#431 Chuck’s Place: Crash

Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences! Today, I take you into my personal Awareness Log.

Thursday January 15, 2009

Went to see Gran Torino with Erica (my 19 year old daughter). After the movie, I was pulling out of the parking space in my 1994 white Chevy truck and suddenly there was a crash, a gentle crash. What was that? I opened my door to discover that a very spiffy Nissan 350Z was kissing my bumper. I was completely calm, yet perplexed, asking myself, how did that happen? Clearly, it came out of nowhere because I had, as always, checked my rear view mirror and probably turned to look. Next the driver of the Z, a man about my age, strolled to the back of his car to check out what had happened as well. Truthfully, in an earlier incarnation, my reaction in a situation like this might have been to greet the other driver with such questions as, what the fuck were you thinking, immediately establishing who’s responsibility this accident was, preparing for police reports and the insurance game, where truth and reality are of little consequence. However, we found ourselves gently reviewing what had happened, assessing the impact. There was no blaming, simply the realization that this truly was a no-fault occurrence. Of course, my sturdy American built truck, with its metal bumper, was unblemished, while his Japanese made Z, with its plastic stylish bumper, had a crack. For those who have seen the Clint’s old white Ford in Gran Torino, and heard his feelings about foreign cars, this is an amusing synchronicity, though personally, I have no prejudices toward foreign made cars. Almost as an afterthought, or formality, we exchanged insurance information and wished each other well. As I drove away, I questioned, what does this mean? The most noticeable components were an unexpected no-fault crash and a calm processing of the incident. Also, there was no damage to my old sturdy truck and probably expensive repair would be needed for the stylish speedy Z. The other factor to take into consideration was that I had just seen Gran Torino with Erica, and she was in the truck with me. That is as far as I could take it at that point.

Upon returning home, the evening evolved into an unusually long discussion with Erica and Jan. Though I choose to not reveal the details of our interaction, I will summarize the main components of this process. In effect, a serious discussion about future plans and present reality, as well as past decisions, ensued. In prior such interactions between Erica and myself, a flood of intense and clashing emotions might prevent the discussion getting very far and, in fact, often might have resulted in a battle and blame-fest. This evening, however, we broke new ground. One might characterize Erica’s expectations of life at this stage as a sporty Nissan, that romantic fantasy of immediately having it all. I recall in Gran Torino Clint’s encounter with his granddaughter who, soon to be leaving for college, coveted and felt entitled to his sparkling Gran Torino. Inwardly, I was cracking open my own protective shell around my daughter’s unfolding encounter with reality, a challenge for all parents who seek to protect their children at different stages of development, who must allow the shell to be broken so that the chick might emerge. The challenge for me, personally, was to deliver the truth without protection or assuming responsibility for her difficulties, letting her assume full responsibility for what comes next. This process includes encountering difficult feelings such as her disappointment and sadness, as she must let go of her illusions. In truth it is very difficult to let go as a parent, and allow our child to encounter their aloneness and find their own way in the real world. The evening ended on a calm, loving, sober note, however, it was evident that we had entered a new world.

The movie, Gran Torino, is all about a clash of worlds and evolution. Clint is solidly a symbol of old America. Yes, he unashamedly expresses every imaginable racist thought, belief, and word, yet underneath he is a man of truly solid values who has been molded through the trials of real life and death encounters in war. He is capable of evolving because he cannot ignore the truth and is compelled to break through all his racism and limiting beliefs to be part of a changing America. Isn’t this, in fact, the challenge now for America? First of all, for old America to get back to its ability to see the truth, and support it, amidst a new generation of changing colors and names, like Barack Obama and Sanjay Gupta. The crash of these cultures is being propelled forward by the crashing down of the old institutions, with a majority of Americans willing to face truth and vote for change. Clearly, a vote for McCain meant an upholding of the old way, and a significant percentage of old America chose Barack.

