Many of us have mistaken Wholeness to be a checkpoint at which we will one day arrive when everything is perfect; where there are no conflicts or problems, no pain or illness, and no dark nights of the soul; where there is nothing but a plethora of peace, love, light, blue skies, and green lights. Wholeness is a state of Mind and Being, not a condition or place of arrival.
Don’t you just love teachable moments? I recall the time I went to a Mexican restaurant, hungry for an enchilada. The menu offered various types of enchiladas, but the one that caught my attention was called “The Whole Enchilada”; it had everything in it but the kitchen sink. As the server took my order, I said, I would like The Whole Enchilada, but could you hold the cilantro, pico de gallo, and red chili peppers? With a giggle she replied, sure I can honey, but then you won’t be getting The Whole Enchilada, will you? My teacher of the day stood before me, offering me a teachable moment.
Metaphorically, most of us are seeking the whole enchilada; a life where nothing is missing, except the things we don’t like. Unfortunately, that sort of life is not on the menu. If we get past our judgments, every moment of life contains something worth embracing—something that links us directly to our innate wholeness which often lies unnoticed in the present moment, between the sometimes dark cracks and deep crevices of our daily life, awaiting our discovery. This is true primarily when we are busy looking for what’s wrong, staring at what we don’t like and rejecting it; the problem is that’s like eliminating the very ingredients that make the whole enchilada, well, whole.
Wholeness is a state of Mind and Being, not a physical condition or place of arrival. Perceiving ourselves as already whole isn’t that difficult—primarily because we came that way from the Creator; it’s a matter of seeing ourselves as one with the All that is. Dr. Ernest Holmes offered us a spiritual resolution to the question of wholeness when he wrote, “There is that within every individual which partakes of the nature of the Universal Wholeness and—in so far as it operates—is God. We are so One with the Whole that what is true of It is also true of us.”
Wholeness means learning to see ourselves and life through nonjudgemental eyes, allowing us to love and embrace the totality of whatever life serves us. Loving “what is” doesn’t mean we have to eat it all.
Affirm Today: I am so One with the Whole that I know what is true of It must also be true of me. My life is perfect, whole, and complete now just the way it is—and I am forever grateful.
Sometimes we forget, aiming for improvement, change, transformation, that a total completeness exists within us. It is what comes to us from being present in what we are doing. From being there. Without running forward, without looking back. Only there, in that quiet which is not stasis but the ebb and flow of the wave of life.
When the individual fully knows himself, when he creates a lifestyle in harmony with himself and with the context he belongs to, when he weaves authentic relationships and realizes his existential goals, he arrives at a sense of completeness.
Despite having many needs and desires, the achievement of existential completeness is largely a subjective quest because it is unique and unrepeatable, like the individual himself. Conceiving existence as a journey towards and into completeness is a vision that gives profound value to experiences and every effort made.
The sense of existential completeness can manifest itself naturally, but more often it is a peak to be sought and conquered with a series of steps, choices, actions and balances.