Wherever your path takes you today, go with humility and grace, thankful for the opportunity to live through these times of great change. Like a warrior fully aware that each breath, each step, and each action matters, own your place in this life and then behave accordingly. And yet, with the innate wisdom of the sages inside you, call forth your own wise spirit to join you more fully on this day and those to come. Bind your intent more fully to that of this wise spirit within and walk your path of heart with gratitude for all that you are given. In this manner, you will discover that no person ever walks alone. Your joinery is deeply entwined with that of your spirit, two warriors, companions always. Know that you are safe and deeply loved as you embrace this duality of self and step onward into the light of a new enchanting day.
Soulbyte for Thursday January 8, 2015
What are you searching for? What do you really want? Where do you stand today, one week into the New Year? Have your intentions held up, still foremost in your mind, body, and soul? What do you really need?
You are a creature of nature, fluid and ever-changing. Do not forget this. Allow yourself to be like water, flowing, tumbling, moving, yet taking time also for calm pooling, for reflection and deep introspection. Be gentle but also unstoppable, yet follow always your spirit’s intent. Do not force, yet let your spirit flow freely, as it will, allowing the creative and the adventurous sides to have their outlets. Don’t hold back that which you cannot, but curb your outright disregard of all that desires to gush forth unbidden, for not everything is appropriate. You are human, as well as flowing water, and so you must use discretion as well as the innate qualities of kindness, compassion and love that naturally wish to flow forth from you out into the world. Seek always your balance first and then you will know what you really seek.
Chuck’s Place: We’re All In The Same Dream
Chuck starts off with our first blog of the New Year, restating the intent that we embody, to take full responsibility for who we are and how we choose to participate in the dream of this reality. It’s what we at Riverwalker Press are all about. As the New Year begins we invite all of you to participate in dreaming a new dream with us. Happy New Year!
Warmly, with love and gratitude from us both,
Chuck and Jan
What does your dream look like?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
Every cell in our body has a life of its own. It is challenged daily to obtain necessary resources for its survival, maintain balance, rid itself of wastes and spawn new life. Little does that single cell know that it is actually part of a much greater integrated whole, a human body.
The interdependent reality of our wholeness escapes us as we focus daily, like every single cell within us, on our individual tasks of survival and fulfillment. Nonetheless, if we contemplate our greater cosmic reality, perhaps we might glimpse, through reason or intuition or experience, the oneness of everything. And, from that place of oneness, all of us are responsible for the dream we are in and where we are going to take it. We are all empowered, through consciousness and intent, to advance the dream, that is, to change the world we live in.
Over the past couple of days, the stock market has been in a downslide. Why? Because the price of oil has been plunging rapidly. Meanwhile, the auto industry has had its best year in sales in decades, due in large part to increased sales of gas guzzlers, the consequence of cheaper gas. Meanwhile, many, whose economic survival is dependent upon the stock market, are faced with threatening losses as “safe” investments like oil plummet in value. Behind all these challenges to daily survival lies the reality that fossil fuels are a major contributor to the rapid destabilization and destruction of the planet that feeds and houses us.
We, as individuals, are empowered to decide where this dream will go next. Many are so focused on personal survival that they feel obliged to make the best investments, irrespective of environmental consequences or the total destruction of lives and cultures outside of their own. Gas guzzling cars are one of the things that most of us use daily and yet most people can’t afford to switch up to hybrid vehicles or they are drawn to the perks of less fuel efficient cars, while still others have much more basic needs of daily survival, putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads.
If we look to government to solve the greater issue of climate change we are confronted with the likes of today’s headlines: Big Threat For Obama’s Climate Efforts From GOP-Run Congress.* It’s easy to indulge in powerlessness and point fingers at the GOP, but to be truly responsible we must examine the GOP within ourselves. No one can separate themselves from deciding which way this dream will unfold; we’re all part of the same whole.