My awareness log of Thursday January 15th was to, subsequently, include the crash landing of the US Airways plane into the Hudson River after its engines were compromised by clashes with birds. All passengers and crew survived due to the pilot’s calm maneuvering into the water and the immediate caring response of others on the river. What does this mean? One can’t help but immediately associate a plane crash in New York City with the toppling of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. It is interesting to hear George Bush’s spin on the value of his presidency where he kept America, inside our shell, safe from terrorist attacks. Today, we are faced with the world reality that his policies have led to the undermining of the world economy and the ability for the world to trade. Amidst the illusion of our safety, George Bush did, in effect, topple the towers of the world economy.

So what does it mean that, on the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration, a United States Airways plane crashes safely into the frigid winter waters surrounding that same great city of New York? First of all, the crashing of a plane, like Icarus, symbolizes the consequences of inflation. America now faces the fact that it is broke, and has lived illusions of grandeur. The icy cold truth is that this is not sustainable, and all must feel these cold facts. Interestingly, birds symbolize spirit, suggesting a spiritual correction to America’s inflation. Nonetheless, the main feature of this dramatic event is the safe landing of America through collective giving and action. I think we are being shown that Barack can safely lead us through this necessary crash, but it is up to all of us to participate in the rescue.

#430 Trust Your Warrior Self

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a message of guidance for us today, as we continue to experience this time of shift and change?

Placate not the big baby in your self or others, but gently and firmly speak the truths that reveal themselves now in the light of dawn. For the dawning of truths is the new reality and the future must be based on the brutal facts that may come to interrupt the flow of your iniquities. Do not fall prey to worry. Do not fall prey to false assumptions and false pretenses. Do not fall prey to the protests of the underlying manipulators that exist inside you and outside you.

I warn, but I also urge awakening and alertness, for without conscious awareness of your own reality will you not be able to sustain your inner delight at the progress and the change now soon upon you. I know you do not wish to fall prey to your old habits, ideas, and fantasies, nor bury your self in oblivion. You do not wish to draw the blankets over your head or pull the curtains of your awareness closed, but you will be tempted to do so. Your balance now remains in focusing on the cold hard facts of your reality, your true life situation upon that earth. For there will be no progress if the truths and facts of your life are not fully examined and fully accepted. How can you move on, be free in your inner self, and free in your outer self, if you remain bound by old ideas, old darknesses, old methods of blindness, oblivion, and comforts that will keep you perpetually caught in a cycle of happy/unhappy, truth/untruth, newness/oldness, clarity/oblivion, in endless repetition, unable to move forward as the old wheels turn constantly in mesmerizing predictability?

Now it is up to you to jolt your self awake and out of the rut, leaping off the wheel of time that has you attached by its enticingly hearty motions that appear attractive, for it offers such regular glimpses of inner delight. But it does not take you to new places of interest and growth, though yes, it does treat you to good insights quite often.

In order to move forward now with the energy of change, with full participation, must you determine your own future based on the truths that constantly reveal themselves to you. Do not look to protect or nurture the old means of creating a balanced life, based on unclear facts and dim views of reality. Now, with truths in hand, make a choice for lasting change, a choice that will propel you through the golden door of opportunity, even though you do not see what is waiting for you there. Even though you are blinded by the light as it shines upon you, revealing the direction to take; in fact lighting your way; so do I encourage you to trust where your journey is leading you.

As a traveler, you have been preparing for this next leg of your journey for a long time. You have packed your bags with the essentials, knowing full well that everything you have experienced up until now has been and continues to be necessary for your journey. Now you are being asked to trust that the journey ahead is as necessary as the one in the past, that what is not being revealed is as valid as what was not revealed in the past, that your progress now is based on abilities already gained on your journey thus far taken.

To allow your self to be in command must be your next step of acquiescence to your self, the journeyer of truth, the one who knows full well that you can be trusted, for this you have already revealed to your self all these many years of life and adventure.

