Archive for the ‘Values’ Category

>     There is a Blackberry “blackout” today, the cause of which is yet unknown. I’m not a Blackberry user but I have friends who are and their professional and personal lives are tied to it’s function and their reliance upon it. So I think it’s a good opportunity to examine our dependence upon the technology of the 21st century and contemplate life should tomorrow it disappear…or at least became non-functioning, for whatever reason.
    I’m neither a Doomesday nor an Armageddon proponent so I’m not attributing an onerous source or ill intent to the possibility. The “how” of it isn’t my concern. What is my concern is how far we’ve strayed from what it takes to live life in the “slower lane” and just how prepared we’d be to step up and meet that challenge.
    A place we can go to get an idea about what it would be like is one of the many geographic areas that have suffered a natural disaster that interrupted basic services as well as life in general. People who have lived through such experiences have some idea of what it requires and the toll it takes.
    What I find so fascinating about those experiences is the camaraderie and general “pulling together” that is so often exhibited under extraordinarily devastating circumstances. More often than not, something deep within the best of us is touched and moved to heightened levels of empathy and compassion. Somewhere within our Souls we see “the other” as ourselves and seek to render aid and relieve suffering. Out of these moments are born meaning and joy beyond reason.
    This drive towards Oneness, I am certain, is what is at the core of each of us. I am also certain that the pace of the technology has so overridden our natural rhythms that it has become increasingly difficult, in many cases impossible, to slow down long enough to notice discomfort in those we interact with each day, including those closest to us. It may take a disaster of monumental proportions to get our attention, to bring us present, sufficient to open to the needs of those around us. Sadly,  disaster comes in many forms. Yes, it can be the hurricane, the tornado, or the tsumani, but it can also be the cancer, the auto accident or the attempted suicide…although this need not be the case.
    We can awaken voluntarily of our own accord and become conscious around the rate of speed at which we travel and what we’re likely missing along the way. We can respond to little hints, as opposed to tragic acts, to re-focus and re-prioritize our lives in such ways that we become the masters of the technology and therefore the rate of speed, rather than slaves to both.
    I noticed some time ago that when my computer is booting up and loading, some of the technical language built into the hard drive actually uses the words “master” and “slave.” There are no accidents. The words are there and were built into the creation of the technology because like everything else in Life…we get to choose.
    In this case, the choice is whether we continue to be enslaved to our own creations or whether we have the inner strength and outer courage to reverse these roles and take back control of the quality of our lives.
    The Blackberry blackout of today is tomorrow’s technological tsunami. Let’s take the hint and pass on the disaster.

P.S.  Get my inspiring FREE e-book download “Too Many Secrets” at my website!

