Enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path.

Where there is a way or path, it is someone else’s path.

You are not on your own path.

You are not going to realize your potential.

Joseph Campbell

Our life stories are mostly composed of our accounts of how we fulfilled our family’s or our community’s expectations, i.e. the “Thou Shalt”. I know that this is true of mine. We probably had dreams or fantasies as little kids about what we’d be and do when we grew up. These were often judged as just that – fantasies – impractical for a ‘real life in the trenches.

We can’t discount the role the ole demon ‘fear’ plays in our decisions to follow our head over our heart’s calling. Our physical survival comes first in our life here on earth. If we fear excommunication from our ‘tribe’ if they don’t approve our heart path, we are not likely to follow that calling. It takes phenomenal courage to buck the system and do your own thing.

Some brave souls have a strong inner knowing that if they don’t follow their heart they will shrivel up and probably die. Because they have this intense fire in the belly, they are able to ‘go for it’. But what if we don’t have that all consuming fire within? What if we just have a candle? It needs to be protected from criticism, rejection and ultimate extinction. The way we protect our little light is by going along to get along with the status quo. We don’t make waves or buck the system. We hope our heart light won’t burn out before we find a way to follow its lead.

A second hindrance to finding our path is the fast pace and 24/7 distractions we face every day. Few have time to even explore what their true passion or heart calling may be. It’s easy to be discouraged; and we may give up and join another’s path because it’s just easier. This works for awhile as it can keep the inner and outer wolves at bay.

If we avoid searching for our own heart’s desire for too long, our light can go out for lack of oxygen. That is what happened to me. I didn’t know that feeling out of joint, anxious and frustrated were signs that I was out of alignment with my heart and life’s purpose. We’re told that if we just do more, work more, pray more, make love more, diet more, spend more that we will feel great and the angst will go away. Well, it didn’t work even though I gave it several decades.

Thankfully many in our world have started to wake up and realize that we are human Beings and not just human Doings. We need to know we are not just okay, but each one of us is great just because we exist. We are known for how well we love one another, not by how many tasks we’ve completed. As they say, no one on their death bed wished they had worked more. Human beings need to feel fulfillment in what we do. We need a path with heart.

There should be courses in grade school and high school that help students discover their unique life purpose so they can choose their path with heart. They don’t need to spend decades blindly testing heartless paths. Instead of money being the ultimate goal, fulfillment sould be the prize. Our culture has a way to go in this department because money is still our god, but we’re getting better. More and more of us are unplugging from the ‘wheel of fortune’ and realizing the real treasure is inside ourselves and others.

When any of us is plugged into our passion and being our authentic selves we radiate a very bright light which elevates and enlightens everyone we are in contact with. Whatever we’re doing for a living flows more easily when we are on the path with heart. We no longer feel like we’re pushing the river. I had to push the river for many years because I didn’t know I had permission to just go with the flow. Don’t wait as long as I did. Listen to your heart and know that is all the permission you need.

                Our living planet is demonstrating how it also lives its life inside out. Everything that is alive is continuously changing. Each of our trillions of cells changes every nano second. Mother Earth is no different. We tend to forget that part. If the normal stress and pressure build up and isn’t able to vent in small ways, earth makes a quantum shift to restore balance, which is what we’ve seen in the horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
There is a way to view this and other major catastrophes in order to learn some valuable life lessons. It feels as though everything on earth as well as in earth is being turned inside out. And it is. It is a universal creation pattern of life, death and rebirth. It is occurring constantly. We just don’t see it on such an immense scale as we have in Japan.

Solar flares are increasing affecting the electro-magnetic field on a planetary level as well as on an individual level. All life is electro-magnetic and resonates to the vibrations of the earth as well as the solar system. Our position in the Milky Way Galaxy also affects the electro-magnetic/chemical balance of man and earth. If we live in such a way that we are oblivious to these realities we will feel victimized by earth’s changes, as well as our own individual physical changes. If, on the other hand, we recognize that our bodies and earth are constantly seeking balance of all systems, then we can work with those changes by discerning what areas need to be balanced.
We have earthquakes, physically and emotionally also. I’ve been known to have a couple Mt. Vesuvius volcano experiences as well. Stress builds and builds until the container of all that energy can’t hold it any longer and it lets go. In many instances our explosions cause devastation that can never be repaired, as in Japan. If the stress can be released incrementally over time in a controlled manner, then major disaster can be averted. But when it is continually suppressed and ignored, it festers into crisis.

