Connecting
to Spirit
The Miracle of Sanity by Rev. Sandi King I would like share with you the ‘miracle of sanity.' I believe that we all go through some sort of life experiences that helps account for us acting in insane ways from time to time. In other words, at certain times in our lives it would be natural and perfectly understandable to react to insane circumstances with imprudent behaviours. The exception would be reacting sanely to these insane circumstances. Let me give you a personal example. Without going into great detail, I will share with you that my childhood was challenging. My mother is an alcoholic who was herself raised by a violent alcoholic. It is easy to understand why she did the things she did. She simply did what she was taught, and having never felt a deep unrestricted love, she was never modeled how to love in a sane, unconditional way. She therefore repeated the cycle that she was raised in. Now, there is an interesting experience that she had that I also will share with you. At around age six, she saw a vision of Jesus Christ at the foot of her bed. From what I understand, she was given some negative feed back about that experience and proceeded to live in fear of the phenomenon. I wonder what would have happened had someone validated for her that she was indeed protected by guardian angels and indeed Jesus Christ himself? Did this leave the door open for her to be possessed by a lower level spirit needing alcohol? Did it simply undermine her faith in a heaven world or the Divine? I don't know but I feel that it was a critical time for her soul. I also feel that her soul was significantly suppressed during the time I was growing up with her. At periodic and brief moments, I had glimpses of my mother's true soul or Self, and she had a beautiful spirit. She is a wonderfully creative and intelligent soul, when she is present. Unfortunately those moments were few and far between for me as a child. I want to share with you a scene from my child hood. When I was about four years old, I had a visitation from an angel. I was at my father's parents house, which is were I spent my summers. I don't remember a whole lot about the angel other than that it was there. I mentioned it to my Grand mother. I don't really remember her reaction to the angel specifically but I do remember her taking me on her knee and telling me that she knew I had the wisdom to handle my mother. Now this was a very powerful experience on many fronts. First she validated that I had a challenge in dealing with my mother. Everyone else was afraid of her and just went along with her to keep the peace. And here was someone who admitted to me, a four year old, that my mother was disturbed. She didn't label her. She didn't judge her. She didn't say things to turn me against her. She simply stated that my challenge in life was dealing with my mother and secondly, she validated that I had the wisdom to do so. I didn't care where this wisdom came from. I had it. My grandmother said so. She gave me faith to draw on my own resources to deal with her. In doing this she also gave me hope. She said I know you can deal with her. You will be alright. She also let me know that she loved me and trusted me. This was a big secret to let out of the family closet, even if to just speak to family about it. My perceptions of my world were validated in that instant. I had my faith in an afterlife or heavenly world affirmed. My faith in myself was validated. And I was given hope through the love of my grandmother. The three most precious gifts - faith, hope and charity. I believe that it is these three gifts that help to break the cycle of family violence or dysfunction. I was blessed by the grace of God in that moment. This blessing was reinforced every summer by my father's sister, my Aunt. I spent a good deal of time in the summer at her place, which was close to my Grand parents place. At the end of every summer, she would give me her phone number on a small scrap piece of paper and tell me that if I ever wanted to leave, to just call collect and she would take care or it. WOW! Empowerment too. If I wanted to leave, I had family to go to. That's all she said. A simple phone number on a scrap piece of paper validated my world that something was wrong, without laying blame, placing judgements, or turning a child against their mother. She respected my spiritual journey here on earth while offering me security. Faith, hope and charity - the three gifts that empower one to react sanely to an insane world. The requirements for the Miracle of Sanity. What I'm going to talk about is how these gifts were manifested in my life to create a calm amidst the storm, that have allowed me to be the eye of the storm. First and foremost, everything is in the way we see it. Optics, both internally and externally tint the world that we live in with our own individual colour. You see someone untrustworthy, I see them trustworthy. You see charming, I see love. You see imagination, I see spirit. It's all in how we see the world. Our perceptions, color our reactions to them. What I had as a child, was an "Aha" experience. My base perceptions fell into place and created my reaction to my childhood and teen years. I simply believed in a Higher Power. I believed in my ability to cope with whatever that Higher Power brought my way. I believed in my mother's inherent goodness. I believed I did not create her dysfunction and I believed that I was protected by Spirit. These belief empowered me to grow despite stifling conditions. My sense of power came from my internal beliefs, not my social position. I didn't have to borrow strength from my position, because the position of a child is one of no power. Therefore, I was empowered at a very early age to develop inner power and strength. This is the gift that my mother gave to me. She paid dearly for that gift but what a wonderful gift for a mother to be able to give a daughter. Just as perception tints our world, the way in which we perceive also tints our world. If you see things from the inside out, then that can be limiting how you perceive the world. Seeing the world from the outside in, means that, for example, if you feel you might be ostracized for joining a particular group that you enjoy, then you limit what you tell friends and family about it. It also means that you are not free to experience that group fully and to see it for it's full benefit to you. Your perception is tainted by fear of social rejection. Seeing things inside-out is a process. The internal constantly changes, and so therefore does your external perceptions. What you were afraid of yesterday, holds no fear today. And what you are afraid of today will have no hold on you tomorrow. When we are afraid of things, this develops an unhealthy dependence on our perceptions. As we reduce and eliminate fear from our life, we heal our inner spirit and develop our evolving perceptions that foster a healthy interdependence with others. We can choose to see the good in each person that comes our way and take that seed of goodness and strength. As we nurture it with love, honesty and care, we empower that person to be blessed, just as my grandmother and aunt did for me, with the divine grace of faith, hope, and charity. My message to you today is to trust your inner judgements, don't let them be tinted by social pressures or perceptions, offer you love to everyone who crosses your path and to be aware that whenever you have the opportunity to be honest and caring, you may actually be blessing someone with the opportunity for the miracle of sanity in an insane world.
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