The first decision leading to spiritual awareness isn’t about what you believe. It’s about you, and the kind of person you’re going to be …

The greatest contribution you will ever make to the world and everyone in it is to bring your whole self – fully-connected to the world we see and to the invisible world all around us – to the people, events, and tasks that you face every day. Your whole life as a garden – refreshed and refreshing others – that’s your contribution!

In our deepest heart, we are wired for connection, not to stand alone. Whether we want to or not, we live in response.

Note: these “From Desert to Garden” articles aren’t about acquiring a religious status of some kind, like “saved, disciple, Nirvana.” Here, “spiritual” means “awakening our senses to all of life, including the unseen dimension.” Wherever that leads you religiously is a valuable, but separate question.

TLDR: living in response to the nothing turns our lives into a desert. Living in response to an invitation – even if you don’t know where it’s from – leads to a garden. Yes, garden is way better.

Responding is how we’re wired. Despite all the initiative we take in our lives – and all we miss – ultimately we ourselves don’t really make things happen: we respond. We don’t really create things: we discover and make things, in response to what we learn. We see and hear and feel in life – and we respond by making music, meaningful art, moving words, beautiful experiences. We seek and long for love, significance, purpose, meaning – whether we do anything about it or not. Sometimes, whether we work hard for it or it falls into our lap, these things actually seem to happen! “Where did that come from?!” Something from outside us prompts an impulse inside us, and we respond!

To echo an ancient phrase: “Now, there are two ways”:

Curiously, the “two ways” thing seems true regardless of what you believe about science, matter, religion, God. In the beginning, it’s not a content thing; it’s a personal thing, it’s part of how we’re wired.

The Two Ways isn’t about what you believe: you can believe in religion and God in some form and still respond to life as to the nothing. Even if you don’t have a strong sense of religion and God, you can still choose to live in response to an invitation.

Before you ask “what’s out there?” ask “what’s in here?” Before “what do I believe in?” ask, “What is my heart’s posture? Am I responding to the nothing, or to the invitation?” You can choose!

Spiritual connection begins before we sort out the content of what we believe in.

About the nothing: Long ago my father took us on a summer outing to the Colestin Springs, near the border of Oregon and California. A beautiful rural drive on forsaken hill-country roads led into the woods, to the ruins of an old historic hotel-resort. A short walk led to the once-celebrated mineral spring. The water had a mild tang of rarefied elements sure to be health-giving to somebody, somewhere, right?! At least, so claims this postcard:

The Colestin postcard

At the in-ground spring I drank from a battered old cup left there long ago. The cup had a hole in the bottom of it. As I tried to drink from it the cool water dribbled out. My childhood hands had to try to plug the hole while I drank. What, you mean doing two things at once? Well … I had to gulp it quickly, before it ran out onto the ground. The day was hot, and my refreshment was frustrated!

Living in response to the nothing is something like that.      

If we live in response to the nothing, we will always be looking, hungering, thirsting, and grasping for solutions to problems, to improve ourselves. Everything will depend on us. You might get a lot done, but you will be running from the desert.

When the desert chases us, we run to avoid being empty – whether it’s avoiding withering shame and dishonour from people around us or holding back the darkening sense of failure hidden in our own hearts. Our hearts will turn everyone and everything into part of helping us become better, to escape emptiness.

It’s in the desperate search for “the one,” the missing piece, the right relationship, the right job, the right identity, whatever. Since the Western world provides so many alternatives – and since so many of our popular stories and songs are about this kind of searching – surely “It’s out there somewhere.” So keep looking. Keep spending your money, your time, your life. Let no one stand in your way! [Forgive my facetiousness.]

Sometimes our striving, our fearful response to the nothing produces amazing, wonderful, unexpected results. Other times, sad, if eventually predictable: damaged relationships, wounds that don’t heal, lingering uncertainties that haunt us and others around us.

The nothing shadows us. … the echoes of what we say and do are smaller than we are, and they fade.

