neale donald walsch
God ends chapter 18 of CWG book 3 saying:
“Your Grandest ideas are as yet unexpressed, and your grandest vision unlived.
But wait! Look! Notice!! The days of your blossoming are at hand. The stalk has grown strong, and the petals are soon to open. And I tell you this: The beauty and the fragrance of your flowering shall fill the land, and you shall yet have your place in the Garden of the Gods.”
I’d like to lighten things up a bit today. No complaining. No calling people out.
Today I would like to compliment humanity! I’d like to take notice of what we are doing right…what is actually working!
Of course, the largest thing to point out is that there are so many of us having the conversations that could change our world! We are actively talking about spirituality in politics, we are talking about the environment and its economic and social impact. And we are doing more than talking. We are actually deciding that we are the ones who can do something about what we see.
We are doing things large and small. People like Marianne Williamson are moving from their comfort zones and entering the political fray. Housewives like me are moving out of the house and onto the blogosphere and into the streets and honoring our hippy heritage! We are turning off lights, installing water efficient toilets, walking, biking, driving fuel efficient cars. We are taking care of our bodies. I, personally, have not used shampoo (baking soda and water only!) for over a year; I do not drink soda, I have gone to a naturopath to lower my blood pressure instead of using drugs. We are recycling and re-using. We are noticing what the human impact is having on creatures large and small, and all of nature.
In other words, we are walking the walk, not just talking the talk. We are Being the change we wish to see…or at least more and more are doing so…and more than we know are doing so.
I know it may seem as though nothing we do will make any difference in the total scheme of things…but that would be a wrong thought. Everything we do makes a difference. There is no separating one another from what we do. There is no one whose effort, no matter how seemingly small, is less than. For, just as the ocean is made up of billions of individual drops of water, so, too, is global change made up of billions of small changes. Our living the change is going to demonstrate, to all who see, our understanding of who we are, and our Oneness, and invite them to examine a different way. Let’s not be arrogant and fall into the trap of thinking our way is the only way, but be open to all ideas.
I am patting us all on the head for starting the dialog, because all great change begins with small conversations, as Neale has pointed out in his most eloquent way. I am giving us all the thumbs up for doing our small part…for creating our places in the Garden of the Gods.
Today I leave you with a little poem that I wrote:
T.
DROP
A pool of deep,black,
Water,
Light glowing upon the
Surface,
Illuminating the endless
Circles,
Created by the single
Drop.
Do you see it?
Asked
God.
I said,
Yes.
Then, said
God,
Be
The
Drop.
~Therese
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
Here we go again. The good old death penalty has reared its ugly head here in the United States in horrific fashion.
The Associated Press headline read: “Okla. inmate dies of heart attack in botched execution”
The story recounted how, using a new, untested, lethal injection drug resulted in Clayton Lockett “writhing and clenching his teeth on the gurney Tuesday, leading prison officials to halt the proceedings before the inmate’s eventual death from a heart attack.”
It went on to say that “The blinds were eventually lowered to prevent those in the viewing gallery from watching what was happening in the death chamber, and the state’s top prison official eventually called a halt to the proceedings.”
“It was a horrible thing to witness. This was totally botched,” said Lockett’s attorney, David Autry.
Oh, so many thoughts are dancing around in my mind. I think of how Christians have been told to leave the old ways behind (old testament, an eye for an eye) and
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
Then I move into CWG mode with excerpts from “Conversations With God, Book 1”
“Should societies use killing as a response to those who violate behavioral codes? . . . Is there a difference between killing and murder? . . .
Society would have you believe that killing to punish those who commit certain offenses (these have changed through the years) is perfectly defensible. In fact, society must have you take its word for it in order to exist as an entity of power. . . .
Do you believe these positions are correct? Have you taken another’s word for it? What does your Self have to say? There is no “right” or “wrong” in these matters. But by your decisions you paint a portrait of Who You Are. . . .”
It is the last statement that jumps out at me.
“But by your decisions you paint a portrait of Who You Are. . . .”
The United States paints, at best, a confusing portrait of who it is, and the rest of the world wants us to make up our minds, and is doing its part to help us make a decision. How? They are refusing to sell us the drugs required to execute.
As a recent New York Post article put it:
“EU nations are notorious for disagreeing on just about everything when it comes to common policy, but they all strongly — and proudly — agree on one thing: abolishing capital punishment.
