Have you ever tuned on old-fashioned analog radio to an exact frequency? You have to turn the dial close to the frequency and then rock it back and forth past it until you land exactly on it.
If we are observant, we can tell what frequency an individual is trying to hit by the adjacent frequencies they land on before settling on the final one. Unless that person is someone close to us, we don’t go around analyzing everyone. The tuning process is everywhere. Young men and women flirt, get angry, cry, and go through all sorts of machinations to establish relationships. Tuning. People keep pursuing different education paths or jobs in order to end up with an acceptable career. Tuning. The point is sometimes we can know what someone is tuning for by those choices they are making to either side of the desired frequency, and we can even know what “channel” they will end up on before they do. I bring this up tonight because of the current situation in the federal government in America — well, at other levels, too. I’m not an alarmist, but I am observant. I’m not a resister just to pull away, nor am I a rebel just to stir up shit. However, by shedding light, making observations, and loving souls, sometimes I end up having no discernible difference between resisters and rebels with no focused point. Tonight, I want to make a few observations. When a national, although not majority, sentiment keeps rocking that dialing knob over certain frequencies, I can see that a final tuning is heading for a very different concept from a republican democracy. Republicanism by its nature provides some safeguards to minorities and those without a real voice, those who scream silent screams in an often rigged system. Of course, we have amazing documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with our Bill of Rights to help give definition to the sort of republic we have. Many other republics exist, but not with those documents. What I see occurring right now is a flagrant, arrogant, ill-advised, undereducated disregard for those principles, those principles which were not designed from pragmatic, crass, opportunistic materialism but rather from Heart. Were the writers and framers perfect? No, not in reference to the things they espoused, but in another way they designed a system that allows us to live Heart. When that is willfully squashed, then I see we will end up with a functional dictatorship. And this is the course I see, in brief. It flows from the source of prideful hubris known as nationalism. In case you don’t know, that has been the cause of our world wars and many others. It sickens me that those who want to live Heart principles of patriotism or service to country or community get thrown into that batch. I say that because when the tuner of a nation, like the leader, talks about making a country great again and means that we must prove ourselves better, richer, smarter, stronger, more rigid and less loving than every other nation, that leader moves us towards a dictatorship. They say things that sound good and noble and righteous, but as soon as love as principle of governance is left out, dictatorships result. Love respects, encourages, and values individuals, cultures, ethnicities, and religions other than the perceived majority. Mentioning religions reminds me that the base frequency of those religions who claim to be “right” or have “the truth.” Each feels they must be better than others — catholics, protestants, jews, muslims, each one with their own sects — and the leadership in each one believes they are right, or at least the “rightest.” That frequency is no different than nationalism. These are my observations. Now, think about the motive force, the underlying foundation of words like “…all men are created equal,” legal documents like our Bill of Rights, and literature influences like this: “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door” (Emma Lazarus from “The New Colossus). It all matters because these have been major influences, tuning us into a national frequency that should be progressing towards these ideals, ideals of acceptance, valuing one another, equality that allows each to experience the “unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” I’m not advocating willful ignorance of known terrorists or associates of such, but I am saying that when ill-advised edicts like those issued from the executive branch results in anguish of good people, even illegal aliens — those who fall into the categories of the inscription on the Statue of Liberty — it shows me someone is trying to tune to the frequency of WDIC, the channel of dictators. This same channel eschews those like the Native Americans who can be so casually disregarded once again and sacrificed at the altar of the economy and selfish personal good. The executive office’s intervention to complete that pipeline disqualifies him as a leader of any sort. It puts him, and all others who have ever lied, cheated, killed, and stolen from the Indigenous People in the category of Grand Egotists — they stink. The executive is not beyond question; we have a constitutional construct of checks and balances to guard against this very sort of tendency. Yes, I am well aware of exceptions in times of great distress, but whipping the nation into a frenzy of fear of an enemy — when we lose more people on a weekly basis to those within the nation as legal citizens — and focusing on exceptions to what should be our standard operating system tells me love has little claim on the conscience and soul of the nation. Dictator type mentality knows that the underlying ethos of our national documents must be ignored. A superior pronouncement of “we are the best and we will do whatever we need to in order to make that clear,” even by a president and his cronies, means little to those who live Heart. To seek to turn such egotistical sentiments into patriotic laments is disingenuous and misdirects masses. Heart works to tune us to Spirit and live lives of joyful Purpose, and that tuning is done through Love. It’s not about politics per se. It’s about the underlayment of love. Whoever rejects love as a motive force, even for governance, maybe especially for governance, presents a grave danger to everyone. A dictator has no place here for good. Love, though, benefits all. We can afford nothing less in these times. Blessings for a steady hand in tuning into love!
