{"id":287,"date":"2013-05-15T18:33:47","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T18:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/?p=287"},"modified":"2013-05-16T10:30:34","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T10:30:34","slug":"seeing-the-most-obvious-or-the-measure-of-enlightenment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/05\/seeing-the-most-obvious-or-the-measure-of-enlightenment.html","title":{"rendered":"Seeing the Most Obvious&#8230;or, the Measure of Enlightenment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/352\/2013\/05\/captain_obvious.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-288\" alt=\"captain_obvious\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/352\/2013\/05\/captain_obvious.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a>Two little fish are swimming along in the ocean one morning when they meet with an older fish who casually asks them, &#8220;Hello fella&#8217;s, how&#8217;s the water today?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They responded with equal casualness, &#8220;Fine, sir&#8221; and then, they continued to swim on. After a moment passed, one of the younger fish turns to the other and asks, &#8220;What the hell is water?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The point is obvious. But, isn&#8217;t it true that often, the most obvious signs of Divine grace are all around us, but we miss them? We fail to see, or express our thanks&#8230;our deepest and most profound thanks&#8230;for the most obvious&#8230;the air you breathe&#8230;the sunshine, as well as the rains, the Presence so obvious in the eyes and smiles of another we but casually meet along the way?<\/p>\n<p>What is spiritual enlightenment?<\/p>\n<p>The capacity to see, and so appreciate, the most obvious signs of grace&#8230;God&#8217;s inexpressible grace.<\/p>\n<p>Awaken, my friends. Spirituality need not be more complicated than joy over the obvious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two little fish are swimming along in the ocean one morning when they meet with an older fish who casually asks them, &#8220;Hello fella&#8217;s, how&#8217;s the water today?&#8221; They responded with equal casualness, &#8220;Fine, sir&#8221; and then, they continued to swim on. After a moment passed, one of the younger fish turns to the other&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[409,234,406,404,403,401,405,408,407,402],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enlightenment","tag-captain-obvious","tag-divine-grace","tag-gods-inexpressible-grace","tag-obvious-signs-of-divine-grace","tag-ocean","tag-seeing-the-most-obvious","tag-spiritual-enlightenment","tag-the-measure-of-enlightenment","tag-the-obvious","tag-two-little-fish"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Seeing the Most Obvious...or, the Measure of Enlightenment - Your Best Life Now<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/05\/seeing-the-most-obvious-or-the-measure-of-enlightenment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeing the Most Obvious...or, the Measure of Enlightenment - Your Best Life Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two little fish are swimming along in the ocean one morning when they meet with an older fish who casually asks them, &#8220;Hello fella&#8217;s, how&#8217;s the water today?&#8221; They responded with equal casualness, &#8220;Fine, sir&#8221; and then, they continued to swim on. After a moment passed, one of the younger fish turns to the other&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/05\/seeing-the-most-obvious-or-the-measure-of-enlightenment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Best Life Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-15T18:33:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-16T10:30:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2013\/05\/captain_obvious.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"smcswain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Seeing the Most Obvious...or, the Measure of Enlightenment - Your Best Life Now","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/05\/seeing-the-most-obvious-or-the-measure-of-enlightenment.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Seeing the Most Obvious...or, the Measure of Enlightenment - Your Best Life Now","og_description":"Two little fish are swimming along in the ocean one morning when they meet with an older fish who casually asks them, &#8220;Hello fella&#8217;s, how&#8217;s the water today?&#8221; They responded with equal casualness, &#8220;Fine, sir&#8221; and then, they continued to swim on. 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Leadership Coach... Counsel to Non-Profits, Faith-based Organizations and Congregations... Adjunct Professor of Communication at the University of Kentucky... Spiritual Teacher... Inspirational and Motivational Speaker. But not always in this order. On the university campus, I teach students the Art of Communication. In my public talks, however, I teach leaders the Art of Leading; I teach everyone the Art of Living...so that... when you come to the end... and, you will come to the end... You're able to look back on life feeling... Fulfilled... Accomplished... Content, Peaceful, and Happy, too... Knowing your brief but important journey has made this world a more... Conscious... Compassionate, and... Charitable place. 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