Standing Strong Today with Michelle Medrano

[00:00:00] The following talk was given at Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, Colorado. Please visit our website at MileHiChurch.org Wow, wow, wow, thank you Tom, thank you to our wonderful band and boy, thank you to Mary Morrissey.

[00:00:16] That song Have a Little Faith in Me is truly I believe we are our innermost voice and the times that we're in are calling to us.

[00:00:24] Have a little faith in me and so we are inviting you today and everything we're doing to continue to have faith to stand strong as we walk through these times.

[00:00:32] And what an amazing message from Mary Morrissey, this new service order that we're doing online has me following and giving a brief talk after hearing someone who's a hero of mine, someone that I greatly respect.

[00:00:50] So I feel a little intimidated right now. What more is there to say after Mary's wonderful message? And so I want to lean into a little bit of the continued conversation about facing dark times.

[00:01:05] She's so brilliant, gave us so many points and no matter what dark times we might be facing, some of us might be doing that breath that she taught us all day long, breathing in and breathing through a straw all day long because of what we're going through.

[00:01:18] And some of us might have moments like we were talking about where maybe our life is really peaceful and going well, but we can feel the angst of the world.

[00:01:28] And what I got from that conversation we had, Patty and Josh and me and what I've gotten from Mary today and what I'm getting for myself is that it's important for us to realize that if we have moments where we're feeling overwhelmed by darkness,

[00:01:45] whether it's the darkness that's coming from this pandemic experience, the global experience or it's our specific circumstance. Or we are experiencing dark moments for other reasons that if we're feeling those moments having those moments, we fall in the realm of what we call normal.

[00:02:04] That all beings walk through dark times, all beings find moments of deep challenge, all beings have moments where they're not sure what to do or how to respond.

[00:02:14] Where they feel taken down into a place within them that can feel so challenging and sometimes it's from our own personal life and sometimes it's from feeling that collective angst.

[00:02:26] And we do that because we are connected, we are alive, we are whole, wholeness is the whole spectrum of that kind of experience.

[00:02:40] And so whether today is a moment of great joy and light or a moment of great challenge, I think that this conversation that we're having about the dark night of the soul is relevant because we simply exist. We simply move through our life and have experiences.

[00:02:57] And so I want to continue that conversation about how to dance with that darkness years ago when I was going through some dark times.

[00:03:06] I was remembering that in my study of light that we could be in the darkest room possible, all of the light turned out like Mary was describing.

[00:03:18] And still, there is light present that the human eye cannot see the spectrum of light is so diverse that our human eye can't even comprehend certain realms of light.

[00:03:30] But no matter how dark it is, light is always present that it all is connected, always together, always blended together. So as I was going through these challenging moments and not really sure what to do and feeling much like Mary was talking about in her moment of darkness.

[00:03:47] I started to practice coming home late at night. That time my my son was really little and he was going to bed early and my husband was often asleep as I came home late from teaching classes and working at my church.

[00:04:00] And so I would purposely walk through my house in the dark as a symbol of being courageous and walking through the dark. I wasn't always very successful. I admit I ran into a few things even in the familiar territory of my own home.

[00:04:18] I would run into a toy that someone had left out or I would accidentally hit a chair or I would forget that I had put something there and I found that I stumbled a little bit.

[00:04:30] I kept telling myself that no matter how dark it got, the terrain was familiar and that eye was walking through darkness with great courage and strength.

[00:04:41] And it may sound silly but it did help me a little bit to continue to recognize that those times that I was experiencing could be met with my courage and my strength.

[00:04:54] And that's what I think Mary is talking about and we're talking about today to have faith in ourselves, to have faith in our journey.

[00:05:03] I have a really good friend that I met a few years ago that I want to tell you a little bit about because his story is so inspirational to me, so empowering.

[00:05:14] He in 1999 was in a car accident, his name is Ted. Ted was in a car accident and the result of the accident is that he lost most of his sight.

[00:05:24] He lost all of his sight in his right eye and he lost 95% of his sight in his left eye. So he can see a little bit of light and can see very little and it was I imagine devastating.

