Welcome to the infinitely precious podcast produced by infinitely precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

Hello, beloved. You are indeed precious. You are loved. You are an original gift of which there is no other like, not in all of eternity. I have been reflecting on a phrase that, has been attributed to one of my favorite mystics, but it's probably more of a summary of his thought.

That mystic is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. And the phrase is, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Now, intriguingly, you know, it could just feel like semantics, changing some words around, in a sentence, and it doesn't really say anything, of substance. And yet, I find a great deal of substance in that phrase, and I'm gonna tell you why, and invite you to reflect on it yourself.

If I'm a human being having a spiritual experience, part of the implication of that is that I'm not always having that experience. That I can have that experience occasionally, perhaps in spiritual moments, perhaps in spiritual mountain tops, spiritual gatherings, perhaps in my spiritual chair right across the room from here where I do my morning sits, that as a human being, I can have a spiritual experience. But it also implies that not everyone has a spiritual experience or perhaps is even, spiritually motivated. And that may or may not be true, but something about that doesn't ring, ring so real for me. When I flip it around and see myself as a spiritual being, having a human experience, then I get to ask the questions like and live into the questions like, what does it mean to be human?

What is being human teaching me that I need to know as a spiritual being? And it's not just the extraordinary moments that offer me those insights into what it means to be a spiritual being, but it's the ordinary moments. It's making oatmeal in the morning for my family to share at breakfast time. It's making the coffee that my wife loves and my son and I enjoy as well. It's, it's sitting in my chair.

It is reading a book. It's staring off into the distance at the sunshine as it begins to catch the tips of the now bare trees. It's petting my dog. It's talking to someone, a cashier in a line, another person who is shopping. It's giving a smile to someone else that I pass at this time of year or any time of year.

If I'm a spiritual being having a human experience, then being human has something to teach the spiritual part of me. And it might be that it's a book learning kind of teaching where I read about and experience, life through the intellectual properties I've been given. But it's also because I'm embodied in this human form. I I get to experience, as a spiritual being, life as tactile. When I touch the desk that I'm sitting at right now, and it's cool to my touch, and it's it's very firm, it's hard.

I can I can beat on it, and make a noise with my fingernails? The way I feel a breeze when it comes at me when I'm out for a walk. The way I feel the cold or the heat or, you know, just the in between times of the year when it's just warm and comfortable out there, the way I feel humidity, the way that I feel when my wife holds my hand or my son gives me one of his several hugs that he likes to give me during the day. In any of those moments, this human body becomes a receptor, And quite frankly, it's always a receptor for what it is like to be alive in form. And it's teaching my spiritual, the, you know, the spiritual being that is me more about the flavor of this infinite universe of which I am part.

Not separate. Somewhere along the way, humanity, particularly in the enlightenment, I think, therefore I am, began to think of ourselves as separate beings from everything else. Somehow, I am a thinker, and everything else is subservient to that thinking. But what if and I don't think it's just a what if. But what if I am a part of everything?

And part of my experience and my living in the moment as a spiritual being is to pass on what I'm learning as, having a human experience to all the rest of the universe itself. If we believe in quantum entanglement, we are all twisted together across vast distances we can't even begin to imagine. Spirit connects us all across great distances, and not just amongst human beings, but, again, across all form and perhaps the lack thereof, the energetic presence in the universe. If I'm a spiritual being, having a human experience, I value this moment, this opportunity to talk to you. I I value the fact that I can shake my head, that I can look into the screen and know that you, whoever you are, might be looking at this screen at some point.

Or you might be listening to it on my podcast and just hearing it. But knowing that in your hearing, you are being reminded, perhaps, of your spirituality, of your groundedness, your connection to all things. And maybe that's given you a bit of hope in the midst of this season. As a person who follows the path of Christ, this is the time of year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. That is form, spirit taking form, the divine in our midst.

And perhaps it allows me to see that divine is in all of our midst. It reminds me that as a human being, I get to experience life in a somewhat similar, though different way, because my perceptions are not shaped by the same experiences of Yeshua, Jesus, the one whom I follow. And yet, I was born, and I have grown, and my age, I've doubled about how long Jesus got to live. I get to experience this life, and it is a spiritual experience of what it means to be human. I want you to appreciate in this season.

I'm inviting you and myself to appreciate in this season. For us who follow the path of Christ, it is the time of year when we celebrate Christmas. We remember Christmas. We think about Christmas. We perhaps ponder Christmas when we're not busy making cookies or going to parties or wrapping practices or whatever it is we do in this season.

We get to ponder the spirit of the season. And as spiritual beings, how do I get to experience that in this form? Every moment, ordinary as it may seem, as an opportunity and a gateway for me to experience what being human can teach me as a spiritual being about life itself, about being itself. So appreciate the gift that you are in this season. No matter whether you're giving or receiving gifts in this season, know that you are a gift.

And simply being you, simply being you is a gift to the rest of us. Teaching us just a little bit as spiritual beings what it means to take form, what it means to be human. Because your way of being human, my way of being human, there are nuanced differences, maybe some major differences. And those experiences get to shape the spiritual way that we live our lives. So celebrate, enjoy, appreciate, and remember you're infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

Until the next time, and Merry Christmas.