For redefinition, I was thrown back to myself, to my inner knowing… Marilyn Sewell, Cries of the Spirit

The Authentic Voice Project: Week 12 + 13 (Full Moon)

L is for Life and M is for Matter

What is the purpose of life? What does it mean to be alive? What does it matter?

I was taught in my church-going childhood that this life was just a waiting room for the next life, the more important life, the one with God. At the time I was too young to realize that this concept made a mockery of this life – now. How could I be grateful for all I had now if it was just a trial, a test? For what? A time when I would no longer be with my family, my dog, my beloved house? Needless to say, that wasn’t very appealing to me as a child. I didn’t want my Mummy and Daddy to disappear and leave me, alone. Everything and everyone was suspect because they could cause me to do or say or even think something that would anger God enough that when I reached that Judgment seat, He would say, “Sorry! Next!” and I’d be out; flung out beyond the walls of the Kingdom along with those who wept and gnashed their teeth. I was taught that The World was a scary place; the next world seemed even scarier.

But now I have a new understanding of Life. Someone said somewhere,

Life is made up of moments.

I read this at some point in my twenties and I remember it was a light bulb moment. Waiting for your life to start means every moment you stand around waiting for the starting gun is a wasted moment, therefore you are wasting the life you have right now. This my life NOW. I no longer believe there is anything after. If there turns out to be, I don’t want to be the one who is asked, “And what did you do with the life you were given?” and having no good answer. And I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one who had to say that s/he spent every moment hating on someone/thing “other.” I want to take the life, the gifts, the talents, the passions I was born with and cultivate them and sow them. Life for me means constantly looking for my potential so I can grow and change and give and love with the personal and universal knowledge I am gaining.

Why does it Matter?

Matter is earth. Matter is body. Matter is “mater,” mother. And it matters because we all come from Mother Earth. We are all made from the same stuff as the earth and the plants and the trees and the animals: air, water, carbon, and energy. We are all vibrating with the same source of energy.

I was taught the body is a thing at the least to ignore, at the most, of which to be ashamed. My intellect was what mattered (“mind over matter”). I learned to live in my head, to dismiss the emotions and the needs of the body. But body would not be silenced. Its energy runs through my throat, my neck, my shoulders and reminds my head (sometimes painfully, particularly by way of the sinuses) that it is still there and that, although “just” matter, it does indeed matter. We experience Life through our whole body, through our matter, because Life’s energy, Earth’s energy is connected with the body’s energy. They cannot be disconnected no “matter” how hard we might try to deny we are of this earth. So plug in!

Life matters Now because we are Matter now. We are all matter. And because we are connected to all other matter we have a responsibility to our fellow and sister earth-dwellers to seek our highest vibration. To be alive means to have energy flowing through your veins. Your purpose is to live with a passion that causes this energy to pulse in life-giving waves through and around you. Energy builds energy. Pass it on so all may benefit (you have, I’m sure, experienced a lightened mood just by being in the vicinity of a authentically happy or passionate person – this is mutually raised energy). Raise the universal energy for this life, in this life, where the suffering is now and needs to end now. Because Life Matters.

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com