Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Our Luminous Legacy

The Power of Being Different  

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The Power of Being Different  

When you’re different, you have no one to follow.  When you’re different, you may have no one to lead.  But when you’re different, you’re free to go on the grandest, most glorious, most rewarding experience you desire.  

Being different means great freedom

I am different. I’ve led a marching-to-the beat-of-my-own-drummer sort of life.  For me, this has meant that I have no “lifelong” friends but have walked with great joy alongside others who are also walking a similar path, and we have been supportive of each other during that common part of our journey.  

I have no desire to do anything like anyone else. No envy, no desire to emulate.  Just the unfettered joy of exploration and discovery. It’s rather glorious, this walking my own path.

You may be alone

You’ll undoubtedly be alone.  The more individualized the path you follow, the fewer people you’ll find going in a similar direction.  Perhaps you’ll find someone exploring one facet to the same degree you are, but the truer you are to your own unique combination of gifts, the more alone you’ll be on your path.

Walking your own path means not only the freedom to live as you choose but the responsibility to care for yourself. All by yourself. We are each responsible for the look and feel of our lives. You control the direction and quality of your life by what you think and feel.  

You may sometimes feel alone on the physical plane, but there’s a whole chorus of helping spirits available in the invisible world to guide and cheer you on. You’re not alone on the inner plane even if you feel alone on the outer one. 

Helping spirits populate your world

Some 95% of our world is invisible.  I love the freedom I feel when I go exploring in the inner realms.  First of all, there’s unconditional love. It’s there for me always.  And my job is to learn to accept it – then turn and give that unconditional love to others. 

Every one of us has helping spirits, we just may not realize it.  When I discovered the vast array of helping spirits available to me through shamanic meditative journeying, I began to journey every day.  Sometimes I journey with questions, sometimes with a request for help with self-healing.  And one day I showed up at my inner Sacred Garden and my helping spirits were cheering me for my latest accomplishment!! 

Your helping spirits will guide you to the recognition of your higher purpose, the overview of your illumined service, the expansion and application of your particular gifts.  You’re not on this path of uniqueness alone, you have a team of helping spirits guiding and guarding you. 

All you do is journey and listen. Oh yes, and ask the right questions.

Honor your uniqueness

There are several obvious signs that you are actively exploring and expanding your unique gifts.  If you feel you’re “different”, that’s because you’re actively cultivating your own uniqueness. You know your gifts, you know your calling, you know how an idea fits into your life. You act upon the insights and inspiration that are constantly and actively being offered to you. 

When a new idea appears, you explore it, you take what resonates and make it your own.  You question everything.  If you’re drawn to something, you look closely to see why it calls to you and figure out unique ways to apply parts of it to your life. You seldom if ever take something in its entirety. There are always some questions, some adaptations, some exclusions. Being different means you shape things to fit your personal forward motion. 

When you’re different, you open new doors

Because you see things differently, you find new ways to do things, see things, say things.  Because you’re different, you walk a path that very few walk. Your unique journey inspires others to explore the facets you share that call to them.  Because you’re different, you’re open to unusual opportunities, you explore more broadly, more deeply. You try things out.  You try things on.  You pick and choose and tweak and adjust.  Until it fits your unique vision. 

We’re all different and unique. We’re each uniquely wonderful.  Some simply live more deeply in their uniqueness than others.  Some of us walk along the edges of the common path. Some of us wander off…  

Learn from those who are different

When you’re following your unique path, you develop different ways to cope, to live, to express yourself.  When you experience someone who’s different, look to understand what lessons in adaptation they offer. Notice what they’re not settling for.  Notice what they have and what they have not chosen to have, to utilize, to express. There are lessons in the looking.

Be the rock you are

Years ago, a friend told me I was a rock just as she was.  People depended on us.  I asked, “Who do rocks turn to for help?” Her reply: “Other rocks.”

When you’re different, you’re a stand-alone person and that means you need to be strong and self-sufficient. But you wouldn’t be called to express your uniqueness if you couldn’t do that.  Trust.  Trust yourself to make aligned choices.  Trust yourself to see the wisest path.  Trust yourself to – well – trust yourself! 

Listen for your different-ness

Many years ago, I made a choice that was so unusual for my time that no one understood it.  Nor did I.  I just knew the call was so strong it would not be denied.  I never questioned the calling.  I just took the step and it opened up my life in ways I’d never have imagined.  

Be brave, follow your inner wisdom

It takes courage to step off the beaten path. It takes stamina to keep going when you’re walking alone. It takes persistence to keep going when the trail gets narrow. 

But when the calling is deep, you simply follow.  You have no choice.  

Follow your own beat.  Follow your own heart.  Rejoice in being different!!!

To Sing a Deeper Song, consider:

What are the Foundation Stones Upon Which You Build Your Life

Unleash the Power of your Sacred Garden

Follow Your Personal Drumbeat

Do Things from the Soul 

How You See Yourself, You Are

How Do You Nurture Different?

How to Use Sound for Self-Healing

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How to Use Sound for Self-Healing

There are many ways we use sound – to heal, to communicate, to locate. Sound is a powerful tool for healing and wholing. 

Our innate inner vibration is one of wholeness.  Sound reminds us and connects us with that universal vibration.

