Here I am, sitting on a foreign beach of the massive Atlantic Ocean, watching the waves roll in. It’s La Pedrera, the stones, in beautiful Uruguay. Azure blue ocean and sand and stones—stones that have been here, holding onto the edges of the sand and waters, as far as the eyes can see, for as long, I suppose, as life has been happening.

Feelings of being more peaceful come to me near these stones, as if I too am strong and real and timeless. Being here is a grounding experience, bringing my soul and these rocks and all that we both represent, into a state of oneness. Such a spiritual connection is what I call, simply being. In this moment, I am here, and none of me is anywhere else. I simply am.

Others must feel some of the same connectedness as I do, for this place draws to it what I call the Bohemian types, or those who connect to loving what is, being close to nature and all that the state of being natural represents. Here in La Pedrera, I feel the presence of an attitude of allowing. There is time to talk, to kiss on the cheek, even strangers, to smile with kindness, to be thankful for what is, to relax while working hard. Some people are living with less materially than I am used to, but they have seemingly unlimited capacities to be loving and peaceful, to give from a fullness of spiritual abundance. Even though I am about six thousand miles from my house and family, for some reason, I feel quite at home.

You may wonder what I mean by the expression of allowing I am to be. Isn’t God the Great I Am? Isn’t that a name we respectfully use for the source of all light, truth, and love? Yes it is, and I have a most sacred reverence for God, but I also know my connection to God, and that as His offspring, we are the royal baby I am’s!

We use the words I am all the time—I am happy or sad, I am going to sleep or work now, I am afraid or trusting, I am her brother or sister, I am rich or broke, I am well enough or I am sick—I am, I am, I am. And every time we use these words, we are identifying the characteristics of our perceived being, and planting the beliefs of such in our daily path of how we express as a being.

But it is so much more than the simple use of words. Words are not just literal manifestations of reality. They are a form of energy, of identifying truth, of commanding the elements to create by our beliefs in such. Saying anything after the words I am is a most powerful tool of creation. I am is present tense, present location, present reality, so we must be careful how we use those words, and what we feel when we use them.

How do I use my words and knowledge of I am to connect to God and the good life he offers? Christ said that he stands at the door and knocks. Some have painted this scene as a door with no visible handle for Christ to open the door. It is assumed that the door must be opened from the inside, from the side where we live, while the door represents a state of being shut off from him. But Christ has announced that he is with us, that he is always here by our side, in the very room, ready and willing to help us, that his love is eternal and completely unconditional. That is the gift he offers us. So why would we have to open a door where we are hid off from him? Who did that to us? What is the door that keeps him apart? And why since God is with us always would we ever be anything the least bit less than ecstatically happy? If all the love and support in the world is just here, standing at my door, what’s the matter with me that I don’t simply open the door and ask such love to enter? What is missing? What is my tool of access to this abundance of grace? It’s a matter of simply allowing, and that is the lesson of the day.

Christ taught that we should live from the space of unconditional love, that we are not to judge, that we are simply to be the love, as Christ showed, and leave the rest up to Him. The problem with most of us is that we have forgotten how to do that. How do we let Him/love in? How do we allow this truth to bless us with its gifts?

To open the door to God’s gracious offering of unconditional love, we have to allow ourselves the freedom to just be, like the stones along the shores of La Pedrera. If I stand in this spot on the beach here for another thousand years, I expect the same blue waters to continue to splash over these rocks every day, and the same stars to reflect their same glittering light every night. There is not much I can do to change that course of nature, nor would I want to. It is what it is. And I am what I am.

There are two ways for me to be here in La Pedrera: one is to connect to the loving energy of what is, as with these stones and these kind people, and the other is to be disconnected from the truth of who I am and what life is. To explain, I share this example: as I walk along the isolated beach, miles of miles of unexplored sandy dunes and grasses calling to me, I notice at first a slight bit of fear of the unknown. I don’t like that feeling. It is not my natural state of love, so I ask where did it come from? Is it my mind telling me a lone woman should not be here, that some harm could come to me, that a dangerous animal might be lurking ahead, or that the weather is about to turn and prevent my safe return? Is that the channel I listen to—my mind, with all its stored history and information, freely offering advice without being solicited?

