What if Everything Really Was Perfect?

This spring I experienced a monumental shift in awareness, and felt immersed in joy much of the time. It was as if a layer of worry and stress just peeled away from my Being, even my skin felt a bit overly tender and new, and worry had nowhere to land.

Every time that a stressful thought tried to grab a perch, a counter thought bubbled to the surface, in the form of this question: “What if everything really was PERFECT, just the way it is?” It was like my inner coach was easing me into a totally new perspective by gently challenging the underlying assumption that something was wrong, or out of alignment, or not happening the way or in the timing that I thought it should.

Gopher-TortoiseIn my Clarity Circle I shared that many years ago I was at an ashram and the teaching for the summer was: “Everything is Shiva (God)”. As I practiced this awareness, amazing shifts began to occur. If someone was irritating me, I would begin to say to myself, “This person is God too” and the irritations would subside very quickly.

Similarly, you can remind yourself that “It’s all good” even when you can’t quite get there, and it will begin to broaden your perspective and ease your judgments about things not working out like you may have wanted. Lately, I have taken a bit different tack. Instead of a declaration, which may or may not feel totally true for me, or just may be a big stretch in the moment, I ask a question.

Whenever I feel my sense of ease slipping, or my joy being dampened, this question has arisen spontaneously: “What if this too is really perfect just the way it is??” And I instantly relax, and feel more allowing, and less stressed. It feels like a magic potion. I don’t even really have to answer it; or feel like I know the truth.

Just posing the possibility of perfection in each moment, in life as it unfolds around me without me being in charge constantly, gives me such an instantaneous relief. Release. More trust. And I find myself more easily slipping into “Loving what is” as spiritual teacher and author Byron Katie teaches.
Just the other day I was really not happy about the fact that I had to run errands during a designated writing period and I was really resisting going out and interrupting my focused work day. I caught myself grumbling and finally remembered the magic question: “What if this interruption is perfect too?” I noticed I stopped grumbling so much, but wasn’t entirely convinced this time.

As I drove dow
Roseland Road, cars ahead began swerving around something dark in the middle of the two lane road. When I got closer I saw it was an endangered gopher tortoise, hiding in his shell right on the center line. Cars on both sides were going 55 mph or more and the turtle wouldn’t last long at all.

I quickly pulled over to the side and ran out to stop traffic and rescue the large tortoise. I picked him up and carried him well into the safety of some bushes. He took a look over at me before disappearing, and I reminded him not to try to go back to the busy road! I have done this before and I always fill with gratitude as it feels like a huge blessing to me to be of assistance.

When I returned to my car, I had the radio on which I rarely listen to. There was a song playing I never heard before, and it took a few moments for me to catch the repeating refrain: “I am calling out to Rescue Me; Rescue Me; I am calling out to Rescue Me. Rescue Me.”

I burst into tears at the awesome sacred synchronicity that placed me at that exact moment in a position to rescue that gopher tortoise. There is a saying that if you want to make God laugh, tell Her your plans. If I had stuck to my original plan for the day, and not gone with the flow, the world would be short one more gopher tortoise.

I am humbled once again by the Divine Plan that always trumps our individual ideas of what “should be.” This is a level of perfection that we rarely glimpse, the perfection of the Big Picture. What if everything really really really is PERFECT?