A while back I sat with my mentor. I don’t think she likes me calling her that, but I do anyway. I truly enjoy listening to her, and being in her presence. I like listening to her stories. I believe we were meant to meet.
We sat in a booth by the window at this cute little coffee shop and talked about my next book. I showed her my new book covers and told her my plans. Later, we had a discussion about heaven on earth. She did not believe heaven could exist on earth. She believes that we experience heaven after we die.
I looked up the word heaven in the Apple and New Oxford American dictionary. It says;
- the good will have a place in heaven: paradise, nirvana, Zion; the hereafter, the next world, the next life, Elysium, the Elysian Fields, Valhalla
- a good book is my idea of heaven: bliss, ecstasy, rapture, contentment, happiness, delight, joy, seventh heaven; paradise, Utopia, nirvana.
- (the heavens) he observed the heavens: the sky, the skies, the upper atmosphere, the stratosphere, space; literary the firmament, the vault of heaven, the blue, the (wild/wide) blue yonder, the welkin, the empyrean, the azure, the upper regions, the sphere, the celestial sphere.
To experience heaven on earth we must revision how we see the world and alter what we believe.
Growing up we all believe what our parents believed and our parents believe what their parents believed. At some point in our lives, normally around the teenage years, we start pulling away (like the plague is coming ?) from believing, learning and listening to our parents. We start to question and rebel against what a parent/adult teaches. A time when we are learning how to be independent, experience things (mistakes) for ourselves and are more influenced by outside ideas. A time when teenagers start learning how to think for themselves. Once we have some idea of who we are, and not, or no idea of who we are we move into our adult life. Some of us realize that what our parents/adults told us turns out not to be true for our individual experience. We realize that our parents only knew one version of how to live. The aha’ moments come and we learn a new way of looking at the world.
We are conditioned to believe that heaven is something outside of the human experience. I believe in heaven on earth and it’s happening right now. We choose to see… If a child grows up only knowing love and beauty that’s all they’ll experience. If a child grows up only knowing hate and ugliness that’s all they’ll experience. A child who grows up only knowing love and beauty will find beauty and heaven in the not so beautiful. Opposites help us understand contrasts of the same. The key to life is to maintain balance or harmony.
If you don’t believe heaven exists on earth take a moment. Look at the sky, walk on a beach, touch a flower, watch birds flying. Feel the ground/grass under your feet, feel the wind and sun on your skin. Take a deep breath then put your hand over your heart and feel it beat. Isn’t it remarkable that you don’t have to tell your heart to beat for you or your lungs to exhale and inhale to give you life or tell your body to heal itself when you are sick. Look into the eyes of someone you love; all these things are heaven. It may sound strange because we take our bodies, each other and our earth for granted and we don’t think twice about any of it … We walk through life consumed with what we have to do each day. We walk through life harboring our aches, pains, wants, fears, and that’s okay. I do it too! I’m saying we forget about the small pieces of heaven that bless us each day.
Do you believe in heaven on earth? How do you create your heaven on earth?
Copyright © 2018 by Allura Eshmun