Archive for October, 2008

When Life’s challenges seem to come at us at a fast and furious pace, it’s easy to get bogged down by a very limited view of things. Limited views, by definition, are only a finite part of a greater whole. And so, like the astronauts who get to view Earth from a greater distance and thereby gain a broader perspective, I think it’s important for us to be able to create something like “greater distance” from our daily demands so that we too can gain greater perspective about our lives and our purpose.

Recently I put two ideas together that I recently read which when combined, go a long way toward accomplishing that goal.

Every thought you have has a beginning and an end. As such, thoughts are finite. You, on the other hand, are not. You are non-local awareness temporarily residing in a physical body. Awareness is different than thought. To keep it simple, let’s just liken thoughts to facts and awareness to intuition. Intuition precedes and encompasses thought. It is a kind of knowing…separate from the physical body…at once infinite and eternal. 

When stresses in you Life build up, it’s pretty common to go into thought overload about how to deal with all that’s happening.  It’s in those “thought loops”, as I call them, that we get stuck going ’round and ’round looking for a way out. But if you can stop! for just a second when you find yourself in the “loop” and remember that your thoughts begin and end while you do not…that you are the intuitive knowing that precedes and encompasses all thought…it can go a long way towards giving you that expanded perspective that, by it’s very nature, removes the grandeur and immediacy from those troubling thoughts.

I think outside the box but I live in it, as do you. I never give advice or share perspective that I have not lived or am not living.  Lately, I have had an almost inconceivable amount of stress in my Life. What I am sharing here actually works! Whenever I find myself deep in trying to figure it all out…I just imagine everything that I think is so troublesome as the Earth and my body as that spacecraft the astronauts go up in. Then I look back at it all from my place of non-local awareness and poof!…I see it all differently, more holistically, and certainly more meaningfully.

So, today, when it all gets to be too much…go beyond it all, literally…and retreat to that state of non-local awareness that you are…then sit back and enjoy both the ride and the view.

I blame Aristotle.  He’s the one who laid the groundwork two thousand or so years ago for thinking of reality in terms of duality. He told us things were either “A or not A.” In linear, dualistic thinking, there’s no possibility that anything other than one of two possible conditions or outcomes exist. And things tend to move between the two.. leaving, literally, no other options. So, things are good or they are not good. And if they are not good, well…take the economy as we speak.

The economy, as evidenced by the stock market and the standard of living, was booming. In Aristotle’s world that was good. Now, the DOW has plummeted and the banks may need rescuing so that must now be bad. Hence, all the worry and yes, even panic.

Like I said, I blame Aristotle.

We are two thousand years smarter than when he saw all that he was able to see from where he was standing. Now, thanks to Einstein, quantum physics and a whole host of other intuitive and intelligent women and men, we know that things are hardly what they appear, that what we think we see determines what we see, depending on your vantage point, two observers will see things differently, and finally, and perhaps most importantly, nothing is static…everything is constantly in motion. Which is why Aristotle really set us off on the wrong track because if everything is constantly in motion, then nothing is ever “A or not A” but some combination or variation of both. Which is why the “good” economy was great for some, good for others, and difficult for the rest. But more importantly, it’s why the present economy, that was perceived as good, is not Now bad.

The more accurate representation is the Eastern symbol for Yin and Yang. It is a circle with two sections delineated with one black and one white.  Aha! you say. There it is. Aristotle’s “A or not.” Well, not even close. Because within the white portion of the Yin is a black circle and within the black portion of the Yang is a white circle. Both hold the seeds of the other and both are simultaneously what they are and what they are not.

While things were seemingly great with the economy it held the seeds of the change we are Now experiencing.  And as we go through this transition, no matter how apparently difficult, it holds the seeds of a time when we will have passed through this difficulty. It’s all an endless circle…with every part holding the potential for the emergence of every other part.

Which is where the saying “It’s not what happens to you it’s how you handle it” comes from.

Change is inevitable yet it’s what we resist most in our lives. We like to know who and what we can count on…who and what are reliable. But it would serve us best to accept that since everything is in motion, it would make much more sense for us to remain fluid in our thinking as well so that we can align with rather than resist the inevitable.

