Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Transcendence Through Fully Living

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Here is a message of guidance from Jeanne, channeled most humbly.

Who guards and protects your secrets? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Who guards and protects your secrets?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Stay calmly resolute in your intent to grow, change, and inhabit your beingness in a fuller way. Seek wholeness, yet seek also balance; balance that is conducive to life in the world you live in. Seek awareness, yet seek also stability in reality. Seek enlightenment, but do not forget that you are first and foremost human. Seek the attainment of all that is good, but do not reject all that lies in your personal shadows, the underground self who seeks life as much as the above ground self does. Contain not one over the other, yet do not allow one to dominate for too long either. Allow these two sides of the self to come out to play. Like two children who have been cooped up for too long must they be allowed fun and full expression.

All of these actions of balance must be undertaken with a measure of sobriety and calmness that overrides and underrides the actions that are necessary for you to achieve full expression and wholeness as a human being, as a spiritual being, as a finite and infinite being. You are all these things already. “So what’s the problem?” you might ask.

The problem with the human condition is that life in that world is so overpowering that all other awareness goes out the window. But I know that you who read my words are seekers, that you seek deeper connection within the self. That deeper connection requires knowledge of and integration of all parts of the self. Seek that and you will be well on the way to completion of your wholeness.

Do not become fanatical. Do not become inflated. Do not allow your insights to take you too far from your real challenge, which is to be fully human in that world of abundance and deprivation, to be challenged to experience it all, and yet to be detached from all that challenges you.

There is sweetness among the thorns... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
There is sweetness among the thorns…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In your wholeness will you discover detachment without need. You will find life in simplicity, life fulfilled by your attention to the process of growth. Your unattached attention to the diligence of your inner and outer endeavors, in balanced alignment, will take you far.

Be attentive to your journey. Without judgment, renew your vows to your personal process. Life challenges you to embrace it and live it, yet it challenges you equally to detach from and transcend it without need or desire, simply because that is what you are all fully capable of: transcendence through fully embracing the life you live.

You can argue with yourself all your want. You can whine and complain about your life. You can have all kinds of difficulties, illnesses, allergies, problems, faults, complaints and issues to protest and fight about. Overall, however, you can only evolve by fully acquiescing to the truth of your predicament and then taking off from there in a new direction.

Free your mind a little bit today by accepting at least one truth about the self and the life you now experience, just one. This may be a joyous truth or a sad truth, it doesn’t matter, as long as it really is a truth. Accept that truth and ask the self what you can do about it to remedy it—complain more about it, or tackle it head on?

The energy of now says: Be honest with the self, but don’t be angry with the self. You know what to do, the energy says, so face your fears and do it. Be creative in your endeavors to face the self and change, but, above all, do something new and different. Look, act, or do something that is totally new. Deviate from habit and expectation and go in an unexpected direction. This will help immensely! Be a new you. Start now!

Pick your joy! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Pick your joy!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Start with something you can really do, see, and feel. Dress differently. Change something about your appearance. Be daring and unpredictable. Be fearless. Above all, make your life’s challenges fun. Set the intent to dissipate the intensity of your challenges and make light of them. In some way you will discover or be shown how to do this; just intend it and then see what happens. No matter how dire you consider your circumstances, the universe will support you. The universe will laugh, not in ridicule but only with pure joy, with the pure joy of release and acquiescence. Let joy from the universe come through to you in some way today.

So, change the self in some tiny way today, or even in a big way if that is your penchant, remaining fully aware that you are doing so. Even if no one else detects your change or your joyousness, you will know of it and that, My Dears, is enough of a secret joy to carry you forward—smiling!

This all takes work, but it’s work that is well worth it!

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Offense

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The magical in the ordinary... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
The magical in the ordinary…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

We are beings of offense, collectors of rights and wrongs. Judgment is our guiding voice: “Look, over there, how hideous, how bold, how disgusting, how risque, how inappropriate, how divine, how unfair, how rude, how insensitive, how mean, how narcissistic, how beautiful, how perfect.”

Then there’s the voice from the Land of Me. “I’m not getting what I need,” it says. “I deserve more. I got screwed. They took advantage of me. They treat me like I’m invisible. It’s never what I want. I don’t matter. I’m not attractive. I’m better than him. She’d never be interested in me. Nobody cares about me. Why am I never chosen? Why was I born like this? Why am I singled out? Why am I being punished? How come nothing good ever happens to me?”

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico contend that we spend the lion’s share of our vital force, our life’s energy, judging and being offended by the world and those who inhabit it. To counter offense we might develop and accumulate an identity of accomplishments. “I can take it,” our accomplishments enable us to say. “I’ll survive. Inwardly I know I’m worth more. Look how well I dress—I’m coordinated. I have lots of friends who keep in touch. I’m well-respected where I work. I’m always polite. I say my prayers. I donate. I care. I walk for causes. I read a lot. I have many “Likes.” People like my pictures. I’m funny.”

So constructed are we of rights, wrongs and likes that we know not who we really are beneath those mountains of offense. We perceive ourselves and the world around us through the narrowly burdensome lens of where we stand vis-à-vis our fellow human beings. We navigate our lives to constantly improve that position, with better homes, bodies, cars, jobs, friends, lovers, companions, environments. Our obsession with improvement puts blinders upon our real possibilities.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico claim that we are magical beings capable of stupendous actions and experiences. However, as long as we spend the capital of our human time in being offended we have no accrued savings, no energy for true self-actualization. The Shamans suggest that we can build our energy savings bank by thoroughly appreciating the petty tyrants who so offend us. Rather than spending energy capital on constantly being offended, Shamans bank their energy by stripping away the shackles of self-importance.

