This OBE trip coincided with the previous one to Italy where I walked with St Francis. After we visited I found myself in the Sistine Chapel where St Francis had visited with the Pope sharing his perspectives on the church’s battled with opulence, greed and power. His thoughts had not been well received.
This time I found myself up on the scaffolding as Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the now very famous work of art: the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was one of the most amazing artists to ever walk the planet. Those paintings left me in awe of his greatness when I visited there a few years ago. He seemed now as we talked to be a very modest man who loved his church and worked with endless passion to create this huge masterpiece.
Like St Francis, Michelangelo and I entered into this space of shared consciousness and he passed to me his wisdom about the human potential. He said his work was the reflection of the creative genius that flowed through him whose source he said was the grace of the Divine. Most of the time, he said, he just tried to stay out of the way of the creative flow working through him. He spoke from a place of awe about his work wondering how he had been so blessed to have this work come through him. He had a deep love for the spiritual realm and stated that often when he painted and sculpted he felt as if he was in an altered state.
The body of work of his was not a walk in the park. The Chapel itself took four years to complete much of which was done on his back sometimes for 17-18 hours a day. Michelangelo spoke of the expanded states of creative flow and inspiration as he lay on his back in much pain painting. The inspiration numbed the pain of all those hours of precision and focus. (When the magic of the Chapel is seen, people stand in wonder and amazement at the beauty.) His work as a sculpture was full of many hours of hard focused labor and again the flow of grace he said made it all possible.
His determination to be at his best in all that he did and his patience made him stand above most others in his time and in history. He set upon a course of action and never gave up. He remained open to inspiration even when he struggled to survive the rigors of his journey.
It is as if once I connect to these amazing people in human history, their consciousness remains with me. These OBE’s visits are very invigorating and expansive in ways I would never have dreamed. There seems to be a growing sense of excitement for vastness of what is yet to be explored and expressed. It now seems clear to me that we all have this same potential for greatness as Michelangelo just waiting inside of us for expression? Image that!