Seasons of the Soul

Being Stewards of the Earth

As we see the results of our lack of understanding of how the earth works, we are made aware that everything is intricately linked with everything else. The actions of one species affects others, and the natural balance of the earth is tilted when humans exploit the land, water, and air. When we adulterate our food supply and use chemicals that are remnants of WW II looking for a new lucrative market, we see that we have been assaulting this beautiful blue bauble in the sky under the misguided idea that we were given dominion over the earth. 

 

That self-serving term has done more damage than any other in harming our planet and our own lives and the lives of animals, forests, and waterways. We pollute with impunity, using the bible as our source of authority. Yet, when one truly investigates the translations done and the authorship of many of the books within the bible, one sees that everything was arbitrarily entered as the undeniable word of God and there were also many mistaken translations in the process. However, as we advance as civilization in our understanding...seeing the results of our hubris in attempting to "tame" the earth, we have to go back and wonder.

Dominion is a word associated with a warring mentality where dominating is part of the hierarchy of authority. This certainly describes the warlike nature of tribes throughout the patriarchal world. Yet, there is another word that truly represents the covenant between human and the earth, and that is stewardship. Stewardship implies an intelligent and responsible use of input to guide things into their natural good. It does not defile. It does not threaten. It does not destroy. It is a pure stewarding of life, knowing that the earth does not belong to us...it belongs to the Creator, and we are merely tenants who are given the right to live and tend all the areas of life in good faith and good stewardship.

To fully understand how this applies, two sites are included. One is from a more religious point of view and the other is from the Greening Earth point of view. Both lead to the same point...we are deeply in need of becoming the care givers to this planet that we are indebted to for life and sustenance. After all, without the gifts of the earth, we would no longer exist, and if we do not truly comprehend how important it is to change our ways in relation to this bountiful and beautiful place, we won't.

http://blog.tifwe.org/four-principles-of-biblical-stewardship/?gclid=CNmVnZSv970CFY17fgodTh0A4Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q52WJjeara0

It Takes a Hood to Save the Hood

This is a long article/interview about gangs and guns and lack of nutrition....but really about how to reclaim the human spirit within communities that have been left out and where kids are trying to find connections in whatever way they can. It is a valuable and worthwhile read!!!

http://www.dailygood.org/story/1140/it-takes-a-hood-to-save-the-hood-awakin-call-transcript/

 

 

We are ALL Important!

I can get a little hot under the collar when I think of the way we've been brainwashed into thinking that we are not valuable after a certain physical age passes and we don't fit into a particular "look" or age group that appears to be the hot commodity of the moment. Yet, this is what causes so much distress, unrest, and disappointment in our world.

The United States is by its nature an adolescent nation amongst others who have much longer history and deeper roots than we do. Yet, like teenagers, the U.S. has an attitude that what we think and want are inalienable rights no matter who else is hurt by them. We see it in our international forays into places where we have destroyed without any plan for rebuilding. We see it in our lax regulations towards things that should NEVER be allowed on food crops and the soil. We see it in our banking systems and bailouts of all the wrong people because they are part of the "in" group and have the deep pockets to pay their way to the top.  Finally we see how our government has caved in to the commands of these pay to play lobbyists and vested interest groups. 

AND...we see how this plays itself out in all society. Age groups that are the chosen ones, certain looks that are to be copied, lifestyles to be mimicked, children to be herded into this or that drug of choice...all with a tick tock mentality that does not look deeper for a greater level of meaning.

My family and I are all gluten intolerant. No...not because it is a fad, but because my mother died of celiac disease that was only found two months before her death and after 5 months of pure hell for her. We didn't even know what celiac was, but as a result of her death, we all got tested, and everyone had at the least gluten intolerance, and at the most celiac disease. Investigating gluten and what it can do to the body brought a lot of answers to my family history. It made me aware that I needed to investigate further into anything that was questionable. I was not to listen to marketing ploys to get me to buy something that wasn't healthy, and it was up to me to find out the difference.

I began to investigate the difference between nutrient value in soils of the past and present, of the destructive effects of our farming system to the soil and the insects that are the builders of healthy life. I questioned the rise of obesity and of ADHD and Autism, degenerative diseases and auto-immune diseases, and through investigating, I found a list of culprits that were being ignored or hushed up because to question them and the underlying causes would be to create harm to the bottom line of major corporations and organizations that made excellent profits off of the ailments of an overweight, chronically ill population.

