REACHING OUR GREATER DESTINY
By Randi Done
Copyright © 2006, Randi Done
Cover design by Julie Tait, Graphic Artist
Smashwords Edition (2010) License Notes
Smashwords epub format: ISBN 978-1-4523-1093-0.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
BowkerLink Publisher Access System:
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Done, Randi, 1956- Reaching our greater destiny / Randi Done Includes bibliographical references ISBN 978-0-9782691-0-4 1. Spiritual life.I. Title. BL624.D64 2007 204'.4C2007-905320-3
ENJOY THIS LITTLE TREASURE
It is created just for you.
We share the same heart. We care.
We care about reclaiming the best of ourselves.
We care about peace, harmony and goodwill toward all.
We care about the power required to rise from our own ashes. We care about life—all life.
Please help me in my caring.
Together we can shift and raise human consciousness.
Together we can heal from our angst, sorrow and suffering. Together we may unite and harmonize with one good intention, “Peace on earth and goodwill toward all,” and truly begin anew. From my heart to yours, Randi
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Poem: MANKINDE, by John Donne
Essay One: GOD’S BARBIE DOLLS
Poem: OUR GLORY WHOLE
Poem: BETTER THAN GOLD
Poem: I AM A BUTTERCUP
Essay Two: A PHILOSOPHER’S DILEMMA
Essay Three: COLLAPSING AND RE-BIRTHING
Poem: AWAKENING
Poem: THANKFUL
Essay Four: THE GLASS MENAGERIE: An Interpretation Essay Five: REIGNITING OUR TORCH OF HOPE
Poem: A CALL FOR UNITY
Essay Six: RAPID TRANSFORMATION
Essay Seven: IN MEMORY OF DAD
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CLEM BATTYE POETRY AWARD, 2007
WORKS CITED
REVIEWS
INTRODUCTION
Mine is a voice calling from the wilderness,
where stillness reigns, long since forgotten.
Is anyone there? Can anyone hear? Does anyone care?
If you are not there, be present.
If you cannot hear, listen. If you do not care, care.
Hear this calling.
God is God is God, and by any other name God is still God. What matters is what something is, not what it is called.
Some refer to God by many names. I use all titles interchangeably as meaning One God, which is of all life centre and from which all life forms a part of our eternal All. When we are centered within ourselves, we become aligned and centered within the mind of God; we not only live with God in our heart, we awaken and begin living within the heart of God.
In writing Reaching Our Greater Destiny, it is my intention to impassion the hearts and minds of everyone to commit to the nobler cause of honoring life, all life, beginning with our own. I hope to inspire individuals everywhere who have lost faith, or who have no faith that works, to commit to a healing journey of spiritual renewal. When we create peace within ourselves, world peace is not only possible it is already on its way.
This book shows through a process of self-examination and maturing thought processes how I suffered and triumphed over my loss of God and returned to a love for all life, including my own. Know thyself. Hopefully this book will be helpful and encourage others to engage in a similar journey of reconnecting with the true self, ultimately with the God self. We may begin this journey by first asking for direction, for help and accepting it when it comes. The existence of God is a universal idea that has existed cross-culturally and apparently since we drew first breath.
We seem to be born with an innate knowingness of God and sense of connection to all. Baby’s the world over babble the same at birth. Theirs is a universal language. We only lose this language of origin by adapting to the language of the country where we were born. We are socialized into the customs and traditions of our country and of our generation.
We are called to pay close attention to the universal wisdom of what our young children have to teach. We are called to begin loving ourselves with the same protection and care that we would naturally extend to our most vulnerable—to our babies. Their breath and ours depends on this.
When we surrender to love, we begin to create peace within ourselves and, again, world peace becomes not only possible it is already in the making. Yet, for some, engaging in a healing journey of spiritual renewal, and coming to believe in a unifying and loving God of our own understanding is an arduous task.
This journey requires each of us to awaken, face and release our greatest fear of all; it is not death, it is our fear of surrendering to love. Because I sense a growing need for individual spiritualism in relationship to the whole of humankind’s need for world peace, I encourage everyone to meet and release the fear of love and embrace the courage to live.
Paul Henry Thiry D’Holbach wrote in The System of Nature, (1770), “The enlightened man…is capable of pursuing his own happiness…and not to take that for truth upon the authority of others.”
