Confirmation

How do you know that you are walking “Your Path”? What endorsement… what validation… what affirmation cements your confidence in the right-ness of your elections? Just like you, I had the need for certainty. My confidence skated on the thin ice of a fragile belief and wavering conviction that I was being the person that I was created to BE. I, like you, was challenged by the voices of loving, caring, concerned, and trusted friends who offered their opinions and perspectives on my life choices. And none… absolutely none of them could see the rationale for my determinations. Yet… I persevered on the strength of an inner conviction that I was in harmony with the leading of the Source of all that is true.

Then Life reached out with a steadying hand and a reassuring voice in the person of the only individual who could possibly command my absolute confidence and respect as a consummate human being… a respected and honored scientist and educator… and a deeply committed spiritual being. Inasmuch as he is no longer with me in physical presence (though certainly still-known in spirit) I can, and will, reveal his identity (want, as he was, to remain invisible, humble, and unobtrusive.) SWAMINATHA SUNDARAM, (Professor-Chairperson (Physics), University of South Florida, 1982 [B.Sc.; M.S.; Ph.D., D.Sc., Annamalai University, India, 1960]) became a dear friend, confidant, and joy in my life through our meeting as he placed his mail in the post-box at the curb, and I delivered the morning newspaper in the pre-dawn hours of the day.

It was during one of our treasured lunch visits together, that he (being a man of very few… yet each one valuable… words) said “You, My Friend, are a true priest. You walk your daily path as lead by The Spirit… minister to each life encountered along that path… asking nothing and expecting nothing save the meeting of your physical and material needs, at the direction and through the provision, of that controlling Spirit.” Confirmation! I can tell you, My Dear Reader, that I have never, in all of my life, been more honored, humbled, and moved than at that moment. Life had warranted and authenticated my convictions in terms that I would never have known to ask for or expect. And I can now share this story with you as my personal testimony to the certainty that you will know with sureness the appropriateness of your life elections if you will only exercise your will to follow the inspiration… the inclination… the leading of your own personal and individual “Still, Quiet, Inner-Voice” to (what may sometimes have to be) the exclusion of all outside influences.

I cannot promise you riches, fame, glory, or applause as an expectation resulting from such a disciplined choice. What I can, and do, guarantee you is joy, confidence, peace of mind and spirit that gives (in time… and with patience) rhyme, reason, and meaning to all of the conflicts, pains, disappointments, and sorrows of life. And (at that time and in that place, when and where you need, and are ready for it) a confirmation and validation (from the Creator of all that you are… from Life) that you are BE-ing that unique and particularly special individual, that you are equipped (by nature, inclination, and experience) to… BE. This is, I promise you, My Dear Friend, the greatest reward that can possibly be imagined. To know that you are living in harmony with the intention of your Creator in the world that is your daily walk. And it is to the encouragement, endorsement, and enabling of you, in your personal pilgrimage, that I am committed… as I remain;

Your constant Friend and unwavering Servant,
John-Michael


IMAGES through the gracious courtesy of Jon Sullivan, PDPhoto.org