Meet Your Destiny

This morning in the absolute quiet of the garden, I heard the hot breath of the propane burner overhead exhale into the rainbow-colored, hot air balloon. People in the suspended basket looked down as I looked up. A tongue of flame licked at the inside of the envelope as the balloon glided over the bosque. I saw the pilot’s raised arm control the burner. Without his active participation, the flight would not occur.

This week, Spirit speaks to me of the importance of my participation regardless of appearance, regardless of preference, regardless of emotional state. Keep walking. Keep watering. Dress up and show up. Treat (pray affirmatively) and move your feet (do your part) no matter how things look, how you feel or what you think.

Space in last week’s blog posting limited the discussion of hummingbird symbolism to only a few of its meanings. Another insight came once the post was written. The hummingbird at my bedroom window staring me in the eye had “come to get me” since I had not shown up regularly in my meditation chair where Spirit usually communicates with me. Creative communication through toads, morning glories, robins (“new growth”) and hummingbirds ensued instead. But, the loop was not closed, the circuit connected, the communication complete until I did my part. I had to take action by going for the Rio Grande walk during which two more hummingbirds directed my thoughts to how I dreamed myself into being nine months earlier. No walk, no insight. No insight, no article. The story would have been incomplete without my active participation. I had to do my part.

“Service Through Commitment,” black letters announced from the white door of the Bernalillo County sheriff’s vehicle stopped next to me in traffic this week. I knew it was time to adopt their slogan for my writing. A book is written one page at a time. The medical bill is adjusted when you make the call. Your hip gets stronger when you walk it each day. 900 songs show up when you do.

Julia Cameron writes of Richard Rogers’ (Rogers and Hammerstein) creative process in her book The Sound of Paper. Although he struggled with alcohol and depression, he worked. “Every day, rise and shine, regardless of his emotional weather, he went to the piano and listened for the work that would move through him.” As the composer of over 900 songs, he not only left a legacy of work, he left a legacy of how to work. “He met his destiny daily at the piano,” Cameron says. When she read his story to us at her recent seminar, tears came to my eyes. I had been thinking about destiny for quite some time, and as she read, I realized I would meet mine daily at the page.

The word “destiny” comes from the French root word meaning “to make firm; to establish.” Although its connotation implies an external fate imposed on us by some outside force, the actual meaning, or denotation, “to make firm; to establish” indicates our destiny is up to us. Shakespeare said, “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.” I know it is up to me to show up at the page each day, to keep my hand on the propane burner control so the balloon stays aloft. Am I willing to be as devoted to the work as Richard Rogers? Willing to participate actively, daily, in establishing my destiny, making it firm? Will I meet it at the page? Each day I will choose. How about you?