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Where Is Your Community?
And maybe I should also add “who” to this question: Who Is Your Community?
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about this word community, probably since a retreat I was on this past Sunday with the leadership of “A Community of Transformation” (ACT), a local Annapolis, Maryland membership-based community of like-minded people involved in alternative healing, spiritual seeking and experiential sharing. It is a great community and we are now examining how to grow and spread our uplifting spiritual experiences to a broader audience. We are also looking to deepen our commitment to the broader community of Annapolis and expand the services our growing and vital community offers.
Beyond this recent thinking, my life purpose is wrapped up in community. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my hand analysis and fingerprint mapping takes me in the direction of community through love. I am in the School of Love, my Life Lesson is Love and my Life Purpose is Love. Baeth Davis dubbed me “Shaman of the Heart” when she read my prints and got to know me better. But what does this really mean?
When I was in the Peace Corp in Ethiopia many years ago there was a branch of services called “community development.” While I was a teacher at the secondary school level there, some of my colleagues were engaged in this so-called “community development.” I think now this label was erroneous. These folks weren’t developing community; they were building houses, teaching about irrigation possibilities, bringing new techniques to the local economy. They were not building community.
This past Monday I published a poem on Community; it began with “safety” and ended with “love.” Humans come together as social creatures to both increase the odds of survival and to bond together as like-minded individuals in a group to support a common cause. And yet there seems to be more to this notion of community.
Is it simply survival that first creates community? Or, is even this survival need driven by love? I would like to think it is not driven by fear. The soul doesn’t fear. The spirit is content, peaceful, in a constant state of Divine Bliss. And these essential and eternal aspects of ourselves are the source of love. These are the god/goddess core elements of what it is to be human. When these immortal parts of ourselves are in our consciousness there is no fear, only the desire for community.
With these thoughts in mind and with my Life Purpose in the forefront of my consciousness I feel compelled to build community. What does this mean? In one sense it means to continue what I have already begun. In another it means expanding the vision, to grow it even more.
There are many like-minded people coming into Rosemary and my life now, and they are calling us to leadership. ACT and the leadership of ACT is just one community calling us to ACTion! We have our own community to build. The time is now to bring our community together, to grow it and to devote all our energy to this great cause.
You, as a reader of this blog, are part of this community. And I commit to continue to develop it, to bring my thoughts about “men and the goddess” into sharper focus, to expand my readership and to reach out to the greater global community to bring my sense of inner peace and deeper understanding to you.
Where is your community? Who is your community? Develop your own sense of belonging to the great human community through love.
PS: One way to join our community is to subscribe to Rosemary’s weekly newsletter. She offers incredible advice and spiritual insight every week. And it’s FREE! Join RosemarySpace: Subscribe Here
What Would You Do? Do It Now! – Richard’s Commentary
I don’t feel old! OK, I did just move through my 68th birthday. By many standards this is at least approaching “old.” My grandkids think I’m old, but even they are polite enough not to say so unless asked directly. They see us in action and know we move through life with a lot of energy, a lot of vitality; good qi drives us!
But maybe these days it doesn’t require attainment of a certain age in order to get this message: “do it now!” This past Friday in our Qigong class the teacher, who is also an acupuncture practitioner, reflected that she was seeing way too many patients coming to her with a “pre-cancerous” diagnosis. A good, younger friend was just told he had a lymphoma; another good, younger friend just completed his treatment for prostate cancer. And I just scheduled a bone marrow biopsy to determine why my red-blood cell count is diminishing.
So, the admonition in Rosemary’s message: There is an urgency about the energies around us today. We each have a reason that we were born into this time on the Planet. Have you discovered your purpose? Are you clear about what you are to be doing now? If not, then that is your work today really does ring true!
First the “urgency”. I do feel this energy and it’s not just because I am in the midst of diagnosing a health condition and am surrounded by others going through a similar process for one ailment or another. There is a building sense that things are not right, that there is a potential building to create a shift, and not necessarily a gentle shift! Rosemary and I both have been writing in our blogs about this energy for transformation. Many of our associates are also feeling this energy. It is manifesting in many way, not just through disease. Many are feeling the dis-ease of our times, whether it is in the form of political, social, economic, or health issues. We seem to have come to a place where things our “out of kilter.”
