Centripetal Force

I love the explosion of colour and movement in the above image. I just can't stand the hands...

When I was a kid my dad use to take me to the park after dinner and for awhile my favourite piece of equipment was the merry-go-round. You know those death traps with the full metal bottom that sat six inches off the ground. They could spin up to like a hundred miles an hour and if you drank a blue slush puppy just before your ride you ran the risk of tossing Smurf cookies through your nose! Well my dad was a man of brains not brawn and in response to my squeals of delight and yelling Daddy push me faster, one day he said “I’m tired kiddo.” “Pleeeeeease” I begged I wanted to feel the wind in my hair, close my eyes and hang my head upside down just for the simple childhood fact that it felt so good to play! As the ride slowed down I remember catching glimpses of my dad as it slowly turned and thinking he’s not lying, he is tired today, and I hopped off and said “that’s okay let’s go home, maybe we can come back tomorrow and you can push me really really fast!” I said as I started walking away. He said “Wait you know there is a way you can make this ride go fast!” “Really, How?” I inquired. “By using a special kind of force it’s called centripetal force. You see I’ll get you going and push a little bit as you stay here on the edge of the ride I will tell you when to move into the centre. As you move into the centre the centripetal force will speed you up!” I looked into his eyes that were twinkling so bright from his scientific enthusiasm that I knew he wasn’t lying...I hopped back on and yelled “okay start her up! Wait, wait I said jumping off I’m scared! Is this the same force Yoda uses because I don’t want to fly into outer space!” “No” my dad assured me. So I jumped on and held on really tight and listened carefully to my dad’s instructions. I was surprised and tickled with sheer joy that it actually worked, I wasn’t going really fast but it was working! I felt myself speeding up when I walked into the middle and slowing down when I walked backwards out to the edge. I remember feeling like I was in control of that ride and I loved playing with centripetal force.

As an avid spiritual seeker I've found myself to be back on that ride quite a few times in my adulthood...and sitting right in the middle of this cosmic merry-go-round is God/Source. I see we are all on this ride; we are all on a journey into the centre. Some people are ahead and close to the middle and some behind each one of us though is exactly where we are meant to be. On the way home from the park that day I asked my dad how does that work? He explained it, and I tried my hardest to grasp what he was saying but his language and the theory not to mention the whole bloody formula was well beyond my understanding. I said "that’s okay, I know what centripetal force feels like so I guess it doesn't matter that I don't understand how it works right?" I got a funny look, I use to get "that look" a lot, followed by silence that use to lead me to feeling a little bit uncomfortable. I now realize that was his discomfort in that moment that quite possibly I had inspired him to think about things in a different way. Just as it was intellectually impossible for me to understand centripetal force at the age of eight, I know it is just as impossible for me to fully comprehend God/Source while I am in my human form. I’m sticking to my eight year old conclusion though that I know what God/Source feels like and therefore my direct experience’s become my Truth and matter more to me than all those theories...by the way Centripetal force comes from Latin centrum "center" and petere "to seek" I chuckled as I read that definition and realized even though I grew up in a home that valued science over religion and spirituality God/Source was very much present. Always supporting me, in every step of the way in seeking the centre of my Being.