While we have known for some time that the country is headed in the wrong direction, we have been unable to uncover what we can do about it.  Glenn Beck, long warning of impending difficulties, has most recently suggested prayer in order to enlist Divine intervention and assistance.

While that may seem extreme and a somewhat desperate act unlikely to affect much there is, in fact, historical evidence that to the contrary it is exactly what can save us.

Enter the Book of Esther.

In a nutshell, when the Persian King Achashveros killed his wife Queen Vashti for disobeying him, the King remarried a woman named Esther who, unbeknown to him, was a Jew.  When the King’s Administrator and Adviser, Haman, sought to wrongfully turn the King against a Jew named Mordechi and also kill the Jewish people, Mordechi asked his niece, Queen Esther, to intervene.  At first Esther was afraid to do so for fear of disclosing her own Jewish background.  Mordechi tells her that it is folly to think that not standing up for her people will save her from death.  In response, Esther relents. In anticipation of her daunting task, Queen Esther asks that the Jews fast and pray for three days prior to her petition.  She and the people do so and, making a longer story short, she is successful at revealing Haman’s deceit.  Ultimately, the Jews of the province of Pur are spared (hence the holiday of Purim) and Haman is hanged on the very gallows he was planning for Mordechi’s death.  The Jewish people then celebrated the miraculous turn of events, their good fortune and joy.

The Relevance & The Answer

The people of Pur were facing down entrenched power.  So are we.  It was fasting and prayer that summoned Divine intervention.  It is now our turn.  We are at a critical stage in our existence.  We are plagued by threats from multiple directions, from without and from within. Our government has become so big as to be unmanageable and our People have come to feel so small as to believe themselves irrelevant. 

The Timing

Purim will be observed five months from now on February 28, 2011.  Five months may be precious time we cannot afford to waste.  However, Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement is observed from sunset Friday, September 17th to sunset Saturday, September 18th…16 days from today.  It is a traditional day of fasting and prayer.

I would like to suggest that on Yom Kippur, this most reverent and biblically ordained day, each of us as citizens of this remarkable Nation, regardless of race or religion, fast and pray for the safety of our land and its inhabitants.  Further, that we ask for Divine intervention to shine Its Light upon illusion and deceit while guiding us in turning, once and for all, toward the Light of Love and Truth.

Imagine the power and magnitude of that petition!  

On Sunday, August 28^th I found myself with my 17-year old daughter in Washington, DC amidst at least 500,000 people attending the “Restoring Honor” rally organized by Glenn Beck.  I was there, so the CNBC (and other media outlet’s) estimate of approximately 87,000 is, at best, laughable and at worst deceitful. 

My presence was, quite frankly, shocking to me because throughout my entire life, beginning with Woodstock and all the self-awareness seminars marketed since the 80’s,  I have made it my mission to avoid large crowds and events aimed at ”group consciousness.”  To have voluntarily arisen at 2:00AM to ride a bus with 58 strangers to an event 3 hours away that anticipated 100,000 attendees was definitely out of character.

So what was that all about? 

It was about listening and watching Glenn Beck evolve over the past 3-4 years from entertainer to spiritual messenger.  It was about his “track record” for successfully anticipating and, dare I say, accurately predicting economic and political realities. It was about his sincerity… and about the fact that there comes a time in everyone’s life when you must push through where you have been in order to get where you want to be.

So I pushed through.

The rally drew 500,000 courteous people.  Hard to imagine, but true.  It was a perfectly executed “production” from beginning to end.  The content of the 3 hour event was religious, patriotic and uplifting.  The highlight for me was Beck.  And while he didn’t say anything I have not heard from him previously on radio or TV, he none-the-less continues to hone a vital and timely message, a wake-up call really, for a Nation in need.

I had but one disappointment. While Beck brought onstage 240 clergy from various religious disciplines to close the event, everything that preceded it was decidedly promoting Jesus Christ as a particular path to God. The audience was well in agreement.  It’s important that I say I take no issue with that approach, or personal choice, to a connection with the Divine.  What I do say is that to get to that place where humankind transcends its historical divisions, animosity and limitations, we must move beyond religion and into a Consciousness of Oneness.

I do not say this lightly.  I am a Jew with a 5000 year history, and DNA, that teaches its particular path to God as well.  But after decades of exploring not only my ancestral path but many others as well, I have come to the conclusion that there is only One of Us… and that organized religion…  no matter who’s it may be … perpetuates separation.

Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Lao Tzu, Buddha… did not have religious experiences.  They had very personal, spiritual experiences that showed them their connectedness to all of humanity.  Later, men lusting after power and hoping to ride the coat tails of someone else’s epiphany, turned those personal experiences into structured and organized dogma with rigidly defined criteria for “getting it right” and getting to God. 

Spirituality, as I define it and have experienced it, is a unique journey each of us must take within ourselves until the moment when we reach our own center only to find every other living being having patiently awaited our arrival.