Rosemary’s advice is to “discover your purpose.” And then “do it now!” And no, I don’t think time is necessarily running out; I don’t sense that my life is threatened by whatever malady I have that needs a diagnosis. This urgency is born of the sense that the energy of transformation needs a response. And the best response is in the direction of our purpose.
I have had my hands read by one of the best in the business, Baeth Davis, and by some of her students and others who have studied Scientific Hand Analysis. My life purpose is revealed in my fingerprints. I have lots of “loops” which means I am in the school of love, my lessons are about love and my purpose is love. (So, it’s not unreasonable that I would write a blog entitled Men and the Goddess!)
My purpose is to connect people in community with each other and with the divine. I am a builder of connections so people can experience and express both human and divine love. And over the years I have done this in many ways, through several approaches.
Since I know my purpose and I have been working at it, why this urgency? What is my lesson in the ailment I am being urged to diagnose? For me the message here is to remember my purpose and work as diligently as possible at it. It is more a positive reminder and a gentle push to keep going, keep building community, keep working on the vision Rosemary and I have for a Center of Light and Love.
Do you have this sense that the energies of change are breathing down your neck? If so, and I know many of you know exactly what I’m writing about, then what are you doing about it? Do you know your purpose for being here on the planet at this crucial time in human history? Are you going about that purpose as diligently and energetically as possible?
I second Rosemary’s admonition: “Do it now!”
PS: If you have never had your hands read, if you are struggling to know what your life purpose is, if you too have this sense of urgency that the world is changing and needs your response, then consider getting a scientific hand analysis by Rosemary. She is one of the best because she adds her talents as a Channel and a Medium to the analysis work!Click Here for more information.
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: What Would You Do? Do It Now!
What would you do if you were old enough not to care what other people think? What would you do if you gave up having to succeed and just wanted to enjoy the experience? What would you do if you had no old tapes playing in your head that tell you you can’t?
What if I give you permission, right now, today, to be old enough, to enjoy, to ignore/erase those old tapes? What would you do?
Well, you do have permission. Go out and do it now!
How often do you hear yourself qualify your dreams with ‘if only’ or ‘when X happens’? Now is the time to shift that thinking into ‘HOW can I do it?’
There is an urgency about the energies around us today. We each have a reason that we were born into this time on the Planet. Have you discovered your purpose? Are you clear about what you are to be doing now? If not, then that is your work today.
If you know your purpose and have a list of reasons why you can’t be about that work right now, then lose the list. If you are alive on the Planet Earth at this moment in time then you are ready to be living your purpose. Period.
So now, what would you do if you were living your Soul Purpose, the reason your Soul incarnated into this lifetime?
The students are looking for their teachers. The folks with dis-ease are seeking the healers who can help them. The masses are waiting for the speakers who will inspire them. The weak need strong leaders. The strong need wise teachers. The sleeping ones need help in their awakening. YOU have a purpose and other souls are waiting for you to show up as the person you agreed to be before you were born. They are looking for you.
Reach inside and find that purpose. Get help if you need it. Decide who you were born to be and then, no matter what has to shift in your physical reality, commit to being that person.
Simplify your life. This message is coming through IN CAPITAL LETTERS for all of us. Do you really need all the ‘stuff’ in your life? Do you need to be entertained all the time or can you take some time to reflect, to retreat, to relax? Are the people around you supporting you or are they critical or demanding? Simplify your environment, including the people with whom you surround yourself. Simplify your work. Do you need to change jobs? Are you working to pay bills? Are you working too much or not enough?
Simplify your life. Find your tribe and learn how others are accomplishing this. Many are adjusting their finances. Some are restructuring. A lot of folks are seeking spiritually like-minded groups with whom to bond.
Become aware of your choices. Do you need to buy that thing or is there a way to trade/recycle/reuse something? Are you keeping active to avoid doing inner work? Are you seeking something outside yourself that you just might find inside if you paused and looked there?
What would you do if you were living your purpose, simplifying your life, seeking joy instead of momentary happiness?
Do it now!
PS: Through the month of Rosemary’s birthday month she is offering a very special price on a Reading: $65! Get help with direction, with waking up, with finding your purpose. This special expires August 31. Purchase Here
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Are You Waiting?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” video for the week: Are You Waiting?
