Swordplay

"The pen is mightier than the sword." 

~ Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy

"And I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand." 

~ Ben Hur

"Love your neighbor as yourself." 

~ Jesus, Mark 12:31 

When you let go of your fears, you are free to embrace Heaven.

As April draws to a close, I have to say it has been one of the most significant months of Shift I can recall in a very long while.  I wonder why I'm surprised.  It was after all precisely 10 years ago in April when I experienced my first big Shift, by far the greatest - it took A LOT to jolt me wide awake.

You would think the Love I experienced during that time and in the years since would have helped me to see the sword I held, keeping my wounds and fears at bay, crusading to right a "wrong." I thought I may have dropped it at times, but I always picked it up.

Painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1882

The battles at first were fierce indeed.  For hours and hours and hours, pages and pages and pages, I would engage in literal hand-to-hand combat with Christian apologists online, trying to help them see the contradictions they embraced, fighting every step of the way to reveal the "true" Love of God.  The battle waged even more visibly in the Oprah online forum, then on to the ABC Nightline Debate on the Existence of Satan. 

The forums came and went, hundreds of pages of writing erased.  I somehow didn't mind.  I had begun to see the sword.  And I didn't like it.

Or so I thought...then the swordplay started up again on local (eventually national) talk radio, anonymously as usual.  I even found myself engaging in the conspiracy talk at times, so many "wrongs" to right, always for the good of Love and All.  I realized I had a voice beyond the written page, yet the sword was in it too.  An edge.  A poison.  Tainting the Love I shared.  Because I felt I had to right a "wrong." 

And then the Shift.  When we battle others with our words, we are actually battling ourselves.  And although debate may seem to have its place, true Shift happens with no fighting words at all.

The sword echoed a bit as it fell to the ground.  What remained to grasp was Love.

[UPDATE 5/1: See how my perspective shifted in "The Hear in Heart" . . .]