The economy and the stock market are never up or down. They are constantly in flux…as are we. It is only the way we choose to look at things that causes us to become worrisome and fearful when that movement accelerates.

Let’s think of the current economic transition as if we are going through a tunnel rather than falling down a bottomless well.  By so doing, we can acknowledge the temporary diminished visibility and know that at the other end will be an expanded vista with greater light. Not to mention that without a little darkness…how would we ever appreciate the light?

I’m not a Pollyanna. I know transition and change are challenging.  But if we can understand that Aristotle was limited in his view and that we have relied upon his thinking for way too long, perhaps we can provide more flexibility and less suffering to the challenges we are Now being asked to meet.

As early as 16 months ago, I began writing about the challenges presented when fear rears it’s ugly head and we are asked to either succumb to it or rise above it. I was writing from a spiritual perspective and, for many, such musings are more philosophical than practical and so are placed low on the priority list of where their focus needs to be.  But those entries were originating from an “early warning system”, if you will, and were an attempt to lay the foundation and set forth guiding principles for what we now face in a very real and practical sense.

We are awakening each and every day to increasingly grim economic news. The potential for unprecedented difficulties and challenges is generating, what can accurately be stated to be, worldwide fear. Media headlines and breaking news fuel the fires of panic. The air is thick with worry. Such an environment is easily contagious and self-fulfilling by the sheer nature of it’s intensity.

However, there is good news also. The importance of seeking and speaking it cannot be overstated.

In the most constricted environments, there are always options….there is always the possibility for choice. This is where all those early warnings Now come into play. Free Will is not some esoteric concept. It is our birthright. We are free, at every moment, to create a world based upon fear or one based upon love. I need not belabor what a world based upon fear looks like. We have historically too often been manipulated by the creation of such a world by those in apparent power. The opportunity each of us is Now being presented with is to ignore the messages of fear and instead hold thoughts of plenty, aspirations of peace and trust in the highest good for all concerned.

There is no more of an instructive and constructive thought for you to hold onto at this time than this:

                                        F.E.A.R…False Events Appear Real

At the quantum level, physicists have shown that the observed is affected and changed by the presence of the observer. This is because what one perceives has a direct impact upon the matter being perceived. I use the term matter both literally and figuratively.  Literally, our world is composed of matter, manifested. It originates in, and is manifested from, thought. Figuratively, when things seem to be going “wrong'” the question we pose is “What’s the matter?”  Change your thought and the matter changes.

There is a core truth here.

                           If you think things are a certain way…so shall they be.

The challenge and the opportunity we Now face is to see the illusion of fear for what it is: an illusion. By so doing, we can co-create and manifest, in the most literal sense, an alternative reality…different matter…wherein the guiding principles are not fear and separation but rather compassion and Oneness.

Let the markets crumble and as you watch, see only rebirth. Allow the old and worn out to decompose so that out of the resulting dust your vision may cause to arise a new and more enlightened way for we humans to be that which we are so much more capable of being.

P.S. Here are the links to 3 of last year’s entries that were setting the stage for what we are now experiencing and the inner guidance it will take to get through it.

http://blog.carolemckay.com/2007/05/18/fear-factor.aspx
http://blog.carolemckay.com/2007/05/23/the-antidote-to-terror.aspx
http://blog.carolemckay.com/2007/06/25/finding-your–way.aspx

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I’d like to introduce you to Barney.

Barney is my cat. He’s about 17 years old (he was a stray so I can’t be sure). Barney is unique, and I dare say, amazing, because about 7 years ago he had what his Vet likes to refer to as a “vestibular event.”  You and I would say he had a seizure or, perhaps, a stroke. Having survived it, he became a different cat. I say that because before the seizure he was very aggressive and territorial. Following the event, he became very warm and friendly. He was also left lame in one leg and slightly hearing and sight impaired. And then arthritis set in as well, not too long after all of that.

To sum things up, Barney was a friendly mess.