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Our Heart brings us to the point of facing ourselves in honesty, of making us look in the mirror at ourselves and see reflected there the reality of all that we have experienced, espoused, and expressed — all that reveals just exactly what has been Ego and when we have heard Heart whispers. Heart does not allow us to fall prey to Ego bullshit.
I will share something that has been part of my personal experience in recognizing Heart, especially at first in terms of having conversations. It is not necessary, just my own doing. Gazing directly into my own eyes in a mirror and speaking aloud to myself opened one pathway for real, out loud conversations. And in those situations, my Heart made me face my own past — at least started that journey. I don’t believe it’s necessary to evaluate every last issue of the sum total of our lives; however, some things stand out as keystone events, and they present some sort of Ego stumbling block, usually. The light of Heart shed throughout the mind as knowledge and the soul as love exposes those elements that have perhaps caused the greatest hindrances to filling the spiritual void that exists when we only allow Ego to be our primary operating system. In The Fellowship of the Heart, the current chapter I am writing reveals this aspect of Eric and Anne Lafarnge as their Hearts work through some past experiences they needed to face realistically without the veil of Ego obscuring reality of the unity with eternal Spirit. I’m sharing a very rough and short section of that to illustrate how these characters face things like many of us have to. It’s not impossible or futile or fruitless, as Ego tells so many. In fact, many people — and I have heard them and counseled with them — keep ending up repeating the same scenarios but refuse to look at it from Heart perspective. “It’s impossible. Nothing will ever change. I don’t have a choice. I’m stuck.” Guess what? That is pure Ego, unadulterated and destructive, and if one makes those statements, they are true: there is no solution and they will never experience wholeness. But that is never true if we open the eyes and ears of our mind and soul and hear Heart. Ego may say Heart isn’t speaking, but that is a stupid lie, one that, unfortunately can lead to anger and self-harm, including violence against others or suicide. Do you see why I’m so passionate about these issues: know yourself and create your life purpose as a divine creator, because you are. Well, here is the creative writing snippet: Anne said, “It was a warning. At least I felt like that. I needed to erase my search history about the alternative materials information that Kathy and Ed worked on. Then, it turned really personal, making me think about my past, the time when I won junior class president in high school and I found out later that the guy I lost to basically threw the whole process, turned his bid into a bit of joke. When I won, he milked his loss to get me to go out with him.” “Okay, I didn’t expect you to say that. What’s the connection?” “This was so intimate to me. I understood it. I think there is a direct message. I remember Paul saying he supported winners. I think he has ulterior motives. I don’t know what they are, but based on what I heard from that little inner voice, I don’t think it has positive energy.” “Anne, do you realize what part of the message was when I heard my heart speaking to me? It was a past, painful memory. It took me awhile to realize it — my parents’ deaths and the bastard who got away with it. I kept replaying that scream from that day in my mind. And then, my heart made me realize what I really had to face. I had to be honest with myself about living who I am. It sounds like your heart has been doing the same thing.” ___________________________________________________ Anything strike a chord with you? I don’t bring any of this up to create emotional drama. I only do so to help you discover that Heart speaks to us constantly, but we must face truth. And as it was with me, sometimes that has meant literally facing myself in the mirror and letting Heart speak. I hope you have a superior week. Blessings! Earlier today I wrote about some dynamics of relationships. I want to share the beginnings of the interchange between Eric and Anne Lafarnge that leads to Anne’s awakening to Self in the sense of an epiphany and Eric’s continuation in that same process. Heart know our needs, our longings, our cries to understand how we matter, how we want to experience love and peace, and how we identify Self. In fact, Heart is that essential part of us, that essential part who knows what our total being needs and yearns for. Because of that, Heart knows the most important part of our existence involves relationships. We are all united because we all have Spirit. We desire to connect because we are one, no matter what we think of one another, what we believe about politics, social issues, or anything concerning being a human being. If you think we all bleed the same color blood and that proves our equality, what about each of us bearing the same essence of eternal Spirit; we are one. We will all know that some day; however, here and now, Heart urges us to find those connections and uses those to help us discover that Heart-core Self. So, here is my lead-in to a most significant phase of Anne’s and Eric’s lives, but forms the basis of one of the deepest desires any human being has: to make meaningful connections in this life that reflects who we are and why we are here. ____________________________________________________________ Eric left the office shortly after noon that Friday. He had decided to do some reading and research on the deck. He was sleeping under the drowsy influence of the