Archive for the ‘Values’ Category

There is a great deal of fear and anger around these days as is evidenced by the public outcry and conflict occurring at congressional Town Hall meetings over proposed health care legislation. This is just the latest and most visible display of something that’s been brewing for quite awhile now.

I have written about this growing fear and anger for over the past year and a half in this blog.

As more and more people voice their opposition to not only the proposed health care plan but also with government in general, its starting to look and sound like a battle between the Left and the Right.  Actually, between the extreme Left and extreme Right of both political parties.  But it only looks that way because that’s how conventional media is portraying it.

If you look with your own eyes and listen with your own ears you will see and hear something very different.

What you will see is Change. Not the bumper sticker change that catapulted Barack Obama to the White House.

Real change.

The transition we are living through now, transformation actually, is best likened to the metamorphosis that occurs when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.  When this takes place, its the end of the caterpillar as we know it, admittedly. But its also the beginning of a life form that is less dense, able to cover much more territory from a higher perspective and… happens to be quite beautiful, as a perk.
 
The difference between the caterpillar dying (or transforming) and the demise of the corrupted legislative, judicial and executive branches of government as they now function can best be summed up in a single word.

Ego.

The caterpillar has none and the politicians have an excess.

So when Nature says its time for the caterpillar to “let go and let God,” so to speak, it simply does. To the contrary, when the will of the People says it time for the politicians to do the same, they react by making their best efforts to hold on and, in fact, will do whatever it takes to stay exactly where they comfortably are.

So what’s to be done now that the People have called an audible?  May I suggest the following:

If you are one of the People…do not lose you voice. Do not despair that change is not happening as fast as you would like it to.  Do not lose hope.  Do not second-guess your instincts.

If you are one of the politicians…find the Truth you misplaced long ago. Understand that change is happening faster than you can imagine. Re-establish the hope and faith in the Republic that drew the very first politicians to service. Do not second-guess your instincts.

Because both the People and the politicians instinctively know that the End is near.

But so, too, is the Beginning.

The only question is, “Are you the caterpillar or the butterfly?
 

Its been my policy since inception of this blog to write from a positive perspective and to always bring you the most inspiring message. Regular readers know that my oft quoted motto is “the highest good for all concerned.”  I’ll get there today as I always do.

But today, the road there is first through a dark and unseemly place. There’s simply no way around it.

In the 13 years during which I practiced Divorce law, there wasn’t a single case in which a husband had an extramarital affair that the wife did not know.  She always knew.  She may not have admitted it to herself… she may have blocked that knowing out… she may not have known the details… but in every single case she knew.  I can make this assertion with certainty because whether she admitted it to me at the beginning of the case…or somewhere later down the road…my clients whose husband’s had so behaved always, ultimately, recognized and acknowledged that they knew.

I tell you this because something is wrong in America. 

We all know it.

We may not want to admit it.  We may be trying to block out our knowing with diversions such as Michael Jackson or Bernie Madoff or All Star Games or summer vacations… but we know it.  We may not know the details or be able to state with certainty how or when it went wrong, and continues to go wrong, but we know it.  We may not want to admit it because to do so would mean we’d have to also admit that where it’s headed is untenable and that would mean we’d each have to step up and actually do something about it.

There isn’t time or space here for details.  Perhaps President Obama’s appointments to the offices of “Science Czar” and “Green Jobs Czar” (scroll down and read the “Political Evolution” section of the Wikipedia link) make the broader case for me.  These are people with disturbing histories who have been dropped into positions of authority and power and whose actions are unaccountable to Congress.

I don’t think that ruminating over what is wrong or ignoring what we instinctively feel in our “guts” is what matters. I think what matters is what are we going to do about it?

In hindsight I don’t know if any of my former clients could have saved their marriages by confronting the reality of those affairs at the time and taking a stand based upon self-respect and dignity. But here’s the thing. They’ll never know. What they do know is that burying their heads in the sand only prolonged their pain, diminished their self-esteem and cost them a fortune in dignity and legal fees.  Let us learn a little, or a lot, from their mistakes.

Something is wrong in America.

Each of us who knows this needs to act.  So far, I have two ideas.

The first is to speak truth to power and not be afraid to say, every day… every chance we have…to anyone we can… that, in fact, something is wrong in America and its time to change that.