When our family went to Europe, they had no problem with the food. Most countries in Europe and other parts of the world have banned practices that we hold sacred in the U.S. They are aware of the need for long range studies to find out what the effects of things like Roundup and all the other pesticide, petroleum waste products, and chemicals that are used with abandon in our country. This brings us again to the difference between adolescence and age. Countries with history understand the need for long range planning. Ours has barely any history, and what we do have is skewed in favor of exploitation rather than conservation. Yet, we are very quick to point fingers at everyone else for things we have done since the beginning.  

So...underlying my rambling in this article is the original intention. We need all age groups to be seen through the eyes of respect and valuing what each has to offer. There is no best group. We are like the soil and the crops...varied, complex, and necessary. We need to share our vantage points and assist one another. This is not a football game...it is an integrative, expansive game of life, and when we are all honored, we all win. Without that, victory is hollow.

Choose Your Self

Your body will feel events as you are sensitized to subtle energy, and you may take on some of the discomfort or confusion that is demonstrated within the world. This is part of your instinctive heritage, and when you pay attention, you may receive warnings of events, imminent danger, or subtle guidance of what is advisable and not. If you heed the instinctive reaction, you are offered an opportunity to utilize this additional sense for your own well-being or the well-being of others. By ignoring or over-riding the subtle body signals, you rely on your will and logic and are subject to the extent with which they can provide you with valid advice.

The Will element which comes complete with “free will” like a deluxe feature on a new sporty vehicle, allows you the luxury of choosing what to listen to, what to follow. Yet, by overriding the internal monitoring system, you may find yourself moving further and further away from your inner and inter-connection in favor of your singular nature. This then encourages your sense of isolation and dependence on a system that is intended to work WITH the internal monitoring elements. If you insist on operating out of aloneness, you reap the haphazard results of singular logic. But when you work in combination with your Divine heritage, you realize Self – you become Self-realized, meaning you recognize that all of life is one unbroken continuum and all creation is the manifestation of one life springing forth in multiple forms to express itself in diversity and to delight in its own creation.

No isolated element in and of itself can be the whole because it, operating on singular will, singular consciousness, is cut off from its source. When you tune in and turn on, you can manifest abundant living and move in consciousness to a higher ground when you are subject to life events that appear unfair or perplexing. Only from that higher or universal view can you find cause/effect and gain insight into the purpose of your experience. From a singular view you begin to envision life as a series of rewards or punishment. When your scope is limited to one one-trillionth of Creation, you become polarized to an isolated frame – one small perspective. Only when you zoom out by zooming in are you able to apprehend the larger context in which creation is unfolding and in which quadrant you are standing.

Life continuously cycles in and out like the breath – revolving and renewing, releasing and restoring. Life is One Source manifesting through Itself and nothing is ever wasted or lost, no matter how hard that is for you to comprehend. 

Living in the Realm of Possibility

What keeps us from connecting to the truth of our Selves is the attachment to the scripts of our lives. If we come as little children, the idea becomes that we are no longer mired by history, prejudice, or doubt. Within the historical context we begin to link our perceived failures or success. We build our future on the past and this is not a life giving foundation for we are using the time line as our guide rather than moving into the continuum where we can dip into present moment and create unscathed by what has gone before.

In an accident situation, the memory of not being safe in your car causes you to drive differently as a result. You no longer get into your vehicle with a feeling of oneness and safety. You become fearful or defensive and apprehensive because you take the memory of the accident with you and create your present reality on a past event. Only as the memory fades do you once again drive in the moment. This applies to all life events. If you are rejected, you create your life based on a rejection. If you have a moment of great luck through a fortuitous investment, you may delude yourself into the belief that you are infallible and create from that space. Each creative moment is new unto itself. If you can remain open only to the moment and allow yourself to bypass your script and your history, current events may prove to be more valuable as clues to possibilities.

When a clue or opportunity is presented and you immediately dip into your field of experience or expectation, you may short circuit or over-inflate yourself, depending on the tendency you have in reaction. Yet, by living this way, you are chained to the singular life view that is filtered through the field of experience you have had as a singular being.

When you move into the greater part of you - the Self that is connected to all of life and has the capacity for breadth and depth of vision and comprehension, you open yourself to a multi-dimensional view, no longer bound by your historical context. This is the reason for being advised to enter the kingdom as little children. They have not been polluted or jaded yet. They float in the realm of possibility, and to remain open and childlike in this way is to open yourself to incredible possibilities that are not bound by “Yes, but”, “I can’t do that”, “who do you think you are?” and all the other self-identified statements that limit your true nature - the abiding spirit of God expressing through you!