[00:05:40] I can't even imagine being plunged into darkness like that after a lifetime of colors and being able to be fully sight, have your sight fully and suddenly not have it.

[00:05:55] And it was challenging. He has talks about those challenges and he said that even after the accident that he was recovering, he was a little bit stubborn in incorporating this loss of sight into his life. And many years to even become willing to walk with a cane.

[00:06:16] And I know when I see people out taking a walk on the streets or walking through traffic and they have one of those canes that indicates that they have challenges with their sight.

[00:06:27] I often feel this pull of oh my gosh, what courage it must take to go out onto a busy street with busy people and not be able to see and have to use a cane to navigate your way.

[00:06:42] Through life and it took Ted a long time many years to be able to be willing to use that cane but eventually he did.

[00:06:53] And his family tell stories about how they would guide him places and he would hang onto the arms of people as they walk through busy crowds or went out to a restaurant or wandered through life.

[00:07:06] And many times someone who was guiding him would make a mistake and he would trip and fall. He would hit something that they didn't see down below and suddenly find himself on the ground and and they talked a lot about some of the bumps and bruises that came with learning how to help guide Ted along the way.

[00:07:27] And so standing strong to me as Ted has has caused me to realize that one of the greatest things that will support us in addition to everything that Mary has talked about today is to let help in.

[00:07:44] And some of us are a little bit hesitant to let ourselves be helped and supported because we may have like Ted trusted people along the way took their arm and walked with them or allowed ourselves to be guided and fallen and bruised ourselves and even still today.

[00:08:02] Ted often has bruises and cuts where he's run into things but what I've noticed about him is that that still doesn't stop him from allowing himself to be supported and to be guided when he needs to.

[00:08:17] And that ultimately for him to learn to move around in the world and this new world that he was experiencing that he had to let people help him.

[00:08:27] He had to let help in and so I would say that one of the key things to walking through a moment of darkness is to allow ourselves to be helped to reach out to let ourselves be supported, to let ourselves be uplifted and inspired even by other people.

[00:08:50] Because there is a lot of help available and the more we can make ourselves available to it, the more we can then continue to move forward through those conditions and circumstances that we might find ourselves in.

[00:09:04] Eventually it took him 18 years he says but eventually very recently Ted allowed himself to embrace the idea of a guide dog and he now has a beautiful dog named Fana.

[00:09:18] He has a slide of a picture of Ted and his beautiful dog Fana and she's an amazing guide dog.

[00:09:25] He takes very good care of Ted and guides him through life now and has become a very important part of his life and she's just a sweet, sweet girl and she's become a part of their family and our family of friends.

[00:09:37] And it's so wonderful to watch him allow himself to be supported by this little being who can guide him through crowds and guide him through restaurants and help him find things when he needs them.

[00:09:49] And it's such a beautiful thing that he's allowed himself the full spectrum of support and to be helped. See there's nothing wrong with any of us when we find ourselves plunged into darkness no matter how it looks.

[00:10:02] We are normal we are a part of the challenge and the walk of life and sometimes it can be very extreme and no matter how extreme it is or no matter how slight it is allowing ourselves to be helped and supported.

[00:10:16] I think as a key aspect of continuing to walk this challenging walk of life together as human beings.

[00:10:24] One of the people that I find so inspirational in this beautiful life that I've quoted many times is Victor Franco and man's search for meaning who talks so much about his experience in the the camps, the Nazi camps.

[00:10:40] And how he says everything can be taken from a man but one thing the last of the human freedoms to choose ones attitude in any given set of circumstances to choose one's own way.

[00:10:53] And I think part of that willingness to choose one's own way is to choose and allow ourselves to feel the support, to feel the possibilities and to be open along the way.

[00:11:06] And then the other thing that I think is so important is what Mary talked about to let ourselves feel the light that is within us.

[00:11:15] That spectrum of light that is the truth of us no matter what conditions or circumstances are present to claim it over and over again.

[00:11:27] Maybe not just one time a day but over and over and over every day to be willing to to say no matter how dark it is I can still feel the light of my own being.

[00:11:40] And this is so vital to me because right now or anytime of challenge what I absolutely know about myself and all beings is that we have an enormous guidance system within us.

[00:11:57] If you have a computer or a smart phone or a tablet there are all sorts of ways to get help within apps or on search engines to even Google help me figure out how to make this or how to do this.

[00:12:12] And it's so wonderful and refreshing and such information available to us. I absolutely believe that there is the greatest help system, connect system, guidance system with an each one of us.

[00:12:28] But it can't do us any good unless just like in an application we go to it and say I need help. I need to feel and sense my own guidance.

[00:12:40] I need I'm willing and able to receive the guidance of beings around me the guidance of my own creative energy and I need to touch base with that inner aspect of me that can find help and support.

[00:12:53] And that I can grow stronger and stronger the more I can allow myself to claim my strength and to remember that that light always exists in me that spectrum of inner light is always right here and to find it time and time and time again.

[00:13:14] If we go back to my story about my friend Ted, he has now become a photographer.

[00:13:21] Yes, the blind guy, a photographer, a great photographer. He goes out and talks and supports, talks to and supports other people who have found themselves in that experience of blind or sight loss.

[00:13:39] And so, he goes out and supports us. Children has gone to camps. He does talks. He does presentations. And he has found within himself something that I just love a blind man, no vision but with great inner vision.

[00:13:54] And so, no matter how dark life can be, there's an inner vision that calls to us, a strength that beckons to us. An invitation always to use as Mary said the curriculum of this current moment and feel the transcendent pull towards our greater yet to be.

[00:14:17] That's what's available to us in any dark moment. This quote by Jennifer Gail, there's a wonderful lady named Jennifer Gail that I want to share. She says, there are always going to be dark times.

[00:14:30] We wish that we could avoid or erase from our lives. But our dark times show us our light and our strength. They make us who we are today, good or bad. They are all meant to help us shine.

[00:14:48] Our strength for today is to be strength, strong, and to feel that strength from our inner, most self.

[00:14:59] So today, I invite us to take all that we've experienced into our hearts and to walk forward stronger today and to recognize that no matter what's happening in our life, each one of us is stronger than we could ever imagine.

[00:15:17] You're stronger than you know, and the light is right where you are. Let's pray together. Please join me as we go within. Take this moment to allow ourselves to feel and sense that inner presence. That's what it takes is just a willingness to be still and to stop.

[00:15:38] And to allow ourselves to feel the resonance of that divine life and light that is our true source, our true north, our greatest guidance and support. And so we fall back into that once again and breathe into that and feel ourselves sourced and supplied up lifted and guided.

[00:16:07] We recognize that the guidance of this universe, the guiding presence, the light is shining in through and as all of creation, including right where we are right now. And so if there are answers we need, if there are creative ideas that we require.

[00:16:25] If there is comfort and support that would serve us, we open ourselves to the receptive nature of the divine and allow that to show up, allow that to be present for us.

[00:16:38] Allow those qualities to shine through any dark moment we might be experiencing. And if there is a sense of the angst of the world that goes on, we allow ourselves to then be that light and shine it brightly to a hungry world.

[00:17:02] And allow ourselves to be that light so beautifully that others may feel and sense that presence, whether they're in our physical presence or not.

[00:17:12] Because this network of energy that connects us all and infuses us all, we always have an opportunity to contribute to it and to receive from it.

[00:17:24] And so we dance in that dance of the beautiful reciprocal nature of life itself, of the divine truth and wholeness. And we give thanks. We give thanks to feel sense and know that right here and right now answers possibilities love support comfort.

[00:17:45] Are available and we breathe them in and give thanks for them and feel the light of love turning on inside of us around us and as us. What a great joy it is to affirm this into accept this on behalf of all of us right now.

[00:18:02] And so in love and joy and deep gratitude I simply release this prayer. I let it go, I let it be in faith and trust it is done and so it is.

[00:18:15] Thank you for listening to the Mylhychearch podcast. This podcast is made possible by the generous contributions from listeners like you. If you'd like to make a donation please visit us at mylhychearch.org. Have a fabulous day.