Earth is demonstrating that powerful pressure held inside must be addressed and brought to the outside before it explodes into unmanageable chaos. We hold fiery anger and resentments within to the point of exploding. It isn’t always visible on the outside, but major adjustments are being made inside and show up as organ failure, cancer, arthritis, etc. Our biography becomes our biology.

The other lesson to be learned from Earth is that nothing can live unless something else dies. We stay alive by eating life. Without the life giving food from Earth’s body we wouldn’t exist. Everything is moving in cycles of life, death and rebirth. In reality nothing is actually dying, or ceasing to exist. Energy cannot die. It just changes form. So the food we eat dies to its current form to become reborn as living tissue and blood in our bodies. Plants give us oxygen so we can live, and we expel carbon dioxide so they can live. What is death to us is life to them.
Earth has demonstrated to us that it is a living planet with fiery magma inside that erupts to create continents for human, plant and animal life to inhabit. We know which parts of her surface are likely to shift in earthquakes or volcanoes so we can choose to avoid them. The process of life, death, rebirth isn’t going to change just because we want it to or think it should.
Unlike plant life human beings choose how and where to live. We fall into hubris by thinking because we are special these types of disasters won’t happen to us. Or we simply act like the ostrich and put our head in the sand. The wiser choice is to acknowledge the universal process going on inside Earth and ourselves so we can flow with it instead of against it.
Living inside out incrementally is best. We prevent major upheavals by transforming negative energy to positive energy as it rises up within us. It may seem dark and deadly, but it holds the stuff of life within it. The old must die to birth the new.

           Expectations are the cause of most of the best and worst experiences of our lives. We can’t live without them. We expect the sun to rise in the morning, the Earth to keep spinning, our hearts to keep beating. These are the thoughtless expectations that run in the background of our minds. But we also need expectations to motivate and inspire us to live a full life.

            Many of us put up with sorrow and strife in this life because we expect we will go to a perfect and wonderful Heaven when we leave here. Could we endure the pain without the promise of Heaven? Many do. They expect tomorrow will be as good as or better than today simply because they feel happier doing so. Denis Waitley, a renowned motivational speaker, author and coach of Olympic athletes says, “Our limitations and success will be based, most often, on our own expectations for ourselves. What the mind dwells upon, the body acts upon.”

          Having great expectations for oneself is generally a good idea. However it must be based in reality. And this is where the greatest problem lies with expectations. As humans we are wired to expect more and better of everything and everyone all the time. It started with Adam and Eve. They had the perfection; and yet, when presented with an option to try for something more perfect, they let go of Paradise for an elusive promise of more. 

                We think that if we were in their place we would not make such a silly mistake. But, we are and we do every day.  “Good is not good, when better is expected.”  Thomas Fuller

We fall in the unconscious trap of expecting better in the future and miss the good in the now. In our Western civilization we have been programmed to be human doings who think we will self-destruct if we stop doing. This means we stay chained to the treadmill running in place like Alice with the Queen of Hearts. When Alice asks where they are running to the Queen tells her it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they keep running. Whew!

            We are not human Do-ings. We are human Be-ings. When was the last time you thought about expecting yourself to be a more peaceful, loving person? Most likely your expectations for yourself have been on doing more or achieving some goal. Then because we are so focused on what is outside of us, we end up expecting others to act according to our expectations. These expectations are usually based on others helping us achieve our goals in some form or fashion.

