Not Safe. Not Comfortable. But Right.

Sunday, November 19 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico


My first stop, after I left Arizona two years ago, was California. My second was New Mexico. Ever since, I've felt pulled back and forth between the two states like the pendulum on some arrhythmical grandfather clock.

Live events aside, I've spent more time in California and New Mexico than anywhere else in the country.

It doesn't hurt that my daughter lives in Sedona, Arizona, midway between the two. But that's a convenience, not a reason.

Today, still haunted by yesterday's "safe and comfortable" revelation, I drive to one of the hiking trails in the Sandia Mountains that buttress Albuquerque's east side.

Through all my travels, the Sandias have always provided an anchor for me, a place to reground, realign and reset my compass. It's these mountains, more than Albuquerque, that keeps bringing me back.

"Okay," I ask the mountains, my spirit guides, God, the Universe and all other aspects of the oneness that, ultimately, are me, "what's going on for me with New Mexico and California?"

The answers stunned me, but shouldn't have, given, once again, what I wrote in The Wisdom-Keeper Training only days ago.

What I heard was, to quote The Beverly Hillbillies theme song: "Californy is the place you ought to be."

And, like for Jed and Granny Clampett back in the '60s, not just any place in Californy. Los Angeles.

"If you want to keep moving," I heard, "you need to be where the movers and shakers are. For you, that's L.A.. Safe and comfortable is for retirees."

Oh.

"Of all the gin joints in all the world" (to maintain my Hollywood metaphor -- the quote's from Casablanca), I never, ever would consciously choose L.A.

San Diego, maybe. But not L.A.

Yet when I recover enough from my feelings of intimidation and overwhelm to look deep inside, I have to admit that it feels right. Not safe. Not comfortable. But right.

That's why my takes on the concept of choice, free will and reality creation are different from those of many in spiritual/metaphysical circles.

Others insist that all we have to do is call in what we want.

I say that my heart's highest desire may well lie beyond the realm of my human ability to want, know and imagine.

The choice I make in every moment is to surrender to the highest imperative, highest will and highest potential I can allow into my life and energy field.

After all, in creating the biblical world in seven days, God didn't manufacture, s/he allowed.

"The earth was formless and empty..." Genesis reports, "and God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."

And so, without knowing what it means, how it comes together and what it looks like, I surrender in this moment to the City of Angels and call on those very same angels to ease the way.

In this moment, because I also know that guidance and direction aren't always what they seem. We humans easily and unconsciously extrapolate incorrect or incomplete meaning and outcome from the guideposts that line our path.

Does this mean I will live in L.A.? Perhaps.

Does this mean I will make significant and synchronistic contacts and connections in L.A.? Possibly.

Does this mean something else altogether? More than likely.

Does this mean I'm done with New Mexico? Probably not.

All I can do is surrender in the moment and follow the highest path wherever it takes me.

Friday, it takes me for a few days to Marina del Rey, in the L.A. area -- the result of an unanticipated synchronicity. From there...???

You'll know when I do.

Top photo by Mark David Gerson: Sandia Mountains, Albuquerque
Art image by Mark David Gerson: "Unlimited Expansion" (Sandia Mountains)