The Window Without a View

"But lo! the morning peeps 

Over the eastern steeps"

~ William Blake

In my house upon a hill, there is a window to a wall. 

But what is it that you glimpse when you approach and truly see?

All the Angry People....

"...but angry people are not always wise..." 

~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Lately, I cannot help but notice...the "world situation" is making any number of people angry, and in very personal ways.  Because world situations are always very personal - they have to do with human life.

It is indiscriminate, the outrage.  If you are angry about something, and the more openly you express that anger, I can just about guarantee there is someone across "the divide" who will match it willingly, or even without thinking.

Sure, I have felt it, I have at times expressed it.  Openly.  And not so openly.  But I'm thankful I have gradually learned throughout my life to find a way to deal with it (even if imperfectly).  I'm dealing with it now.  Right here.  Right now.  Because something made me angry earlier today, and I consciously chose a different approach.

I claim no particular expertise, except to know what I have observed:  When we are angry, we are generally judging more than we are observing, and we are very rarely breathing, or at least not particularly well.

What if we could do our best to put our anger on a shelf and decide to understand instead? 

What if we could actually make an attempt to glimpse the other side? 

Wouldn't that be astonishing!?! 

(OK, fine, that last remark was just a little bit angry, because you see, I'm just a little bit angry about the anger itself and what it's doing to our lives and to our society.  I choose to see mine too, when it arises.) 

What if you could try on someone else's shoes by trying on their hearts?

You might begin to hear.

And some of "them" might very well begin to hear you too.

I must include a warning.  It takes a lot of courage to "try on" someone's heart, to allow yourself to understand.  Because the absolutes begin to fade, and that can feel uncomfortable - if you decide to tell your friends, some of them might choose to judge you, and you need to let that go. 

The starkly outlined blacks and whites begin to shift.

Some say they blur to shades of gray.  And you may see the gray at first, the mind sees gray, you may only see the gray, the mind sees ambiguity.  Keep going through the gray, keep going, keep on going (this is a very important step, it's still in process for me too).  Because when you keep on going, when you consciously choose to understand, you begin to see the colors, at first they come in softly.

There is a knowing that is impossible, yet real.  It embraces every contradiction of the mind.  It is a knowing that can only arise from Love, from heart to heart to heart to heart.

And the anger falls away.

You can look into "their" eyes, completely, without flinching...you can look into their eyes and See.

And the tears begin to flow.

The New Earth doesn't exist on one side of the bridge or on the other.  The New Earth is the Bridge.

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 #7: Feelin' Groovy

"Slow down, you move too fast, you got to make the morning last..." ~ Simon & Garfunkel

On my way to an early morning dentist appointment (when I really wanted to be on my morning walk instead), this came on the radio.  It surely had a presence on my transistor radio, long ago.

No matter what you are doing this morning (or any other time of day), no matter how you feel, take the time to listen, and to smile....

[LINK REMOVED]

Joy in the moment happens, every day, if you choose to look for it....

Just Keep Loving...

"Everyone just keeps loving through it." ~ A wise anonymous teen

Overhearing this snatch of synchronistic conversation from two young ladies jogging by, I reflected as I walked...

No matter what "it" we might encounter, all we need to do is Love. That's the very Key to Peace on Earth, Peace with one another and ourselves. 

At first I got a different meaning, multi-dimensional for sure...It is only through "It", the Universe, that we always find a way to Love.  "It" is Love Itself and so are we!  Life Itself is Love...

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...

Our Quantum Leap: the REAL "Game Change"

As I observe the ever-widening political divide in the U.S., I realize that we can no longer abide the continual cycle of bouncing back and forth from one party in power to the other. How does it serve us to continue in our seemingly endless and irreconcilable differences? Yet the opposite extremes become ever more starkly polarized.

Even our Supreme Court is so obviously NOT impartial and driven by idealogical agendas. If our Supreme Court was truly impartially interpreting the law, then you would NEVER be able to predict how a particular vote might proceed or a particular justice might vote. There would be no predictable 5-4 split on controversial issues. The outcome would be virtually random. The party in power when a justice is nominated would be completely immaterial. There would be true impartiality. Yet the justices bring their politics, personal preferences and idealogies into the courtroom with them. This is not impartial justice. This is something else altogether. And the proof is in the votes themselves.

So how do we heal the ever-growing chasms appearing between us?

The old, highly honored traditional way would be to patiently seek common ground, and of course it is the natural and noble impulse of many of us to do so. Yet those of us who have lived on both sides of the fence, observing the fierce commitment of the factions, also know that in many cases, there simply IS no meaningful common ground to be found. Except a change of mind.

Is hammering a particular agenda through, just because you have the political power, an answer? That's actually the worst and most divisive approach of all, with endless reverberations, starting the vindictive vicious cycle of back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, all over again.

So let's take a step back and examine this situation in an entirely new Light. While we're at it, we might as well expand our focus to ALL that divides us, not only in the U.S., but the world. The polarization on Planet Earth grows ever more severe, the more extreme extremists become, with each contingent feeding the fear-based fires of the others. The only difference now from the centuries prior is that we do have the ability to destroy ourselves in the process.

As spiritually awakened citizens of Planet Earth, I fully believe the time is coming when we must realize that our true agenda must be HUMANITY's agenda. Even nation-states, a system of organizing ourselves that I truly believe will one day be as transient as feudal fiefdoms once were, cannot allow their often fear-based self-serving, isolationist and protectionist impulses undermine the agenda of HUMANITY. This too is a difficult leap to make, virtually impossible, completely contrary to everything we have known and held in esteem. Until we go QUANTUM.

I have said many times that I fully believe that the Consciousness of Mankind is expanding. What exactly does this mean? It means that although we will still treasure our individuality on the planet in a non-divisive way, including sentimentally treasuring our national and cultural origins, a time is coming of TRUE common ground, and that common ground is one of shared Consciousness. The chasms of fear and confusion will be distant memories. Extreme polarization will no longer exist, for it can't exist in the presence of telepathically shared understanding. Humanity's dark secrets will no longer be hidden, but fully revealed, understood and forgiven. We will simply know that we are many, yet One, not only on the planet but One with All That Is. That's HUMANITY's agenda and our only viable future.

Yes, true revolutionary change IS possible. QUANTUM change. This change begins within, not without, a quiet revolution in the stillness of the mind. And for every person who experiences the shift, it will be that much easier for the next, and the next, and the next, accelerating at quantum speed, until we find we have arrived, taking the leap TOGETHER. It is only then that "politics as usual" (and "vengeance as usual" and "secrets as usual" and "religion as usual" and "war as usual" and "fear as usual") will be over. What will remain is simply Love. And that's when Peace on Earth begins...