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| I am present to serve the world. Step 359 |
BE PRESENT TO SERVE THE WORLD, and the presence that
serves the world will speak through you. Be present to serve the world, and you
will be present to that presence. You will be engaged in every activity, and
every activity will be important and meaningful. Then, you will not seek escape
from your experience, you will not seek escape from the world and you will not
seek to find a dark place in which to hide, for you will realize the light of
Knowledge is totally beneficent. You will wish to bathe in it more and more and
express it more and more within the world. This is your duty here and your great
love.
UPON THE HOUR REMIND YOURSELF that you wish to be
present to serve the world. Remind yourself as well that you wish to be present
to have the world serve you. Remind yourself that you must learn how to receive
and how to give, and that is why you are a beginning student of Knowledge. Do
not burden yourself with expectations of yourself beyond what is being
indicated in your program of preparation. Your Teachers recognize your current
stage and they recognize your current step. They do not underestimate your
power, but they do not overestimate your current capabilities, either. That is why
you will need them to proceed with certainty, honesty and reliability.
IN YOUR DEEPER PRACTICES, be present to give
yourself to your practice in stillness. Remember again that all practice is
giving. You are giving yourself so that your True Self may be given to you.
Here you bring what is small to what is great and what is great brings itself
to what is small. Here you realize that you too are great and that the small is
meant to express the greatness of which you are a part. The world calls
desperately for this greatness to be revealed, yet you must learn how to reveal
greatness in the world.
PRACTICE 359: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
From the journal: Step
358 - I wish to be at home in the world.
9:20
a.m. Sunday, August 12, 2001
…
9:50 a.m. Practice 1.1 – What does it mean to
feel at home in the world? Seeing this as a goal of Steps was pure comfort the
first time through. All of my life I felt out of place in the world – not at
home. Too different, but not unique enough to be sought as an entertainer. This
feeling is, perhaps, not uncommon, but even in my weirdness – it only was in
books, the writings others that I found anything close to a like mind –
Though
I'd worked on relationship skills, I felt always falling short. When I performed
"intentional community" – people would get it, business and citizens,
but no parade. Front Royal, as a place to live, is OK. I’d not focused on the
local community as my home. The Commission whack delivered by Nora Belle and
the personnel problems undermined my confidence, making me feel less at home.
Cindy's attitude – in her zeal to have a perfectly orderly home from her
perspective, made my physical home uncomfortable at times.
Yet
now, after Steps, I am more at home in the world. Not at the level my father is
– but he is a good example to me of someone who is at home in the world –
spiritual without a second thought. He is not alone.
5:45
p.m. On the porch – it is raining – a good long, cooling rain. I just spent 90
minutes on the phone with Mom. I called to encourage her to watch Mattie Stepanek, the soon
to be age 11 poet (who died in 2004). She doesn't
like watching young people from children's hospitals – it reminds her of the
pain she saw in her youth when she was in the Children's Hospital. We then
talked about Sarah…that was slow… I had to move her around to understanding
that I want Sarah to ask for help.
Sarah
has to be open and discerning. I encouraged her not to go down the hard road
again with bad men. She has to recognize what is bad and keep from going that
way – turn around and go back.
The
practice was done. I write: “after Steps, I am more at home in the world”. This
represents the “saving of my life”, the reason I did Steps this second time,
and have been an engaged student all these years. Let us continue.
NNC
Note: If you’ve some interest due to this or other
Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge
and can begin it on the day that makes sense; then progress as needed. You can
use the posts on this blog as a companion if it helps. They will remain in
order in the archives - one post per Step.
Often it takes 18 months to get through the Steps
once. For this blog, the pace is one-a-day, but it really makes no difference
how fast you do it, only that you begin, persist and repeat. Posts here provide
a trail that may let you have a virtual companion when and if you want one. One
may have to study alone, as I did in the beginning. There are other Steps
students blogging their experience and you might find a person more like you as
a companion, or use a number of such Steps journeys. There are options as well
through the Free School of the New Message.
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