Bringing rhythm or sound into a meditation, shamanic journey or ceremony moves us from our mental chatter into our serene inner vibration.  It opens the doors to our innermost realms and invites us to come exploring.  

Find your inner vibration of wholeness

Our minds fill our life with chatter – beliefs that may need to be changed, fears we may need to overcome, reactions and responses that jar our lives. Our body suit’s thoughts, beliefs and word choices come from the limitations of our human mind.  

When we seek to heal and balance, we’re actually tuning in to our innate vibration of wholeness. A powerful way to connect with our inner wholeness is through sound. Sound speaks of harmony and connection and oneness. It opens the doors to the inner realm and invites us to come exploring. You do that simply by listening to sound. 

The purpose of any healing/balancing session is to remember 

When we seek to heal and balance, we are providing the opportunity to remember and re-identify with our inner light, our inner being. 

Remember that you, we, are, all simply One Energy, One Light Energy, One Radiant Energy. When you set out to rebalance yourself or others, you’re putting light into the places that need healing. You’re using sound vibration to focus the energy of wholeness.

Begin with the wholing vibration of the breath

The fastest, easiest way to direct healing vibration is through your breath.  Take a deep breath.  Then let it go in a very slow, measured manner.  That simple step immediately relaxes and centers you.  Take another breath and create a vowel sound with the exhale.  See how that feels to you. 

Balancing breath work can be done anytime, anywhere.  When you’re rushing between tasks, take a moment to add some deep, slow, conscious breaths in order to change your inner rhythm. To calm down even further, hold the inhaled breath for a count of seven or so.  Then  s l o w l y  exhale. 

A simple breath can immediately relax and center you.

Expand the vibration of your voice

When you add your voice to your exhaled breath, use some syllable like “aum” (“ohm”). Experiment with tones, the vowel sounds of a,e,i,o,u…  Notice where they resonate in your body.  Use those sounds to direct the energy of your wholing breath.  

I have evolved my own power song that consists of only three tones with three different syllables. I sing it every day. Let your personal power song evolve and sing it to center and prepare yourself for meditation.

Use your breath to intone ohms to open and close your day.  Let that vibration move through your body and out into the invisible worlds, paving the way, open the doors, announcing your willingness to participate.  The sound you use is one of alignment.

Add a bit of rhythm

Rhythm adds a powerful dimension.  I took two bamboo pieces from a broken wind chime and I have a wonderful clacker sound that I use in my daily meditation work. You can make a rattle by putting popcorn in a spice jar or a paper cup. Look around you at what can create sound. Two spoons can create a rhythm, slapping your palms on a pillow or a table or your knee creates sound. Two acorns from your yard may make an intriguing sound. Explore your environment to discover what sounds already exist there and see what calls to you.   

Rhythm is like our heartbeat. Don’t structure it, let it emerge.  Your inner rhythm is waiting to share itself with you. 

I have discovered a pattern of six beats that send me immediately to my deepest self.  Six beats and I yawn and feel a deep connection to my inner world.  

As you begin to acquire sound instruments and bring them into your spiritual practice, take your time in getting to know them. Develop your own sound healing session. We are energy.  We are vibration. The sound that resonates, that calls to you, is the sound you should choose to use.  

Develop a melody  

You don’t have to be a singer to add a melody.  

In my daily ceremonial work, I drum and sing songs to the four directions.  I made up those songs over time. My words. My melody. I simply let them evolve.

I have a shamanic friend who whistles. Her power song is a whistled melody. 

Hum, sing, whistle, speak in rhythm. Make up your own songs as they call to you.

Allow your whole body to experience the sounds. Chant, sing, hum, dance, use rhythm and melody as catalysts for movement that stimulates your entire being. Move as slowly or as rapidly as the music invites you to do. 

Pick your sound-maker

Bring sound healing gently into your life.  I’m into sound healing and keep exploring new vibrations. I’ve discovered that I like the lasting resonance of chimes or bells and use a hand bell to begin my meditations. I drum every day. I have several rattles but use my Third Eye Rattle to bless the directions and move through my chakras each day.  I have added an ocarina to my healing sounds as I continue to explore the power of sound healing.

Here’s most of my sound collection.  See what calls to you.

The traditional way to begin a shamanic journey is with rhythm –  drumming and rattles.  It helps to move you into a state of receptivity.

RHYTHM

  • Djembe Drum Bongo Congo –  Wooden African Hand Drum – SIZE 16″ I use this small drum to drum down the sun each day.  It’s very portable. This video shows you how to play a much bigger djembe than the one I have.  See if drumming calls to you as a musical and/or ceremonial expression! 
  • Third Eye Rattle skin rattle filled with crystals. It is made by a shaman trained in rattle making who blessed it with ceremony while making it. I use this to bless my day, heal my chakras and in any ceremony I perform.
  • Conch shell rattle I’ve had for years.   Rattles are made from shells, goods, skin, ceramic. Find a sound that calls to you.
  • Original clay palm size rattle made for me by my shamanic practice partner. Sorry, she’s not in business yet. 
  • Rainstick  The sound of rain coming down. Powerful and soothing. I also have a long three-foot rain stick I got years ago.  It has an awesome sound. I use this as I would water in healing, to clear out and release and heal.

