Light As A Feather
Birthdays, as I was reminded a few days ago, are weigh stations. After one more cycle, it’s good to weigh yourself—not your physical poundage but your spiritual weight. The point is to be a little lighter this time around. Each year we can put our lives on the eternal scales and see if we’re losing, see if we’ve become a bit more like John the Baptist who said, “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Most of us understand how accumulating material things can drag us down. But even more than tangible things, we are invisibly weighed down by old grudges and pet resentments, by selfishness, fear and anger over our lot in life.
The ancient Egyptians believed in a ritual called the weighing of the heart. Before a person could enter the afterlife, the heart would be weighed (which is why the mummifiers left that organ in the chest). Anubis, protector of the gates to the Underworld, would put your heart on one end of the scale, and a feather on the other. If your heart could balance a feather, the gates of eternal life would open.
The Egyptians believed the heart—not the brain—was the central organ of life. But the heart was meant to levitate, be lighter than a feather. What weighed it down were injustice, untruth, heavy vices where airy virtues were meant to be.
Everybody wants to drop ten pounds, but the real weight problem we have is of the heart.
So on my birthday I started thinking, Am I lighter than I was a year ago? What am I unconsciously storing in my heart? It’s a little like running out of memory on my phone. I start digging and realize I had no idea there are gigabytes of pure junk I’ve been storing up. Just so, most of the weight we carry is unconscious, hidden. It takes some soul digging to uncover.
You don’t have to wait until your birthday to put your heart on the scale. Any moment of insight and awareness is a perfect time to go chamber by chamber, looking for all the “little” things that add up fast. In seeking what to let go, St. Paul’s immortal words from Philippians 4:8 can be our guide: If it’s not true, release it, if it’s not honorable, not just, not pure, lovely, gracious, excellent or worthy of praise, just drop it.
Light as a feather.
First off, there seems to be a certain spiritual glow you have to look as young and sprightly as you do at your advancing age 😂. Maybe it’s your spiritual foundation or maybe it’s Pam’s cooking.
As I age, I do find I put a lot more emphasis on my gut and my heart, my brain seems to mainly get in the way.
Keep the focus on your gut, your heart—the brain will follow.
I have a sticker of the Buddha in lotus position, hand raised, with a tie-dyed background. The caption: Let That Shit Go. It’s tacked to the bookcase across from my work area, impossible to miss when I sit down at my computer. I appreciate the succinct nature of it, but I like your words on the subject more…thanks, David!
Thanks—and I’m fond of that meme as well.
What a wonderfully viable way to make use of a birthday! Thank you for that David.
My thought is that everyday that we awake from a stretch of being asleep is a birthday.
A while back someone that I converse with online presented me with a scenario to respond to. The scenario was that in 24 hours my body was going to cease to function and fall away from Me. So, what was I going to do with those remaining 24 hours? The brain, which I consider to be the domain of the ego aka the “I know mind,” always is first to respond and it went a bit frantic in trying to figure out what to do. This was definitely no task for the brain so I ignored it and went to the heart for the heart is the domain of the Holy Spirit.
I informed the Holy Spirit that I did not know what was in my best interest to do with these remaining 24 hours, therefore, as always, you lead and I’ll follow.
The guidance I was given was this: Rest in the quite and stillness where time is not and wash all the grievances that you are holding onto away with Love. I will help you find every single one of them.
When I told the person that presented the scenario and question to me that this was what I would do, it was not at all what they (their brain) had expected to hear.
This is beautiful—
Rest in the quite and stillness where time is not and wash all the grievances that you are holding onto away with Love. I will help you find every single one of them.
Thank you.
You ask: “Am I lighter than I was a year ago? ” I’ll chime in. I say Yes, you are. Bless you, dear David, for this, for highlighting lightness–in your post and in your face and in your demeanor.
I weigh my body every day. As a recovering food addict, that’s part of my routine. It keeps me aware, keeps me honest. But a soul scale? Gotta get a soul scale!
Thanks for sharing your recovery status with us—I know your morning spiritual rituals, and I think you already have a soul scale.
I needed this today, David! If it’s not true, release it, if it’s not honorable, not just, not pure, lovely, gracious, excellent or worthy of praise, just drop it. Amen! Sharing with the family group chat too. Bless you!
I like so many things about this post:
*birthdays are weigh stations
*…I must decrease – when I get stressed or overcare my mental reminder is, “it’s not about me.”
*the weighing of the heart – isn’t much of the Old Testament (New, too) the LORD asking for changed hearts for Him?
*Phil 4:8 – one of my go to truths for perspective.
Yep, lots of good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Ur quote from Philippians4:8 reminded me of a quote from Amy Beatrice Carmichael,a missionary, 1867-1951. “Let nothing be said about anyone unless it passes through the three sieves: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?”If U r searching ur soul, & ur heart, think also of what you have said. Sometimes our words are heavier than our deeds or thoughts! David I truly love the things U think, write, & share. Please put them in a book so we can read them forever!9