The GOP reflects an old dream that insists that the world is ours for the taking, that consideration beyond the needs of self and ours is unnecessary. That dream downplays the interdependent reality and the global concerns that effect us all and instead focuses on the individual’s responsibility to ensure survival of the personal dream. That dream has been given full latitude to play itself out and now finds itself approaching nightmare, as that dream and the world it has generated are unsustainable. This nightmare has caused many to wake up and face the facts, but still many others, reflected in the newly elected American Congress, remain staunch champions of the supremacy of the old dream; self above all.
The truth is, we are all living cells of the same dream, each empowered to decide, within the context of our own lives, which way the dream will proceed. On a concrete level, if I refuse to invest in fossil fuels, I am changing the dream. If I choose to buy a fuel-efficient car, regardless of other sales’ enticements, I choose a different dream. If I choose to replace my light bulbs with an expensive, highly efficient LED bulb, I choose a different dream. There are even simpler choices we can all make, such as to recycle or to be less wasteful overall.
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
When Jeanne was in this world—as the Hindus say: at the gross level of reality—she strongly preached the power of the purse to effect change. Now she resides fully in the astral plane, the next, finer dimension of reality that houses our soul or spirit, guiding us to exercise the power of intent to effect change in our lives within and without. Though the main fuel of the astral dimension, intent is equally effective in the gross dimension of our reality, awaiting our discovery of its power.
When we pray, when we state our intent, repeat our mantras, send love and compassion, we are transforming the dream world we are in. Everyone who loves their enemy reconciles with their own divided wholeness and advances the dream.
If I can love the GOP within myself—the part that demands individual responsibility but is also so susceptible to self interest—exploitative and greedy—I can make responsible choices in the myriad of decisions I make today to advance the dream in a new direction for all living beings. Such a decision might be as simple as where I choose to place my awareness, how I choose to think or spend my personal energy.
If worry and fear beckon, I might shift to some moments of intentional release of tension in my body, into calm, deliberate breathing. This simple act changes the energy I bring to the integrated wholeness of the one dream that we all live in and are dreaming together.
Imagine if each of us decided to awaken to the power of intent and bring it into the gross dimension that we all live in in such a calm and nurturing way. It might just be a strong enough intent to course-correct the orbit of the dream we are now in, sending us into a new dream of sustainability. We are never powerless.
Staying awake in the dream,
Chuck
* Headline in The Huffington Post January 6, 2015
Soulbyte for Wednesday January 7, 2015
Body, mind and spirit make up the exceptional being that you are. Find connection to each of these aspects of self, not just on a mundane level, but on an ever-deepening inner level. Connect and coordinate these aspects of self, finding your center point, your way to love and respect who you truly are. In contrast to these intimate parts of self, find also new ways to live in the world, bringing them in tune with nature all around you, with the sun, moon and stars, with the earth and all that they offer. Bring body, mind and spirit into alignment with that which is innate within and without.
You are more than you give yourself credit for, but you hold yourself back. It is time to honor and hone all of your connections and coordinates. Like a live wire, allow your energetic current to cut through now and take you forward with full awareness of your deeper inner self and your greater contributions to the world outside of you. You not only matter greatly, you are the world. Make it and yourself be all that you wish to be. That too is your power, your intent, but above all what you choose to do with it. Everything you do, think, and say matters, to self and other.
Soulbyte for Tuesday January 6, 2015
Hold yourself accountable for your own life, your own issues, and your own journey. No one owes you anything. You are in charge. If you have not learned this yet it is time to do so because everything is changing and if you do not take responsibility for yourself you will be left behind. What you have been anticipating is now underway. Remain calm, but do not rest in complacency. Remain focused, but do not ignore the larger picture. You are all part of the greater world and what happens there matters to you as an individual. Remain aware of your own issues, but do not forget that you are on a journey of many lifetimes, that the greater intent is that of your spirit. So don’t forget to include your spirit in all of your decisions. Prepare for your future; it is now. And don’t forget to have some compassion, for self and other.