I dream the dream that lay within the hearts and souls of our founding fathers even before they sat foot upon this country we call The United States of America. From this moment forward I will not put my faith in the reality of hypocrisy and oppression. I choose instead to dream the dream that came to life through the sacrifice of the founders and all those who dreamed a possibility far larger than one of exclusion and oppression. I choose to dream the dream that would not die and in fact, expanded its capacity for caring, as men, women and children were spirited away through the tunnels and byways of the Underground Railroad. I choose to behold the dream’s power as women across the nation came together in purpose and community, sacrificing normal life, and often the support of their families, to gain the right for each woman to vote. They seized the inherent power within over the society’s story of powerlessness and added another layer of reinforcement to this American dream.I choose to believe in the students, the organizers and the everyday citizens who could see the splendid necessity of inclusion and whose spirits would no longer tolerate sitting at the back of the bus or a system that required anyone to do so. I choose to see the dream where everyone, black, brown, yellow or white … gay, straight, or bi-sexual … physically or mentally challenged … Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, any and all beliefs … male or female or somewhere in between … young or old … where everyone is loved and appreciated, and held in the highest esteem. Where each and everyone is deemed worthy of living the dream.
One day you realize you have been following an unseen, but strongly felt signal. When you began following the signal’s broadcast, its pulse, it was like moving towards a light emanating from a far-off lighthouse. You didn’t know where you were going. You just knew, perhaps not even consciously, that you had to take the steps necessary to get wherever there was. On this birth-day, a day of conscious dawning, the possibility of Discipleship awakens, awakening the God-pulse within and its imperative to join the Pulse of All.
Looking back, had I realized where this path of Discipleship would take me, I would have either run and hidden, or walked ever more quickly down the path. My answer of course, would have depended on how far down the path I had already ventured. Early on it would have challenged my strong sense of self. Later, as more of the ego dissolved into God, I prayed for absolute deliverance and the reunion that only comes as me dissolves into We.
Discipleship is an interesting word. The dictionary talks about being one of the twelve personal followers of Christ. It also offers the option of disciple as a pupil or adherent of the doctrines of another teacher. The Discipleship I speak of has no doctrine or dogma. It is the discipleship of seeing and embracing all thought, all beliefs, all people. It is the discipleship of Love is its largest sense. The mind is unable to comprehend the enormity of the word LOVE. It means being unattached to our mind’s versions of what is right, what is important, what or who God is. It means cutting through the mind’s chatter to the space before thought and belief and waiting there for the amazement of Divine Instruction available as we step into the stillness.
A Disciple is one who knows there is always more to Love. The disciple has said YES to God dismantling all the ways we choose not to love, all the ways we protect ourselves and our ways, and dishonor each other in the process. With our YES we open to being tutored constantly by Divine inspiration and see that the mind is an uneducated play toy, far inferior to universal knowledge available when we are willing to sit in the stillness and not know. As we sit quietly we become divinely lazy … and give over the reins of life to a force more powerful and capable of truly authentic expression in this world. Discipleship first undoes mind’s control and hands it securely over to the Beloved and then it spurs us into action. Love as concept, love as Being-ness that stops with our awareness is not Love – there is still more to give over, to forgive back to the Oneness.Discipleship is a continuous growth in a greater Love that eventually blurs the lines of separation until there is nothing left but God.