Effort, trying, has always been my approach to the world (I was born pushing hard to emerge from the womb, breaking my mother’s tailbone in the process). Only recently have I learned to slow down, breathe, and allow my life to be lived through me instead of trying to plan every single event and experience in my reality. It’s not as if I’ve never lived spontaneously—I was, after all, a flower child in the 1960s! Nonetheless, there has always been some part of me that believed that living life meant working hard to make it happen (write down a list of those intentions, and act on them—now!). Really, the greater truth is that life is meant to be played. And playing is the opposite of work. It’s being, letting go and flowing with the energies. Of course, that flow comes from an open heart, unblocked emotions, and trust in something greater than your individual life.
All part of human evolution at this time. As babies, we were easily playful, but we lose it within a social construct that demands serious effort from us at an early age. Now, as that old paradigm starts to disintegrate, we are beginning to reacquaint ourselves with that wise child within, that soul self more aware of what’s really important in life. Our soul knows that, first and foremost, we are here to love (the world and life itself), and that everything is a vehicle for that—a way to reach greater and greater levels of loving and harmony with our fellow beings. How do we do that? Play. Allow life to play with you. Let it be an adventure and a game, one that you are not here to win but just to play—with everyone in your life. Play it forward!
In 2012, my heart opened more and more—with love, with joy—until there were times when I felt as if it couldn’t possibly open any wider. In the process, however, I found that I also had to face the presence of pain that I had carried within me for a very long time. My heart was aching with the suffering I saw everywhere in the world, and my body itself struggled with pain in the form of headaches. Unconsciously, I felt a resistance to becoming fully resilient and healed because I believed that would separate me from other people. As I moved to a place of acceptance of the full spectrum of human experience on Earth at this time (pain included), my entire consciousness shifted. Pain/suffering is one part of a greater whole, and as we continue to evolve, that part begins to diminish in the face of human compassion and love, which brings all of us closer and closer together in the global experience of oneness.
What is more, as I/we expand and become more resilient (peaceful, joyful, loving), that energy goes out into the collective matrix and helps to shift everything/everybody. This is the power of interconnections and of the reverberations of light resilient energy. It is the butterfly that moves its wings in China and affects the wind on the other side of the planet. It is the human heart that opens so wide as to embrace every experience and every living being with unconditional love. It is the power of fully awakened spirit in human form.
Contrary to what you might hear or read in the media, the Maya never predicted that the world would end on December 21, 2012. Never. That’s a complete misinterpretation of the ancient Maya teachings, which have been handed down and preserved by indigenous Maya lineage carriers. The Maya cosmovision brought forward by the Maya elders of today speaks of the end of one cycle or Sun and the beginning of another, one filled with light. This is a time of transition, possibility, and expansion, not apocalypse.
Over the past eight years, I have had the opportunity and honor to learn about the traditional Maya teachings from Nana Mercedes Barrios Longfellow and other Maya elders from Guatemala. A number of us have traveled with the elders to Guatemala and participated in traditional fire ceremonies at Maya sacred sites there. Gatherings and fire ceremonies with the elders have also taken place in the United States, often at Rowe Center in the mountains of western Massachusetts.
Nana Mercedes’ teaching always involves a discussion of the Cholqij, one of the twenty sacred Maya calendars. The Cholqij is used as a guide for the spiritual growth and evolution of human beings, thus its particular importance at this time. The calendar consists of a 260-day cycle, each day of which carries a different frequency. In Nana Mercedes’ words, “Spirit speaks through the energy of the day. If we attune to the frequency of the day and begin to obey the laws of the universe, that day that sacred energy will fully support us.” Using the calendar on a daily basis helps humans to live with a conscious awareness of the larger cosmos that we are a part of here on Earth.
Over the years, I have learned so much from Nana Mercedes: about slowing down and getting in touch with the flow of each day’s energy (through meditation/prayer); about living life with humility and respect for all beings; about being of service to others and being grateful for the blessings we receive every moment on this beautiful planet. To spend time with Nana Mercedes is to experience a deep connection to a profound and wise way of living in the world. “We are one heart,” she has always said, and for me that is one of the most beautiful of the Maya teachings. I feel it profoundly when I am present at a Maya fire ceremony and also when a group of us—some longtime friends, others new friends—comes together to hear the wise teachings that have been handed down for thousands of years.