BELLS

  • Tibetan Hand Bell  Meditation & Prayer Bells / Dorje / Vajra – Medium I use this to begin each journey and to bless my day and even my computer so that it sends out good energy.
  • Cymbal  These make a long resonating tone.  I use them to bless my home and the surrounding area. 
  • Tibetan Singing Bowl – comes in many sizes. This is palm-sized.   A love its resonance that goes on and on.  Great to begin a meditation or to bring the day to a healing close.
  • Energy chime I’ve had a single energy chime for years but they also come in groups. Woodstock is the best chime maker. I strike it to announce to the unseen world that I am now in service for the day. 
  • Fairy Bells refers to small hanging bells. Mine are very old. They are part of my blessing for the world each day.
  • Woodstock xylophone. I’ve had one for years and there is a new version of it. Woodstock also has great wind chimes
  • Tuning Fork 432 mg.   I use my mallet from my energy gong on this and focus it on my chakras.
  • Wind Chimes. These come in many materials. and are a lovely connection to the flow of nature.

MELODY

  • Ocarina  I’ve had pendant ocarina on a necklace for years. I just got this:”Fores I’ve had pendant ocarina on a necklace for years. I just got this:”Forest Whisper” 12 Hole Ocarina Classic Straw-fire Masterpiece Collectible,alto C
  • Shulong Drum  rrecently ordered.  It has the sound of Tibetan Bowls and plays melodies. I don’t have this yet but I have heard one and am intrigued.
  • Your Voice.  Whether you hum, chant, sing, whistle, use your body to create healing sound.  Just listen and let it guide you.

If you’re starting with nothing, find something to rattle, something to drum and a bell/chime of some sort.  Explore the sounds they offer and find the type of sound-maker that calls to you. And don’t forget your voice as a powerful sound instrument.  Bring sound into your daily practice in some form

If you’re starting with nothing, find something to rattle, something to drum and a bell/chime of some sort.  Explore the sounds they offer and find the type of sound-maker that calls to you. And don’t forget your voice as a powerful sound instrument.  Bring sound into your daily practice in some form.

Talk to your sound healing helper

You can begin your sound healing practice with anything that makes a sound. Choose what calls to you.  Add them one at a time and experiment to see how they feel and where they resonate in your body.

When you find a sound that calls to you, meditate with the sound-maker you have and ask how it would like to serve at this particular time in your life/practice.  In what way is it to be used?  To what purpose?  Talk to your chosen sound object.  It’ll talk back to you.

Put sound healing to work

In your sound healing you’re focusing the sound of wholeness, of oneness, and whatever is around it will come into gradual alignment with that vibration. 

Notice, too, where the vibration resonates in your own body. Make a sound with one of your sound healing choices and feel what part of your body responds. Notice how your chakra system responses to each sound. Sounds talk to you when you listen.

Use sound to honor the elements

Use sound to create a blessing. The songs I sing to the directions are about the qualities I see in those elements.  For me Fire (East) is about passion and creativity, Earth (South) unfolding and coming with nature, Water (West) deep listening and Air (North) is about spirituality, and, for me, creativity.  Explore the elements and define their meanings for yourself. 

Use sound to bless the world

I stroke my fairy bells and shake my conch shell rattle and ask the tree messenger outside my window to send my blessings to the earth from tree to tree throughout the world. 

Use sound to begin meditation or a shamanic journey

The traditional way to begin a journey is through drumming or rattling.  The sound changes your brain waves into a more receptive state. I happen to channel my journeys right into my computer (I just tune in and type) and I use my Tibetan Handbell to center and focus myself, allowing the vibration to resonate all through me. 

Use sound to bless the past, present and future

Because my Tibetan Bowl is small, I make a fist and set the bowl on the circle made by my thumb and first finger.  Then I take the wooden ringer and gently place it against the side and begin to circle the rim. The sound builds and when I stop stroking it, the lovely vibration continues. I do this three times with the intention of healing the past, the present and the future.  Create whatever message calls to you. 

Use sound to release

I have a three-foot long rainstick I got years ago. And probably because it has the sound of water, I use that sound to rinse out and release whatever I no longer need.  Again, I seem to do it three times, release, restore, revive. It’s your ceremony, follow your intuition. 

Use sound to balance your body

The 432 mg tuning fork is said to be the frequency of the universe. I only have one tuning fork, and I use the wooden mallet from my energy gong to strike it although the instructions are to tap it with the base of the hand.  It has a lasting resonance and I stroke the energy field of my body with it. 

Use sound to balance your chakras

I use my third eye rattle to rattle a sound pattern to each of my chakras.  I happen to use the same rhythm for each but I’m certain if I explore, each chakra will ask for a different rhythm.  Talk to your sound instrument of choice and let it guide you. 

Follow your intuition

As you organically heal and balance you’ll be drawn to different vibrations.  Notice and honor those times you are to change the form of your sound healing/wholing.  Let your intuition guide you to the next sound instrument you are to use or the change in rhythm you are to explore next. 

Use sound throughout your day

One of the most powerful gifts of sound is the invitation to simply listen.  Stop right now and listen.  Listen to the silence.  Listen to nature. 

