4-9-11

This morning I went out early for my regular walk around the neighborhood. It's a beautiful, clear, Spring day - bird chattering, everything bursting with bright green new growth, ducks and ducklets swimming in the tiny reservoir next to the vast farmland near my house.

As I was walking along, I happened to notice a square cardboard box in the street. It said "10 inch unbaked Pie" and in big letters "PUMPKIN". Well, since my nickname is Pumpkin and I've been training myself to look for messages from the Universe (even in the gutter), I had to stop and wonder what this might have to do with me.

"What's unbaked about me?" I wondered. And immediately I realized that having the courage to come here and talk to you is 'unbaked', getting my writing out into the world is "unbaked"....in fact, a great deal of who I am and who I could be has been in the back of the freezer for much of my life.

It's not like I've been sitting around doing nothing, of course. In fact, if you knew all about me you might think I'm doing a great deal. However, what I haven't been doing is tapping into everything I COULD be, was destined to be. It's like I was born with a set of fabulous blueprints for my life and I haven't even unrolled them. I don't even want to. It's way too scary.
What if it says "you are destined to go work as a missionary in Africa" or "you will run a sky diving school in the desert"..... or worse, what if it said "you are destined to live alone" or "you will never find happiness"

Luckily, the Universe isn't programmed to scare us, torture us, force us to do something against our nature, or otherwise doom us to a life of misery.
On the contrary, it is meant to align perfectly with who we are and enable us to soar as far as we are willing to go.

However ... and this is crucial.... it can't do that if we don't show up.

Let me explain. Imagine that you have a beautiful new Mercedes convertible sitting in your driveway, ready to whisk you off on a drive up the coast to Carmel. You pack your bags, get yourself ready (including throwing a long scarf over your head that will blow behind you in the breeze as you drive), and run out to the car. Your excitement is mounting as you grab your keys and put them into the lock.

But nothing happens. The key doesn't fit. And why? Because they're the keys to your 10 year old Honda Civic. Annoyed with yourself, you go back into the house to find the Mercedes key, but it isn't there. You realize you haven't seen it in weeks. Do you even know what it looks like, where you last saw it? After a frustrating hour of searching, you give up.

The Universe is like that car. It was designed for fun, adventure. It's meant to take you anywhere you want to go. But you must have the key. Fundamentally, you must BE the key.

We come into this word as unique individuals, designed to live our life in a very specific way. It is our birthright to live fully and the Universe is in partnership with us. Everything we could ever dream of doing or being is available to us. But we have to do our part.

Basically, we have to fully know ourselves...what we love, what we want, who we are....we have to present ourselves to the Universe in our fullness or it can't recognize us and it can't respond. And that's a good thing.

Imagine that the Universe gave you only what you asked for. You might end up married to the wrong person, staying in the wrong job for way too long. The book you dreamed of writing years ago might never be published. You'd might never take that fantasy trip to Egypt or Australia, or heal your relationship with your father. Every dream that you had, but let slip through your fingers, could be gone forever.

Instead, the Universe is standing, quivering like an excited puppy, waiting for us to come play. "Come on, come on, Paulette.... you're MEANT to be a writer, you're MEANT to travel and live fearlessly". It longs for that perfect alignment when you suddenly become aware of everything you want to be and you show up, a gleaming key perfectly fit for a custom car.

I was cleaning out some boxes yesterday and found a bookmark I've had hidden in papers for years. It was a quote from Martin Luther that said:

"All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or the measure, or the very thing which they ask; yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask"

That's the beauty of it. When you come to the table in your fullness -open, authentic, transparent, real, fearless, ready....God/The Universe showers you with more than you could imagine.

Until you are ready to cross that threshold, take the risk, stand at the edge, the potentials of your life will be on hold.

It says so on my pie box:

"Frozen until ready to use"