Tween-to-teen, high school graduation and mid-life are all times of significant transition in every day living. In each of these times we leave the old and familiar to venture out into the new and unknown. Why? Because the old and familiar no longer serve our needs. On a smaller, more subtle scale we constantly repeat the cycle of endings through to beginnings on a daily or weekly basis. Internally or externally, something is always changing. Our reaction to the change sets up a continuing loop of impacts and reactions.
Jim Carrey, in his commencement address to the 2014 graduating class of the Maharishi University of Management, reminds us “Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you.” Personally I believe every experience we encounter (sensation, emotion, thought) exists to dispel our illusions and reveal our truth. Our job, in living a meaningful life, is to openly accept any experience that shows up in front of us without judging it as good, bad or ugly. However, our default decision process is often irrational because we tend to do exactly that — judge a newly emerging experience as good, bad or otherwise when we have not yet lived it. How can we know the outcome? Every experience has new aspects to it. A decision-making process that opts for judgment before acceptance is simply one based on fear (protecting oneself) rather than possibility (learning something new).
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. Albert EinsteinEinstein references that for each of us to create change in our outer world, we must first change our inner experience of beliefs and perspectives. In the ‘60s we referred to this type of growth and change as expanding or raising our consciousness. Without its occurrence, we would not have begun the shift away from racial, religious, gender and employee enslavement. Of course, Gandhi also professed, “Be the change you wish to see,” as an antidote for freedom from all forms of suffering. No doubt both Einstein and Gandhi would agree that all decisions are based on either fear or love.
War and deceit are examples of fear-based decision making. Peace and truth telling are examples of love-based decision making. Ending war and violence in my lifetime will require a global consciousness-raising. More importantly, each of us will have to continually feel and choose loving thoughts, words and deeds no matter what emerges in the present moment. Choosing that journey will redefine us and then our world by redefining what love is.
Choose love and you will never have to turn away from your playful heart. Jim CarreyEndings like graduation and transition to new beginnings like summer holidays are upon us. In celebration of both and to give myself a much needed gardening break, my blogs over the next two months will be focused on my own emergent experiences. Weekly for the past three years, I facilitated a mindful meditation and writing group that provided me inspiration and opportunity to write poetry. Over the summer, I plan to share some of this soon-to-be-published collection, Of Bone and Stone, and what inspired me to write it. These poems depict my own journey towards continuously choosing love and possibility over fear and limitation — bumps, bruises and restarts included.
If you are interested in more mindful writing, click here.