What do you fear? Do you fear others in your life? Or do you fear your own abilities to accept the gifts that others present you with? Do you request help and then refuse it? Why? Your gifts are meant for you or they would not be placed before you. Your gifts of clarity, awareness, and the gifts of your past are all prepared now in order for your future to be procured, accepted, and lived fully, which means differently, based on the challenges that letting go of the old and accepting of the new pose to you, as an individual journeyer.

I must admit that in my own life, as Jeanne Marie Ketchel, did I confront fear at every turn. I was not so advanced as you may believe, for I struggled constantly with being drawn back to my child self, abandoned at birth, but even before then. My child self sought comforts that did not allow for progress, but my warrior self did not allow that child self to rule the roost. My warrior self stood the test of the journey, over and over again, pushing me forward, sometimes without my conscious participation, in fact quite often was this so. But eventually, as I acquiesced to the journey that the great challenger, cancer, took me on, I learned that the only resolution for the inner child was for her to trust the warrior side, the connected-to-infinity side, to guide us correctly.

We must all learn what it means to let go, to acquiesce to our journey, step by step, letting go of something at each step forward. That is what you must keep in mind, that the history of a journey is not just a moving forward at all costs, but a process of letting go in order to move forward, as we make ourselves available for new adventures, new ideas, and new possibilities. There will be no newness of anything, if we do not participate in the process, if we do not give as we take, if we do not let go as we accept our new gifts.

Your gifts are asking you to trust your process. Your truths revealed, no matter how difficult and hard to bear they may be, are asking you to trust them too. Your journey is asking you to participate in its unfolding, now with consciousness more often than unconsciousness, with acquiescence rather than holding back, with letting go of the old rather than being stuck by the limitations of an old world that is not only crumbling, but that no longer has any value.

Whether you look at the outer world or your own inner world, it does not matter, the analogy of crumbling change is the same. The question to now pose to your self is: Do I want to remain behind in the crumbled remains, upholding ideas that are as ancient as the remains around me? Or do I want to determine my future based on what I now know about myself, the truths I have uncovered and revealed to myself, and the gifts being shown to me?

Am I ready to reach out and accept the hands offering those gifts of change, put my hands into the light and feel resonance, even though I may not clearly see where I am stepping? Am I ready to say yes to the journey of change, trusting it, though the future is not being revealed, and even though it is just a figment of imagination at this point? Am I prepared to go for it, scared though I am, trusting that it is right?

Trust that it is right. Trust your warrior self. Allow your inner child self to look to you now, your warrior self. Allow that child self to finally acquiesce to the journey you propose; that your warrior self and your guides propose. Allow your child self to be a participant with your adult warrior strongly and firmly in charge, for this is how it should be now.

Your new leader in America, your Obama, is one of these gifts being offered, asking you to go with him into the light. He asks for trust, and for participation from all of you, as equal warriors, like him, ready to blaze through the crumbled remains of a society and a world that no longer function in truth, honesty, and love. He is your warrior symbol outside of you, but he asks each of you to become warriors too, for he will lead, but he will not carry. He will point out the way, but he will not walk the path for you, but he invites you to walk the path beside him in full warrior fashion, each of you present, and protective of each other, for that is the warrior’s way. It’s your choice. Now is the time of choosing.

Good Luck, My Dear Ones. I must stress to you that the times now hold the power and the energy causing shift, that there are changes, and there will be more. What is happening now is but the tip of the iceberg. Do you not understand? You really have no choice regarding the truth of change. But you do have a choice in whether or not you fully embrace it, acquiesce to it, let go of the old, and pull your self up, fully present, so that your choice is conscious, based on true facts, and based on your adult knowing self offering your child self the gift of warrior strength, clarity, and daring. Your child self will be happy you did this, mine was.

#429 Everything Will Be All Right

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have guidance for us today, as this unusual period of energetic activity continues to be present?

