Prepare the self for change. Take something old and make it new, feeding it, making it grow into a new form—take the self, for instance.
Set a new intent to change the self even more than you have. Set a new intent to keep going deeper into the self, seeking better balance, seeking to give and receive in the flow of life as it comes to you.
As a new era dawns, keep in mind that you are in charge of your life, that you are the commander of your own ship, and in this capacity you are also in charge of where your life goes. Keep in mind that choice matters, that your decisions matter, not only in the world you live in but also in your inner world. To conceive of a changed self in a changed world means that you must actively change in order to achieve the self you dream of.
A dream will simply remain a dream, fade and disappear, unless you keep it active, unless you feed it the necessary nutrients and keep it alive. That is what this New Year requires of all of you: complete dedication to keeping your dreams, for the self and the world, alive by constant attention, nurturance, and inner resolve to keep changing.
And so, I suggest that you stay attached to the fulfillment of your dreams. Whether they seem impractical, impossible, or far-fetched does not matter. If they are your dreams then you have already given them life. So now, as you fold your lives into a New Year full of hope, fold also your intent into that hope, fold your desires for new life and for change that is fulfilling into that hope. Fold your deeper commitment to your own journey upon that earth into your personal resolutions as well.
One year folding into the next is but a marker by which you measure time upon that earth, but you can make it be something far more meaningful. It’s up to you. If you so choose you can fully engage the energy of hope and the dream of a changing self. You already know how to do it.
Playing my dream…
Choose to ride your dreams with intent now. Keep in balance at all times. Be who you are truly capable of being. Let the old ideas of the self go as the old year drops completely away, and without regret, fear, or self-condemnation—without the old voices of dissent bothering you—fly forward into a new self. It’s about time. Give yourself permission to accept that dream gift. Only you can do it!
Happy New Year to all! And thank you for being part of my dream, Jeanne’s dream, and all the dreams we all still have to dream together.
For the past several years I have increasingly reasserted my intent to finding the middle way in all aspects of my life, what Lao-tzu calls the Tao. Having once set that intent the middle way opens before me. Lately, more often than not, I notice what comes to greet me. Books appear or I find them sitting on the bookshelf, purchased decades ago because they captivated me or someone else in the family. Now that I am ready to receive them they fall into my hands, old books now coming as new gifts.
I practice yoga and meditate as I always have and yet my practice has achieved a different balance now, as the middle way stresses balance in calm body and mind. I notice that this has happened slowly over a long period of time, that my struggles are less, my mind wanders less, my body relaxing more easily into the poses I do. My sitting is easier. My meditation cushion inviting now, where in the past it has sometimes appeared as a torture cushion.
I prepare my food in the middle way too; neither too extreme nor foreign, I seek what my locale offers, what my yard and the seasons offer. I prepare it calmly and patiently, putting my creativity into each step of the preparations, balancing tastes, textures, grains and vegetables, a little fish, a little meat sometimes.
None of this has been a quick or easy task, but instead has taken many years of slow change, as I constantly reset my intent to change myself and be in alignment with the world I live in. But this is where I find myself now, suddenly feeling as if I have arrived at a new place. And yet I know that this is what it is like to travel the middle way, to decide to live life in alignment with what comes, with where I live. I know that with my intent set, life itself will take me along the middle way, presenting me with its gifts.
I wake up and remember each day that: “Oh yes, I’m doing it differently now. I am a changing being.” Each day I look for the moment of shift when I can say: “Oh, so this is where I am now!” And then I am challenged to take note of the moment I find myself in, perhaps a calm moment, perhaps a stressful one. But the real challenge is in knowing that I have to make a decision and the question is always the same: How do I want to use my energy? Am I going to fight this moment of shift, or am I going to flow with it? Do I elect to calmly flow, or do I elect be aggressively reactive?
I reset my intent every time I am confronted with a shift, and once I’ve reminded myself of my path my challenge loses its bite. I already know that this path I am on is the middle way, that everything that comes to greet me is on this same middle path, and so how I react becomes a simple nod. Yes, I say, I know what to do with this unexpected kink or this unexpected surprise, whether negative or positive. I should not get overly attached to its power, but instead calmly accept that it has come into my life, appeared on my path because it is meaningful for my journey.
And so, there is acquiescence in choosing the middle way; there is acceptance, yet the rewards are great. In being in alignment, I achieve inner calmness and inner balance. In this process of giving and taking there is a sense of growth and attunement with nature, with the place I live and work in, where I give of my energy and receive new energy in return. In alignment it becomes perfectly clear what the only right choice for me to make is.