Europe saw totalitarian regimes abuse the death penalty as recently as the 20th century, and public opinion across the bloc is therefore staunchly opposed to it.
The EU’s uncompromising stance has set off a cat-and-mouse game, with U.S. corrections departments devising new ways to carry out lethal injections only to hit updated export restrictions within months.”
“Our political task is to push for an abolition of the death penalty, not facilitate its procedure,” said Barba Lochbihler, chairwoman of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on human rights.
The United States seems to not see that it is in violation of Human Rights.
I think that anyone who is for the death penalty must ask themselves these questions:
If the blinds had to be “eventually lowered to prevent those in the viewing gallery from watching what was happening in the death chamber”, what does that say about the “rightness” of what was going on behind those blinds?
What makes this kind of killing somehow more “wrong” than with the other death cocktail?
Might there be something about ourselves, and our connection to everyone that we deny whenever we rationalize the taking of another life, for whatever reason? What is the death penalty really about?
Why keep testing for the best way to kill someone rather investing in how to allow someone to live a life in which they would never even think of killing?
What portrait are we painting of ourselves as individuals, and as a nation?
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
I have an online friend I met probably 15 years ago on a site that offered self-designated “experts” an opportunity to answer questions posted by readers. I signed up as an “expert” in more than 20 categories ranging from spirituality to divorce to GLBT relationships to death and dying. (The site offered hundreds of categories on everything from art to motorcycle repair to accounting. If you had a question, there was most likely a category for it to be asked.) Over the course of approximately 2 1/2 years while this site was in existence, this one questioner and I developed an online friendship that continued after the site closed down and we still interact on at least a weekly basis through other online venues. To say that this friend and I have opposite views on how to solve many of the issues challenging the world today would be an understatement.
To my friend, everything is a competition with a clear winner and a clear loser. And if you’re not the winner, you’re not trying hard enough. If you are the winner and you won “fair and square” (although what’s “fair and square” is a matter of debate), then you deserve everything you “won” and you’re under no obligation to share it with anyone else, no matter how badly someone else may need it. “Winners” are hard-working, reliable, dependable, employed, self-reliant; “losers” are unemployed, those on welfare or other public assistance (which indicates they are lazy, not resourceful (“where there’s a will there’s a way!”), slackers and freeloaders), needy and unreliable (if you can’t even support yourself, how can others (like family) rely on you to support them?). To my friend, there is this black and white world where you are one or the other: there is no middle ground. There are no other options. There is no compromise. If it’s mine, it’s mine and you have no right to try to take it from me or even to ask me to give it to you. If I choose to give it to you, then I am proving I am indeed a winner because I am willing to help the losers.
For 15 years, this friend and I have been debating social issues. We have, at the very least, demonstrated that it is possible for those on the polar opposite sides to have a civilized discussion about the issues, even if we never reach any sort of agreement on how to resolve those issues. But neither of us has had the least bit of success in “changing” the other’s mind about how to resolve the plethora of problems facing humanity today. Then one day I had an “Aha!” moment wherein I realized that while our solutions may be totally opposite, our goals are the same. We both want a world in which each individual is able to live according to the beliefs s/he holds dear without undue interference from the “outside” world.
In the CwG material, God tells us that all the problems in the world stem from the belief that we are separate from God and from each other. From this belief of separation, all the other illusions spring forth: that God requires something of us, that there is not enough for everyone and therefore we must compete with each other, even justifying killing each other to get what we need, that some of us are better than others because we are following the “right” path according to “God’s word”, etc. God also says that no matter what policies we change, no matter how we do things differently, nothing in our world is going to become what we say we want until we change one very basic thing: our beliefs about God and how we “relate” to God.
So after 15 years, I am done debating policy and procedure with my friend. It’s pointless because we humans, when challenged about the things we believe, tend to “dig in” and believe even harder, especially when someone points to factual evidence that counters what we believe. (There is actually a name for this: it’s called the “backfire effect”.) The more I try to show my friend that the way s/he wants to do things, the way that we’ve been doing it since the mid-80’s, is not working, the more s/he believes that the way we’ve been doing it just hasn’t been given a long enough chance to work!
