Our Beginnings   When we are small, we know that there is something special about us.  The world is a magical place, and when we are little we really are in touch with our specialness.  Each day means so much more to us.  Each little task accomplished gives us a thrill for the first time.  We can really feel how important every little thing we do is. I see my little nieces and nephews that are so proud the first time they can drink from a cup or light up with excitement at their first steps before they can even speak.  Our beginning time is a very special time we sense it as well as experience it.   There were many things I did and thought when I was small that just were there.  No one told me, and I was too little to read about it.  Perhaps this is the advantage of being a new person.  We are the beginning of what we are about to become and building ourselves every day.  Mom and Dad and everyone we meet help form us in some way.  My cats did too.  Even the tree I loved has a place in my heart and helped to shape my existence to what it is now.   As we grow to adulthood, we tend to forget some of our specialness.  We get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the real world and somehow meander in our paths.  Some of us experience an awakening time when we lose touch with this specialness.  There is a moment, a happening, it can be large, dramatic, or sudden...  something that lets you see your miracle or rekindling the feeling that you are special...  Everyone is special.   Being different is just the time you are at in realization and you are notified by some happening to wake up and build your path.  More often than not, this is a shocking and painful happening.  We may not know where they lead, but we know that we must go.   Awakening experiences include:   Near death experiences. Illness--physical or mental. Experiencing a miracle or "unexplained happening." Battling addiction. Emotional happenings that cause extreme despair. If you find yourself with waking experiences, do not despair.  You are definitely going places.  Keep heart and stay to your quest.  Keep your beginning mind, and try to remember without effort In some ways these experiences make us feel different from others.  They seperate us from them.  In other ways, we become more connected.  It is like a struggle beginning that we cannot understand and what we must resolve.  This is a fight within ourselves.  These are from the experiences that make us realize that we need to begin again, tearing down and rebuilding are what the Sorcerer's Stone is all about.  Our thoughs, feelings, perceived needs, and other life factors have turned us from the gold we were naturally striving towards, and kept us heavy in this world, like lead.  There is a time that comes where we need to find out who we really are.

 

Remember What is Important

 

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was   enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.

He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother of pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.

He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out.

"Excuse me, where are we?"

"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.

"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.

"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up." The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.

As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

"Excuse me!" he called to the reader. "Do you have any water?"

"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there." The man pointed to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in."

"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.

"There should be a bowl by the pump." They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveler filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them.

"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.

"This is Heaven," was the answer.

"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said......"The man down the road said that was Heaven, too?"

"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's Hell."

"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"

"No. I can see how you might think so, but we're just happy that they screen out the folks who'll leave their best friends behind."

 

*** Story Submitted by Crone.  Thanks!