And so today, the day after a fine Christmas spent with loved ones, I am calm. And although it’s very cold in the Northeast on this wintry morning, I do not wish for sunshine or the heat of summer, for this is my life, this is where I am today. I make comfort where I am. I make calmness and beauty where I am. I make happiness where I am, even in seemingly small ways aligning with my environment, taking what is offered. I put on warm clothes. I light the fire and warm the house. I eat a warm breakfast. I make a fine life where I am now.
Tomorrow may bring something different, and yet I have set my intent to flow with what comes then too. I have no idea what I will be provided with on another day. For the moment this is all that matters. Today is enough. I am fully in the moment. This is the middle way.
I hope you are all well, and happy where you are, as even in small ways this is possible if one is intent upon traveling the middle way.
Dear Jeanne: What guidance do you have for us today?
Do not be fooled by appearances. Change is taking place, deep and lasting change, and although this change may not occur in a manner anyone is used to, it is happening nonetheless. This is a time of great shift and with such a time comes great awareness. Are you paying attention? That is the real question?
Are you paying attention to your own deepest knowing, and what are you going to do about it, return to an old way, becoming complacent and docile yet again? Or are you going to flow with the shift now being offered?
Energy is available to greatly advance the cause of human consciousness for the individual as well as the masses. It is up to each one of you to remain aware, to prod the self to stay awake through this time of great shift and be a part of its impact.
Change begins with the individual. Accept what the energy is trying to alert you to on a deeply personal level before you begin to look outwardly. If you will dare to stay awake and move toward a new positive direction, the energy of such change will proceed along the same path, supporting and nurturing and healing you, bringing you forward into new life. If you fail to stay awake this time, be aware that you will have two hard years ahead of you, as you continue to battle your issues of dependence, negativity, and fear.
Though this may sound like a dire prediction, I stress quite the opposite, for it is not. It is equally positive and growth-oriented, for it is only in wallowing in the self that one will find the means to change, for the self is where the answers lie. The question you must ask the self is: Am I ready now to make certain changes? If you are, be aware of what comes to guide you, for there is great positive energy in abundance for the right kind of change. If you are not yet ready, that’s okay too. But you must also be aware of what comes to guide you, for you too will find that you are supported as you take an equally deepening journey.
Change begins and ends within, but is always reflected without, and this is where you will all learn your greatest lessons—in what reflects back at you.
Take the steps you personally need to take. This may involve leaving something, beginning something, changing something, evolving something, but this will also mean that if you are daring the self to change for the right reasons that you will be in alignment with nature and the universe.
I have no doubt that all upon that earth will encounter change, intentioned or not. And, as I said in the beginning, the main question is whether or not you will be aware and available to know this, so that you can take full advantage of it, aware that it will catapult you into new life. Or will you resist it?
Resistance is a result of fear, and fear digs deep into the human psyche, its marks going back to infancy, its roots difficult to decipher from the roots of innocence. Confront the deepest roots of the self. Find your fear and you will also uncover your innocence. Perhaps that is the place to begin the deeper inner work that will lead to new and lasting growth.
…and good will toward all…
Oh, and keep in mind: as you notice how the outer world and how those in power seemingly ignore the deeper issues of compassion, kindness, and love for all living beings, notice how you do the same to yourself. This is a universal issue, and everyone must address it inside the self.
As your world struggles, so do you, and this is good, for it is the key to finding your own deepest conflicts. No blame now, just growth. That’s what is called for, on all levels of life.
“In the shamanic world, what you went through is preparation for living a different kind of life, and that kind of life can be had when one is ready to view one’s life as a journey of the utmost importance.”
Chuck spoke these words to me when I was in the midst of recapitulating my childhood sexual abuse. They were transformative words, words of light in the midst of deep personal agony, for they focused me on the intent of my journey through this life. Why am I here? What am I supposed to learn about myself? What is the greater meaning of all that happens in this world? Once again, these words rang through me as I contemplated what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week.
I believe that we are all on journeys of the utmost importance, whether our lives are long and fulfilling or cut short. So, what are we to make of the senseless shootings at Sandy Hook? What meaning can we find in that tragedy, in the deaths of so many young children and the educators who dedicated their lives to engaging and teaching the youngest members of our society, a most important job?
We must face ourselves. We must face the world we have created. We must take this senseless act as a final wake up call and we must not go back to sleep. We must all take a journey of the utmost importance now and change ourselves and our country.
We must allow ourselves to feel every aspect of this most horrific act of violence, really feel it, and be guided now along a new path. We must all partake in creating a new society, not one based on fear as we did after 9/11, but one based on compassion and caring for all living things.
We must not wipe the tears from our eyes and then go out and buy more guns to protect ourselves, arm teachers and bus drivers, as has been suggested. Had I been a gun owner I would have wept and then immediately destroyed my guns. Why is this not happening? Why do we still contend that to be armed is our right and our need? It’s not a need at all, it’s a contention based on fear. And so we must ask ourselves what we fear and why?