But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up. Not at all. Just a change in strategies. The focus has to be on our Oneness. Those seeds have to be planted over and over and over again. Every response to those who still live in the fear that is virtually automatically generated by a “separatist” philosophy will contain the seeds of Oneness. Those seeds are plenty and are found throughout most sacred texts buried among the atrocities they ascribe to the Divine. We must dig them up from this fearful earth they have been planted in for the last two millenia and replant them, allowing them to bloom when planted in the field of Love. We may not be able to change their minds, but we may be able “change” their hearts.
“…The power to create is derived from the inner strength that is produced through unity.
Stop thinking of yourself as separate, and all the true power that comes from the inner strength of unity is yours-as a worldwide society, and as an individual part of that whole—to wield as you wish.”
(CWG book 3, p.43)
When I read books like CWG, I like to to do the “my life” test. Are they just nice words, or do they somehow have meaning in my life. Can I see how the words might have already proven to be true in my life.
These words have. Let me tell you a little story.
One day, about 7 years ago, I went to a homeowners meeting in my neighborhood, and I asked if our neighborhood had considered a program for recycling. The President of the HOA said it was likely a question that should be asked of our local water district, at their Board meetings…and asked me if I would be the “committee” that went to the next meeting, and asked the question, representing our neighborhood. I decided I would, since it was clear that the others in attendance were also in favor of recycling.
So, I went to the Water Board and asked them if they would consider recycling. They kindly informed me that they had looked into it about 5 years before, but no one was interested. I then simply said, “I’m interested.” They said they would look again, and told me to come back in a month to the next meeting.
So I did…and they had forgotten to look into it. So I told them I was still interested. They said they would look into it, and come back next month.
So I did…and I brought with me facts and figures that I had found on the internet that supported the need for recycling. (At that time the U.S. actually threw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire U.S. commercial air fleet!) The Board had looked into it this time, and had some preliminary pricing, and possible vendors! The Board then said they would consider it, and asked me to come back next month.
So I did! This time they discussed it in the open meeting. This time they voted on it…and approved it! We had recycling! Not only did we have recycling in my neighborhood, we had it in the whole water district. Not only did we have it, but they had a fund surplus and the first year was going to be paid for by the surplus.
I was stunned that one person, sitting patiently, simply letting her Water Board know that she was sincerely interested in recycling, took only 4 months to achieve her goal.
That was my ego talking, of course, because right after that last meeting one of the Board members took me aside and said that he had been trying to get recycling for years, and thanked me for coming to the meetings, month after month, to show that I was serious, and get the Board to act.
I realized that I was the person put in the right place at the right time to join with him in achieving his goal that had become mine as well. This, in addition to the President of the HOA who empowered my purpose by giving me the “committee” status, and the other homeowners who united with me in purpose at that same meeting.
I understood, then, that one person really does have the power to achieve great things in their world…especially if they realize they are never really alone, and actively work with others to achieve those great things! And I understand now that the words of CWG above pass the “my life” test.
The question I now ask of you: What little change might you be able to make in your home, neighborhood, or city, (or office, church and more!) that would come to life, if only someone were willing to give it voice? How can you join in someone else’s goal? How can you demonstrate that one is really ONE? How can you/have you test(ed) the words you read in your life?
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
Today, Tuesday, March 25th, is my husband’s birthday. When I asked him a few days ago what he wanted for his birthday, he answered, “World peace.” So, being the loving wife that I am, I am going to see what I can do to fulfill his request.
I have been thinking lately about how the premise of this site is that the root cause of the problems of the world is our separation theology, and thinking about how that manifests, not in the obvious things, like war, violent crime, etc., but in things that touch our lives every day. And that word, “touch” seems to me to be a key.
We have made touch, the most basic and fundamental human connection possible, suspect, and all but impossible too often. In Korea it is getting a little less strict I am told, but when I lived there in the mid 1990’s, a woman didn’t even hold hands with a man until he was her fiance. In order to receive the human touch craved, men held hands with men, and women with women…I witnessed soldiers lined up in pairs as security for a Michael Jackson concert holding hands.
I had a Japanese foreign exchange student shyly tell us that she had a very traditional father who never touched her, and after having my husband include her in the cuddles with our daughters, she realized how much she not only missed her father’s touch, but needed it.
My own father, (and many fathers of daughters of his generation onward), upon the noticing that my body was transforming from girl to woman, stopped touching and hugging me, lest he be labeled as a perverted father.
My mother observed that hers was a “proper” British family where displays of affection, public or otherwise, were simply not expected.
