The Art of Being

"Man can climb to the highest summits, but he cannot dwell there long."

- George Bernard Shaw

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I don't have to stop and build a condo there."

- Tom Costa

Plateaus, peaks and valleys

I had a conversation with one of my spiritual teachers one day when I told him I had been "stuck in the yuck" on my spiritual path and was feeling very depressed about it. He smiled and said, "I have some good news for you, and I have some bad news for you.

"The bad news is, life is but a continuum of plateaus, peaks and valleys that just goes on and on and on until the day you leave the planet. And the good news is, life is but a continuum of plateaus, peaks and valleys that just goes on and on and on until the day you leave the planet."

The point he was making was that irrespective of how I chose to see it, life is a journey, a cycle of ups and downs and in-betweens, and I would never get to the ups without also going through some downs and in-betweens along the way.

The challenge for me was that I would have preferred to set up camp at the peak and stayed there. Who wouldn't prefer those high micro-moments, when time seems to stand still and God's grace is so strongly felt that everything just flows with effortless ease as heaven and earth come together.

The simple truth is that peak experiences resonate far greater with most of us than being stuck in the yuck, in the "valley of darkness," where things are often palpably unpleasant, painful, even filled with moments of isolation, despair, fear and a sense of separation from life and God.

So let's get real. Imagine a heartbeat monitor in the hospital that goes "beep . . . beep . . . beep" with that little blip on the screen that bounces up and down between two extremes. That's a good sign.

When it stops beeping and blipping, it's not a good sign- a flat line indicates death. So it is with each of us on our journey through life.

We can think of the plateaus in our life as those in-between times that separate the highs and the lows on our journey of spiritual evolution.

The ups and the downs in our life require forward movement on our part and can help us maintain our sense of being fully alive. We need the valleys as well as the peaks and plateaus in between.

The key is not to get too comfortable at any of those levels, because our beeps and blips may cease beeping and blipping, which is not a good thing. So, give thanks for having both extremes and the in-betweens as well because it's proof we are alive.

Plus, without the low times in our lives, we wouldn't appreciate the highs nearly as much. Contrast is the fiber of our existence that holds it all together.

More than likely, every person reading this has at one time or another been stuck in the valley experience. You may feel like you're stuck in the valley right now, overshadowed by some condition or problem, be it emotional or physical.

That's where the good news comes in! You don't have to stay there. There is another peak that lies directly ahead of you.

You just need to keep moving through the valley and refuse to take up residence there. The reality is that all of the peaks and valleys we experience happen in our mind. It has little to do with conditions; it's how we perceive them.

Don't ever confuse wholeness and a life worth living with a condition. Wholeness is a state of being where we realize we are one with the Infinite Presence, irrespective of where we are on the journey.

In those times when we feel a bit stuck in the valley, we can remind ourselves that there is as much of God present there as when we are at the peak. The only difference is, at the peak it's a little easier to sense that this is so.

It has been said that God is the alpha and the omega and everything between those two points- this must mean God is right where we are, always. It's our awareness of the One in every moment that really determines our experience in the valley or at the peak.

If you are stuck in the valley, commit to taking some sort of action today to move forward.

Call your minister, a qualified therapist or other trusted friend and ask for support.

Give the universe a sign that you are ready to move out of the valley and get ready to break camp and daily give great thanks for the plateaus, peaks and valleys- it's proof you are alive.

Dennis Merritt Jones is the spiritual director for OneSpirit Center for Conscious Living in Simi Valley. His website is www.OneSpirit.org.