Is It My Move?
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| A Question of Responsibility |
LIFE is about change... and our ability to work with it and adapt to it... I feel, acquiring skill at navigating change is, therefore, one of LIFE's most important lessons! I've also found it takes courage to let go of my need to try to control LIFE.... It's been important for me to learn to allow LIFE and its changes to happen to me instead; giving IT time to reveal the requirements so I can act appropriately... Appropriate action too, hasn't often been my usual, off the cuff reaction... I've needed to learn to listen and understand as well as work and re-work my accustomed responses... It's taken a lot of work to arrive even a little closer to some kind of appropriate feeling response to the situations requiring change which LIFE has sent my way...
Again and again I see that for large, world change people want it to be legislated... possibly hoping the impact of such change hits someone else... the BIG corporations or the wealthy or... but NOT me... Certainly it's easier to have someone else sort out the complexities and tell us what to do... For smaller, more personal change too, it's often tempting to think someone else needs to be the one to make alterations... such as a spouse, a boss, a friend, a parent or... However, in my experience, although we often feel the necessity for change due to some out in the world circumstance... most frequently this is only a catalyst for some essential change inside oneself... a change in being, seeing or understanding and it is here, inside oneself that change is MOST challenging and difficult!
Consequently, I feel there might be another way to work with the situations we confront that seem to require changing... since so much of the real necessity for change seems to lie within, perhaps these out in the world changes are really best accomplished on a small individual scale... Concerning large, world change; if there are fewer buyers for a commodity, then there will also be fewer of such commodities manufactured and offered for sale and probably fewer companies selling them. By reducing my need or desire for something which feels detrimental for the whole I contribute positively to a larger solution... Unlike global, legislated change, the choices made by individuals won't be the same for everyone, but if we each do SOMETHING it's SURE to make a difference! For instance, if everyone turned their thermostats down as much as possible, a lot less energy would be used, making a "greener', better world for everyone... The sacrifices and difficulties born voluntarily by each individual will also spread the burden of the change "correctly", so each individual bears his proper share... I feel the same principle applies when smaller, more personal change feels necessary. In all the situations I've encountered in my life, I've found that there has always been some kind of positive, "right feeling" move I could make that would contribute or take the first steps towards a necessary change. I didn't have to place the entire burden of the change on someone else's shoulders... Furthermore, most often, once I'd adjusted my way of being, seeing or understanding, the out in the world situation clarified.. so the required steps were much easier to take. Perhaps this is a better way???
However, I've also found it necessary to do some "digging" inside before moving out into the world with my "solutions". Since my initial "automatic" responses to "pleasure" or "difficulty" have often been little more than repetitions of a "pattern" or "coping strategy" I've used in the past, I've needed to examine and re-work these extensively. They have, upon examination, been quite confused and have seldom been what I've chosen to do after I've worked to increase my understanding and ability to follow my inner guidance...
The question, I think, isn't what does someone else, such as a government, a politician, a large corporation, a boss, a spouse or another family member or... need to do to "correct" a problem... but what change can I make right now, in me, that would support a solution... What alterations to my life and the way I live it can I make to assist a necessary change becoming a reality? I just don't believe that individuals have to be organized into groups or be in a "powerful" position to have a voice and make a difference... After all, mountains are built out of nothing more than molecules of "sand"...
Something to think about... and a little more which "asked" to be included follows...
I haven't included contributions by others in the material I've posted on my web-site... but the following video and song "asked" to be included. It too, is about listening to one's inner guides, waiting for answers and then following where they lead... to effect change... The perspective is slightly different and it includes sound along with images as well as a few words, but I feel it supports what I've put here... I trust it adds to the content and quality of your contemplation/meditation... You can view the video & song here: http://www.healingchants.com/videos/Waiting.mp4.
At the end of the video there's a small advertisement for Norma Gentile and her work... It is my sense that we are all here to work on our own pieces of life's puzzle and her pieces may "fit" or resonate with yours or may not... It is up to you to decide if this single video and song is sufficient... or if you want to explore her work in greater depth...
I also feel inspired to share Norma's New Year Newsletter...
"Dear Friends,
Fortune telling, or future forecasting, is based on reading the probabilities of change. Most adults are set in their habits, so until some great obstacle presents itself, they will choose the same choice, complain about the outcome, and choose the same choice again.
But, every once in a while, that insurmountable obstacle appears. And suddenly the same choice simply isn't available. The same path cannot be trod.
When a multitude of people are suddenly faced with an insurmountable obstacle (COVID, earthquake, fire) this same multitude has to make different choices. As a result the rest of humanity is nudged, or sometimes pushed, into a new path that leads and encourages them away from choosing the same old choice.
After an obstacle appears in our life, we have a special choice. We can move forward in a new direction with wonderment about what each new step might bring, or curse the newness and use all of our energy to focus on returning to the old patterns.
This is a time in the yearly cycle of darkness and stillness. It is now that we can listen within and hear whether we are trying to somehow ascend and conquer the obstacle, allowing us to make the same choices as before, or if we have begun our new journey.
I am convinced that the congregation of Souls incarnating into Earth is wanting a new path. Thus what appears to be devastating is an opportunity to make new choices, prioritize differently, and open a new doorway for all of humanity.
May we each listen, and help write a new future based on new choices.