Secondly, we need a Gandhi or Dr. King. We need a peaceful march on Washington and we need it in numbers so large that our collective voices cannot be silenced.

This is all I know for certain at this point. But if we can get those two accomplished, I am certain the next logical step will emerge in its proper time.

If you agree that we need that march on Washington, and that together we can do it, please pass this on.  I welcome all who are ready to admit that something is wrong in America and are also ready to do something about it.

Carole

P.S.

Because you often feel like one voice singing in the darkness… I know I sometimes do… I’ve pasted the lyrics to Barry Manilow’s song “One Voice.”  

Just One Voice,
Singing in the darkness,
All it takes is One Voice,
Singing so they hear what’s on your mind,
And when you look around you’ll find
There’s more than

One Voice,
Singing in the darkness,
Joining with your One Voice,
Each and every note another octave,
Hands are joined and fears unlocked,
If only

One Voice
Would start it on its own,
We need just One Voice facing the unknown,
And then that One Voice would never be alone,
It takes that One Voice.

It takes that One Voice.

Just One Voice
Singing in the darkness,
All it takes is One Voice,
Shout it out and let it ring.

Just One Voice,
It takes that One Voice,
And everyone will sing!

>        I don’t watch a lot of TV or listen to much radio. But there’s always news that filters through one way or another and the Internet is certainly one of those ways. So in the past few days, I’ve been unable to avoid some rather nasty comments and observations flying back and forth between what appears to be the political Right and Left.

Here are a just a few in list format, for expediency sake and, to make the point:
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size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>      – Letterman trashing Governor Sarah Palin’s 14-year-old-daughter by joking that she was “knocked up by Alex Rodrigues during the 7th inning stretch.”

         – size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>Letterman referring to Sarah Palin’s fashion sense as the “slutty, flight-attendant look.”

     – Bill Maher saying Former First Lady Nancy Reagan had lunch at the White House with Michelle Obama and, not quite sure who the Michelle Obama was, asked the First Lady “not to just move the furniture around but to do some dusting.” size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>

size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>      – Rush Limbaugh playing “Dancing Queen” from Mama Mia with a voice-over imitation of Congressman  Barney Frank singing, instead, the words “Banking Queen.” size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>

         First, let me dismiss the politics. I’m a life-long Democrat until about two weeks ago when I moved and had to re-register to vote. I registered as an Independent. I’m pretty much done with both Parties’ greed and corruption. As a Democrat, and now an Independent, I never particularly liked Barney Frank.

         But the Limbaugh parody was disgusting as are all the others.

         There’s a great line from the movie The American President where Michael Douglas, portraying the President running for re-election, gives a press conference and addresses his Republican opponent who has been avoiding debate on policy issues and instead attacking the widowed President and his love interest on moral grounds. Douglas says, “If you want to come at me with a character debate just tell me where and when and I’ll be there. But we’ve got serious problems that require serious solutions and your fifteen minutes of fame are up. My name is Andrew Wade and I am the President.”

         I’d like to paraphrase, if I may.

         To Letterman, Maher, Limbaugh and all the others: “We are living through a precarious time of extraordinary change. Divisions based upon differences have plagued us for thousands of years and led to unimaginable suffering. These are serious times that require respectful approaches. Harmony in diversity is the goal. If you can’t grasp that reality and stop being part of the problem, I can assure you that your fifteen minutes of fame are about to be up. My name is Carole Goldstein and I am a Citizen Lightworker.

The most difficult blogs to write are the most personal ones for they expose you “belly-up.” This is one of them. It’s particularly tricky to write this one because, in addition to the opening for personal exposure and the criticism that can follow, I recently came to an awareness about my own propensity to judge others and in order to write this entry I have to walk a fine line between observation and judgment.  But here goes. 

I have previously written about my divorce and the fact that we have a 16-year-old daughter so there’s no need to elaborate here other than to remind you of both.

Just this week, our daughter had a doctor’s appointment for a minor issue and my ex-husband agreed to pick her up from school and take her, since he had been unable to during his normal Parenting Time with her last week. When I was able to check my calendar, I realized that I couldn’t pick her up after the appointment as my day was full with commitments through late evening. So, I asked him if he would also bring her to my home after the appointment.

He refused without giving a reason.

