I just love how Spirit and spiritual lessons can come to us in the most extraordinarily ordinary ways!  I experienced at least two of them this week that I’d like to share with you.

The first was a surprise birthday visit from my brother Ed.  It was October 26^th, his birthday, not mine.   What makes this a little bit unusual is that Ed passed away in July, 2015.  So, this past Wednesday I was teaching a class at the UConn School of Social Work. The beginning of the week was busy and I wasn’t particularly aware of the date, just enough to make sure I was in the right place at the right time!

As is typical for most of my classes and workshops, the number of women far outweighed the number of men.  In fact, there were only 3 men in the class.  As we went around the room for introductions, it turned out that two of them were named Edmond. What are the chances of that happening? When it was time for Edmond#2 to introduce himself, he was adamant that the other guy was Edmond and he was ED! As he said that I felt my brother’s presence in the room and smiled, and said a silent hello.

The next morning as I was scrolling through FB, I noticed a post by Ed’s life partner Lisa, from the day before, remembering Ed on his birthday!  In my busy-ness I had completely lost track of the date and hadn’t realized that it had been Ed’s birthday the day before.  I laughed out loud as I remembered how adamantly that student had insisted that he was ED! My brother had a great sense of humor, so it wasn’t a surprise that he would show up in a funny way!  Thanks Ed for the laugh and the reminder that you are always with me!  I love you.

The other lesson took place at Cumberland Farms, my favorite place to get coffee!  I’m there pretty much every day, sometimes more than once a day!  In case you didn’t know, coffee is free on Friday during the month of October.  Sorry that I didn’t think to tell you earlier, since today is the last day!

Anyway, when I went in today I saw the manager fussing with the latte machine. We’re on a first name basis, so I starting chatting with Alan about what he was doing.  He told me that in preparation for Free Coffee Friday they had packed the bins full with the powered mixtures so they wouldn’t run out.  Apparently, they had over-packed the bins, because the powder wasn’t coming out the way it was supposed to. The oh-so scrumptious-sugar-loaded Pumpkin Spice Latte tasted like slightly flavored water.

Life is often like that, don’t you think? We try to jam too much in to make sure we have enough…..and in the process completely stop the flow of the very stuff we’re trying to get enough of!  In life, as in the latte machine, we need to leave space for air, or Spirit, to enter.  If we don’t, everything gets compacted and nothing flows. Sort of creative and spiritual constipation, if you will!

I don’t know about you, but this is an important lesson for me.  I often operate with a sense of urgency, a need to do more, faster, that doesn’t really serve me.  I’ve been consciously slowing myself down for many years, leaving more space for Spirit to enter, but my natural tendency is do, do, do.  Someone once referred to me as Catherine Ewing, the human doing. OUCH!

When I’m filling my mind and my days with too much artificial “stuff”, I’m not allowing time or space to hear the gentle promptings of Spirit. I’m allowing my ego to run the show, which is likely to be operating more from a place of fear than from a place of love.

When I get quiet in prayer or meditation, or take a walk outside, or sit by the lake or play with my grandson, I allow that space and the accompanying peace it brings, to permeate me. I become more creative, more focused and more efficient. I let go of the “human doing” part of my personality and relax into my “human being”. Less really is more!

How is Spirit showing up in your life these days?  Can you find lessons in the everyday events of life?  That’s where the lessons usually are, not in some state of altered consciousness, but right in front of you, in the experiences of everyday life.

I’d love to hear about how you’ve experienced the play of Spirit in your life!

From my sacred heart to yours,

Catherine