>     There’s a
fascinating “exercise” I once read about and it goes like this. Each
morning, upon awakening, picture an Angel walking in front of you
everywhere you go. Now picture that same Angel preceding your every
arrival by announcing these words: “Behold! The image and likeness of
God.” Imagine how you’d feel throughout your day, and imagine how that
would affect how you behaved. Pretty powerful stuff.
    Now, take it one step further.
    Picture everyone else in the world also having an Angel preceding them announcing their arrival, proclaiming the very same words.
    Now, we’re beyond powerful stuff. Now we’re talking Earth-changing.
    That’s the point.
    I was reminded of this “exercise” as I listened to, and read, this
morning’s news. As the economy slips towards recession and people are
generally concerned for the 2008 Presidential election and the
candidates capabilities to handle tough issues in a new and meaningful
way, these concerns pile atop the existing stressors with which each of
us is already trying to manage. As all these stressors reach critical
mass, I see the seeds of discontent beginning to spout around an “us”
vs. “them” mentality.
    Historically when times are difficult,
it has been easy for individuals and groups, with less than noble
intentions, to rally the masses against a common enemy, or target a
scapegoat, to distract us from the real challenges of the day. By
exaggerating differences as opposed to highlighting commonalities, the wedge of separation and the indifference it engenders, opens the door to a place where hateful speech and actions follow.
    Ever the optimist, this crossroad we now face also holds the
potential for a very different outcome. If, instead of falling into the
rut of worn out paths that have not served us well, we acknowledge and
honor our differences while simultaneously acknowledging in word and
deed that we are of One Source having One Intention, then it will be
possible to forge a new path where diversity becomes the capital we
exchange to enhance not only ourselves but also one another as well.
    What does “in the image of likeness of God” mean?  Well, I would
say that “in the image” is some reference to our biological and
physiological components. And while not meaning that literally, I do
mean that on some level, our physical composition and
functioning is an energetic semblance of the essential components of
Source. There is nothing we need do to be in the image of God. Our physical existence makes us so.
    However, to be “in the likeness of God” means to act in a way that also reflects how God “acts.” I
would suggest that the answer to that conundrum in evidenced in the
beauty, harmony and self-organizing principles we see manifested all
around us in Nature. There, exists clear evidence of a level of harmony
and cooperation that is for the highest good of all concerned. Not that
it is free of death, but that it is free of greed and
baseless aggression. There, diversity is the stuff the continued
existence of All is made of and, so, has it’s rightful place.     In
Nature, it is as if before every living creature, except humankind,
there goes an Angel proclaiming, “Behold the image and likeness of
God.”  From this, we can now learn a valuable lesson.
    Or not.
    We can be blindly led and ultimately consumed by the purveyors of
hate and division, or we can say “no” to that choice and instead say
“yes” to our own inherent divinity as well as the inherent divinity of
all others.
    Remember, at the beginning I said it was an
“exercise”…this walking with you Angel and seeing others in the same
light.  As such, it will take the practicing of that exercise to shift
our consciousness to the point where this becomes for us the natural
state of things. But losing 10 pounds or becoming proficient at tennis
or piano are also exercises that take practice.
    I don’t know about you but I certainly think having my own Angel is definitely worth the workout.

>     The now confirmed tragic and unintended overdose-caused death of actor Heath Ledger is an opportunity for us all to shine a bright light on the several issues his life, and death, present. On the surface, it’s about the proliferation and ease of obtaining both prescription and illegal drugs. However, just below the surface are lurking several deeper issues equally, if not more, in need of our attention.
    Yes, the drug issue is the most obvious. Ledger was in possession of a potentially fatal cocktail of legally prescribed sleeping pills, anti-anxiety meds and pain killers. The question first asked is “What physician, if in fact a single physician is involved, would have prescribed such a combination and allowed a patient in such “pain” (physical and/or emotional) to have unfettered access?”
    Yet the underlying issue around the prescribing of drugs is “Why are we as a culture so quick to medicate and suppress symptoms rather than treat root causes?” While I do not know if Ledger suffered any physical source of pain, it does appear from reports that he suffered from emotional pain and depression as witnessed by close friends. In this regard, he was no different than countless numbers of Americans who daily take drugs, legal and illegal, to mask their underlying problems.
    I have a good friend, a chiropractor, who has always said, “To heal you have to feel.” And it’s true. Whether it’s a broken leg or a broken heart…whether it’s Hyrodcodone for the broken leg or Prozac for the broken heart…at some point real healing cannot be accomplished by sedating or distracting the conscious mind from the painful reality of the growth process. As we experience pain, we learn from it. We learn what and how not to do as well as where and how not to go.
    I am reminded of Thomas Edison’s reply when asked how it felt to fail so many times before he succeeded at inventing the light bulb. “I never failed” he replied. “I discovered a thousand ways how not to make a light bulb.” Edison ultimately succeeded because he was willing to experience the pain of not succeeding. Edison learned by that pain how not to reach his goal, which gave him momentum and direction on how to reach it.
    We have become a nation unwilling to feel the pain. And so, in our desperation to hold true to that goal, we try and circumvent the natural process of how things evolve, and what evolution feels like, by trying to insulate and sedate ourselves. It’s a losing proposition. For it’s impossible to shut down one aspect of yourself without impacting all of the other aspects as well. We, like Heath Ledger, have moved into a quiet sleep from which it’s very easy to slip away.
    We are in denial about this pervasive problem. I was reading an ABC World News on-line article about Ledger’s autopsy findings and navigated over to the comments that people were posting. Almost all of them were raging against our denial of the magnitude of this problem and how children, in record numbers, are on drugs.
    Then there’s the fact that he was 28 with enormous success and a child out of wedlock with a woman he had met on the movie set of Brokeback Mountain, and, with whom he had recently split up. He was reported to be a doting father to their new daughter and yet a wild partier. So many issues here: The capacity to handle fame and fortune at age 28; bearing children out of wedlock; sex vs. love; the pressures to achieve money, fame, stardom, success, whatever.
    Such are the stuff of a national dialog that needs to commence and run deep. We need to get to the root causes of our weakest links and do something about strengthening them rather than anesthetizing them. Like Edison, we need to acknowledge out loud all the ways we have tried that have taught us how not to get to where we want to go so that together we can alter course.
    It’s too late for Heith Ledger, but not for the 1.5 million runaway children each year…or the 1 million high school age children who attempt suicides each year…or all the others of whatever age group who cannot seem to understand how we’ve created the world they inhabit…or who cannot seem to find an opening to a path leading to a better one.
    Death is only meaningless if we fail to find meaning in it. Heith Ledger has left us an opportunity that, if taken, can provide him a legacy far beyond any Oscar ever could have.
    Let’s give him that.

