Archive for the ‘Values’ Category

This morning I not only see the silver lining I can actually feel it. 

Yesterday, the United States House of Representatives passed universal health care. Today, much of the fear that had been plaguing so many people in this country has shifted.  Against all odds, and almost in defiance of reason, the immobilization and concern that are hallmarks of fear have been replaced with a call to action and optimism.

Why?  Because Life has its own agenda.  And as the saying goes, “Man plans and God laughs.”   There’s a parable that’s instructive here:

A horse and cart were being driven down the road when the horse tried to veer off to one side against the wishes of the driver.  So, she lightly pulled on the reigns and the horse returned to the original path.  Moments later, the horse once again veered off the road and this time the driver jerked on the reigns much more aggressively.  Reluctantly, but quickly, the horse resumed the direct path. Finally, on the horse’s third attempt to stray, the driver cracked the whip. Whereby, the horse immediately, and thereafter, stayed on the straight and narrow.

We have had countless “tugs on the reigns” as we, as a nation, have strayed from the direct and intended path.  To each of those we have responded in a way that returned us to where we needed to be… but only temporarily.  We are a “stiff-necked people” with a short memory, it seems.

So, yesterday, we received a miracle! 

The House of Representatives, at least 219 of them, cracked the whip…and while that was not their intention, God was laughing.  For the miracle of passing universal health care is that it has awakened a sufficient amount of people to conscious evolution that we have reached the tipping point.  Now, enough people understand what tyranny looks and feels like.  Now we can actually begin to move in the direction of real change… toward individual freedom, personal responsibility and the kind of oneness that reveals the perversion of socialism and other political systems that purport to speak and act for the best interest of the people.

The best interest of the people is best spoken and acted by the people.  Yesterday, 219 of our elected officials ignored that Universal Law in a push to pass the law of universal health care.  They’ve declared victory.

Listen.  Can you hear that sound?

God is laughing.

    

There will be a lot of trash written about Sandra Bullock’s apparent embarrassment by her allegedly unfaithful husband.  I’d like to take higher ground and use her pain to heal. 

What I want to heal is the tendency for so many women to think that someone other than themselves, who through their own inner strength and guidance, got them where they are.  Most women understood exactly what Ms. Bullock was doing when, upon receiving the Oscar, she thanked her husband for “watching her back.” 

We women yearn for that feeling. To know that when we’re tired or have done the work of two…or more…people, that “he” will there to pick up the mantle.  That no harm will come if we are one day too tired to be so alert and competent.  I think such a desire must have its roots in the fabled knight on the white horse that has been in our collective consciousness for several thousand years.

The problem is that fables are fictions and need to be viewed in that light.

In addition, personal power is tricky business.  It resides within us… its not bestowed from someone or something outside of ourselves.  And when you give it away, as Sandra Bullock did in accepting the Oscar, someone can take it with them when they leave.  Or even before… as her allegedly unfaithful husband has now seemingly done.

Sandra Bullock, and all of us, don’t achieve excellence because someone else makes it possible.  We achieve it through internal fortitude, God-given gifts, and an unwavering passion to get where we want go.  And while its nice to know that others along the way made contributions to our efforts, its dangerous to think that anyone other than God “watches our back.” 

>Whether, in this particular instance, the facts as alleged turnout to be
true or not, the prototype of a woman feeling unworthy of claiming the
fullness of her own power, but instead bestowing it upon another less
worthy who earned it not, is a valid one.

We are all “at risk” in this journey called Life.   Feelings of security and protection, however, come only from a deeply held knowing that we are loved and guided always by that which created us.  Such love and guidance is never conditional and, consequently, is unshakable by anything or anyone… not least of all a woman whose body is adorned like a billboard hawking merchandise.
>
Our standard creates our experience.  Sandra Bullock is a gifted actress who has chosen roles using great discretion and skill.  Now, hopefully, she will choose her men the same way and change her experience.

Its a lesson for many women and advice worth considering. 

