May 21, 2008

Sweet tooth always throbbing, my father enjoyed the many flavors of life. Daddy jokingly considered fluffy foods (or any food, for that matter) benign due to their minimal density. Loudly proclaiming his power over the ingredients, Daddy enjoyed eating, and often daring, food. In his later years, he'd reach for something he shouldn’t eat, like ice cream or donuts, and when admonished by a family member, he’d scoff, "Ah! It won't hurt me, its mostly air!"

When we look at the substance of our world around us, we learn that which we take in consists of fluffy, mostly empty and meaningless input. A miraculous transformation occurs when we assimilate all that we invite into our consciousness and turn it into something of value and pertinence. When life comes to us as “mostly air” we rely on our spiritual processing to make it meaningful.

Media
Daily, hourly, constantly, the media bombard us with sound-bites they call news and information. An old advertising term, "puffery," used to offer fantastical claims that no reasonable person would believe. The public understood these exaggerations conveyed an emphasis on the product or service, rather than serving as factual in nature.

Today, deeply entrenched in the information age with so much stimuli pounding on our firewall doors, the louder puffery knocks, the more likely you are to believe it. In the midst of the invisible cacophony of data flying from satellite to desktop in milliseconds, we lose sight of our perspective and take for granted what rings the loudest doorbell, harkens the truth. If we deem most of what we hear as puffery or "mostly air," then we barricade ourselves behind the iron-clad door of discretion and healthy skepticism in internal search for the truth.

Chatter
Walking down the street, riding public transportation, in the elevator, or at the office water cooler, chatter surrounds us. We hear bits and pieces of conversations, certainly meaningful to those involved, but peculiar when we receive a hushed sentence here or there, out of context. Niceties while passing in a hallway or sidewalk extend courtesy to another and bring about a nod or a smile. Accustomed to fractured conversations and sentences, we generally ignore the white noise of people-talk around us and go about our lives.

Spirit chatters at us, too, and often we don’t notice it because we've so inured ourselves not to hear. The little coincidences we encounter each day, may escape our conscious thinking, but our absorptive mind soaks them up, holding them like a sponge until we’re so filled up with positive input, we’re saturated! Mostly “air,” the gentle coaxing of spirit touches us anyway, and allows for a grand wringing of truth in the thirsty satisfaction of our lives.

Activity
Contemporary life, far removed from the labor-intensive rituals that filled each day in rural America a century ago, provides us with the leisure time to enjoy “mostly air” activity. Aside from our life’s work and family interaction, most of what occupies our time makes little or no impact on the world. Certainly the luxury of relaxation and stress-free living are gifts from Spirit, demonstrating every action we take need not change the world. From walking to enthusiastic exercise, to doing laundry or riding a horse, we derive meaning and experience which cumulatively adds substance to our overall inner world.

When the activity of Spirit works in our lives, we see movement toward a stronger connection to God than our modern pastimes offer. Admittedly God exists and can be found on our daily walks through life, but the gentle prodding of spirit, urging us to take the next step in our life's purpose, encourages us to lay the paving bricks on the path to our fulfillment. Miraculously, we receive Spirit's messages in perfect ways and don’t often pay attention

Beliefs
Throughout our lifetimes, our beliefs change as we evolve and grow. We no longer believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. We form strong opinions about our culture and the world. Our beliefs in and about ourselves comprise the most important and reinforced thoughts we own. Our self-talk mantras battle daily with the imparted views of others. If we give credence to others’ opinions of ourselves, we succumb to the wind of "mostly air" blowing on the core of our being.

False beliefs about the self such as "I'm not worthy," and "I'm not fill-in-the-blank" are also "mostly air" thoughts we created and repeated long enough so that we believe them. Even more destructive than what others believe about us, the invisible remoras of our self-talk suck the positive energy from our esteem leaving us limp with self-doubt and drained of possibilities. Without substance or truth, these self-destructive thoughts dissipate when confronted by the mountain of self-understanding and truth.

You own all your beliefs. You also own whatever anyone ever "told" you about yourself that you gave power to. Focus on the truth of your being. You came to earth as a beautiful, magnificent expression of God – and that truth forms the basis of your identity. All the rest is media bombardment, chatter, busyness and "mostly air."



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