>     Remember the 1990’s when the stock market was soaring through the ceiling and everyone who had the chance to have been invested in it was making more money than they ever dreamed they could? Back then every news report led with the DOW and NASDAQ numbers. I remember it clearly because it drove me crazy that the world seemed to revolve around the money. I tired of it, and yet it was almost impossible not to be inundated with those rising numbers on an hourly basis.
    Now, we’re headed back there again. But this time it’s the falling numbers and the growing apprehension around an economy that appears to be headed into tricky, some even say disastrous, waters. The tension, fear if you will, is becoming palpable. Combine this with a Presidential election on the horizon and we’re smack in the middle of some serious uncertainty.
    What’s a person to do? There are a few guidelines.
    First, hold on, but not too tightly. The ride is likely to be a bumpy one with a fair share of tossing and turning…that’s why the admonition is to keep your grip steady but flexible. Holding on too tightly can get something you’d rather not, snapped. Changing times are an opportunity to exercise the skill of adaptability. Better to ebb and flow than hunker down. From a flexible position, you will be better positioned to make necessary adjustments as things unfold.
    Secondly, know your core. By that I mean know what your guiding principles are and where your bottom line is in regard to what you value and what you are willing to let go. By having a good, working knowledge of what is important to you in Life, you will be positioned to be both inner directed and flexible.
  Thirdly, change is chaotic by it’s very nature. So expect the unexpected. Let go now of ideas and ways of doing things that have previously worked for you, as they will likely no longer bring the same end result. Old ways applied to new patterns will hardly create harmony. What will be required is an open mind and willingness to not react to the chaos, but rather to creatively approach situations with an expansive eye toward possible solutions…for there will be many.
     Finally, as the chaos intensifies, resist the urge to look to others for “answers.” Instead, go within and source your own inner guidance, trusting your own instincts to see you through.
     The economic news is a symptom, not a root cause. And when symptoms appear, there is always the choice between acquiescing to the potential “bad news” before it’s confirmed that it even exists (thereby guaranteeing that it will come)…or refocusing one’s efforts on identifying the most prudent and expeditious course to wellness.
     Let’s treat the economic indicators as symptoms that the underlying organism is out of balance and realign our priorities and our goals to bring It back to Center.
    This isn’t the end of anything other than worn out ways of living Life that need to be updated.
    We are living through Source’s correction. The DOW is just a symptom.