In countries where there are few guns, in places where even the police don’t carry guns, there are few shooting deaths as well. It’s a no-brainer. But here, in a society rampant with greed, we have become like complacent animals. Locked in our cages, we are fed more pills, more food, more poisons, than we can possibly need. So drugged are we by the ideas that we need more things, more protection, more guns, that our brains have numbed. We are no longer capable of independent thinking, feeling, and action. We are mere cattle crowded into feedlots, long ago having forgotten that we are free beings, on journeys of the utmost importance.
In the wake of this tragedy, it’s time to wake up and stay awake, to take up not guns but a new weapon called compassionate change that is based on what is universally right for all living beings. Are we a nation of killers, or are we a nation of good, of kindness, compassion, and love?
Change happens slowly and it also happens in an instant, as the shootings at Sandy Hook show us so clearly. If we are truly on journeys of the utmost importance, it’s up to each one of us to take up the cause of personal change now—right now—to instantly turn away from violence, hatred, fear, and instead become truly caring beings. But we can only do this by facing our own deepest fears, by challenging ourselves to stay awake and really confront what lies at our deepest core, to question what is holding us back from becoming the truly amazing and loving beings that we are meant to be.
The shots at Sandy Hook were heard around the world. And now the rest of the world is waiting to see what we will do in the wake of so many truths so loudly declared, that is: that guns kill; that we had regressed into an angry, entitled, fearful nation; that we are no longer the shining star to look up to for guidance. How many times must we make the same mistakes? How many wake up calls do we need?
We must all face what we have become and take full responsibility for not only where we now find ourselves—those overfed cattle in the feedlots—but for our own thoughts, actions, and deeds as well. In our complacency we’ve let a lot of things happen, but now we are being rallied to really change, and to change drastically. If we are truthful, we will look at our world with open eyes and truly see that there is so much that is going in the wrong direction, and that each one of us has a duty to get on the bandwagon of change, in whatever way we can, and turn it in a new direction. But first, as I said, we must begin by changing ourselves. We must investigate our own attitudes, fears, and prejudices by asking ourselves why we feel so entitled, and why we continue to fear, judge, and criticize others rather than face ourselves.
Do we have to face yet more jolting wake up calls? Or can we take up a new cause now and take our journeys of the utmost importance in a new direction, to a higher level of conscious awareness and action so that those who died last week—those who gave us this most frightening wake up call—will not have died in vain. Let their journeys be considered journeys of the utmost importance by truly taking action to change ourselves and our country, and show the world that what lies in our hearts is what now leads us forward.
Acknowledge first that you are human and as a human being you too are fallible. You too are capable of brutal acts. You too are due to do wrong at some point in your life. Do not dismiss the truth of evil within the self, for it exists as surely as the good exists within the self. Now look at the self as a spiritual being. Note that the same considerations must apply, for even in spirit are all beings capable of good and evil alike.
As conscious citizens of the world, it is your duty to remain conscious of good and evil at all times. Question the self constantly as to whether the thoughts you put out are harmful or not, whether the decisions you make are contributing to an energy that is good or bad. Use your energy wisely, for all of you are responsible for the world you live in. Do not leave it to a few to make the decisions that affect the many. Everyone has energetic impact.
In your own hearts you know right from wrong, love from hate. You know that your energy is powerful. Now is the time for you to use it powerfully in all that you set out to do. Abide by the laws of love and kindness, compassion and good. Be citizens of a new energetic morality that springs from the eternal knowledge of life as energy and each of you as energy as well. Elect a consciousness of good, and live with a gentle presence in the world. Elect to be compassionate and loving.
Elect to change the self now more fully, for there is no time to waste. Do not look outside the self for change, but look within. Society at large will not change until each one of you turn inward and rout out the dismal enemies that you carry within; until you purify your being, body and spirit; until your energy flows freely and lovingly toward all beings; until hatred is eradicated from you and all beings are accepted as energy too.
Change the self constantly. Confront the self constantly. Move into simpler life now, as you embrace the needs of a nation and a world for greater change.
Each of you matters in this process. If it is to have lasting impact, each one of you must be involved in an energetic shift away from excess and greed to the real deal, which is that life is precious. You have it for such a short time. Do something magnificent with your time there. By setting your intent to do so, you will have an impact on the shift that is now so necessary.
Be gentle and loving in thought, word, and deed—inwardly, to the self—as you face your deepest issues and deal with those. Get to your own roots and eventually you will get to the roots of everything and everyone, for the same roots grow through all living beings.
Be aware and conscious as you take your heart’s speak seriously. Take it more fully into your world now, for you and the world need it.
