By Richard Maurer
Everyone owns a spiritual ham radio. For many people, the spiritual ham radio may have sat on a shelf in the garage or closet for years, if not decades, gathering dust. It could be one of those old-fashioned kinds inherited from a parent or grandparent. Dangling from it is one of those old-fashioned power cords, the kind your grandma’s 1940s radio used to have. This spiritual ham radio may have sat there on the shelf for so long you don’t know if it still works.
So one day, you decide to take it down from the shelf and plug it in to find out.
You push the power switch, and miraculously it turns on! But you have no idea if you could actually contact someone on the other end of the line.
Hesitantly, you push the button on the microphone and say, “Hello.”
No response. You play a bit with the buttons and adjust the frequency knob. (After all, your own personal spiritual frequencies have become atrophied from such a long time of disuse.) You play with the knobs and keep pushing the button on the microphone, saying “hello.”
Finally, you get a response back.
Someone on the other end wants to talk with you!
Through the following days and weeks, you spend more and more time talking with your new friend, this “Divine,” on your spiritual ham radio. Eventually, you begin to open up with this person, your Divine friend, excitedly sharing personal stories and life events, and then, more gradually, some of your deeper fears and anxieties about life (because this person is so empathetic and easy to talk to.)
If you speak English, this person speaks English back. If you speak French, they speak French back. If you speak Christian, they speak Christian; Muslim, they speak Muslim; Buddhist, they speak Buddhist. And you realize, “Hey, this person is multi-lingual.”
Sometimes, you enjoy engaging in animated conversation with your friend.
Other times, you may enjoy simply sitting in silence with them without saying a word. (But you know they are still there; in an almost mystical way, you can feel their presence on the other end of the line.) At times, the person on the other end may sound more like the chirping of birds or the gentle patter of spring rain on the roof of your house. But you know in reality who it is.
The point is: You will never know if your spiritual ham radio works unless you take it down from the shelf, plug it in, turn it on, push the button on the microphone;
And say “hello.”
And listen for that calm, reassuring voice of the Divine, present at the other end.
Richard Maurer
Richard is a retired massage therapist/energy worker and a lay monk who frequently pilgrimages to St. Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, MI. He is currently developing a website on how to pray and meditate. 734.277.4320