Our history has been selectively written for as long as we’ve been writing it, with the most selectivity occurring around the deliberate exclusion of the Divine Feminine.  There are more examples than I have space or time for here, but let me point out a few:

1.     Archaeological artifacts subjected to carbon-dating have identified worship of female deities as far back as 10,000 years B.C.E.

2.     Cleopatra spoke 9 languages, inherited a bankrupt country and turned it profitable, allowed women to be property owners and granted citizenship for meritorious service to the country.

3.     Victoria Woodhull, not Geraldine Ferraro, was the first woman to run on a Presidential ticket… and she ran for President!  Her V.P. running mate was a freed, black slave, Frederick Douglas.  It was 1872. Woodhull was also the first female stock broker on Wall Street.

But let’s revisit the archaeological finds for a moment.  Somewhere between 10,000 B.C.E. and the compilation of the Hebrew, Christian and Muslim religious writings, those female deities were unanimously and deliberately written out of our heritage… or at best relegated to minor, and sometimes troublesome, characters.

There is a spiritual (and I believe also religious) adage that goes “As above so below.”  Following that logic, what we see manifested here, in our world of matter, must necessarily exist on higher spiritual planes. 

So, here’s my understanding… and my dilemma.

But for the amoeba, wherever there is reproduction in the physical world, there exists a male, a female and an offspring.  If you’ll allow me, more commonly thought of as a father, a mother and a child.  Not once have I ever heard anyone say that an offspring was created by a male and a holy ghost. That being the case “below”… why is it that for 2000-3000 years, or more, we have been repeating and perpetuating a creation story (“as above”) that ignores and even denies the existence, role and contribution of the female?

I like to play with words.  Its a lifelong pastime.  Yesterday I was thinking about all of this and the word “mother” kept going around in my mind.  As I was pondering “why” this obvious omission of the Divine Feminine pervades our history, I was asking “why” when the letter “y” suddenly inserted itself in the word mother… between the “m” and the “other”… so it now read “my other.”  And I paused.  “My Other.”  The Father, the Son and My Other (Mother)!!! 

Much more plausible, isn’t it?

We are living through troubled and transformative times.  We need all the help we can get.  Even someone as near prophetic as Glenn Beck has been on unfolding events, was asking yesterday on-air where is a contemporary George Washington to lead us out of this mess. Beck then said, “Where is he? Where is that leader?”  Immediately followed by my yelling at the radio, “Or she Glenn…or she!”

Yes, we need help.  To that end, I have looked around thoroughly and cannot find one holy ghost anywhere.  But we have a globe populated with Mothers.  If we are pressed for time and cannot re-write the history books, perhaps we can make history instead by resurrecting to full status the Divine Feminine and the necessary contribution She was intended to make, and the role she was designed to fulfill, in maintaining the ongoing balance and harmony of all existence.

Now, I also have an issue with the whole “Son” thing… but that’s another blog, isn’t it?

It comes as no surprise to anyone who reads my posts that I like Glenn Beck.  If there was any doubt about that fact it was put to rest last night, Saturday night, when I turned down an invitation to go to a movie and dinner because the timing would have interfered with FOX’s live coverage of Beck’s speech as keynote at the CPAC conference.

I am willing to go out on a limb here.  I think Beck is a prophet.  Prophetic as in the biblical sense?  Yes and no.  Now, before you think this is all about Mormonism, Christianity or any other religion, let me tell you what I mean by that statement. 

In the biblical sense, I believe he is facing down the entrenched “powers that be” and speaking truth to power… even if the message is at times dire.  He is showing us the “pug-ugly” side and consequences of our poor choices while holding out hope that by combining faith with a course correction we can embark upon a higher road that will lead us to a grander view.

I believe his strength, insight and courage come from profound inner guidance.  He is Self-sourced and Self-directed.  What I mean is that through a personal and treacherous inner journey, he has accessed a voice within himself whose origin is the Source of All That Is.  For millennia, we have been taught that the Source is outside of ourselves.  Its not.  Its our birthright, as individual aspects of All That Is, to tap into that energetic Source and know for ourselves what thoughts, words, and deeds support the ongoing growth of life towards Its highest good. 

