The stories we tell ourselves...

So many adjectives have been used to describe Marianne Williamson. I have no new ones to offer. Her presentation last week left me enthralled, engaged and inspired.

Yet, driving home, there was a feeling of unease, a niggling that I couldn’t quite put words to. I think she was the culmination of several conversations I’ve had recently about the world we live in, and what we must do.

She spoke with great eloquence and conviction about the issues of the day, stating that although we are not at the 12^th hour of our doom as a species, we are at the 11^th hour, with time still to make different choices about how we live and serve on this planet; that we are on the Titanic heading for the iceberg, but with enough room to manoeuver out of the way. That love and service are what we need to heal all that is currently divided, but that perhaps the depth of the majority who love isn’t as evident (or as exercised) as the depth of the minority who hate.

The call to action is to love more deeply, to choose whatever you are most passionate about fixing, and to go out there and fix it.

I understand that we must acknowledge and see what is before us. And I applaud and admire her activism, her message to bring love back into every element and structure of our society.

I’m just not sure I agree with the story of our imminent destruction.

Based on what we see with our physical eyes, it is only natural to come to that conclusion.

But we all see with other eyes. We all interpret the physical world through the lens of our beliefs. And we all give birth to the world of our imagination. They form the stories we tell ourselves. And all stories are grounded either in the myth of separation or the truth of inclusion.

I believe in action grounded in strong spiritual foundations; in Universal Love.

An angry heart cannot create peace in its world.

A vengeful mind cannot be inspired to higher, inclusive thought.

As strong as the “haters” may be, they can never be as strong as the energy we feed them.

Our placing them “there”, and then layering our judgments of their actions upon them, does not heal them, us or the situation. Only loving them, with all their perceived imperfections and “hatreds” can do that. That doesn’t mean we condone their actions, but we stand firm in our love for them, even when it appears we are changing nothing.

“They” are not separate from “us”. They ARE us. We are them. They are an extension of our currently-limited definition of what is “self”. Loving the “self” is not just loving me. It is loving me AND everyone in my reality.

Until we can LOVE this world, and all its players, exactly the way it is, then I’m not sure we can be the alchemists we all wish to be, activating the highest energy within us, which is Love, to turn the base metal of fear into the golden elixir of light.

I believe all solutions and possibilities exist. I don’t know where they are, exactly. This place has been called by many names: the non-physical, parallel universe, other dimensions… the label to me doesn’t matter. Long before a solution can be made manifest in our physical reality, I believe it is worked out in the non-physical planes first. The answers are there, but in our focus on the injustice/divisiveness/anger/fear/hopelessness/retribution, we block off those answers from arising.

That’s why, for me, the work of peace or love or compassion is inner. Until we can master our emotions, our thoughts...whether by meditation, healing work, whatever… we cannot be still enough for those inspirations to enter. Or for us to look clearly into those waters and see the inner shi(f)t that needs to be cleared.

In my story of the world, those inspirations and shifts are happening all the time. They are happening in the hearts and minds of even the most despicable and fear-filled person. I believe these individuals are not only capable of change, but that they are indeed changing all the time. If I cannot see them as capable of change, then they will never change. This, to me, is what it means to open my heart and stand in love: to offer this vision and energy not only to those easy to love, but to the so-called oppressor and enemy. This is what a light-worker and healer is all about.

I don’t know for certain the answers to any of the issues facing us today (yet), but I do know that I won’t get my answer standing in condemnation of them. If I am the faucet to an ocean of possibilities and solutions, then my judgments/sentencing of the person or situation will close the tap.

I walked 5000 kilometres for peace, believing that I had to DO something to create peace. The longer I walked, the more I realized I had some serious internal house-cleaning to do myself. That house-cleaning revealed that I held deep-seated judgments about who was right and who was wrong. Who the victim was, and who the oppressor was. The journey for me has been about loving BOTH, understanding BOTH, seeing that we are all brothers on a journey, and sometimes brothers lose their way. They forget who they are. They commit heinous acts.

But they are still whole, spiritual beings. Service sees them in that light, sees their perfection, sees their sacred nature, and suspends the mind’s need to comprehend to the grand mystery that is life. They are not broken, and in need of fixing. They are not weak, and in need of help. They are not less than you or I. They are whole, and from my place of wholeness, I offer light.   

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions,” said Einstein.

I agree with that. Our capacity to imagine and dream, infused with passion and love, are powerful elixirs for transformation and creation. In my imagination, I can transform the “corrupt politician”, “greedy business leader”, “terrorist” or “murderer”. I can embrace them, forgiving myself for the role I have played through lifetimes in creating them, forgiving them for not knowing another way, thanking them for taking on this role so that we may see our buried individual and collective darkness manifested… and in so doing, heal it, and lay the foundation for the “coming attraction”.

Would a loving God not tell each and every one of us the same thing?

If you believe your life is a projection of your inner life, then are you not forgiving yourself in this process?

If we are One, as all spiritual teachings indicate, then are you not embracing your self…that part of you that lives in fear and darkness, and that has perhaps acted in less-than-loving ways in your eternal Soul journey?

If each and every one of us were to do this work in our own minds and hearts, would we not be shifting consciousness, birthing a new reality?

Would we not be activists?

Something in me says, yes indeed. Together, we would be bringing into manifestation the world of our highest imaginings.

And what a magnificent world that would be.