I think that it is little wonder that the sex trade is burgeoning with touch being so regulated, and women and men now constantly on the lookout for inappropriate touch…so much so that we now do not touch one another with any affection for fear of being charged with harassment.
Do not for one moment get me wrong, though, women, and men have been subjected to genuine harassment and this was truly an issue that was rightfully dealt with. I have very intimate knowledge of “inappropriate” touch. But there has been equally genuine, in my view, collateral damage caused by the “fix”. Touch became off limits entirely, in any workplace or casual setting. One often deems it too dangerous to figure out where the line between okay and not okay is, and we perpetuate our physical isolation out of fear of litigation.
Because of this lack of, but, none the less requirement for, touch, massage, an acceptable way of being touched, has burgeoned as well, thank goodness, but it is not enough. It is still only the touch of a stranger.
I’m moving closer to my gift to my husband, I promise you!
I am a hugger. Oh, how I like to hug! I didn’t know I liked to hug until, at age 19, when I was in a church folk group, the group visited a Charismatic church of another denomination, and everyone hugged! I returned home and began hugging everyone! This was not in the comfort zone, to be sure, and 40 years later there is still one brother whom I hug, but much more formally, because it remains uncomfortable for him. BUT…one day, a while after I began hugging, my mother thanked me for bringing hugging back into the family. She had missed it.
A friend recently posted something on Facebook that indicated hugs longer than 20 seconds do wonderful things to our bodies, akin to falling in love! I understand that completely, and I think most of us innately do. I have had this demonstrated to me on more than one occasion. I was once, for instance, at a gathering with old friends in Taiwan, and, with the wait staff formally lined up outside in the hall, I hugged every old friend as I said goodbye to them. When the last of my friends was properly hugged, I looked over at the wait staff, and one of them put out her hands in a gesture that said, “Me, too?” No English involved, only the power of touch…and each and every staff person stepped into my arms for their hug of appreciation, and connection!
Two days ago was also my 41st wedding anniversary, and talking about touch reminds me of when, after I had been married just over a year, my husband asked me if I still loved him. I was stunned! I asked him what would make him ask such a thing, and his response was, “You hardly ever touch me any more.” That was the moment that I recognized that the way I was raised, with touch being minimal, was being passed on through me. I consciously changed that. In fact, just last week an old friend of mine commented that she liked being around us because we still laugh…and we still touch one another affectionately!
In another exampling instance, I gave my husband a hug in the grocery store a couple of weeks ago. I was simply happy to be with him after being on an extended trip away from him. A few minutes later a man tapped me on the shoulder and told me how wonderful it was that I did that, and in public, and actually thanked me!
So, here I am, after remembering all of these things, and thinking about what this site is all about, and what my husband’s birthday wish is…and I am going to ask all who read to look at their own lives and see where simple human touch is lacking. I am going to ask all to be open to falling in love with another person for twenty seconds and give a meaningful hug…to your child, to your parents, to your spouse, or even to a stranger that you can just sense needs a hug.
I am going to ask you to be open enough, to be vulnerable enough to ask someone for a hug when you need it. It could literally be the beginning of reaching out, knowing you are not alone, that saves your life.
I am going to ask you to stop some of the separateness in our world, by stopping, literally, some of the physical separation in your world. I have observed that when we feel physically connected, we feel an impulse to connect in even more profound ways.
I am asking you to transform the world through the power of touch…that I may give my husband World Peace for his birthday.
Happy Birthday, sweetie…I love you hugely!
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
I remember the exact date that my path in life began going in directions I had never even thought about. It was February 5, 1983. I was going to be the DM for a group of friends who were getting together to play Dungeons & Dragons at the apartment of a girl I worked with at a fast food restaurant. Her boyfriend had driven out to one of his classmate’s houses to bring him into the city to play. The minute his friend walked into the room, I turned to my co-worker, who was sitting beside me, and said, “I’m going to marry that man.” I was so sure (without any reason to be sure! I didn’t even know his name at this point!) that I asked him to move in with me that night and two weeks later, he did just that.
His beliefs were about as far from the Roman Catholic up-bringing as they could be and it was through many long talks with him that I started down the spiritual path that led me to my current faith (or, as I prefer to call it, knowledge!) On that journey, I learned from my different teachers: Richard Bach, Shirley MacLaine, Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson, Ann Hardin Strauss, June Burke, Neale Donald Walsch,…the list is long. While every one of those teachers had a different way of explaining what they were teaching, they were ultimately teaching the same thing: that we are where we are in our life because of choices we have made, either consciously or on deep soul level.