When I inquired “why” he replied, “Because I have a full day and don’t feel like driving anymore then I need to

.”  When I suggested that I generally do all of the driving for her and that she had heard his reply and was hurt by it, he said he would be “happy to explain it to her” two days later when he took her to the appointment.  I further suggested that he might want to call her now, rather than later, as she was obviously disappointed and hurt…feeling unimportant and like an inconvenience to him. His response to that was “If she needs to she can call me.”

I want to repeat what he said: “If she needs to she can call me.”

I was married to this person for almost 17 years and I take responsibility for allowing him, over that period of time, to chip away at my self-esteem by exchanging my personal power for the need to be loved by, and compatible with, him.  And, in hindsight, I had pretty much figured out how that had occurred.  Even our daughter had said to me, post-separation, “You were always too easy on him. No matter how he treated you, all he ever had to do was say ‘I’m sorry’ and you’d forgive him.”  That’s tough to hear from a then 15-year-old who you know is forming her model of a woman after you… and her model for relationships after her parent’s marriage.

But I’ll tell you what was even tougher to hear than that.

When he said that sentence, ” If she needs to she can call me,” I heard him tip-toeing down the path of a pattern of manipulation that is the slippery slope to emotional abuse. He had said something hurtful and insensitive and now he was trying to see if he could get her to come to him for the apology he owed her.

He was planting the seeds of emotional control. 

Had she complied, those seeds could then take root.  Each time such an opportunity would then arise in the future to solidify the pattern… he would take it, knowing she was a participant.  And each time she acquiesced and went toward that which was the source of her pain, he would have gained a little more control over her and she would have relinquished a little more of her self-esteem and personal power.

The good news is I got in the way. In a good way.

I used it as an opportunity to talk with her about dignity, self-esteem, male-female relationships, and the different types of abuse…emotional, psychological and physical. We spoke about healthy relationships and the importance of knowing where your boundaries are.

Finally, we spoke about being able to say to yourself, if not to anyone else, “No thank you. The price is too great” and so to be able to  “pass” on what’s being offered with confidence in knowing that your dignity is not for sale and betrayal of Self is never an option.

One caveat… because I need to be careful as I walk that observational/judgmental line I mentioned earlier.

I don’t think my ex-husband is a malevolent person. I don’t think he consciously sets out to seek that level of control.  He obviously has his own needs and insecurities that cause him to take that approach rather than expose himself belly-up. But that’s no longer my concern.

Our daughter is.

Abusive relationships don’t start out in the deep end. They develop slowly over time and, like everything else, it takes two. The one sure way to avoid them is to be self-confident, self-aware, and unwilling to trade anything for what appears to be love.  Love doesn’t possess, control or hurt. And it’s NEVER the result of a bargain between two people…no matter what’s being exchanged.

Hopefully, our daughter knows this and has learned it from her parents.

There is an old saying, “You teach what you have to learn.”

As I type, news is breaking around the U.S. Government’s takeover/purchase of General Motors. As I listen and read, all I can think about is how hard it is to get anything accomplished at a State or Federally owned/operated agency. Think about Motor Vehicles, Social Security or City Hall for that matter. Ever been in one of those lines or encapsulated in a time warp by the inefficiency and delays? Now, the manufacturing and selling of automobiles is about to fall into the abyss.

Segue.

I have a 16-year-old daughter who puts just enough energy into everything she does to get by. Even the things she likes doing! She simply isn’t motivated to do more than the bare minimum it takes to get things done. Yesterday, she and I had one more of the many heated discussions that take place around her approach.  Usually, I mention words like “lazy” or “princess” but this time I suggested that her standard is mediocrity.  Now while you may think that was an unkind observation to have (and more so, to share) it was actually the first time I ever saw a light go on in her head around what is usually her dismissal of my complaints that she hasn’t finished what she began, or in the alternative,”finished” with aspects of the task or goal still incomplete.

So what do government and my 16-year-old have in common?  In a word: Mediocrity.

But let’s face it. Such aspirations aren’t limited to my two examples. I could go on. And on. And on.  Blame it on the technology or the pace at which we live, but there is no denying that most people in this country have settled into reduced expectations of themselves and everyone else. 

We don’t anticipate excellence. We accept mediocrity.

So what’s the harm?

Mediocrity, by definition, implies a lack of caring about the end product. It’s about “average-ness” and “second rated-ness.” Its about expediency and profit over quality and value. When you choose not to care about the quality of what you do, when you don’t give it your best, you not only make a statement about what you think of yourself, you also set in motion events that lead to the devaluation of other people, lifeforms and things.

