Open wide.
This month opens up a new chapter for the CSL community as many people begin to do deep spiritual work through both classes and book studies.
What’s so beautiful about this is that it’s an opportunity to step into experiencing spirituality in a deeper way. This cannot be accomplished without vulnerability – which is our theme for this month.
Our Sunday Celebration and classes offer up the two parts of this teaching. Sundays are where we express and experience the Love. Class is where we learn about the Law, and experience how it expresses for ourselves.
Learning about the Law happens through vulnerability. It’s in class that we begin to take the baby steps towards being who we are. Class creates a safe container for us to be seen as our full spiritual selves, and for us to see each other. It’s where the kaleidoscope (my new favourite word) of Life comes into focus. We can see how we are all facets of the greater whole, and as we become more intimate with ourselves, we begin to experience compassion for both ourselves and each other.
Vulnerability is one of the greatest gifts we have. And it’s not just about being vulnerable with each other; it’s often even more important for us to be vulnerable with ourselves.
Recently, someone came to me with a question about falling in love, and wanted to know how we know if something is “true”.
This is a profound opportunity for self-vulnerability. This person was able to ask the question, so it was easy for me to say: what do you think? How does this new person make you feel? Do you see and witness yourself as feeling safe in their presence? Do you feel you are remaining true to yourself?
These are all “self-vulnerability” questions, and they can lead us into a deeper experience of ourselves, which brings us closer to the Truth of who we are as Spirit living its life through us.
Our greatest gift in life is to answer “yes” to our inner urgings. These come to us when we experience discomfort. I recently read a piece from the Gottman Institute which specializes in marriage counselling. They said conflict is an opportunity to get to know our partner better. In other words, what feels like sandpaper gives us a chance to ask the question, and learn from within what it is that our heart is seeking. This is being vulnerable to self.
We are all here to expand, to grow and to flourish. When we have an opportunity to do it together, we begin to live life in flow with the greater whole.
Be well,
Rev. Karin
If you missed yesterday’s Sunday Celebration titled Vulnerability: Defining and Aligning, you can watch the replay and other past services on the CSLK YouTube channel.
Copyright © 2023 Centre for Spiritual Living Kelowna. All rights reserved.