I’m going to let you in on a little secret… we have all the answers to all the questions and life quandaries that we’ve ever had, we had them before we were even born. There is a beautiful kabbalistic teaching that says before we come into this world an angel shares all the information we would ever need in our lives; we just don’t remember because we live in a realm of forgetting. Honestly, if we could remember or did remember all of our past lives, I don’t think any of us would be sane!

We get very caught up in our lives; we become too involved in everyday life, the illusions we think are real, and we forget that everything has an inception, a starting point. Just because we don’t remember it, it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. We live in the illusionary world, where the situations we face seem to have a connection with only the physical world we see, hear, touch, taste and smell, essentially forgetting that there is so much more at play. When we mistake these deceptions for reality it disconnects us from our source, our inception – our Creator, as well as our overall purpose in this lifetime. Furthermore, we believe that we have all of the things we have accomplished though our own hard work and merit. And yes, while there is a payoff for our efforts, the hand of the Creator is in everything.

I have memories from a very early age of having God over for my tea parties. I took my tea with milk and sugar, and God took His black with a slice of lemon. I never felt alone. I always felt an exquisite presence. If only we could always live our lives looking through the lens of simplicity and certainty we had as children. As children, we possessed unbounded curiosity, and our innocence allowed us to believe in everything. As we get older we seem to lose or displace that simplicity and certainty. The relationship we have with the Creator is the only relationship that remains with us.

Trampled By Turtles released the song, Alone, which really strikes a chord in me (pardon the pun!) The lyrics that really move me are “You come into the world alone, and you go out of the world alone.”  Rather than finding this sad, I find it inspiring – motivating me to live with the consciousness that yes, we do come into this world alone, we meet all kinds of people while we’re here, some people we come to depend on, some to mentor, some to love, and then we leave the world alone. To quote Rav Berg, “You come into this world naked and you leave this world naked. What remains is the goodness you have done.” We hopefully touch lives, we affect people (positively, I hope), we leave our mark, and then what remains is—as the Rav said—the goodness we have done.

Life is filled with mirrors, experiences and people who serve to mirror or reflect an aspect of ourselves, or our behavior; every moment and everyone we meet has something to teach us. In life, we often put emphasis or importance on the wrong things and don’t appreciate the people and relationships that are truly of value. There is often one relationship in particular that we tend to neglect – the one we have with the Creator – and it’s the one relationship that never changes, that never leaves us, even if we have no memory of it at all in this life. It’s where we come from, and where we return.

Throughout our lives we seek answers… “I need to know what to do;” “I need to know the direction;” “I want to know why, how, when, where… I need to have clarity.” What we don’t realize is that we already have all the information we will ever need, and when we live with the consciousness that we already know everything we need to help us navigate life, we will always have certainty in the process, no matter what challenges we encounter along the way. Our certainty in the Creator is our greatest asset, and when we trust what happens to us, we can also choose to shift our focus to what really matters. The Creator sends us signs and messages throughout our lives; we just need to be aware of them.

How can we become aware of the messages?

Well, in Evan Almighty, the movie where Steve Carell plays a modern day Noah, there is this fantastic line said by God (played by Morgan Freeman) which I think best answers that question:

God: Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

Those are the signs – the opportunities – we need only to remember that everything we encounter in our lives is a means to transform and elevate us. The Creator has set everything up for us in order to fulfill our life’s happiness and fulfillment – from the relationships we have, the people we meet, and the challenges we face. But sadly, we don’t trust the process, thereby neglecting our relationship and connection with the Creator.

When things get us down, when we feel disappointed, or heartbroken we need to remember that the Creator set this up for us in the pursuit of the perfection of our souls – for the perfection of each day. We are not merely creating our own day; we are influencing the day that everybody around us is going to have. We inject our day and people’s lives with energy for the entire world, because our greatest task is to change – to truly make a difference in the world. Maintaining and nurturing our connection with the Creator is one sure way to succeed in that task.

What do you focus on throughout your day? Are you worried about what people think of you? What are your priorities? Is your relationship with the Creator one of them?

People often ask me how I found my spiritual path in life; how did I create a life for myself, where growth and happiness are not just a desire, they are an absolute necessity? The truth is, when I was 17, I found myself in such a sad and dark place. It was then that I started studying Kabbalah, and my life became more focused. I had direction, purpose, clarity, and for the first time in my life, I had a sense of certainty. There were still ups and downs, but I had a profound realization in the process: I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t have a voice, and I didn’t think I was worthwhile enough to discover myself.

The real change in my life only occurred once I had that realization. By thinking that I wasn’t worthwhile enough, it meant that I didn’t really respect who I was and where I came from. I didn’t have a relationship with myself, and more importantly and to the point, I didn’t have a relationship, or a connection with the Creator – my source and essence. I knew that if I didn’t develop this relationship, every other relationship that I would have, or would come into my life, wouldn’t be “worthwhile” in my mind.

The undeniable reality is that most of us, if not all of us, to some degree allow our thoughts of feeling undeserving or unloved permeate into our lives and overtake them. This causes a disconnection and we fall into the illusion of what we think we know, and what we think is real. The truth is, it’s not real. The Creator is like a magician, the tricks are an illusion, and we have no idea what goes on behind the curtain. If we can remember to focus on our relationship with the Creator, and prioritize what is truly important, that is when we can awaken true certainty, because the truth is, the Creator NEVER leaves us, and we already have everything we need to grow and be happy.

THOUGHT INTO ACTION:

Nurture your relationship with the Creator this week. When you find yourself in uncertainty, doubt or unhappiness use that time to strengthen your connection with God. If you find for instance, in one week or one day that everything seems to be falling apart, or not going your way, it’s because you don’t have certainty in the Creator. Trust the setup, and let your intuition and memory guide you.