June 3, 2003

• Rain as metaphor for spiritual nourishment

• Nature, spirit, and the unity of all creation

[Note: Message received on a rainy night]

God and we, your guides, permeate your lives, refresh them and give them nourishment. We are, you see, as the rains are that you listen to at this moment in your lives. The rain seems to come from a great distance, but in fact the rain is made up of the very existence of life that surrounds you. You may at times feel you’ve seen enough rain; at other times, not enough. There are times when you may pray for rain. There are times when you pray the rain may stop, for the rain nourishes but it also inundates and at times confounds.

You receive nourishment from the rains, just as the rest of nature benefits. The water you drink comes from rain. But where does the rain come from? It comes from the oceans, from the lakes, from plants. All that creates moisture contributes in some way to the rain. It is a complete cycle. The oceans give forth moisture, and the rains replenish the oceans.

Your guides provide nourishment for you, but you also provide nourishment for us. Certainly we speak here of spiritual nourishment. You are aware when you benefit from the nourishment you receive from us through prayer, but you are not so aware of how your lives give us nourishment. Often we have stated that you grow as those around you grow through your own efforts. When you provide love for another, you actually receive love back. It is a continuing cycle, giving and receiving. We pray for you in a way that has nothing to do with words or doctrine or specific religious beliefs or tenets. You receive our prayer because you are open, but we, in turn, benefit from your prayers, for when you pray you acknowledge the reality of a spiritual existence beyond your direct experience, and that is precisely what we are here to do in your lives: to help you acknowledge that spiritual presence. Every time therefore that you pray we receive the benefit of that prayer, even when it is not directed toward us. We grow as your own soul grows, and the process repeats itself again and again.

The rain that falls creates a pattern—a visible pattern and an audible pattern. The impact of your own spiritual lives also has a visible and an invisible pattern. When you devote yourselves to benefiting others, some of that benefit is clearly visible, but most of the benefit you cannot see. When you learn to love because you have been loved, you are able to spread that love outward from your own environment, simple as it may be, to a much greater arena. And yet you don’t see necessarily your effect on another, but that effect is no less real. Your human lives are intricately linked to the natural world around you, just as they are permanently linked to the spiritual world around you. As you become more conscious of the natural environment, you receive in turn great benefit.

The question was raised about your relationship with your environment. Is it spiritual? Is it in some way of highest importance? The answer is clearly “yes” to both questions. You are correct in acknowledging the healing power of nature as experienced beyond your normal borders. Is there a spirit in nature? There is God’s Spirit in everything. An entity does not need to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide to be considered truly alive.

All that has been created has energy within itself. Sometimes that energy is heat, sometimes it affects light, but all that has been created has energy. When you recognize the energy of nature as real and immediate, you are recognizing your place at that table of nature, for you are actually no different. Just as you share a part of the divine, so do all share the divine. It makes no difference whether what is shared is human, plant, mineral, states of gas—whether liquid or solid—it makes no difference. Everything contains within it the divine.

There is not much different in the essence of animal life and plant life. Both exchange the gases of oxygen and carbon dioxide. There is energy in that exchange, but the smallest pebble also contains energy. It may be warmed by the sun and cooled by the water, but the energy is definitely there.

God’s creation in totality is a creation of energy. You are, in the most significant ways, not unlike minerals that exist in a far galaxy. You may say, “But Americans, Germans, Australians, French, Chinese, all humanity share the same spark of the divine.” But we tell you that everything that is shares the spark of the divine, for nothing that exists in nature, nothing that is made by human beings exists in the absence of some divine entity, the spirit, the soul, yes, a consciousness.

Each of you can live in harmony with another when you acknowledge the similarities, when you recognize what is shared in common. Likewise, your relationship to the natural world beyond your physical limitation should be based on your knowledge of that world and your relationship to it through trust. A great naturalist trusts fully the spirit of nature just as a humanist trusts the spirit of humankind. The parallel is clear and direct. To many it may seem more difficult to love an olive branch than another human being, but is there a consciousness to both? There is a natural consciousness, a sense of order, a sense of direction to all.