>     There’s a buzzword on the campaign trail for 2008 and it’s “change.” It started with Senator Barack Obama and has now spread to almost every candidate, regardless of party affiliation. When I first wrote about   Senator Obama back in the Fall of 2007, I made the observation that while I wasn’t sure he was “the man” he was certainly carrying “the message.” The message has taken off to the point where the word “change” itself has become the object of political punditry. So let’s be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.
     There is a very real reason that Senator Obama’s appeal caught on so quickly and, some might say, surprisingly. It is because he uses language in a way, and espouses a specific message, that speaks to what so many of us are feeling within ourselves as well as experiencing in our daily lives. The message is that old systems and methods of conducting business as usual…be they personal or professional…simply aren’t working. The feeling is endemic and it is real. Old ways of “doing” are not, in fact, working because something has shifted.
    That something is an awakening, across the planet, by people who are experiencing their own inherent, creative power to manifest a reality other than the one they have been previously presented. When power shifts, it must necessarily go from one place to another. Remember, energy is neither created nor destroyed, simply redistributed. So, the shift that we are living through, the Paradigm Shift if you will, is a redistribution of power (the energy) from the few to the many. 
    While historically it has been the habit and custom to search outside ourselves for guidance and answers to Life’s big questions, to look for gurus and groups to show us the way, we are now both realizing and experiencing the blossoming of the seeds of personal power that have been germinating within our consciousness since the first act of Creation.
    The change we are now evolving through is both monumental and long awaited. It is important that we give it the recognition and depth of attention it warrants. And while the political process is reflective of this change, it is not the root but merely a symptom.
    It will take more than superficial references to change to transit this shift. It will take focus, attention, intention, and an unquestioned knowing that each of us is directly responsible for the choices we make. Whether that choice is the lever we pull in the voting booth or what we think about and say to the stranger in our midst…we are each empowered with the potential to create or destroy.
    There is a teaching in mystical Judaism that says that when the Messiah comes there will be a new circumcision… and it will be a circumcision of the heart. That the spiritual barrier that surrounds our hearts and causes us to see one another as separate will be removed, allowing us to know Oneness, finally.
    Change is at hand. Let us keep our eyes and ears on it and not be sidetracked by marketing attempts to water down it’s magnitude or it’s potential. Change is as hand, surely.
    Know that YOU ARE THAT CHANGE.
  

>     I begin this entry thinking that it will be short. I am tired. Woke up that way this morning. In fact, didn’t think there would be an entry at all. But as the day moves on, and I sluggishly with it, it seems that fatigue and rest are subjects with as much merit as Presidential candidates or fluctuating economies. So, I am writing on commitment, responsibility, and guilt. All subject matter that directly tie in to why as tired as I am, I’m still writing.
    We are not taught to believe that some days it’s quite all right, even perfect, to NOT do what it is we do every day. Some days seem to hit us in the face the moment we open our eyes. You know the feeling. It’s like a knot in your solar plexus combined with a heaviness in your heart. Even routine morning tasks appear to be an uphill climb. Now, I’m not talking about depression or some mental or emotional deficiency that needs attention. I’m simply talking about honoring our internal message system.
    This morning mine was a blinking sign flashing “Gridlock. Proceed With Caution.”
    I’ve become pretty adept at hearing and following my internal guidance. I’ve come to trust It and know It guides me in the right direction. But even those of us who hear the inner call can stumble. And so I proceeded out into the world today to attend to what it was I had intended to tend to…and I’ve gotten some of it accomplished.
    Although not very well.
    You see, when we ignore our inner guidance we are really asserting what I would call the “will of ego” over Thy Will. Thy Will is the knowing of our Authentic Self that is directly connected to All That Is. Thy Will (which is My Highest Will) has my growth and creative expression as it’s highest intention. So when I choose to ignore it’s direction, I am more likely than not bucking traffic. Which is why setting out today with business as usual felt like gridlock. Or spinning my wheels. Or any other auto analogy one can come up with. You get the point.
    I write to the blog Monday through Friday. It’s Friday. So, I needed to write to the blog. That’s my commitment. Not having done that gave me feelings of guilt that I was not being responsible. Now, honestly, I know better than to get trapped by useless feelings of guilt. And yet, it was the guilt that propelled me to here and now so maybe it’s not so useless after all.
    I’d like to believe that this stream of consciousness blog entry will be of value to someone, somewhere. That would certainly be worth the exhaustion I’m feeling as I wrap this up. I am headed for a nap because I’m running out of what it takes not to.
    Those of you who are regular readers know I like to end with a punch and give you a “take away” as you go. So here it is.
    If you’re tired, rest. Life waits. Really.

