Arise, Shine

Almost every morning when I wake up, I hear a scripture passage from Isaiah that I learned at an early age: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." And it amuses me to see that this is how dogs act when they wake up. Have you ever watched a dog wake up? They almost always get up, shake themselves, and exude pure joy.

Humans tend to do the same until a certain age. My younger grandchildren usually wake up joyful and trusting in the goodness of the day ahead. As they get older, this seems to change. As we get older, this seems to change.

But I have found that it hasn't really changed. I have discovered what my dogs and all scripture has been telling me all along... that Who I Am never changes. As it says in the Bible, "The Holy One of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps." 

Who We Are never changes, whether we appear to be sleeping or waking, and Self is always light and joyful. Pure Being delights in being.  Sometimes we seem to fall asleep to Who We Are, and we forget to shine.  At such times we can learn a lot from dogs.  Get up, shake yourself Awake, and exude the Joy that you are!

So when I hear, " Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee," I know that this is eternally so. That every holy instant, and every holy morning of existence, this is the Truth.