Reactions in an Abnormal Society

 

photo credit: Richard Quick

Dr. Gabor Maté's writing and videos have caused me to look at my environment in a different way. Watching people react to the pandemic, I’ve wondered why some folks survive and thrive, while others seem to shrink and retreat into fearful ways of living. Dr. Maté has caused me to ask what behaviors children are exhibiting in reaction to trauma inflicted upon them by our society — shootings in school, the fear they are taught to exhibit toward anything outside their homes — worse yet, the fear precipitated inside their homes. And what of our adults? Trauma from childhood has affected far too many of us. We don’t know how to handle the abuses from family, friends, teachers and others in positions of authority. What if we recognized the source of mass shootings and other horrendous crimes? It’s too easy to say the cause is video games, mass media, and violent cartoons. What if we admitted it’s early childhood trauma which we have no idea how to assimilate, translate, and release? It’s time for each and every one of us to delve into the teachings of people like Gabor Maté and others who understand what is happening to us. If I am able to recognize the reactions to trauma in all its forms, perhaps I can release my own and allow others to have the courage to recognize theirs and see where that realization takes them. Namaste, my friends...

“So much of what we call abnormality in this culture is actually normal responses to an abnormal culture. The abnormality does not reside in the pathology of individuals, but in the very culture that drives people into suffering and dysfunction.” — Dr. Gabor Maté

Fearing Love?

 

I heard a program on National Public Radio where people who had been involved with hate groups, who were presently in recovery, were interviewed. There were white nationalists, new-age nazis, and Islamic terrorists. Some wanted out because they realized they were wrong, others had wives who gave them ultimatums when they saw their children behaving in this way, but whatever the reason, they all had something in common: they couldn’t leave without support from groups. It was very similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. The interviewees said they were addicted to the feelings, the strong emotions, which were aroused when they screamed messages of derision toward others. Listening to these dear people talk about their experiences — how and why they were drawn to such a destructive group of people, the way it made them feel, why they had to get away from them — I was struck by how much we truly are all the same. Sometimes we lose our way and think that pain is pleasure, hate is love, and ugliness is beauty. I’m going to double down on my efforts to scatter joy and love my neighbor. It is, indeed, important!

"...fear demands the sacrifice of love, for in love's presence fear cannot abide. For hate to be maintained, love must be feared; and only sometimes present, sometimes gone. Thus is love seen as treacherous, because it seems to come and go uncertainly, and offer no stability to you. You do not see how limited and weak is your allegiance, and how frequently you have demanded that love go away, and leave you quietly alone in 'peace.'" A Course in Miracles T-29.2.7.

Constantly Changing Form

 

photo credit: Richard Quick

If I have something and give it away, my material belief is that I don't have it any longer. I am learning through these studies how giving will increase what I possess. I am also learning that things represent thoughts. I am discovering when I give ideas away, they become stronger in everyone's mind. The form is often changed in what we give and and what we receive, but it never leaves us lacking. Thoughts and ideas cannot be lost, whereas material form is constantly changing. By allowing ourselves to bless ourselves, we bless the world.

“In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,--Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health, Page 206:15-18

ACIM Workbook Lesson #187
“I bless the world because I bless myself.  Protect all things you value by the act of giving them away, and you are sure that you will never lose them. What you thought you did not have is thereby proven yours. Yet value not its form. For this will change and grow unrecognizable in time, however much you try to keep it safe. ⁵No form endures. ⁶It is the thought behind the form of things that lives unchangeable." ACIM, W-187.4:1-6

Many Paths

 

photo credit: Heather Peters

The following tale of five men lost in the woods has appeared in many forms throughout the years. I did a search and cannot find anyone to whom it's attributed. I saw it again today on an Eckhart Tolle group chat and it felt perfect for this time of searching.

​"​Five men got lost in a vast forest. They tried to find their way out.

The first man said, “I will follow my intuition and go left.”

The second man said, “I will go right. I have a strong feeling about this.”

The third man said, “I think I will walk back the same path we came. This should be the safest option.”

The fourth man said: “I think we are on the right track already, so I will keep going straight. I am sure this forest will end and I will find a village or a farm to ask for directions.”

