Things are not always as they appear.

Things are not always as they appear.

Without belief in this statement, fear would have crippled me a long time ago. Yet every day I am faced with an opportunity to put the certainty of my belief that things are not always as they appear to the test. When The Next Top Spiritual Author competition got underway, I had to face the startling realization that I had a small social network and virtually no fan base as a writer. I had elected, again because of fear of criticism and judgment, to take down the “Follower” function on Blogger.com and had told very few people I was writing until after I had resigned my position at the university. So the grim reality was that having spent years in a cocoon of my own making, I now had to go out into the world as a spiritual messenger, if I were to stand a chance at advancing in the competition. I had to call on support from people I had not spoken with in years. Some were happy to hear from me. Most completely ignored my overtures. But I kept at it. The deed was done. I had quit my job and I did not want to have a choice. I instant messaged some old friends on facebook. I called many. I emailed even more. A vast majority did not respond. Were they waiting to see if I could make a go of it without their support? Were they afraid of sticking their neck out for me, fearing that I was in for a certain flat fall on my face.?

“Things are not always as they appear.”

How do I know that people are not just too busy to stop and read my email, or that they don’t have a good reason for delaying a response. Some might be thinking, “I want to connect with Dennis, but he sent me his blog weeks ago and I haven’t gotten to it. What would he think of ME?” The mind plays some funny games and so I rested in the knowledge that things are not always as they appear. It’s not all about me.

I was relentless in my outreach and then a funny thing started to happen. I was making real connections! It started to feel so good to reconnect with those that responded. Well that part felt great, and yet..I only had about 30 or so facebook fans after 2 weeks of pounding the pavement. Every other poster that I put up at a coffee shop was taken down within a week. I averaged less than five responses to my marketing emails about the competition. Was I falling flat on my face?

“Things are not always as they appear.”

After four weeks in the competition, an announcement was made about who were the top 150 vote getters out of 2800 authors. I was on the list! “How could that be? I thought my efforts were yielding little results.” I made it to the second round and evidence of a successful run at advancing began to emerge. I stand here today, only 6 days before I find out whether I am one of 25 authors to advance, with complete satisfaction. Not because of my chances of winning this thing, but because of how I have conducted myself throughout the process. I have faced an incessant, doubt-ridden reality and trusted in a greater order behind the veil. I have set aside rejection and disappointment masquerading as truth and kept at it until the real truth replaces its worthy opponent called appearance.

“We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all”- Kalu Rinpoche