Opening to Miracles

The greatest challenge, however, is not the external noise but the mental noise.

Are you ever aware of the “voice-over” in your head?

(If you’re unclear about what I mean, your voice-over is the part of you that’s asking,"What’s she talking about anyway?) The voice-over offers a steady stream of commentary and criticism 24/7.

Some of it is useful; most of it is not.
You may never be able to silence your voice-over completely. However, you can learn to control the volume.

How can you ever hope to hear the "still, small voice" if all the other noise is drowning it out?

Like a radio, you need to by-pass the static so that you can tune into the actual channel.

Stretching the analogy a bit, it’s also important to "listen" to what your body tells you.
Your sub-conscious and super-conscious use your body to communicate with you.

Since your body can’t speak English, the only way it can get the message across is through sensations, feelings, hunches, intuitions,
...even illness.

Ever get a tingling down your back when you heard something … a sudden feeling in the pit of your stomach …
a tightening in your throat ? That means your sub-conscious and super-conscious are trying to tell you something.

God is constantly communicating with you … Are you listening?

That certainly describes openness.

Of course, why bother if the upstairs is sealed off, the downstairs is off-limits and plastic sheets are draped over all the furniture?

In the same book, the Brussats quote Catholic nun, Joan Puls, as referring to openness as "the attitude and condition at the heart of all spirituality."

Don’t let yourself miss one moment of the adventure!

Imagine the sunflower: Stretch yourself open to the light.

A famous Zen saying offers an interesting perspective on openness:
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind there are few."

We call it "beginner’s luck" when a novice succeeds, but it has nothing to do with luck.
It has to do with an openness to possibility.

Don’t wait any longer…Open the door!

You never know when there might be a miracle on the other side.

Having pictures or expectations of how life should be is fine.
The only problem is when you’re wedded to those pictures. In that case, file for a no-fault divorce.

Don’t ever make the mistake of confusing pictures with reality.

It’s sad when someone misses out on happiness because it didn’t come in the exact packaging they expected.
The same thing holds true for miracles.

How many miracles have you missed because they didn’t fit your pictures?