PS: Don’t miss out! Rosemary’s very special price on a Reading with her is available in August only. Purchase Here
MONDAY’S POEM: Community
Yesterday Rosemary and I spent much of the day with some very special people working to form an expanded vision for the Annapolis area ACT (A Community of Transformation) organization. It was inspiring to spend such quality time with some highly conscious creative people as we continue to transform ourselves and the Community for future action!
The day inspired me to think about what it means to be in community. Here’s what I wrote:
Community
Safety
Numbers
Together
Family
Extended
Tribal
Sharing
Working
Playing
Singing
Stories
Dancing
Creating
Caring
Healing
Wholeness
Heart Center
Love.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
New Moon in Leo I Ching Divination
The New Moon in Leo occurred on Tuesday, August 6 at 5:51 pm EDT this year. We had completed the heavy lifting of our move to Severna Park the day before. We were united with all of our stuff for the first time in over two years. Of course we didn’t know where everything was yet (still don’t) as the job of sorting and searching, finding places for things and finalizing what we need and what we can store or purge in another round of down-sizing proceeds. As we look at the stacks and array of boxes to be opened and managed the task seems daunting.
With this background it is no surprise that I cast a highly appropriate initial Gua for the month ahead! At least I was able to find my yarrow stalks and my current favorite “bible” on the I Ching, Alfred Huang’s The Complete I Ching.
Here is the hexagram I cast as the starting point:
Notice it is made up of two identical trigrams; the name in Chinese is Dui or Lake in English. Master Huang says this word means something more like a swamp or marsh, similar to rice paddies. When put together the hexagram is also named Dui. The meaning of the hexagram is Joyful.
Notice that the initial, lowest line has a circle in the middle of it; this was cast as a nine and means it is the changing line for this Gua; it changes from a yang, closed line to a yin, open line yielding a new Gua with a very different meaning. So, as the month opens I have a joyful period to experience. I equate this to the joy of being reunited with all my stuff, of setting up a new household where everything is where I want it to be, even those items that need to be stored or purged. Rosemary and I are both in a state of great joy that we now have a new home to both live in and work from.
The specific meaning of the changing line gives another layer of meaning; the yao text refers to “inner harmony” as the basis for joy. This is excellent advice. Yes, while all the surroundings are lining up to bring joy, the primary source of joy is always inside. As long as I remain harmonious inside, all the boxes and frustration of sorting and deciding can remain incidental to the overall state of being joyful.
How are you being joyful this August? Seek inner harmony and all external circumstances can drop away.
Now for the approached gua, the one formed when the initial yao changes from yang to yin:
This is Kun or Exhausting. No surprise here! After the strenuous move and all the sorting, deciding, arranging and purging I do expect to experience a level of exhaustion. This gua also refers to other resources, like money. It will be easy to over-spend as we are joyful about settling in and enjoying our new spaces.
Symbolically, the lower trigram moved from Lake to Kan or Water. With Water under Lake the lake drains away, resources diminish.
According to Master Huang, the Sage rides out these periods of low energy and drained resources, realizing this time too shall pass. The advice here is conserve what little energy remains. Go inside to consider next moves. Wait out the period of exhaustion; there will be plenty of opportunity ahead.
How do you deal with exhausting states? The advice of this gua is to conserve and wait.
As another note the mutual gua for Kun is Jia Ren or Household! The mutual gua holds additional meaning for the reading. I am again not surprised that Household comes up; for me at this time my household is both the source of joy and exhaustion!
How is your household bringing you both joyful and exhausting experiences?
Moving Forward – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary’s “Exploration” in her MuseLetter on Friday and again in her post yesterday was timely considering our physical move of home and belongings over this past weekend. Clearly we had a lot of experience “moving” and I can only hope, given the energy put into this move, that it was “forward”!
The move itself went very smoothly. The weather was great, especially for early August in Maryland. The logistics all worked well from rental truck to professional piano movers. Even the “baby grand” cooperated by just squeezing neatly through the door.
I expected to be sore from all the physical lifting and lugging, the twisting with heavy boxes and the tight hold needed to boost them into and out of the truck. And I do have twinges of an ache here or an over-used muscle there. But I don’t feel nearly as stiff and sore as I expected.
And immediately following the move I began a new Qigong class series this past Monday evening. As I was doing my final preparations and going through the form one more time before class I realized why I survived this strenuous and very physical move with relative ease: I had been practicing Qigong for well over a year and mixing in a steady dose of Yoga as well. I am fit and ready for this kind of physical exertion.
