Today’s Prayer to Passage will reside within ‘The Book of Awakening,’ a glorious daybook by Mark Nepo.

I pray, “Dear God, Today I feel as though I am at the center of a compass, turning to each direction, searching for my beginning. Which way do I go? Thank you for being my True North. Amen.”

August 24:

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“So what are we left with? Well, we are each faced with the endless and repeatable task of discovering, or uncovering, our enthusiasm, which means in essence being at one with the energy of God or the Divine. The word itself comes from the Greek EN (one with) and THEOS (the divine).
Despite our endless limitations, it seems that the qualities of attention, risk, and compassion allow us to be at one with the energy of the Whole and the result is enthusiasm, that deep sensation of Oneness.
As such, enthusiasm is not a mood that can be willed or forced. Rather, it is the ripple that follows the stone. It can only be felt after we immerse ourselves in life.
Like a bird gliding on the current of air it cannot see, or a fish swimming with the tide of deep it cannot see, or a note being sung as part of a song it cannot see, we are all left with the necessary risk to starve the ego – that in us which believes it can control the world – so that the unseeable music of being may rise and carry us. In recurring humility, our enthusiasm, or momentary oneness with the energy of the Universe, is the sound of God moving through the harp of the soul.”
—MARK NEPO

It is time for me to immerse myself into life. I am feeling this deeply in recent days. As I am growing interested in knowing my own direction, I am guided to live as if to fly, to swim, to sing. There are qualities of leadership being asked of me; I can feel that. I am divinely moved to live and I am being called to lead. These are the balanced attributes now present.

My first gift was faith at age four. In adolescence, the gift of faith grew into graciousness. Now, in adulthood, I have garnered discerning devotion. Each are connected and interchangeable, yet distinct. My faith was the faith of a child, immovable and unquestioning. However, my graciousness—once described by a friend as “niceness that has bankrupted you”—became the catalyst to my adulthood’s discerning devotion. And when I say devotion, that is often a euphemism for unrelenting willfulness.

There is an Ancient Greek aphorism that comes to mind. “Know thyself.” It is in knowing my inner strength and will that I balance the external interruptions of my powerfulness. Stiflings to power are best eliminated when knowing the very source of that power. Of course, the ultimate Source is God. As humans, we must attain self-awareness of the very characteristics made present through God’s gifting of them. It is in this knowing that source meets Source, and gifts are best utilized at the heightened mind.

It is through my faith, graciousness, and discerning devotion that I arise to meet the Source. Being one with the Source, enthusiastic, births a power of momentum and velocity. And though God is ever-nearer us than we might even be willing to believe, it is in our own source and direction that we may take that next step of faith. When we believe in our strengths, this does not eliminate our need for God, it enhances our partnership with God. This is an earthly covenant, God’s closeness and our freedom to trust ourselves.