Blessings in the New Year to all of us,
-Norma"
I hope both Norma's and my contributions prove useful, and meaningful; giving some piece(s) we can all use in the process of finding our own ways through these tumultuous times... Like her, I'm hopeful that energy isn't expended just on trying to "conquer the obstacles" so old, "comfortable", "familiar" patterns can be kept in place, but can instead be used to find new, unfamiliar paths to explore... They feel needed. However, regardless of which direction things take... there is one thing I am sure of... it's quite unlikely to be easy, pleasant or comfortable for ANYONE!!! We're all going to have to work to make the necessary adjustments! Maybe it's possible to change in the way Norma suggests, but from my experience both personally, in me, and from what I see in others, change of ANY kind, even small changes, are VERY challenging for human beings to navigate! There are, nonetheless, unparallelled benefits to HARD work, challenges and difficulties... The results of hard labor are appreciated in a way easy outcomes can NEVER be and it also lays a much stronger, more durable inner foundation on which to build... In addition changing, challenging conditions give opportunities to go in new directions, which we can embrace or be nudged or sometimes even pushed towards. These new directions allow for a growth that wouldn't have been considered or possible otherwise. From all I've seen, even though these new directions are almost always challenging, the growth that results is always VERY beneficial! When conditions are easy, comfortable and familiar I think people tend to stagnate. Situations that are difficult, challenging and changeable, on the other hand, seem to provide ideal conditions for real growth, strengthening and learning... as well as for the work these require...
Everything I see indicates that we're headed for a global, radical shift in direction... I've spent 30 years navigating through a personal radical shift in direction... and I'm NOT done!!!! I wanted to make it and I'm GLAD to be doing it. I wasn't satisfied with the old life I led and where I am and how I am now suits me SO much better!!! However, it's taken EVERYTHING I had to make the shift and I'm still stretching to accommodate its strangeness... I could NEVER have imagined this life I live now... not in my wildest dreams! I also could NEVER have managed to navigate this 30 year segment of my journey without both my own sincere desire to change me in whatever way was required so I would grow and improve and the constant support and help of my inner guides... The path has been difficult and hard, but my guides have been there for me every step of the way!!! Their clearly felt presence is what has made my journey possible! I hope what I've shared about my journey helps others through what promises to be a VERY difficult time ahead for ALL of us...
Personally, I'm not waiting around to see what direction the human world takes, so I can try to find some place for me in where it goes... Instead, I've been busy exploring my own new path since 1992 and 30 years later I'm only just at the beginning! I work daily and nightly too, on and with my own small piece of life's puzzle... facing, feeling and understanding, asking for direction, listening and waiting until I feel I've understood, then going wherever it takes me best I can no matter where this is or what I think the consequences might be... then facing, feeling and understanding all over again... over and over and over... again and again and again... I do my best with every moment I face.. paying attention to the details as closely as I can... I know I miss MANY... maybe even most... There are just too many details, but I know they are IMPORTANT and at least I try... It's often exhausting, but I only cheat myself and everyone and everything I touch if I do less... Less just isn't an option! My best isn't static either... I'm always seeing improvements which need to be made... I adjust, often several times a day, what I think I need to do and why I've thought it had to be done THAT way rather than THIS other, different way... unravelling confusion in the process...
One of the biggest challenges I face is to stretch my ability to trust in the ultimate benefit of LIFE's process here on Earth, with all of it's so often violent and hurtful feeling changes. I work HARD to understand and make the best contribution I can... However, I know, in spite all my work and efforts, that what I can do is still confused, in ways I don't know and am unable to see from my current vantage point... I still have SO MANY unanswered questions and puzzles to work through... and MUCH I need to clarify and understand... I know this lack of clarity and understanding indicates the presence of confusion ... and confusion is, I think, always hurtful in some way... Nonetheless, I do the VERY best I can... praying HARD that it's ENOUGH and if not, that I'll be guided to an even better way!!! It helps to see so clearly that the pain I endured in my past lives WAS helpful... without all the pain and fear and, and, and I wouldn't have searched so diligently for a better way or worked so hard to embody it... I try, therefore, to see the hurt of confusion from this long-term, less visible perspective... where the benefits are clearer... and I'm more able to trust in the ultimate benefit of the difficult, painful circumstances I face and see happening in the world around me...
However, what I've shared here is just my best attempt to do what I feel "asked" or "called" to do with my life now and it suits me! Pieces of it may be "right" for someone else, but there is no one "right" way! No simple, absolute "good" that can be reached for or attained! There are MANY, MANY, MANY "right" paths...and they don't all look or feel so "good" either... The conditions necessary to unravel confusion often neither look or feel so "good"! We each have a different part to play, with different issues to face and different confusions to unravel and our own unique way of doing these things... Nonetheless, there is, I feel, a GRAND design at work; a design, with which our guides seem to be VERY familiar, which somehow magically fits all the different pieces and players with all of their different paths, confusions and lessons together so it works... enough... for us all to make it through somehow and learn something... We're each on our own "right" path, but why we're on it and the next step we need to take are often unclear and our guides can help clarify the "right" next step as well as why we're on this path... so we're better able not only to take the next step but understand "how" and "where" as well as "why"... learning about ourselves and life as we go... With change and turmoil, our guides are especially needed because the situations we face are unfamiliar and unexpected... and if we try to do what we're used to doing our difficulties are likely to increase. During tumultuous times, such as the ones we face now, with great uncertainties poised against pressing needs, without the help of our guides, finding the next "right" step becomes increasingly difficult! In addition our need to understand also increases exponentially... so finding a way to connect to these guiding forces becomes critically important!
A few more things to think about... and FEEL... I urge you to pay particularly close attention to your feelings... Like details, I've found them to be critically important!!!
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