Between the Inner Journey and Outer Journey

“What if our religion was each other  
If our practice was our life
If prayer, our words
What if the temple was the Earth  
If forests were our church  
If holy water—the rivers, lakes, and ocean
What if meditation was our relationships
If the teacher was life
If wisdom was self-knowledge  
If love was the center of our being.” ~ Ganga White

It has been quite some time since I formed a habit of morning short meditation and prayers. It is a great blessing that the first thing I am consciously aware of everyday is gratitude, then comes compassion, trust, surrender, healing and forgiveness. It has taken a long journey to get to this natural state of experiencing love and happiness.

The journey from then to now has been a lot more fun than I thought. When I first graduated from university, I went through a few bumpy years of changing jobs and relationship disappointment, but that also led me to deeper self-discovery and a broad spectrum of spiritual experiences.

For many years, I thought the spiritual path for the rest of my life would be largely inward, based on meditation and yoga. I am very grateful that yoga and meditation are still the core of my spiritual existence, but God seems to have given me a big bonus. Work has brought me to connect with people and cultures from all over the world. More recently, I bumped into another bonus called ultra running.    

The outer journey is a precious experience of seeing the beauty and wonders of creation. This has given me tremendous inspiration, on how I can expand on the gifts that I've been given, and channel the love, compassion and happiness through humble and meaningful service. It is amazing that this source of inspiration has been like a self-perpetuating fountain. The more I use it, the more I get.

After a 12 year cycle of discovering my spirituality, I feel like going back to the person I was 12 years ago, and tell myself, "I am the person you are looking for and that journey ahead is a life you will never regret". 

 “Your life is a sacred journey. It is about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way. You are on the path… exactly where you are meant to be right now… And from here, you can only go forward, shaping your life story into a magnificent tale of triumph, of healing, of courage, of beauty, of wisdom, of power, of dignity, and of love.” ~ by Caroline Adams