Writing to God

One of the most beneficial tools encouraged throughout the Inner Fortune journal is letter writing. Journaling is simply letter writing to one self, but in standard journaling we often don’t censor ourselves. Over the three decades I’ve been journaling I have learned how the mind shifts and focuses in unique ways when we are writing as if specific thoughts were actually going to be shared with another. So, given some very deep dream analysis work I’ve been doing, along with inspirations I’ve received from the few books I am reading at the moment, I wrote a letter to God this morning. It feels important to share it in its complete, uncensored state:

Dear God,

Thank you for everything – the interbeing of all things. I received great/profound inspiration from The Year of Living Biblically (though couldn’t recall this title in my dream this morning as I was “speaking to an attentive audience” about these three interrelated books I’m now reading ~including The Way of Perfection and When God Was a Woman). AJ Jacobs was sitting on the steps of the Jaffa or Lion’s Gate [in Jerusalem] & was hit with the awareness that You’ve provided us with everything. This helps him turn a corner about praising you (he was so reluctant prior). From this, which also hit me in 1999/2000 when I was praying on the floor in my bedroom and having trouble saying “I am not worthy to receive you” and was then flooded with love and relief with “but only say the word and I shall be healed”, I realize that it is through every thought word and deed—the full integration and balance of our bodies, minds and spirits—that we honor and praise and thank You for everything.While this has become (perhaps atypically for me & AJ, perhaps typical to most people?) a solitary journey, it is clear that the only way to integrate, balance & appreciate You is in relationship with others. Thank you so very much for the amazingly pure and bright and intense intimacy Paul and I share. Please help me to sustain this while I practice (with your help) bearing witness to the light within others. I believe a simple hug or mindful greeting with everyone I speak with is where I can begin, and that includes online intentions. As for home, I beseech you Lord, to help me speak from my heart in all things. I see great progress yet have so far to go with Sabrina and Nathan. Perhaps the distance is not long but the need is so great! And as for myself, I now understand & need daily reminders, that my dreamwork, journaling, exercise & diet is not for me but to honor You!

With all my love & [growing] awareness, Karen

It seems a bit too personal to share this in blog format, but I have realized that this is my style of blogging. I believe that our gifts of creativity and inspiration are too important to not share. There are so many ‘gifts’ being shared on the internet, and of course in person. The twist, perhaps, is to be mindful of how we receive them. Are we consuming information and conversations without intention, or are we receiving them from a state of gratitude? This makes me think of the quotation in the heading of the body section of the Inner Fortune journal: We are how we eat. …but that’s another topic.