Becoming a channel

Clare,
"We need to stop hoarding and be in the flow."

That sentence grabs me...
one of my favorite songs/poems is the Prayer of St. Francis...
Make me a channel of your peace...
A channel is an unobstructed conduit, it's purpose is to allow flow...
not to dam it, impede it, block it, or hoard it.
"Make me a channel" is a profound prayer...
a powerful grace...
recited rotely by too many who never incorporate the impact of the words.
So what is it that we hoard?
money,
power,
control,
people,
food,
drugs,
alcohol,
sex,
technology,
facebook friends,
distractions,
knowledge,
religion,
truth,
stuff...
and the list goes on and on...

What does hoarding do for us?
it alleviates our fears of not having enough...

Why can't we trust in the abundance of the universe?
we have been taught to protect what's ours at all costs...
we have been starved emotionally and are trying to make up for that time...
we see everyone else do it so we mimick and try to keep up...
we have lost our connection to the earth...to other humans...to all of creation...
we create enemy so that we have someone to target as the cause of all of our problems...
we create scarcity because it serves our needs...makes us stronger than them...
we live isolated...together...in an illusion of community...but lacking true connection...
We have more on-line friends than real-live friends...and we measure ourselves by the number of "likes" we get when we post a thought or share an experience.

We are lost...and alone...on an overcrowded, fully taxed earth...and we still fail to connect...continue to exploit and manipulate...squeeze every drop of blood from this stone...
failing to recognize that there is enough for all...
society has enough to share and care for her people...
I am enough...perfectly enough...just the way that I am.
I can be no more and no less...I am as I was created...
as are all of us- perfect...

no matter what happened to us as we developed, or as we learned and loved, lost and had to start all over again...life lessons don't lessen us...they make us more complex...stronger...better.
fear has controlled for too long...
yes, I am grateful that it allowed me to survive...
I respect it...
But I choose to no longer allow it to guide me.

Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me bring Your love.
Where there is injury your pardon Lord.
And where there's doubt true faith in You.
Where there's dispair in life let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness only Light.
And where there's sadness ever joy.
Oh Master grant that I may never seek, so much to be consoled as to console.
To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
In giving of ourself that we receive.
And in dying that we're born to eternal life.
-St. Francis

Blessing,
Maggie