However, not to let a few adjustments to living life deter him, Barney simply went on his merry way (well, hobbling along his way would be more accurate) as if nothing of significance had occurred. We came to refer to him as “RoboCat” since defying all odds, he lived on, year after year, with his debilitating infirmities and limitations…obvious to everyone, apparently, except Barney. He never stopped stalking squirrels or chipmunks as if he were high on stealth..and occasionally and miraculously..actually caught something (although I always suspected whatever it was must have been more infirm than he was to have lost a battle to Barney).

I really thought he was indestructible, until recently. The arthritis has over taken him, as has dementia, and he pretty much moves from location to location…meowing all the while as he goes…only to “fall down” at a new resting place, since gracefully laying down in cat-like fashion is no longer an option for him. So, in the past few days I made my peace with the need to euthanize him and scheduled the appointment for this morning. Just before we left the house, I let him out back for one last walk around the yard and spotted him stalking, then “chasing”, in unique Barney fashion, a squirrel.

On the way to the Vet’s office, he meowed constantly and at times it actually sounded like “No.” He kept trying to put his paws through the front door of the cage while I drove, cried and tried to comfort his apparent anxiety. Sitting in the waiting room, I was saying my “final” goodbye (for at least the 5th time in the past 24 hours) when the technician opened the exam door and called us in.  The Vet took him out of the cage and set him on the floor as I cried. Barney, full of Life I had not seen in awhile, just kept walking around the exam room looking for a way out. It was obvious from his gait that he is in pain. It was also rather obvious that he is not looking to die. Watching him, I began to think he really was saying “No” on the ride there.

After conferring with the Vet, we decided to try a new pain medication which would, in a day or so, indicate if he was getting relief from the debilitating arthritis.  If yes, we agreed that relieved of pain, he could have some time left with a better quality of life. 

So I dried my eyes and Barney and I came home.

Later this afternoon a friend called to say that her father is dying. Well, he appears to be dying based upon his diagnosis and prognosis. And recently, he was not conscious or communicative for a couple of days and she thought the end had come. But then, he began talking again and seemed rather put out at hearing that people were thinking and saying that he was dying.

So the moral of this story is: Who Knows?

The day may come when I have no doubts left that Barney is suffering so that to keep him here is animal cruelty. And even if the pain medication works, he will still have the dementia and I will still have to sometimes remind him that the wall is not a door and gently steer him in the right direction.

But here’s the thing. Barney is RoboCat and as long as he has the Will to live in him…who am I to say that some arthritis and a little confusion are grounds for thinking and acting otherwise. If caring for him is inconvenient for me, well…I hope someday someone doesn’t mind a little inconvenience if it’s me who has arthritis and more than a little confusion.

I’m sure my friend feels exactly the same way about her father.

Love isn’t limited to certain species.

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I’m like most Americans. I’ve watched both debates thus far, I’m fed up with business as usual, and I still don’t know for whom I will vote come November 4th. And as I ponder this, one other question keeps turning around in my mind.

Are these two tickets upside down?

Whether or not you agree with their politics or their policies…whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat…do you also have the feeling that Joe Biden and Sarah Palin are at least two people who say what they mean and mean what they say? Doesn’t Biden seem knowledgeable and doesn’t Palin seem real? And aren’t they each in stark contrast to their up-lines? I mean, does Obama seem knowledgeable and does McCain seem real? Or is it just me who feels that while I’d never wish harm or illness on anyone… in the event of the unthinkable…where would be the downside of either Biden or Palin rising to the office of the Presidency?

Sure, as I’ve said earlier, you may not agree with their politics or policies. But in an era of disgust with managed and staged candidates who are (in the instant Presidential case) either inexperienced or past their prime, how refreshing to listen to two bright, gutsy, V.P. candidates who aren’t afraid to wear both their intelligence and their passion on their faces and their sleeves.

As I write this entry, all of the post-debate commentators
are busy scurrying to say which one of them scored the points they
needed to score and which of them came out on top. What I don’t hear
any of them saying is that these two were more intelligent, more
interesting and more provocative in their forthrightness than either
McCain or Obama have yet to be. Or may ever be, for that matter.

