The Wedge That Catapulted My Spiritual Transformation

Five Summers ago on a Saturday morning, I found my dear kitten Wedge under a neighbor’s car parked in front of my house. It appeared he had been hit by a vehicle, and then crawled under the car for protection, where he didn’t make it through the night. His body was stiff when I found him and then I encountered the unfortunate fatherly duty of presenting his physical remembrance to my wife who was busy looking for him in the backyard. This event was the Wedge that slipped into a crack in my heart and broke it wide open, sending my thoughts very deep inside, searching for answers as to why this life-experience would do such a thing to our family and beautiful pet. What was the universe trying to tell me?

For several months, I spent most mornings waking up very early to stick my nose into spiritual texts and other mindful writings in order to align my spirit with the will to find life-expressing opportunity in each day. We’ve all heard stories of those who say things like, “That awful event was the best thing that ever happened to me.” I was determined to find out what these people meant, how they did it, and I dreamed that the Wedge Experience could be like that for me.

What I learned shortly after these studies began is that all of the world’s famous religions, and many infamous ones, have the same philosophical basis at their core. Common threads link the immortal teachings and words of their chosen prophets. I naturally began developing a unique personal understanding of my relationship with the Creator, myself, my chosen person, this world, the unified field, and all other worlds that might exist above, below, within and without each of us.

During my first 14 years of life, I was offered many metaphysical stories about what is Truth, how to be a “good boy ” and live a “good life”, etc., while attending a Christian Science Sunday School at the church my parents attended. Once I was old enough to stay home alone on Sunday mornings, I stopped attending church regularly, but I believe that the basic lessons stayed with me and that I’ve always intended to live with love, rather than fear, as the primary force that animates me. To my benefit, much of my early social conditioning was metaphysical teaching. Rare, and often uncomfortable, for a kid from the Detroit suburbs, but something I have ultimate appreciation for as an adult.

The esoteric concepts of Universal Consciousness and Eternal Life played a major role in the return of an internal peaceful state. Say what you will about human souls versus animal souls. There are many belief systems and writings about this, but who among us really knows the truth about that? (If you do, hit me up. I’d love a chat.) Could understanding that who I really am is a non-physical-entity-having-a-human-experience be enough to floss the grief that wanted to stick in my thoughts like unrelenting celery string in teeth?

One of my favorite teachers, don Miguel Ruiz, describes it this way. From the time our body is conceived, the process of death begins. Prior to conception, there was only Life and potential for life, not death. As we grow and live, the death process leads the physical body toward the moment that it takes its last breath, at which time the death succumbs to Life that existed before conception, and all that exists once again is Life. Basic science points to the Second Law of Thermodynamics which states that the entropy (disorder) of the physical universe only increases and never decreases. Left to the natural state of the physical universe, the same happens to our physical body.

Finding solace and developing faith in these concepts and others, I had grieved enough. Celebrating the unconditional love, welcoming attitude, relaxation, trust, and zen-attitude that Wedge embodied would be the only proper way to honor our beloved fur-baby. I carry that torch still today and tell stories about Wedge, even the sad one.

My lessons:

• This life-experience is about love and acceptance, not fear and avoidance.
• To feel truly alive in this realm of polarity, we must embrace and understand the other side of the coin to the best of our ability.

“Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive — the risk to be alive and express what we really are.” — don Miguel Ruiz