Hi Jeanne,
This reminds me of our last reading together.
When I'm at work in the library, I feel like I'm totally in flow. Even though I sometimes question getting my degree, I run around the library and I just feel on purpose. It's an amazing feeling. It's like riding a wave of purpose. I don't always want to clock out of work.
Paco that is a rare and wonderful gift. It delights me to imagine you in total flow at the library.
Hey, Natalie:
Move to Minneapolis. We're about as progressive as it gets. Just voted in $15 minimum wage. Al Franken is our Senator. And we have a Somali state rep, Ilhan Omar. It's a sanctuary city & Trumpism has no traction here.
Just to dangle a little incentive--we have a 3.2% unemployment rate.
-R1-
Dear Natalie,
I'm sorry about what you are going through right now. I wish you peace, and I hope that you find some like minded friends in your area who make you feel loved and accepted.
We are definitely living in challenging times.
Natalie:
When surrounded by such difference,
That makes us feel so stranded and alone,
The storms seems so much stronger,
And earth is moving,
In the midst all of this,
The sun will rise,
New friendship will be created,
Things will be become brighter,
Mountains will become clearer.
I Believe we are much stronger,
I Believe we will be okay,
I Believe we will work our way through this,
And I Believe tomorrow is new day.
Natalie, it just like when you lose your keys, and can not seem to find them no matter how much you look. As soon as you give up, and go to do something else, you find your keys. Take a paper, write down your feelings, desires, and dreams for the world. Then burn the paper and forget it.
Perhaps we all can write a letter to the universe, and send our love, peace and intention/desires. We could have the letters written earlier, and we only need to read it again before burning them. All we need is a date, not so much the time because we live all in different timezones.
Natalie, take heart. Remember that there are 323 million US citizens and only 62 million of those voted for Trump. That's only 20%. There are two quotes that come to mind to help here. First from Eleanor Roosevelt: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Secondly, from Dr. Wayne Dyer: "How others treat you is their Karma. How you react is your Karma." You can only control yourself. How others treat you can give them Karmic credit, or debt, but either way, it's not your problem. Most people who are in the debt category have a tendency to rationalize and need to project onto others to keep up their denial of responsibility. Here again, that's their problem, don't make it yours. I found my faith through crisis. Unfortunately, many use faith and religion to put others down or to justify their own poor behaviors - like judging others. They totally miss the point of their religions when they do this. Again, this is not your fault. My son claims to be atheist, but I often tell him he's one of the better Christians I know. He may not acknowledge there is a God, but he treats others with love, compassion, and respect. My son's generation knows more about systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., than mine did. With knowledge comes the power to change things.
Growing up, I felt like the outcast, that I didn't fit. It wasn't just the dysfunction in the family that I came to recognize as an adult. Jeanne this is where Einstein's quote really rings a bell with me.
When my ex abandoned my son and I shortly after my daughter's death, I gave up my advocacy and concentrated on doing the right things for my son and myself. I was alone for the first time in my life, and surprisingly, for the first time, I was not lonely. It was the first time I was not surrounded by negativity. I saw wondrous things in meditation during this time. I came to understand that I had been chosen for this. I would not be who I am today if I had not gone through so much tragedy. I learned to listen during these times, unlike many who take tragedy to learn to disassociate. In one meditation, I read from a book written in a beautiful language not known here. I was only allowed to read what I needed to know for that period of time, and nothing more, but it made me homesick. I'm not saying I'm from another planet, but I know when we are in the flesh here, we are partially removed from our higher spiritual selves. No matter what we do here, we will return to spirit when we pass.
Another time saw a huge geometric golden grid encircling the Earth, moon, even Mars. At every intersection in this complex pattern was a precious jewel, and souls here on Earth made energy connections to this grid to upload/download information, love, support, etc. via beams of light. It was an amazing thing to behold. To this day, when I need to, I close my eyes, send a beam of light from myself to my 'jewel' in the grid. I hadn't picked up a paint brush in over a decade back in '98, but this vision was so stirring, I had to paint it, even tho I had to simplify it to look like a fisherman's net surrounding the planets instead of the intricate webbing I actually saw. In another meditation, I saw light beings and angels in the vastness of space trying to fill a bowl with light, pouring it from a pitcher. It wasn't working tho, as the bowl was already full. The vessel must be empty before it can be filled was the lesson there.
We can lead a horse to water, but we can't make them drink. The same holds true for those who we are here to teach. I have seen another post that many things predicted here don't resonate with them. I concur. Will there be strife and problems-absolutely. This is not the first time we've seen such things. I grew up in a time where the older generations thought it was ridiculous for things like We Are The World and Comic Relief to take root, that is-if they even knew of them. Now we have vast networks of funding for those in need, from impromptu TV specials to Go Fund Me.
