Awakening

Awareness is quietly growing within us.
It may be experienced as arriving suddenly and apparently from nowhere, but this experience is merely the point at which it is first noticed, recognized and acknowledged.
We have sensed it: we have realized it; and in our first moments of hesitation and anticipation, we have named it, though still being unable to give it a name; and we have claimed it, and clung to it as our own, while still remaining unable to even grasp it.

Awareness is fed by a presence.
It grows in and with that presence, and is only realized through its growth within us reaching the level of our consciousness: through its being momentarily felt as something external to our own existence; a fleeting recognition of something “other”, that is as quickly gone as come, leaving us no external focus, but an all-pervading newness from which we are unable to separate ourselves.
We have been awakened.

This new-found wakefulness holds us close to the edges of belief.
Our only means of retreat is to fall asleep once more, and that is found to be almost impossible.
If we already believed in the existence of God, or in the probable existence of something we were not prepared to call God, but which seemed worryingly similar, we were already there; we were already at or beyond the edge. It will have been our presence there that awakened us, and brought us to realization: to an awareness of our belief.
If we had no such belief, nor growing curiosity, its proximity will now have become a part of us. Awareness will have brought us, if not instantly then inexorably, to the very edges of belief.

Whatever our background, upbringing, religion (or none), culture, wealth or poverty, intelligence, age; whatever our mistakes, regrets, failures or fears; our triumphs, our hopes, our dreams, we are, one way or the other, all brought to these same beginnings.
We are all brought, in our own separate worlds, to the edge of a new life; a life of equality which never seems to materialize fully because, from here on, every decision we make will have the power to change us as individuals: to lead us on, hold us back, or undo much that has gone before.
Every thought upon which I dwell, and each step I take, will carry me towards one thing and away from another.
Your own thinking, believing and acting will likewise decide your own growth, stagnation or disintegration.

We are forever moving apart while being called to unity.
We are forever called to unity while moving apart.