Readers of Infinity: A New Year’s Message From Jeanne

Evolving change...

Take with you all that you have learned over the past year, keeping in mind the practices of balance, of detachment, of deep inner work, as you move forward. Each step of a lifetime is important. Each moment you breathe is important. Each thought is important. Each moment of inner calm is utterly important, for it leads to deeper awareness.

Continue always the work on the self, the inner process of growth and understanding being the most valuable, as you ask the self to constantly change.

A new year of change awaits. A new year of growth and challenge followed by more challenge and more growth. Keep in mind always that growth is important, change is desirable, and evolution necessary. All of this is important for each one of you individually and the human race as a whole. Change is necessary. As I always say: Only by confronting the self will change happen.

Be good residents of life by constantly pushing the self to take up the challenges that life presents. Be good citizens of the earth and the environment—outer and inner, physical and spiritual, mental and emotional as well—by constantly facing the self, even though it is so much easier to face others and find their issues so clearly labeled and exposed. Do not hide from the self. Turn inward, appreciate the self and the complexities of life. All of you are complicated beings trying to figure out a life journey that many not always be clear.

I say to all of you: Keep going. Your path may clear soon. Your way may be shown with a new clarity as you proceed or it may remain murky for a while longer, yet do not falter. Life calls, always. Life entices you forward. Look for its guidance. Do not be afraid to take the journey that your heart seeks. It is the right one.

Each New Year offers enticements, yet the journey remains the same. You are already well into it, steeped in the challenges of it, and you can’t skip any steps. Refresh your energy by all means, but face the same things each day until they no longer need to be faced. Know that with deep inner work and in the interplay of challenge and reward will come the balance and calm of maturity and knowing that you seek.

Life is your best friend. A New Year, a new day, is a new opportunity to meet new life within the self. Join in the energy of growth and become free of all that now weighs you down. This is the energy of this New Year, offering new freedom, though it may come only as you face your greatest fears. But that, My Dears, is how you will truly live the life you so desire.

All possibility lies within the power of you. You are in control at all times. What is it that you wish for? Know that clearly, and then allow the self to work diligently toward fulfillment of that goal. It will come in acquiescing to the new energy of now, without fear, without regret, simply making decisions that lead to new life, and that means to change. Keep going.

Happy New Year and Thank You Jeanne!

Chuck’s Place: Worlds Without End

Infinite Possibility

It’s our time now, let’s make the most of it.

Carlos Castaneda once said, in the most supremely nonjudgmental way: whatever life you’re in, whatever part you’ve chosen to play, play it to the fullest! From the point of view of infinity, life is endless adventure, with endless roles to play. Let’s all win Kennedy Center honors for the parts we play.

To be fully engrossed and captivated by the life we are in makes us the serious actors our parts fully deserve. Turn around then with joy and glee at the ultimate realization that when we are done with our role we are free to retire it, job well done, complete. Now, onto the next! And what will that role be?

This ability to free ourselves to move on to new life is supreme detachment. This is supreme love; love for all the actors we come into contact with as we continue the unfathomable journeys we are all on, journeys of infinite possibility, as boundless as the growing universe—universe upon universe.

With awareness and affection, and a growing connection to boundless love, I wish you all a Happy New Year!
Love,
Chuck

A Day in a Life: In the Tension of the Opposites

I dream all night of gaining serenity and stillness, of aligning spine and chakras and achieving inner peace. I dream this process over and over again, constantly turning inward throughout the night. I wake to hear that Chuck has dreamed the opposite: violent dreams of murder and rampage on a college campus that he cannot control. He did not lose his awareness, tried to alert people to the truth of the perpetrator, a professor, but could only minimally hold him at bay. Though he attempts to engage authorities, violence prevails. We realize that as we slept side by side throughout the night our dreams created a balance. We slept in the tension of the opposites.

I see our dreaming experience duplicating the energy of our times, the masculine being balanced by the feminine and vice versa. There is always going to be violence, just as there is always the capacity within us all to bring ourselves to inner calm.

As this year comes to a close, I note the tension of our times. The energy of discontent being spurred by a need for all people on the planet to be nurtured and cared for, the energy of the movements for change asserting a new kind of masculine energy so that the feminine may prevail. The energy of our times asks that the planet be treated in the same manner, the overbearing paternal energy of greed and power relinquished now to the nurturing energy of the maternal.

This is our birthing time...

I see this energy of now and the energy that Chuck and I slept through last night as the energy of our birthing time, the energy of the universe righting itself as we go into 2012, perhaps long predicted, but definitely right. Though the Mayan calendar speaks of endings we must keep in mind that endings also mean birth into new life and new possibility. The quest we are now on as human beings on our planet, Earth, is the quest for balance, for fairness, for caring compassion so that all things, human and animal—nature in all its abundance—may prevail in a new manner.

My dreams say: Go inward constantly, realign, work your way through your personal issues as you go deeper and deeper into the calmness within. Find anchoring stillness within as you turn from the disturbances without. We are all capable of shifting ourselves into stillness, my dreams say. We are all capable of recapitulating ourselves to a new place, to a new era of self.

