“Your life belongs to what you have awakened to.” ― John de Ruiter

When I was a very little child, my parents had a beautiful ritual of tucking us into bed every night with stories, poems, prayers, and songs.  One of my favorites was from my daddy, when he would sing with his smooth baritone voice:

“I climbed up the door and opened up the stairs, said my pajamas and put on my prayers.  I turned off the bed and crawled into the light, all because you kissed me, good night!”

I loved to sing this tune with him and never questioned where it came from – actually, I thought maybe he had made it up.  My beloved dad continued this tradition with each of my children, and even to this day, each one can sing it to you; and I’m guessing when they have children, they will pass it on to their little beloved ones, too.  It’s become an enduring Toland tradition.

Last week, my daughter Kristen wrote me so surprised, as she saw an Instagram post that published the lyrics to this song, “All because you kissed me goodnight” by Doris Day actually recorded in 1950 that was written by George Wyle Edward Pola.  A song that hit the billboard charts over a decade before I was born – that had the words we all learned as the refrain, but there are actually 4 verses!  It made us all take a pause.  How did we not know this?  How did we never think to learn more about this snappy tune and all the other lyrics that existed?

Of course, there was no internet in the 1960s and 1970s, and my parents didn’t have the Doris Day, 45 Billboard pop single, so it was just part of the tapestry of my childhood that I never questioned, nor did my children.  It wasn’t until new information came into our awareness that we were able to have a shift — a paradigm change. Not that the song lost its cherished nature in our memories, but that we now had an expanded perspective of it.

Perhaps spiritual growth is the same. I love the quote:

“When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” — Tao Te Ching

When we begin to awaken spiritually, it’s like a candle sheds light on our innermost self, and it enlightens us to our very essence. With a new paradigm, we begin to see ourselves and our connection to the Divine in a new light — integrating those parts of us we love and our darkness; letting beliefs and societal conditioning we absorbed earlier in life be released; and embracing within ourselves what we authentically know, believe, and value. As Deepak Chopra wisely observes: “Awakening is not changing who you are, but discarding who you are not.” We gravitate to noticing beauty, cultivating more wholeness, aliveness, honesty, joy, compassion, and inner freedom in our lives. The outside trappings of life begin to take on less significance. We develop more energetic sensitivity and a sense of oneness with all that is. There is a peace and contentment that fills our souls – that there is no need to rush, fret, or scurry, all is unfolding beautifully! How did we not know this sooner? Maybe the wisdom is that we awaken when we are ready. Each one of us is on a unique journey at our own pace guided by our own inner readiness and intuition.

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