…the embryo becomes a baby, the bud becomes a blossom, the acorn becomes an oak….
Clearly there is some invisible force that is moving every aspect of reality to its next best expression.
~ Marianne Williamson

When my focus and attention is completely – or even mostly – on visible reality, I can become disheartened at the state of the world. We are bombarded with messages about climate change, divisiveness, a limping political system, gun violence, and on and on. Yet, of course, along with all of that shadow, there are myriad sources of light that serve as counterbalance and sources of hope.

For me, when I find my thoughts on the darkness, that’s a signal that I have gone ‘horizontal’. In other words, I have gotten caught in the web of mass consciousness. With that recognition comes the gift of being able to choose to re-establish my ‘vertical’ orientation that links The Cosmos through my heart into Mother Earth. 

The story of life and all living beings is visible. It can be seen. And, at the same time, it is so, so much bigger than what we can see. But the visible is often so imposing that, in fact, we can miss ‘seeing’ the miracles of the invisible. At the most mundane and personal level, my blood flows, my cells do their work, I breathe. How amazing is that?

I cannot see air. Yet, it is essential. I also cannot see my thoughts. Yet they are one of the biggest gifts I’ve received in life. What’s important is the quality of them. Our hopeful thoughts are like acorns. After all, tiny acorns become mighty oaks.

The acorn and the oak are both visible. We can even see the physical change occurring day by day, Yet, the transforming power that leads an acorn to became an oak is an invisible and miraculous process. That transformative power is in all life. Yet, acorns cannot become babies or roses, Acorns become oaks. In other words, how that transformative power shows up, how it manifests in babies or roses or oaks – is unique to each form of life.

Humans have the same power as oaks in the physical, visible world. Babies become adults. In addition, we commonly agree that humans have a form of that transformative power that is invisible – though its results are ever so visible. That power is consciousness and its attending free will. We can choose the quality of our thoughts.

I believe that other forms of life – from water to plants and animals to stars – have this power of consciousness as well. It just is not as easily recognizable to us. If that is so, other forms of life are perhaps in a different relationship with free will. Yet, from what we can see at least, they have either not yet arrived at free will or they have moved beyond its choices of good and evil. Having said that, it appears at times that our beloved dog, Katie, does have ‘a mind of her own’.

In any case, staying with consciousness and the free will of humans, the quality of our thoughts inherently impacts what we manifest. That place, where the invisible literally becomes visible, is a gift beyond measure. When we find ourselves having gone horizontal, it’s the perfect time take notice of it. Then, we can remind ourselves and in deep gratitude to use our horizontal attention to restore us to a vertical orientation. It is a source of hope.

Photo by Barbara
Hidden Lakes
Minneapolis, MN