The weather has certainly changed here in North Texas. On my 6:45-am walks the bitter cold seem’s to go through all my layers of clothes. The chill of the morning breeze feels fresh though and after breaking into the day with a prayer of gratitude and my morning 6-AM Facebook Live session of Conscious Coffee for about 20 to 30 minutes every day I am pumped and ready to get my heart rate up as I listen to an hour of power motivational education and then end with one of my favorite up beat songs as I find myself skipping home.

But then again, how can one NOT be pumped about life and where they are headed when they have a great expectation for the blessings that are but right before them?

The other morning half way through my walk during my 15 minutes of power yoga on the hillside I found myself viewing the beauty of nature. The sunrise (see picture in this note here) was simply amazing. I could in this moment find myself singing the lyrics to the song, Testify by NeedtoBreathe….

There’s no denying beauty makes a sound
We can’t escape it
There’s no way to doubt
Mist on the mountain rising all around
Give me your heart give me your song
Sing it with all your might
Come to the fountain and
You can be satisfied
There is a peace, there is a love
You can get lost inside
Come to the fountain and
Let me hear you testify

I was thinking as I kneeled into pigeon pose staring at the sunrise that I was truly in gratitude for all the tests of my last year. All the the sorrow, pain, and frustration was actually the foundation for a great testimony. I could hear Les Brown saying, “With no test there is no testimony.”

My heart soared with not just gratitude at the comfort that came down on me in this moment but I found myself feeling like a small child who was anxiously awaiting Christmas morning but not truly understanding when Christmas was coming. Just a knowing that it was coming. This knowing filled me to my soul and I could not help but smile.

Looking back over the last year to 18 months I can almost see the path from heavens eyes and how things have been at play long before I caught on. I can now see how things that in the moment felt miserable were actually setting the stage and clearing out what was needed to free me into what my true desires are and always have been.

I have had moments of doubt creep in on my being and set me back here and there, but they last for just a flicker in time. The universe always has a way of speaking its commitment to me, its love for me and its backing of my desires. I have said many a time that I am a deeply spiritual person who believes that God is always present and communicating. It is us who choose not to listen.Not because we don’t want to hear the messages but because we are not yet ready to handle the blessings. We must grow our vessel you could say to the capacity to actually hold the blessings so that we don’t loose what is given.

Here is where what we humans perceive as suffering comes in.

Suffering is in our lives to bring us awareness that we are not in alignment to our desires. Suffering teaches us the most valuable lesson. The lesson of letting go of our ego’s need to try and control, even the hands of God, and instead open to surrender through love, gratitude, forgiveness and AWARENESS.

If we want something we must first become aware of how we are blocking our blessings.

Often they sit right in front of us and it is like we have a heavy cloak over our heads so that we do not see them as we stubble and turn away, fearing that God is not there. Fearing that we are not worthy. Fearing that this presence of a creator that has been so highly spoken of and taught about is nothing more than a fairy tale.

In our fear we place dead lines and we try and force the GPS system of the Divine to take the course that we believe is best for us instead of moving forward in courageous certainty and love.

However, every now and then someone stops FEARING the “What If’s” and the “Yeah But’s…” and just Let’s Go and Follows.