I am reminded that any healing and spiritual journey is personal, and often requires us to examine ourselves and everything we were hitherto taught. When we seek truth, truth is revealed and as we are able to handle the truth and live truth, more and more truth will be revealed. As we trust in this process, trust in our own truth shivers and trust in our God stuff, we will become more and more responsible and free.
As we remember our best parts, reclaim our lost parts and the gems we threw away, we begin to know, nourish, love and help ourselves grow. As we polish our true self, our God self, we begin to shine and live in partnership with God; we become part of God’s glorious journey of creation. As we surrender to love, transformative by its very nature, we satisfy our greatest need of all; it is our need to belong and live useful and purposeful lives knowing we are supporting part of the whole.
As we transform toward inner peace, the whole of humankind will begin to live and make decisions supporting a common vision for world peace, harmony and goodwill toward all, and we will grow in deep human satisfaction. When we contribute to these nobler hopes and dreams, we uplift ourselves and resurrect the whole of humankind; we begin reaching our greater destiny.
We are not so very different, you and I. Indeed, we are similar in key spiritual tenets. United, there is little we cannot accomplish in a host of cooperative ventures; we can live in peace as brothers and sisters world-wide; we can live as a friend among friends.
Since God’s work on earth is expressed through our willingness to get involved in the beauty of creation by nurturing and helping to grow our true self, writing Reaching Our Greater Destiny also expresses my willingness to become a co-creator in a host of God’s co-operative ventures. And, since a spiritual journey is never ending, I hope you keep what is worth keeping and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. Enjoy the journey; it’s the best ride in life!
P.S.
Today I know nothing! Absolutely nothing! I am a blank page, an empty vessel; transparent, open, restful…it is one of my most contented days.
Poem
MANKINDE
No man is an Iland intire of it selfe;
Every man is a peece of the Continent, A part of the main;
if a clod bee washed Away by the sea, Europe is the leese,
as well as if a Promontorie were,
As well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were, Any man’s death diminishes me, because
I Am involved in mankinde;
And therefore never send to know for whom The bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.—John Donne (1624)
Essay One
GOD’S BARBIE DOLLS
The longest distance to truth exists between our head and our heart. When we achieve integration, we are enlightened and centered. We become sensitive to the presence of divinity within our own spirit and begin to live in responsive cooperation. Aligned with God, we live in harmony with our soul and are connected to humankind.
Making a conscious decision to choose life, by reaching out for help to a life supporting divinity to show us the way, we may listen and be intuitively guided in right action; we begin being part of our eternal All and harmonize with life.
When our head and hearts unite, we will know a great truth. We will begin to live in a spirit of harmony with each other, rather than discord. We will change history and begin reaching toward our greater destiny, one predictable possibility, peace on earth and goodwill toward all. We will stop blaming God and each other, and become responsible and free.
Whatever is our differing yet similar beliefs all over the world we can connect with our eternal All, and one by one return to and reclaim the beauty and power that can be found in the truth of our own hearts. We can remember God.
We can awaken to a fierceness of heart made greater in its need to care for and protect life. When we do, the firestorms fast approaching will be expunged and we can loll around on green pastures, eat apples and be grateful that we are alive and breathe today.
If war is causally predetermined, so are we, and dolls or not we can change everything when we first change ourselves back to whom we really are; love. Life is freely given to you and me, and we are free to honour life, or not. Before peace comes a call for unity with our Eternal All. As if I see a fire storm fast approaching, I run to you wanting to shake mankind. Daring to disturb the big sleep, I shout,
“Wake up! Wake up!” Are we God’s Barbie dolls, busily creating atom bombs, robots without moral thinking-checks, and other such genetic Frankenstein mutations? Or, are we fleshy and energetic thinking souls empowered by God’s calling for life enhancing free choices?
We can stop our impulse to praise God and blame the devil. We can claim personal responsibility over all our individual and collective actions. We can thank God, ourselves and each other because we know we’ve done our part.
We can make moral decisions by committing to “first do no harm.” We must accept that as human beings we can, before making any decision, ask and sense what comes. Just because we can, and are willing…should we? In humility, we must realize that many good intentions have unwanted consequences.
We are all responsible for the course humankind charts, and not just a handful of so-called morally enlightened intelligentsia, corporate influences, or the elected. We are called to be conscious and active participants in the creation of our own destiny.
