It has been several weeks since the planet has come to a near halt due to the mandates of the corona virus. I find it interesting how the terminology has shifted from “social distancing” to “self-isolating” to “sheltering in place”.

I am feeling yet another shift that I am calling “Sheltering in Presence”. That realization came to me this evening as I noticed the intimacy I am feeling with my own Presence. Do to the mandated isolation, there can be no expectations from anyone outside of our selves.

As a result, a spontaneous freedom has allowed that Presence to take precedence in my life. I flash back to the first time I experienced my own Divine Presence. It was in the early 1990’s when I experienced a life review via a Near Dear Experience. At the time, there wasn’t anyone in my life with whom I was able to share the experience so all the details slowly faded away. But from that moment on, I had a deep yearning to become the Divine Presence as indescribable as that was to me at the time.

As a result, life as I had known it began to fall apart and a new vision took its place. I was no longer able to sustain the role I was playing in my marriage. I divorced and moved across the country to begin a new life. People began showing up in my life that were more compatible with who I was becoming rather than who I used to be. I drew a spiritual community to me, was employed in a job I loved, and lived in a comfortable home with views of the Olympic mountain range and the Puget Sound. Life was good!

Then one morning a voice in meditation invited me to leave my work, sell everything, and move to Spain. Having made a prior commitment to my spiritual path, I did not hesitate. Within 24 hours of arriving in Spain, the Black Madonna made her presence known in my life. Per her guidance, I set out on the path of discovering my true Divine Presence.

After seven years of traveling with a Black Madonna statue in my backpack without a home base, the day arrived when I was able to create a home for myself once again. During my journeys with Madonna, I had recorded all her messages in a diary and I felt compelled to share my story along with her recorded wisdom. This process of writing allowed me to review, distill, and embody my own soul’s wisdom. With the completion of my book series the “Black Madonna Diaries”, I felt like I had come full circle.

Once again, my life was disrupted. I was guided to move into a small carriage house in the forest on one of the islands in the Puget Sound. Up until now, Madonna had always been a presence in my life, much like having a roommate. Upon moving into the carriage house, she went silent. I was alone with only my own self for company. Up until then my life had been an external one, this quietude initiated an inner journey.

Writing became my most intimate companion as I began conversing with my own soul. Words spontaneously turned into poetry because my words needed space, lots of space, as the wisdom of my own inner voice flowed forth. I began sharing some of these poems on social media because I thought they might instill other people’s own inner wisdom. Interest in my poetry grew with requests to share the poetry in a book. Thus, I began the process of collating hundreds of poems.

What a journey that initiated! Each volume of the poetry series “Wisdom of the Inner Voice” has become my own personal labyrinth of enlightenment by viewing my life from new ever expanding perceptions. Whereas before, I was floating in a cloud of wisdom, by recording these inner passages I am able to ground, fully embody, and integrate them into my life.

In “Etudes of Love”, I fell in love with my Self as my own intimate lover. In “Realizing our Divinity”, I was introduced to my GodSelf. My often foolhardy spiritual process was cataloged in “Labyrinth of Enlightenment”. While “Embodied Transformation” cleared my mental and emotional body, my physical body evolved into a vibrant energy body of well-being. “Consummating our Sovereignty” allowed me to discover, heal, and gather all my unconscious aspects into a whole and sovereign being.

As I am quietly “Sheltering in Presence”, I have come to intimately know and cherish my Divine Presence in a whole new way. Flashing back on my NDE, I realize my prior life review related to all the people and circumstances in my outer world. Whereas, my poetry series “Wisdom of the Inner Voice” has evolved into a life review of my ever expanding inner world.

Each of us has had different life experiences, each with our own unique soul path. Perhaps yours has been more grounded, while others have been more esoteric. It matters not if you have been on a spiritual path or not. Every experience has a spiritual and energetic aspect to it whether we are conscious of it or not.

Right now we are all being given the gift of “Sheltering in Presence”. Not everyone will choose to untie the strings of this gift to unwrap it in this moment, for not everyone is ready to do so. Each soul path has its own divine timing that needs to be honored. So, perhaps the simple awareness of this gift is enough for now, to be tucked away until you feel called to untie the strings.

But if you are being called to fully open your heart and accept this gift, your Divine Presence awaits and will always provide you safe shelter.

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~Sharon Lyn Shepard~