The nothing shadows us. In every case, our response to it will come from a place of emptiness, seeking to avoid emptiness. Even in laughter the heart can ache. Even in success can come a shadow: what now?! The echoes of what we say and do are smaller than we are, and they fade. This seems true regardless of what we say we believe in.

But …

If we live in response to an invitation, then we come to life with open hands to receive, open hearts to learn and to be affected. We’re moved not by dread, but by curiosity and wonder. Life will open up into a way of fullness, and everywhere and everything else will experience fullness that we share. What we give to others and to the world will come from a well-tended garden, an inner place of life, relationship, organic growth, maturing and harvest.

One of mine, from the renowned Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC Canada. Don’t miss it!

Sometimes our response to the invitation will be amazing! Other times, we’ll be more ordinary. But all in all, what we feel, think, say, do will come from a place of resilient fullness, not easily run dry.

Living in the invitation … we will find echoes of something greater, unexpected, lasting … into a larger life!

Living in response to the invitation, in the small things one will often find echoes of something greater, unexpected, lasting. Whether over a short time or over a lifetime, living in response to the invitation leads to a larger life! Our attention is opened up to connection to the world we see, and to the invisible world all around us.

The nothing is terminal:  everything closes down over the moment, which passes.  The invitation?  We don’t know where it will go!  But as we open up to it, the moments feel like they lead to a future worth having.

We want to find vibrant spiritual life that brings life to the world and everyone in it. So we start with a posture of responding, receiving, accepting the invitation. Something or someone out there notices you, wants to know you, sends an invitation. Here at the beginning, no one knows all about who or what that is – you discover along the way. Be curious! Wonder! We never know what’s coming next. That’s what powers us.

Either way, with the nothing or the invitation, the posture of your inner heart will come out. You’ll see it in the way you approach your life, and the people and tasks in it. Are people, relationships, work, and experiences mostly commodities to make your life meaningful, so that it works? Or are they a gift, an invitation into something larger than yourself? something that can be shared without fear of loss?

Are the energy and drive of your life a desperate hunt for meaning? Or are they a joyful receiving and pouring out of what is being offered to you?

You can choose the orientation of your heart’s “responder.” You can choose the posture of your living.

If you don’t decide this, you’ll most likely default to responding to the nothing. You may from time to time find outside hopes, calls, relationships, causes which seem to give you meaning – but in the end, they’re a cup with a hole in it. One you can’t stop.

Don’t add spirituality to the rest of your life as if it’s like all the other commodities we get to solve our problems and improve ourselves. That’s responding to the nothing. If you try that path, you can meditate your brains out, and you’ll still remain a desert.

Don’t add spirituality to the rest of your life … Instead, allow your whole life to wake up to the larger world. Let you be added to the rest of the world, seen and unseen.

Instead,allow your whole life to wake up to the larger world. Let you be added to the world, seen and unseen. Decide to respond, to receive the invitation, from who or whatever out there is seeking you. That’s the path to becoming a garden.

For a curious example, hear these words from Paul Simon, the famous American songwriter: “Sometimes the music starts from somewhere else, and it’s coming through you  … This is my feeling about God, or Creator:  the planet that I’m living on is so beautiful, and the universe is so awe-inspiring – if that’s the work of a Creator, then I say, ‘Thanks so much, I love your work on the universe, coming from me, Paul Simon, I really dig what you’re doing.’ … even if I’m wrong, I’m still unbelievably grateful for my existence.”*

You don’t have to end where Paul Simon does. But that’s a wonderful place to start.

If you do decide to live in response to an invitation from an unknown something or someone outside of yourself, expect changes. Expect to see and sense new things. Expect to feel impulses to behave differently. It won’t always be comfortable! But it will be real and alive. We’ll talk more about all this in future episodes of this series.

“I have decided to notice and wonder.”

Start from here: “I have decided to notice and wonder.” Find a quiet place and say it to whoever or whatever is “out there.” Sit with it, write it down somewhere. Hold it, don’t put it down, let it take root in you. If you can, tell someone else about it! And let’s continue working on it together.

*From an interview with Howard Stern in September 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPYbJMAr8vE