They say there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Well keep looking folks.
Ever notice that the rainbow's end keeps moving just ahead of you?
That's the best clue to what life is all about when it comes to chasing rainbows: It's the JOURNEY not the destination! A winner finds ways to enjoy the journey.
The LC blog is about the journey and some of the ins and outs along the way. I hope you will find all the colors and shades of possibility along your path and that you will share on this blog what realities you have enjoyed.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Friends
I receive a fair amount of emails each day, mostly from close friends or relatives. Like most of us, I find some of the forwarded materials more interesting than others. Some days I feel like I am almost on “automatic” as I open, read and then delete or forward the items.
Today I received an email from a long-time friend with whom I reconnected a little over a year ago. This person was responding to an email on friendship that I had received and forwarded. As I responded I began to realize something about friendships that struck me in a slightly different way than it had before. I found myself trying to look into those relationships to find common denominators. In the past I might simply have chalked it up to "past life" connections (probably true, too), but I feel there is a more meaningful pattern--somewhat like a patchwork quilt with its many brilliant colors and designs all of which need the others to become what they are! Somehow, while some of these folks are geographically close and others far away, spiritually (and I don't mean the snooty, quasi "religious" type) the closeness has much more meaning. It also brings out a longing to be able to enjoy those friends more often and more closely.
Many years ago as I began preparations for the ministry, one of my instructors continually brought home the point that a minister should not carry friendships or connections established in one ministry on to the next ministry served. I was very young at the time without enough worldly experiences to measure against the statement and come to a moderate understanding of how to do that. As a result as I changed ministries I made it a point to sever almost all connections, including most friendships, with the ministry I was leaving. Fortunately, there were certain folks who would not let that happen. They made a point of seeking to maintain connections, to continue a friendship that meant something to them.
In the years that followed I have gone through many “transplants.” Unfortunately, that first teaching had made such an impression upon me that I found myself always starting over in new places without the benefit of the energy gained in the preceding relationships. Certainly, I had some connections that carried over, often due to the persistence of my friends more than my own.
The friend with whom these emails were exchanged popped up about the same time I was looking back over my experiences and trying to reconnect with those who had made the effort to be a part of my life in one way or another. I found some of these connections excited to again be in touch. Some, naturally, had moved on in their own lives.
The point I realized was that no one is in my life by accident. Even if I do not know why a particular person is in my life today or why another has moved on or I have moved on, there is a connection that has meaning. In the example of the patchwork quilt, all the pieces may begin in the jumble of a bag of scraps, some closer together than others. As the quilt-maker chooses each piece and carefully builds the patterns some pieces become more closely connected and some are in far corners and “apparently” disconnected. However, as one stands back a distance the perspective changes and it is clear that all are still connected and necessary to make the quilt whole and beautiful and useful.
Today I received an email from a long-time friend with whom I reconnected a little over a year ago. This person was responding to an email on friendship that I had received and forwarded. As I responded I began to realize something about friendships that struck me in a slightly different way than it had before. I found myself trying to look into those relationships to find common denominators. In the past I might simply have chalked it up to "past life" connections (probably true, too), but I feel there is a more meaningful pattern--somewhat like a patchwork quilt with its many brilliant colors and designs all of which need the others to become what they are! Somehow, while some of these folks are geographically close and others far away, spiritually (and I don't mean the snooty, quasi "religious" type) the closeness has much more meaning. It also brings out a longing to be able to enjoy those friends more often and more closely.
Many years ago as I began preparations for the ministry, one of my instructors continually brought home the point that a minister should not carry friendships or connections established in one ministry on to the next ministry served. I was very young at the time without enough worldly experiences to measure against the statement and come to a moderate understanding of how to do that. As a result as I changed ministries I made it a point to sever almost all connections, including most friendships, with the ministry I was leaving. Fortunately, there were certain folks who would not let that happen. They made a point of seeking to maintain connections, to continue a friendship that meant something to them.