            You know what I’m going to say next. Ninety-nine percent of the time our expectations for others fails miserably. Friends, family, co-workers never fail to disappoint us. I love this quote: “Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.”  Dennis Wholey

        That more or less says it all. Others believe they are treating you fairly because they have their expectations of you which are banging up against your expectations of them. This is a lose-lose situation because neither party is expressing these expectations to the other. They assume the other is on the same page and is choosing to be obstinate or contrary or clueless. Humanity has been on this treadmill going nowhere for millennia. It is about time we woke up and jumped off the damn thing!

            Great expectations of anyone other than ourselves is a sure path to relationship meltdown, whether personal or professional. It is the cause of most anger, depression and suffering in general. As the Dalai Lama says, “I am open to the guidance of synchronicity, and do not let expectations hinder my path.” Synchronicity is the spontaneous coincidences that occur that bring unlimited joy into our lives if we are present and not blinded by expectations. Steven Hawking says, “When ones expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.” It opens our eyes to realize we are in Paradise. “The best things in life are unexpected – because there were no expectations.”  Eli Khamarov

I just had the most fantastic revelation (or illusion some may say). Someone on the radio said that when she was born in 1933 there were only 2 billion people on the whole planet. Now in 2009 there are almost 7 billion. That is an increase of 5 billion souls in less than 80 years! Quite an incredible growth curve by anyone’s standards, don’t you think?

Then I got to wondering why so many people are here now. I’ve always been asking ‘Why?’ since I was a toddler. I believe that we incarnate consciously for a purpose that our soul understands, but we seldom do. Is it possible that the prophesies of the Mayans, Hopis, Revelations, Nostradamus, etc. are true and that we are fast approaching a massive change on planet Earth around 2012? Could this be act three of the human play? Is this why everyone whose ever lived here decided to come back for the finale?

Well….I feel this is true. And because time is speeding up (or more is happening in the same amount of time, that it just seems faster) a soul can get a lot accomplished very quickly now. If one wanted to be on a fast track to soul growth this would definitely be the time to show up. I think one could work out a bunch of crappy karma in this accelerated period too, which could explain the intense distress and suffering in certain parts of the world.

My revelation continued on to the ‘after the play cast party’. I visualized billions of people gathered in large groups having a hilarious time. They were in various costumes like a cosmic masquerade party, and they were sharing what roles they had played in each others many lives over the millenia. Someones mortal enemy had been their spouse in a former life. Kings had been paupers and despots had been abused victims previously. On and on it went, and many would move to totally different groups, because they had lived as every different race. It was a joyous gathering, as you can imagine.

Shakespeare said that life is a stage and we are all players on that stage. We get caught up the play though and forget we aren’t our character. We end up wearing our costumes home and acting our role 24/7. Now that I’ve had a glimpse of how true what Shakespeare said appears to be, I look at life differently now. It really is a game we are playing here. Right now it is somewhat of a tragic plot we’re acting out, instead of a grand adventure story. But then again, life, or our play, is what we make of it. Nes Pas?

Regardless of what 2012 brings our way in the way of global changes, this period is definitely rated as the prime time to be alive on Earth. We intended to be here now for a reason. I don’t think it was to drown in fear or suffer. I think it was to expand our consciousness and realize we are on the ride of our LIFE(times)!

Part 2 later: How to relate to others in light of this revelation.

A minister friend of mine used to say, “I pay for my life with my attention.” I had never considered paying for my life. Nor had I considered how attention could be the currency to pay for it. Isn’t attention just being awake? Apparently not.

Most of us ramble through our lives assuming we are entitled to be here fully equipped with a functioning earth suit that runs on free air. We don’t give our existence a second thought, except to complain about it when it feels uncomfortable or breaks. We assume we are paying attention just because we’re awake and moving through the world. But we are not awake. We are sleepwalking.

We not only don’t consider that we need to pay for our life, we don’t think about being grateful for the gift that it is. If we were to wake up and realize what an amazing awe inspiring thing our lives are and this planet is, we could experience Heaven on Earth. We do have moments here and there when we are mindful of how wonderful life is. But these moments are so few. We slide into unconsciousness so easily.