Beck has gone within and opened that line of communication.  Which is why I call him a prophet.  While he might not see or describe that Source as I do, I think we could agree on one thing.  He seeks the highest good for all concerned.

Where I would differ with him, and enlarge his message, is that its not just political in nature or application.  The messages of liberty, individualism, charity, forgiveness, dedication to higher principles, respect for differences, integrity and truth are universal and timeless.   They need apply and be the priority in every moment and in every nation. We are not just at a critical juncture in the story of the United States… we are at a critical juncture in the story of human consciousness. 

We, each one of us, is being given the opportunity to awaken to a new reality.  To understand our inherent connectedness and responsibility to everyone and everything else.  Not in the individual-deprecating manner of socialism…but rather in the full expression and celebration of individuality and personal responsibility within a framework of Oneness.

If the prophet analogy makes you uncomfortable, try Paul Revere. 

Beck is, and has been for several years, figuratively riding from town to town ringing the bell of awareness shouting “Change is coming. Change is coming.”  So much of what he has presaged thus far has turned out to be accurate.  Whether that prescience will continue or not, I don’t know.  What I do know is that if we step back and see the larger picture, he can be of enormous value in two ways.

The first is by his example of inner guidance.  The second by his fearlessness.

If we allow him to teach us nothing other than those two lessons, I think history will find a worthy place for him… regardless of whether he turns out to be a prophet or not.

I was in my car listening to talk-radio when the topic of the hour was Tiger Woods’ breaking of his 3-month silence with a public apology that occurred today.  I heard lots of “perspectives”… from talk show hosts and their callers to excerpts from columnists and reporters.  What I heard over and over was the “scripted” nature of Woods’ apology and how managed it all seemed.  Further, there was apparently a general consensus that he had done it for business reasons more than anything else…in an effort to salvage his career and rebuild his image in order to win back lost sponsors. 

When I arrived home, there was more of the same on television news shows.  In fact, I heard a sports agent confirm that it was all done, in fact, to ease his way back onto the golf circuit with some respectability.  And finally, I heard from an “expert” that “He should have done this 3 months ago when it all happened.”  Somehow, according to the expert’s opinion, the delayed mea culpa had diminished the message and its veracity.

Then I went on YouTube to watch Tiger Woods for myself.

What I saw was, yes, a somewhat stiff and scripted man who was clearly uncomfortable with what he was doing.  And, yes, I heard references to his business commitments, his fans and the press.  But more than anything I was struck by how many times, and with how much straightforward language, he took responsibility for his actions, his arrogance, his bad decisions and the hurt he caused his family.

Of course, only time will tell…as is the case with contrition.  Its easy to express and hard to live.  But I took heart for several reasons:

1.  He minced no words in taking full responsibility for all of it.

2.  He owned up to his arrogance.

3.  He acknowledged who he hurt and what it has cost him.

4.  He admitted to full-time counseling and the intention to continue with it.

5.  He asked that friend’s and fans have patience with him as he struggles to understand why he did what he did.      

6.  He asked for the press to honor the privacy of his wife and children to protect them from further hurt and humiliation.

7.  He admitted thinking that ordinary rules didn’t apply to him and that he was entitled to do whatever he wanted.

Contrary to the commentator’s criticism of the timing, I think had Woods given an apologetic press conference a few days after being caught at flagrant and repeated infidelity he would have been saying he was sorry he got caught.  It is certainly reasonable to believe that it has taken at least this amount of time for him to genuinely begin to see and understand what he did and the enormity of it all.

There are two important lessons in all of this. One global and one personal. 

Globally, we are living through a time of transition when deceit and arrogance will be revealed when and where they crop up.  The importance of such revelation is talking full responsibility for one’s actions regardless of how painful.  No pain, no gain as they say in sports…no pun intended.  It’s the only way to cure the world of what ails it.