>     The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a three page article on a local high school student who in an attempted suicide, jumped 9 stories from the bedroom window of his family’s apartment and survived the fall. With potentially fatal injuries, he endured 89 days of critical care hospitalization and has recently been moved to a rehabilitation facility. Miraculously he is on the mend. He will live, although the long-term effects of his injuries may not be known for some time.
    As a survivor of attempted suicide at age 23, I have written about the topic in prior blog entries, most recently in the entry “Appointment in Life” about my presentation on the topic to 500 high school sophomores in New Jersey. What shocked me in reading the Inquirer article was the statistic that 1 million high school age children attempt suicide each year. It is the third leading cause of death among young people between the ages 10 to 24.
    Thirty years ago a psychologist and friend, Linda Marcoccia, observed that historically, no society that “abandoned” its children has ever survived. At the time, she was remarking on the astounding number of runaway children in this country. Now that number is matched by those trying to kill themselves.
    Something is terribly wrong.
    I think the children are like the “canary in the mine” analogy. We should look at the runaways and the attempted suicides as an “early warning system” that an environment insufficient to maintain Life is unfolding.
    What has gone wrong and what do we do about it?
    I can only speak to the present day culture of the United States since that is where, and within which, I live (and am raising a teenage daughter, by the way). There are, no doubt, apparent factors gone awry both within the nuclear family and within the society-at-large.
    On the home front, too many parents have abdicated their responsibility to acculturate and educate their children to unsupervised technological creations. It started with television, the technology of choice during the latter half of the 20th century. And while television had its programming pluses and minuses back then, the minuses pale in comparison with the programming of today. To this, add PC’s, cell phones, text messaging, ipods, iphones, and whatever “advances” are on the horizon and you have the basic ingredients for the requisite alienation that is the underpinning of depression and suicide.
    I’m not saying this is the cause. Or even the root cause. After all, I tried to commit suicide during the relatively less technological period of the 1970’s. What I am saying is that as you multiply and compound the factors that create separation and alienation, you also increase the likelihood that more and more people will be unable to cope. At some point, our humanity is subsumed and obscured by the demands, and particularly the pace, of technology. 
    In the broader view, our values have been askew for sometime now. We have as a nation forsaken, if we ever fully valued at all, the stories, examples and extraordinary accomplishments of creative individuals and advanced societies that exemplified the best of what humankind is capable of creating. We teach the advanced sciences and encourage brutal levels of competition at the expense of history, culture, values, ethics, inspiration, kindness, charity, and love.
    The effects of our misguided aspirations can be seen in the 2.5 million runaways and attempted suicides annually.
    Children start out in life unencumbered and unrestrained by social constraints. As the grow, however, they take on more and more of the values and goals of their family and society-at-large. I think what the children are trying to tell us is that the quality of life we are modeling for them holds no attraction. What they are experiencing and feeling is too far removed from what the heart and Soul aspire to.
    They simply don’t see the point in staying.
    I have always been a firm believer that when the student cannot understand the teaching, it’s the teacher’s failure to communicate and inspire, not the student’s failure to learn.
    So, too, in Life.
    If the children are, in fact, our “canaries”…then they are signaling that we are failing at modeling by example a life worth living.
    Starting today, take every opportunity you have to replace expediency with genuineness, winning with allowing, and acquisition with simplicity.
    And know that as you make these changes, the children are watching.
    
