December 2020 – Thrivalism

GRATITUDE

The Things We Take for Granted

The great gift of losing something unexpectedly is realizing how much it is missed and how you assumed it would always be there. In the case of 2020, we lost everyday life.

Even those who chose to gather in large groups without masks had to feel and know that it was somehow different; and perhaps some if not all had a little gnawing doubt, that little niggling feeling, in the back of their mind or in their gut, that they were putting themselves or others at risk. Probably all knew that they were making a statement of belief, so it was no ordinary experience.

For most, what was not even a second thought in 2019 or the first couple of months of 2020—going to the grocery store, going to school or work, sports events, singing in a group, attending a movie or a concert, shopping in the malls, standing in line, travel, having a dinner party with friends, restaurants, weddings, funerals, visiting parents, and family gatherings—suddenly became unattainable “past life” memories.

The other day I watched a video of a flash mob at a grocery store. People were shopping, and they weren’t even wearing masks. When suddenly a rather large man standing in the produce section opened his mouth wide and began to sing “Finiculi, Finicula” and slowly individual shoppers throughout the store joined in chorus.

I watched nostalgically, thinking to myself, “That was so 2019.”

Knowing what is missing brings powerful feelings, a Niagara Falls of awareness, of what we have taken for granted. Gratitude for all those ordinary, wondrous, human interactions becomes hindsight, and an opportunity—an INVITATION—for foresight.

Shall we take this invitation for the New Year and hold this “future life” in our IMAGINATION, that not only will our ability to be with others safely, any time we want, any way we want, to travel, to embrace, but will be greatly enhanced—maybe even enchanted?

May we hold in our IMAGINATION and proclaim that because:

We now know how valuable are the things we ordinarily take for granted

How grateful we will be for their return

That:

We accept our responsibilities for their existence

We will care for each other and the Earth

We will accept and celebrate our differences

We will lay down our animosities, our weapons, our territorial instincts, and…

Accept that we are one giant family.

And we will do this not only because we can, but because we must, if we ever intend to not only survive on this planet, but to

THRIVE!

Photo credits from Pexels.com

Dress without a head fotografierende

Lost Shadows  Cameron Readius

Gathering Wendy Wei

Concert Ingo Joseph

Men playing game Şahin Sezer Dinçer

Group hug fauxels

Reservoirs of Resilience

Salvador Dali illustration for Alice in Wonderland

The field, the akasha, the realm of all possibilities, the info-energy system, zero point energy, David Bohm’s “implicate order,” the mental universe… whatever you call it, each concept speaks of the same reality. Yes. Reality. An Alice in Wonderland reality—in which nothing real is really as permanently real as we believe.

In the ancient East, this awareness was a spiritual, mystical reality. In the modern West, it is the “not stuff” of a growing number or rogue philosopher quantum physicists, biologists, and other out-of-the-box-thinking scientists. It is the realm where particles and waves themselves become the stuff of thoughts (consciousness).

It may very well be that we are each part of a quantum neural network and that our thoughts and feelings seemingly so very individual and separate, existing inside of each of us, are not actually within us but originate from an otherwordly realm where the greater mind is located and to which we all have access.

And, what if we can tap into this pure, potential consciousness, this reservoir of thought that is the perpetual energy of creation, from which all form emanates? Then we are not the subjects of life. We are not victims of our fate. We are the co-creators; and as such, all the tools and the mediums of creation and resilience that we need are available to us—endless resources, endless reservoirs. When we seek renewal we need look no further than these universal stores of energetic plenty. We can bounce back from the abyss. We can reclaim and re-order our wholeness.

“If man thinks of the totality as constituted of independent fragments, then that is how his mind will tend to operate, but if he can include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided, unbroken, and without a border then his mind will tend to move in a similar way, and from this will flow an orderly action within the whole.”
David Bohm,1980, Wholeness and the Implicate Order

We have not only the ability but the right to dive into the pools of cosmic consciousness. There is where we find all that is and all that was before there was an “is-ness” and we can reach in and capture some of that stuff of magic and put it in our own personal container.

Will you join me to step outside habitual boundaries, to dive in outside and beyond our perceived three-dimensional separate existence? Will you co-create “within the whole” what we can still be? You need only the imagination, inspiration, and willingness to do so.

“I incline to the idealistic theory that consciousness is fundamental, and that the material universe is derivative from consciousness, not consciousness from the material universe… In general the universe seems to me to be nearer to a great thought than to a great machine. It may well be, it seems to me, that each individual consciousness ought to be compared to a brain-cell in a universal mind.”
– Sir James H. Jeans

Stock images from Pexels.com

Nebula: Andre Moura

Energy in a Jar - Rakicevic Nenad

The Gift of Trouble

The best gift I’ve ever requested, over 30 years ago now, was the ability to learn my lessons without trauma or drama. And that gift has kept on giving until the past year or so.

So how do I now handle the moments of things gone terribly wrong, crazy prevails, and trouble sometimes comes with a capital T?

In retrospect, I welcome them.

Thank you.

I do not know that it is possible to live a life without any problems or discomfort. Perhaps some great spiritual masters transcend the ordinary vicissitudes of life. I do not count myself among them. And, maybe, those challenges, met with courage, forgiveness, and compassion are the very lessons that strengthen and brighten the soul and spirit until it shines. It is how we gradually learn to handle adversity that makes us masters. For that I am grateful.

In my 20s I bought a rock tumbler. I added different densities of grit at different stages over a month as the rocks rubbed against each other day after day. It was a long and noisy process–much like life sometimes can be–but at the end, I had a handful of beautifully polished rocks. I’ve long ago forgotten the rocks, but not the process.

Apparently, there are some stubborn traits I still need polished out. Or maybe there has just been so much to deal with in the past year or two that I am weary and do not have sufficient energy to learn my lessons quickly, and therefore, they get louder and way more annoying and gritty than they have in a very long time. In any case, though I truly don’t enjoy going through them at the time, those experiences are valuable. Compared to the adversities of many, they are slight.

I have a dear friend who welcomes everything and everyone. I have watched another take advantage of him, treat him badly, and I have pointedly asked him why he allows this. He is perfectly aware that this is happening. And he responds that all of it is a gift, and that each person, whether they treat him well or not, or are easy to be with or not, connects him to a world of other people and opportunities.

I like that.

And, although, I’m still going to request a renewal of learning my lessons without the trauma and drama, I’m going to add that I welcome all into my life that connect me to the greater whole that I am and that we are.

Wishing you beautiful gifts this holiday season and for the New Year.

_____________________________

Photo of woman by Inna Lykasevuch from Pexels

Photo of stones from Pexels.