Consider for a moment a simple stone. A stone is comprised of minerals. At the small, miniscule atomic level, the molecule of the mineral is in constant motion. There is energy to that motion, there is consistency to that motion, there is a logic that is found in nature. Human beings often attempt to disrupt that knowledge, but there is a knowledge nevertheless. There is an intention, there is an energy, there is a motion. When you fully embrace the similarity of awareness being energy and the energy which is present in everything, you begin to relate to nature through understanding. Nature is not any longer something which just is. It becomes vital, it rejuvenates, it nourishes. Just as the rain nourishes the natural environment, the natural environment nourishes the human soul.

We have alluded often to this relationship of nature and the soul, and that has not been by mere chance. Can you learn from this natural consciousness? You can, but what you learn is not simply the product of prayer or of being present in nature. What is learned is achieved through the acknowledgment of nature. If to acknowledge you must pray, then prayer is necessary. If acknowledgment of another human being is only possible for you when you feel yourself praying for another human being, that is fine. The acknowledgment of nature can be prayerful. It can be meditative. You can draw upon nature by listening. You can draw upon nature through observation, through touch, through aroma. What you draw from nature is more important than how you draw from nature. The most important insight that nature can provide is the singleness, the unity, the common grounds that connect you to the natural world. Everything you can do that intensifies your acknowledgment of the natural world intensifies in turn your own spiritual growth. You are in the end ultimately tied together, you and the natural world.

The natural world depends upon humankind, not necessarily to do something, but rather to let the natural world do what the natural world does. It is indeed natural because it should not need interference. The best systems of the natural world are not encroached upon by human beings. There is a wisdom, as you may call it, that ensures the natural world to be in the right place, in the right condition, at the right moment in time as you measure it. It is too often the case that as humankind meddles with the natural world, altering it, controlling it, in so doing it destroys it.

What can you learn from the natural world? That you are all connected together. You are what is divine. The very act of living a human life represents the highest levels of natural technology and the simplest levels of consciousness and energy. You are connected to everything. Even when an item has been made by hand, it is still composed of natural energy. It is still the result of God’s creation in some form or another. When you embrace the natural world, you embrace all of God’s creation, for nothing has been created that is outside of God. Absolutely nothing. You may walk by a park and not see the trees. The trees are still the result of God’s hand. But if you stop to acknowledge your connection with trees, you are broadened spiritually because you are more highly aware of the inner relationships that join everything together.

You live incredible lives because you are willing to conceive the reality in your lives of the oneness of virtually everything. The totality of that oneness is the presence of God. God is everything that is created. This we have mentioned before, but it does bear as many repetitions as are necessary until you embrace fully the concept of unity.

Are there separate lessons to be learned from nature that cannot be learned from human beings? Essentially, no. All that needs to be learned is the unity of creation, but getting to that recognition is often achieved through the appreciation of the natural world, through the valuing of the natural world. It is that which provides a far broader dimension to your awareness than considering only human life forms as containing the divine spark.

You all share the same spark. There is no human being who has been given a greater or lesser spark than another. There is no drop in that ocean that is more important than another. The nourishment of one drop feeds the ocean. The growth of one soul benefits all souls. The suffering of one soul is shared in part by all souls. You are part of that totality…all of you are. It is a blessing everyone shares.

Your lives are blessed in your shared totality.

Your lives are blessed by what you learn from being open to the natural world.

Your lives are blessed by what you learn being opened to the human world.

Your lives are blessed for the simple reason that they are a part of God’s creation.

You cannot ask for more.

All are equal.

All share in being created.

All share an energy.

All share a growth of sorts.

The stone does not grow. The energy that it contains continues to grow. A stone that is heated provides heat. The heat that it provides emanates from the center of it and moves outward. Your energy, your warmth, emanates from your spirit center.

You see, you and everything that is animate and inanimate are really of the same unity, the same spiritual presence, the same spiritual power. Rejoice in that connection! You are then filled with life and nourishment and growth.

You are blessed in that nourishment as the plants are blessed by the life-giving rain.

Amen.