SACRED JOURNEYS – October 2010

Everyday Rituals & Celebrations

Here is a favourite quote from my kitchen blackboard: “God gives you on a daily basis an unlimited amount of electrons to create your life with, and you are always free to create it in any way you want.” (Telos: Aurelia Louise Jones)

These days, as we all know, life is requiring our full attention. One minute our lives are so full and busy that we are almost overwhelmed, and then something else happens, far more important than the other things keeping us busy, and we expand a little more to accommodate the new focus.

Most of us have faced some fears this last year, or helped others facing their own challenges. We are exploring and confronting the things that need to be addressed, released, embraced, and transformed. Because we are all going through this process, if there is a break in the action for us personally, we can be of help to a friend or colleague who is going through an intense time before it is suddenly our turn again. This year we have been growing up, testing our metal, opening our hearts, and we have rarely felt alone, precisely because this process is happening in all of our lives. We are being supported.

In the autumn, we have an opportunity to reflect on the harvest of our last nine months and express our gratitude. In a year such as this one, many of us have been called upon to become the heroes of our own stories. We have been presented with a myriad of opportunities wherein we must face what life is dishing out and choose to be the best that we can be.

Being available for whatever life presents us has required that we learn, en masse, to be conscious. Negative thoughts and feelings drain our energy and leave us nothing with which to support ourselves or those we love. So being conscious of, and taking responsibility for, our thoughts, feelings, and choices, so that we have the energy to become fully present, is likely a common lesson and gift that we all have in our harvest baskets this year.

Another gift has been the lesson of non-attachment. In order for us, and the world, to evolve and change, we need to not be attached to our past understanding of how our lives should look in the future. If we have been feeling defined by our relationships, jobs, homes, or bank accounts, but not feeling deeply nurtured, this is the year we will act – we need to bring the truth of our feelings to light or to walk away and set ourselves free. The universe cannot give us anything if our hands are full, especially if we are using our hands to grip hard to a rock while the river of our consciousness is trying to set us on a journey. If we are not attached, we can allow life to present us with new ways of being in the world.

With non-attachment comes another gift – trust. We are learning to trust that we are connected to spirit and divinely guided. In other words, we are learning to trust ourselves, our intuition, and the journey of life itself.

I just got off the phone with a dear friend whose beautiful mother’s health is failing. We found ourselves talking about the gifts that accompany such important journeys. A happy consequence is that she is bathed in love and support through the gathering of family and friends. The love is there always, but it reveals its true face during these times, and its profound depth reminds us forever that we are never alone.

We also spoke about how death is the ultimate non-attachment lesson. We have been raised in a society which requires that each member be attached to controlling nature in order to reach desired outcomes. Death is not seen as a desired outcome, and although we might try to control it, ultimately we have to surrender to its higher authority. Death teaches us that control is unnatural, and part of the fear we have of death in the West is based on having to let go of the illusion of control.

Likewise, many of the fears being stimulated right now come from the natural collapse of a society based on these false foundations. We have been taught that in order to achieve our desired outcomes, we need to value competition and exploitation of each other. We are learning that those institutions that we once trusted are in fact exploiting both us and nature, and we need to learn again to trust, love, and respect each other. Meanwhile, everything appears unpredictable and in flux, and for many of us that is cracking our personal foundations.  This autumn, we are learning to trust in our journey, act on our intuition, and reach out and touch someone who could use a good dose of our compassion and energy.

Note: The musician referred to in last month’s column is David Ross MacDonald