Algebra finds missing information by using information we already have. In certain algebraic equations, a single variable within the equation remains unknown. To solve the equation, we work with the known variables to find the unknown variable.
There is a koan in that, and a metaphor for life. If you begin with what you already know, then it is entirely possible to locate your consciousness in the known variables and to “solve” for the unknown variable from that vantage point.
You can gather useful information from the future by inhabiting it imaginally and working backwards in time to discern the unknown elements of the journey that will get you there. There’s an entire branch of the transformation industry that focuses on future-dreaming and other forms of prediction or divination, presumably to better equip you to make decisions in the present that will bring that future into being.
The problem with these techniques is: They fail to take into account the many different ways you might choose to make the actual, physical journey towards that future, which you arrived at by extrapolating from the “known” to the unknown.
Which direction you choose to travel, and how, and with whom; the quality of consciousness you embody or have the capacity to inhabit; your receptivity or otherwise to the emergent — these and a host of other factors will determine who you become along the way.
A variation of the Heisenberg principle applies here. Who you become by making the journey will change the outcome you visited imaginally in order to solve the unknown variable in the equation, and in your life.
Walking in faith, with as much clarity and purpose as you can muster, shapes you into the person you become by making the pilgrimage. Your choices determine which aspects of your soul you will incarnate, or turn away from, until your very cells hold the imprint of how you have traveled and how you now live.
Alignment accounts for a lot, in making the journey that’s yours to make. Alignment is the direct path, the parallel gaze, the arrow to its mark, the line of least resistance. Pick your metaphor — this is an all-you-can-eat metaphor buffet!
Grace, though. . . Grace is the rain that moistens the soil of habit, the soil of circumstance, and makes everything green, lush, fecund and beautiful. Grass, flowers, bushes, trees, weeds, pavement, vacant lots — rain doesn’t discriminate, and neither does Grace. Grace makes herself available to all.
Grace offers herself without ever imposing.
Grace.
The Deva of Grace is present.
For me, in this moment, writing about grace with embodied presence attunes me to the Deva of Grace. What emerges from this attunement is something that hasn’t existed before, that I can neither predict nor control, only appreciate; only meet with love and humility, gratitude, delight and wonder.
What emerges today is this love-letter to the journey, to Grace, and to each of us who sometimes think we know our destination but grapple with the question of how we’ll get there.
Grace offers a different question: Who will you be when you make this journey hand-in-hand with your soul and with the spirit of Grace?
It’s a question that centers curiosity and discovery rather than prediction and arrival.
Its answer is encoded in the journey we make in quest of the missing question.
May Grace guide you to your becoming.