That’s symbolic of how our physical lives are—we identify with all kinds of voices that tell us who we are, that love is limited, that life is dangerous, that we are not worthy enough to have the abundance of love unless we do something to earn it. I thank my brain for it’s opinion, but let me tell you the truth: the doing something that I choose means to simply realize that God is here, now, ready to be my constant companion, with love, not fear. If there were some danger lurking ahead on my walk, the advice would come from a peaceful quiet voice, not from gripping fear. And if I am not sure which is speaking, I just channel in some love, and ask spirit.

Imagine, even for a moment, that love is powerfully real, and that it surrounds you now. Imagine that it is your birthright, that it is what life really is. Imagine how easy life would be if you knew that nothing too difficult will ever happen to you that is not a part of your learning, a gift. Imagine that you will never be alone, that you have angels lovingly advising you and protecting you every step of the way. Imagine that you are loved, exactly as you are, even with all that you have done that was less than the expression of love. Imagine that it is okay to God that you be exactly who you are, right now. Imagine that he/they love you forever, with absolutely no conditions that you do anything, other than just to know and accept this truth. Wow. Wouldn’t that be miraculous?

Life is one big loving miracle! That’s the big aha we all must have—daily, even moment to moment, to live the abundant life that is and always has been standing at the door—the door of your remembrance. Christ already paid for all the suffering, with his limitless loving acceptance of all the suffering mankind would ever generate from his ignorance of forgetting the truth of who he is and what he is a part of. It’s a choice to remember and receive Him. Being with his loving energy is being home. Knowing this, no matter where I am is physically located, I can always be at home.

I am is God, and God is peaceful. Joy is the energy of such a presence, and when I find the state of joy, by allowing it, opening the door, letting go and letting God, then I can ask spirit if it is in my best interest to continue walking down these miles of isolated beaches, and I can make all decisions from such a space of trusting spirit. Why would I want to live any other way?

Everything about this earth as God made it is in perfectly divine order. Man, with his ability to choose, is the only element that creates anything other than order. Allowing I am to simply be is the exercise that returns man to his divine state of order, where all is right with the world, where joy is felt, and where peaceful loving truth can direct my day. Somehow, in the day-to-day world of making a living, taking care of our physical needs, man forgets to return to his state of being, where he can find his own truthful La Pedrera.

So how do you allow I am to be?

Allowing I am to be is noticing the wild flowers growing everywhere down the lanes of these streets, the mother bird who just flew over me with her choice of just the right piece of grass for her spring nest, the sun peeping through the clouds creating glorious strokes of light, and being alive and able to breath it all in.

Slow down long enough to not just smell the roses, but to know the roses as the gift of love they were created to represent.

Arrange your time to allow yourself to become one with the strengthening energy of mother earth, freely offering her gifts of loving being-ness.

Acknowledge the truthful sacred nature of every one you meet, with a nod, a smile, some form of recognition of the sacred nature of God-ness within each of us. Living in gratitude for such abundance of love that is, you open the door to receive unlimited amounts.

Hold a loving connection with your image in the mirror, remaining in that gaze sending messages of joy and gratitude as you remember and recognize the child of God you see there. Don’t be embarrassed at the deep spiritual truth this represents. Stay until you can do it with sacred reverence, until your heart melts to grateful tears with the recognition of the love that you are.

Open the door to your heart and let love in. Let Him In! Receive the gifts of life freely given, long ago and far away, but just as true as if in this very moment. Whether you can believe it or not, it is real—trust me, and trust spirit to confirm it. Allowing Christ in is allowing I am to be! It’s the ultimate state of grace.

My friend, Michael McLean wrote a brilliant modern-day musical depicting some of the intense emotions of allowing Him into your life. I share one of the pieces, from the album Forgotten Carols, a very Christmas-y gift to begin the season of gratitude and love. Maybe you can allow the music of Let Him In to be your mantra for today, and to assist in feeling the state of Allowing I Am To Be.