It is definitely a choice you get to make.  In every situation, you have the opportunity to decide how much energy, integrity, and authenticity you will bring to what needs to be accomplished. You get to define and apply the standard that best represents who you are. No one else gets to make that call.

Lowering your standards is the slippery slope that leads to mediocrity, and less. So why do people do it? Because it’s easier and quicker than the effort and time it takes to achieve excellence. So whether it’s about doing the job you’re paid to do, completing your homework, or choosing who you spend you life with, mediocrity gets you something…albeit not something that necessarily enlivens or empassions you… or anyone else for that matter.

Mediocrity doesn’t lead to feeling good about yourself. It leads, ultimately, to not feeling. That’s the slippery slope. Mediocrity is a denial of the Divinity within each of Us.

We exist to awaken and become conscious around Self-Realization. When such awakening occurs, it is to know for certain what remarkably unique creations we are and how the possibilities for our own creations are boundless and endless…constrained only by our vision and an unwavering determination to be the best we can be.

It’s Friday, April 10, 2009 which makes it the second day of the Jewish Passover and also the Christian Good Friday. In fact, as I write this its 12:00PM Eastern Standard Time so I am technically violating both religious prohibitions: working on the second day of Passover (I am a Jew) and during the holiest hours for Christians 12-3PM (believed to be the hours Jesus hung on the cross). But this isn’t about religion, its about spirituality. It isn’t about the historical man named Jesus either.

It’s about Christ Consciousness.

This week I received a very informative e-mail about an Executive Order signed by President Obama allocating three billion dollars in humanitarian aid to Palestinians living in the United States who left Gaza as a result of the conflict there. The e-mail was calling attention to the fact that there was no provision in the Order to distinguish Hamas members or sympathizers now in the U.S. from receiving such aid. To say the least, the Order seemed disturbing, lacking in safeguards and economically irresponsible given our country’s current economic crisis. There was a link in the e-mail directly to the government’s Federal Register website where the Executive Order could be clearly and succinctly read.  I forwarded the e-mail on to many of my politically and socially aware friends.

Then belatedly and to my horror, I noticed what had been in the subject line of the original e-mail I had now forwarded on.  While the subject line mentioned the Executive Order, it further said it allocated aid to “rag-heads.”

I was frozen in my seat as I read the line. Twice.

The first thing I did was send a follow-up e-mail to all those who had been forwarded the original that said this:

I recently heard that more copies of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged have sold in the past few months than in the past few years combined. In case you’re unfamiliar with Rand’s philosophy or the story of Atlas Shrugged, both are predicated upon the escalating, and ultimately fatal, corruption of our society’s leaders in both business and government and the decision by some to withdraw from that society in order to begin a new one based upon integrity and individual productivity.

Sound familiar?

Of course, there are no accidents. The emerging interest in Rand’s work is a natural outgrowth of the frustration and helplessness felt by so many as we try and traverse these challenging and transforming times. Over the past decade we in this country have witnessed, permitted and at times condoned dishonesty, corruption ad greed. It was all a slippery slope we descended while turning a blind eye to the direction in which we were collectively headed. No, everyone was not complicit or guilty of what I just described. But even those of us who knew better were too silent, too complacent and for too long.

So here we are.  And while Rand’s solution in Atlas Shrugged is somewhat impractical (the protagonist, John Galt, who begins the dropping out and setting up of the new society actually does drop out and takes a whole lot of others with him) it does present a rather accurate picture of exactly what road we need to go down in order to rise above and beyond where we are and where we have been for some time now.

We aren’t going to be rescued by any one individual or by our collective private or governmental “leaders’ either. In fact, we’re not going to be “rescued” at all. This isn’t about rescue. Its about turning within and understanding, no…strike that…not understanding but rather knowing with certainty… that each one of us has a role to play in reshaping our world and the foundation for that new world, or paradigm, will be built from the bottom up, not the top down.

Consequently, you matter. Not only do you matter, you matter as never before. Every thought you have, word you speak and deed you partake of matters.  We got here by abdicating personal responsibility. We allowed others with apparent power to make vital decisions that spiraled our lives, and their own, out of control.  In order to un-torque that spiral and set it once again spinning in the right direction, it is necessary that each of us get our direction from within ourselves.