I have shared my beliefs with many people over the last 30 years in many different ways through many different forums and I have found that most people are very resistant to the idea that they are the co-creators of their universe. One would think that such an idea would be joyously embraced! We no longer have to feel victimized! We can feel empowered and make choices as to where we want our life to go with total freedom! But so many people get caught in a trap, confusing responsibility with blame.
To say that there are no victims immediately puts someone’s defenses up. “What about someone who is raped? What about children who are abused? What about the couple who are sleeping in their beds and someone comes in an murders them? Are you saying they’re responsible for their own rape? Their own abuse? Their own murders?”
Yes, I assure them, that is exactly what I’m saying.
Before I can clarify anymore, the response that follows is usually something along the lines of, “You have one screwed up belief system if you think those people are to blame for the things that happened to them through no fault of their own!”
Responsibility and blame are not the same thing. We often use the words interchangeably but they are vastly different in this spiritual context.
Responsibility means simply that one acknowledges that one’s choices have co-created the situation in which they find themselves. For example, for the couple murdered in their beds, they chose where to live, they chose whether or not to be home that night, they chose to be sleeping at that time. What other deep soul choices they made are not something we can determine, but it is certain that they were made because otherwise the event would not have happened!
Blame, on the other hand, implies that someone did something wrong. (Yes, I know that there really is no such thing as “right” or “wrong”, but these are the limitations of our language when discussing these issues.) That if they had done “X” instead of “Y”, they could have avoided being murdered. Moreover, blame can also imply that the person should have known better than to choose “X” and should have no better and chosen “Y” from the start!
The couple who is murdered is not responsible for the actions of their murderer. They are only responsible for their own actions and choices. Those choices, along with those of the murderer, were such that at that point in time, their choices brought them all into the same time and space. At that moment when their “timelines” crossed, the murderer had several choices and the couple is not responsible for any of them.
I think another reason so many people have difficulty with the concept of being responsible for where we are in life is that they don’t believe that someone would make a soul choice that would result in their being subjected to rape or abuse or murder. The idea that someone would “sacrifice” their long-term physical safety in order to allow their fellow human beings to demonstrate Who They Really Are is something many people seem to be unable to accept. The reasons for that, in my humble opinion, can be traced back to religious ideals. But that’s discussion is for another day.
I think the following short story illustrates the idea of “sacrifice” very nicely.
I know a man who had a very abusive father. I once asked this man, in the early stages of my new spiritual journey, why he would choose to have an abusive father.
His answer was simple and yet eloquent. “Because I had the ability to stop the cycle of abuse.”
Accepting responsibility is not the same as accepting blame. Accepting responsibility empowers us to take control of our lives and make it what we want it to be. It allows us to respond to life in whatever manner we choose! Accepting blame relegates us to being victims of another’s actions. We must react to what life gives us and give up control of our lives to those who have “victimized” us.
Which option sounds better to you?
I was thinking about “welfare” today. As it exists in the United States, of course. I looked up some statistics.
Money spent on Welfare in the U.S. was “$1.03 trillion on 83 means-tested federal welfare programs in fiscal year 2011 alone,” according to Read more:
It also seems that if one forsakes the normal systems entirely, and lives on the streets, asking only what each individual person has in their heart or ability to share, it is still not acceptable. To highlight this point Mormon Bishop David Musselman disguised himself as a homeless person and entered a Sunday service. The congregation was less than welcoming. In the U.S. alone, there are 600,000+ homeless…although statistics seem to show that number is dropping. Read more:
Money spent on prisons in the U. S. was about $74 billion a year, and makes the U.S. have the largest incarceration rate in the world, according to —— and other sources, and “The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world not because it has higher crime rates, but because it imprisons more types of criminal offenders, including non-violent and drug offenders, and keeps them in prison longer.” Read more:
While the financial numbers are disparate, to be sure, isn’t a LOT a lot? It occurred to me that Progressives and Conservatives alike are providing “Welfare” but simply calling it something that agrees with the way they believe human society should function. Some consider that we are “our brother’s keeper”, and others believe in “an eye for an eye”. And while I am well aware that I am speaking primarily of my knowledge of America, I am not ignorant of caning and stoning and inhumane prison conditions in the rest of the world.
