Feeling One With God

MOMENTS OF GRACE ARE THOSE TIMES when God intervenes in our lives in very real, very direct, and very visible ways. They are moments when something happens, big or small, that causes a Course Change.

You experienced a Moment of Grace when you opened this blog.

There are many ways that the Divine moves in our lives, especially when we open to the possibility of miracles. Once we have unlocked the door in our psyche to the potentiality of being touched by God in ways we could only imagine in our dreams, then those dreams begin to come true.

A few years ago I wrote a book called Conversations with God which captured attention throughout the world. I believe that book was directly inspired by God during Moments of Grace. And I am very clear that I am not the only one receiving such inspirations and experiencing such moments. For if Conversations with God taught us anything, it is that God talks to all of us, all of the time. Yet we can hear God only when we are open to listening.

Let those who have ears to hear, listen.

But now here is the startling news. God not only has conversations with us, God visits us every day, in person.

This blog -- and particularly these weekly Saturday entries -- are all about such conversations and such visits. It will create a course change in your life because it is about real people, just like you. It is not the story of masters or gurus or saints or sages, but about ordinary every day folk who had a “run in with God,” and never forgot it. Because it is about real people living lives just like yours and mine, it becomes very convincing on the question of whether there is Another Force at work in our lives.

In my own mind that Force is called God. You may call it anything you wish. But whatever you call it—coincidence, serendipity, synchronicity, luck, intuition, inspiration—you will find it very difficult, after reading this book, to deny that it is there. Right there. In our lives. Every day. Working miracles. Making magic. Changing everything.

It happens in everyone’s life. Janice Tooke, 43, of Brooklyn, New York, says it happened in her life this way…

My 11-year-old son and I were on our way downstate to camp and sail on the Hudson River. During the two-hour drive we listened, as we always do when we are in the car together, to Conversations with God.

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NOTE: Saturday is Prose & Poetry Day here on the blog, a time to take a moment once a week to relax the mind, open the heart, and access the soul through the gift of prose from one of the many books of The New Spirituality, and through the poetry of m. Claire, author of the forthcoming volume, Openings.

This week's prose...an excerpt from Moments of Grace...
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On this warm sunshine-filled August afternoon we noted that we had seen many, many Monarch butterflies during our trip. Feeling full of light and love as we sailed lazily along, I envisioned Jesus in my mind, standing in a field, arms outstretched, calling forth many butterflies, which came and covered him fully.

Feeling in that moment that I was one with God, I also imagined myself calling forth the butterflies in much the same manner. It was a beautiful moment in my mind. I wanted it to continue. I wanted it to never end.

Then my human doubts crept in. Maybe I’m making it all up, I thought. All these feelings and visions are nothing but creations of my own imagination. I felt frustrated. I wish there was some way that I could know that God is real, and that I am part of Him.

At that moment, I asked God to show me a sign and reveal Himself to me in a tangible way during this trip. I didn’t want to have to wait any longer. I wanted it to happen during this trip, right here, right now. I even used the “I Am” words to call it forth. I said, “I Am going to be given a sign.”

That evening we camped on an island. The next morning brought a beautiful sunrise to the river. The sunshine sparkled off the water into my eyes as I shook myself awake. As I sat at the picnic table watching waves on the beach, a large Monarch butterfly swooped down out of nowhere and began dancing in front of my face. It startled me as it circled once around the top of the tent in which my son was still sleeping.

I immediately said, “Oh, how beautiful you are. Come and see me!” Reaching out my hand, the butterfly alit there!

It was so beautiful! Its orange and black wings were huge and perfect, and it sat still for several seconds there in the palm of my hand. My son awoke hearing my voice, and sticking his head out of the tent, saw the butterfly on my hand.

We were both amazed.

Of course, I knew who sent this gift. I now have the “knowing,” because I had called it forth. We can all call it forth.

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This week's gift of poetry
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I want to fall into you.

I want to come into your heart
and then ask it
My name.

I want to press myself against you
so closely
that you forget
Your Own.

I want to know every color of your eyes
and how each light
changes them

and how they came
to see me.

I want to know all of your secrets
and have you beg me to keep them.

I want to tear at your costumes –
the ones that keep you hidden,
and see you naked
and know your truths.

I want you to fall into Me

And come into my heart
and then ask it
Your name.

(Fall - m. claire - copyright 2007 - all rights reserved)

For more of the work of this new American poet, go to www.mclairepoet.com.