A Lesson from the Spirit

The Spirit showed me a huge tree in autumn foliage.
“Take this leaf, lift it.”
“With the right hand, the left?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“There are some bugs on it, dirt. What did you want to tell me?”
“Try making an applique from these leaves.”
“From dirty ones? But how?”
“Do you think that’s impossible? Look at your hands. They seem dirty from these leaves. But what is actually happening?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your faith wavers when you cling to what you’ve been told.
Do you think the Creator neglected this task?
When God gives you tasks, only your attitude toward them turns them into trials.
Someone, faced with a spotless canvas and dried maple leaves of golden hue, will wonder how to create an applique, a beautiful and harmonious whole.
Another, seeing only a pile of dirty, wet leaves scattered by the wind, will gather them one by one from the breeze, press them gently to his heart and clean them of that dirt.
What sets them apart?”
“Approach.”
“Good, right. Approach. But approach to what?”
“To life?”
“Not exactly. Approach to your own perception of yourself. From that inner perception, the visible reality around it changes. What will the first person get?”
“Perhaps he will make a picture?”
“Perhaps. But when?
You see, there are those who, seeing a clean canvas and paint, will think how to fulfill the Creator’s task, how to please Him, the Creator?
But there are those who seize any opportunity like that leaf caught in the wind. For it is an opportunity. Only when you have nothing do you grieve and complain. But even then, there is always a way out.
As long as you feel the light within you, that single spark that binds you to God, you are invulnerable, you are unconquerable, you remember and believe firmly and steadfastly in that immutable rule that is the truth born in the Creator’s eyes. The truth that reflects your essence.
Do not seek to please someone.
It is far more important to see the opportunity before you and reach for it. Desire to catch it, to hold on, to continue your path.
It does not matter how you complete this task. The essence lies elsewhere.”
“In what?”
“In the result. And the result of a task is the conclusions. Because you go through your lessons not for someone else, but only for yourself. So let this applique be an expression of your vision, your desire.
Far more important is how you see it and perceive it with your own eyes than to notice admiration in the eyes of others.
Therefore, when you find joy and inspiration in the lessons you have passed, you will also find gratitude and acceptance in them.”