Unlike mankind, all of nature is 100% attentive and intentional. Only human beings squander the short time they have here. When we live on auto-pilot most of the time, we are prone to make a mess of our lives and our planet. We act like toddlers who break their toys, mess their room and expect the parents to fix everything.

However, in this analogy, who is the responsible parent keeping it all together? There is no parent, and that is the problem. There are only the natural consequences working through the law of cause and effect. Consequently the toys become worthless and the play room is uninhabitable. This is the situation in the world today.

Whatever we pay attention to expands. Think about that whenever you are tempted to focus on your problems. We can heal ourselves by observing and changing our “stinkin’ thinkin’. Most of our thoughts are in that category – worthless or destructive. On the other hand, paying attention to the positive aspects of life creates more life.

What are you paying attention to? What thoughts are running through your mind? It is a fact that we love what we pay attention to. All of us would deny that we love the stress and strife in our life, but that is what we are paying attention to 24/7. What we don’t realize is that every moment counts. There are no “free” moments when our thoughts aren’t impacting our lives. Whatever we are thinking or feeling is recorded and stored into our cell tissue to manifest in our future moments.

For example, if we are focusing on our lack of money, we will continue to experience a lack of money. If we are focusing on our bodies being weak, overweight or sick, we just keep getting more of that. We always get more of what we pay attention to and focus on.

Paying attention isn’t complicated. It’s just a matter of observing our thoughts consistently. This includes observing what may be thoughtlessly flying out of our mouths. We don’t realize how often we are testifying to pain and suffering without even realizing it.

Think of being attentive as being a good soldier. Soldiers cannot afford to go unconscious and daydream. There is no “time out” in a battle. Their very life depends on their level and quality of attention. We need to pay attention at that level, because we also die in little bits and pieces from lack of attention.

When the effects of unconscious thinking occur so slowly, we are deceived into believing there is no connection between unpleasant events and our thoughts. By the time the situation occurs we’ve forgotten the thoughts that preceded it. We think we are helpless victims of random circumstances. This is the toddler thinking level mentioned above. It is irresponsible and deadly.

We must wake up, grow up and pay attention. This means accepting 100% responsibility for what is showing up in our lives. That is the only way we can create a different reality for ourselves.

There is a very wonderful video circulating the world on the internet. Many different people sing and play Stand By Me. Here is the link to tune in and watch as soon as you can. http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741 Here are the lyrics:

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we’ll see
No I won’t be afraid
Oh I won’t be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
Or the mountain should crumble to the sea
I won’t cry, I won’t cry
No I won’t shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

Darlin’ darlin’ stand by me
Oh stand by me
Oh stand now, stand by me, stand by me

Whenever you’re in trouble just stand by me
Oh stand by me
Whoa stand now, oh stand, stand by me

Every one of us feels we can bear just about anything if we have someone standing by us that understand. As human beings we almost inherently know that we are not made to go it alone in this world. We are vitally connected to others. In this current world which seems very fractured, it is very easy to become extremely distracted by a constant bombardment of media, technology and economic stressors. Since the media’s mantra is “If it bleeds, it leads.” we usually only hear of negative and destructive events happening around the world.

Our poor minds can’t tell the difference between what we see on TV and what we see in real life, so it reacts to everything in real time. Whatever the mind hears in present time it believes it is happening now. So when you tell a sad story about a past event, your mind relives it as if it is happening in the present as you’re speaking. Then it releases all the stress hormones to help cope with that problem. This is why it is so vital to censor what we allow into our minds. If all it sees and hears is horrible negative news, it will be easy to think the whole world is like the news stories. But it isn’t! There are millions of miraculous, loving, compassionate acts of kindness happening every second around the globe that we never hear about.
There is more proof all the time that we create what we focus on. If we focus on all the good in our lives and have an attitude of gratitude for the many parts that are good and working, then we will get more of those things. Keeping a gratitude journal is very helpful. Recording all the things that are a blessing in your life will dramatically alter your world view.
There are many positive affirmative videos like the one mentioned above as well as inspirational affirmations circulating on the internet that one can plug into everyday to get a lift and get going in the right direction. In a way, the internet is providing a way for all of us to STAND BY EACH OTHER. The Stand By Me video is awesome because the music and the words resonate so deeply within and we can feel connected to everyone.

