What Answer Are You Waiting For?

 I have often had the honor of spending meditative time in the midst of a hawk. I am so aware of the many teachings Spirit extends to us through them. Thus, I was grateful to have been joined by one today as I began to sit. I wished to spend some quiet time regarding a particular current situation that, on occasion, entices me to shift my awareness from Love to fear. 

At one point, as I opened my eyes briefly, I saw this red-tailed hawk fly up from the ground to a nearby limb in front of me. I had seen it eating as I first sat down. "How long had you waited to catch this meal?", I questioned silently. An answer came unexpectedly..."No time at all. I do not keep time."

With that I found hawk taking me on a journey of perspectives.

When the hawk finds a perch for hunting, it is in that moment requesting a meal; if you will, sending a prayer for supply of food. And then it sits...for possibly very long periods of time. I can only attest to having stayed for 2 hours watching one hawk sit, so it outlasted me; I know not by how much.

We too, make requests of God; send prayers up; become inspired to manifest a thing into our life experience. And then what? How long can we "sit" with it? Perhaps more importantly, in what manner are we able to "sit" with it? Have we found the Stillness within that remains peaceful along our journey? Can our awareness remain there? Can we walk within the fulfillment of our request/vision?

To be clear, "sitting" can mean many things. It will mean what it does for you, and perhaps something very different for another. One person may be certain their next move is revealed to them, and can act immediately. Another person may have no idea in any given moment what is next for them to do, but senses they can move forward and the path will be shown as needed. Yet another may have full understanding that they are to be still, "doing" nothing, allowing for what is and for what will come. They will know when a move is to be made.

Like us, all hawks certainly do not have the exact same experiential journey as they "hunt". Unlike most of us however, hawks do not have an expectation of exactly how the process is going to look. Nor do they concern themselves with how their experience compares to the hawk in the next field. How can I know this, you ask? Have you ever seen a hawk frantically pacing back and forth on a tree branch, sqwaking complaints about how long they've been waiting for a mouse to come along? 

"Oh COME ON! It's gonna rain soon, and I've been here for hours! You can't muster up one snack for me by now?? I'll bet that greedy goshawk got it's breakfast already. It always gets what it wants."
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How long is it before we start to get antsy or impatient about a response to our prayers; for some tangible evidence of progress towards our vision? Do we even dare to expect a response to our prayers? Are we able to keep our awareness on Love in the midst of an apparent obstacle, or do we lose our perspective, focus on fearful thoughts that arise, and become spiritually paralyzed?

I cannot imagine a hawk having to battle with an inner conversation of Love vs. fear after it has swooped down and missed its first opportunity for food that day.

"Oh my gosh. I missed that snake. It was right there and I missed it. I am the worst hunter ever! Uh oh. What if there aren't any more left? I'm never going to get to eat again. Maybe I should go vegan. Maybe I was supposed to miss that snake so I'd try eating berries instead. I have never wanted to eat berries, but other critters eat them, so maybe I should. I don't know WHAT to DO! Okay, okay,  calm down. If God had wanted you to eat berries, you would want to eat berries. Just refocus. Something is bound to come along again. Geez, I'm exhausted."
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I hope, besides having a knowing a chuckle, you are getting a sense of the lessons Nature has to offer us. We are part of a Creation that KNOWS what to do. We are part of a Creation that is aware, at peace, trusting, stable...at least certainly stable compared to our current experience. We did not somehow end up the only part of Creation that was not endowed with these qualities.

Most importantly for us humans, we are part of a Creation that is LOVE...that is only Love, actually. We may need to sift through eons of our human-constructed overlays to get to our true understanding of the Love Which created all that is, but all of Creation embodies this. Some would say that is the purpose for us perceiving "time". We need time for all that sifting. We need time to wake up. Because of course, we must embody this Love as well, regardless of what it looks like.

Here lies the key difference. Unlike the rest of Creation, we see ourselves separate from all else; from God, from each other, and from the rest of Creation. That concept would give any red-blooded hawk a chill down to its hollow bones.

Perceiving ourselves as separated from God is easily our greatest misunderstanding. It would also be the clear explanation of why we live with such uncertainty, anger, and fear. We do not perceive the perfection that we are in our true essence, and that has left us in a perpetual state of alienation from everything around us. How can we experience our oneness with the rest of Creation when we've lost the experience of our own true identity?

It is no wonder that hawks do not flail about in uncertainty and fear. They have not stopped hearing the voice of God. They still experience themselves as part of a whole. They do not perceive themselves as having a beginning and an end. What would they be concerned about?

We are part of that same whole; one act of Creation; one perfect tapestry. So then it follows that we too must "know", have perfect peace, are aware, trusting, and have no beginning and no end. We too are Love. We ARE all of it.

We, however, are the only ones who began to see ourselves as separated from that. This is all we need "fix". We can choose to see as we have been taught to see, which has left us with a crippling spiritual astigmatism, or we can choose to learn what it means to see as we were meant to see, through the eyes we were given in the moment of our creation. We have never lost this sight, only abandoned it. We can get a sense of what that would look like by observing Nature. We can experience it ourselves by accessing our Inner Teacher; our true Nature.

God patiently waits, and lovingly requests that you choose again. Choose to see the Light that is in you.  This is the you that was created, along with the rest of Creation...all done so, perfectly. Perfect Love extending itself here on Earth...as everything. We cannot BE anything other than how we were created, but we can perceive ourselves as something other than how we were created, and so follows our experience.

We're already witnessing the fear that comes with perceiving ourselves as separate from all else. Choose again. Use some time to spend it quietly within to explore the Stillness there. This is who you really are, and you will see your life experience differently when witnessing from this perspective.

So, what answer are you waiting for? What prayer have you sent out that appears to have yet to be answered? What vision are you holding that seems to be taking forever to be manifest into the physical? What question do you have that you cannot seem to get a solid answer to? 

Look within. Do the work to find That which is in you that knows. You are meant to know. And if you allow Spirit to teach you through the rest of Creation, watch for the hawk. Let it remind you of its perspective. It is a master.