A Blanket of Compromise

It strikes me as odd that we find so much comfort from that old friend (?) compromise. It is a strange friend that wraps a blanket of false dreams and hopes around our personal universe… heaven help us if the blanket slips or we dare take a peek above it, what will we see? Well let me tell you as someone who knows – a world of multi-dimensional explosive colour that rocks the very foundation of everything we think we believe in.

AUTHORS WARNING – if you are wondering ‘what is that madman talking about?’ then stop reading now because you have not yet glimpsed beyond the blanket and doing so may seriously change your day…
If you are still with me then I suspect you have already stepped forward, and if like me you are well down this path then this next bit is really quite amusing. However if you are new to this, it may seem somewhat harsh – but trust me, it will make you smile in the end.

How weird to wake each day and watch the layers of compromise peel away, only to spend even more energy compromising the compromise in the vain attempt of staying firmly in the middle of the same path. What is even more unsettling is the world we now glimpse is one we always knew about, and lost somewhere around puberty when we were trying to be what we thought everyone else wanted us to be!
So it goes like this – I set out on a journey along time ago with the objective of reaching the peak of a beautiful mountain – I cleared the foothills and have worked my way through the lower slopes, some challenging, many beautiful and rewarding. On this climb I meet wonderful people and experience many joyous events. Then one fine day I make it through the tree line and can see clear air for the first time since the plains of my youth. Why then, am I feeling a creeping sense of unease, rather than elation? Out of the corner of my eye I can see another peak, one that calls out with clarity of my youth. Slow realization dawns that I may have taken a wrong turn and need to be in a different place!
So what do I do now you may ask? While I refrain from this turning into a counseling session, I can assure you that drinking copious amounts of beer, crying, screaming, working even harder, or taking up jogging, all work exceptionally well at blocking the view of that marvelous peak in the corner of our eye, however as we continue to climb, the view becomes clearer and increasingly more difficult to ignore. DO NOT PANIC! Everything we have done, everywhere we have been, all our experiences, all the people we have ever met, are the reason we are here, and why we are who we are. Nothing has been wasted – no regrets – our journey continues on regardless as we climb new heights. The perceived change in destination does not negate the past, or what we have experienced, the contrary is true, it allows us to view our path with reflective wisdom. There is only one rule to remember (important – I will test you later!) – this is our personal journey, we are doing it for ourselves and not for anyone else. Ok, ok, settle down, I have heard it all before – ‘its not that easy’, ‘that’s selfish’, ‘what about my ______ (insert appropriate name of kin, dog or fish)?’. Remember the rule – my journey. This being our personal journey does not negate interaction with others – imagine how happy our loved ones will be when they truly grasp how joyful we are?
Lets assume we’ve stopped fighting it (it being the courage to follow our heart), and we have decided that compromise is not allowed to play any more, what now? FREE TIP (generous to a fault) – shine a light on your world and look very carefully at what you see, then take a piece of paper and make a list of all the things that really make you smile. Right, STOP NOW! Start again please, and this time be really really honest – this is YOUR list – ok better.
Scary eh? Some really amazing things on that list I bet, totally priceless actually. More surprising are the things we leave off! Now we have a real ‘makes me smile list’, and not quite so difficult to move forward when we trash the retrospective silver linings we trace along those missing items.

I love my list, no honest, I really really love my list, and am compelled to grin, Cheshire-cat style, most of the time! Let me explain – my list is small and not very complicated – by spending more time with the items on my list and less with the ‘false prophets of happiness’ acquired from other peoples lists, I have smiled more outrageously, more frequently and longer than for many a year.
So this is fab – my whole world is going to be one great big smile and a never-ending bag of Twiglets right? Sorry, no. This is going to be BIG, and involve BIG change, even those connected to us will experience the change even if they don’t want to. ‘HELP’ I hear you cry, ‘what can I do?’ This may sound a little twee, but it is the best advice I can offer…
~ for the adults around you, try and explain – I know its difficult, it’s like trying to explain colour to someone who only sees in black & white – but keep trying with compassion and love at all times, however hard that may be
~ for children, realise that we spend so much time telling them to grow up and be more responsible, and yet the times we need to talk to them about ‘grown up’ stuff we end up treating them like kids! Trust me on this one – they get it – love, compassion and honesty will win the day and result in a lot of fun, laughter and love.
Well that concludes my chat and I wish you well in this part of your journey, whatever stage you are at. My next installment will cover the more complex subjects of gardening on a small balcony and de-cluttering from a lifetime of collecting ’stuff’.

The Barefoot Gardener

Ed: This is a personal account of experiencing heightened awareness and transformation as a result of journeying through The Shift, a time of global energy gear-changes that are impacting on human relationships at every level.

Link: Life Quake

…we all inhabit more than one level of reality at the same time.

First attention organizes the surface of life; second attention organizes the deeper levels. Intuition and wisdom both grow out of second attention and therefore cannot be compared to ordinary thinking… A gut feeling is as close to the oracle of Delphi as many people are going to get. That we can bypass reason to gain insight is certainly true. Intuition involves no cogitation or working through. Like lightening, it flashes across the mind, carrying with it a sense of rightness that defies explanation.