Coming home, as it turns out, is a reunion of fragments of our lost Self.

I hope Glenn Beck continues on the path of energizing and educating our Nation. It is a noble task.

I also deeply pray that either he, or someone else, expands the message to include those who walk every other path so long as they all lead home to the indisputable knowing that there is only One of Us.

Humans are an independent, diverse, interactive, co-creative, and constantly changing force wherein change by one impacts the many.  Again, simply put, you are not only composed of matter... you actually matter.

Our world is a compilation of energetic patterns.  Patterns, by definition, repeat themselves.  So, if you use your life force, or energy, in the same way over and over you are guaranteed to perpetuate whatever pattern you’re creating.  Only by changing something within the pattern will you change the result… or more accurately… will you create a new pattern.

Change, however, isn’t something you want to react to.  Change is something you want to be.  When you are forced to react to change, the change has already occurred.  Once that happens you find yourself in the unenviable position of playing “catch up” to Life’s circumstances.  However, if you are the change you actually want to occur, you become the agent of change rather than the object of change.

So, take a look around your life.  How’s it going?  Do you feel empowered or disempowered?  Are you feeling at the mercy of events or as the force behind the conception and inception of events?  Are you resisting change or initiating it?

These times are truly revolutionary.  “Revolution,” as with any word, is only as powerful as the meaning we give to it.  The word revolution has several words hidden within it if you creatively rearrange its letters around to form new words.  (I often do this as a kind of mental gymnastics but also as an insightful guide into hidden meanings).  What I found in “revolution” are the following sets of words:

     1.  Vile revolt; to lure into evil; to lie; to rile; to rule.

     2.  To toil into the root to true love.

Let’s explore them one at a time using the above words.

     1.  Revolution can manifest as a vile revolt whose few proponents will lie and purposefully rile others in order to lure them to an evil end resulting in oppressive and manipulative rule over the subjugated majority.

     2.  Revolution can be a person or group willing to toil ceaselessly and diligently to unearth fundamental truths by getting to the root of existence… which is light energy emanating as true love.

I think we’re in a revolution of the second kind.  At least that’s the revolution I’ve signed up for and since we’re a complex adaptive system… therefore I matter… how I am, think and behave during the revolution matters. You see, I’m an agent of change. 

How about you?

Today I watched Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, on ABC News “This Week. ”  What was obvious to me as I listened and watched were the severe limitations she is constrained by due to the disease from which she suffers: Myopia.

Myopia is defined as “A visual defect in which distant objects appear blurred because their images are focused in front of the retina rather than on it; nearsightedness.  Also called short sight. 2. Lack of discernment or long-range perspective in thinking or planning”

While I am not a physician, I feel confident in the diagnosis.

It is so inconceivable that a public official can, in this volatile and increasingly transparent environment, fail to see the absurdity of continuing to dodge substantive and meaningful questions while reiterating an old, worn out and deceitful message.

The Speaker, limited to an old way of thinking and behaving due to the advanced stages of her disease, not only cannot see the future, she can’t even see the present.  She is still blaming the prior administration for the economy, refusing to condemn unethical behavior of her colleagues, and dodging hard questions about mission and intention in foreign policy.  More disturbing, she is in denial or flat out lying about having no concern for her party losing control of Congress in the November mid-term elections.

Perhaps the Speaker should consider recent developments in treating and curing Myopia. 

Those of us moving through the Ascension process and the simultaneous expanding consciousness of the planet have published the short and long-term benefits of a cure identified as “Adaptability and Truthfulness.”

Generally, we are experiencing challenges of “first impression”… meaning we have never faced them before.  Mainly this is the result of global connectivity due to technological advances.  The resulting transparency, and particularly the speed of that transparency, is making it more and more difficult to sustain deceit. 

Those, like the Speaker, who are unable to see beyond the past and adapt to the realities of the present are not only myopic they are terminal. 

Change and transparency as campaign slogans are a far cry from walking your talk.

Either way there are going to be people unhappy with the outcome of the ethics violation findings against Congressman Charles Rangel.  If it turns out there’s no deal, but rather a full trial before the House of Representatives, some will scream it’s a carnival show deliberately created by the obstruction of the four Republican members of the investigative sub-committee.  If, on the other hand, there’s a deal some will scream “foul” and special treatment for the privileged that would not be afforded a more common criminal.

For me, the outcome isn’t the big story.  For me, it’s the long-awaited public airing of the ethical misdeeds and illegal behavior of a sitting member of Congress and, by definition, a representative of the People charged with our trust and well-being.  But as happy as I am at this long-overdue occurrence, I’m not surprised.

You see, I frequently write about the transition we are going through.  Spiritually, it’s referred to as an “ascension process.”  In simpler terms, it’s an expansion of human consciousness encompassing a higher vantage point from which to view our choices. (Did I just say “in simple terms…?”)!

One of the overriding characteristics of an ascension process is that there are no more secrets.  What that means is that behavior that does not support the highest good (read as “deceitful behavior”) will be forced out into the open… or revealed for what it is.