    
    
    

>     I am in the habit of briefly tuning in to some talk radio shows each morning just to get the drift of each day’s stories before I write my blog. This morning, Glenn Beck was doing a commercial at the end of one of the segments. It was for a product that let’s you access the files on your PC from any computer no matter where you are. As part of the sales pitch, he said that he no longer believes in a “balanced” life but now believes in an “integrated” one. In support of his new perspective, he gave the example of how he now does his “homework” along side his children while they are doing theirs and he “learns more about what’s going on” in their lives this way than in prior deliberate attempts to converse with them.
    No offense, Glenn, but any mother who has ever driven her child to or from anywhere as part of her job description, or stayed home with a child who wasn’t feeing well and read a story or played a game to pass the time, knows that you learn more about your child in those unscripted moments than in all your deliberate efforts combined.
    Now I understand that Glenn is a Dad and not a Mom so (sexism aside) it may have taken him a decade or two (and a child or four) longer to figure this out. Plus, he’s got a pretty demanding career. But the fact that this was some sort of revelation for him made me think that perhaps it’s worth elaborating upon.
    When people bemoan “the good old days” it’s often a longing for a time recalled only for it’s high points and little else. For in reality, there is no “good old day” that was exempt from all the fundamental challenges of Life. However, one legitimate yearning for what was may be for a time when things were slower paced, and therefore, created more “space” between obligations that allowed us as people, and particularly as parents, to just “hang out” with one another. It’s in “hanging out” that we discover the little things about others that are not always readily apparent…and certainly not knowable “on the run.”
    The pace of the technology has created many “overlays” between aspects of our lives better kept separate. This makes it imperative that we re-prioritize our obligations based upon our inner-most intentions in order to bring enhanced meaning to relationships…personal and professional.
    One caution about Mr. Beck’s concept of an integrated life as opposed to a balanced one. It’s possible to be integrated and out of balance at the same time. These are not mutually exclusive concepts. You can find a way to bring diverse aspects of your life into new relationship to one another and still have a disproportionate amount of time and energy going to some parts as opposed to others.
    And by the way, it’s also possible to integrate the various aspects of your life in form only without being fully conscious and aware of their substance or, for that matter, what your responsibility is in relationship to it all.
    I do offer congratulations to Mr. Beck for his awakening around this subject. I would only suggest that he, as should we all, seek to create paced, balanced and integrated lives that manifest the best of what we are capable of as Beings Human.