We need not be interminably habituated by a mental inertia that reeks with the swamp-stench of the indolent sins of selfishness, power and control and fearful guilt-ridden cowardice. Our thoughts can stop being intent on war mongering impulses and frog-leaping our future into predictable possibilities, or, worse, into unknown lily galactic pads to pillage and perish.
We can open our hearts and listen to the dead, from spaces incomprehensible, voiced in kindness, to our seemingly deaf collective conscience. We can hear their cries to war no more.
“That mothers shall but smile when they behold
their infants quarter’d with the hands of war,” (Caesar III,I,86)
“And graves have yawned, and yielded up their dead (Caesar II,I,69)
wherein they lay in wild fields of daisies their bed,
filled with hearts of regret, regret and more
REGRET! My blood curdles, “C’est le vie?”
In consideration of the final result, our impartial arbiter calls us to choose which side of the fence we are willing to exit or grow toward,
“Are we energy haters and energy lovers, thereby destined toward reciprocal annihilation? Or, will our god-given instinct to survive and cherish life, all life, quantum leap in triumph?” As two opposing Masters, we cannot both serve and survive.
“To be, or not to be: that is the [only] question” (Shakespeare, Hamlet III, i). This is our one free choice, and this choice presents itself to us in everyway, everyday.
Perhaps my thoughts were so preoccupied with war that I had become diseased. Looking back, festering away were decades of memories fraught with violence, personal and global. Suffering and squirming in a false sense of powerlessness, I sank deeper and deeper into the dark abyss. On the brink of my own demise, it took years of honest introspection to release what I’ve come to refer to as the inner-terrorist.
I needed to detach from all my suffering (mostly self-imposed). I needed to become willing to shift away from all preconceived notions, beliefs and perceptions that I might adopt a positive attitude toward everything and everyone, including myself. Whether from a personal or a global perspective, we must all answer the question,
“Which Master am I willing to serve—life or death?” The consequences are nasty when we continue to think and act as our forefathers. We must answer the question,
“Is war causally pre-determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences, or can we change the course of history, end all killing and start living in unity?” We are not God’s Barbie dolls bending to his almighty will. We are thinking and feeling human beings, capable of caring and rising from all that is exterior to our moral law within.
We are called to rise from our ashes and angst and choose anew. As it stands, not unlike the evil atrocities committed under the leadership of Hitler, individual justification for war crimes appears to be,
“I was just following orders!” When we deny our own sense of what is right, true, virtuous and good, we disconnect from self honesty and personal loathing settles within.
Before acquiescing to the will of a political leader (who may have won a democratic election only marginally), we can be true to our conscience and ask ourselves,
“Can I kill someone today?” The answer may be, “Yes, I can!” Then we may ask, “Am I willing to kill someone today?” Again, we can answer any moral question with, “Can I” and “Am I willing?” Check within and sense what comes. This is the beginning of individual integrity, personal responsibility and self respect.
We deserve the possibility of knowing planetary peace, joy and goodwill amongst all human life. The hard life of misery and martyrdom can end. We can clearly state,
“I just don’t feel like killing anyone today. I don’t need to explain, rationalize or justify that decision. I just don’t feel like it today and you can’t make me. Tomorrow, who knows, but not today.” We deserve personal peace of mind. In unison we can call out to each other,
“Let us run from war and walk together in peace.” We can remember the courage of the Vietnam War draft dodgers. True to themselves, they were willing to risk everything, even being disowned by their families. They followed the dictates of their own conscience and can never be accused of gross disrespect toward human life because they were, “just following orders.” Despite being called anarchists, traitors, betrayers and worse, could the solution,
“I just don’t feel like killing anyone today, and you can’t make me” be just that simple for everyone, everywhere? We can remember our brave, salute their courage to care for and protect life, and again we can march for peace.
The unwillingness to war is the sane thought that can save and prevent us all from going under, horribly, suffocating in the foul earthy trenches, and all the long while internally revolting from it. No doubt, politicians everywhere might consider me mad and radical for even suggesting such a simplistic solution to voters everywhere. Scandalous anarchy could reign, resulting in rebellious non-compliance everywhere. Good grief and Heavens-to-Betsy,
“Whatever may become of us? Peace at last?” Shall we continue to lace up and march off to war? Or, just fly around in the dark and drop bombs upon the innocent? Ask, and sense what comes,
“Has our own watch stopped, or are we just running out of time?” For those who value the Ten Commandments as a guide to moral action, the tenth commandment states,
“Thou shalt not kill.” Yet one must wonder how just wars are, and how Christian are the men who are wearing the pants in the family who fight in war? Does the bible say, “Thou shalt not kill unless provoked or feeling threatened? Or, thou shalt not kill unless I’m scared of losing something I have, or of not getting something I want? Or, thou shalt not kill unless it’s a pre-emptive strike?” The commandment simply and clearly states, “Thou shalt not kill.”