In September, about 30 of us spent four days at Rowe Center with Nana Mercedes and Nana Regina (who is also from Guatemala). Afterward, my heart was full, and I felt the ancient wisdom and light embodied by the Maya, and other indigenous peoples, shining forth powerfully and helping with the global awakening of all beings to universal oneness. More and more, I see evidence of that awakening, in spite of the huge challenges the planet faces today. The Great Shift—this transition to a new era, or new Sun, which the Maya have foreseen—is with us now. And it’s not about one date, or even one year. As we release old ways based in separation and fear, the cosmic energy will carry us forward beyond time and space into full immersion in the realm of the heart. As Nana Mercedes herself has said, “We are destined to be evolved beings, living in harmony, with great gratitude for the miracles of life.”
Many other groups in the Americas have included generosity and gratitude within their living traditions. The Andean peoples of Peru practice a form of mutual aid called ayni, which is based on both cooperation and generosity—in essence, helping others who will in turn help them when they are in need. The Maya in Guatemala believe in living in balance with giving and receiving. They make offerings to life, toq, in the form of prayers of gratitude or acts of service, for all that life gives them—air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat.
In the United States, being grateful has not always moved people to share what they have with others. In fact, American beliefs in rugged individualism and competitive economic growth have led to just the opposite. Still, generous impulses have not entirely vanished, and I truly believe that they are making a comeback. We are living through a time of radical shifts in values, from “me first” to sister/brotherhood, from cutthroat competition to generosity of spirit. The old ways that separate and pit people against one another are slowly disintegrating. Once we become fully aware of the web of light that connects all our hearts, there will be no need to speak of giving as a desired value or behavior. Within oneness, there is no separation, and sharing is a part of living, just as automatic as breathing.
We are evolving to a future in which we won’t have to be reminded at special holidays to be grateful or to give generously. We will wake up each morning with thank you on our lips and fall asleep each night counting our blessings. We will live in gratitude, oneness, and sharing. We will live from the heart. That future is Now.
In The Wizard of Oz, there is a classic moment when the Wicked Witch of the West sky-writes a warning to the little girl from Kansas: Surrender, Dorothy! Most of us have always thought of that as an ominous threat. What if we look at it instead as wise and magical advice: surrender. Dorothy doesn’t surrender to the witch, but she does surrender to the power of her own journey, which finally brings her back home. Don’t all of us who are on life journeys come up against that ultimate challenge—letting go and trusting in something greater than our own individual lives? A surrender that will bring us “home,” to ourselves and to the heart of the universe.
In the past year, I have faced this in my own life. Never having been raised in a religious tradition of any kind, surrender was a foreign concept to me. Yet, the deeper I went within my own uniquely eclectic spiritual journey, the more I found surrender to be the key to opening the door to a greater expansiveness in myself and a profound connection to the cosmos. Not to mention, the key to a greater ease in living life.
Synchronistically, messages to that effect began to appear everywhere in my life. On an Oprah show that I tuned in to, Shirley MacLaine offered one piece of advice: “Surrender to a highly sophisticated Divinity.” A friend of mine described a comic strip with the punch line: “Resign as general manager of the universe.” It was Panache Desai’s ideas about “allowing and receiving,” however, that really struck a chord within me: in essence, flowing with everything that comes into your experience.
I’ve discovered that for me surrender isn’t a mental decision or a set of prescribed steps. It’s an ongoing process of emotionally letting go and embracing all of life, over and over. Part of me wants to hold on, wants to be in control, and it gets scared if I consider releasing that tight grip. Gradually, though, I’ve learned to relax and open to a wider vision of my life and my place on Earth. Like Alice, who discovers another world “through the looking glass,” I too have found that this physical reality is only one piece of the multilayered dream we call life. And it’s nothing I have to “control.” It involves trusting that my life as it is unfolding is exactly what I need in order to grow/evolve and that all that I perceive is part of an intricate tapestry of universal meaning and infinite love. As I have more and more experiences (within the physical realm and beyond) of the web of connection that we are all a part of, my trust grows, and I allow my life to flow with greater ease.
Surrender, then, is ultimately an opening of the heart: surrender in joy, surrender with tears and laughter. Fall in love with the world! Surrender to the dance of life. Step through the looking glass, put on those outrageous, sparkling ruby slippers, and click your heels together! You’ll be home in no time.
Spiritflower 
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