Sacred Journeys – September 2016
THE EMERGING GROUP PROSPERITY PARADIGM INCLUDES CHOOSING LOVE OVER FEAR
I just spent a lovely summer weekend in good conversation with an interesting group of friends at a beautiful lake. When the subject of the U.S. election came up we found ourselves ruminating on where the world seems to be heading. One of us expressed a fantasy in which both Donald and Hillary, for one reason or another, had to leave the race and Bernie was put back on the ballot. He made it all the way to the Oval Office. We laughed, and then for fun, and because we all believe in infinite possibilities, we took a few minutes to imagine that version playing out, as the water lapped against the dock.
Exploring where we are all heading became a theme in our weekend discussions. We agreed that although there are horrific abuses of power taking place that require us to protect whistleblowers and take action, we felt that this fear and greed was more of an entrenched pattern that could be broken and re-woven. We concurred that the heart itself is still a world of kindness that pumps fresh hope, love, and possibility for transformation into each moment. In fact we were also sensing something new on the horizon – a paradigm that is the opposite of the old hierarchical prototype, where people share skills and resources with the aim of empowering and enriching the collective.
My summer has been filled with delightful evidence that this shift toward love and trust is being energized out into the world. The most obvious manifestation of this is how quickly I got back what I put out. For example, if I offered someone ‘something’ for free, I almost immediately got back something of equal or better value. Remember the story of the yellow paper clip that was traded for something else until eventually the trades transformed it into a house. Likewise, you can trade kindness and get a fair trade quickly these days, especially when you are not expecting anything back.
Throughout the summer season, many lovely guests arrived at my Bed & Breakfast facility, folks who also helped illuminate this paradigm shift underway. It was remarkable how each and every guest felt they were drawn to the house at just the right time, to have just the right conversation or energy exchange, and we felt the same about them. Sometimes we didn’t know why we had been brought together, only that it was ‘meant to be’. Each guest offered an interesting thread to an on-going exploration I was weaving this spring and summer. The conversations were full of insights, new directions, and confirmations. It all seemed orchestrated, invigorating, effortless, and brightly woven.
One particular guest comes to mind as a good example of the new paradigm. I had fallen on the ice early last winter and had gone to a host of gifted practitioners for adjustments and massage, but problems came creeping back, and new spots began to ache even more than the original point of impact. So when Brendan arrived I was taped up and in significant discomfort.
What was most striking about Brendan was that he used his skill to empower me to heal myself. He tested my muscle strength in various areas, which I rated from 0-10. He could then identify the exact source of the continuing discomfort. He then gave me exercises, which I did right away and then re-tested the muscles. As a result, what had been a weak 3 returned to being a 10. It felt like a fundamentally different approach for him to not ‘adjust me’, but rather to pass on his knowledge to me as specific exercises, so that I could continue the treatments on my own. Inherent in this approach is a confidence that the human body is brilliantly designed and can heal itself, which incidentally has been proven true. The focus was on empowerment through sharing skills and resources.
Similarly, I was in a workshop this week where the highly respected teacher, who we had come to see and learn from, presented themselves as an equal member of the group, simply there to share what they knew and loved. They were interested to know what each of us brought to the group, and the event was about ending the separation between those who know and those who are learning. The result was that each of us stepped up to the facilitator’s level to meet on a playing field where we were all fully co-creating the experience. This worked to both increase our respect for the ‘leader’, and our collective abilities. We were empowered through the collective experience.
A girlfriend of mine had a similar experience at a Colette Baron-Reid event. Colette was empowering participants to develop their own abilities and skills, rather than revere hers. Colette referenced conversations with Gregg Braden and Bruce Lipton who agreed that the future paradigm is one of shared prosperity, where shared skills and resources support the abundance of the greater whole.
The examples offered here are tiny moments, but the energetic threads that wove them together are lighting up significantly enough to call our attention to a rising awareness within our consciousness of a new group prosperity paradigm. This new paradigm is about choosing love over fear, co-operation over competition, abundance over scarcity, creative action over resignation.
As for Bernie, I have a ‘Canadians for Bernie’ button that I wear on my shoulder bag, and hey, he fits right in with our new paradigm so who knows what might happen……. lol.
Email Kim Elkington at: spirit@algonquintea.com