My question is this…Why is the thought of directly helping people so abhorrent that we have to create a world in which we virtually demand that people commit a crime, or beg, in order to be taken care of? Do we continue to create more and more poverty so that the rich can feel superior, and vindicated by giving to people made to beg in some way? Is this the accepted way of giving and receiving among us these days?
As CWG states, all attack is a cry for help. Why don’t we, as a world for the most part, see that “criminals” are, at their root cause, asking for help? Aaahh, that might be the crux, might it not? Who/what benefits from the current system? Might it be the private prison system, that is incentivized by states guaranteeing a certain number of prisoners? Might it be a current political clime that operates under a fear and power paradigm? Maybe.
These “criminals” are part of a much larger picture. How is it that their cries for help, from a very young age, and culturally, have been ignored? Is it possible that our cultures come from our understandings of how God treats us? Is it possible that a God who will punish with eternal damnation will also ask us to “spare the rod, spoil the child”? Operate under the “eye for an eye” model? Obviously, for many.
What creates the need for a welfare system of any kind? What kinds of government and corporate structures reinforce the paradigm?
Is it also possible that the conflict within humanity at this time knows that we are all One, and that we should take care of one another, with no condition, but is pulled by all around us to act within the punishment paradigm? What might that marriage of those conflicting thoughts produce? To me, it produces prisons. It produces people who believe they have to be bad, and forgiven, to be given succor, and community. It produces a system of Prison as Welfare.
I believe it is time to begin reforming God, not reforming prisons or the welfare system.
It is time, to look at the duality of our belief system that at once says that we have a punishing God, and a Loving God in the same breath.
Which is it?
It is, and of course, as always, up to us to decide. Up to you, and to me, to Be the change we wish to see. It is time to be honest enough with ourselves to notice whether or not this duality feels true to us. It is time to be brave enough to admit it to ourselves if it does not.
I know how difficult this can be. I used to have what I call “half completed sentence” dialogs with myself….”if God really is all loving, how could he…? If I really am created in the image and likeness of God, why am I…?” Stop that thought! If I didn’t compete it, I hadn’t fully sinned! More accurately, if I didn’t complete it, I wouldn’t have to do anything about it, and risk angering and/or disappointing others. I wouldn’t lose what I had, even though I knew instinctively it wasn’t working.
When the circle of thought brings us back to ourselves, what does that mean in terms of everyday life? I believe it means it is time to notice, within ourselves, if we are angry and sad and reach out for someone to help us understand. I believe it is time to notice those around us who seem to be struggling to find a place in this world, and be there for them. To hear their unvoiced cries for help. I believe it is time to consider that God does not ask us to beg…but does ask us to understand one another, and I most fervently believe that Goddess asks us to know that the greatest joy in life comes from giving, with full and open heart and soul, to others. Indeed, I believe this is all we are here for. Reform God, and we just may not have any need to have people begging, in any form, for what it takes to live in this world, and we just may reform it all.
How are you “reforming” God?
This is that special time of year when we dream about peace. We visualize prosperity and proclaim that old acquaintance be forgot. We experience the giving and receiving of gifts and most people find themselves feeling rather charitable. Yes, compassion fills our hearts and olive branches are extended. The world’s armies put down their guns and break bread with their opponents. We all come together and unite for a fleeting moment on Christmas Day.
Well, at least that is how all the songs and movies depict it anyway. What actually happens for many this time of year doesn’t quite fit the bill of “joyful and triumphant!” Many people find themselves stressed over the financial burden of the holidays or the pressure to purchase the perfect gift for their special someone. How could I not mention those in recovery and those who are still suffering with addictions?
This time of year can be very challenging to the newly sober person. There are Christmas parties where even casual drinkers drink too much. The expectation is to let loose and live it up. For a recovering person, this isn’t an option and most people can’t understand that. For those with addiction, one is too many and a thousand is never enough.
But the end of the year is a great time to reflect over the past twelve months. It is good to look at our lives from time to time and decide what is working for us and what is not. For many, we will look at our physical condition and decide that it is time to make some changes. Come January 2nd, the gyms, yoga studios, Pilates classes and the YMCA will be standing room only for three or four weeks.
