There Really Is More

I have taken ten Advanced Courses through the More To Life Program, and most of those have been with Brad Brown, PhD. He is pictured here, in the middle, between Claud and me. Lately, I've felt as thought I'm in a personal advanced course. Our grandson, Jackson, was born on August 4, and on the following Friday, August 10, Brad, mentor and beloved teacher, passed from this life. The intensity of these experiences reminds me of times with Brad, in the mountains of Georgia and the woods of California--he, the teacher and me, with others, the student. The past three weeks have been the same--a holy time of gathering true priorities and releasing roles, expectations and demands.

Brad was large physically and an even bigger presence--not always comfortable to be around--unless, of course, I was comfortable with myself. He held a space for human nobility, and I feel his presence often these days and remember what he said or what someone told me he said.

In Way of a Warrior, one of the More To Life Advanced Courses, Brad taught us that Life comes to us to awaken us to our humanity, authenticity and love-ability. But he told a friend of mine that ultimately, every event in life is awakening us to our love-ablity. Will I receive and give love?--That is the bottom line.

Perhaps I'll call this 'advanced course' I've been in these past weeks--"It is Calling You" and the 'it' would be love. Will I receive and give love when I'm not only gaining a grandson, but also relinquishing my role as caretaker for our daughter, as she steps more fully into herself, her marriage and her motherhood? Will I receive love from Brad, sit in the circle of people who knew him, instead of buying into--"He knew too many, meant too much for me to acknowledge the impact he had on my life." Will I receive and give the love that is pounding away at my defensiveness--with my husband's gentle look and touch, one child's delima, problems at work, or my own belief that I'm somehow left out, not called.

If you have a mentor, sit with that person and listen, and if, like Brad, that one calls you to yourself, to love All that is--sit some more. Love--the great underpinning of Life, the Reality that is God, the calling--and answering that is ours to do or not, every moment--is It.