After all, the big ‘they’ might be thinking of attacking us…so, let’s attack first to show them who is boss. And, while we’re at it, let’s get England and Europe involved too. One must wonder,
“Where is the connection between national self interests, world-wide religions and global political will?” For the enlightened, The Holy Bible in its entirety is not The Word of God. Rather, it was written and translated by many men over generations, who were likely influenced by the political agendas of their time. Yet we need not throw the baby out with the bath water.
The gems of Christianity rest in principles shared cross-culturally and theologically—compassion, understanding, forgiveness and value for life, all life. The enlightened, blessed with powers of discernment, are guided by an internal moral compass willing to commit to the resurrection of these principles and of life itself.
Regardless of nation or religious preference, the time is now for women to lead the world toward peace, wearing pants or not; we can introduce spiritual solutions to political problems and ask our men to lace up their marching boots and walk in peace. We win when we unite.
Whatever are our differing religious or political beliefs, the time is ripe that we unite in the worthy goal of choosing love over hate, and life over death. Otherwise, the predictable outcome of continually succumbing to anything other than peaceful impulses will be that none of our best interests will be met or protected. Witnessing this ongoing plunge into deep moral kah-kah, some of us may continue lamenting,
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luk 23:34). Not a Catholic or frequent church goer, I am as passionate about world peace as Pope John Paul II. He called out to people everywhere,
“No more war…No more war…Repent!” This remarkable man, strong in conviction can continue to be our North Star and moral compass. Particularly loving children and humankind’s future generations, Pope John Paul II also impassioned hearts throughout our planet with,
“You are my hope. You give me hope!”
Since we are all in the same sandbox called Earth, we must ‘play nice.’ But since Joey stuck a stick in Sally’s eye, Sally got Billy to stick a stick in Joey’s eye. Then Joey knocked out Billy’s front teeth, and Sally felt compelled to knock out Joey’s teeth. A huge fracas erupts and Joey’s brother knocks down Billy and Sally’s sand castles, the ‘twin towers.’
Next thing you know everyone is ‘pissed’ and there’s blood everywhere. Nobody is having fun and there’s no other sandbox to go play in; so now what do we do? When we listen to the cries from those who love humanity, we remember,
“Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in man kinde” (John Donne). We know that when we strike out against another, we are energetically striking out against ourselves and harming our collective unit. We strike God!
Does behavior supporting resolving conflicts such as is found in The Holy Bible, “Ye heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:” (Mat 5:38) continue to justify our actions? If insanity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is true, when will the insanity of war end? Clearly, to continue as we have, historical results will remain the same. To war is to die. To support life, is to live a life of peace; revenge is a solution that promises unhappy consequences.
Yet we continue to seek human morality and kinship with God in text, biblical and otherwise. Instead, we may surrender to love and experience a personal relationship with our true self in connection with our eternal All. Interestingly, when we find God we also find supporting evidence of God everywhere, including in text, biblical and otherwise.
The answers will come when we ask the right questions, ask for help and ask for direction. We will ask the right question when we connect with how we are feeling and what it is that we need and how it is that we can be most helpful. We do not need to think our way to a solution; we need only to pose the question.
It is when we acknowledge that we feel scared-to-death by the possibility of global extinction that we will want to know how to satisfy our need to feel safe and cared for in a world that appears to be anything but, and to begin to create atmospheres of global harmony motivated by love for self, our children and future generations. We will understand that in the final analysis, love, also eternal and freely given without expectation, for love is its own reward, is all that matters and makes our lives worthy of remembering.
We may remember that our every action is an expression of love, or a call for unity. By committing ourselves to one noble cause, in unity we can accomplish great things; Peace on earth and goodwill toward all.
It matters
not the most
the amount of time
we have on earth;
it matters most
the love we share
that marks it’s lasting worth.