afternoon sun. He never heard Anne until she opened the double French doors onto the deck. “Oh, Anne, I dozed off doing some research for the Oprimida case, although I got word this afternoon that one of the more disturbing aspects of the case has been reversed.” “What happened? Wait. Do you want anything to drink? I’m opening a bottle of chardonnay.” Anne stepped back through the open doors. “I’ll have one of those imperial milk stouts.” He raised his voice as Anne was already in the kitchen. She reappeared with the wine and beer. “Here you are.” She left the doors open. “Cheers! To an unexpected Friday afternoon together.” They touched glasses and smiled. Eric sipped his beer and set it down. “Okay, I decided to come home and do some research because I just felt like I needed to be here to regroup. I saw Ms. Oprimida this morning and she told me about a ridiculous letter and summons meant to silence her. The whole case against her is built on flimsy, substandard legislation that I can dismantle, but it was really weird.” “What was weird?” “I was going to speak with a judge who was involved, and it wasn’t even a full hour after Ms. Oprimida left that she called me to say the letter and the summons had been rescinded. I’m her attorney and took no action. Why would her school district and judge do that when I hadn’t approached them. In fact, I had advised the lady to take a little vacation with her husband and just stay off the radar until I could deal with this next week.” “Well, isn’t that good? Won’t it save her some distress?” “Definitely, but it’s not normal. In fact, I never had it happen with any case before — no legal intervention and the problem goes away? — with a judge involved. I just wonder if the school district is planning on pursuing some other angle, so I brought some sources home and I’m trying to figure out what it might be. I felt like my heart was telling me to leave.” Eric took a sip of his beer. “So, why are you home early?” Anne set her glass down. “Funny you should say that about your heart telling you to leave.” “Why is that funny?” “The same sort of thing happened to me. I know I have been skeptical about the spiritual searching you have been doing, or that you were doing. But this afternoon I had these thoughts, maybe more like a nagging little feeling I put words to. I don’t really know what it was, but I wanted to get home and just talk to you.” She put her hand on his forearm as Eric looked at her. “What happened that made you feel like that? What were the feelings, the voice?” He sat up and shifted to sit sideways in the lounger. He touched the top of her hand. ______________________________________________________ Leaving it here for tonight. I’m no Hemingway, Steinbeck, King, or Kingsolver, but I value the fact that at least a few people every day read what I write and we connect that way. Why? I’m eternal Spirit, and my Purpose is to write and connect with others in this way. What does your Heart say to you? Blessings! Because I was a teacher by training and trade for years, sometimes I get too complicated with my attempted explanations. In the classroom, I always kept digging to get to the least common denominator, but sometimes the route to discovering and understanding that can be rather complex.
At times, I got caught up in trying to explain too much to students about the process. It might have been anything about learning, writing, literary analysis, or reading and research skills. I always mean well, trying to make sure people understand. But when I stop in the middle of my thoughts and efforts and think How would I explain this in a sentence or two to someone, I know I need to get it to that simplest form before sharing. I suppose I say this tonight because throughout this last year, I haven’t always done that here. Writing and publishing the quantity of work I have doesn’t give me the luxury of time to do that. However, I hope I have helped readers to have insight into my thoughts while helping them to discover some things about themselves. I have felt like I’m just working through ideas with great friends. I explain this because I have sought to share thoughts about issues I value — things like discovering core Self and creating life Purpose. I have often thought about distinguishing between awakening to Self and establishing Purpose, and I especially have been thinking about how to show Anne Lafarnge’s experience in The Fellowship of the Heart. I want to make it clear, but I realize I have been trying to parse the process too finely. What I mean is this: awakening to Self and creating life Purpose are inseparably linked for human beings. That was the way it worked for me, and the way I have observed it in others. Awakening acknowledges we have eternal Spirit, we are eternal Spirit inhabiting this body as Heart. The acknowledgement — consciousness in thought, word, and deed of that — is the initiation of awakening. The moment that happens, we want to know the answer to that second great life question: What is my life Purpose? That’s where the most complicating factors come in. They are complicating because people look for something to fall on them out of the sky or someone or something else to tell them. No, we create it for ourselves. Our awakening acknowledges we are creators, each of us, and we get to choose. The Who, Heart, eternal Spirit in me, came here to experience a Purposeful existence to enjoy this creation. Yes, it is about joy, and for us humans to have joy, we need to create a Purpose and live it. In that sense, awakening is a continuous process. Heart undoubtedly spoke to us in various ways for years, but we come to that epiphany that starts this whole spiritual process that drops Ego and accesses Heart to be the internal operating