In the years that followed I have gone through many “transplants.” Unfortunately, that first teaching had made such an impression upon me that I found myself always starting over in new places without the benefit of the energy gained in the preceding relationships. Certainly, I had some connections that carried over, often due to the persistence of my friends more than my own.
The friend with whom these emails were exchanged popped up about the same time I was looking back over my experiences and trying to reconnect with those who had made the effort to be a part of my life in one way or another. I found some of these connections excited to again be in touch. Some, naturally, had moved on in their own lives.
The point I realized was that no one is in my life by accident. Even if I do not know why a particular person is in my life today or why another has moved on or I have moved on, there is a connection that has meaning. In the example of the patchwork quilt, all the pieces may begin in the jumble of a bag of scraps, some closer together than others. As the quilt-maker chooses each piece and carefully builds the patterns some pieces become more closely connected and some are in far corners and “apparently” disconnected. However, as one stands back a distance the perspective changes and it is clear that all are still connected and necessary to make the quilt whole and beautiful and useful.
Ah, Memories
Here is another response to an email I received from a friend about the “old days.”
Ah, yes! Are we not tempted to think the "old days" were the better days? Every generation has felt this way and none of us really would want to go back, would we?
That being said, I also long for some of the "niceties" and "manners" and simple joys that were so important as I was growing up. I will always be grateful to my mom and sister for teaching me manners and how to be a gentleman even if I was not always good at using them.
Having simple blocks of wood from which I made many of my own toys stirred my imagination beyond what kids now experience in their need for instant gratification--Make my own toys! Are you crazy?
Looking back to the "feel good" times does bring warmth to the body and soul. But, I am glad I don't still have to use the old outhouse that seemed like it was a block away from the house, especially on the cold winter nights!
Ah, memories! Then there was the time that I somehow managed to sneak a cigarette and as I came home after dark I pulled a fresh green onion from the garden to eat before entering the house so my folks would never guess I had just had a smoke!
Thrashing through the woods playing hide and seek with my friend at age nine and falling into a no longer used, but still full, cesspool. If I hadn't stretched out my arms in time, I might have gone head under! No more of those times, thank you very much!
Well, my friend, these are some of the true stories of a wonderful childhood that I look back upon fondly, savoring every bit of the joy (from afar) along with many other memories upon which to reflect.
Ah, yes! Are we not tempted to think the "old days" were the better days? Every generation has felt this way and none of us really would want to go back, would we?
That being said, I also long for some of the "niceties" and "manners" and simple joys that were so important as I was growing up. I will always be grateful to my mom and sister for teaching me manners and how to be a gentleman even if I was not always good at using them.
Having simple blocks of wood from which I made many of my own toys stirred my imagination beyond what kids now experience in their need for instant gratification--Make my own toys! Are you crazy?
Looking back to the "feel good" times does bring warmth to the body and soul. But, I am glad I don't still have to use the old outhouse that seemed like it was a block away from the house, especially on the cold winter nights!
Ah, memories! Then there was the time that I somehow managed to sneak a cigarette and as I came home after dark I pulled a fresh green onion from the garden to eat before entering the house so my folks would never guess I had just had a smoke!
Thrashing through the woods playing hide and seek with my friend at age nine and falling into a no longer used, but still full, cesspool. If I hadn't stretched out my arms in time, I might have gone head under! No more of those times, thank you very much!
Well, my friend, these are some of the true stories of a wonderful childhood that I look back upon fondly, savoring every bit of the joy (from afar) along with many other memories upon which to reflect.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Three Rules for Communication
As we begin another New Year you may want to consider the following thoughts as a basis for improved self-awareness and self worth particularly as it relates to your communications with others. There are three rules one must follow when attempting to communicate with another.
1) Keep your mouth shut.
2) Keep your mouth shut.
3) And finally the most important: Don’t say anything!
