Venice? No, Kansas City. Surprised? So was I when I discovered this charming neighborhood. Yes, it is true—this gorgeous setting is in the heart of America. It’s as beautiful as the gondolas in Italy, and almost identical to the River Seine in Paris, with its walkways and bridges. How nice to know such beauty exists so close to home. What else is going on right in our neighborhood or home or loved one’s life, the richness of which we might be missing?

A few years ago, while sleeping on the top of a houseboat on Lake Powell, far away from any city lights, I laid awake every night watching the stars for a long, long time. Every few minutes, I witnessed the thrill of a shooting star dashing across the magnificent Milky Way. I could hardly close my eyes, not wanting to miss the show.

But what I was most amazed with was another phenomenon in that starry night sky. As I stared for long moments at a time at what I thought were golden or white stars, I saw them changing colors, like a rainbow. The longer I stared into the white and gold, the more colors I saw. At first, I saw the twinkle of red, then as I stared longer, I saw orange, then blue, green, purple, all the colors coming to life, one by one. The longer I looked at the white and gold stars, the more I saw colors pulsating from them. Why had I never noticed this before?

The colorful starry show so impressed me that I could not get the idea out of my mind for days—the idea that the longer I watched, looked, studied the obvious, the more beautiful they became. While the brilliant colors of stars had always been there, until I set my unrushed gaze upon them, I did not see their depth of color. What was the deeper message?

We are spiritual beings, living in physical bodies, and yet, so much of our lives is the process of looking ‘at’ things, not looking deeply and spiritually ‘into’ things. Looking ‘at’ life, we only see the skin, the covering. Looking ‘into’ life, we see the colors sparkling. How easily do we forget that we are beings of spirit, and that beautiful and powerful spirit is all around us waiting to serve and bless, making life full of all kinds of loving goodness.

If you are the least bit unsatisfied with anything about your life, I ask you to look deeper, please. There is so much beauty right in front of your eyes, right now, and it has always been so. Whenever you are feeling out of alignment with the spirit of joy, love, peace, etc, you are looking ‘at’ life, at the appearance of people and experiences, missing the beauty that lies deeply ‘within’.

C. S. Lewis’s rich words from ‘The Weight of Glory’ express the truth in this way: “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.” I appreciate his foresight, but suggest the truth of this message is more like this: if you could look into the soul of the most uninteresting person you know, you would indeed be filled with awe and gratitude at their true greatness and glory, now.

Everyone and everything has a blessing for us, a gift of spirit. I once stared into a leaf of an ivy plant on my porch, gazing, lost in my daydreaming for a long time. In a little while, a most euphoric feeling came over me, kind of like a shot of endorphins rushing through my body. Though done in complete ignorance of the power of such, my deeper soul had connected with perfect godliness in that ivy leaf, which blessed me with an unexpected yet radiant dose of joy.

Spirit is alive, vibrating all around you, now. Take the time to look ‘into’ the beauties right in front of you—look into the stars, into the plants, and into the faces of life happening all around you—it’s your life. May you live ‘in’ it very well.

I have been writing books for about ten years, and now finally, this week, I am getting ready to publish one of them!  The ideas I am passionate about center in the concept of the reality of spirit as creative energy.  Looking back, I realize that I have been on a multi-decade research project on the nature and application of spirit.  I have been learning these lessons through my life’s experiences, and now as I see the completion of this book, my life makes complete sense to me.  Life makes sense when seeing through spiritual eyes—what I call the eternal perspective.

The World As I Know It is my personal experience of the reality of spirit—the unknown and unexplained essence that contains the power of creation, from interior design to relationships to healing your life.

Being with my publisher this week has been the culmination of so many parts of my path coming together.  I am discovering how very much alike we are in the way we see life, and the way we chose to participate in this world.  Synchronicities abound, moment to moment in our sharing.  Yesterday, as she was stretched out on my chaise reading one of my manuscripts, I kept bringing her drinks and food.  I wanted to insure she was comfortable there in that position, wanting for nothing, reading my book.  Humored by my hospitality, Marnie reflected on a meditation that we had experienced together this past year, and we both burst out laughing realizing the synchronicity.  In that mediation, several months ago, I guided her into a place where she was floating along her path, riding on a cloud, stretched out on a chaise, without a care in the world.  Guiding her in that meditation, I was following spiritual impressions, telling her that she was not to assert herself in any way, that life would come to her, that she was to delegate all the working parts, and that her expertise would be used without much effort of her own.

We had often reflected on that infamous ‘floating on a cloud’ meditation, and how it had guided her experience over the months since, and given her a much desired course correction.  Yesterday, she found herself lying on the chaise in my office, effortlessly using her gifts and talents reading a manuscript (that may be the first for her initiation into the world of full-blown publisher status.)

You might say, how interesting, that it looks and feels exactly like the impressions we were given in spiritual meditation many months previously!  Is it just a coincidence?

I could have doubted the meditation with my publisher, though it was meaningful enough for both of us at the time, without any further witness required as to its purpose.  But when we both recognized the image of her physical position on a chaise as a direct match, we took that as a message that we were on the right track with our work together.

The magic of coincidence is that spirit is real, and manifests without regard to time or place.  In spirit, everything that is true already exists.  Sometimes, even when not manifest in the physical realm yet, these sketches are already out there in creation as a form of energy.  Discovering that energy is to connect with truth.  Such moments of recognition feel much like coming home to a place you always knew you belonged.

Whatever is in your heart, whatever is your desire, whatever is your passion, is already alive and real as an energy form, as the spiritual creation of your life.  As you honor the impressions you have been feeling, hearing, seeing, and knowing, you are receiving the truth of what your life is about.  Such an alignment with spirit allows you to recognize and receive, then allow those impressions to manifest as physical creations.  We all have gifts of creation, and when we connect with the truth about our life on a spiritual level first, real life is created, and the validation of this real self is a most welcomed celebration.