Think of the toxic dumps of years ago. They festered and remained problematic until we actually went in and dug up the containers, and cleaned up the spills. We had to empty these dumps, mitigate the very Earth (soil), and then replant to let nature take over. The same things hold true today. More and more of us are willing to look inward and become the change we wish to see in the world. Those who don't do such work, won't reap the benefits. Those who care about the welfare of the planet and their neighbors will be the ones to inherit the world and make it a better place.
Thank you everyone for your support. It's funny that Paul attends a Unitarian church. We were married by a Unitarian minister who has a church in Portland Maine. Her name is Carolyn Lambert, and she is very active in the gay community (officiating a lot of gay marriages) as well working intensely with refugees. I just love her, she's every caring. I am also a great admirer of Chris Hedges who is a Presbyterian minister and journalist/activist. He wrote the book on far right evangelical Christians more than a decade ago and titled it "American Fascists". I myself am not a christian, I have great admiration for the message of Christ but I am not inclined to join any religion, I prefer to learn about them all. The one that appeals to me the most happens to be Buddhism. Cindy you're right that I can only control my own behavior not that of others. My own behavior is never antagonistic without cause, nor is it preachy, I prefer listening. But it's incredible to me the things that I hear. Thank you to everyone who suggested I should move. I happen to live in a very liberal area (Cambridge Massachusetts), my problems begin when I meet people who are from elsewhere, either more rural areas of the state or other states, it seems I always encounter the right wing, which makes me think it's incredibly strong in this country. I feel better now, because I've been home for a few days, I hate sounding like a snow flake but I feel triggered when I hear Trump supporters talk, like I may have a panic attack, so someone bringing that conversion into my wedding was not only horrendous but enough to make me wish I didn't have a wedding. I wish everyone was kind to each other, I wish we would listen instead of just spouting our own opinions all the time. I wish we could slow down and really think about our actions, beliefs and ideas and what the consequences of those are. I wish we would care about consequences and not just think that if it doesn't affect me then it doesn't matter. I know that I'm generalizing, and that the people on this website already care, listen and respond with compassion. But I am thinking of our species as a whole and how often we allow hatred and fear to dominate our lives.
Thank you everyone, your kindness is amazing. Much love.
Natalie
Natalie, try altering your perspective by recalling that everyone on Earth is here to learn. Earth is a school for the soul. You may be young in Earth years, but you may be much older and more spiritually advanced than those spouting their opinions which you find objectionable. It can be hard to remember this when confronted with Earthbound customs.
My father is older than I here, but I know I'm an older soul. So I do what I can to teach him, and know he's got much more to learn when he says or does things that are inappropriate. What he hasn't learned in this lifetime, he'll try to learn in his next one. The spiritual school here on Earth does not separate the primary, secondary, or collegiate level learners into distinct categories. We intermingle. There are no school uniforms, age definitions, or other outward signs differentiating us.
If you were helping a 7 or 8 year old with their division homework, they may tell you that 7 divided by 2 is 3 with a remainder of 1. In your mind the answer is 3.5, but once you hear the child's answer, you then realize how fundamental their knowledge of the process still is. Remainders are something most of us forget. Those are the types of lessons that eventually get discarded for the more advanced student, but are the building blocks to anchor the student's progress. These individuals who unnerve you are young souls, who are just getting some of the foundational building blocks under their belt. Advanced concepts aren't in they syllabus just yet.
I've worked in elementary schools-it can be overwhelming to be surrounded by those who are less worldly and knowledgeable than ourselves. If you remember this is the situation when you encounter those espousing such unsettling viewpoints, you will eventually feel pity, not anguish or agitation. Right now our situation is that we have a substitute in charge of the Classroom Earth. The behavior problem children will act out, but this too is just as temporary as the substitute's tenure.
Cindy, I love the image of the geometric grid you describe. I woke in the middle of the night many years ago to a light being talking to me. We were beside one another looking upon a tapestry of lights that stretched across the ethers. It was grid-like, too. The light represented souls and they were in all of these beautiful colors. As I was waking, the light being said, "Did you check on your mother?" It seemed as though we had been checking in on people. This past year I was driving south down a street near my home and saw this brilliant flash of light in the southeastern sky. Like a star appeared and then disappeared in daylight. I kept wondering about it and it was bugging me as I went to bed a couple of nights later ... I distinctly remember asking whatever wanders around with me what I saw. That night a being stood beside me on the street I traveled down and showed me this light beam coming up and down along the street. She told me it was bouncing on earth's gravity. I remember thinking she was explaining what the light was doing in the sky and thinking, "like tigger" in Winnie the Pooh. Someone mentioned on another missive stream that she was afraid to talk about her psychic experiences. I don't know what these are, but they seem somehow real to me.