So this identification with limitation becomes the false God – the false Idol that is worshipped because you feed it daily. You identify with the experiences of your life and state that those experiences ARE your life when they are merely experiences within a life. You become inflated or depressed through that identity, and like fleas who are trained with the lid on their jar or the little elephant tethered by an anklet to the tree, you lose the identification with what your true capacity is in favor of conditioning. Indeed you can jump out of the jar. Indeed you can uproot a tree with your innate strength. But, conditioning is a subtle tool of domination in order to control reaction, and although it may serve in the short run to define boundaries and limits, there needs to be a daily renegotiation with life from a fresh perspective uncontaminated by the past.

Each day a new beginning. Each day a testing of the lid or the strength to be free. Each day an identification with the Self who abides within and oversees all, is connected to all, and lives within the realm of possibility.

 

Reflections of Jesus on the Cross

  

When Pope Francis came to the United States, I was riveted to the television, wanting to be part of the peaceful message he conveyed. I am not a Catholic, but recognized how much I needed spiritual sustenance during a  time when our country is steeped in political arguments and mean-spiritedness.  I spent five days doing little else that watching his journey, and one thing that I noted during his masses, especially one in particular, was the crucifix behind him with Jesus hanging from the cross. I found myself incensed that Jesus was on a cross and kept shouting to no one in particular, “TAKE HIM OFF THE CROSS!” I was furious that we keep seeing Jesus as a hanging corpse rather than the risen Christ he became. I thought this was keeping us locked in an image of sin rather than allowing him to be the radiant figure of hope and light that he was. The real message of the crucifixion was the act of dying to the ego and rising in to our spiritual essence and light that removes our error consciousness and allows us to be a blessing on the planet.

My next thought was that it would have to be the women…the Feminine principal that removed Jesus from the cross. It was up to the Feminine to overcome the constriction of the Patriarchy and take down the corpse so that Jesus could ascend to his rightful place as a radiant light Being. This thought kept presenting itself to me over and over again throughout the Pope’s visit. I felt it was a strong message and wanted to pursue it. However, something happened on the morning after the eclipse and Pope Francis’ return to Rome. As I woke in the morning, a new thought entered my head. It was a clear statement, brief and to the point.

“Jesus cannot come off the cross until humanity stops crucifying one another.” I was stunned! The message was an answer to my deep questioning as to why he is shown in this light. I had thought it was because the patriarchy wanted to parade our sins, but this deeper insight was about the nature of human beings in our unconscious state…in our need to find an external enemy and war against whatever is different than what we think it should be. I shared this insight with others, who were equally jarred. It was a wakeup call because it put the responsibility of moving Jesus from the cross on each of our shoulders, not out of a sense of guilt, but because we finally got the message of his journey! We have to remove ourselves from the curse of killing in the name of whatever we perceive as our standard bearer. Using the name of God for an excuse to kill and maim His creation is an abomination, and it is not worthy of what we were intended to be.

Until the Feminine principal is given the dignity and co-creative place it deserves and was created for, the abomination against God will continue. Religions and special interest groups that treat women as though they are chattel, denying them education, equality in the workplace, and in all other areas of life, are distorting God’s intention and using God as their excuse. The repression of the women is a cause for rampant acts of injustice because the Feminine principal resides in both men and women as does the masculine. We are a combination of both, and whereas the masculine represents will and logic, the Feminine is overseer of compassion and mercy. Without these elements, we see a world on fire and at war, killing over differences instead of embracing diversity and enslaving everything that does not match those qualifications.

In many Christian religious icons, the figure of Jesus or Mary often point to the heart because it is the seed of all life…the housing of Love, Compassion, Light, and the operating system that provides the flow of nourishment to all aspects of the body. Without heart, we have no life. And without the inclusion of the Feminine Principal as a guiding influence, we continue to have wars, hatred, and the inability to see one another as we were intended –  beautiful expressions of the One who created us to be the symphony of life, playing our various notes as we are intended as a melody of love, not a cacophony of war.

My fellow human beings…let us begin the process of overcoming our differences and see the good in one another even when we don’t agree on everything. Let us acknowledge that living a life of peace and tranquility is not something to be left to others, but a state of consciousness we have to adapt and share without judgment. Let each of us become a shining light of ascended consciousness that helps to create a Garden of Love on this beautiful planet that we call our home and let us make it a place where ALL are welcome in peace and the spirit of goodwill. When we do this…we can finally take Jesus off the cross!