Personally, it was a perfect lesson in why each of us has to make up our own minds based upon our own personal experience…not place blind faith in the advice and opinions of experts or persons with apparent authority.

Had I not watched Woods myself, but relied instead upon the pundits, commentators, reporters and broadcasters, I could never have concluded, as I have, that he gets it, he means it and he’s trying to salvage not only his career but his family life.

As I said earlier, easy to say hard to do.  But I’m with him on this one… unless and until he proves me wrong.
 
Everyone who genuinely seeks it deserves that second chance.

We’ve all been there…one way or another.

While recently contemplating all the disappointment surrounding President Obama’s performance during his first year in office, I thought about the national need for change and how the promise of it resonated so strongly that it propelled him into office.  Then I thought about where we are at the moment and how we haven’t quite gotten what was promised… or what was expected.

So what went wrong?

I think the key word is “need.”  We needed change so badly we grabbed onto the first person who looked and sounded as if he understood our need.  But neediness is tricky business. When you act out of need, and strike a deal based upon it, there is always a back-end price that turns out to be more than you were willing to pay.  And like it or not… pay it you will.

Change has several characteristics.   Its natural, necessary, takes time, and requires sacrifice.  It can’t be gifted, bought, or bargained for. Its the stuff of Life.  In fact, its the paradox of Life because the only thing you can count on for sure in Life is change.

But as with anything else, when you need it too badly, you tend to overlook a lot to fill the need.  We do it all the time in personal relationships.  We overlook qualities in another that would otherwise be deal-breakers simply because they have something we need.  Thinking their presence in our life will somehow change it for the better, we proceed throwing caution to the wind. 

We do it with acquisition.  We buy things we can’t afford because we need whatever it is that thing represents to make us feel or look better… or to fill a void we’d otherwise rather not explore.

So, when in 2008, we all innately knew we were living on the edge in too many ways, we also knew it was  time to change that fact.  We were right to think it.  We were foolish to think that the necessary change would come so easily by way of bumper sticker and a charismatic speaker.  Anyone who has ever watched or studied how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly knows better.  It’s a slow, and at times, painful process.  It requires loss and letting go.  It also requires endurance and the ability to survive adversity. 

It happens one caterpillar at a time. 

There is no top down solution to what ails us.  No one is going to legislate, adjudicate or mandate us out of this one.  As Barry Manilow once wrote, “This One’s For You.”   This one is for each of us to go within, find our values, our determination and the strength to endure change…and then to live it all in every facet of our lives…each and every day.

Knowing your core values, having unwavering determination and garnering inner strength you become exempt from need.   Exempt from need you need not cut any deals for which you will later find yourself unable to pay that back-end fee.

If the man we elected President in 2008 now seems to have disappointed us, and our plight no better and perhaps worse than he took office, remember that we cut a deal.  We needed change and he promised to bring it. 

I think the lesson is to be the change you want to see in the world.  I didn’t originate that realization, it was Gandhi’s mission statement.  He lived it and so changed the future of India.  Not by promising to give change to his countrymen but by showing them, by example, how to do it themselves… one person at a time.

Mr. President, I’m still waiting.
 

I subscribe to the belief that 1) there are no accidents and 2) we are all One. 

So, allow me to connect the dots.

Around 1400 B.C.E, the Oracle at Delphi was one of the most sacred sites in ancient Greece.  It was where Priestesses, who represented the Divine Feminine aspect of God, received divine inspiration and prophesied about a variety of matters.  Leaders from all over the Mediterranean came for guidance, including political advice.  Sophia, the Goddess of Wisdom was loved and revered.  Hence, the origins of the word philosopher…”philos” meaning “love” and soph(ia) meaning wisdom. Philosophers were lovers of wisdom.  It was a time of great cultural advancement. In fact, Minoan Crete is viewed as a high point in early civilization and where the Divine Feminine was last worshiped before aggressive, warlike and patriarchal leadership conquered and destroyed much of what had been achieved. 

