Simple Gifts, a Shaker song, is a song I know well.  My “sky guides” had dropped the song, like a bomb, into my world a couple decades earlier, revealing to me that it was time to come round where I ought To Be.

That hellishly transformative period was shaken awake when recently I received an email from a woman who was having a parallel experience.  Her only words “you probably already have this” were followed by the lyrics for Simple Gifts.

 'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free,'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of  love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed.
To turn, turn will be our delight,
'Til by turning, turning we come round right.                  

'Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,
'Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,
And when we expect of others what we try to live each day,
Then we'll all live together and we'll all learn to say,               Refrain:

'Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be,
'Tis the gift to think of others not to only think of "me",
And when we hear what others really think and really feel,
Then we'll all live together with a love that is real.        Refrain.  

“Probably already have this” was a laughable understatement.  Back then, not by choice, I had played the Shaker tape, rewinding to that specific song, playing it, rewinding, over and over, each time the melody being driven deeper and deeper into an inscrutable inner somewhere.  Even without the tape, the melody sing-songed through my mind 24/7, no pause button to be found.

The message within the lyrics of this seemingly simple tune also had a life of its own…taunting my nerves…plucking my heartstrings…humming to my soul.  Over the course of a year or so, two tapes were stretched to ruin playing that song.  It was madness!  No!  It was The Master’s way! 

The message was not cryptic:  Simply, I was not “where I ought…To Be.”  I was not where The Master was calling me To Be.  I was not living simplicity.  I was not free.  I had yet to come down right, to be in that valley of love and delight.  I had yet to live my life as a gift.  

I was “shown” that a Herculean expanse existed between where I was living my life and that valley of love and delight.  But how to change?  How to live from simplicity?  How to navigate that Herculean expanse?  From where I am to where I ought to be? 

The only place to start was where I was at, which is where we all have to start.   I started by examining my life…from the inside out—NEVER JUDGING, but assessing and addressing, which leads to understanding.  Understanding brought the first necessary step of change to light.  Taking the first step brought the second to light, and so forth. 

Everything that kept me from living simply had to go: possessions, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, behaviors, emotions, fears, pain, insecurities, relationships, conventionalities, self-identity, my past.  All attachments!   

Without attachments, all sense of self slips away.   Yet, being stripped, the “gift” comes alive.   In moments of weakness or self-indulgence, I would beseech The Master to take from me that which I was unable to relinquish on my own.  The Master never hesitated.

 One time The Master declared that I had to relinquish a relationship that had gone beyond fruitfulness.  I cried.  I struggled.  I tore my own heart apart, not able to let go, knowing that when I said goodbye to him, he would die, literally.  Informed that if I didn’t let him go, I would die, and exhausted from my own struggle, one night alone beneath a starry Caribbean sky, I said goodbye.  A few weeks later he exited his life through a fiery car crash.  I was free.  So was he, as he informed me from the other side, free to re-embody almost immediately. 

 I was learning true simplicity—having exactly what I need at any given time, nothing more, nothing less…a most extraordinary gift.  People come.  People go.  Things come.  Things go.  But in any moment, my life is bountiful.  I am never in want of anything.  What I “need” manifests of its own volition.  In simplicity, abundance always springs forth… this is not about faith or manifesting and attracting, which are all mental constructs foundationally born on ideas of lack.  Truthfully, simply Being—where we ought To Be—in and of itself, brings.   And, gives. 

Over the years, I have studied the Shakers.  Their lifestyle had no extras, no baubles, no fluff, nothing made in China.  Every item was hand-made and utilitarian, yet a work of art: pitchfork, round barn, wooden basket, quilt, herb garden, all infused with love.  All aspects of the lifestyle exuded simplicity…and beauty…and a “rightness” of being… an untainted joy.  Their generosity, kindness, their foot-stomping religious fervor, their love spoke to my heart.  I wanted this “where we ought to be” lifestyle for myself…for all of humanity.  To have nothing more than actually needed—which is true freedom.   

Years have gone by, simplifying remains a focus.   What truly do I need to be free?   To live my life as a gift?  I Master-talk my way through situations, requesting guidance, keeping tabs on my thoughts, letting matters go their own way…side-stepping attachment pitfalls.  The more I simplify the more I can be where we all ought to be…working along-side The Master…in the valley of love and delight.

People’s lives have become more burdened with stuff, with warped beliefs of what they need to be okay…verging on drunken obsession.  Going deep into slave debt.  The price being paid for losing sight of what is important has now come due.   We have lost sight of ourselves.  Humanity has lost sight of where it ought To Be.

I watched a news report lately (mainstream, no less) where homeless people were being interviewed, many who had once lived upper middle-class lives.  A homeless woman said she now spends her days dumpster diving, collecting enough recyclables to keep herself fed.  When asked what her life was like before losing her job, house, expensive car, etc., she regretfully declared that her life had been about shopping. 

I tell a man that if he doesn’t change his habits he will be gifted with a DUI.  He was blustery.  At a later date, I repeat the message.  He is more blustery.  I could say no more.   Shortly, he obtained his DUI.  Consequently, his life has simplified in uncountable ways, moving him humbly to where he ought To Be.   

There is NO question that it is time to come round where we ought To Be.  With the winds of change blowing ever more strongly much will be taken from us.  Life as we know it cannot and will not continue.  Our ways are not sustainable.  The Master is pressing us all to change.  To let go of what makes our lives crazy and complicated so that we may live with and from simplicity…so that we may come round where we ought To Be.   To have all that we need, we must let go.  We must relinquish. We must cast aside all that keeps our lives complicated.   

This odd word “ought”, defined as:  Duty!  Responsibility!  Obligation!  Rightness!  Knowing!  Ought…TO BE!   The valley of love and delight awaits us all.  The only way to get there from where we are is to bow and bend, not be ashamed…turning, turning, coming round right.   Then we will all live together with a love that is real.  

Take the song Simple Gifts to heart. Use it as a mantra. Sing it daily.  Where we ought…TO BE!!  The time is now!  All living together with a love that is real.