Qigong consists of circle-motions and spirals, movements to gather and focus the Qi. The more I practice and the longer I experience this building Qi the more effortless it becomes. The practice is to evolve to effortlessness. And while my move over this past weekend was anything but effortless, it certainly wasn’t as exhausting as I expected.
And then I reread Rosemary’s post and this paragraph caught my attention:
Our personal journeys are not linear – they do not go forward in a straight line. They spiral, around and around. And, if we are moving forward in our personal growth, we are able to see from a new perspective with each return of the spiral, to understand in a new way what we couldn’t see before. This is moving forward along our path of personal growth in consciousness.
Just as our Qi spirals and turns around and around, so too does our journey through life. As Rosemary observes, every cycle presents us with a new perspective to grow into.
Keep moving forward. It is not just for you. It is not just to ease your pain, extend your life or live more comfortably. It is to expand your consciousness and to be an essential part of the evolution of Universal Consciousness.
How? Practice. It doesn’t have to be Qigong, although I highly recommend it. Keep moving forward, spiral around and take another look from the new perspective. Learn, grow, take the next step and wake up to a new you!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Moving Forward
With each sunrise your new day, your new life, begins. Every morning is an opportunity to make new choices about the direction in which your life will lead. Do you consider this when you wake up?
Or do you start your day with complaints? About not enough sleep, or aches and pains, or a long to-do list?
At this time in human history, you are being asked to step into your power and your purpose and propel yourself forward in the direction of your dreams. Yes, it is your dream and your vision of your future that pull you into that future. You can move into that vision or you can choose to stay in your present, fighting against the energy to move forward.
Believe it or not, it takes more energy to stay stuck than it does to move forward. You must fight the strong current of the energy of the Universe that wants to support your forward movement if you would keep everything as it is. When you surrender to the forces that carry you forward on your personal journey you will find the fulfillment that we all seek.
Decide today that you will choose to move forward in your life. When you wake up tomorrow, start your day with the thought, ‘How can I take a step forward along my path? What can I do today that helps me to grow, to advance in my consciousness, to understand something I’ve struggled with before, or to live my purpose more fully?’
This first decision is the hardest part. It’s much easier to pull the covers over your head and go back to sleep, literally or figuratively. But now is not the time to sleep. It is the time to awaken to the wonderful opportunities that abound in front of you.
This is not the time to look at the past and judge yourself harshly for not doing/doing something in the past. Today is a new day. Give yourself a pat on the back for opening to the awareness that there are opportunities in front of you and for making the decision to move forward in your life.
I recently came upon some notes from a while ago where I struggled with a problem that has cropped up again for me. Sometimes I think, ‘Haven’t I already dealt with this one?’ The answer I receive from my guides is often, ‘Yes, and now you have the opportunity to delve more deeply into this issue and to move yourself even farther forward.’
Our personal journeys are not linear – they do not go forward in a straight line. They spiral, around and around. And, if we are moving forward in our personal growth, we are able to see from a new perspective with each return of the spiral, to understand in a new way what we couldn’t see before. This is moving forward along our path of personal growth in consciousness.
Once you have awakened you cannot unlearn what you have learned. You might try to stand still but the energy within you leads you to move forward.
Keep growing. Keep moving. Reach in front of you for help from someone leaping ahead. Reach behind you to help someone who is moving more slowly.
Keep moving forward.
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Are You Moving?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” video for the week: Are You Moving?
MONDAY’S POEM: Time
We spent the entire weekend moving; moving, no matter how far or how much is always a bit surreal. It’s difficult to know when you are finished; there seems no end to the stuff that has to be loaded, moved and unloaded. And time is like that during a move as well. It seems to drag on forever, and then it’s day’s end before you have moved the last box!
I wrote this a few months ago, but it seems to apply to our moving weekend quite well!
Time
Robert Bly says:
“It’s already too late”
In his Midwestern, Norwegian
Accent I know so well.
But is this true?
Are we out of time?
I would rather be in time,
Wouldn’t you?
Time is a slippery notion.
It slips right by when we are not in it.
How often do we kill time?
We spend it, waste it as if it were coinage.
Time is only an attitude.
We are either in it or out of it.
As we spiral through life
I want to live it, not be too late!
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Men and The Goddess 