The region was the birthplace of Democracy.

Fast forward 2500 years.

The economy of Greece is in a free fall and near collapse.  The government, over time, has run up huge deficits that have become unsustainable.  The EU is scrambling to put together some sort of package that will forestall an economic crisis that would likely be followed by similar crises in Portugal, Italy and Spain. (As an uncomfortable side note, we in the United States are economically situated not all that far from Greece’s current position and it may be a dire early warning of its own for us as well).

We are living through remarkable and transforming times.  You can feel the shifts occurring everywhere. The system is re-balancing itself… an occurrence long overdue, I might add.  It is re-balancing the masculine with the feminine, the positive with the negative if you will. Both forces are equally necessary for the growth, evolution and harmony of our world.

As I connect the dots. it makes perfect sense that the “canary in the goldmine” turns out to be Greece.  It is where the Divine Feminine was enslaved and relegated to second class citizenship 2500 years ago.  It was where we went completely out-of-balance.  And because we are all connected, the obliteration of the Divine Feminine eventually led us to the present moment where, now, 2500 years of patriarchal leadership and dominance have failed at the intended goal…peaceful co-existence.

I am an optimist and see the larger picture.  From the ashes of Delphi and the economic collapse of present day Greece, will rise the Phoenix in the form of The Divine Feminine. She will bring us back into balance where finally, an understanding of Oneness and all it implies, will be known, appreciated and lived.

I have always loved connecting the dots.

I was flipping through the Sunday morning news shows today…Chris Matthews, This Week, and Face the Nation…and found it rather incredible that all those educated panelists are so out of touch with what is really happening in this country. It’s as if they are incapable of changing the context in which they evaluate the state of things. 

Maybe its just me but I don’t think so.

From where I stand, and consequently how I see things, most people have reached a saturation point in their lives concerning materialism, self-gratification and, yes, even technology.  Its been a nice ride but when all is said and done we came up empty.  Empty and yearning for something more.  Something that can’t be bought or even held onto..unless its what we give away. 

You see, that’s the paradox.

Our national search for “more”…be it whatever “more” we wanted…turned out to be a quest for fool’s gold.  Or false idols, depending on your belief system.  All the doing, getting and having solved nothing and, in fact, created more problems than we can apparently handle at the moment.  It’s a lot older that Ivan Beosky’s University of California Berkley speech in 1986 where he told the graduating class “Greed is healthy” …although I think his words were a seminal moment by the absence of public outrage that failed to follow his pronouncement.  Our silence spoke volumes about us and the future direction of our country.

Now, almost 25 years later, after proceeding down the path Boesky and we by our silence condoned, we have arrived at an unintended and undesirable destination. 

The People get it. But those who govern, and most of those reporting upon it, don’t.  They’re still talking about fixing the economy or closing the information leaks or creating jobs or lowering foreclosures and reinvigorating the housing market as those things that will return our lives to some recognizable scenario.

But its not about any of that. It’s about balance and unity.

It’s about lives that are balanced between what we take in and what we give out.  It’s about relationships that honor and respect differences.  It’s about bringing children into the world and then actually devoting the amount of time it takes to raise them with commendable values.  It’s about truth telling in our personal and professional lives.  It’s about compassion as the highest form of love.  It’s about pursuing technological development but not at the expense, or disregard, of ethical and spiritual development.  It’s about knowing how connected we are to everything on Earth and beyond… so that we think and act with the realization that our every thought and our every action matters. 

So, to the people who govern and those who report upon it all: You can try and resurrect the past, or project how well your opinions and ideas will shape the future.  But in the only analysis that matters, there is only the moment in which you are living.  If you refuse to see and sense it for what it actually is you are living in an illusion and, therefore, part of the problem… not the solution.

Which is why I don’t often watch Sunday morning news show.

It seems that its becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with all the news.  You pick the category and there’s some breaking story in it.  It really is information overload. 

What’s a person to do?