There is no one to go to for “expert” advice on this one. This one is on each of us, individually. And it will be different for each of us… which is why you can’t go anywhere outside yourself for guidance. No one knows better than you do what is best for your highest good and the good of all concerned. The key is trusting that you know the answer.  Actually, it’s trusting that you’re wired from within to be able to access a Source of guidance and wisdom that has only your highest good as its primary objective.

Just yesterday a friend told me that there was a TV show in the San Francisco area that had only good news. It only lasted a couple of weeks. I understand that. I had a talk radio show in Pennsylvania a few years back called “Higher Ground” that looked at the highest message in even the most negative news and it lasted less than a year. But here’s how I see it. It isn’t that we only want bad news or titillating news…. its that we’ve been raised on fear for thousands of years by those same people who we allowed to get us into this mess.  It’s the definition of the word “propinquity.” If you have a migraine for a few thousand years and wake up one morning without it, you’ll miss it.  Take away the fear we’ve been raised on and we’re not sure what takes its place.

The unknown can be pretty scary itself.  If you let it.  Or, you can keep accessing that place inside yourself that is connected to that Source that has as it’s primary objective your wellbeing.

I never give advice I haven’t lived. I know what is is to be scared, confused and hopeless. Been there. Done that.  So I can tell you, with certainty, that the way out is to surrender to that Source, that inner guidance… and follow your instincts. But I can only tell you this with my certainty. You’ll have to live your own.

John Galt really is here after all and will lead you successfully through whatever is coming. If you want to see him go look in the nearest mirror.

When I was in the 6th grade I memorized a poem by Rudyard Kipling called “If.” It’s been one of those inexplicable occurrences in life that decades later I can still remember every word and have often quoted it throughout my adult life. In case you’re unfamiliar with it here are the first few lines:

  “If you can keep you head when all about you,
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
    But make allowance for their doubting too,…”

May I suggest you take just a few seconds and read those opening lines again because they hold the secret for how to get through the uncertainty and apparent difficulties we are now experiencing personally, nationally and globally.

By now most of us have begun to realize that all of the “experts” don’t really know what’s going on either and, therefore, are unable to “fix” any of it. In fact, it seems the more they try the more enmeshed we find ourselves in, what feels like, quicksand…or at least flypaper.  The confident steed called “Change”  that so many Americans rode into the White House on has begun to look more like a newborn foal, stumbling around the grazing field on obviously shaky legs. 

Which is why Kipling’s “If” is prophetic and helpful.

Almost everywhere you turn, systems that have been in place for decades, centuries or even longer are no longer helpful in creating the ends they were designed to meet. And I’m talking systems that cross all disciplines: economic, political, even spiritual.  This systemic breaking down, or ineffectiveness, is generating a lot of fear. Individuals feel powerless to do anything about the magnitude of the apparent chaos.

So what is it that we can do as individuals? 

Go back and read Kipling again. Really. Read it for the third time. Go on, Just humor me.

The reason I want you to read it three times is to imprint it in your mind. It’s really brilliant.  It’s a road map for traversing this rocky road we find ourselves on because what you can do… what you must do… what you are designed to do..is start small and trust your inner guidance.

What exactly does this mean?

Forget the big picture. Yes. Forget it. Stop focusing on the economy, the country’s problems, the world’s problems. Start focusing on what is closest to home, immediate in your life, and tend to those people and issues based upon what your inner guidance tells you …whether or not it’s what you’ve always been taught is the way to handle life.  When it’s so obvious that no one seems to have the answers for how to travel this uncharted path, why would you listen to or follow anyone by giving them more credibility or more authority than you’d give to yourself and your own perceptions?

    “If you can keep your head when all about you,
     Are losing theirs and blaming it on you…”

During all of the current uncertainty and coming confusion stay grounded, inner-directed and heart-centered. There will be endless efforts to put the “blame” on various groups and individuals for all that appears to go awry and sometimes that target may even be you. Those are the times when it will be most important to “‘keep your head” and follow those three principles I just set down: staying grounded, inner directed and heart-centered.

Maintaining trust in your own capacity to make choices and create a life that is consistent with who you are and what you believe in will also be key. There will likely be more people than you care to think about who will want to tell you that your “way” is clearly wrong and theirs is right.  Allow for the possibility that theirs may be right for them while at the same time holding on with confidence in the decisions you make for yourself based upon your experiences and inner guidance.

