Innerbloom

The source of all creation is pure consciousness . . . pure potentiality seeking expression from the unmanifest to the manifest. And when we realize that our true Self is one of pure potentiality, we align with the power that manifests everything in nature.

~The Chopra Center

The desert brings me as close to my true self as any place I’ve been. To me it is a neutral canvas of infinite possibility. In an American lifestyle, a riot of competition for resources and power, the desert, the environment most bereft of the one resource required for carbon based life, water, manages to find its own balance and even push forth abundance.

Fragile desert life reminds me to open my eyes to every possibility and treat what’s before me with tenderness and grace. It also reminds me how fragile my life is. The awesome intensity of heat and drought are persistent reminders to have gratitude for moments of grace.

This past weekend, traveling through a cathedral of granite, I encountered something sacred, a pocket of life. It was a flower pushing energetically toward me from near some boulders. This flower asked nothing of me, but silently invited my fascination. It smiled up at me and compelled me to move closer.

The sacred Datura plant embodies dramatic potential. It has the potential to transform reality, to kill, to purify, to heal, and to blanket the earth with translucent tenderness. By day it hides its fragile face from the sun’s fire, but in the quiet of night it’s heart falls open and extends trust to the moonlight. It is discreetly pollinated by a partner who will not hide in darkness.

The sacred Datura plant is regarded by native Americans as a powerful spirit. If one approaches it respectfully and unites with it, takes it into his and her body with an open spirit, its potential to transform becomes manifest. It carries one away from the rocks to the realm of the divine. From the union of two (the flower and the initiate) a new reality is born. Both are transformed. Higher wisdom becomes available. Unseen realms become known. Because of one deeply personal transformative experience, humanity is elevated a little bit higher. This is the power of union as well as the fruit of love.

Once a person opens his beliefs to include potentiality, he can no longer pretend to believe that hammering away with a stone tool is a meaningful purpose to live by. And since the first human wondered “what if”, the quest for higher meaning became intrinsic to humanity. That “what if” breathes in every curiosity, every innovation, every new connection. The “what if” is not an escape, it is a bid to become brighter, lighter, deeper, more thoroughly invested in available abundance. The “what if” is a bid for expansion and transcendence. “What if” brings people closer to perfection.

Just as the Datura plant lives and dies regardless of it’s potentiality being made manifest, so too can we. But unlike the Datura, we have consciousness that allows us to make a choice. We can choose to live and die by the stone tool, or we can seek to explore and manifest whatever we desire from the realm of pure potentiality. Grace has been paired with this consciousness, making all choices neutral. We simply may choose to pluck the flower or not. Every possibility lies dormant within us and can be activated whenever we choose. What will we choose? Will we grind away with our mortar and pestle surrounded by silent flowers of potential? Or will we choose to swallow a flower and launch an exploration of all that could be?

Daily I declare to the world, “I want you! I need you! I’m yours!” I won’t hide my passion. I don’t shrink to fit. I’m open and alive. I invite joy. I seek wisdom. I crave experience. I lean into potentiality with open eyes and an open heart. I will transcend the stone tool. Everything is possible and what is in the right and balanced course of things shall be so. I am humble enough to know that I do not control outcomes nor do I know what they should be, but I can choose to see the flower and bring its essence into my life, and I do.