Last night, as often happens, I felt drawn to go dance with the ocean.  I love dancing on the beach under the night sky with the ocean’s fury singing to me in the background. It has been such a healing gift to me to be able to rest in the comfort of a bed of sand and salt without the icy sting of winter as a distraction.  It was a wonderfully typical “December in Florida” evening but there would be nothing else typical about this experience.

As I began to move, I was reminded of one of many reasons why a vacant beach is so appealing to me as a dance floor.  This is where I can take up space…lots of space.  I don’t have to be concerned about spacial awareness or trying to avoid accidentally kicking someone in the head.  I don’t have to share the space.  It is all mine and it feels like an intimate dance just between me and the Universe.

I reveled in it.  I let myself expand with no apologies.  Before I knew it, I was a like a sweaty wet canvas that had been rolled in sandy glitter and hair extensions.  It was a glorious sensory affair.  When I had expressed and connected with all that was yearning to be moved within me, I took a seat front and center to a spectacular performance of ever-changing cloud formations, stunning clusters of stars, comforting ocean whispers and even a shooting star.

The dance had stirred up all the grief, joy, fear, self-doubt and passion that had been hiding in my cells over the last several days and now, being held in the safety of a compassionate and fiercely loving Universe, my sobbing ruptured with graceful ease.  Those tearful moments felt like a hand extending from Love itself catching every tear as though they were liquid gold.

I was prompted to lie down and take in the love and beauty that was all around me and surrender to the healing that was being offered.  What I saw and felt was overwhelmingly beautiful.  I did not resist it. 

I welcomed the knowing that I was not alone.  I felt the presence of my beautiful mother and so many other souls who’ve been so precious to me who are now on the other side of this beautiful mess we call the human experience.  What happened next felt a gentle, energetic extraction of decades of harsh self-judgment and seeming failures that were rearranged into a clearer picture of the direction my soul has been heading all along.  

Looking up at that breath-taking sky, I saw my own reflection staring back in a way I have not experienced before.  I was being shown that I AM THE UNIVERSE in a whole new way.  As I marveled at the expansive beauty and mystery I was witnessing, I suddenly saw that the Universe was doing its own marveling back at me!  How was it possible that something so vast and sovereign would hold me in the same exact regard?  But there it was as real as the stars in the sky and there was no mistaking it.

It has been my deepest desire to see others through the eyes of God and to mirror back to my fellow humans their own divinity in this dance we are all doing.  I had not considered that the Universe has been trying to do the same thing for me and for all of us ever since we came into form.  I guess I was finally ready to see it.  It has taken me years of deep work to lay down the lies I have believed about my value and my worth.  Little by little those burdens have left me but not without a fight.  

Last night, I walked away from that dance floor a little lighter for the next chapter of my story and yet having received a lofty but weightless crown that every single one of us are worthy of wearing.  We have simply forgotten.

We are not separate from each other or from God/Universe/Love (or whatever you want to call it).  WE ARE THE UNIVERSE.  WE ARE LOVE.  WE ARE OUR OWN UNIQUE EXPRESSION OF CREATOR…and NOTHING can water that down…ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  

My sincere desire is for all of us to wear this truth like a crown on a cellular and soul level, simply because it is our birthright.