The Universe is conspiring to teach us Compassionate Connection through these testing times. The world is especially polarized now with very little neutral ground to dabble around in. We are forced to make a choice for the light or the dark, the love or the fear. Every moment is an opportunity to choose which side we want to put our energy toward. Anything that helps us grow toward compassion and/or connection with others is sacred work. When we stand by each other we are standing on holy ground.

Compassion means with passion and passion sometimes means suffering. We are with others in their suffering and that is what helps lighten the load. Jesus said this too. He said “Cast your cares on me, because I care for you”. The Christ is within you and me and that is what we do… we stand by each other. We are to be the Good Samaritan for each other.

Play that video again and again until the joy of it just overflows.

Hello! Are you there? I can’t hear you! Please speak up. What are you doing? Have you drunk the Kool Aid? Honestly, I’m not kidding.

There are beautiful families breaking up all over this country because they have lost their “STUFF”! This is absolutely horrible. During the past decade we have been hypnotized into believing our self worth was based on what we owned – real or personal property. We did everything to get it and maintain it. We worked at jobs we hated, we sacrificed time with our mates and children…all to get stuff and bigger and bigger houses and SUV’s. We’ve been manipulated like puppets to spend into oblivion.

Now the truth is out. The curtain exposing the charlatan wizard has been pulled back, and we are allowing ourselves to fall into despair. STOP! Yes stop! The system is corrupt. It has been for 5, 000 years. This is nothing new. I remember when we went through this kind of crap in the early 70′s. We had Vietnam (like Iraq), we had Watergate (like Wall Street) we had gas lines, toilet paper shortages even. Everything was unraveling. We’d just been through the 60′s with 3 major assinations of inspired leaders! It was hell then too. But this chaos has been going on forever. There is nothing new under the sun, as they say.

So now we have young people too young to remember all this history; and, they no longer learn it in school. Since they have no sesnse of history, they think this is a new thing. They want to bail on all their commitments and just trash their families, because they can’t have the illusive “American Dream”. What the hell is that anyway???!!! Now is the time to pull together as never before.

We have been sold a bill of goods. The “powers that be” have never intentioned that the lower classes would be able to aspire to the heights. Their plan is “Give them a little here and there to keep them quiet.” Everyone loves bright and shiny toys, so we all got hooked real quickly into charging up the cards to get all the new gadgets and big screen TVs, etc. . In the process, you are kept so busy working to pay for all this stuff you forget who you are and you forget who your partner is, and you haven’t a clue who your kids are.

At this point we need Cicero (orator of Rome who warned of its fall) to stand up and tell it like it is. If all the “stuff” went away tomorrow what would we be? Do we still have each other? Do we still love our children with all our hearts? Do we still have our health? If you can answer “Yes” to those questions then you have it all. You can overcome this mess. It is all happening to teach us that we are so much more than our stuff.

If you look back on your life what are the most precious memories you have as a child? What about as a teenager? Keep going. Through your life, your memories are almost exclusively about love shared…those warm fuzzie feelings that linger forever in your heart.

Do not let this economy, this political crisis or corruption, the endless wars, destroy your indemonitable spirit. I am adamant about this! I have been through all of it, and I’m still here… and my relatives still speak to me! So if I can do it you can do it too. Love is all there is. Money and stuff mean nothing in comparison. Look in your loved ones faces and SEE them and tell them how much they mean to you and that you will do everything to maintain that unity.

Bless you.

Most everyone is living their lives primarily from memorization. We have memorized our family’s history and believe we are one of the characters in that novel. We believe we are what we know from school and work over time. We’ve memorized the various scripts for the character(s) we chose to play, as well as the parts that might have been forced upon us when we were too young to know what was happening.

Conformity is the flavor of the day – everyday. The non-conformist who is marching to a different drummer isn’t rewarded unless he excels to greatness. The majority never even try to venture out of their comfort zone no matter how miserable their situation. A rut is a grave with both ends removed.