Well, may I suggest silence.  Its a beautiful, and healing, alternative.  I know because lately I’ve begun to meditate.  Now please don’t write me off as some mystic, or former hippie, who is looking for some way to “drop out.”  I am, and always have been, a Type A personality.  If I’m not in motion, or using my brain in some challenging way…well such reckless frivolity has always been the very definition of “lazy” in my book.  No, what led me to meditation was a combination of 1) coaxing from a dear friend and 2) more “news” than I could handle. 

What I’ve learned from meditation is that there’s more to learn in silence than in all the news that’s fit to print…or broadcast…or telecast…or tweet.  In silence exists an internal knowing that transcends words.  Really. You can’t describe it.  You have to be it. When you are being it, what you feel is everything you’ve ever sought.  Truly.  Now my assumption is that what we all ultimately go in search of is inner peace. I mean, really, isn’t all that we aspire to and seek done in the hopes of acquiring some satisfaction that always seems just beyond our reach…or so transient it was hardly worth the getting?

Well, here’s breaking news.

Inner peace comes from within!  Duh!  You’d think that would be self-evident.  However, we humans with our opposable thumbs and high tech world are still running around trying to find it outside of ourselves. Duh, squared!

So I could have posted this blog entry about Iran’s launch into space, or the White House leak about the cooperating terrorist who tried to blow up a plane Christmas day with explosive underwear, or the yet again declining DOW, or the rumor that the Jolie-Pitts are on  the rocks…but here’s the thing.  I’d just be adding to the information overload.  So instead, I decided to share with you the sound of silence. 

Once in a while, its really sweet to have nothing to say… and even less to listen to.

>You almost have to be asleep to miss the political upheaval taking place.  Its everywhere putting sheer terror into the hearts and minds of both Republican and Democrat incumbents as the November mid-term elections draw near. Politicians of both parties are scrambling to figure out just what the increasingly vocal and disenchanted populace wants of them.  Its on the news day and night and the story will only get more coverage as we head into the Fall.

However, I think its just symptomatic of a much larger story.

It isn’t just a change in our politics. It’s a change in our consciousness… and its impacting every aspect of our lives, not just how we think and feel about government.

While the age-old choice has been one party or the other… the elite or the governed… the rich or the poor…the winners or the losers…such hierarchical constructs are about to experience their own transition.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not talking about replacing Democracy with Socialism.  What I am talking about is revisiting the best of both systems, and any others, that guide and support us in co-creating a world less divided.

So far, no one system has done the job admirably..  although Democracy has certainly, thus far, done it with the most expansiveness and respect for personal liberty. But so far, so good… isn’t good enough.  Nor is it a reason to stop trying to improve upon what we have achieved.>

Authentic change… the change so many hungered for in the 2008 election, the change that has not as yet come but is on the horizon, is a re-balancing of female and male energies in every aspect of our lives. 

The instability we feel at this moment in time in so many area of our lives is that which results from an imbalance in the extreme.  Riane Eisler, author of  “The Chalice and The Blade”, >identifies the result of such imbalance as having created “dominator” as opposed to “partnership” societies.  The result of a world run by dominator societies is exactly where we now find ourselves.  We have almost perfected the application and use of our financial resources and technological development for extinguishing the planet and all its inhabitants.  

Simply put, we are out of balance.

In the First Five Books of Moses in Genesis, as well as in the majority of pre-history cults and religions, the “story” begins with a Being both male and female.  Where we lost our way was in subjugating, and thereby eliminating, the unique contribution that 50% of humanity can bring to bear upon our conscious evolution.

When we realize there is Only One of Us, there follows the irrefutable realization that in the race to conquer and dominate… we are all speeding to Self-annihilation.

And so, while the news media is busy with whether the Democrats or Republicans will hold the majority in the House and the Senate come November… many of us are far more focused and intent upon a bigger question.

Will we transcend differences and a dominator mindset to see the beauty and value in diversity of gender and partnership… or will we remain distracted by the small stuff and never see the edge of the cliff coming up below our feet?

Now there’s a poll worth taking.