Hence, Charlie Rangel… who for decades has been able to skate by and avoid the consequence of being confronted with his acts.

It would be a wise decision for anyone watching this drama to pay close attention and take heed.  One need not be a public figure or famous to experience the weight of it, either.  Wherever there is deceit in our lives, whether with ourselves or with another… the inevitable outcome will now be revelation.

So like any “outing”... it’s probably best to do it ourselves, first, rather than have someone else choose the time and place.

Human beings, and particularly Americans, are surprisingly compassionate and forgiving of a mea culpa... and equally hardhearted and unforgiving of those who are caught throwing stones while living in glass houses.

Carpe diem.  Make honesty in your life a priority.  Clean up the muddy stuff.  It’s not too late... for you.

Not so Charlie Rangel.

Allow me to preface this by saying that as a woman and former divorce lawyer of 13 years I, in no way, condone domestic violence nor do I think that what Mel Gibson has been tape recorded saying is in any way acceptable.  In fact, he has said things that are deeply disturbing if not legally actionable.

However, how and why we choose a partner is always complex. While it is true that verbal abuse and physical threats are never to be sanctioned, what is often overheard by others not directly involved can be but a partial insight and oftentimes misleading.

The choice for two people to be together, for better or worse so to speak, is a mutual choice.  Hopefully, that choice is made out of want rather than need.  But this is not always the case.  In fact, most people come together seeking to fill a lack or void in themselves in the hope that the presence and love from the other will fill it. This is rarely a conscious intention.  And while its never a good way to find a significant other… it’s a very common and human one.

I speak from experience.

When my marriage began to wither, I became at first frustrated by, and later angry at, my spouse’s emotionally detached behavior.  There was a subtle pattern of emotional manipulation that at times drove me to the brink… although I recognized it only in hindsight.  We stayed together. He manipulated me in a very passive/aggressive way as my frustration and anger mounted.  Ultimately, I yelled a lot and said things I’d retract today if I could.

Listening to the Gibson tapes, I was struck by two things.  First, and most obvious, his rage.  But secondly her calm.  I hear myself in him.  I hear my former husband in her.  After all, what is she even doing having these conversations with him?  Why, after prior encounters with his rage, is she still hot-tubbing with him and sleeping in the same bed?  Why is she so calm knowing it escalates and infuriates his anger? What does that do for her?

I hear him saying (however crudely) that he wants certain things from her.  I also hear her saying (admittedly between the lines) “I am trying to love you but you need help.”

This is a co-dependent, enabling and very destructive relationship at best.  But it’s too easy to get caught up in the blame-game and condemn the loudest voice. 

Both these people need help.  Both need to get to the root of their own personal demons and they definitely need to be apart in order to do that internal work . Something drew them together and that something was powerful. 

Now it’s about the constructive and wise use of that power. 

I don't believe in fairy tales.  However, when human beings are willing to go the extra mile and do the tough work, miracles are possible as are happy endings.  I have no idea what that looks like in this matter but I wish them both well and send them both healing.

Now this is a highly educated man who owns his own publishing company that publishes a sports magazine in the Philadelphia area.  So it started me thinking about three things: education, small minds and hate.

1.       My thoughts about education are neither unique nor startling.  The amount of years one spends obtaining a formal education correlates to neither common sense nor wisdom.  It correlates to one’s capacity to regurgitate what is being fed, and in the best of cases, to sprinkle that with some creative thinking of one’s own to hopefully generate some modicum of internally-sourced and outside-the-box thinking.  I make this statement absent jealously or resentment since I am one of those educated people, having spent 19 years in formal education on the way to obtaining a Juris Doctor in law. 

All those years made me educated, in a specific way, not necessarily wise or open-minded. That requires education of a different sort.

2.       Small minds abound, even among the educated.  Take my acquaintance above.  His reaction is proof that the capacity to ingest and digest factual knowledge is not a reliable indicator of a mind capable of expansive or inclusive thinking.  To do that, one has to possess qualities not taught in school such as compassion, understanding and wisdom.

3.       As for hate... I’ve come to believe it’s the emotion of choice for fearful, unwise, small minded individuals.

Which brings me back to my acquaintance.

He was quick to condemn both Glenn Beck and me for…well… actually… I’m not quite sure for what exactly and I doubt he is either.  However, the irony is that after receiving his inexplicable e-mail I Googled his name.  What I learned was that not too long ago he was indicted and convicted of failing to report income as well as some dubious ethical behavior while working in city government.  At least he had the benefit of representation and a trial before anyone judged and condemned him... and, oh yes, sentenced him to 6 months house arrest wearing a secure ankle bracelet.

So much for education, small minds and hate.

If you read my blog regularly you’d know that I like to close with some pithy comment but, quite frankly, I can’t top the paragraph that precedes this one. Truth may or may not be stranger than fiction but, in this case, its certainly more enjoyable.