It Had to Be You

A major realization for me in recent months is that no one else could have been me, and my life could have been no other way. Everything has brought me to where I stand and who I am today: a unique human be-ing and a member of a global family upon this Earth. Each of us alive at this time on the planet came here for a specific reason—we chose to be present at a Great Shift in human consciousness and to play our part. And that part is not to try to copy or pattern ourselves after someone else, some courageous or visionary person whom we might admire. We came here to be ourselves, our extraordinary, unrepeatable selves. Therein lies the miracle.

Just like snowflakes, no two of us are alike, and together we form a whole that embodies the light of each single individual. Through living fully in self-love and a deep sense of oneness with all beings, we shine radiance throughout the universe. Each of our lives is a work of art, co-created with Spirit and infused with infinite expansive energy and possibility. Together, individual by individual, we are helping to birth a new way of being on Planet Earth, one centered in love and compassion. It is through loving and embracing our own inner soul-self that this universal love grows and expands.

In truth, we can’t be anyone else but ourselves. We are different in gender, sexual identity, age, race, ethnicity, physical appearance, cultural heritage, etc., and it doesn’t work to copy someone else’s idea of who you are or should be. We were created differently for a reason; no one else can be or do what we came here to be and do. It may be a line from an old romantic love song, but it also applies in this case: “It had to be you.” Without you, the world would have been different, just as George discovers in the classic film It’s a Wonderful Life. Every word you or I speak, every action you or I take or don’t take, ripples out from our lives to affect everyone we know, and by continuing vibration, everyone they know as well. The world is a web of vibrational interconnections, and the wonder of that is that by living our lives fully and lovingly, we help to create an entire planet of love and lightness of being. This is what the Great Shift means. Be your true self, and the world shifts into its true self.

 

Second Chances

During my individual session with Panache Desai in July (see blog post “Rainbow Child”), he played music by Deva Premal and Miten that really helped me flow with my inner journey. One song that had particular meaning for me was “Second Chance.” Because I was integrating all parts of my life—the young, outspoken radical lesbian-feminist as well as the older, softer, eclectically-spiritual woman—I found the idea of a second chance extremely appealing. It was a second chance to be fully human, standing in the infinite expansiveness of who I am and loving every bit of it.

It occurs to me now as I think of it that this is where we all are headed during this time of planetary transformation—toward the realization that we are everyone and everything, as well as our unique individual selves. Oneness means that there is no “other.” And this is our “second chance” on Planet Earth to understand that cosmic truth. Legend has it that ancient Atlantis came to an untimely end because the people failed to uphold the higher spiritual laws of oneness. We are at a similar choice point now. That second chance is fully here in our lives every moment of every day, in every breath that we take. Are you looking at your neighbor and seeing your own reflection? Are you looking in the mirror and loving yourself? Is your heart embracing all that you see as part of you? That is unity consciousness. That is why we all incarnated at this time: to look in one another’s eyes and love all that we see, similarities and differences.

Global peace, universal compassion, and loving-kindness are not just pipe dreams articulated by a few Buddhists, shamans, and latter-day flower children. Every human being has the opportunity to live out the potential of this magnificent blue planet full of infinite variations in consciousness. And those moments of living awareness of oneness are available to all of us. The media likes to report violence and catastrophe, entrapping us in fear. Don’t allow yourself to live in that place. Yes, terrible, painful events occur, but other more hopeful realities exist too; they just aren’t reported in the mainstream.

Ultimately, it is love that will energetically shift everything: people reaching out and caring for one another in spite of the dominant social matrix based on separation. And that caring is occurring now, more and more, all around the globe. Individuals of different races, ethnicities, ages, and sexual identities are finding common ground and choosing kindness instead of fear. The new generations are of such mixed heritage and cultural background that they often don’t identify with any one thread but instead embrace it all. Many think in terms of both/and instead of either/or—straight, gay; feminine, masculine; spiritual, political; thinking, feeling—they sense an inclusive world beyond polarity. Look into their eyes and see the future. They are living I AM consciousness, oneness that encompasses all. When we finally realize with every fiber of our beings that we each embody all parts of humanity, prejudice and hatred will cease to exist, and love will be the planet’s guiding force.

 

Fear Less

In Jan Frazier’s book When Fear Falls Away, she describes a sudden falling away of fear, just before having a repeat mammogram. The subsequent awakening she experienced changed her life. It is something we all dream of: to live with unshakable trust in the universe. I believe that we are now entering a period in the Earth’s evolution in which that is possible, not just for yogis or shamans, but for every person on the planet. Individual processes may not be as instantaneous as Jan Frazier’s, but I think the ultimate experience of trust in something greater will be very similar. I believe this because I feel it happening to me.

