Ease and Grace- A Place of Perfect Balance- pt 3

Ease and Grace- A Place of Perfect Balance—pt 3

We have been looking at the concept of living with Ease and Grace. How this feels on the macro level (Like being in the Kingdom of Heaven) and how it feels in the context of being in the Divine Flow (Not like we would expect it to feel). Now we look more deeply at Ease and Grace itself.

Ease and Grace is about the balance of energy. When that which Flows In matches up with our needs, it feels like abundance. When that which flows out is greater than what we perceive as flowing in, we experience that as loss. When that which flows in is not perceived as meeting our needs, then we experience that as scarcity. So, to fully comprehend Ease and Grace, we need to understand Balance.

On an energetic level, money is worthwhile only because other people are willing to trade their time and talent for it. Money has no intrinsic value in and of itself. Confederate Banknotes towards the end of the Civil War were worthless. German Deutschmarks were inflating so fast after the First World a War that people carried them in wheelbarrows so they could buy a loaf of bread. Thus, in order for us to operate with Ease and Grace, we must optimize our personal balance between money, time, talent and energy.

Ease and Grace involves an understanding that that I have gifts to share, and that in sharing them, the Law of Circulation provides that I will have the resources to meet my needs. This works provided my consciousness is not tipping the process out of balance. Thus if I invest my time and talent (creativity and skill and wisdom) in a way that is aligned with my overall value structure, then the Universe will successfully provide me with the opportunity to generate all that I need. What I do with the opportunity will determine how much stress I invite into my life or how much time I gratefully spend living in the Land of Milk and Honey.

If we are under earning for example, then we are trading our time and talent for less than full value. Living and working from this posture leaves us tired (if not exhausted), unfulfilled (if not depleted) and creatively stifled (if not suffocated). The reason we would choose this experience is deeply embedded in our consciousness. For me, it was tied to my sense of self worth, or more accurately my sense that I did not have any self worth. In this circumstance, no amount of material goods would compensate for the deep seeded issue underlying my under earning until the issue itself had been healed. To find a path of Ease and Grace, I thus had to be willing to do the hard work of examining my actions in any area when I did not feel fairly (or handsomely) compensated.

If we are now consciously expending our resources in a manner that is congruent with both our values and our desires, we are out of balance. This often shows up as being in debt. Energetically we are not living in Ease and Grace and the stress of meeting our current needs as well as paying off the debt (being out of balance) will wear on us. The remedy is to be fully aware of our choices around how we spend our money.

Penny Pinching is another symptom of not living from Ease and Grace. It involves over valuing money and undervaluing time and energy. This leads to exhaustion. One personal example is that I was recently shopping for paper plates for our hospitality on Sunday. The first place I went seemed to be too expensive and so I went to another store. They did not have the type I wanted and so I went to yet another store. The paper plates were the same price as the first place, which still seemed too high for me. (We are talking about something like $2.50 for 50 plates). In the end, I went to 5 stores to buy 50 paper plates for $1.99. Thus, I was willing to trade hours of my time for a 51 cents savings for the church. Trust me, this thinking will never lead to Ease and Grace.

One of the most common inhibitors from us living more fully in the Kingdom of Heaven is when we take on the work of rescuing others from the consequences of their decisions. In these situations, we are then not only expending our energy in doing that which is ours to do, we are also doing that which is truly someone else’s to do. Far from being rescuing them, this inevitably leads to exploitation or resentment for the other person not carrying their share of their own load.

Having someone take care of us in this fashion may feel like the Kingdom of Heave for a short while. But over time it dis-empowers us and we develop a dependency that quickly weakens us. We cannot find that level of profound contribution which is so satisfying when we are continually trying to get someone to do what in our hearts and souls we know is our to do.

In a similar fashion, Ease and Grace are never available when we continually try to take more than we give. In the very short run it may feel like we have gotten over on the Universe when we do not offer our fair share. However, the Law of Karma operates perfectly and in the end we are diminished when we try and take advantage of the generosity of others. Speaking from my own experience, we soon begin to feel shame surfacing and the temporary sense of smugness disappear.

Living in Ease and Grace is finding the balance on what is ours to do and what is ours to have done. There are often things that we are not easily capable of doing or that we do not enjoy doing. There are things that are confusing to us or outside the area of our expertise. In these situations it is invaluable for us to see Ease and Grace operate to find a balance between what is ours to do and what is not ours to do. It is the mark of a sage that knows the tradeoff in expending our time, talent and energy in creating that which is truly ours to do, (and being rewarded with money), while also knowing that some other soul is eager to trade their time, talent and energy to help us with those things that are not really ours to do. (while they too are being rewarded with money). Getting our car repaired might be a good mundane example. For those of us reading this that don’t see ourselves as mechanically inclined we could spend many frustrating hours trying to do simple car repairs that would leave us feeling anything but like we are living in the Kingdom of Heaven. For others, perhaps it is housework or doing taxes. Whatever the onerous job that we seek to avoid, someone in the Universe feels is their life calling (or furthers their life’s calling) and Ease and Grace allows us to have energy flow from us to them and back again to get both of our needs met perfectly and smoothly.