We are all capable of shifting the old masculine energy of control and domination into new alignment by letting our feminine energy bring us to a place of inner calm. We are all capable of becoming the maternal self we have long sought outside of ourselves, just as we are capable of changing the masculine self, toppling it from its place of power that we have long felt was so necessary. We are all capable of releasing ourselves from what we carry within as we bear the tension of the opposites, as we birth through the energy of our times, as we watch the old energy disperse in the ending energy that is now upon us.

We are in the throes of birthing to our new selves. Let us not get lost in despair or fear, but let us take advantage of the facts that are clear right now: We are all in turmoil of some sort. It is right. It is exactly where we need to be if we are to change.

We are all asked to do the ultimate balancing act, to constantly realign as we bear the tension of the opposites, as we take in the truth of the violence around us. As Chuck’s dreams tell us, violence is real, take it in, let it go through us, and then let us sit in the momentary stillness that even incremental release allows. Calmly align another chakra, strengthening the inner self in the truth, knowing that we are in perfect alignment with our times.

Keep going inward as the energy of this ending time pushes us into our next birthing. This is also the energy of recapitulation. It’s alright. It’s where we’re supposed to be.

Jan

Readers of Infinity: Your Mellow Heart

Tending to the Heart

Tend to your mellow heart. In the calmness of your knowing self allow the day to unfold. Tend to each moment of the day with awareness, staying present, accepting without dispute the place you find yourself in. Remain grounded in reality knowing that this moment will end as it flows into the next.

Graciously accept the gifts that come and yet hold your mellowness sacred, for it will guide you deeper into the calmness of truth, grounding you on your journey.

Tend to the self in this manner even while tending to others, even while tending to the busyness of life around you. Stay present and aware of the speakings of your heart, the whispering words pulling you back into calmness of self. This is the place to be no matter what is outside of you.

Practice tending to the mellow heart, the calm heart, the truthful heart, the good heart. Tethering each moment to the next, go about your day in steady calmness.

Begin now.

Chuck’s Place: A Christmas Present

Innocent golden child Chuck

And so, what is Christmas?

Christmas is the archetypal birthday, a universal day to honor and give to the golden child. The golden child is our innocent child, the child we enter this world with, the child we lose touch with as we grow disillusioned in a world of suffering. It is the child we spend a lifetime seeking to retrieve from the shroud of protection we build to avoid further shame and the highly sensitive pain of not being met or received.

We learn to shut down our anticipation, excitement, wonder, and love. We will not be fooled into hoping again, into opening that sealed door of vulnerability to our innocent, golden child. We vow not to be disappointed again.

We never forget our innocent child. Often, though, we cannot go near it within ourselves, that is, we cannot allow ourselves to receive. We are able to project it outward onto our children or other’s children, or onto the puppies and kittens of our dreams. Somewhere in our lives, no matter how terrified or avoidant we might be of it, we project our innocence and are drawn to the renewal of contact with it.

We project our innocence but it's really an endless cat and mouse game

The real journey to retrieve our innocence begins with the journey of recapitulation. We cannot allow our innocence back into life until we go back and fully free it from the encounters and experiences that caused it to go into hiding in the first place. This is a delicate, raw, and tender process. Though it might be facilitated interpersonally, through some kind of relationship, the true healing relationship is within, between the adult person we’ve become and our lost, innocent child self.

The adult we’ve become, however disillusioned and defended, is still a wise self. The adult has learned that Santa Claus is a myth, that evil is part of reality, that things constantly change—people die and nothing is forever. The adult self knows about broken promises, abandonment, and betrayal. The adult self has somehow found a way to navigate the world, however impoverished it may feel, however cut off from the joy and renewal of its innocence.

And this adult warrior self is the one—the one true parent—who can find and help that golden child to return to life; a life of fullness and completion.

A Gift to the Self: Recapitulation

The adult self is the one who can be with the child as it shares the truth of its lost innocence. The adult can hear the truth, feel the truth, withstand the truth, bear witness to the truth, and fully accept the truth in solidarity with the child. The child is not alone. The child is worthy to be fully known on its own terms, not pushed away because its feelings are too much, not talked out of what it truly feels. The adult will stand with the child and hear the fullness of the truth.

Next, the adult can help the child broaden the picture. There are things that the seasoned adult can see that the child couldn’t possibly see at the time. Such things can help the child self unravel the mystery of “why,” clearing up misconceptions, such as: It was my fault; I wasn’t good enough or worthy enough.

The adult self goes on to help the child self express and release all the feelings that have been held back, perhaps for a lifetime.

As recapitulation proceeds, innocence is freed from its old trappings and a new self, a wise, innocent, fully integrated self is born into the world. This self knows about the ways of the world, it doesn’t need the world to change to live out its innocence. It no longer needs to suffer disillusionment, to be reminded of its lost innocence. It can choose wisely in relationship and accepts that nothing stays in one form forever. This is no longer a deal breaker for innocence. Innocence, with wisdom, can now flow with the changes.

At Dawn: Out of the darkness rises new life

This is the one true gift of Christmas, the one only we can give to ourselves. That is the gift of recapitulation, the adult that takes the journey of truth with its innocent self, ultimately merging with it. Born anew, there is now new life to live.

Merry Christmas,
Chuck

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR