Faith

Lately I’ve been riding a wave of momentum. I’m noticing a few of my good friends doing the same. Small, intentional, consistent actions, performed pretty much daily, with heart and soul. It begins with a craving… a yearning for an inner warmth which can only be nursed slowly, through trusty repetition and repetitive trust.

I’ve lost and found this way of living many times… But I always come back to it precisely when I get tired of stumbling over myself. Daily process helps me drop the idea of who I am (was) for the emergent reality of who I am becoming. It’s not a fixed identity that I want, but a trajectory. Maybe it’s not even a trajectory… Maybe it’s just a sense that I am welcoming the path as I meet it.

So, what we do exactly isn’t important. What matters is that we intentionally prioritise something. This is what it means to ‘welcome the path’. This is what sets the course. The intent. How we do the smallest daily things is important because identity follows attitude. Identity is the tinted glass through which we see reality, and therefore identity is the source of all problems and solutions.

If you feel you aren’t living this way, you can always start by looking at what you repetitively do without trying. Everyone is consistent. Everyone has habits. Habits denote trust in a process. So the question is, what process? How is your process leading you in a particular direction? Does this direction resonate with your true calling? Observe and then act accordingly.

Some have been riding this wave for years, with daily practices. Some are just beginning to uncover this way of being. And what a way it is - this path of action-observation. Every major religion or spiritual tradition that ever was, has pointed in this direction. The perfect union of effortless cosmic awareness and earthy personal struggle.

If we can become familiar with the marriage of these two elements and welcome each as the other, we end up in a strange place. In this place, you can do things without feeling there was a ‘you’ doing them. You may know this as some kind of flow state. If heaven is a symbol of the infinite and earth is a symbol of the finite, then the human being is a union of both. Limitless and yet limited. Nobody and yet somebody.

I want to shout out a few people who I see living this way. It’s not the specifics of what these people do that speaks to me. It’s not how long they’ve been doing ‘xyz’ for. It’s the essence and liveliness that radiates from their actions… The ripples from the relentless dripping of daily practice. The opening towards life and all that is worth living for. 

Dan in Sydney has a 2:30am morning practice. I asked him why so early and he said something like “I just kept adding little elements to my morning practice and didn’t want to cut out the ones I was already doing, so I woke up earlier and earlier”. The energy I sense in Dan is a genuine love of being, of struggle and of sunrises. It’s not a tough guy act. It’s a heart opening.

Sarah in Germany shows up to love and forge herself every day, moving from head to body for more than a month without fail. She’s amongst the most creative and expressive people I know - able to self-reflect in a way that very few are willing to. Sarah was already a potent human being, but as her flame burns brighter, it lights the room for me and for others who are watching.

Vanessa is my partner. I see her gently letting go of old stories, making life’s risks less risky by trusting her forward steps. I’ve seen her hop from stone to stone to cross a river (which is huge for her and yet becoming normal), going running or braving the cold to bring women together for meditation, ocean dips and a warm chai. As she steps into the ferocious feminine, I am in awe.

And my grandfather, Ray. Ray passed away this week, but I can honestly say that despite his physical death, I feel very little sense of absence. He had too much heart, spine, faith and love for one man in the first place. I still feel his love as strongly as I ever have, and I know from reading his letters that he made the conscious choice every day to become bigger than himself.

We are all coming from somewhere and going somewhere. We are all starting again and again each day, and each day, an old self dies. Have faith in this process. You might as well. It’s inevitable. But having faith means choosing it. You don’t need to have faith in the future. Have faith in this. Know that it’s happening now, and it matters.

Have faith in your own daily action and that action will become more effortless.