I don't see much in my backyard until I stand there for awhile. When I do, magic emerges. 

   A Carolina wren sings out so powerfully that his entire body trembles. Diagonally and thirty feet above him, a white-shirted squirrel shakes his tail and scans the world.

   I see a baby Robin (left) engaged in a strange battle. He flies into a window, returns to his perch opposite and then flies into the same window again and again.

   The robin pursues the bird in the window unable to recognize he is chasing after himself.  

   Most of us do that every day. Like the mythical Narcissus, we stare into the pool and admire our own reflection until finally we may fall into the water and drown.

   Our ego's can kill us. They call constantly for the food of praise and suffer, sometimes to the point of illness, when they perceive rebuff.

   Our ego's block our ability to become spiritual beings. For they can never be satisfied except briefly.

   The most sensitive among us collect the deepest pain. Often, we are unable to understand that comments we interpret as barbs were never intended as such. In any case, our egos, by their nature, must take everything personally when we let them. 

   Our ego's crave credit (a chronic problem of mine.) Our spirit doesn't need such recognition.

   This doesn't mean the spirit ignores the world. It means our spirit doesn't depend on praise for its well being. 

   Eckhart Tolle's insights are shifting my life outlook. For the first time, I begin to understand (perhaps) how to escape the strangle hold my ego has held over me. For the first time, I begin to appreciate Jesus' teachings about how to surrender to God. 

   "As long as [ego] runs your life, there are two ways of being unhappy," Tolle writes. "Not getting what you want is one. Getting what you want is the other."

   Why would getting what we want make us unhappy?

   The answer lies inside the phrase: getting what we want. Yet, this answer does not involve letting go of need. It is allowing our egos to drive us that blocks God's entry into our hearts.

   This concept is so challenging I have taken to reading Tolle's work daily. His approach lives at the roots of Christian belief as well as that of other faiths.

   We don't become unselfish by trying not to be. We succeed only when we dissolve the separation between our ego and God – when we recognize our ego and begin to separate from it. 

   In this separation, we don't need to "pursue" any longer. Love guides our lives.

   Of course, the baby robin is ego-less. Still, his pursuit of his own image symbolizes our plight. 

   We "want" ourselves. Yet, we cannot find ourselves so long as our ego is driving our journey.

   One day, the robin will discover his pursuit of himself is fruitless. Will we?

-Reverend Erie Chapman