What is a bird’s eye view? The dictionary defines it as: “a view from a high angle as if seen by a bird in flight: an overall or cursory look at something.”

In life it can sometimes be easier to have a bird’s eye view of a situation or experience after it is over. I can look back on my life and more easily put the pieces and experiences together to see the why’s and wherefores of the things that  happened. In the first year of Practitioner studies, we do just that. It’s called: “How Life Got to Be the Way It Is.” It’s not always easy to look at one’s life and accept it all as having occurred because of the Law of Cause and Effect that works through us no matter what, even when we do not know it. However, I believe it is integral to accept all of me and love all of me in order to progress. To me, having this bird’s eye view of my life allows me to move forward and now with more conscious awareness to catch myself and rise up to a bird’s eye view before I begin to judge myself or others.

But, how do I have a bird’s eye view when I am in the middle of an event, especially an uncomfortable one. Practicing having a bird’s eye view allows me to become a responder rather than a reactor when confronted with life’s experiences. Here are my steps:

• First and foremost, I must know who I am. If I do not know that I am Spirit, that I am the Divine expressing itself at all times no matter what is happening, then I’m flying with a broken wing. God is always right here.
• Second, I must accept that the Law of Cause and Effect is always in place. The creative process is ongoing, whether I know it or not. Thoughts are things. Just because I might not like what’s going on, I trust the Law of Cause and Effect.
• Third, it is my perspective of a situation that is reflected back to me. I can shift my perspective. I am always at choice at how I see any experience.
• Fourth, I must accept that my reality is not always everyone else’s. We live in a multi-dimensional world with multi-dimensional personalities. I can’t control anyone else’s reality. I am only in charge of my own.
• Fifth, if my long-distance vision is not the best, then I have a choice. I can trust that I might not see all the pieces right now and that the Universe is always unfolding for my highest good, or I can get stuck in the details of a close up view. I prefer the former, although I’ve experienced both.
• Sixth, I must be patient with myself and the experience. I must trust that all the pieces are coming together.
• Seventh, It’s always a decision. I am always at choice. We were in a conversation recently in which we defined hell as thinking the same thoughts which generate the same feelings and believing that we can never escape the pattern. With a decision, I know that I have the choice to change my thinking, which in turn will change my feelings, which, in turn, will change my thoughts, which in turn will change my experience.
• Eighth, I believe in the reciprocal nature of the Universe. I know that as I turn to the Divine, it turns to me. As I become more of It and less attached to the material reality, it answers me with more understanding of the material reality.
• Ninth, I must work on my own conscious awareness. I am not just a body living on earth. I am more than this. I am Spirit clothed by a body. I am energy. I am eternal. I am Intelligence. I am Love.
• Tenth, When it seems harder than I think I can bear, I remember that Love is always present behind it all. I call on Love as the essence of who I am and begin to color in the lines of the experience with its energy.

In the cartoon of the Sword in the Stone by Disney, I remember a scene when the young Arthur is turned into a bird by Merlin. There was always a lesson to learn that would make him a better king. As he flew over the land, he lost his sense of boundaries that separate us from each other. Having a bird’s eye view is removing the separation from ourselves and our dreams and aspirations. It removes our separation from each other. It is realizing that we already have everything to live through all experiences.

Lifting ourselves out of the experience and high above it is not something we do ourselves. It is a choice to let it happen to us. It is a surrender to the higher place within ourselves that carries us through everything. As the owl, in the Sword in the Stone says to Arthur as he resists the wind and starts to wall, “Trust the wind currents and let them take you.” Arthur begins to glide. This is what happens when we trust and have faith in the things we cannot see, those unseen forces that carry us. Having a bird’s eye view of life, our highest perspective allows us to move through life more powerfully and more peacefully.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita