When Luke Skywalker Trusted . . .

 "Use the Force, Luke....Let go!" ~ Obi Wan Kenobi, Star Wars

Given it is May the 4th, Star Wars Day, it is the perfect time for an important reminder, one that had a lasting impact I could only just begin to glimpse when I first encountered it in 1977.  I could spend some time talking about what it was like in 1977 to view the first movie in a spectacular old-school "Cinerama" theater, one of the best, I would wager (even though Cinerama was no longer used in 1977).  Oh yes, my first encounter with Star Wars was an all-encompassing experience - and everything about it.  

My older brother had gone to see it with my mother on opening day, while I was at school in junior high - he had seen an article about it in Time and they decided to go to the first showing - apparently it was very easy to get into that day, even at this wonderful, unparalleled theater that no longer exists (like most theaters like that).  My mother was not one to stand in line at movies, and they didn't expect a line - they were simply going to a movie together that was supposed to be good.  He told me later I would like it, and that it was about a princess.  

That's not why I liked it.  I'm not even sure I knew yet why I not only liked it - I loved it - and I did everything I could to see it again and again after that first viewing.  It changed my relationship with the movies forever, but not just that.  I already had a regular relationship with magical stories by that age.

Luke taught me something.  Something important.  Something I'd need quite a bit later in life.  He didn't trust at first.  He didn't believe.  I was never a skeptic like Luke and some people, not even as a child or a teen.  He didn't believe any of it - at first.

But what he ultimately demonstrated for all of us in that first film (and let's not confuse it with its later renumbering - for those of us who saw it first, it was the first), was Trust.  It wasn't total Trust, not exactly - but it was enough in the moment.

A sudden flash of Trust that astonished and at first alarmed others, just about everyone else in his immediate circle, some of whom claimed to believe in it, but not yet enough.  In panic, they asked him why his computer was off.  Wouldn't he NEED THAT????  Actually, no.  It was a hindrance to what it was he needed to do, and he had guidance far better.

Some people claim to believe in the Force, just as it is described in Star Wars.  The Force was always far too "mechanical" for me.  The Real Force is much more Loving and Mysterious - it too invites us to Trust.  Every single day, it is asking us to Trust, even those like Luke who may not believe in it completely (that's a tall order!) and there are always those searing, misguided skeptics who try to scuttle the thing, but they'd know it as well, if they could see it.  

When you see it, when you see what this is, when you see how "impossibly" Magical and Miraculous (and Loving!) it actually is, there is no more skepticism.  You simply know.  You may not know everything about what this is - but you surely do know something's happening.

Luke's Trust (with the help of some insistent Guidance) saved the day.  He still used technology, though one could argue it is ultimately extraneous - and everything changed.

The same can happen for us.  I'm thankful to Star Wars for not exactly planting a seed, as I was no stranger to Magical stories, but for doing whatever it did, in the way that it did it.  It changed me forever, I sense.  It only becomes more necessary and important as the years unfold.  And like Luke, many of us continue to learn.   I believe what this IS is entirely capable of saving our day as well.  And I also sense we are going to need it.

Hiding in Plain Sight

"The sky is falling..." ~ Chicken Little

One of the people I assist in my work lives in the community over which a plane engine disintegrated today and fell from the sky.  Despite close calls, no one was hurt, either on the ground or in the air.  The plane landed safely.  That's really quite miraculous.

But it led me to ponder the things that are hiding in plain sight, that we tend not to think about.  Like airplanes over our heads, or even satellites, or any number of other things that might befall us.

I could write about fear and how it's best we don't think about such things.  To survive day to day, that is true (at least in reasonable peace).

But this isn't about that.

They say the metal probably gave out, from fatigue and use, but nobody knew it.  They do try to look for such things.

But this isn't about that, either.

What else in our world is like that disintegrating engine, precariously hovering over our heads?  

We can be thankful for miracles, and hope for more.  They do happen.  And we can also pay attention and act before things fall.

 

 

Up in the Sky photo by Susan Larison Danz. 

Expect a Miracle

"I am realistic.  I expect miracles." ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer

The other day, a friend told me a family she knows in Oregon packed up all of their belongings and headed for the hills, to an undisclosed location, the apocalypse deemed near.

And we are faced with a humanitarian crisis of untold proportions, as desperate refugees flood into Europe.  Barbaric extremists desecrate human life and human history, running amok.

The world is in crisis again. 

This morning, at Dawn.

What is the answer?

The first answer is to Love and to demonstrate Love, in whatever way we can.  Some Germans are showing the way.  And so is Pope Francis.

The Greater Answer, which is derived from Love, as all things must be, is to take it even Higher.

How about expecting a Miracle? 

Is this the New Earth or not?  We have a choice.  Miracles are Real.

Transistor Radio Summer #1

"For we can fly!" ~ The 5th Dimension

I will find it if I look.  My red transistor radio from radio summers long ago.  There were many radios growing up - this was only one of mine, amid the household record players.  

Music was much different then, it seems, the 70's.  It could fill a home to overflowing, or drift in through the windows from the house across the street.

I have a special memory, from a very special Source.  It was my first synchronicity, the first I can recall.  I didn't have a label for it.  But I never did forget it.

It was some time near the end of June, and I was in the basement listening to the radio in my oldest sister's room.  The basement rooms were best of all in summer - upstairs all we had were fans.  

"Up, up and away in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon...."  It was surely 1970, this song a few years old, and I was 6 years old.

Someone shouted from upstairs and then came running down. "Balloon!  S-----u-----e  Balloon!"  It  was my oldest brother, and he was already running up again.

I quickly made it up the stairs, leapt out the door to the garage, then out another door, and raced across the lawn of our backyard, to where he pointed with a smile.  He loved to show me wonders in the sky, a weatherman in training.  

And there it was - in rainbow colors, rising, silhouetted by the Colorado mountains, our partially constructed chain link fence below, reflecting in the sun.  The fence to me was almost every bit as interesting as the balloon. It was about to hold a puppy.

I marveled that the summer skies had listened to the song, and for many years I wondered.  I didn't have a label for it.  It was The 5th Dimension.

Turning Point

"It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come." ~ Field of Dreams

There is a scene in Field of Dreams when the Magic becomes visible.  The doubters couldn't see.  They thought is was "crazy".  

How could you mow over your corn?  

Because there is Magic.  And I'd like you to see.

There came a day.  The day everything changed. 

I sense we're not far from this day on this planet.  We have much of an over-thought world driven by "rationalists", when we don't need to live on mere "rations" at all. 

The Magic will find them, one Heart at a time.  They knew it as children and long, long ago.  We did too.  We do now.  They are coming.

It's the world that once was, and is, and will be again. 

P.S. I noticed a typo while previewing this entry.  I chose to keep it (or should I say, "is") very intentionally. ;-)

Beauty

"The fruition of beauty is no chance of hit or miss - it is inevitable as life - it is exact and plumb as gravitation." ~ Walt Whitman

As I walked, there it was, Beauty emerging where it is not supposed to be.  Where would it be if not for the brokenness?  And would we even notice its unlikely vitality if not for the jagged edges?

Winter Reflections of a "Lady" called Susan...

"But, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs..." 

~ C.S. Lewis 

 

 

This is part of the view from one of my windows.  At night, a golden glow seeps in.  

I could choose to reflect on the "starkness" of winter (or the "starkness" of a view).  

Or I could choose to reflect on "Narnia".  

Did I mention the stand-alone "wardrobe" upstairs?  

There exists a magical forest...

Amazing Grace

"Field notes" from my walk this morning....

"Acceptance" can be an active word...one need not accept any sort of consolation prize in this abundantly miraculous world!  Joy...

It has everything to do with your perception of what comes your way...

It is the deeper meaning of Amazing Grace...

It's not salvation we must accept. It is Joy.

It is Love...

The Catalyst

"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed." ~ Carl Jung 

"A catalyst is like adding a bit of magic to a reaction." ~ Chem4Kids.com

Today I'm in a state of Gratitude and Grace, and this will be a simple post. 

When I was young, I learned about the concept of Heaven on Earth.  The Divine spark within us is The Catalyst, yearning to activate Heaven.  True Heaven on Earth is not just about "I" or "me" - it has everything to do with "We".   
 

The Gulf Between the New Earth and the Old? Just a Few Miracles...

"I never did believe in miracles,
But I've a feeling it's time to try.
I never did believe in the ways of magic,
But I'm beginning to wonder why."
~ Fleetwood Mac

I am finding it increasingly intolerable to think about the problems on this Earth in any sort of traditional way. We are running out of Old Earth solutions to Old Earth problems, and these problems have been with us a very long time.

The last gasp of the Old Earth is looking quite grim right now, particularly for those who have no faith or knowledge of the New Earth that is truly dawning.

When I first heard about the immensity of the Gulf Oil Spill, another oceanic tragedy immediately came to mind: the Titanic. If greed-based business interests hadn't insisted on excessive speed that night, the Titanic would not have gone down at all. And we have all heard about the lack of lifeboats. Sound familiar?

And then there is that other Gulf so many try not to think about, that Gulf in the Middle East, where the corporate war machine stokes the frenzied flames of fear to just keep going and going and going, with precious lives the price. Fiercely loyal nationalism and fear-based religious exclusivity express the selfishness and pride ever more ~ the world itself would be the price if they continued unabated.

The Gulf Oil spill is a vivid reminder of the plumes of poison we can no longer choose to ignore, poison that has silently infiltrated almost every aspect our lives and our deaths. We would prefer not to know. We would prefer to enjoy the comforts and not think about the price. Even the medical/pharmaceutical establishment, the churches and the paternalistic government we might turn to in times of need have the disease, with not much real relief to be found.

It is the price of progress, some say. Ironically even progress itself is often brought to a standstill. How many innovations, how many dramatic cures, have been stopped in their tracks by those whose interests might be infringed upon? How many peace-based solutions have been stymied by nationalistic pride?

Yet we so often fail to see it, so busy so many of us are marching off day after day to passionless jobs which occupy not only most of the hours of our days, but most of the years of our lives, in businesses with "leadership" structures more like authoritarian dictatorships, where even asking an honest question can be an inexcusable offense. Governments can become much the same. But so few of us dare to question and accept the norm as unavoidable, while those we allow to take advantage of us waltz their way to the halls of power and the bank.

Until we find the courage to JUST SAY NO. And JUST SAY YES to something New. Some of us are choosing a new way of life. Some of us have struck out on our own, and we aim to do more GIVING than taking. No longer will we invest our time and energy into those things that no longer serve our world. We have discovered Love in our spirituality instead of fear and intolerance. And no matter how sentimental we may be about the place we choose to live, more and more of us value worldwide Peace and Harmony more than selfish nationalistic pride.

Yet still that is not enough. It is just a step beyond Old World thinking, not the quantum leap required to reach the New.

What will be required? How do we find this New Earth many of us know is already dawning in our midst?

It's really very simple.

Do you believe in miracles? Maybe it's time to try. And some day the miracles will find you even if you don't...