system. Awakening — I like the -ing form of the word, because whether it’s the gerund acting as a noun, indicating a process, or as a verb form in the present progressive tense, it shows a continuing action. Even as a present participle, it’s “present,” it’s in the now as a current description. And to me, that says we initiate and engage in awakening but are never finished in this wonderful, continuing process of living Heart here in our created life Purpose. We keep maturing, growing, learning, knowing. Ann Lafarnge embarks on that journey in the current chapter of my novel. I see this as an organic whole, but I have differentiated in order to help readers understand the components, as it were. I am, I exist, as eternal creator Spirit in physical form to enjoy the physical nature of creation. And I co-create a way to enjoy it in the form of life Purpose. It’s pretty awesome — not pain-free, but awesome. This weekend I hope to share some of that chapter I am writing, which is my Purpose. Blessings! Have you ever heard that little whispery voice, maybe just a vague sense that someone has other motives that are hidden? That little voice just might be the beginning of a Heart conversation. In my novel, as Anne Lafarnge realizes some things just aren’t adding up, she starts questioning, evaluating. She experiences the first stirrings of soul response to Heart, and that is my focus. (By the way, this is really raw because I have been undecided about how to present this. It’s part of the fun of writing, and I hope not only you get the thematic message but also that you might be prompted to explore and discover some of those Heart whispers you may hear.) _____________________________________________________________ Anne sat at her desk after the discussion with Kathryn and Edward. She wondered why Stan and Paul had been watching the three of them. She sat casually scrolling through an on-line journal examining the composite, pre-manufactured materials that Edward and Kathy had specified in their work-up of the alternative design. That’s when she sensed some inner, indistinct, yet familiar voice: Don’t talk about this to Stan or Paul. Why are you concerned, Anne? What troubles you? Her first thought was to delete her computer search history, which she knew would still be traceable if anyone in tech took was commanded to find it, but she did it anyway. She opened her drawer, grabbed a blank pad from one of their suppliers, and started writing. “Why would Paul be working so closely with Stan? He supported me instead of Stan for the associate position. What is going on? And why do I feel this sense of caution? How could I not have seen this before? Paul has something else going on. He always does. I remember what he said: I support winners. I win. Am I threatening some victory for him? Why in the hell do I feel so wary? Is this paranoia of having a position of power? What could it be?” You know what it is, Anne. Deep down, you know. You must listen. Don’t be afraid to face it. She continued writing: “Face what? Face that I’m being used for someone else’s ulterior…wait a minute. This is like junior class president all over again, isn’t it?” What’s that, Anne? “Oh, yes, I know it. That is it. Henry let me win so I would feel sorry for him and go out with him. I don’t think Paul wants anything like that, maybe, but I know he’s got something going on with Stan Boyle.” Why are you really upset, Anne? The pen kept moving over the paper’s surface, making a friendly, familiar, rich scratching sound, the faintest odor of ink rising from the page. “I’m upset because I didn’t recognize I was being played. Maybe not. I’m not sure. Shit. What does that slimy Stan Boyle have to do with this? Something isn’t right. I need to talk to Eric.” Yes, go now, Anne. As she wrote Eric’s name, she let the pen fall from her hand and stared out the window for a few seconds. A gust of wind stirred the trees in the parking lot median, and she knew she had to leave. As she flipped the pen she had been using into the top drawer, she tore off the sheet of paper she had written on. She felt a sense of urgency. She neglected to completely clear her desk as usual. As she glided up and out of the chair, she reached behind her and snagged her purse handle on the way to the door. She plucked her jacket off of the rack, and just as she was about to open the handle, she heard voices and froze in place. She didn’t want to see or speak with anyone else. She trusted Eric’s judgment; she wanted to hear his voice. With her hand poised above the door handle, she waited. Go now. “I’ll just rush out like I have something to do.” She heard the voices at the far end of the hall to the right, towards Paul’s office. She wouldn’t even look that way. With quick long strides, she slid through the opening, not even bothering to shut the door. She didn’t like shut doors anyway. _______________________________________________ At first, such words from Heart may not be so distinct, just a sense of inner communication. When that happens, we need to get silent and listen very closely. Well, occasional questions always help and will be answered!! Blessings! |
Questions to consider:How many times have you asked yourself or simply thought about the following questions?
Who am I, really? What is my truth? How do my actions reveal what I really feel and believe? What would I do with my life if I could do anything? What is my passion? Why am I here? How can I discover answers to any of these questions? If you have considered any of these questions, I hope that my experiences and writing will give you some guidance. Please read my blog and comment and share your thoughts. I would love to hear from you! Archives
December 2019
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