A function of consciousness is the gift of awareness.

It is this awareness that draws our attention to grace.

Grace is always being dispersed, but generally we are unaware of it. Grace is the beauty in the details, the artistry of the wind and the comfort of the breath. When you notice the little things in those still moments of reflection or deeper contemplation, you begin to see and experience the energetic fabric of life surrounding you. It’s like being wrapped in a cocoon of comfort that always takes care of your needs.

Have you ever become aware of a synchronicity that you know could have only been choreographed by grace?

Each day I try to be aware of these moments. When they happen, no matter how small or insignificant they seem, I am filled with the promise of the goodness of life. I am reminded that I am in the right place, doing the right thing and living my dharma (my duty or authentic life purpose).

It’s as if the universe says to me, “I see you. I’m with you. You’re on the right track.”

One such experience happened for me the night after I finished teaching a very intense yoga training. I was settling down for the evening, brushing my teeth and listening to Bill Evans Radio, a jazz pianist I adore, on Pandora. At the same time, coming from our living room, I heard music from the computer my wife uses.

She was listening to a YouTube station or some website with music. Because of my musical background and experience as a recording artist, I have what’s called relative pitch. (Perfect pitch is when you hear a note and know exactly which note of the scale it is. Relative pitch is when you recognize chords and sounds that match up and are either harmonious or discordant.)

To my surprise, I noticed that the Pandora station I was listening to and the music from the living room were in the same key. In addition, they had synchronized rhythms and chord changes.

Two different music sources, totally in sync. It was eerie.

Then I turned on my electric toothbrush. The tone of my toothbrush motor was the major third of the key of the music. My toothbrush was in exactly the same key as the other two music pieces! There I was brushing my teeth in three-part harmony with music that could have only been orchestrated by the “master conductor”, grace. Then, at the precise moment, when my toothbrush cycle had completed automatically, the other two music sources ended.

I was so in awe of the graceful synchronicity that the universe had created for me to notice with my heightened awareness that I smiled and bowed as if I were thanking the conductor for a masterful performance.

The lesson I learned that day, as I brushed my teeth, was that the universe is always playing music. There’s a divine order to things, but I’m hardly ever aware of it. There are little windows that open up occasionally when I am in the right frame of mind, when I feel as though all is well and when I know I have served so fully and given my best and my all. I was feeling that way on this evening.

I felt an increase in gratitude and grace because I had given my all. I was full out. I had made myself fully present, not for my own sake, but for the students, and in so doing, I was given the gift of awareness so that I could appreciate the grace present in every moment.

And there I was brushing my teeth in concert with the universe, in awe of its organization, beauty and uncanny sense of humor.

All was well in my world.

May we all enjoy the little things in life. May we all live with the awareness of grace.

May we all be reminded again and again of our divine inheritance and that we are, not only in the flow and part of the flow, as much as everything else in nature, but that we are the flow. You are grace with a brain—your brain.

The universe is in you as you, appreciating itself.

 

~

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Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: from wiki commons (NASA)