Stay a Moment Longer: The Gateway to Awakening
Stay a Moment Longer: The Gateway to Awakening
A number of months ago, I wrote a series of blogs with titles about "The Gateway to Awakening". They were different aspects or "gateways" to our inner selves, or how I like to phrase it, the gateway to the peace we already are. Home. Here. Now.
I came across this one that I hadn't finished at the time, and thought I'd write the rest of it because I love the story about my friend Pavel and the sunset at the Venice Beach Pier.
Pavel is someone who used to, fairly often, say that he was jealous of others who were feeling and living from their aliveness or inner peace. Because he just didn't get it. And he very much wanted to.
Now, he's someone who, to me, seemed pretty alive and at peace to start with. He has a light in his eyes. He's curious and sees a wonder in life. But he says his mind goes and goes and goes, and he doesn't actually feel what others see in him. Hmmm... Ok.
We happened to both be heading down to the Venice Beach Pier to see the sunset. It's spectacular, especially in the summer months. He was already there, and I was following behind about 30 minutes. Now, if the goal is to actually watch the sun go into the water, then that half hour is significant. However, I knew that if you stay with it, the colours that blend and grow and move and change go on for an hour, if not more, after the actual sun disappears.
Pavel and I were texting each other in order to meet up. He said he couldn't find me, and so he's leaving and heading back up the street away from the beach. I said Hang on, I'm almost there. He said, Don't bother, it's done, and there's nothing to see.
I didn't believe him.
I went anyway. It was gorgeous with pinks, purples, blues and dark indigo all blending from the horizon upwards and as far as the eye could see in all directions.
Come back, I texted. Nope, all done, he said.
Ok.
He came back.
His jaw dropped, and he looked on in amazement.
For kind of a long time.
Once it was mostly done, we turned and walked back up the street to find some dinner. He said that he turned around to come and get me and talk some sense into me because it was clearly over. As soon as he turned around, it was obvious that it was not over. The sunset went on and on and on.
He realized that when he had a moment of feeling the inner peace he was so jealous of in others, he would feel it for a quick moment and then tell himself it was done and get busy-minded again.
He said he would notice it and then move on very quickly in the same way as he did with the sunset. But he had never hung around long enough to see what would happen if he stayed.
Just a moment longer.
Stay a moment longer in the peace you already are and see what might happen.
With Love,
Sara Joy
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