Use your sound healing instruments as they call to you.  I use most of mine to begin my day.  I use some to end the day.  Sound is a powerful balancer and healer and would be a powerful addition to your life. 

Use sound to deepen your mindfulness. When you sit in silence, for meditation or mindfulness, use your breath to chant ohms.  Let that vibration move through all of you and out into the invisible world, paving the way, open the doors, announcing your willingness to participate.

Use sound to release. As you listen to a sound fade away, let go of limiting beliefs, old habits and old patterns that no longer serve.  Feel them disappear as the sound fades.

Use sound as closure. Drum down the setting sun to close the day.  Pick a sound to celebrate the moon.  Or the sun.  Or life.  Use sound to deepen your own vibration. 

Make this evening ceremony one of releasing – of releasing limiting beliefs, old habits that no longer serve, old patterns.

For ending my day I like to see my personal ceremony as three parts: 1) Release, as in let go and clear out all that no longer serves you. 2) Repair or restore what needs fixing and 3) Replenish, accept the flow of wholing light energy to fill you and bring you into balance.

This can be as simple as three focusing breaths, it can be a song of intention you sing, it can be done with the sound instrument of your choice.  The intention is simply to release, repair and replenish.

Listen to nature. The vibrations of nature speak of harmony and connection and oneness. Sit in nature and listen to the richness and variety of the sound of our wonderful earth home. Let those sounds heal and balance you. 

Become aware of sound throughout your day.

Your need for certain tones will change

As balance occurs, you may be drawn to different forms of sound healing. Your skill at one instrument or another may be a factor. Rhythm instruments resonate with me.  I’m not as skilled on wind instruments, but I think they’re lovely. And the ongoing vibration of chimes is very balancing. As you experiment with sound, notice which form touches your soul and work more with that. Keep experimenting with what you use and how you use it.

Absorb the resonating healing power of sound

Sound sends a message to your body suit – get in harmony, you guys! Blend your voices, make this composition richer and deeper and let its vibration touch more hearts.  

Remember you, it, we, are all simply one energy, light energy, radiant energy.  So in that respect, you are putting light into a person’s body, a balance of light that’s created by vibration. When our cells, our bodies, beings are aligned with Source, we experience our wholeness, our oneness, our nothingness

Allow the power of sound to resonate with your spiritual heart and feel the blessing from the All That Is. Feel loved.  Feel appreciated. Let it stroke you and cover you like a warm protective cloak. Sound is the vibration of Source. 

To Sing a Deeper Song, consider:

Unleash the power of your Sacred Garden

Do Things from the Soul 

How Effective Is Your Spiritual Practice? 

Follow Your Personal Drumbeat

Discover Your Spiritual Heart 

How Your Spiritual Life Changes You

How You See Yourself, You Are

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How You See Yourself, You Are

We create our life experience through our beliefs – in what’s possible – in what we deserve.  If you want to change your life, the only place to begin is within.  What do you think is possible?  What do you think you deserve? 

We each need to identify and get rid of our limiting beliefs.

Society helps dictate our views

We’re conditioned to see ourselves the way society sees us.  When I was young, females did not go to college and were expected to get married and care for families.  (I was born in 1932.)  Out of my freshman class at Hollins University, only two of us went on to have careers and mine was only after I had married, had children and been divorced.  The rest got married and managed their families as they were conditioned to do. 

My mother saw to it that I went to college and got my Bachelor’s degree. And as a young mother of four in her forties, I went back to college and got my Master’s degree.  We need to follow our calling and do what we need to do rather than adhere to any pre-existing mold. 

What’s expected of us influences how we see ourselves.  And only we can change that.  

As a young married woman, I happened to find myself in charge of running a tennis tournament at our Country Club.  A friend, a man, a business person, complimented me profusely on how well run it was.  He was truly impressed.  I don’t know whether it was because I proved myself to be a good organizer or because I was a woman who was capable of organizing that surprised him. Perhaps a bit of both.  Men didn’t expect much of women in those days.

I absorbed and cherished that compliment because at the time I thought he knew more than I did just because he was a man and he was in business.  It was only years later that I figured out that being a man in business doesn’t make you smarter or more capable than a woman who is not in business. How influenced we are by the prevailing belief systems of our times!

As my life progressed, I understood that I am a naturally outstanding organizer.  But back then, I didn’t know that about myself. I didn’t believe that about myself.

Look carefully at the gifts you’ve been given.  Look carefully at what you believe you’re capable of accomplishing.  Raise that expectation.  It’ll change your life. 

A barrier has been broken

We had the woman’s movement in the late 60’s.  We’ve had the slow but gradual rise of women to leadership positions formerly held only by men.  We now have more women going into the technical world. We have a movement for equal pay for equal work. And we have a very strong movement with serious consequences for sexual harassment. Things are changing. The bar has been raised and we are meeting it.

Years ago, I worked for a small company and we had a flood that impacted me and others.  My boss commented on how hard it was on one of the drivers, “because he has a family to support.”  I was standing before him, a woman in her forties who was raising her grandchild by herself. He was so blind to the value of women he couldn’t see that I was affected for the same reason.

You see what you look for. You see what you believe. 