When I connected with my own fears and insecurities, I realized the only way I would ever feel safe in the world is if I began to feel safe within myself. To do that, I needed to go back in time and review my personal history to understand where, when and how I became disconnected, defensive and self destructive in life. The goal was to return to my original state of being at birth, one of complete connection between self, God and humankind.
How the process of integration would happen was beyond my rational scope. Nonetheless, I trusted and placed complete reliance on its possibility. Far too much to handle on my own, this Barbie doll asked for guidance and it came, in spades, but not until I asked for help.
“And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Mat 21:22). Therefore, we must be very careful what we pray for, what is our intention and our motivation, what visions of desire we send out into the atmospheric plane, because that is what shall become manifest in our lives. Life is manifest as belief personified. If our external reality is a reflection of our inner reality, and we don’t like what we see exterior to us we must change within.
We can dare to dream the big dream, our best dream—peace at last! We can imagine it. See it. Hear it. Feel and experience it. We can know peace, be peace and be guided by peace. We can believe in the dream promising the happiest, most joyful and harmonious outcome for all. This inner reality will manifest a new world peace.
When we believe and are committed to creating a safe haven on Earth as in Heaven, peace becomes more than possible. It is already in the making. All that is required is that we show up for the day and simply do the best we can by consciously committing to and being willing to do whatever it takes to first create peace within ourselves.
It appears that only humankind has the ability to willfully resist the impulse to glorify ourselves, and to be bent on self-destructing by succumbing to the urgings of our inner-terrorist. It is that critical and negating voice within that seeks to take us down, keep us down and take the individual and humankind out, permanently. Having been somewhat tarnished by the darker sides of life, many years of battling with my own inner-terrorist, it was a long loop-de-loop before I attempted to resurrect myself.
Suffering is the great teacher and motivator. We may all begin reaching toward all that is our human potential—inner peace. I ask,
“Why build these cities glorious, if man unbuilded goes” (Edwin Markham: Man Making)?
SEARCH FOR TRUTH
Socrates declared, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and so I continue to examine my life and begin to remember and know my true self.
Born to emigrant parents from Norway, I grew up on a cattle ranch near a remote logging community in north-central British Columbia. It was from the native population, soft spoken and gentle people, whose heightened sensitivity and reverence toward life seemed to lift me to the place where stillness reigns. Silence. Listening. Being. The natives seem to have a sense of peace borne of acceptance, gratitude and trust in the Great Spirit. Since I consider my home town a microcosm of the world, I am encouraged by everyone’s healing journey of spiritual renewal; Anglo-Saxon Christian’s and Natives alike, we remember and reclaim our true spiritual identity.
This sense of spirituality I also find in the cyclical solstices of nature, wherein exists a balanced and symbiotic system of relationship between all living things; and all seemingly for the sole purpose of each part supporting the whole, and each living thing growing toward its full genetic potential prior to death. Somehow even the dying of things is as poignantly beautiful as the first shoots of spring. There exists the beauty of necessity even in death, even for a single blade of grass.
However, peace was not always present; it was often absent and resulted in unnecessary death. Mixing booze with feelings of anger, jealousy and all sorts of slights, can soon ignite and unleash within a contemptible vile that manifests in amoral action, violence and tragic death. Stabbed, shot to death at point-blank range, drowning and all sorts of horrendous beatings became blended in with nature’s calm. Such as war, what was going on in our own backyard was often ignored. Yet, our sun, a life giver itself, continued to shine as brightly on death as it does on life—waiting, waiting, waiting for us to ‘get it.’
Without discrimination to race, color or the amount of dollars in the bank, feelings of remorse, sorrow, shame and regret follow in the aftermath of our wrongs against self and others, and for some this downward spiral toward the hell of our own making is often choked back by more booze. To foster empathy, I grew up with the expression,
“Before you judge, walk a mile in my moccasins.” We are reminded of the importance that it is our lost and suffering souls who offer us the ‘opportunity’ to provide understanding, encouragement and support. Still, it was the familiar face of trauma that scarred the hearts in our otherwise idyllic community; it became the unspoken expression of our everyday reality.
Yet, in nature we may find a place for healing, and we may always return to the place where stillness reigns and say to ourselves,
“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).The source of our unhappiness rests in our ignorance of nature. We humans must choose to create symbiotic systems of relationship between all living things; we humans have free will.