I cannot stress enough that the doorway of opportunity now being presented is the opening to a whole host of other possibilities leading to pure growth on a spirit level, both inner growth and outer growth in that world you live in. This time asks for participation and that is what I have been stressing in my recent messages. This is not a time to lie down and watch the world take off on a new angle. It is a time to participate in the energy, not only for your own benefit, but for the benefit of the world as well.

You live in a time of great change. Such a time is a rare, unearthly occurrence. It carries more significance than you alone will see or experience. Such energy impacts generations to come. You may feel the resonance of decisions made and actions taken now within your own lifetime too, and this is why you are being asked to consider the possibilities that will emerge as you elect to become more proactive in your own life and with your own potential.

As I have said, this is not a time to sit back and observe. It is a time to be daring, but not with abandon. It is a time to learn what it means to be an energetic being and to allow for a journey to unfold, as you acquiesce to your inner spirit intent, rather than be controlled by your outer world, your past, your old habits, and the habits of those around you.

It is a time to push your self to change now. Even while you hear that word spoken all around you, do not leave the changing up to others, for then will you not have the opportunities that you desire, but you will merely feel, in a peripheral manner, the energy as it wafts over you lying in your complacency. In your inability to participate, will you find your self left behind, a dying breed.

During times of great shift, when the distinct mark of evolutionary change happens, so is there always the segment of life that does not evolve, that does not shift, that does not flow with the energy of change. In all times of evolutionary change there are the ones left behind in the sediment, left to become fossils, remnants of an old way of life. Are you ready to become a fossil? Or are you energetically young enough to still carry forth into new life?

I do not mean to imply that this is a time of death, or a time of demise, except in a physical, mental, and spiritual evolutionary sense. If you do not choose to participate in this time of energetic shift and change that is being offered, so will your own spirit remain behind to dig itself out of the mire in lifetimes to come.

If you elect to participate in this grand scheme of change, so will your spirit have the opportunity to evolve beyond the mire, to enhance the opportunities for growth, and to be present for other shifts to come. Your challenges, right now, are your fears based on your past experiences, your trust in the possibilities that await, and your acquiescence to your spirit driven self. Perhaps you have not spent enough time getting to know your spirit driven self? Perhaps you have not listened closely enough to what it has been saying to you? Perhaps you fear the ideas being presented by this inner truth bearer?

No matter what predicament you find your self in right now, understand that you can change by electing to change, by freeing your self of old fears, by feeling your inner calm energy, and by following the true desires of your inner spirit self. You can not only evolve, but live a life based in truth of inner self, inner clarity of knowing connection with the inner self.

My message today is to ponder further your feelings, connecting with this inner spirit based self, not by thinking or questioning, but by allowing your energy self to become more known to you. If you go to your inner energy self, and calmly allow it to speak to you, so will you find that what it has to say may not be in words, but in feelings, in that feeling of knowing what is right, based on your ancient self, your journeying self who knows exactly what path to take, without question or fear. It simply knows, and it knows that you want to be told that everything will be all right; everything will work out, as it should. Can you hear it telling you to have no fear? Saying: “I am with you, your true self. I am present to guide you. I am connected to all things, to all energy. I am your true self, your wholeness awaiting.

Feel you own energy, My Dears, as that grand energy of change pushes you to flow with it. Your progress will be based on your inner energy electing and allowing you to flow with the outer energy. But your evolution is based on your inner truths being revealed and paid attention to. Find your inner connection and you will find your outer connection too. Now that will be how you truly evolve!

Changes Ahead

Dear Friends and Readers,

Over the next week we will be making some changes on the website, some more noticeable than others. The first significant change is that we will be transferring the free e-book version of The Book of Us from our Store page to our Amazon account where it will be available, for a nominal fee, alongside the paperback edition. If you’ve read the book and wish to write a review of it, feel free to do so at AMAZON.

We hope to produce more audio channeling sessions in the near future. If you missed hearing the New Year’s message, it is available in the Live at the Chocolate Factory category in the sidebar on the left.

