A Crack in the World
By Keith Varnum
“Oh, my God! I can see perfectly!” … What a shock!
On a break in the workshop, I walk outside of the conference room onto a high desert mesa near Sedona. I look out at a surprisingly crisp, clear vision of Arizona’s famous purple mountains at sunset. My eyesight hasn’t been this sharp since I was a kid.
I decided to leave my dreaded eyeglasses on my bedside table that morning. I mean, what’s to see in a standard hotel seminar room? My normal eyesight is a poor 20/200. Without my glasses I can only see vague approximations of people and objects in the distance. But now I see distinct pine trees trailing up the side of faraway peaks!
For the last five days of the Sedona retreat, I enjoy 20/20 sight. What a delight. Praise God! Or someone.
Then after my flight back home, I step off the plane in Boston. My heart drops. The blur is back. In the airport concourse I see only fuzzy images of people scurrying back and forth. I run to a window only to be greeted with a muddled view of the Beantown skyline. I guess those are buildings! Can’t really tell.
Dang it. What happened to my clarity? … of sight. … of mind?
On each of my subsequent trips to the Sedona spiritual intensives, I marvel at the same radical improvement of my eyesight—only to loose the clarity again on the flight back to my hometown, my home base, my familiar space.
In the rarified air and atmosphere of a spiritual retreat, I’m able to see my world clearly. When I return to my familiar surroundings, my comfortable space, I revert to my comfort zone of only seeing a familiar, comfortable vague perception of the world around me.
Even though I was never able to extend the sharp vision beyond Sedona, I never forgot that I can see with crystal clarity within that special spiritual seminar space.
Back in Boston
So, when it comes time for me to get my eyesight re-tested to renew my driver’s license in Boston, Mass. I recall those brief stints with clarity in Sedona. I’m determined to pass my license eye test. I don’t want to have to wear glasses when I drive because then, in order to see well all the time, I’d have to wear glasses the rest of the day too.
Sitting in the uncomfortable plastic, straight-back chairs in the testing room waiting area, I notice how similar that room looks and feels to the hotel seminar room in Sedona—where my eyesight is perfect! I get the message. I decide to focus on how I feel physically, mentally and energetically in that workshop space and to bring that feeling and vibration into my body and being back in Boston.
As I walk up to take the eye test, I feel light, open and relaxed. I place my forehead onto the testing equipment viewfinder. I can see each letter distinctly. I pass the test!
I continue to draw upon how my whole being felt at the Arizona seminar in order to completely heal and shift my eyesight in Massachusetts. After a few months I’m seeing my everyday world with the same clarity as I did in the heightened vibration of the spiritual intensive in another state.
As I transport the vibration of my clear space in Sedona to my home base in Boston, I’m able to experience the same clarity of sight and mind in my everyday life.
A Crack in My World
From improving my eyesight I learned a magical method of transforming any situation in my life.
1. I look for a “crack in the world.” Any occurrence that is new, different, strange, weird or unusual. Anything out of sequence, out of order, or out of the ordinary. I deliberately search out any anomaly, aberration or variation from the norm.
2. I realize that this anomaly—crack in my usual world—is a gateway (portal) into a more expanded realm of possibility.
3. Then when I find myself in a challenging situation I want to change, I call upon this gateway experience (vibration) to shift me (my vibration) within the current challenging situation. I invoke (bring in) this portal vibration until my feelings about the challenge shift—or the situation itself change!
Metaphors Abound!
Metaphors for this crack as gateway pour into my mind … A crack in the cement pavement in a road or sidewalk. A crack in a dam. In the foundation of a house. Or in the foundation of heavy facial makeup. Or a crack in someone’s false story in a criminal case.
What’s in common among all these similar situations? … Life cracking through!
In all these metaphors, it’s the raw, vibrant energy of aliveness or truth that creates the crack in the old, rigid, stagnant, hard reality:
The blade of grass seeking sunlight and freedom to grow splitting the concrete. The vibrant flow of moving water cracking the dam. The shifting earth fracturing the foundation of our frail human structures. The human spirit within splitting the mask of thick makeup. And the pesky aliveness of the truth cracking the case as the truth shatters the false story.
Look for the Cracks in the Story
All my shaman teacher taught me to look for the cracks in the collective story, the mass myth, the faulty foundation of the human fairy tale. In finding the exception to the rule, the flaw in the façade, you find the doorway to realness, growth and freedom!
We even have this approach built into our legal system in which the court rules in favor of the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law. The spirit of the law often breaks us free from the more rigid interpretation of the letter of the law.
It’s the ever-aspiring, ever-growing spirit of life that eventually cracks the cosmic egg, freeing us from familiar, comfortable yet imprisoning situations.
How about You?
Where have you seen cracks in your world? … Odd, unexpected occurrences? Anything unexpected, out of the ordinary … or beyond belief?
You can use the cracks of this newness to transform the old and dead in your life
You can use these cracks in your world to contact the real, the alive, the free side of you, the free side of life.
You can use these lively vibrations as gateways into a more alive, fresh, new, easy and abundant enjoyment of life.