We are entering an evolutionary phase wherein each individual will come to realize she or he has the capacity and inner-knowledge to not only handle life’s dilemmas but also to blaze new and exciting pathways in creating a truly unique existence. 

I love this story. A man named Henry dies and goes before God and God asks him how he lived his life. Henry replies ‘Well, I wasn’t as hospitable as Abraham and I wasn’t as brave as Moses and I wasn’t as loving as Jesus. Whereupon God replies: ‘I already had an Abraham, a Moses and a Jesus. Were you the best Henry you could have been?”

Every age of humankind’s development passes through some unique territory. We are passing through the Age of Personal Creation and Personal Responsibility. Creator has encoded each of us with the guidance and energy necessary to live lives that are bounded only by the limitations of our individual imaginations and capacity to love. That encoding has laid dormant for thousands of years but is now being activated.

With courage and the understanding that we are all personally responsible for both what we create as well as how we manage and respond to it, we can move into these times of apparent unrest and uncertainty with the exhilaration of explorers and adventurers embarking upon the only journey worth taking.

For a complete reading of Kipling’s poem, “If”, click here.

size=”2″ face=”Garamond”>
    As
the country and the world revel in this defining moment of our
collective history with the election of President Barack Obama, it is
wise to step back from the momentary celebration and take a realistic
look at the broader picture. Yes, our spirit as a nation has been
re-energized and uplifted. This was a state of both spirit and mind
that was long overdue. Let’s pray we’re able to sustain it.

    We’re going to need it to get us through the challenges that lay ahead.

 
  Just 48 hours into this Presidency, there are more than rumblings
about our economic future. As a contributor to Andersen Cooper’s AC360
blog, David Gergen,CNN Senior Political Analyst writes today
of the very vocal concerns within and among economists and politicians
over how to pull the nation through perhaps the most serious economic
downturn in history. And I’m certain great minds are pondering that
problem and it’s possible solutions as I write.

    But what
about you and me? What is our part in all of this and what can we do to
positively effect the outcome? I have one overriding suggestion.

    Keep in mind that there is only One of Us.

 
  Having spent most of my life feeling separate from other people,
imagine my joy to awaken in recent years to the realization that we are
all connected to each other in the most profound way. Not just as
members of a common species, community or nation, but as individualized
aspects of One Source. For when we trace our origins back to “the
Beginning,” whether through the pathway of science or religion, what we
often stop short of fully grasping is that both of these pathways lead
us to a single point beyond space and time…a single Source for All
That Is.

    The logical conclusion to be drawn from this
realization is that originating or emanating from a single Source makes
us, and everything else that has ever been or ever will be, an individualized aspect of that Source. This then makes it accurate to say with confidence and certainty that there is, ultimately, only One of Us.

    Awareness of this fact changes how you see and act in the world.

 
  If I have a home in which I safely live with sufficient food for
daily nourishment and someone I know, or know of, does not…and I do
nothing to try and aid their situation… I am consciously choosing to
allow myself to suffer. Remember, there is only One of Us. For
example, if I use my left hand to smack my right, am I not the cause of
my own suffering? Can I really tell myself that 1) I don’t know where
the pain is coming from and 2) that I don’t know how to stop it?  I am
either self-inflicting pain or permitting it to continue when and where
I have the power to stop it.

     If there is only One of Us,
and I believe that to be true, then it’s equally true that if I hurt
another or disregard another I am hurting or disregarding myself. And
if I fail to take steps to positively impact another’s suffering I am
allowing myself to needlessly suffer. The highest good for me,
therefore, becomes the Highest Good for you. Which is why the
contemporaries Jesus and Rabbi Hillel said “Do unto others as you would
have others do unto you” and “Do not do to another that which you would
not want done to yourself.” It turns out size=”4″ face=”Garamond”> I am not so much my brother’s keeper as I am my brother.

      So what’s all this got to do with a new President and an ailing economy, you ask?

 
    We’re all in this one together and the sooner we realize that
there’s only One of Us the sooner we can pull together to make sure no
one crawls out of this hole at the expense of someone else’s survival.
For when that happens, it simply sows the seeds of future devastation. 

 
     In order to break the pattern of thousands of years of selfishness
and greed based upon a mis-perception of separateness, it is our job now, yours and mine, to understand on the deepest levels that there is no you and there is no me. And when we are in that place together, there is only One of Us.