We can focus only on the positive and help it to grow, or we can focus on what’s lacking and wither. We can create our happiest outcomes by committing to the idea that united there is little we cannot do for the benefit of all. We can begin by asking, not what the world can do for us but what we can do for the freedom of man. We can commit to doing our part in supporting the whole; we will be set free; we will know harmony and peace.
Bringing the individual down to our right size, we are all an extraordinary blade of grass capable of flourishing in the greenest of green fields that is humankind. One blade of grass is of no greater or lesser importance than the blade we grow beside, within the field from which we all form a part. It only seems to be humankind that is out of balance with nature and out of step, or alignment, with a presumably god-given instinct to be all that we were intended.
“Why is that?” I pondered. We humans wither in negativity and flourish in atmospheres of love. By surrendering to love, we satisfy our need to feel safe and part of the whole. We begin creating atmospheres of global harmony between self, nature and nations.
Prior to and at birth, still in moments of divine connection to all, I also knew that everything that had existed, would exist, did exist in a split second of totality and that this totality could alter with one voice, with one massive global shift in perception. At birth, as in death, I also traveled through a tunnel of light and became one with ‘supergravity’. Traveling the distance between here and there is so fast that time and space seems to stand still, which is no distance at all. I remember.
I distinctly recall the feelings and thoughts I had the day I discovered my body, and that I was in it. At 11 months, laying on my back, just waking up, it was as if I saw my leg for the first time. So, I twisted my ankle, played with my fingers and hands, and simply marveled at the connection between mind and body. That was power!
This entire awareness was wonderful and I knew that from that moment on, I had not only arrived, I was the boss of my body and its movements. I also remember closing my eyes and seeing everything that I was destined to experience while living on Earth.
“Here we go,” I groaned with some resignation, knowing that much of it would be painful and very challenging, and that it would be nip’n tuck if I’d ‘get it’ while alive.
I had not chosen the easy road, but knew that the resulting growth would be for my benefit and for the benefit of others. I also knew that when I opened my eyes, that I would forget everything. I would forget my map. It was with some comfort though, that I knew one day I would return to the place from where I had come—my true home of origin.
The next major memory was when I was told I was the boss of my mind. Therein began my difficulty in reconciling the freedom to choose with the knowledge that I had a destiny. It was late spring and I was 23 months old. Sitting on the front porch by my dad, with a dolly in my arms, we posed while waiting for mom to figure out how to use the camera. I remember thinking,
“You’d have to be God to get the big picture. God is kind ‘a like that camera. It can see everything, everywhere, all the time. Unlike the camera, God is also in everything, everywhere, all the time, at once.” This thought blew me away. I peed my pants. Feeling a bit frightened and small in this suddenly great big world, holding onto my small dolly, I asked,
“Daddy? Am I God’s dolly?” My Dad caught his breath and said something along the lines, “That’s a big question for such a little girl. I’ll have to think about that one.” After a brief pause he continued,
“Have you ever noticed spiders? See that one over there? See the spider web? It’s stronger than steal. The mommy spider can create a thousand tiny baby spiders. I think if you want to know about God, you have to pay close attention to the miracles that are happening all around you, everyday.” I pressed on,
“Daddy am I your dolly?” My dad, always a strong believer in the power of his mind, said something to the effect,
“The mind is an amazing thing. You have to discipline it. You’d better change the way you’re thinking or you’ll get yourself into trouble. It’s your conscience you come face-to-face with, so you’d better like what you see in the mirror. What I do know is that you’re my princess. You’ll always be my princess.” Of course, I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
My mom never liked it when dad was so serious with me. When she asked what we were talking about, we both just shrugged and dad fibbed, saying,
“Oh, nothing much,” and then we smiled and said, “Cheese” for the camera. Reconciling the fact that we have a destiny and that we also have freedom of choice, both concepts have been wrestling for dominance in my mind from age 23 months until almost age 50.In any event, I wisely stopped talking and asking questions for at least one year.
At 33 months, I started to lose connection with my own light. Some of the more unsavoury aspects of life began to occur, and my life became forever altered. At birth we have knowingness that we are all the sons and daughters of one God. But this sense of oneness is often kyboshed due to our inability to reconcile the bad things that happen in our life with belief systems that preach about a loving and merciful God. It is then that we shift from a state of connection to disconnection from self, people and from God. We may become lost in chaos and fear, which is non-conducive to creating peace on Earth as in Heaven…
We all experience the impact of trauma; the world is full of it. For some, watching the news causes nightmares. Not only in war torn countries, there are all sorts of moral boundary-breaking and human rights violations that happen everywhere. The good news is that we can recover from trauma and flourish when we commit to a healing journey of spiritual renewal.