Recently, after intentionally stepping away from external busyness in the “real” world (see blog post “Unplugged and Reconnected”), I found that a door opened within me through which life poured through in boundless exuberance. The perfect books and spiritual workshops presented themselves to me with free-flowing synchronicity. In addition to these, the time that I sat alone in silent meditation and contemplation in my backyard was deeply transformative. I spent hours there each day, sometimes working in my garden, sometimes meditating, sometimes just breathing in the beauty all around me—the flowers, the trees, the sky, the clouds, the birds. A tiger swallowtail butterfly floating into the yard would make my heart catch in my throat at the miracle of its very existence. A single ray of sun penetrating the dense green shrubbery to form a patch of shimmering golden light on the grass would fill my eyes with tears. It was if I were absorbing the magnificence of the world through my very pores.

Gradually, as these magic moments continued, a deep loving connection to something larger than my own life became my prevailing experience. I have had such moments frequently in recent years, but something new was beginning to shift within me now. The connection to Source or Spirit was less fleeting, more a part of me. As the external world continued to be rocked by the changes inherent in 2012 and the Great Shift, I found that, within me, everything that was not trust in the presence of Spirit in all things began to dissolve. Old rigid ways of perceiving the world fell away. As did fear. I was not completely fearless (impossible—I am human), but I feared less.

Months later, after continued inner journeying on my own and at various spiritual gatherings, I find that this opening/shedding process has continued. I am no longer run by fear. Instead, at any given moment, I can connect to a spacious silent place within where peace and a trusting calm exist (see previous post “Infinity”). And I truly believe that now is the time when we all can find that inner space and open our hearts to a greater trust, a greater love.

 

All You Need Is…

Love. The Beatles sang about it more than 40 years ago, and their message is never more important than today, during this time of a Great Shift in human consciousness. Love that is about universal sister/brotherhood. Love that links all beings in oneness, in unity consciousness. Love that connects us through the heart to something greater than our individual lives. This is the love that hundreds of poets and musicians have written of. Bob Marley sang about it in “One Love, One Heart,” and his son Ziggy carried it forward with “Love Is My Religion.” Tracy Chapman expressed it in “Heaven’s Here on Earth.

Love is the one value that seems to run through all cultures, countries, and religions. Many spiritual leaders and ordinary people have lived their lives in its service. Yet the world has remained divided by wars, violence, and hatred. Why have we failed as a species to hold to this value that we claim to believe in? Perhaps we had to live the extremes of human behavior in order to find our way back home. Perhaps we are evolving, finally, as a people and as a planet, to the point of irrevocably embracing the fact that love is the only real solution. Perhaps the veils are falling away at last so that when we look in one another’s eyes, we see our own reflection.

The truth is we are love at our very core. Layers of life’s hard knocks may have covered it completely, but it’s still present. As we move through the ongoing vibrational shifts on planet Earth, those layers will be peeled away or will fall away on their own. As we face monumental changes and challenges, we will be stripped down to our essence. We will reach out to our fellow beings for comfort, for reassurance; we will reach out in celebration, in joy. We will link arms and hearts in recognition that love is, and always has been, the universal truth of our lives here on Earth. It is why we came here—to embody human love and divine love simultaneously. It is why we are living the extremes of this time of radical change…so that we can finally stand together as one world united in love.

The next generations, too, are being born with the greater truth of love strong within them. Click on this link to see a wonderful children-produced video, “One World, One Heart Beating”: http://youtu.be/kY9HieCkT9c

I and We: One Tribe

If you’ve read my recent posts, you may have noticed the recurring theme of oneness. As the energies of these times accelerate and take us along for the ride, it becomes increasingly important to remind ourselves of the consciousness we want to carry forward, as individuals and as a people. Unity consciousness, or oneness, seems to me to be a key focal point in the evolution of a new Earth and a new way of being human.

Large numbers of human beings on this planet live life primarily from the point of view of the ego; “I” consciousness rules. Many people fear losing their individual freedoms within a greater “we” (often seen as “them”). But it’s really all about balance. We become truly free as individuals when we embody freedom within our communities in an ongoing process of receiving and giving: the dance of I and We, which acknowledges the primal connection between self and other.

Enter the Great Shift in humanity’s awareness. Gradually, ideas about sharing, giving back, and “paying forward” are entering the collective consciousness. People are beginning to see their neighbors in all parts of the world as not so different after all. In the aftermath of disasters near or far, we hear countless stories about individuals and groups who have dropped everything to help those in need. It is a time of coming together, of realizing that we are all part of one another.

In the realm of quantum physics, scientists describe a universe in which the smallest particles that make up everything are interconnected in one huge expanding energy field. Spiritual masters throughout history have spoken of a Divine presence that fills and surrounds us in a golden sea of light and love. This “I AM” consciousness has no boundaries; it flows through us all, and within it, there is no separation between I and We. From the point of view of both science and spirituality, then, we are indeed all connected.

As more and more of us awaken to this basic truth, it becomes our joyful responsibility to think and act from a place of spacious oneness, not constricted separateness. We are here to embrace that awareness, to birth a new way of being through living our lives as conscious connected spirit in human form.