November 2024 Reflections

It’s a very wide stage.
It is time we changed the script. Too many of the dramas on the world stage have lost the story of humanity. When one says my story (tradition) is right, it implies any other story is wrong! Humanity has a great capacity for love and kindness. But once we compare and judge and assume a rigid ‘right’ position we generate fear and fear compounds fear. We do need a little darkness so we can appreciate light, but if our traditional story accentuates our ‘rightness’ then it will generate fear.

It’s a very wide stage.
It is time we changed the script. Too many of the dramas on the world stage have lost the story of humanity. When one says my story (tradition) is right, it implies any other story is wrong! Humanity has a great capacity for love and kindness. But once we compare and judge and assume a rigid ‘right’ position we generate fear and fear compounds fear. We do need a little darkness so we can appreciate light, but if our traditional story accentuates our ‘rightness’ then it will generate fear.
This may not have been very important in the past when traditions were separated by great distances but this is not so now. The closeness of peoples disturbs and threatens traditions. The challenge humanity faces is how to live together. Traditional stories eventually will have to modify to shift to kindness and collaboration. No easy task because of fear of loss of power for the stakeholders. “The winner takes all” is not going to benefit anyone. It generates division that accentuates fear. This can be applied to countries, states, counties, tribes, communities, even clubs and dare I say families!
Resilience
Humanity is remarkably resilient, especially the female gender! We can adjust and survive well. Our personal challenge is to find that resilience within ourself so we have the strength to ‘go with the flow’. The change can only take place within our own self, our attitude to ourself and to the flow of life around us. There is a saying, ‘What we resist persists’. This does not mean being a ‘doormat’ for life to walk over. It means to flow with what I cannot change, the resilience to change my attitude so that I can make the most of my life, and seek guidance from my inner resources to care for myself.
Application
So in our own country and our own tradition we may find it is absolutely wonderful. The governing power may not affect us directly, but indirectly it will affect everyone. If we put our own light in that direction, and if we put our attitude in a positive way and look at it in a positive light, then maybe we can change the consensus reality. Instead of saying what a mess we are in, which is our perception, we could say, well, this will be interesting. Let us see if it can be improved. Let us work with it. Let us see if it can be a great step forward, and maybe it will. We have our own choices to make, and our thoughts to create our reality, maybe our thoughts will be hopeful enough to support others' realities if they are seeking.
A particle of hope
We must remember we cannot change another’s story, and we cannot change their choices, so what can we do? We can contribute thoughts of hope, kindness and collaboration that they can pick up on. We may be that instrument of change simply by changing our attitude!
Am I stuck in a repeating pattern?
Creation seeks order. That is, for our lives to progress in an orderly fashion. The great question to ponder is, who guides that progression. Some would ask, ‘why does my life go from one disaster to another while other people seem to have great success and order’?
So the question again - who creates the reality in which I find myself? The answer is - I do! I may not realise that I am constantly creating the story of my life by my thoughts. Most of these thoughts I am not even aware of. My thoughts stream out into the world around me and connect with the thoughts of others and so we find ourselves in a tradition and in a community where we may have added value.
Now if we are happy and completely content with who we are, read no further. But if when we cast an eye on our life, our health, our well being, our happiness, our wealth and our wisdom and we feel in our deepest self we need to move and not stagnate, then perhaps the root of change - is in our story! Is it stuck?
Tools for change
The first step is to look at the way we view our life and that option is always immediately available, though we may need some tools to get it clear. The important understanding is to realise the thoughts of today create the opportunities of tomorrow and our attitude is the sum of our thoughts. The tools we may need are mindfulness and meditation. The first helps us step back and notice the parade of thoughts though our mind and the ones we latch onto. The other, meditation, begins to move us to develop our awareness, that is to see that the awareness is deeper than the mind. It also creates a quiet space within from which our deep self can bring guidance and clarity, hope and
healing.
Our normal reaction to ‘life events’ will be from past experiences that go back over many years. These experiences drive the consistency of our life. So the huge step forward is from our developing awareness to gently begin to create new unconditioned responses of kindness whenever possible. These slight changes will accumulate and begin to alter our attitude and thus will change our path through life and leave each moment better for our being there.
It is a slow and gentle process. Be patient. The results can be quite life changing.

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