By Ashley Devers

As you step into your awakening journey, there is an inherit stripping away that takes place. A sieving, parsing and releasing comes forward as if your whole life is dumped into a sifter. The ingredients that made up you—who you are and what you have created—are now broken apart and separated into a bowl. Left in the sifter remains your true essence, the Divine within, and what falls into the bowl is all that must strip away in order to return to this essence.

In this process of unearthing your true self, the outside layers like relationships, desires, resources, abilities, and your own identity, which are covering your true essence, start to dissolve and fall away. They fall away simply because they do not match the Divine within.

As they fall, it may come as a surprise or cause great pain, only because you held these layers so close. Like taking a teddy bear from a child, you are left with empty palms, teary eyes and heartache wondering why this layer must be stripped away.

For you must know that these layers that fall away are parts of the “you” or the ego. And the pain, surprised and confusion you feel during the stripping away is also the “you” who built these layers and now feels them crashing down.

For the Divine within you is calm, steady, and has all that it needs. It is pure at the core, undeniable, and unbreakable. Your true essence needs no layers.

As you let go and release, you are returning to this peaceful state within. For the Divine within you, is that which is choosing to release the layers to return to its true state.

You must trust that the Divine knows what to release and what to keep in your life as you are held fast within this sifter. And you must know what is being stripped away will fall into the bowl only when it is ready to drop. For God knows when it is ready to drop—when you are ready—and He will strip away without warning or reason that the ego or the “you” would like to be alerted to.

For a greater sifting happens in life; that which is of the Divine and that which is of the “you”. For Divine truth, joy and love pierce through the sludge of this world with distinct clarity. They illuminate the darkness greater than any light can attain. As you awaken, the “you” and the illusions of this world start to fall into the bowl, and what remains in the sifter is the Soul that cannot be broken apart or sieved away.

So do not be harmed or frightened by this stripping to what seems like nothingness. For any suddenness, resistance, or deep loss you feel during these shifts is only the “you” reacting like a child without it’s toy.

For when you start to examine and sift through the streams that flow in your life, you will recognize the Divine as little specks of gold that catch your eye amongst the rapid waters. You will catch glimpses of the gold amongst the mud, the pebbles, and the sticks in your streams, for it is undeniable and a precious gem. But the soil of your stream must be overturned first in order for you to find this gold.

As you are stripped away of the mud and pebbles, or the teddy bears of your life; trust that you are returning to the Divine Gold that lives within you. The gold that is you and your true Soul essence. For you will find there actually is no separation or a sifting that takes place in this awakening journey, but rather a cleansing of the gold, or a removing of the layers, so the Divine truly sparkles.

You are returning to your natural state, which is Divine Gold. For when all else is stripped away, no matter how beautiful it may seem, there is nothing that can match the essence of who you really are at the core.