“Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should.”Desiderata

What if everything that happened in our life was for us and not against us? I believe this is true. The Universe is not against us. We are the Universe and all the Universe wants is to express itself.

My understanding of Principle says that I am financed by the Universe to do and be my unique authentic self. The Universe doesn’t really know right or wrong or good or bad. It just is. It is a neutral power. We are the ones who put the label on everything. We are the ones that judge something as horrific or loving. We are the ones who get to use this Power according to free will.

I watched an amazing documentary about Tony Robbins the other night. I spoke about it in my blog the other day. There was a woman who had an experience more horrific than I can even imagine. She belonged to a religious cult who raped their young from infancy on in the name of God. Sexual abuse was her rite of passage in the name of God.

When Tony asked who in the audience was on the verge of suicide, she stood up with a few other people. She was chosen for her date with destiny with Tony. Something came out of this and all the other stories that were told during that documentary.  Life is for us, not against us.

I don’t know if we choose it on another soul level or how it comes through us, but there are no mistakes. Ernest Holmes once wrote, “No mistakes have been made, none are being made, and none can be made.”

Does this mean that we don’t make mistakes. Well, a mistake is missing the mark. All that means is that we’ve forgotten our true identity, but it is not a mistake in the traditional sense. The Universe doesn’t make mistakes. We are not victims. We are evolving.

There is a difference between evolving and becoming. I believe we are already born perfect, but we have to find this out for ourselves. There might be a few of us, but the masses do not come into this plane of existence with a full knowledge of who we are. Did you ever hear of the veil. My mother-in-law and others pull at it at the time of their transition. They are looking at something. We came from that something and we will return there. What we do in-between is our evolution here.

I believe it is all transpiring for us to awaken to our magnificence. I was born into a family that told me I had no voice. I might have been able to sing, but I couldn’t speak. I was told I didn’t know what I was talking about. Only my elders knew and I better listen. I remained silent. I had various physical attacks on my throat in the way of illnesses. The message was “shut-up. Don’t say anything. It’s safer that way. No one will yell at you, hit you or judge you. Just shut up.” And so I did.

However, I was allowed to sing. I was encouraged to sing. I was praised for my singing. I am just now having a revelation about this. This is probably why people tell me that they are touched by my singing. That they see another level of me that they hadn’t seen before. Like I said, I just realized this. When I sing I am free to be me. I feel perfect. Perhaps, this is why I had a big disruption in my flow when I allowed someone I had great love and respect for, another authority figure, tell me I had no voice. This person rejected my voice. There it was again – shut up. But, this time, it was “you don’t know how to sing.” That was my identity of power.

What am I getting at? Well, I could be a victim about all this and I have been at times, but what I have come to realize is that this is all for me. These were mirror reflections, my mental equivalent, my own voices speaking to me. Because I experienced these rejections and ridicule, I am now having to step into my voice. I am having to use it. I even chose to be a preacher. It wasn’t easy for me at first. I thought I didn’t have anything to say. Then the realization came when I came to understand that it wasn’t me – my ego me. A transcendent power of life was speaking through me the real me, the God of me. I never would have realized this without the painful experiences in my childhood. There were others and I’m sure we all have a many, some more horrific than others.

Whatever shows up in my life is here for me. I have to believe this. I have to step into this. I have to own this and I have to know that I can change it when I take that responsibility and change my perspective of the whole thing.

Nothing could be more horrific than what that little girl in the Tony Robbins documentary experienced; and yet, she was able to see that it was part of her soul’s journey into becoming one of the greatest teachers and helpers to others. Did she have to experience that in order for the latter to take place? I don’t know? I’m not her. All I do know is that it either is or it isn’t and I believe it is.

Deepak Chopra in his 21 day meditation with Oprah Winfrey called Desire and Destiny talked about the Sequoia. He said the reason that the Sequoi tree could live over 3000 years was because of the fire. The forest fire will burn everything that keeps the tree from growing and thriving. It will remove everything from its path. Perhaps that is what pain does. It burns away everything that is not needed anymore in our life as soon as we acknowledge it, accept it, forgive it, and open up to the gift that might be enclosed within the experience. Grace and Forgiveness supersede the Law of Cause and Effect.

Ernest Holmes wrote, “The world is beginning to realize that it has learned all it should through suffering and pain. Surely there can be no Intelligence in the Universe that wishes man to be sick, suffer pain, be unhappy and end in oblivion. Surely if God or Universal Intelligence is imbued with goodness, then it could not ordain that mane should ultimately be other than a perfect expression of life.”

I have thought of this much lately and I have come to realize until I begin to truly love myself, until I come to realize my divinity, my gifts, my beauty, that I will continue to experience suffering. However, every time I do suffer for any reason whether it is physical, emotional or mentally, I will turn to the suffering and ask, “What do I need to know? What is trying to be known here?” And then, I will listen and be willing to accept the answer and shift.