When we believe we are our story, we are living life through the rear view mirror. Our future will be just like our past. Scary thought for most. Of course, we aren’t our thoughts either. We are the thinker having the thoughts as well as writing our stories. But what if there is no story?

Imagine suddenly finding yourself with amnesia with no memory of the past. You don’t know your name or where you live. However, you still exist. You are breathing. You fog a mirror and you can see yourself in it. Now, who are you? You are your awareness that you exist. Everything else is just a story piled on top of this basic truth. Do you see that you are choosing which plot and part you want to play in your melodrama, tragedy, comedy, mystery or adventure? Only you control your choices or think your thoughts. No one else can make you think or feel anything.

The reason it is important to get a grasp of the fact that we are not our stories is that we must wake up so we can take control of our own lives and creatively choose the best direction in the months and years ahead. The danger of believing that we are our stories means that the past equals the future and we are destined to repeat it.

Every day we write the script for the coming attraction. If we are living from memorization we are just like the computers we have created. They will only give us what we have programmed into them. You know the drill, “garbage in, garbage out or same stuff, different day”.

The real YOU is your imaginative, intuitive soulful Self that creates form out of the formless. Everything was once a thought in someone’s imagination that took form. However, we can’t create a new life path using our old stories. We can be new every morning if we so choose. But we must let go of our fear. We fear the unknown, and without our story we feel lost and out of control.

Well, the times we are experiencing now have thrust all of us into the unknown whether we like or not. It really is a whole new world, in which our old stories do not work. We can’t afford to remain paralyzed by fear. We can take our power back and co-create a new story of freedom born of cooperation and compassion. The old story (his-story) has been based on rugged individualism and competition. The theme was “As long as I have mine, I don’t care if you get yours.” With the collapse of the global economy and no one knowing how to solve it, we have a golden opportunity to create a new human story.

We each have the power to write a new story in our own lives. We only need the courage to venture inside and discover it. Ask yourself who were you and what were your passions when you were a little kid before you disappeared under your parents’ story of you? That creative, intuitive unblemished child can be resurrected, because he/she is still alive and well in your heart. Listen to the real story and give it a voice.

None of us can afford to act out anyone else’s story anymore. There is a sifting going on and only the “real” will remain to change the story.

“With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” Jesus

Mark 4:24, 25 New International Bible

I always thought the second sentence of this passage spoken by Jesus to his followers seemed so harsh and even a bit cruel. Take away what little someone has? Why? That’s not fair. And as far as giving more to the already rich is even worse. But Jesus wasn’t cruel or harsh, so there must a deeper more spiritual meaning here.

Jesus taught in parables full of symbols and metaphors using the agricultural setting of his world at that time. Seeds are a symbol of our spirit and soil represents the environment in which we plant them. We can think of spirit and energy interchangeably. We plant our spirit in a nutrient rich (loving) soil, keep it weeded from care and strife, and the life energy in the seed grows into a living plant capable of producing additional seeds and plants.

This life force energy is within you too. If you don’t know you have it and that you are directing it, you will live way below your potential and risk getting caught in fear and lack. You won’t understand that your thoughts carry your energy out to infinity. Nor will you understand those thoughts can take root and produce your own heaven or hell depending on what you are “measuring out” to the world around you. Therefore, the most important lesson one can learn is to know oneself.

Knowing that you and everything has this life-force energy is the key. It doesn’t matter if it manifests as love or money or giraffes. It is the same energy manifesting in different forms. This may sound very extreme, but think about it for a moment. We aren’t just seeking physical money or loving people around us, we are seeking the energy money can buy, and the love that grows us spiritually and emotionally from our loved ones. You can sense the difference.

What happens when you meet people that reek of neediness for love or money? Most of us probably turn tail and run. Well, love and money run from us when we approach them from need and scarcity too. Jesus says that those who give from a needy, self-serving attitude will find what little they do have taken away.

But do we dare love money? After all, the Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil”. Here again we have to go to the symbolic, metaphorical meaning or our understanding can go sideways. Loving the materialistic aspect of money is the snare that is the root of evil. It is money for money’s sake because it destroys love. It always needs more and there is no end to more.