Deep inside, all of us are yearning for the same things: happiness, joy, contentment, peace, and freedom. We just have no idea how to get it. Does it come from things? Does it come from others? If you love me, will everything be okay? Do we attain happiness from money, food, sex, drugs, being right? What is it? And why do we have such a difficult time finding it and holding on to it?
I believe we have set up a system of living that just flat out doesn’t work. Most would say, “If I had more money, I would be happy.” The facts simply don’t prove that. Very few people who win the lottery actually find happiness. Many end up in a deeper pit of despair in a very short time.
Happiness is a decision. Not a simple one, I might add, but it is a decision. And it would seem many of us are simply incapable of making that decision. Why do you think that is? Is it our ego? Are we hardwired for “my way or the highway”? Isn’t it time we break out of the “do it my way or else” paradigm?
I believe that we are becoming more conscious with time. I can look as far as my own life and see that my own beliefs have changed drastically since I was a child. I have expanded my view of the world and strive to continue to do so. I can also see in the children of today that they appear to be well-equipped to take us to a higher place.
I choose to believe we are going there. In fact, I believe we are already there; we just don’t know it yet. When asked, “Why do you strive to change the world’s view of God?” my reply is simple. It would appear to me that the world’s perspective of what God is and wants for us isn’t working. Now, I am not going to force my belief on anyone, but I do not hesitate to bring it up in conversation when I see the opportunity. I know my perspective of God changed, so why can’t others? Why can’t we all keep an open, flowing, and ever-willing-to-change view of God?
Let me ask you this: If given the opportunity to be right or be happy, which would you take? Now to take that one step further. If all you had to do was consider that what you believe to be true about God may not be the whole truth, and by doing so could bring you to a higher state of happiness, joy and freedom, would you take it?
(Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional and auriculotherapist. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, life coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery and also co-facilitates spiritual recovery retreats for the CWG foundation. You can visit his website here for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)
This idea has been swimming in my head for a very long time. At one point in time, I was corresponding with more than 30 inmates in various correctional institutions around the country. The charges ranged from simple burglary to murder. One was even on death row.
I got to know them as men and women, not as criminals. They wrote about their families and about their dreams and their hopes for the future. They were poets, songwriters and artists. Several times a week, my mailbox would be graced with an envelope that was beautifully decorated by an inmate. I used to have a collage of many of these works of art, but sadly, I lost it in a house fire.
I was inspired by these men and women to rethink my ideas about those who commit crimes. To see them not as someone who got what they deserved, as “low life” who don’t deserve any of the “good things” in life, but as a human being who had made some ineffective choices.
I am aware that most people see the justice system as a means of making sure the criminal “gets what s/he deserves”, but I have long seen the justice system as a means of “rehabilitating” those incarcerated within its prison walls. It long ago ceased to make any sense to me to throw these people into cages, treat them like animals, deny them access to any means of bettering themselves and then, when we release them, to be surprised that they return to a life of crime!
A recent insight that came to me is that most crime is about trying to feel in control in a world that feels out of control on so many levels. Those who work in rape crisis centers have long been aware that rape is not a sex crime: it is a crime about power and control. Those who work in women’s shelters have long been aware that domestic violence is not about uncontrollable anger but about power and control over another. (The other crimes are where people just don’t think—they have a momentarily lapse of judgment and make a “stupid” decision. Like someone who shoplifts a cigarette lighter when they have the money in their pocket to pay for it.)
In the CwG material, God tells us that no one does anything inappropriate given his/her view of the world. And then recently, in What God Said, I read:
- [T]he Conversations with God theology suggests that the only motivation that makes sense to our Soul is the goal of experiencing, expressing, and demonstrating Divinity. So we will, as enlightened beings, seek to do “what works” to produce that experience from moment to moment.
It was a sort of “Aha!” moment for me. How “enlightened” we are will determine “what works” for us to produce that experience of Divinity. And what, at its base, is the experience of Divinity? That of creating the life that we choose. And for those who are “less enlightened”, this is experienced as being the one who calls the shots. Being “in control.”
This logically leads to one conclusion: a criminal is seeking to express and demonstrate their view and understanding of Divinity! The creative energy that is part of that divinity manifests as taking control of others to create the world they want when they want it! It is “what works” for them to fulfill that drive to experience Divinity. Until they get caught.
It’s already evident that “getting tough on crime” doesn’t work. Rather than seeking harsher penalties and more jail time for those who have violated the social mores of their culture, perhaps it would be more effective to help them find further enlightenment so the next time they choose to express their Divinity, no one else is adversely affected.
