Some days, It feels just plain stupid to meditate to BE a flower when the world seems to be falling down all around us. You wonder, is all this spiritual work, is it making any difference in the world. So many of us have been cultivating positive qualities in ourselves - like kindness, unconditional love, and non-judgment. Suddenly, our world is shaken, when one misguided soul with a gun blows a hole in everyone’s faith in the goodness of humankind. Why do I do good work? Why am I generous, selfless, and kind, if my behavior doesn’t have the power to change humanity? Isn’t God supposed to put a stop to this nonsense already? Have my prayers done anything? God are you listening?
I am surprised to hear an immediate answer from God: Yes, my child, I’m listening. You people are not puppets on a string, and I am not a puppet master pulling your strings. If that were true, you would never make a mistake. You on the earth plane have free will and can do whatever you would like. If wrong actions are chosen, consequences are experienced. You ideally learn from your mistakes, and make adjustments in your behavior. It’s up to humankind to provide the guidelines for young people on leading a good and positive life. We’ve all heard the phrase: “It takes a whole village to raise a child."
I answer yes, but sometimes we have done everything right. Our child was brought up with a solid community of loving organizations, with the right code of ethics and morals, and the child goes astray anyway.
God Answers: The child can go astray, and “miss the mark.” Like in bowling, if the bowling ball is thrown incorrectly, it lands in the gutter where it won’t hurt anyone. Putting guns into the hands of people who have gone astray allows them, in the midst of their insanity, to hurt others at a time when they should instead be put in a straight-jacket. Freedom is earned, privileges are earned. There should always be a gutter, a failsafe, where the mistakes can gently land and not hurt anyone. When you put an AK47 into the hands of a person who has gone astray, there is no longer any gutter. The misguided ones are suddenly allowed to make life or death decisions that our society only entrusts to our most highly trained and trusted doctors, and most powerful leaders. An 18 year old mixed up kid, does not get to make decisions about who lives or dies. It’s as simple as that. (Unity concept)
Back to my conversation with God later...
When does this kind of thing stop? WE all want to know.
Does anyone remember the Great Harmonic Convergence of 1987? Connie Lull wrote about it in her astrology piece for the ISD newsletter this week. If you were following new age teachings at the time, (which I was NOT!) humanity was given a choice, to either improve our destructive ways and evolve into a kinder peaceful civilization with no more wars, or everything would come to a screeching halt, and this “experiment” would be ended.
Paul Selig, the popular current day channeler, tells a story that during the Harmonic Convergence in 1987 he was up on his rooftop, asking for something amazing to happen, “a sign” some proof that God exists. Then he had a profound experience. He was shown that the world was transitioning into that new age of peace and tranquility, where there would be no more divisions between us, the world would be as one (as John Lennon said in his song ”Imagine”). But it would be a long bumpy ride to get there. He like all of us, was impatient and when he asked how long would this take – he was told 4 generations, 4 generations. If you think about it, it’s been about two generations since that time. And if the visionaries like Paul Selig, Sylvia Browne and others got it right, then we’ve got two more generations to go, which brings us to 2050. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wait that long to experience living in a peaceful community – a heaven on earth. I’d like to press the “fast forward” button.
What can WE do to facilitate a faster change in the world? After all, we feel like we’ve been doing it, on a personal level, becoming more “new agey” – evolving into a kinder, more patient, loving people, looking for solutions to our disagreements, rather than get into the boxing ring. Taking mind altering ... classes (you thought I was going to say “drugs” didn’t you?) I put on my headphones and meditate to be a flower. What else do I have to do?
Well, I am simplifying the powerful work we’ve done, for the sake of humor, most of us at ISD are already serving humanity in a variety of ways, and even very small actions of service create a wave that affects others.
Paul Selig reminds us that “The guides have called this a wave of change – This is a Required change, humanity has chosen it, it’s not being DONE TO US. Because we really can’t go on as we were... he continues. WE all have to ride the wave to be brought to a new shore. We’re being brought to someplace higher.” WE can’t pack up our fears, our gossip, our arrogance, our wars, and other false creations and bring them with us to that higher plane of existence.