Now, what are we voters to do? No matter how much we may be moved by Biden’s and Palin’s respective effort and sincerity, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin are in supporting roles. We do not get the option to make them our first choice. And it’s probably reckless citizenship to vote into the Office of President of the United States an individual based upon who’s in the second slot. 

I think it’s our individual responsibilities to, for once if never before, actually read as much as possible about what John McCain and Barack Obama stood for and who they were up until the time they ran for the Presidency in 2008. Both the limelight and political expediency have a tendency to cause candidates to temporarily deviate from who and what they have always been and stood for. I think this is particularly so for McCain and Obama.

While I would prefer a viable third choice there is none at the moment. As is so often in Life, and as the song says, “You say you get what you want. I say you get what you need.”  So, let’s take a positive approach and assume that either Barack Obama or John McCain is who we need to lead us at this time. But let us approach the question of “which one?” with intelligence and passion. Something we saw tonight in Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Now that’s what I’d call leadership.

I’m a mystic. What that means to me is that organized religion as practiced today leaves me wanting, but I find the world of the metaphysical full of wonder and satisfaction…not to mention a direct link to Creator. Still I am human and, periodically, we all have our doubts.

Last night I had one of those experiences that just wipes all that doubt away.

I have an in ground, concrete swimming pool on my property. It’s scheduled to be “closed” for the winter today. So, it’s my job, the day before closing, to drain the pool down to a certain water level for the winter. There are two ways I do that. 1) I use the motor to “backwash” a certain amount and 2) I then use a portable, submersible pump to drain the remainder. I had done both by last night then went off to sleep.

It was a fitful night and just before dawn, I had a terrible nightmare. I dreamed that the pool became drained of all it’s water then, somehow, caught on fire. The dream was so frightening in the way I envisioned it that I awoke fearful and couldn’t go back to sleep. Fully awake, I showered and dressed. When I arrived downstairs and looked out the kitchen window, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The pool was drained of about twice as much water as it had been the night before when I went off to sleep.

I rushed outside… all the while trying to figure out how it had happened…as the submersible pump was no longer plugged in and was sitting outside the pool. Then it dawned on me!  When I had used the motor to lower the first few inches of water, I had forgotten to turn the flow valve off of backwash. Slowly, overnight, water had leaked through the system and caused the drop in level.

Immediately I began to actually fill the pool as the level was now too low for the winter. While I was doing that, I thought how the dream had been trying to wake me and warn me that the pool was continuing to drain.  However, I just couldn’t figure out where the fire in the dream had come from when suddenly I heard the pool equipment making a horrible sound I had never heard before. I rushed over to the equipment and saw that the automatic timer that turns the pool on and off each day was still set. The motor had turned on, but with no water in the system. Had I not been there at that moment to shut off the motor…the system would have burned out and a fire would have likely ensued!

I always read a book just before going off to sleep and last night I was reading “The Prophet’s Way” by Thom Hartmann. In particular, I was reading about his having once been in the office of Jean Young, former United Nations administrator and wife of Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta. Hartmann was accompanying a mystic named Herr Gottfired Muller to the meeting which was to discuss the building of a school in Africa for poor and abandoned children. During the meeting Mrs. Young left the room for a moment. Mueller turned to Hartmann and asked him if he had seen the “Angels” that were around Mrs. Young. At first, he thought Mueller was being figurative but quickly realized he meant what he said. Mueller said there were two angels with Mrs. Young, one of which never left her side. Parenthetically, Jean Young was a much admired woman during her life who did amazing work and left a lasting impression on everyone who met her.

Why tell you about Jean Young, the Angels, and my swimming pool?

Because I am certain there were Angels in her office that day protecting and guiding her just as there were Angels protecting me and guiding me in my sleep last night. I was warned and awakened by that guidance and it protected me against a potential catastrophe today.

We are living through challenging and uncertain times and it’s easy to feel that we’re alone against insurmountable odds. The next time I am in doubt about Creator, It’s Love for Us and It’s guiding hand…I hope I remember this story.

I wish the same to you.