Gold Post-it
Nothing But Good News
Gold Post-it
Pulse of the Nation
I was flipping through the Sunday morning news shows today...Chris Matthews, This Week, and Face the Nation...and found it rather incredible that all those educated panelists are so out of touch with what is really happening in this country. It's as if they are incapable of changing the context in which they evaluate the state of things.
Maybe its just me but I don't think so.
From where I stand, and consequently how I see things, most people have reached a saturation point in their lives concerning materialism, self-gratification and, yes, even technology. Its been a nice ride but when all is said and done we came up empty. Empty and yearning for something more. Something that can't be bought or even held onto..unless its what we give away.
You see, that's the paradox.
Our national search for "more"...be it whatever "more" we wanted...turned out to be a quest for fool's gold. Or false idols, depending on your belief system. All the doing, getting and having solved nothing and, in fact, created more problems than we can apparently handle at the moment. It's a lot older that Ivan Beosky's University of California Berkley speech in 1986 where he told the graduating class "Greed is healthy" ...although I think his words were a seminal moment by the absence of public outrage that failed to follow his pronouncement. Our silence spoke volumes about us and the future direction of our country.
Now, almost 25 years later, after proceeding down the path Boesky and we by our silence condoned, we have arrived at an unintended and undesirable destination.
The People get it. But those who govern, and most of those reporting upon it, don't. They're still talking about fixing the economy or closing the information leaks or creating jobs or lowering foreclosures and reinvigorating the housing market as those things that will return our lives to some recognizable scenario.
But its not about any of that. It's about balance and unity.
It's about lives that are balanced between what we take in and what we give out. It's about relationships that honor and respect differences. It's about bringing children into the world and then actually devoting the amount of time it takes to raise them with commendable values. It's about truth telling in our personal and professional lives. It's about compassion as the highest form of love. It's about pursuing technological development but not at the expense, or disregard, of ethical and spiritual development. It's about knowing how connected we are to everything on Earth and beyond... so that we think and act with the realization that our every thought and our every action matters.
So, to the people who govern and those who report upon it all: You can try and resurrect the past, or project how well your opinions and ideas will shape the future. But in the only analysis that matters, there is only the moment in which you are living. If you refuse to see and sense it for what it actually is you are living in an illusion and, therefore, part of the problem... not the solution.
Which is why I don't often watch Sunday morning news show.
Breaking News
It seems that its becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with all the news. You pick the category and there's some breaking story in it. It really is information overload.
What's a person to do?
Well, may I suggest silence. Its a beautiful, and healing, alternative. I know because lately I've begun to meditate. Now please don't write me off as some mystic, or former hippie, who is looking for some way to "drop out." I am, and always have been, a Type A personality. If I'm not in motion, or using my brain in some challenging way...well such reckless frivolity has always been the very definition of "lazy" in my book. No, what led me to meditation was a combination of 1) coaxing from a dear friend and 2) more "news" than I could handle.
What I've learned from meditation is that there's more to learn in silence than in all the news that's fit to print...or broadcast...or telecast...or tweet. In silence exists an internal knowing that transcends words. Really. You can't describe it. You have to be it. When you are being it, what you feel is everything you've ever sought. Truly. Now my assumption is that what we all ultimately go in search of is inner peace. I mean, really, isn't all that we aspire to and seek done in the hopes of acquiring some satisfaction that always seems just beyond our reach...or so transient it was hardly worth the getting?
Well, here's breaking news.
Inner peace comes from within! Duh! You'd think that would be self-evident. However, we humans with our opposable thumbs and high tech world are still running around trying to find it outside of ourselves. Duh, squared!
So I could have posted this blog entry about Iran's launch into space, or the White House leak about the cooperating terrorist who tried to blow up a plane Christmas day with explosive underwear, or the yet again declining DOW, or the rumor that the Jolie-Pitts are on the rocks...but here's the thing. I'd just be adding to the information overload. So instead, I decided to share with you the sound of silence.
Once in a while, its really sweet to have nothing to say... and even less to listen to.
The November Elections: Think Bigger
You almost have to be asleep to miss the political upheaval taking place. Its everywhere putting sheer terror into the hearts and minds of both Republican and Democrat incumbents as the November mid-term elections draw near. Politicians of both parties are scrambling to figure out just what the increasingly vocal and disenchanted populace wants of them. Its on the news day and night and the story will only get more coverage as we head into the Fall.
However, I think its just symptomatic of a much larger story.
It isn't just a change in our politics. It's a change in our consciousness... and its impacting every aspect of our lives, not just how we think and feel about government.
While the age-old choice has been one party or the other... the elite or the governed... the rich or the poor...the winners or the losers...such hierarchical constructs are about to experience their own transition. Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about replacing Democracy with Socialism. What I am talking about is revisiting the best of both systems, and any others, that guide and support us in co-creating a world less divided.
So far, no one system has done the job admirably.. although Democracy has certainly, thus far, done it with the most expansiveness and respect for personal liberty. But so far, so good... isn't good enough. Nor is it a reason to stop trying to improve upon what we have achieved.
Authentic change... the change so many hungered for in the 2008 election, the change that has not as yet come but is on the horizon, is a re-balancing of female and male energies in every aspect of our lives.
The instability we feel at this moment in time in so many area of our lives is that which results from an imbalance in the extreme. Riane Eisler, author of "The Chalice and The Blade", identifies the result of such imbalance as having created "dominator" as opposed to "partnership" societies. The result of a world run by dominator societies is exactly where we now find ourselves. We have almost perfected the application and use of our financial resources and technological development for extinguishing the planet and all its inhabitants.
Simply put, we are out of balance.
In the First Five Books of Moses in Genesis, as well as in the majority of pre-history cults and religions, the "story" begins with a Being both male and female. Where we lost our way was in subjugating, and thereby eliminating, the unique contribution that 50% of humanity can bring to bear upon our conscious evolution.
When we realize there is Only One of Us, there follows the irrefutable realization that in the race to conquer and dominate... we are all speeding to Self-annihilation.
And so, while the news media is busy with whether the Democrats or Republicans will hold the majority in the House and the Senate come November... many of us are far more focused and intent upon a bigger question.
Will we transcend differences and a dominator mindset to see the beauty and value in diversity of gender and partnership... or will we remain distracted by the small stuff and never see the edge of the cliff coming up below our feet?
Now there's a poll worth taking.
Secrets of the Obama Administration... and More
It has become increasingly difficult, some might say nearly impossible, for dishonest and corrupt politicians to keep their lies and greed confined to back room deals and off-the-record conversations. Have you noticed?
And why is that?
Its because the pendulum can swing only so far before it swings back again.
The Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal was the real turning point, or in the pendulum analogy, the point beyond which the corruption could go no further and had to necessarily reverse itself. I call the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal "corruption" because it's occurrence was a corruption of decency, dignity, and integrity. The "outing" of that descent into moral depravity and betrayal of trust on so many levels was significant not for the act itself but for the outing of it. For in the outing, the pendulum finally reached that critical point where it changes direction.
The directional change we took was away from alienation and apathy for all things ethical and spiritual towards a remembering and rekindling of those same values.
So what does the Obama Administration and secrets have to do with all of this. In particular not much. In general quite a bit.
This Administration is no more corrupt, greedy or lacking in conscience than those that preceded it. However, because it is as corrupt as its predecessors, and because the pendulum has changed direction the corruption, greed and lack of conscience will no longer remain undetected or unaccounted for.
And so, no more secrets.
Every day there's another breaking story about a new back room deal, a quid pro quo in order to get a vote, legislation that's intended pay back the few at the expense of the many and much, much more. While its easy to chalk it up to dogged investigative reporters or the ease with which the technology makes it difficult to keep such things hidden, I think not.
May I suggest another reason?
Yesterday on television, Glenn Beck interviewed Governor Sarah Palin. When asked about the soulless behavior of the politicians in Washington, and how it may be impossible to serve in government without losing one's soul, she replied (and I paraphrase) "We live in a fallen world and other than our spouse we are not supposed to put our trust in another person, especially not politicians."
I take issue with Governor Palin's observation. By her reply she is obviously religious. If you read my blog you know I am obviously spiritual.
They are not the same thing.
I do not see the world as "fallen." I do not believe there is original sin. Nor an avenging God. I do believe like the Universe in which we live, We are part of an expanding Consciousness moving towards evermore enlightenment and understanding. And as you move towards en-Light-enment, things that do not support the expansion, and cannot withstand the Light, are exposed and seen for what they truly are.
Hence, no more secrets. That which has been hidden from us is now emerging into the Light of day. It is no longer possible to keep such behavior obscured among the shadows.
This is not a bad thing. However, it makes for a difficult transition. We have lived in the shadows for quite some time now and so the light of day presents us with challenges. For one, our "eyes"... how we see things...have to adjust to a clarity and brightness we are unaccustomed to.
It would be wise for those with apparent power in positions of authority to realize what is happening. For unless they do, and change their values and behavior accordingly, they will go the way of the dinosaurs.