Thoughts are creative.
“Does this mean all of our thoughts? Every single thing we think, every minute, all day long?
No. And it is important to understand this. Otherwise we’ll wind up making our-selves crazy, trying to monitor every single thought that runs through our mind.
And that is an interesting phrase: “runs through.” If a thought “runs through” your Mind, it does just that. It runs through.
MOST thoughts DO that. They run through our mind like water through a sieve. Such thoughts have very little creative power. They’re moving through our Mind too quickly to build up enough energy to impact physicality.
It is only those thoughts that stick in our Mind that have power. What gives our thoughts power is the repeated thinking of them.
This places energy upon energy, building it up until it really MATTERS. That is: energy becomes physical matter.
SO!!!… if you notice that an idea is running through your Mind that you don’t like…. DON’T GIVE IT A SECOND THOUGHT. I mean that literally!
It’s your second thought that gives it power. (To say nothing of your third, fourth, and fifth thought.) If you repeatedly think something, you can be sure that you are magnifying its power.
This is the same thing as a thought being held in Mind not only ONCE… but by A LOT OF PEOPLE at the SAME TIME. This, too, magnifies the power of thought.
That is why collective prayer works.” Neale Donald Walsch.
Cravings, urges, compulsions, and obsessions are nothing more than our minds giving second, third, fourth, fifth etc… thoughts to an idea that should have just ran through our mind. When we can harness the power of recognizing a thought that no longer represents who we say we are, and make a decision not to pay attention to it, we remove energy from the negative and turn it into a positive.
And it is what we are Be-ing that is so very important in our existence here. Most of us think we are doing sobriety and that can indicate that sobriety is only a temporary state for us. When we decide it is our state of BEING, it becomes a permanent character attribute, one that we should wear on our sleeves so to speak.
Creating successful transformations from any patterned behavior requires an initial period of discipline before the newly chosen behavior becomes the norm. We perform regular functions so often, many times we find we do them without even thinking about them.
This is what I have found to be true of recovery. In the beginning I would entertain thoughts of using. What kept me from acting those out? I was also learning new behavior at the time. The new behavior I was learning was to seek help with my thinking problem. Sharing with other like-minded people, that I was having these thoughts, removed the power from them.
Over time, many months to over a year, the thoughts of using drugs or alcohol became less and less. To the point where, I can honestly say, I do not think about that anymore — ever. I am keenly aware, however, that the absence of cravings or obsession does not make me somehow “fixed” of my addictive nature.
You can see why a program of recovery from addictive or compulsive behaviors suggests that a person go to meetings on a daily basis. When we place our-selves in the rooms with other like-minded people, we are not only building energy upon our new sober thinking, but we are using the collective thoughts of the group to strengthen our resolve.
In order to manifest your hearts desires you must follow some simple steps.
- You must believe it is possible.
- You must acknowledge you are capable of creating it.
- You must set your thoughts in motion to creating this.
- You must be disciplined in keeping your mind focused on the task.
- Keeping in mind there is no such thing as time; remember to be grateful that what you wish already exists. In the program we call this “acting as if.”
Many times we allow our impatience to sidetrack us from our goals. We tire of all the work and no apparent movement towards our respective task. Ultimately, we give up and say things like, “oh well, it just wasn’t meant to be.” I call hogwash on the concept of “meant to be.” If some things are “meant to be”, then, others would be “not meant to be.”
If that is the case then we really do not have free will and we are simply the pawn in some sick twisted game being played out by a higher life form. If you believe the latter, you may want to ask yourself; what would the purpose of physicality be for the creator of all of this?
I am aware of the challenges of being disciplined in our thoughts. Negativity can creep in and take way our momentum. I find a few things can help to keep us on our path.
- Having a vision board
- Having an accountability buddy
- Being involved in a group of like-minded people.
- Starting the day with a reminder that what you wish is already in existence
- Ending the day with thanks for the experience of the journey
- Taking at least one action per day towards your goal
These are just a few of the ways we can remain true to our commitments. If you have others please feel free to share them in the comments section below. What works for you? What hasn’t worked? How can we support you? How can you support us?
(Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional and auriculotherapist. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, life coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery and also co-facilitates spiritual recovery retreats for the CWG foundation. You can visit his website here for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)