Of course it is obvious that this is no way to communicate. However, haven’t you felt that way at times? Haven’t you been made to feel that nothing you have said or could say could possibly be right, so you decide to just shut up! When it seems that our efforts to talk with others is confronted constantly with being told your facts are wrong, or that you are exaggerating the situation, or that you are just simply out of touch, we may begin to feel inadequate or inferior to others. You may also be tempted to tell yourself, “Don’t open your mouth!” “Don’t say a word!” “Don’t get involved in this conversation!” You become so afraid of being told you are wrong that it is just safer to say nothing.
If you have felt this way, or if you do right now, it is time to take a stand on behalf of yourself, to regain a sense of confidence in your intelligence. We all get the facts wrong sometimes. That does not make us a “wrong” person or a bad person. Sometimes it may be important to refrain from interacting with others temporarily. It isn’t always our place to speak out. Again, that does not make us “bad” persons.
Remember the old saw: Put your mind in gear before you put your mouth in motion? Here are three steps you can take to restore your positive sense of self.
First, open your mind. There is infinite wisdom available to you. Affirm that you are open and receptive to Divine Wisdom at all times. Second, select your gear. Arrange your thoughts in order and refresh them against your memory. Third, speak confidently. As you let the wisdom within find its way into your words you will regain your confidence and sense of authority.
Finally, remember also that communication is a two-way street. Both sides of the conversation have something to share and something to receive. Be open to the gift you are giving and to the gift you are receiving. Remember too, the old (Danish) proverb “speech is silver, but silence is golden.” We often learn more by listening than by talking.
2012--The End Is Near (Again)!
What is it about human nature that it seems to need to set itself up for cataclysmic change every so often? For as long as I can remember, and certainly long before that, there have been the dire predictions of the end of the world! Even today there is a group of folks huddled in a cave in Southeast Russia waiting for the end to come. They think it will be as early as May 2008. "Father" Pyotr Kuznetsov, founder of the "True Russian Orthodox Church" sect is the group leader who with 29 mainly female followers including a child as young as 16 months old is defending their cave from all who attempt to coax them out.
The Heaven's Gate, another “end times” cult, ended on March 23, 1997, with the suicide deaths of 39 members. The group believed the return of the comet Hale-Bopp would whisk them away before the immanent destruction of the Earth.
There was the Jonestown massacre of 900 people on November 18, 1978. And back in the 1940’s another set believers sold their belongings and moved to Colorado to wait for the “Rapture.” If you do a little Googling on the Internet you will find enough to keep you busy reading for a million years, and that should see you through the final destruction as a “well-read” end-timer! When I Googled “2012” there were over 2,210,000 entries, and that does not include all of the sub-directory topics one could explore. I have listed at the end of this article several sites you might find time to read on the subject.
Science-fiction enthusiasts may be well ahead of the rest of us when it comes to understanding the nature of our creation. Personally, I find the bias of science locked into physical laws of matter ultimately incapable of answering the greater questions of Reality. I admit, however, with the rise in the understanding of quantum mechanics science is quickly approaching what the “fiction” side has known for a long time.
Then, there is the side of religious conviction. This, frankly, is where most of the confusion about the nature of creation and humankind rests. It is out of religious dogma that much of the end time prophecy emanates starting for Christians, perhaps, with the Book of Revelation, but existing even in Old Testament writings. What so-called Christians have done based on this book is separate the “sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:32) and the saints from the sinners and create a chasm between believers and non-believers responsible for tragic “holy wars” throughout modern history. This action has set up in human consciousness the inevitability of a “final” conflict for humanity.
The year 2012 now seems to be the focal point for the next big change. The planetary ascension occurring then is seen by many sources of wisdom as the entry into the Golden Age. Since the Mayan Calendar ends in 2012, many take that as proof the world will end at that time, more specifically, December 21, 2012, the Winter Solstice.
Hermes Trismegistus, alleged teacher the magical system known as Hermetism, is quoted as acknowledging, “I think that by 2012 you will have people that are enlightened (open, honest, caring, loving, united to the divine) and those that still seek humanity’s lower natures (suffering, misery, hate, separation from the divine) but at least the scale may be tipping more toward enlightened."