         >There’s a great scene in the movie “Jerry Maguire” where Tom Cruise,having been fired from his corporate job as a Sport’s Agent, scrambles to retain the one client, a recent college graduate all star, who could make Cruise a success all on his own. After meeting with the young man and his father and getting their agreement to exclusively sign with him, Cruise heads off to catch his flight back home. Exhilarated by the coup, Cruise is seen driving his rental car while station-surfing the car radio to find music that resonates with his mood. When he finally finds the song, it’s “Free Fallin” by Tom Petty. Both the lyrics and the music seem to capture the precipice that Cruise is walking between the “valley of death” and “heaven on earth.”
    I should be humming that same song today following another in the series of Democratic debates last night on television and this morning’s economic news of a DOW and NASDAQ in free fall. You see, we are traversing a precipice of our own and it has to do with Consciousness.  
    Let’s liken Tom Cruise’s firing to the huge drop in global markets over the last 24 (and perhaps coming 24) hours. What was the given is suddenly no longer true or reliable.  A sudden and, on the surface at least, devastating occurrence takes place. At such moments, one is suddenly confronted with two options: succumb to the apparent devastation with panic, fear and immobility or seize the moment to source oneself for calm, meaning and appropriate action.
    Now let’s liken Cruise’s decision to go out on his own and seize the opportunity to create a reality that exceeded even his own prior expectations of himself to what Clinton, Obama and Edwards did last night in the 2nd hour of their debate. In that hour, there were no time constraints on the candidates for their answers. In fact, there were no rules. They went from standing at podiums and answering pre-determined, moderator-imposed questions in the first hour to sitting down in three chairs and having a “conversation” among themselves in the 2nd. It was glorious. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.
    We, the People, were able to see them more relaxed, more unscripted, and more like what they might be like in talking with heads of state where policy concerns differ. It was previously unavailable insight into all three of them, for those of us who looked, although my point here is not about those insights or who they are. Kudos for whoever had the courage to put forth that format! We, the People are not interested in the show any longer. We want the Truth of the matter…and if you have the courage to present it to us we are awakened and courageous enough ourselves to see and hear it.
    My point is that humankind is walking a precipice between the old and the new, between what has always been and what is now possible in real time, between being pushed by fear or led by hope. We are Jerry Maguire. We’re in that car, taking that chance, and station-surfing for the music to express our heart-songs
    “Free Fallin” works for us as well.
    Ignore the economic news. It’s just an opportunity to move past the external, fear-based reality construct that has been in place for thousands of years and move towards sourcing inner guidance that propels you towards your highest good and the good of all concerned.
    Times of uncertainty create lots of unknowns which generate many questions. It is neither those questions nor their answers that matter. What matters is knowing with certainty that the Source of All questions and their answers Is within you…for you alone to discover.
    Walk this precipice with your eyes and heart wide open and discover a landscape rich and beautiful beyond your wildest imaginings.
    It just might turn out to be heaven on earth.

>     There isn’t any subject that does not have an expert these days. It used to be that having an advanced degree in some field, or many years of employment at a specific job gave a person the apparent authority (right or wrong) to speak on a topic. Now, even those requirements seem to have vanished as everyone and anyone who can type (and find a publisher or self-publish) is an authority…or at least has the answers to whatever physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually ails you.
    And for a small fee, perhaps the price of the book, you too can know the “secret.”
    Well, here’s my secret. There are no secrets.  No one is a better authority on your life than you are. And no one is a better arbiter of what matters in life than you are. The challenge we all face, and try to avoid, is the necessary inner journey to where those answers lie. And the reason we try to avoid the journey is because it’s solo and it’s hard.
    No way around that one.
    I mean, you can try and pass it off to someone else by seeking their counsel, or opinion, or advice but all you’ll have to show for it is their view of the world and their view overlaid upon your unique landscape. None of us is born with more or less access to Truth. The question isn’t how much can we amass as a testimony to our accomplishments but rather how far inward can we traverse and how close can we get to that place of silence from where all knowing emanates?
    “Knowing” is an interesting word. We tend to take it to mean some intellectual awareness or clarity around information or data. But true knowing is as in “and Adam knew Eve.” It doesn’t mean he understood her, or that he had sexual relations with her…it means he was One with her in spirit and, as One, had an innate knowing of all there was to know. This is our birthright…to know all there is to know about Our Selves and The Source of All Selves.
    Birthright doesn’t necessarily mean cakewalk. Our pain originates from our sense of separation. But without a deep sense of separation, it would be almost impossible to know and appreciate Oneness. For it is in the awakening from separation, and the transcendence of it, that we are finally able to experience the fullness and wonder of knowing All That Is.
    So, the next time you’re inclined to buy that book, CD, DVD, or enroll in that course…remember that neither Moses nor Jesus nor Buddha nor Lao Tzu ever charged a fee although they did spend a lot of time and energy on the journey within.