Anything But Alone

"You make the decision, we'll do the work."

That's what I heard. It was the response from my angels, my spirit guides, my higher self. Call it, call them, what you will.

I've been fasting an outdated habit for the month of May. I've been fasting many things over the past year or so, often to the end that the desire has disappeared entirely after the timeframe of the fast disappears. Over the course of the fast, when the desire for the item or habit surfaces, I take the time to be curious, to wonder about the motivation. What need do I believe, usually falsely, is being met.

Taking the time to question the underlying motivations usually helps me address the lie beneath the desire, the urge, the old habit. Once light, in the form of awareness, is shed on the behavior, the lie has no where to hide. Out in the open, truth swallows it whole. And I become just a little more free than I had been.

My string of recent successes at dropping old, ill-fitting habits, became it's own habit. I was caught off guard when as the month wound down, I was feeling rather tempted to bring this particular fast to a premature end.

I thought I was so much better than that.

And in the struggle with myself to battle the guilt of even contemplating "failure", I was forced to remember the value of fasting. That it isn't about showing how strong I am already. Wrong attitude. It's about remembering that there is help to deal with what seems out of our control. Fasting reminds us to look beyond our ego, our conventional notions, the usual suspects, for support and guidance.

And so I did. And as soon as I did, I heard a voice say "You make the decision, we'll do the work." I committed to my fast anew. I made the decision and I got help with the desire. Someone helped me with the work of combatting, confronting my insecurities.

Related...
I had a dental appointment later that same day. I was having two caps replaced. One in particular needed a great deal of filing down by the dentist to fit my bite. He'd put it on, I'd bite down, grind my teeth. The paper slid between my bite would tell him where and how much to file down. The art of dentistry.

This went on four or five times before it was close to done. When he removed the paper for the last filing down, I had felt the cap getting closer and closer to just the right fit. To my surprise, I heard a voice say in my inner ear, "just another one-third millimeter will make it right."

"One-third millimeter?" Precisely that? Millimeters and not inches?

Knowing the dentist's voice, I can say with certainty I wasn't overhearing his inner dialogue. The voice was distinctly male, and astoundingly confident and self-assured in his assessment.

In the past I'd have doubted the experience. I'd have tried to find a rational explanation--perhaps I heard it in a movie and it just came to me at that moment. In the past, I'd have known better than to try and share aloud the experience and invite speculation that my sanity is less than 100%.

Now that I've spent more time in meditation and less time medicated, I am ready to speak my own truth without worry of the complexes and fears that may be in earshot. I believe I heard the voice of my immaterial community.

We're anything but alone in the world. Anything but alone in our homes. Anything but alone when we go out in the world. Those of us who are Christian claim to believe that God is omnipresent. We take in fear that He sees and hears all that we do. And yet, we hesitate to take in faith that He is always near.

OK. Lets call that one an easy to swallow truth. Here's the harder part. Is He alone in experiencing with us our lives? What do the angels we profess to believe in do all day, all night, all eternity?

In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, there is a wonderful line stated by the character who represents the new material world order personified, "What is immaterial, has become immaterial."

We take it as a given that we can communicate with a soul thousands of miles away instantaneously. Through a video camera on a phone any person in reach of a satellite can share any experience we find ourselves in the midst of enjoying or loathing. The material version of shared experiences is easily embraced.

Has the value, worth and possibilities of the immaterial become unimaginable?

There are angels, spirit guides, old selves, new selves all simultaneously experiencing our moments with us. They have perspectives, truths, insights and plain information to offer us if we are open to hearing them, noticing them and being open to their guidance.


Now that I've typed all of that--my begging in prose not to be declared weird or insane--I'll share that when I sat down in the dentist chair, I immediately noticed a my dentist was distracted, preoccupied. I didn't want to reschedule, but I didn't want his preoccupation to interfere with a positive dental experience. So I invited my spirit guides. If you're wondering why I didn't say that in the first place, well, the truth is, I only just remembered as I was about to write that I didn't have any idea whose voice I'd heard and that it didn't matter.

I made the decision to keep my dental appointment. I made the decision to not try to interfere with the day my dentist was having by overtly or covertly insisting he get with my program. I made the decision that I would have a positive dental experience and that the work would be done without error.

"Just another one-third millimeter..."

I made the decision, they did the work.

And, here's the real fun of it all. Our spiritual support system is glad to pitch in the work. They recognize, even if we don't, that our biggest job as human souls is learning how to make the decisions.

It is incredibly empowering to begin to see myself as part of a larger spiritual community, a larger universe of God's creations all working hard to create Heaven on Earth.

It's so wonderful to know we're anything but alone.