Ross Foti

The beautiful road is open

 

 

IMG_0374The beautiful road bends and opens in the morning light, curving with the water and fading into trees. Egrets and herons fish lazily in the lagoon unfazed by oncoming traffic. Rocks remind me of where I once lived and where I now reside: nel cuore mio. Without reservation and with a boldness of becoming who I truly am, the path I’m walking encourages me to shed one identity after another, peeling away the layers of subterfuge until finally, the burnished self is revealed in its magnificence with no desire or need to hide anything. Nothing.  

From a man who has hidden much of his life behind the easy layers, standing in the fullness of me feels audacious, revelatory, and awesome. It’s as if those biblical clouds are rolling through the heavens, igniting the sky and quaking the earth.  I rise like Lazarus, phoenix that he was.

The Franciscans teach us to die daily. The Jesuits admonish us to follow the rules of order Ignatius de Loyola outlined in 1534 until better ideas emerge. Daily, we do die. Better ideas always do emerge.

Better ideas emerge from the ashes of past convictions. A new future is upon us.  This time in our collective lives is a sacred one. Ever encroaching upon the foundation buried within us, evolution’s call is constant. How brave are we to follow its call?

Mother Teresa remarked, “There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. If not this then, what can we do? We can take a broom and clean someone’s house. That says enough.”

I love Teresa’s call to action.  I love the Franciscan and Jesuit teachings. I love evolution. I love taking action and venturing into uncharted waters and territories, following the open curve of the road into whatever is up ahead. I love adventure!

We each are called to sweep away the dust and debris that has piled up around us. Whether in our personal lives or in the lives of our communities, nations and planet, we are asked to make better what already is. This is the common thread of our humanity and this is ultimately the human race.

We are not here to race one another to some illusory finish line but rather to walk in step with one another as we continue to unravel the old DNA within us and begin braiding a new strand imagined with peace and composed of light.  Discovering how loving we can be allows us to maneuver through and navigate the every changing kaleidoscope of our biology here on earth.

To disassociate our biology from our spirituality denies the evident scientific truth that everything has consciousness, that is, that everything is sensing/feeling/responding/relating/engaging with everything else, all of the time. This is not a high falutin, pie in the sky, half-baked idea but rather a documented fact: at its most basic (as we know it now, until a better idea emerges) all matter consists of photons (pulses of light) that structure themselves into form according to whomever or whatever is observing them. There is no us and them, no this and that.

Now I didn’t mean to move so quickly from poetry to theology to science, but here we are and I have. So what is it I mean to share here this morning?

The advent of a new world is upon me. I am in the final month of a seven month project here in MountainView as I guide the Conscious Living Center through its legal and spiritual dissolution. This adventure is one of the most sacred I have set forth to accomplish in my years as a spiritual guide and minister. To say that I have been transformed understates my experience. Transmuted is more apt.

I have always been called to create, guide and manage change. I revel in the processes of the old burning away into the new.  I am built mightily for it, as ultimately, I believe are we all.   The present project I am working on is undoubtedly the most consciously I have undertaken a challenge to date and interestingly, is also the most consciously I have been able to stand within its crucible.

As I close down the Conscious Living Center and reveal the next iteration of my work here on earth, Herestar, I am filled with love for everything. I am filled today, with a love for everything new.

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