For many, healing begins when enough suffering brings us to our knees and in humility we cry out for help. We may listen to an inner pulse for life made greater in its need for life itself, and hear our wise one plea,
“Physician, heal thyself.” Believing we can be made whole, we will heal. When we become ready to listen and receive divine help, we will help ourselves and be intuitively directed to people and circumstances that will help. We will shift beyond the realm of self and into a sphere of wholeness. We will lift from Hell and return to love for life.
Always the solution to any difficulty we can surrender to love, ask for help and heal. When we become willing to receive love, we open a gateway for miracle-making. We become miraculous examples of love’s transformative nature, with a growing capacity for compassion, acceptance and loving-kindness.
When we begin to remember former moments of genuine joy, we realize that God never abandoned us; rather, we abandoned God. We can renew our personal relationship with God, just as we do in any meaningful relationship—with an open heart and honest dialogue.
When we have conversations with God, to listen is our highest expression of respect. When we do, we can start co-participating in our own transformation. We are blessed, because we have entered a journey of loving guidance, understanding and forgiveness, and we are set free.
We will begin to notice that the right people show up at exactly the right time; we notice we are on a path of healing and synchronicity. We begin to hear what we need to hear, and we feel heard. We start to feel what we need to feel. We start to let go, and we heal. As our perceptions, emotions and thoughts shift, we begin to feel safe and loved by a universe supporting of our commitment to heal. We start to realize that God works through people who are willing to help and to be helped. We begin to trust in life.
Dad was right. The mind is amazing. We not only need to discipline it, but our minds will protect us. We will not remember until we are willing to heal and become strong enough to handle the truth. Illusions vanish when we became strong enough to ask to be helped to see the truth. Painlessly and effortlessly, we are divinely helped.
God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves—reveal truth. We will remember everything, glazed with calming balm and we are set free. Traumas are part of our map; the map we forgot. Our map is our destiny and traumas are part of it. With a positive spin, one might consider traumas as being intended for our spiritual evolution.
We can adopt an attitude that helps us accept everyone’s humanness and necessity to err that we can advance in our abilities to forgive. We can accept our map, our destiny and trust that good can come from what is life destroying. This is no easy task, it is for the courageous. For example, at age nine, in a dusty attic of an abandoned building, I accepted the spiritual teachings of Jesus Christ into my heart; when I adopt the principles of love, understanding, acceptance, compassion and forgiveness into application of every possible set of circumstances, they are my saving grace.
Two weeks later I was raped by a sixteen-year-old boy in a foreign country, who also threatened to harm my three-year-old sister if I told. I didn’t. Curious timing…Having no forgiveness in my heart, I entered a field of hateful fantasy, with him tarred, feathered and strung up for public display and vicious judgmental condemnation. I had murder in my heart until I forgot that too. Much later, I heard this young man had a very unhappy life. At first I felt smug and thought,
“Justice has been served.” Within seconds, I felt sad for him and thought, “What a wasted life—his and mine.” I entered a field of compassion and wished only good things for him. From a distance, I brought his spirit energy to my minds eye and flooded him with light and love. I was freed.
I started to remember everything. Searching for truth, including knowledge of what my part was, I recalled a specific moment. As I ran up the rickety stairs of an old barn (we were playing hide and seek), I clearly heard,
“Go back.” I paused and looking backward, I thought “What was that? How odd.” I continued racing up the stairs, ignored my intuitive voice and all hell broke loose. Someone said to me once, “If it’s odd, it’s God!”
Reflecting deeper on the subject of destiny, divinity and intuitive guidance, I recall Jesus had priori knowingness that Judas would betray him. Even with guidance, many of us participate in our own undoing. God does not forsake us; yet, despite the life-saving value of intuition, it seems some of us are called to suffer and sacrifice that others might later be helped, saved and offer the opportunity of forgiveness.
Often it is our walking wounded who later become healers, a source of inspiration, hope and helpfulness to others. A healing journey of spiritual renewal blossoms when we connect with a loving Creator, and begin to remember and reclaim our true self, our innocence and love for life—all life.