The rise of the feminine is in progress and it’s changing the world.  It has only just begun. The more we believe in ourselves, men or women, the more doors will be flung open to welcome us. 

What do you think is possible?

How do you see your life unfolding?  What vision do you hold for your future? Do you see yourself as a CEO if you want to be one?  Can you see yourself as a creative entrepreneur who changes the world?  Do you see yourself earning the same as the male who holds your same position?  Do you see yourself with an equal opportunity to gain a promotion? Do you see yourself as a deserving person who is effective and powerful?  

It’s possible that all of those images you hold of yourself need some work because they haven’t yet been part of your experience.  And deep down, you don’t believe they can happen.  We need to change our expectations – for ourselves, and for others. 

Work around the limitations

Life changes and we need to continuously make adjustments.  There are things I can no longer do physically because I’m old, and there are also things I no longer want to do because I’m old.

For instance, as my eyesight is changing, I now read digital books with enlarged print. I’ve yet to explore audiobooks. I no longer travel but I watch PBS and the Nature Channel and Nova and Ancient Aliens and Mysteries at the Museum.  

I take courses online.  I actively deepen my study of shamanism and have a fellow shamanistic practitioner with whom I speak weekly on Skype. Those exchanges keep us both moving forward on our shared path.  I write daily to figure things out and share a lot of what I discover.  I send wholing energy to the well-being of the world. 

And I sit here in my apartment to do it all.  But from this vantage point, I can learn anything I want to and exchange ideas with anyone in the world. 

There are no longer limitations – except in what we believe is possible for us to accomplish. We can create an alternate version of everything and anything in order to accommodate our changing lives.  

Honor and believe in your own gifts

I have a vision of a woman president and women holding the majority of seats in both houses of Congress. And I’ve given thought to how that will change the interactions in our government.  The timing and extent of the emergence of that vision will depend on how women continue to see themselves. And what actions we take. This transition also has a great deal to do with our age.  Young women of today expect more of themselves.  Nothing is beyond their reach.

But older women are different. 

I have a conservative friend who simply votes the way her husband tells her to.  And she’s half my age. 

There are older women, who because of their upbringing, don’t think women are capable of running things, like our government. They won’t vote for women because of that.  They don’t see themselves as capable, so how can other women be? 

But that’s changing with the new generations.

Our opportunities come from how we see ourselves 

Part of the repositioning process for each of us is simply one of gradually and organically being replaced by younger people with different experiences and expectations.  As the older generation leaves the planet, their male-dominated, woman-demeaning ideas will also leave with them. 

And life as we know it will begin to change – again. Still.  More. 

It already has changed.  The younger generations are defining themselves very differently than we did/do.

What can you do now?

While we wait for natural evolution to take place, we can make powerful changes within ourselves.  How do you see yourself?  As a woman, what do you think is possible for you?  As a man, what do you think is possible for you, your daughters and your wife? 

We all have to question our view of the role of women in the world. And men also need to question how they see their own potential and possibilities. 

Change begins within yourself

Look closely at how you view yourself if you are female, at how you view females if you’re a man. Question the roles you think males and females should hold.  Question the vision you hold for yourself.  Is it big enough?  Broad enough?  Deep enough? Question everything you think.  Where did that belief come from?  Is it truly what you want to believe today?

As we watch women become racing-car drivers and boxers and soldiers, our worldview of the feminine changes.  For the most part, we see women following a masculine image.  What does it look like when women are in charge? How will their approach to problem solving and leadership change our world?

Women are learning to be in charge and have some adjustments to make. 

As women become more prominent in the governing of the world, in business and politics, the arts, we have to learn to do it our way, and not do a “feminine version” of the masculine way. 

I have no real idea of what that would look like but there would be a more inclusive approach to decision making.  There would be a gender-neutral way to look at skills and talents and there would be mutual support – when we stop trying to emulate the male view of needing to compete. 

It’s not my generation that will do this. And perhaps not yours.  But if you know of a young woman who is testing her wings, be the air of support for her.  Encourage her, help her believe in herself.  Make certain she knows she can do whatever she wants to do and make a huge difference in our world with the unique gifts she has to give. 

Can you and I, at our age, do that too? Fly higher? Any shift we make will have an impact on our own lives and in the lives of those around us.  I’m trying to stay self-sufficient in my eighties. I’m defying the accepted view of an old person by studying and learning and writing and participating, and am loving every minute of it. 

Look closely at what you think is possible

No, I’m not going to run any races or even travel, but I sure can use Skype to interact with and learn from people all around the world.  

I also have the conceit to feel that after all these years of living my life and accumulating lessons and wisdom, it’s my responsibility, my calling, my duty, to serve as a wise elder and teach what I know to whoever wants/needs to learn from me. 

I am to pass on my wisdom but in a manner that allows others to take what they need from it and freely adapt it to the circumstances they find themselves in.  It’s not “do it this way.”  It’s “here’s what I’ve learned, take what works best for you.”

And know that the young people of today have a different set of challenges than we did and some of their lessons will be quite different. 

What you believe you deserve and what you believe is possible determine your life experience. 

Question your beliefs, particularly about what’s possible for you.  Know that you deserve the very best.  Don’t settle for second best.  Expect more of yourself.  Work until you achieve it!  

