BRINGING IT HOME

When I was growing up there had been a developing sense among younger people that the established western social/economic system was not working very well for the people living in/by/under it. The response was a rejection of "the system", a "dropping out" in some form. Perhaps a trip to India, or work in a developing country, living on a communal farm, substances, meditation, or music.

Over time much was learned in this way, and some of it was brought back to the larger society. Some of it has been incubated in communities, or in the heart. In spite of what people sometimes think, many things have changed. Perhaps not as dramatically as had been envisioned, but slowly and subtly. A conversation that takes place on a topic that would not have happened before, a possibility that is present for young people that wasn't before, a sense of Spirit at large in the world that is taken as given.

My yoga teacher used to say that its great to go find God in a cave in the mountains, but the real challenge is to hold onto Spirit in the middle of the market place. Much of the searching was spiritual, some of this was brought back, but there has still been a feeling that people needed to separate to find it, to get "off the grid" in one way or another. If you came back to the system, you would loose it or "sell out".

These days there is a whole new generation coming of age. A generation that has had the chance to grow up with ideas that were revolutionary "back in the day". More importantly a generation which seems to have a different frame of mind. They are finding Spirit, or it is finding them. They don't worry as much about "inside" and "ouside"; they simply go where they need to be. More and more they are finding their calling inside "the system", and are committed to bringing Spirit "inside". Bringing an ongoing awareness of Spirit into not only the healing arts, but computer programming; not just in teaching our children, but in managing the board room.

Have you ever received an email from a loved one, and felt that love. Energy and Spirit can move through technology along with the electrons. It is all Spirit, there is no division unless we choose to think it.

How do we weave the spiritual into the system and transform it from the inside out? This is already being done, one step at a time, one person at a time. By bringing your full awareness of Spirit and your spiritual self with you in all areas of your life. Many of us have been "in the wilderness", others are finding a more direct path. We are all "bringing it back home", to where we live everyday, weaving it into how we work together, how we use technology, how we do business. Spirit is everywhere, all we need to do is recognize that, every day, all the time. Search it out, bring it into your awareness, out of the background. Recognizing it and appreciating it, especially in each other takes us all "out of the box", creates space for the form to more fully reflect the underlying reality.

Notice how you are carrying your understanding of spirit, of yourself as a spiritual being into your life. Perhaps your light is carried under a basket, perhaps you don't always speak to it in others, or perhaps it is out and shining, reflecting off those around you. Just don't hide it in a closet, or leave it in the wilderness. Create the space to carry it with you, always, and things are changing. Time to find your brothers and sisters and begin the weave.

(© 6/10)

STARTING POINT

We are all familiar with the metaphor of water finding the easiest way downhill. It always seeks the lowest level, flowing naturally to find the fastest route to the sea. When it meets a boulder this means going around it, until through time it wears it away or undermines it until the boulder falls out of the way. It is the nature of our minds, however, to focus on boulders, to be concerned with the things that don't work, that are hard or painful in our lives.

While some of the water in a stream continues wash against the boulder, most of it goes around, where the path is easier, clearing the pebbles and stones on either side. More importantly it maintains its own nature, the flow and play of being water. Where it all to pile up behind the boulder as behind a damn it would become angry and frustrated, or still and depressed. It would be unhealthy and untrue to its nature.

Perhaps its a stretch to think of the emotional tone of water, but emotional tone is important for human beings. The emotional tone we bring to things is a powerful piece of the end result as well as the process. Faced with "problems" we tend to be in turbulent or depressed emotional states. Some amount of this is natural and we can roll with it, but when the focus is constant and not balanced with flow and play, this emotional tone spills over into more and more of our lives.

It is common that some area of our lives is lacking in a quality that we would like to have there. It might be playfulness, at work or love in relationship. It might be a level of confidence, or self-ownership in some area of your life. If we focus on this lack we are like the water pounding on the boulder, we give it attention and loose sigh of the places in our lives where we do have this quality.

Most of us have what we are looking for, but discount it because its not where we want it. We are playful, but not at work. We are confident in one area, but not another. We can open to nature, but not to our partner. If you know how to play with a child or a pet, you know what it is to play. If you can open to a beautiful sunset in the mountains, or at the beach, you know openness and love. If you are confident in any area of your life, you know confidence.

There are areas of life and then there is the emotional state that we experience in those areas. What state are you in when you appreciate a beautiful flower? Bookmark that state, that feeling, and bring it with you into other places where appreciation is more of a challenge. Start where its easy and anchor that resource, then use it where it has been more of a challenge. This is like the water flowing around the boulder, until eventually the boulder also moves, or wears away.

The practical mind may say what is the point of smelling the flowers? The point is that you are in a certain state of happiness, appreciation or joy and if you are really present you can learn to take it with you; into your relationship, into your job, into all the other areas of life. What part of your life won't flow better - be better - with happiness, appreciation and joy?

When you are wanting more of a positive quality in an area of your life, remember places where you have it already. Go there and cultivate it, practice it. Then return with it to the other places you need it. Let all your life have the tone of smelling a rose.

(© 6/10)