Today we are told that destruction awaits our planet due to climate change if we do not immediately take steps to reverse the actions polluting our air, water and earth. In some reports we are given only ten years during which we must make extreme changes in our human activity if we are to avoid reaching the “turning point” after which it may be impossible to do anything that will solve the problem of our melting ice caps.
Whenever this subject of climate change or earth change comes up for me I immediately think of the little book by Walter Starcke, “The Gospel of Relativity.” Written in 1973 it allegorically poses what happens as the great oceans die and how the collective of all nations tried to overcome the challenge. While they failed, the book goes on to examine the attitudes and actions we humans take in regard to our environment as well as how connected or disconnected we feel from the concept of the oneness of all life. I urge you to find this book and read it.
So, then, what is this all about? For me it is about consciousness—all levels of consciousness—from human consciousness focused in our material world of the five senses, the sub-conscious (our personal understanding and memory of experience), and the super-conscious, what Jung referred to as the collective unconscious. I have spoken and written a great deal about how we build our consciousness thought-by-thought, belief-by-belief and action-by-action. What we build into our awareness is a belief system, which then guides our actions. The net result is that our combined actions produce the world in which we live and the possibilities we will consider attainable or unattainable.
As I prepared to write this article I became less and less inclined to finish it. Almost every day I see or hear references to the “end times” in one form or another. It seems everyone is talking about it but few are seriously considering doing anything. I admit to finding it almost impossible to believe that our big business culture really doesn’t care that their own children and grandchildren may not have a planet on which to live if business practices and political policies do not change. I can somewhat understand the concept of greed, but what I cannot understand is that there are human beings who do not care enough about the planet upon which they live to do the things that must be done for there to be a future for humankind. Perhaps it is a sense of hopelessness, the feeling that since nothing can be done, I might just as well get what I can out of life before it all ends.
I think it may be this sense of hopelessness combined with a political system gone amuck and special interests looking out only for their paying constituencies that tempts me to give up hope as well. I HAVE NOT given up HOPE however. The reason I have not given up and thus the reason for writing this article is that I believe in the indestructibility of the human/God Spirit. I believe that no matter how bad things get I cannot be destroyed. My so-called life is not the Reality. It is simply the place where I am working to understand and grow into my true Reality. This earth is a valuable environment and I love it for the beauty and sustenance it offers my soul, but it is not my HOME. I have come here to explore, to grow and to conquer the challenges set before me. I have been given the tools with which to accomplish this goal and it is up to me to use them to the best of my ability. These tools include, but are not limited to, my ability to love, forgive and serve; to have faith and imagination; to explore wisdom and understanding; to have vision and a belief in the goodness of others.
It is only because I believe in my True Spiritual Nature that I continue to do whatever I can in this life to make it the richest, happiest and most meaningful experience possible. This is not always easy, but I believe that as I express my faith in action I will survive and free myself from the illusion of the limitations of this physical reality. The “end times” for me, then, are simply the point at which I arrive when my work here is finished and I move on to whatever is next in the limitless expanse of God. If I do not reach that personal point of knowing the fullness of Spirit before this planet becomes inhospitable, there will be other dimensions of possibility where I can and will continue my work.
Finally, my interest in this subject of “end times” really has to do only with recognizing that humankind has constantly been given countless cues as to the opportunities that exist for us to bring about a personal spiritual transformation in real terms. We are more than simply human beings. We are spiritual beings. Until we realize this Truth and live that path we will be faced with the “end times” challenge to get our act together.
You may find some of these references of interest for further reading. Cut and paste the URL into your Explorer address bar.
http://www.experiencefestival.com/2012
www.dnaperfection.com
Has to do with Indigo Children
http://www.whatismetaphysics.com/year2012.html
The Year 2012 by Adrian Cooper
http://sculptors.com/~salsbury/Articles/singularity.html
Novelty Theory and the Singularity of Dec. 21, 2012
http://www.crawford2000.co.uk/maya.htm
THE MAYAN CALENDAR END-DATE
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3172161.ece
Defiant Russian cult holed up in cave for end of the world
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