We are spiritually going through the equivalent of a cataclysmic change. A new environment is the natural result of such profound change. It isn't the strong who will survive.
Its those who understand Oneness.
Haiti, Venezuela and Nature
It was just two days ago that I posted about the drought in Venezuela and its potential impact on the government of Hugo Chavez. The point of the post was to call attention to the power of Nature in relationship to the power humans like to think we wield. Now comes a devastating earthquake in Haiti with massive destruction and as yet untold numbers of lives lost.
Its all Natural law at work.
I'm not certain about global warming and whether we've created the problem, exacerbated it, or if it even exists at all. There seems to be a plethora of science on all sides of the argument. What I am certain of is that for thousands of years we have, at best, ignored the other forms of life with which we share planet Earth and at worst, exploited them for our personal pleasure and gain.
All bills come due, not just our national deficit.
While we are myopically focused on trying to stay afloat during an economic downturn and pass universal health care, we're neglecting to notice the warning sign emanating from Earth. She has had enough. I say "she" because "giving" is a characteristic of the Divine Feminine. The Earth, and all of Nature, know how to give. They give repeatedly and without demand, thus ensuring the cycle of life and all that it takes to sustain it.
In a groundbreaking book titled "The Chalice and The Blade" Riane Eisler explores, with specificity and over 50 pages of source notes, the archaeological discoveries and historical records that now point to both Paleolithic and Neolithic societies previously believed to be patriarchal which, in fact, were matriarchal. Matriarchal... without wars, and deeply aligned with and respectful of Nature.
So somewhere we went off track. Somewhere we decided that it was all here for our use and abuse. That self-satisfaction was the goal and greed was the means of attaining it. It has gotten us only so far.
It appears we're arrived at a critical evolutionary pause. Unlike those who see Armageddon, or some other cataclysmic event as the obvious outcome, I believe we have an alternative.
We can restore the Divine Feminine and all that She stands for to Her rightful place alongside the Divine Masculine.. and by that restoration reinvigorate our values, behavior and language with the dignity and respect due every living human being and thing.
In having denigrated and abandoned the Divine Feminine we also abandoned ourselves.
The bill is now due. We can pay it with our lives or we can enter into a repayment plan whereby, over time, we replenish through thought, word and deed the abundant bounty that was our birthright and which we so carelessly undervalued and exploited.
It is time to stop taking and start giving.
No one better exemplifies this quality of giving for the highest good of all concerned than the Divine Feminine... Mother of All That Is. In Her restoration, we restore ourselves unto ourselves. And in so doing, discover not a tragic end but rather a glorious new beginning.
Mother Nature Takes on Chavez
I'm a firm believer that Nature has a way of correcting imbalances and moderating excess. Because of that, I often look to Nature for answers to very human problems. It seems all the international support and opposition to the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez has been less effective in bringing pressures to bear on the political situation in that country than that which Mother Nature has now engaged.
It seems Venezuela is in the midst of a dangerous and prolonged drought that is taxing the country's main hydroelectric source, Guri Dam. With the dam's water already 33 feet below acceptable levels and months yet to go in drought season, the prospect looms large that a crisis is potentially in the making. Shortages and fines are already a reality with more to come. Should the dam dry up, the country could come to a standstill. Literally.
Such an occurrence and its effect would seem almost biblical. Sort of like locusts or darkness. Then again, that's exactly how a dictator who defied human rights and imposed upon his People corrupt and self-aggrandizing measures finally got the message that you can only defy Natural Law so long. Then, when all else fails, Natural Law implements Its own remedies.
Historically, these tend to be much less desirable than man-made solutions.
Now I'm not equating Chavez to Pharaoh. How could I? Pharaoh ruled an empire. Chavez rules a country in South America. But here's the point.
The world was very far adrift during Pharaoh's reign. Values were skewed. Respect for human dignity was a non-sequitur. A few were prospering at the expense, and on the backs, of the many. And while Chavez and his ilk worldwide bemoan the plight of the "workers of the world", they are busy lining their own pockets, and the pockets of their cronies, with the wealth created by the workers they profess to be helping.
So one could say the world is once again very far adrift.
When humankind seems out of viable options for a course correction, Nature has a way of filling the vacuum. She (yes, I said she) has at Her disposal resources that makes ours pale in comparison.
Turning off the water is just one of them.
Today there was a byline on Fox.com's home page that hinted at the perfect storm set up by a continued recession and the prospect of another terror strike. Of course, such a coming together of economic woes and the threat of terrorism is real and potentially devastating. Californians have severe economic and cultural problems of their own but today there was also a 6.5 earthquake in Northern California.
Nature knows how to get our attention.