The big question is how we can learn to trust second attention… Once you start identifying with the knower – that part of yourself that is intuitive, wise, and perfectly at home in the quantum world – then God assumes a new shape. He turns from all-powerful to all-knowing… You will never trust your intuition until you identify with it. Self-esteem enters here. At the earlier stages of inner growth, a person is esteemed who belongs to the group and upholds its values. If the knower within tries to object, he is stifled. Intuition actually becomes an enemy, because it has a nasty habit of saying things you aren’t supposed to hear.

“You will know a lot about human motivation once you realize one thing: ninety-nine percent of humanity spends ninety-nine percent of their time trying to avoid painful truths.”

A person who has arrived at stage four long ago gave up group values. The enticements of war, competition, the stock market, fame, and wealth have faded. Being stranded in isolation is not a good fate, however, and so the knower within comes to the rescue. He provides a new source of self-esteem based upon things that cannot be known any other way… the emptiness of outward life is rendered irrelevant because a new voyage has commenced. The wise are not sitting around contemplating how wise they are; they are flying through space and time, guided on a soul journey that nothing can impede. The hunger to be alone… comes from sheer suspense. The person cannot wait to find out what comes next in the unfolding of the soul’s drama… Someone who still felt burdened with guilt and shame, however, would never embark on the voyage. You don’t have to be perfect to try to reach the angels, but you do have to be able to live with yourself and keep your own company for long stretches of time…

The disciple could also have no idea of the excitement felt by the master, because from the outside there is no sign… God leaves no traces in the material world… you find yourself fascinated with God, not because you need protection or comfort, but because you are a hunter after his quarry. The chase is all the more challenging when the prey leaves no tracks in the snow.
…fate becomes a pressing. The person has experienced enough instances when “an invisible hand” must be at work. The instances may be small, but there is no turning away from them.
After paying enough attention (always the key word) you begin to see that events form patterns; you see that they also hold lessons or messages or signs – the outer world somehow is trying to communicate – and then you see that these outer events are actually symbols for inner events… Wisdom consists of being comfortable with certainty and uncertainty… life is spontaneous, yet it has a plan; events come as a surprise, yet they have inexorable logic. Strangely, wisdom often arrives only after thinking is over. Instead of turning a situation over from every angle, one arrives at a point where simplicity dawns. In the presence of a wise person one can feel an interior calm, alive and breathing its own atmosphere, that needs no outside validation. The ups and downs of existence are all one. The New Testament calls this “the peace that passes understanding,” because it goes beyond thinking – no amount of mental churning will get you there.
…a state where all love is included in one love. Such an aim is hard to achieve, and most people don’t even see it’s value… Since infancy we have all gained security from having one mother, one father, our own friends, one spouse, a family of our own; this sense of attachment reflects a lifelong need for support… the whole support structure melts away – the person is left to get support internally, from the self. Self-acceptance becomes the way to God… It isn’t a cold, heartless detachment but a kind of expansion that no longer needs to distinguish between me and you, yours and mine, what I want and what you want. Such dualities make perfect sense to the ego, yet… the goal is to get beyond boundaries. If that involves giving up the old support systems, the person willingly pays the price. The soul journey is guided by an inner passion that demands its own fulfillment.

There are no victims.
Everything is well ordered; things happen as they should.
Random events are guided by a higher wisdom.
Chaos is an illusion; there is total order to all events.
Nothing happens without a reason.

Deepak Chopra, an exert from Stage Four, How To Know God

To quote The Pretenders classic, Spiritual High, ‘a state of independence shall be…’. This exert from Deepak Chopra’s How To Know God illustrates humanity’s greatest challenge, if we are to evolve to the next ordained state of being. We stand poised at the edge of this particular cliff, in a time of profound change, we are in fear of letting go of all that we have known. Apollinaire’s words seem especially poignant;

Come to the edge
We can’t. We are afraid.
Come to the edge.
We can’t. We will fall!

Come to the edge.

And they came.
And he pushed them.

And they flew.

Guillaume Apollinaire

At the entrance to the oracle chamber at Delphi is an inscription:

Know Thyself

We all have the ability to fly, and I don’t just mean you, or me, I mean all of us. The only requirement is that we simply choose to do so.

V

∞

The saying goes that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. My latest teacher is a bird that goes by the name of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

‘…it is right for a gull to fly, that freedom is the very nature of his being, that whatever stands against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition or limitation in any form.
“Set aside,” came a voice from the multitude, “even if it be the Law of the Flock?”
“The only true law is that which leads to freedom,” Jonathan said. “There is no other.”

…the most important thing in living was to reach out and touch perfection in that which they most loved to do, and that was to fly.’

Someone very clever said to me recently, we have to fly, don’t we?

Yes, I believe we do.

V

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a book by Richard Bach. First published in 1970, the cover illustration has really stood the test of time, as have the interior images, photographed by Russell Munson… deceivingly simple in their beauty. This little book is a treasure.

Truth is so great a perfection, that if God would render himself visible to men, he would choose light
for his body and truth for his soul.

Pythagoras

Φ

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.

Carl Jung

Φ

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.

Erich Fromm

Φ

The key to change… is to let go of fear.

Rosanne Cash

Φ

Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

Steve Jobs

Φ

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