The pandemic has straightened out a lot of curves in my life. Curves I thought I had to travel just to live on the planet. Turns out there’s a lot of places we don’t need to go.
Catherine (Cathy): Ann, I have been hovering in the background hoping that you might notice my presence. Thank you, Anita**, for the shout out. The idea of “simpler, deeper, finer, truer” is a concept dear to my heart.
You would think that I would have mastered this idea as a woman, if not in orders, then devoted to a stripped down spiritual journey.
I thought so too, and it has taken me quite a while to discover that I was looking in the wrong direction to achieve a simple life devoted to God.
I thought that if I cut down my pleasures, cut off the needs of my body and concentrated only on the needs of others and my role as spiritual envoy in a politically charged world, I would be living a simple life.
Wrong. Dead wrong. Literally, as I died, essentially of starvation in my early thirties. Though my connection with Spirit was true, my interpretation of the spiritual life left much to be desired. I indulged in extreme fasting not realizing that I was doing was indulging my ego, making myself holier than my fellows so that my voice could ring with gentle authority when I faced down a pope and his minions on my way to brokering peace deals in the midst of war. It seemed like a simple approach, but it was not.
Now I see what simplicity is. It’s just not complicated. It’s love in every dimension and iteration. If it does not further love, then it’s not needed. I am suiting up for a return engagement. I need a do over. I need to put into practice my evolved understanding of a simple life devoted to Spirit. That life, if I can manage it, will be simply a life with no pretense.
Sounds simple, (smiling), but I rather suspect there will be significant challenges lurking where I least expect them. I defy a human being to travel this planet without an ego. I tried to kill mine the last time around and ended up feeding it my body and blood instead.
This time I want to watch myself shuck and jive and then laugh as I try to put one over on God. I tried that last time but I never got the joke. I actually thought I could bring it off.
This time I want to travel knowing that I will trip over that ego several times a day, and I want to feed those face plants to the Holy Spirit with a joyful heart. Now that would be an exercise in simplicity and quite the accomplishment, for in such a life, I would just be a worker in the vineyard, nothing more, nothing less.
And nothing is more holy or closer to God than the soul that sees itself as a part of the whole, important, unique, yes, complicated, no, just rooted in love and growing in spirit closer to its Creator every minute of every day.
April 5, 2021
*Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), a lay member of the Dominican Order, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and the Catholic Church. Her influence with Pope Gregory XI played a role in his decision to leave Avignon for Rome. She was then sent by him to negotiate peace with Florence. She died at the age of thirty-three from complications of extreme fasting.
**Anita Sacco. See "Recommended Channelers" under "Resources" tab. Anita can be contacted for purchase of obtaining the recipe for her protection spray or readings at https://www.etsy.com/shop/FairyTaleEnd.
Thank you Cathy, for that reminder to us that it IS a daily struggle to keep dealing and letting go of our ego which wants to hang on every chance it gets, and put it in it's place, where it can be useful when needed and sit back and enjoy the show most of the time ;)