Have you noticed that most of the fear-based predictions and cautions that we are daily inundated with by the media don't pan out they way they're "supposed to." Yes, the DOW went from 14,000 to 6500...but it also went back up to 10,500. Yes, terror attempts have been made, but they've failed.
This isn't to say the economy can't collapse or a terrorist won't succeed. But until such time, I'm more concerned that we understand that Mother Nature has had enough of our shennanigans and our inability to live in harmony with one another, respecting the dignity of every human being and Her body, Earth, as well.
The consequences of Her having reached Her limit are certainly more catastrophic than the war games and political intrigue politicians play.
A lot of world leaders would like to see an end to the Chavez government and others like it. To that end they have pursued their goal overtly and covertly. They have tried diplomacy and aggression. Yet oppressive regimes still stand.
Chavez is finally in trouble. It may not be hot water but it's water non-the-less. Internal unrest is escalating as the populace blames his government's corruption and incompetence for the lack of preparedness and creation of viable alternatives to Guri Dam as an energy source for the country.
We would all be wise to sit up and take notice, and an accounting as well, of where and how we might self-correct. The alternative will be very unpleasant. I did say "She" above, didn't I?
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
What Dodd's Exit Signals
The big news today is the surprising decision by Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) and several other sitting members of the Senate not to seek re-election in 2010. Both the political Left and Right have quickly gone on record to put their interpretations on why... and what this means for their parties' respective political outcomes come the midterm elections. Of course, each believes it will work to their partisan advantage.
In the midst of so much economic uncertainty and recent resurrection of the potential threat of another terrorist attack upon Americans or U.S. soil, let me posit an alternative outcome.
There will likely be more such announcements by sitting members of Congress in coming weeks and months. Its political hunting season. House and Senate members with skeletons in their closet, or guilt on their conscience, know the American public is armed and looking for game.
But let me turn from such a violent metaphor and say that I think its all good. What it signifies is that, no matter what has personally or politically precipitated these decisions to walk, they open the door for a change in the character and focus of the individuals who will fill these seats and, therefore, truly represent We The People.
Things are never as they seem. While the Democrats appear to be scrambling and shaking things up within to effect damage control... and the Republicans are scrambling to strategize how to seize those seats now in play, I think there is a "higher ground" scenario at work here.
I believe that individuals with a more Universal view and expanded consciousness will emerge to become frontline spiritual warriors in the transformation of the Consciousness of this nation... not in the sense that Progressives view that transformation as occurring, but rather in the sense of a renewed dedication to freedom, individuality, responsibility, integrity, creativity and compassion.
Yes, these are challenging times. But they are exhilarating times as well... filled with the potential for greatness and expansion. Not territorial expansion as has always been the case. But expansion of mankind's understanding of, and contribution to, a Plan that is infinitely grander, profoundly wiser and irresistibly more loving than anything we have participated in thus far.
What Schools Don't Teach
There's a standard joke that goes, "There are only two things in life you have to do. Die and pay taxes." Perhaps that's why we devote so much human energy to fending off death and managing our financial resources.
Theoretically, in opposition to the joke, one could argue that someday we may actually figure out how to live forever or at least maintain the body for renewed life (cryogenics), or that a new form of revenue raising may be created so the need for taxes becomes obsolete. Therefore, perhaps someday even the joke itself may become obsolete.
What is no joke is that the one thing we all will face for certain in life, and have to deal with, is Change. How ironic, and sad, that along with all that is taught as part of formal, and informal education, we spend no time or resources in teaching how to traverse and manage Change.
Change isn't something that happens in life.
Life is Change.
At every level of Nature, and within human nature, Change is the stuff of Life. Its how things grow. Without change there is no growth. Whether its the physical, emotional, mental or spiritual worlds we talk about, its the Process of Change that moves us through trial and error towards a more fully developed and expansive existence.
The harm in not teaching the fundamentals of Change is that so much time and energy is wasted on resisting rather than embracing it. Because there is something comfortable, even seductive, about what we know versus the unknown, we have a strong tendency to want to maintain the status quo... even if its a condition not particularly desirable, enjoyable, or supportive.
But the status quo, by definition, is "the existing order of things." Its similar to another Latin word, stasis, which is "the state of equilibrium or inactivity caused by opposing equal forces." The status quo implies an accepted, or at least passive, acquiesce to how thing are. But nothing is how it is since everything is in a constant state of change.
So what's the opposition to Change?
Precisely that it upsets the status quo!
Change necessitates being in a constant state of creativity in order to adapt to it. The only thing I know we teach as being in a constant state of creativity is Creator.