       And that’s exactly the meaning behind the Hindu salutation, Namaste.

REMEMBER, click here to download a FREE copy of my e-book, “Too Many Secrets.”

It’s been awhile since my last entry. As I begin to write I can only hope that you have been patiently awaiting my return. Actually, that’s the gist of this whole entry.

Patience.

As I look around and talk with people, it seems that there’s a pretty common feeling most people are experiencing. That feeling is one of frustration in not being able to make things happen as quickly as they would like. Whether it’s finding a new job or your life’s purpose or turning around the economy…things just seem to be moving much slower than we’d like them to be. So allow me to dispel the illusion. Far from moving slowly, we are actually living in a time when change is occurring at such a rapid rate that we can barely keep up.

So, what’s all this frustration born of the illusion that things are moving slowly…or not at all? Well, 3 points need to be made here.

1.  The Pace of Technology

We’ve become spoiled… and not in a good way.

Personal, social and spiritual progress simply don’t occur at the same “rate of speed” that we have come to perceive as “normal” based upon technological advance s made in the last 50 years. To quote Captain Kirk, technology proceeds at “warp speed” while all other development more likely resembles a process over time. Because we have become so dependent upon and enmeshed in our technological advances, we have become impatient with anyone and anything that moves at a slower rate of development. This, of course, is an impossible standard to match.

Contrary to technology, human behavior usually requires that we go through stages of understanding followed by determined efforts to modify existing patterns of behavior before we move beyond where we are. Again, this is a process that is time dependent. Even if you can expedite the modification piece by rapidly making changes in your behavior, there is almost no way around the time it takes to gain an understanding of how our existing patterns of behavior no longer serve our intended goal.

Simply put, a personal relationship doesn’t progress in the time it takes to text message and you can’t fix an failing economy as quickly as you can microwave a baked potato. But we have come to think we should be able to. And so our resulting impatience.

2.  The Collective Unconscious

Swiss psychiatrist and influential thinker Carl Jung wrote much about the power of humanity’s collective unconscious thoughts in shaping both behavior, and I would argue, reality as a whole. I think that somewhere in that collective unconscious is a memory, and therefore a true knowing, of our ability to actually instantaneously manifest into physical reality what we passionately desire.  To support my belief have emerged the thinking and systems that are now becoming widespread such as revelations like “The Secret” and the teachings of Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Louis Hay, and Greg Braden, to name a few. But these are just contemporary voices echoing timeless wisdom that has been imparted to us by way of both behavior and the written word throughout the ages by the teachings of Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Kabbalah, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, The Zohar, The Upanishads, and the The I Ching.  

This memory, or knowing, which is now rising from our unconscious into our conscious awareness is the driving force behind our collective impatience. If I know with certainty that I can change things now simply through my desire, will, thoughts and deeds then why wait?

As ancient and certain as is this knowing of instantaneous manifestation, so is the age and certainty of a corresponding teaching that says, “To everything there is a season; A time to every purpose under Heaven.” (Koheleth/Ecclesiastes 3:1).  We need only look to Nature to see the truth of that statement. And so it is the same with us for we are part of Nature. While we may think we know best the timing of certain occurrences, there is a Knowing that supersedes our limited perspective…at least for the time being.

I like to think of it this way.

When we are sleeping and in a deep dream state and someone or something awakens us suddenly without the ability to transition out of that deep dream state, the awakening is startling and disorienting. It often takes us a few seconds, or longer, to realize that we have left one reality and entered another.

So it is for us now.

It’s as if we have been in a collective, deep sleep and are just now awakening to a new reality. It will not serve us to awaken too quickly and find ourselves startled and disoriented. Rather it is necessary to awaken gradually in order to become accustomed to the new surroundings… the new paradigm…the new Reality.

Let us put the technology in perspective and look forward to instantaneous manifestation. But in the meantime, let us trust in Divine Timing born of a wisdom that both precedes us and sustains us. If we can do that we will eliminate impatience…the fundamental source of stress and frustration. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

And by the way, I would like to have written all of this sooner but I was being patient in allowing the message to fully form in my mind rather than forcing my Will, and something of lesser value, upon you. 

If the message resonates and is helpful…well, that’s Divine Timing.

REMEMBER to click here to download a FREE copy of my e-book, “Too Many Secrets.”