving arms, and feel the soft beating of Her heart whispering, "Peace, be still my child...peace, be still." This is really all that is "in" us...because it is all that is "within" Her...and we live, and move, and have our being within the sanctuary, the kingdom of Her love."
Thank you, it was perfect and so helpful for me to think about right now!!
love you