We’ll keep you posted as to future changes, but for now, good luck with the energy!

Jan and Chuck

#428 Feeling Self/Energetic Self

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Today we start a new week. What message do you have for us?

My Dear Ones, on this day, do not ponder or think too much about what is going on in your lives, as a conjunction of sorts now presents you with questions, dilemmas, challenges, and many opportunities for growth. I suggest that you get your selves into a good state of calm balance and that you attune your selves to the outer energy so that you may be able to read, by feeling, what it is offering you.

This time now upon that earth is certainly potent and fulfilling. You are being granted, quite succinctly and easily, the possibility that you have long awaited. Your challenge, however, is to recognize the gifts being presented to you as gifts and not as disturbing episodes or distasteful confrontations. This is a time when inner resonance and the ability to place your self in calm balance is most helpful, so that you feel and understand your inner resonance, the most useful and proper method of utilizing, acknowledging, and acquiescing to your gifts of possibility and progress.

Remember, gifts do not come in pretty packages. More often, the most useful and progressive gifts are wrapped in ordinary brown paper. Your daily lives may at first appear to be routine, but if you allow your selves to go to inner quiet, many secrets may be revealed to you now, during this time of transition.

Transition involves change, and change involves being confronted with something new or different, or having to do something you are not familiar with or wanting to do or confront. Change means standing before your familiar everyday self and understanding that the old way of doing, acting, and processing your life is no longer adequate, helpful, or desirable.

Much energy will now be felt in a restless manner. But do not use this restless energy in a dismissive or over exuberant manner. Do not simply run it off, or use it up with trivialities, or in a wasteful manner. Instead, harness it for your inner process and find out why you are being confronted with this restless energy of change. I ask you to feel it, rather than think about it. This is a time when your feeling self, your energetic self is your best processor of the energy.

In order to best utilize the energy, remind your selves often to go calm and innerly feeling of your own energy. Use this inner energy to guide you in the outer energy that may at first appear abruptly harsh, or challenging. In reality, is it just in need of taming by hooking it up with resonant energy such as you have.

Imagine your self on a busy highway, driving along with barely enough space to maneuver between cars, bumper to bumper traffic that at first appears quite problematic and stressful. But as you adjust to the proper speed, as you calm your self to acceptance of the place you are in, and as you temper your inner stress level to a calm steady flow, you realize that the traffic is moving quite well, people around you are in the same state of steady progress, and there is little reason to exaggerate in thought, feeling, or movement. You have acquiesced to the flow.

Then you realize you now have time to look around, to feel the energy you are flowing in, and you find it quite peaceful and perhaps even invigorating in a subtle way. You begin to feel quite happy, peacefully part of the energy that exists!

You discover that, as you take your energy down to this calmer level, you actually feel happier, more at peace with your situation, even though in reality you are stuck in traffic. You discover that it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is your inner energy, in sync with the outer energy that underlies the traffic jam outside of you.

Who has created that traffic jam? Does it really exist? In your new place of personal calm it may no longer appear to be a crowded highway, but instead a calm stream of energy, flowing quite peacefully, allowing for something new to happen as a result of this state of flux.

This is the position you are in right now. The energy upon that earth is ratcheted up to the intensity of a traffic jam on the freeway. Can you accept that fact, knowing that you are stuck in the middle of it and the only possibility of escape is to slow your own energy down to connect with the true underlying energy of change?

Once you have done that, then will you discover what is being offered to you. For during this energetic confluence many opportunities and possibilities are half buried, half hidden in the folds of your own personal energy system. Only you will notice them. Only you will perceive their significance, and only you will know what to do with them.

So for today, I advise a feeling approach to the energy, an adjustment in your traveling lane so you may feel what is sitting beside you, resonant with your truths, your inner flow of energy, awaiting your discovery. Remember last week, I mentioned that golden door of opportunity? You will only perceive it from your inner seat of gold, your own glowing spirit. This is good for today!

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR