A Ticket to Heaven
“Just beyond your story, you will meet yourself at the Gates of Heaven.
And there you will behold a most glorious, and a most humbling sight.”
Chris Spheeris– 5-5–12
SHUT UP AND LISTEN!
Yeah!
You!
I don’t give a DAMN who you think you are!
and I don’t give a DAMN who you think I am!
just SHUT UP
and LISTEN
don’t listen to ME
listen to the part of YOURSELF
THAT’S TRYING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING!
And if you don’t find YOURSELF interesting enough to want to listen to
then you REALLY NEED to
SHUT
THE
HELL
UP!
I want to tell you something…
I want to tell you that YOUR STORY
(you know, your STORY!
THE ONE YOU THINK YOU LIVE IN)
IS BORING!
BORING to ME, and I bet BORING TO EVERYONE!
We’re all just TOO POLITE to tell you
But now I’m going to get past all that
I’m going to muster the COMPASSION to tell YOU
that YOUR STORY IS BORING
and if your story is boring to US,
I know it’s GOT to be boring to YOU!
BUT please…
don’t feel bad,
EVERYONE’S story…is boring…
BUT…the GOOD news
is that YOU’RE not the one who’s WRITING your story.
you never HAVE been !
you never WILL be !
You just THINK you write it…
and the more you BELIEVE you’re writing your story,
the more BORING your story becomes
and the harder you try,
the MORE TEDIOUS AND BORING your story GETS
but don’t worry about it.
We LOVE you.
LIFE loves you.
And we ALL get lost in our story at one time or another
and some people… SOME PEOPLE get lost in their story ALL the time
which all too often KILLS THEM before their heart stops beating
so TRY something…
TRY letting go…
just TRY it…
relax…
surrender…
try auto-pilot…
TRY IT…
you’re probably NOT going to believe what I’m about to tell you,
but check this out:
there’s a SAFETY NET!
Really!
There IS a net!
And as terrifying as it might seem
to let go of what’s familiar
and as petrifying as it might seem
to free-fall
being saved by the net is worth ALL OF IT
BUT…there’s a catch.
A nasty little catch
You have to do this BY yourself
and you have to do this FOR yourself
NO ONE CAN DO IT FOR YOU
NO ONE ELSE CAN CATCH YOU
ONLY YOUR net can only catch YOU…
and YOU can’t catch any one else
JUST
HAVE
FAITH…
because just beyond the threshold of your own silence,
FAITH will be the first THING to meet you.
so DO try your best to DROP YOUR STORY
AND DO try your best to shut up and listen
EVERYTHING IN YOUR STORY is based on the PAST
And the past is DEAD
SO your STORY is dead
too LIMITED to be INTERESTING
AND TOO safe TO BE REAL
TOO dead
TOO boring
TOO limited
TOO safe
and all those pictures you have on your walls?
THEY’RE dead TOO
and don’t fool yourself
no one wants to SEE THEM
any more than they want to hear your STORY
so WHAT I RECOMMEND IS THIS:
get a MATCH
and light a TORCH
and BURN the pictures
and BURN every page of your story
then burn the house down
and blow up YOUR car
empty your pockets
let go of it all!
forget EVERYTHING
YOU DON’T NEED IT
any of it!
and be relieved that you don’t have to spend half your life
showing people the DEAD pictures
and reading people the DEAD story
Because NOW you’ll have a NEW story
and it’ll be written in EVERY PRESENT MOMENT
in your SMILE
in your EYES
in the TONE OF YOUR VOICE
and in the ENERGY THAT YOU EMANATE
and EVERYONE will notice that YOU got a piece of what we’re ALL looking for
a piece
of peace
and you WON’T have to go searching the world
to make your story interesting:
the world will come to YOU
AND THE WORLD will FIND you
it will WANT to find you
a month ago, I went around the world
in search of MY story
And I sat in a room
in a town in Peru
with a shaman
in a hat
HE WAS waving feathers
shaking rattles
chanting
INCANTING
hour after hour
holding space
after we
the “TOURISTS OF LIFE”
drank the green slimy cactus Kool-Aid
known as SAN PEDRO
then…we waited…
we waited till nothing happened…
and we waited some more…
we waited till we got bored and sleepy
waiting…for LIFE to write our next chapter…
till some of us
had to vomit
our indigestible stories
but the shaman…
he was patient
he was tireless
he was relentless
he endured our boredom
he offered NO CONTENT to our story
and when I got BORED with BEING bored
I shut up and started to listen
and THEN AND ONLY THEN
did the ever so patient San Pedro…COME to ME
and I FELT his silent presence
San Pedro…St. Peter…
HE who presides over the Gates of Heaven…
one step PAST my exasperation
one step BEYOND my boredom
one step AFTER my surrender
i looked up
and i saw
WHAT FELT TO BE
THE GATES OF HEAVEN
and to my surprise,
the Gates of Heaven OPENED
AND THEY OPENED IN-WARD
and I began to cry
and I didn’t know why
and for the first time, I didn’t HAVE to know why
I was crying because I couldn’t NOT cry
I was crying because my heart felt
SO…
CLOSE…
TO…
GOD…
I was crying
AND I DIDN’T HAVE TO HAVE A CLUE
as to WHO or WHAT GOD IS
AND I DIDN’T CARE
I WAS CRYING
FEELING GOD’S PRESENCE
EVERYWHERE
AND FOR THE FIRST TIME,
I DIDN’T HAVE TO LOOK ANY FURTHER THAN INSIDE
TO FIND A PIECE OF HEAVEN
and now I see
that I
DON’T
WRITE
MY
STORY
I
AM
MY
STORY
and YOU
are YOUR story
and WE
ARE the MEDICINE
and WE
ARE the DRUG
and WE are the ANDES
and WE are MACHU PICCHU
and I am the SHAMAN
and YOU are the SHAMAN
and I’m sharing this with YOU because YOU’VE EARNED IT!
you have EVOKED me…
INSPIRED ME BEYOND MY STORY
and now…
I can see who YOU are
because I can NOW see who I’m NOT
AND you DON’T COMPLETE me
that’s Hollywood
you EVOKE me
that’s REAL
we are EVOKED
In the DIVINE presence of one another
DIVINITY RECOGNIZING DIVINITY
And now…I’M going to shut up and listen
but before I do, I just want to say this:
I have surrendered my SELF to becoming US
and what you just heard is what WE said
SO don’t let me forget to thank you:
because all that you ARE
and all that you are NOT
has just bought ME
a ticket to heaven
©2012 chris spheeris