How do you see yourself?

A check in my mirror might reflect an old woman who stoops a bit. But her hair is still brown with only random strands of grey and her eyes are intelligent and inquisitive.   

From here inside myself, I see and feel an intelligent, curious, creative, deeply spiritual explorer who connives to be excited about what she learns and discovers. 

Are you looking at your external reflection or are you looking at what’s inside?

How do you see yourself?  Pay attention to your inner image and live up to all you know you can be. 

Related explorations from Our Luminous Legacy

How to be Nothing

Live in the Center of Your Being

What are the Foundation Stones Upon Which You Build Your Life?

Discover Your Spiritual Heart

Join the Circle of Light Beings 

Do You have the Willingness to find Common Ground?

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Do You have the Willingness to find Common Ground?

There were great articles on where and how to create peace in The Shift Network newsletter.  I didn’t read them.  I couldn’t read them because…I don’t know.  I didn’t want to read about people doing cruel things to each other or systematically destroying our planet.  I feel helpless in the midst of the current chaos and friction in the world and, well, I don’t think I am really willing to compromise. And compromise we must in order to find the common ground that will bring us peaceful coexistence. 

I don’t even want to be around people who are slightly angry – their negative energy physically hurts my body.  So I avoid conflict.  I avoid disgruntled people. I avoid anger.

But that isn’t going to really make things better.  I have to participate. I have to compromise. I have to find common ground. 

We are all totally interconnected

My action here affects your life there.  If we both don’t raise our consciousness, we will neither one improve our level of participation, our level of life experience.  

For instance, if I am not consciously recycling trash, it may end up in the ocean affecting the fish you need to catch to feed your family. 

We each have different priorities, but we’re all connected. 

Can we have one core focus?

When we each decide that our primary concern/focus is sustaining our planet for ourselves, for our children, for our descendants, then we immediately identify specific steps to take. No pesticides. No GMO. More organic food production, no plastic wraps for food, positive emission steps to help slow climate change.  When we think of our future, our consciousness shifts and we make different choices. 

If you and I lived in a community built around a central garden that provides all our food, we would each do our best to make it the best, most productive garden we could.  We might try different methods.  And we would probably have an argument over organic versus genetically modified.  And I bet it would be an animated conversation, depending on what we each thought was more important – quantity or quality.  

We need to find common values

Let’s say everyone in our small community that has gathered around this one garden primarily wants to be healthy.  Finding common ground, common values is where you begin. But do you know how many versions of how to be healthy there will be?  One for each of us. 

An important awareness we must each develop is to know that we’re free to do what’s best for us according to our own knowledge and understanding – as long as it only affects us.  

As long as it only affects us.  So you really can’t put pesticides out anywhere near my organic vegetables because they will drift over to my plants and I won’t eat any of your genetically modified produce.  We have to grow our own food separately because our viewpoints are so opposing.  And yet our fundamental, common goal is the same.  Feed ourselves and our families. We simply have different ideas on how to make that happen.

I’m not going to change and you’re not going to change because our beliefs are very, very strong and it’s our survival we’re talking about, what we eat.  

That’s both a terrible example and a good example.  I’m a vegan so I have lots of strong feelings about what I eat.  But it does highlight just how core our opposing viewpoints can be and how difficult it can be to find common ground.

Fortunately, in today’s world, you can buy what you want and I can buy what I want.  Although here we go again, pesticides are killing the bumblebees and genetically modified food puts the entire food chain at risk of being totally eradicated because it is not diverse and if it goes, our entire food supply will go. 

Learn the facts

If you never thought about what’ll happen if all crops were genetically modified, it might be good to do some online research. Who is pushing for it (one chemical company) and what are the repercussions? One new blight, one adverse organism could wipe out our entire food supply.  

The dying, pesticide-poisoned bumblebee population is important to remedy because they are necessary for the cross-pollination of our crops.  Before we dig our heals in on a particular position we owe it to ourselves and to our world to educate ourselves about the degree of repercussions our choice would/could make.  We need to keep up with the latest discoveries, the new solutions, and be open to changing our views. The old way is obsolete nearly as fast as we figure it out. Change is a constant and we absolutely must be willing to keep up with it.

Live and let live only goes so far

We don’t live on the planet alone.  Every action we take affects everything, everyone. We must learn to live as globally conscious, flexible, innovative members of a planetary community.  I have no idea how to get everyone to do that.  I can see how a group of like-minded people would choose to live around a cooperative organic garden.  But what about the rest of the people in their community?  If they are doing things we see as destructive to our planet, what do we do?

We each have to give up something

We have to find common ground.  We will each have to compromise, give a little.  Maybe give way a lot.

But wait.  If I mess up my food source, I’ll die. That’s pretty basic.  I can see a “live and let live” approach to a lot of things – free choice about a lot of things – until it infringes on my clean air, my organic garden, my fresh water.  Then I dig in and refuse to budge.  That’s my survival that’s being messed with. 

If I were starving, I’d eat pretty much anything.  But we don’t have to get to the starving stage to find agreement. 

It’s when we come together to build something that conflict arises because compromise must be the core of collaboration. 