So how do we help humanity get to that new shore?
Paul Selig’s work highlights two concepts that are still VERY HARD for us and we need to be able to practice before humanity gets to that new shore...
Point #1. Stop letting fear run every decision we make, because fear is a lower vibration - Fear begets more fear, right? How do we stop being so fearful?
• MEDITATE!! When we meditate, we get that place of clear thinking, where we are connected to our soul self, Paul’s guides call this going to the “Upper room”. Our True Self already exists In that upper room, from that higher level of perception we see our fearful situations in a new way, one in which we are the ones in charge of the course of our lives, and new solutions appear.
Point #2. Don’t condemn the perpetrators. Why not? It makes me feel better to point fingers? Paul Selig’s Guides remind us: “What you damn and who you damn, damns you back. Who you put in darkness, puts you in that darkness.” The perpetrator will face his own reckoning.
Action: Rev. Amanda recommended to us, that in our prayer practice we ”Bless the Victims, Bless the Witnesses, Bless the Perpetrators”
She shares that gem from Gregg Braden -
Quick story about condemning the perpetrator: In a science fiction book I read: in this ancient village, one of the young teenagers in the town has been regularly stealing from his neighbors. It is discovered, and the leaders called for a special meeting. The whole village gathered in a circle around this young man. And what do you think happened? They threw rocks at him? They banished him from the village? No. They began to sing the song that was sung on the day he was born. You see, each new soul, as they come into this world, comes in with an individualized special song that the spiritual leaders of the community receive intuitively. The singing of the song reminded the boy of who he truly was, and his sacred place in the community. At his birth, he had been infused with the love, the hopes and dreams of his community. He was reminded of his mission in this lifetime. He was blasted with love and light, not words of reprimand. The song brought a soul memory of who he truly was as a spirit being, and he eventually changed his ways.
Point #3. Speak what you believe. When you find something that will help humankind, pass it on, share it. Speed up the process of awakening to who we are as spiritual beings. (Facebook, internet, cell phones, as much as we condemn them have huge powers of communicating, if they are used for good - we can’t let negativity flood all of those channels.
We can’t force the whole world to change, as quickly as we would like, but while we are waiting, we CAN be responsible for our own Vibrations, knowing that our healing actions reverberate outward. A couple of other sacred practices to get out of negativity, and push that fast forward button to the new shores.
1. get out in nature, get your hands into the earth. I have a friend who is grieving over the loss of her son, and she states that the most powerful healing for her grief occurs when she is pulling weeds.
2. Have a rescue playlist of joyous or just peaceful music ready to go when you need it.
3. Start the day with an affirmation to cancel out the negative thoughts and to program your day for success: “Kind, gentle, easy, good”.
4. Every time you hit a stoplight take 3 long, slow deep breaths.
5. Compliment five people, including yourself, each day.
6. Add a random act of kindness, daily.
7. End each day with gratitude for all you accomplished.
8. My friend Ally reminds us that we are each to be the “boots on the ground” to affect positive change, in whatever direction our talents & passions take us.
I’m going to end with a quote from Carolyn Myss in her TED Talk called “Choices that can change your Life”. “Some of the grief and injuries that have happened to people are so horrible, it's unbelievable and the truth is nothing can make that go away; nothing can make that better and the model of healing that we have to have is a model that says healing is not about ever forgetting those things, not about forgetting it's about looking at what has happened to us and saying: this will never defeat me; it will never defeat me, but I will not live in this. I have to somehow turn this into my source of wisdom but I will not live in woe. I will not and that becomes this choice: I have to choose wisdom or woe but I can't make it go away and if you can't make it go away then there is the choice wisdom or woe.”
About Diana Friedell: Diana is owner of the 20 year old business Tuning In - Tuning Up. She has trained at Fellowships of the Spirit in Lily Dale, NY. Diana coordinates the annual SHIFT NY Holistic & Spiritual Arts Fair. She now serves as Pastor, Co-Director, and teaching faculty for the newly formed chapter of the Institute for Spiritual Development in Oneonta, NY.
Diana’s websites: www.dianafriedell.com, www.isdoneonta.com and www.ShiftnewYork.com