But when we love the energy or spirit of money, then that energy expands. It is then we demonstrate we are aware that money is a means of exchanging love, gratitude and appreciation for goods and services. To those who give from this attitude more will be given them.

Thankfully, there is a tremendous upsurge in awareness as to what is real in the world these days, as people are unclenching their fists and opening their hands in a spirit of cooperation and open-mindedness. We can now afford to move from a limiting poverty consciousness to abundance consciousness. We are aligning with the whole Universe which operates on the energy of abundance consciousness. Just look at Mother Nature. Does She ration only a certain number of leaves to the trees? No. They have an overabundance of leaves. Look at the Heavens? There are so many trillions of stars we can’t even count them. This same power of abundance is within you.

Try this. Begin to think of money as an energy of exchange that responds to love, gratitude and appreciation just as you do. Don’t chase it out of need or greed. Love and appreciate it. Let it chase you! How fun is that?

Is this the end times? Are all the prophesies of the Bible, Nostradamus, the Mayan, Aztec, and Hopi tribes unfolding now? If so, when will this happen? What is ending and what may be beginning? Some claim the end is 2012, some say it’s any day now, some say 2030 give or take a few years. There are many interpretations from which we can choose. We can also choose to focus on what is dying or what is being born. The majority chose to look to the birth of the new in our last election. However, the minority chose to hold onto the past.

Our polarized tribal social systems have kept us running in place, clinging to a narrow “us vs. them” ideology that allows us to believe we are always right and they are always wrong… or we’re good and they’re evil. Americans haven’t had much incentive to break free of this limiting box, because we still believe that we’re in control to a certain extent. But that illusion of control is deteriorating now too, and fears of calamity are mounting.

Catastrophes always seem to wake us up and open us up. We have a Dr. Phil “ How’s that workin’ for ya?” moment. Here again we can choose to see the lesson in the problem or let the problem overwhelm us. Fear and confusion just block our ability to make better choices. Between the collapse of world financial markets, threat of a Middle East Armageddon scenario, a repeat of the 1930’s Great Depression, the return of the Ten Plagues of Egypt and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, many are close to a panic state.

Who will save us? Is it time for the return of a savior to vanquish all the evil and restore the kingdom to the faithful? Is it time for the arrival of the mother ship from outer space to beam the faithful up? Some may have already left or “ascended” to Planet 2, a theoretical cloaked planet near here without as many bad guys (and gals) as our Earth . Others are doggedly slugging it out in the battle fields as God’s warriors, but each side believes God is only on their side.

Since these deliverance scenarios have been in place for millennia in every tribe and religion, and the world hasn’t yet ended; we can pretty well deduce from history that they were not meant to be taken literally. They were meant to be taken as a symbolic or metaphorical description of a spiritually awakened understanding of the future rather than a literal interpretation. Most all the doomsday predictions point to our current period, which indicates that the time is now to shift gears and rise into that higher consciousness in order to see the big picture on a global scale. All prophesies include clear guidance as to how humanity can avoid total destruction by rising above tribal ignorance and cultural differences to discover our common yearning for peace and freedom. For example, the Hopi prophesies state “We are the ones we have been waiting for”.

Many still choose to remain in tribal “us vs. them” boxes of prejudiced beliefs, fighting endless wars at home and abroad. But this is the very world system that is self destructing. We have played all the cards in the deck. This game is over- the game of “let’s see how long we can continue to destroy each other and the planet”.

We can create a more positive end time scenario but we must choose to let go of our right to play God trying to control everything and live from the inside out with our hearts instead. We don’t have to wait until more catastrophes happen in our lives to turn the tide. Each one of us has the light of understanding in our core that we can access at anytime we choose. We call it our gut feeling, our sixth sense or intuition. It is a plumb line of justice and truth we can always use to measure and discern the bad, better and best individually and collectively. Our collective thoughts can create a new reality.

What time is it? It is time to choose the world we want to create. The time is NOW.