Let’s say we, in our community of both organic and non-organic believers, come together to organize and expand our town. 

First, we have to decide between short term and long-term planning. What is our over-arching goal?  Then we have to examine the repercussions. Everything is tied to everything else, so if I pull a string here, something unravels or tangles up over there.  Are we exchanging one knot for another?  What is best for the highest good?  How does filling this need now impact our children’s lives?

The first step is to agree on our over-arching purpose 

What is our over-arching purpose for this planet?  Survival would probably get everyone’s vote.  How we do that starts the discussion and referee the arguments. We may have to compromise because of cost.  We may have to prioritize because of pressing need.  We may have to forgo immediate results in order to take active foundational steps because they create positive long-term results.  We have to see the overview and hold it in front of us as we plan. We have to see the connection, how this move here will affect that situation over there. And we have to hold the same primary goal and keep moving toward our agreed upon end goal as we move forward together. 

Oh yes, and we all have to be flexible as the movement unfolds. We have to make adjustments for new discoveries, and new entanglements. 

So I’m going to join with other organic gardeners and have a plot to grow my food.  I’ll share some of my organic produce with those who have made other choices.  I may or may not point out how much healthier and stronger those of us who eat organic are, but maybe that will simply become noticeable.  That gradual awareness may cause others to make more conscious choices for their own well-being. 

That works unless I am forced to eat genetically modified food with pesticides on it.  

Then we’re back to core conflict.  

We must each learn to see the overview

If you’re in survival mode only, you can’t raise your gaze to see the long-term.  You don’t see the water table lowering or the seas rising or the glaciers melting. You can’t look that far beyond today’s survival. Therefore, you can’t or won’t be able to see how your actions of today affect the future.  Your focus is on the ground before you, one foot of survival at a time. 

But those of us who can see the overview must take steps to protect us all.  We can begin to do that by example.  If an organic diet makes us live longer, then others will see it.  If I carry my cloth grocery bag to the grocery store, others will see it and may think to carry their own.  If I’m very careful to recycle what I can, perhaps I need to offer to carry my neighbor’s recycling out for her to make certain it’s done.  

What can you offer to do for someone else that moves the world a little closer to wellness?

I can network.  I can tell my neighbors that when I order my groceries delivered, the drivers will take the plastic bags from the last delivery back and the store ships them to a special place for reprocessing.  They may not know that.  They may not choose to do that.  But I have passed forward the information of some positive, environmentally supportive choices they can make.

Raise your consciousness and the consciousness of others

I didn’t know the water table in Cape Town, South Africa, was so low it was at crisis level until I watched a PBS news report, which also informed me that California has a similar water table problem. I have no idea how a water table works or how to protect one. I’m in the mid-west so I’m not certain what I can do about either of those particular problems, but I can educate myself to figure out what that means and how my community is caring for our water table.  

If it turns out we need to make changes, I could go so far as to report what I find to the local government.  Maybe I have to do some educating.  And find like-minded people who are concerned. And be pro-active in helping to find a solution.

We cannot just sit around and let it happen to us

Many people will do nothing.  It’s simply not in their nature.  They’ll accept whatever shows up.  Others may find one particular cause, like animals that are nearing extinction, and donate money or join groups who are being pro-active in saving public lands. 

Whatever you’re called to do to preserve our planet, do it.  Make it a positive participation. Make certain it moves the cause forward.  Even if it’s in your small corner of the world.  Let others know what you found. Give them the information they need to make informed and more pro-active choices. 

Raise your sights. Raise your values. Be an influencer

Do not settle.  Be an influencer.  Make others aware of their choices and the repercussions of their actions through education and actions.  Don’t force.  Just do. Be an example. Raise the level of consciousness in your corner of the world and when you look up, you’ll find there are others around the world doing the same.  Meet each other’s gaze and keep going. 

FOR DEEPER EXPLORATION

How Modern Mysticism Will Save the World 

Live in the Center of Your Being

What Is The Foundation StonesUpon Which You Build Your Life?  

We Are Responsible 

One Powerful Way to Change Our Future 

The Path of Supportive Service

By

The Path of Supportive Service

We help others by simply walking beside them in supportive service.  

We don’t push.  We don’t pull. We don’t tell them what to do.  We simply walk beside them in service. Supportive service.  Loving service. Loyal service.  

We do it for others.  Others do it for us. 

We move gently into their life and match their steps.  

We may shine a light here and there to highlight possibilities, but mostly we walk in loving support beside them as they move through their own journey.

It’s an interesting feeling for me to know that I don’t walk beside you as a teacher or a leader.  I’m simply here to support.  And shine a little light along our shared pathway. 

I see myself on a path.  It’s not a particularly steep path, but it’s heading steadily upward.  

At this point in human time, I have two people with whom I’m actively interacting as we walk along together. We’re going in the same direction, but we are taking separate journeys. 

That’s as it should be.

I’m also walking beside others through my writing, even if I’m not always in direct interaction with them. 

I know that just as I find support and inspiration and motivation from other people whose work I read, we never know how the waves we send out impact others. 