“This is the room they stuck me in, with that kid upstairs jumping on the bed for hours! I should complain!” we might say, taking offense at a situation we find ourselves in. Such complaining, the Shamans contend, will get us nowhere. “Thank you,” a Shaman would say, “for reminding me not to waste my energy on being offended. Let me instead be more fully present to the moment and all the magic that surrounds me.”

Eventually, we notice that the world is quite ready to open, expand and reveal its deeper truths, beauties, and mysteries as we drop the veil of offense and navigate instead with awe. As we follow the signs magically placed before us, by reinterpreting and reworking that which has offended us, we offer ourselves a new and different world in which to navigate. Without offense, life and the world we inhabit become a totally different and very inviting, magical place. We might even find ourselves suddenly offered something that we could previously only have dreamed of.

Navigating through the magic,
Chuck

Messages from Jeanne

Readers of Infinity: Your Path Of Good

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Walk your path with intent to change... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Walk your path with intent to change…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Here is this week’s message from Jeanne. She inspires us to stay focused on the path of good; eventually it leads to change.

Begin each day by taking with you the lessons learned on the previous day. Stay upon the path of good, that which is good for the self and others. Remain connected to awe. Find it always. Though you may think its presences is fleeting in your life, look again with new eyes and envision awe in every moment and in every day. Is not every breath awe-inspiring? That you live is, indeed, to be rejoiced over, for in every breath and every moment is your fuller potential granted life.

Move steadily forward connected to the awe of the minutiae in life. Allow it to build upon you and bring you to a place of joy and contentment, for no matter your circumstances the potential for joy and contentment reigns. This potential is what you seek activation of, the balance that tells you that your path is right, your life expansive, and your seeking worth it.

Stay upon the path of good, for the sake of the self and all others. What is the path of good? You will know it as you traverse it, for only in actively living will such truths be revealed. Navigate with purpose, fully clothed in the intent to grow and learn. Remind yourself of that purpose and intent with every breath and every step. Remain aware.

Follow the path of awe in every moment. It will not desert you if you do not desert it. Be open and receptive and yet work constantly to free the self of inhibitions that hold you back from change, for change is good.

All in all, what you seek in your life is within the self—the knowledge of who you are, why you are, and where you are going? What else do you need to know, except that the world you are in is showing you the answers as you walk your path.

Remember: Change is good. Remain on the path of good. Good is you.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: You Are Your Wholeness

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A moment of bliss... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
A moment of bliss…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

“What we’re really seeking is…the rapture of being alive in our bodies…” -Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth *

This quote comes from the man who said, “Follow your bliss.” He directs us to the essence of our human pursuit, to experience energetic vibrance and conscious awareness in our physical bodies. That feeling state of bliss is composed of physical sensation, emotion, and cognition.

This is an in-person experience, the full realization of aliveness in physical form, though it might be experienced in consort with another.

I recently encountered a provocative poem by Sharon Olds that captures the essence of this state of unprojected bliss, in other words, the state in which one takes full ownership of his or her own internal human experience.

Here is the poem, Sex Without Love by Sharon Olds:

How do they do it, the ones who make love
without love? Beautiful as dancers,
gliding over each other like ice-skaters
over the ice, fingers hooked
inside each other’s bodies, faces
red as steak, wine, wet as the
children at birth whose mothers are going to
give them away. How do they come to the
come to the come to the God come to the
still waters, and not love
the one who came there with them, light
rising slowly as steam off their joined
skin? These are the true religious,
the purists, the pros, the ones who will not
accept a false Messiah, love the
priest instead of the God. They do not
mistake the lover for their own pleasure,
they are like great runners: they know they are alone
with the road surface, the cold, the wind,
the fit of their shoes, their over-all cardio-
vascular health—just factors, like the partner
in the bed, and not the truth, which is the
single body alone in the universe
against its own best time.

Though unstated, this poem, for me, points to the highest love: love without illusion, full embracement and celebration of life within the confines of the self. Of course, our humanness requires that we partake of the sensuous other, that we find deep connection and sharing, reveling and revealing, in another. But at the deepest level we must respect the truth of the separateness of all others, and take up the full realization of our own individual being while in our human form.

The kissing tree... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The kissing tree…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

This experience of exhilaration in aliveness leads ultimately to feelings of calmness and contentedness, in concert with the awe of aliveness as it pulses through our veins and warms our hearts. This full experience of aliveness is our wholeness that so frequently gets projected outwardly—in being with, having or loving another. This is the trickster nature of our world. It’s really a world of projection where our missingness is reflected all around us, outside of us. How can we help but be compulsively drawn to consume our projected wholeness in some form?!

And pursue we must! It’s imperative that we fully experience our wholeness! But once we’ve burned through the disappointments of unrequited illusive wholeness projections, we are freed to fully embrace our untethered energetic wholeness within ourselves. At first, we might experience this in short spurts, while taking a brief walk in nature or in an encounter with the moon where the euphoria of aliveness waxes through our beings—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

At some point, we might discover the exhilaration of our aliveness in attenuated calm, in every moment, in every encounter—complete wholeness achieved. Ironically, that wholeness in self is, in fact, the most loving interconnected experience with all—no boundaries to love or self.

Intending aliveness,
Chuck

* This quote opened and closed a weekend workshop that I attended with Robert Miller on addiction and feeling states. This blog is, in part, inspired by his message that addiction is our seeking of the rapture of being alive in our bodies. I am in gratitude to him for his work.

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR