I’m Awake!
Dr. James Mellon
One year, during Christmas vacation, Kevin and I were going to Rochester to spend the holidays with Kevin’s family. We had to get up very early to take a flight from JFK Airport to Rochester International. In fact, I think we had to be up by 4:00 am. Now, I’m not the type of guy who likes to get up early in the morning in the first place. I enjoy staying up late, playing the piano, writing a new song or just reading something fun. So, getting up at the crack of dawn (not even) is not on my list of things I like to do. But it was the holidays and Kevin had booked this trip at this UNGODLY hour.
I remember Kevin coming into the bedroom and asking me if I was up, over and over again, because every time I said, “I’m awake,” I would then go back to sleep. Finally, after many false starts, I got out of bed. And we made our way to JFK and on to Rochester. And that particular Christmas was filled with fun and adventure, lots of snow and plenty of sleeping in.
This story reminds me that there are times in my life where I’m not fully awake but I’m saying, “I’m Awake” when, in fact, I’m in an in between place of asleep and awake. I suppose the question I’m posing this month for all of us with the theme of “Awakening” is this; are we as awake as we have the capacity to be? There is something within each of us, call it God, call it Intelligence, call it Intuition, or just call it the quantum field, that is ready for us to live it out loud, unapologetically and with untethered abandon. We have the ability to be wide awake in every moment but for the years and years of “stuff” we keep dragging around with us. Stuff, that for some of us, have long since lost its usefulness (if it ever had any to begin with).
This Christmas, as I contemplate another year spent and another year older, it occurs to me that I am ready to AWAKEN to more of whatever this beautiful life has to offer. I’m asking myself what this season of celebration is all about. Not just Christmas, but all the holidays that are celebrated this time of year. There is an AWAKENING that is happening, I believe, all around the world when it comes to religion and church and God and our place in the world.
The story goes that Jesus was born in a manger and that there were stars in the sky announcing his arrival. There was an “Awakening” in the world when this young Jewish boy brought a message of love and forgiveness to light. He asked for acceptance and oneness. He told us to love one another and to find the good in the world. He was kind and gentle and smart and, yes, even spontaneously annoyed at times. Perhaps, his greatest gift was to come and show us a level of consciousness that we all have the ability to live to the fullest.
I would like to enter this Holiday Season, this month of “Awakening,” by actually stating “I’m Awake” in the true sense of the expression. “I AM Awake to a Truth in me that is unarguable.” Maybe then, when Kevin comes back into the bedroom to see if I’m awake, he’ll find me fully dressed, packed and ready to go. Because in the end, when you’re ready and truly awake ... the adventure begins!