Support by listening

For me, the greater service my two walking-beside-me-in-service partners give is to provide a space for me to share my excitement over what I discover and what I learn. They’re strong sounding boards and reflective mirrors. In that sense, we teach each other because we’re going more or less in the same direction, but we each have chosen a distinctive pathway. 

We listen well.  We exchange ideas with enthusiasm.  We give informed feedback and encouragement. Sometimes the gift is an idea we pick up from the other person that they’ve chosen to put in place themselves.  Listening is learning.   As we share our experiences and our response and interpretation of our own journey, we each expand our awareness – of self and of possibilities. 

Because my path is so focused on deepening my own spiritual understanding, for me the most important aspect of walking beside someone in service is that we’re at similar levels of interest and accomplishment along our path.  We can understand each other at the deepest levels of our journeys.

It has occurred to me, in writing this, that you are the third person I’m walking beside in service. You, who read what I write and sometimes offer comments.  Thank you for your thoughtful steps beside me. Thank you for sharing in my journey.

We follow our heart when we select who to walk beside in service. It’s always an exchange.  We both give and receive as we move along our journey. 

Support by mirroring

One of my walk-beside partners is very detailed.  I’m at the other end of the spectrum.  I grab an idea and run with it.  She holds it and studies and absorbs it.  Both are perfectly appropriate ways of learning but it was important for both of us to see and honor each other’s learning styles.  She helps me be willing to be a little more detailed – I help her be a little more experimental. 

Support by reflecting

One of my partners is a fellow shamanic practitioner.  We’re both exploring how we want to fit that incredible work into our lives, for ourselves and for assisting others.  She wants an active in-person shamanic practice. I want to primarily use the journey work to explore and write about what I discover and show others how to apply journeying for their own self-awareness. Two different objectives.  One shared path.

We practice on each other.  We reflect back to each other.  We learn from each other. We talk on Skype every week. 

Learn from their path

The other major person I’m walking beside in service is also a healer, but her path is different from mine.  She’s exploring things I never even thought about and some of my experiences in my shamanic explorations expand her knowledge. We have broad-ranging conversations as we walk alongside each other.

As you walk beside someone in illumined service, there’s an exchange.  You learn from each other as you also support each other’s journey.

Learn from helping

I’ve just begun to walk beside someone else in service.  She wants to learn shamanism.  As I prepare an outline for the guidance I want to offer, my own knowledge deepens and expands. Her questions and needs and interests will guide our journey together. 

Helping her helps me clarify how I want to be in service on a broader scale.  The words I want to write. The insights I want to offer.   You learn from the person you’re walking beside even as you’re the one doing the supportive walking.

There are people you serve you don’t know

Here’s the unmeasurable one. Our presence has a ripple effect. Our work has a ripple effect.  My work with the people I’m actively walking beside supports them and helps them expand their reach. I can see the movement that comes from our exchanges.  But through these people, I’m also in service to others I do not know in places I cannot see, as they expand their own reach into their world.

I also am aware that I’m walking on a planetary-wide path with people I do not know.  But I know our purpose.  I know our direction.  We are Illumined Explorers expressing our spirit-directed living and we are moving through the world to tap on the shoulders of receptive people.  As we shine our light, others see it and recognize the light in themselves, and they join in to help raise the collective consciousness. It’s very inclusive, impactful work for the wellbeing of our planet.

It’s trickier for me to gauge the impact of my own written offerings.  I occasionally get emails that indicate that a particular post has touched a life.  And I know there’s a consistent number of “opens” on my weekly posts.  But I have no idea what my work prompts each reader to turn around and give their world. And I never will. I have to trust and keep shining my light their way.  So that’s what I keep doing. 

You walk beside someone in service with every exchange

I live in a senior community in the conservative Mid-West and with my metaphysical interests, there’s no one here I can talk to about them.  But my mere presence is part of my service.  My persona, my participation, my appreciation for the opportunity to interact, those are all ways I walk beside them in service.  Your mere presence is a light that shines upon the path. We must be conscious of everything we offer the world, even by simply being present.

Point out the possibilities

If you picture yourself walking along a path beside someone, you may periodically shine your light on other possible paths to explore.  They may take one detour. You may explore another.  When you continue on the main path together, you each have new insights to share from your separate side journeys.

Help them over the high places

When we walk beside someone in service we help each other over the high places – and the low places. That’s simply the nature of walking along the same path. We’re supportive of our respective journeys.

Appreciate their light upon your path

Not everyone is going to think of their personal journey as shining their light upon the path of another.  Perhaps as you walk beside someone, you tell them how much their light means to you.  Perhaps you even find ways you both might shine your lights in other directions.  Stay aware.  Keep on the lookout and respond to the opportunities that appear. 

What does it feel like to walk beside someone in service?

Look at your life.  Who are you walking beside?  Who is walking beside you?  Some may be walking more closely to you, some may be nearby but at different points on the journey. Some may be willing to take that interesting detour with you. Others may not. 

Simply shine your light brighter.  Expand your beam. Draw in more people. And keep walking.

FOR DEEPER EXPLORATION:

Live in the Center of your being

What Is The Foundation Upon Which You Build Your Life?

Discover Your Spiritual Heart

How Effective Is Your Spiritual Practice? 

One Powerful Way to Change Our Future 

If You Are A Rock – Who Supports You?

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