The fifth man said, “I don’t know what to do. I think I will climb up this tall tree and take a better look around before I make up my mind.”

So the fifth man did that. While he was climbing, the other four men scattered towards their own directions. The fifth man now could see from above what was the shortest way to a village. He thought that the others should not have chosen the paths they did. He was wrong, though.

Each man chose his own path and gained a different experience. The man who went left, found a long path but in the end, it led him to the town.

The man who went right, had to fight a pack of wolves, but this way he learned how to survive in the forest.

The man who went back, met another team of hikers and he made new friends.

The man who went straight, found a farm and was hosted by the family for a couple of days before leaving for the village.

Everyone was enriched in their own unique way by the journey.

~~~

Some reflections on this story...

What if​ ​there are no "right" or "wrong" decisions?

Could it be that every decision offers us new experiences, which in turn offers us innumerable further opportunities for growth?

It has taken every decision of our life to bring us to where we are right now. In the fullness of the present, are we really in the wrong place? Even if it feels so, can we be sure?

What if there are no mistakes? ..... Only opportunities?​"​

​"Learning is joyful if it leads you along your natural path, and facilitates the development of what you have.​"  --  A Course in Miracles - T-8.II​

Impressions From Truth

 

Thailand  - photo credit: Aaron Springston

Spiritualization of thought is said to be a slow process, and many people think they don't have "time", hence it's not worth the effort to try. To remember that I am One with God is a giant step toward this spiritualization. This knowledge puts our goal right where we are, here and now, rather than somewhere far off which we may or may not reach at some point in the future. I am One with God right now! To know this intellectually and to understand it from the core of your being are not the same thing. The hunger to think AS divine Mind, the longing to know myself as Love, these desires cannot be satisfied with words. Glimpses of truth cause me to crave more. Rising above human belief may seem like the work of a lifetime, but the realization that you want to know God happens in a heartbeat. I want to be ready!

"Let me remember I am one with God." A Course in Miracles

“Before human knowledge dipped to its depths into a false sense of things,--into belief in material origins which discard the one Mind and true source of being,-- it is possible that the impressions from Truth were as distinct as sound, and that they came as sound to the primitive prophets.”  Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 213:30-3

Deciding to See

 

photo credit: Richard Quick

Recently, I’ve been noticing young women awakening to the beauty of their own being! It has been nice to see instances here and there, but this evening I opened up Facebook and saw three posts from young women wherein they claimed their joy — right now, not in the future when something changes, but right now! One of these is very close to my heart because she’s someone who felt incomplete because her biological father had not acknowledged her in the ways she had hoped. It took his death for her to realize she could claim her wholeness without him filling In the blanks for her. And she has! Another beautiful young friend has spent years plagued by insecurities. She has felt her family was disappointed in her, and she shared in their disappointment. She is beginning to glimpse that there is, as she put it, “beauty in imperfection”. I see her gaining in confidence and inner strength. The last of the three posts tonight was from a young, vibrant mother of three, whom I’ve known most of her life. She is a joy to watch glow in her daily activities, and she and her parents are very dear to my heart. She ended her post with these words: “I’m here. We ALLLLL are. So there’s NO one else to be except YOU. This world needs it desperately. Unapologetically you. My vulnerability lets me dance, speak, teach, love unattached to others judgements, my sensitivity lets me feel other people’s pains and problems, my passivity lets me see all sides to everything and not judge anyone or take on their experience. This took me years to learn! Your perceived ‘bad’ qualities… could they be your gift to this world? Your gift to you?” I treasure these women and will remember them as I notice everyone beginning to bloom!

“Your decision to see is all that vision requires. ²What you want is yours. ³Do not mistake the little effort that is asked of you for an indication that our goal is of little worth. ⁴Can the salvation of the world be a trivial purpose? ⁵And can the world be saved if you are not? ⁶God has one Son, and he is the resurrection and the life. ⁷His will is done because all power is given him in Heaven and on earth. ⁸In your determination to see is vision given you.” A Course in Miracles W-20.3:1-8

Spread Your Wings

art by J. Clement Wall

​

The Journey - poem by Mary Oliver

"One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice --

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do --

determined to save

the only life you could save.”

― Mary Oliver