Uh-oh!
If we accept that 1) change is always occurring; 2) creativity is required to adapt to it; 3) Creator is in a constant state of creativity; then we will, by necessity, have to be as Creator is.
There's the resistance to teaching and learning about Change! The prospect that to embrace Life and live it fully requires us to be in a constant creative state of Being, such as Creator, is more responsibility than we want to take on. Hence, our preference for the status qou.
But here's the rub. The joke, it turns out, is on us. For in resisting Change, we defy the Law of Creation. In defying Creation, we guarantee our own demise.
So perhaps we can dispense with all the time, effort and money we put in to postponing death or trying to figure out how to resurrect the body. The short answer to that dilemma appears to be to live Life as Life Is... constantly in a state of change and thereby live forever.
Death, it turns out, isn't an ending but a transition to another form of Life.
Of course, its only that for those who know how to transition. Who know how to Change.
I think that's worth teaching, don't you?
A Hotline for Times of Stress
When you're on a spiritual path, and all of us are whether we're aware of it or not, you go through spiritual growth spurts just like any other growth process. These are exhilarating times filled with optimism and faith. And, as you'd suspect, you also reach plateaus, or periods of "flat-lining", when there appears to be no growth at all. Finally, to our collective dismay, there are those times when it appears that some or all of our progress to-date has been lost...or at least seriously misplaced...and we wonder, in our confusion, where hope or inspiration may be found. Often times, this is when we reach out and call a friend.
In such moments, well meaning friends can empathize. They can even show compassion. That's why we call them. But, if what you really need is a transfusion, there's simply nothing in a first-aid kit that will do the trick. You must go to the bank where the blood is stored.
I have another suggestion born of experience.
Call God instead.
What it means to "call God instead" is to forgo the urge to ask someone other than yourself to lift you up. It means to surrender, in the most positive sense, the unfolding of your life to the Power that has given you life. It means to ask, out loud, for clarity as to your Life's purpose and how to best manifest it. It means to move your ego to a back burner and acknowledge that while you are not in control... you are in process of Be-coming that which you were designed to Be.
I choose the word "designed" here for a reason.
There is, in fact, a blueprint, for each of us. A plan for our fruition and our purpose. There is nothing in Creation for which a blueprint does not exist... encoded within its very essence. It's how a rose "grows up" to become a rose and not a daisy. For us, its encoded into our DNA. The only difference between the rose and us is that we have Free Will to interfere with the encoding and a mechanism with which to effect that interference...called "ego."
When ego's interference misleads us too far from our intended purpose (which, by the way, is to Be All That Love Is) we feel the dismay that sets in as a result of our self-imposed distance from Source.
This is the time to call God because God is where the original blueprint of You exists in its clearest form.
Since God created You with the intention that You Be As You Are Designed To Be, it is God's delight when called upon to shine The Light in order to show you, once again, the way back upon the path of your intended purpose.
By the way, when you make that call, you never get a busy signal.
God originated call waiting.
Is Janet Napolitano Right for the Job?
I watched CBS's "This Week" on Sunday morning when Director of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, was interviewed and asked how the terrorist who tried to blow up a Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit managed to get a multiple visit U.S. visa and board the plane when he was a known security risk. But for the quick response of a passenger who jumped the terrorist and disarmed him, the ending might have been tragic. The Director's reply was that the system had, in fact, worked and the passengers and everything necessary came together to thwart the attempt.
My 16 year-old-daughter was walking through our living room at the time the Director spoke those words and, without missing a step, my daughter said out loud "It wasn't the passenger's job. It was yours." It seems my 16-year-old gets it....even if the Director of Homeland Security doesn't.
Now, one day later, it seems Director Napolitano has had a change of heart. Within 24 hours of that comment she has, apparently, made a startling realization. The system, it now appears, failed.
.
No kidding, Janet.
I pride myself on being able to find the higher meaning in every story. I have found it here.
Either 1) the Director changed her mind due to the outrage that followed her comments, making it a political change of mind not necessarily an enlightened one; or 2) she really is that dense and believed the system worked as intended, or 3) absent political fallout, she will defend this Administration regardless of the correctness, truthfulness, or even logic of her assertions.
Whichever is the case, the incident has given us insight into the necessity of replacing her as Head of Homeland Security.
It is hardly in the interest of this nation, or its citizens, to have an individual so unqualified, political and/or clueless, as Janet Napolitano in charge of our individual and collective safety.
So, let us be grateful to the Nigerian terrorist who failed at his intended purpose... but succeeded, brilliantly, at an unintended one.
We now know Napolitano must go.
Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?