I hope and trust that you and your family are safe and feeling comfortable. All of us in Humanity’s Team are here for you and with you during this challenging time. 

As we enter the third month of the global pandemic, people have many questions on their minds about health, finances, safety, and, in general, what the re-opening of the world will look like.

None of us have answers to those kinds of questions. But as the old saying goes, time will tell.

This question, though—the one I’m hearing being asked with both sincerity and anger—is one I believe I do have an answer to… “Where is God in all of this?”  

Some are saying that since we don’t want anything to do with God in our schools, at work, and in public discourse, God has retreated.

I heard one version of that sentiment that goes like this (and please forgive the overuse of the male pronoun)…  

He, being a gentleman, has deserted us and left us to our own devices. If we don’t want anything to do with God, He says “fine” and departs our life. We are now left alone to fend for ourselves during the pandemic. 

How does that sit with you?

I believe the idea that God has left us is the furthest thing from the truth. 

I believe the Divine is very present now and is speaking to each of us who are willing to hear.  

I believe the Divine actually has always been present sharing messages of love, hope, and possibility but we’ve mostly been too busy to really hear Her/His messages.  

Now, as many of us find ourselves less busy and more available, there is an opening where we can take time for silence and really listen for and hear the Divine speaking to us.  

A Question to Walk With: In conversation with a friend or loved one, discuss a time when seeing things other than how they are led to your feeling like a victim or wanting to be a hero.

This excerpt is from my new book in progress, Returning to Where I’ve Never Been.

“Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

I've Been Thinking...

Memorial Day weekend, the so-called “official start of the summer.” It’s also the weekend when we are supposed to focus on those who have given their lives for our country. This year, both have taken on new meaning.

It’s hard to “celebrate” the start of summer when millions are still struggling with a new normal and practicing social distancing. So many of us are walking around masked. Millions are desperately struggling to put food on the table, pay rent, or afford diapers for their kids—all in this “most powerful and greatest nation on Earth.”

 

Got cheese?

The Practice:
Feed the mouse.

Why?

To simplify a complex process spanning 600 million years, your brain developed in ways that are loosely related to the three major stages of vertebrate evolution:

• Reptile – Brainstem, focused on avoiding harms
• Mammal – Subcortex, focused on approaching rewards
• Primate – Neocortex, focused on attaching to “us”

Since the brain is integrated, avoiding, approaching, and attaching are accomplished by its parts working together. Nonetheless, each of these functions is particularly served and shaped by the region of the brain that first evolved to handle it.

In this three-part series, the previous JOT – pet the lizard – was about how to soothe and calm yourself. This affects your brain as a whole, including its most ancient structures and the management of perhaps the first emotion of all: fear. This JOT continues the series by focusing on how to help you feel rewarded, satisfied, and fulfilled – in a word,  fed – which also engages your brain as a whole, with a particular focus on its subcortical regions that emerged mainly during the mammalian stage of evolution.

No matter how much you dwell on the past, you won't change it.

The only way to change the effects of it is to release it.

What you've done in your past does not have to define who you are today.

We are all going to make "mistakes." All of those experiences give us the lessons we need to evolve. Take full responsibility for what happened, make amends, then move on.

In this video, I discuss how to let go of your past. We all have things we regret or offenses we're holding on to or hurt we are harboring.

When you remember that everyone has conditioned thoughts running their lives (including you) it can relieve unnecessary stress from any relationship.

Everyone’s individual unconscious codes and programs hide the miracles and magnificence of who they really are. 

When someone in your life upsets you… 

Ultimately it’s not about the situation or the circumstances, it’s about the unconscious stories and beliefs around them. 

We’re all constantly being triggered by hidden programs that can have us lashing out and saying and doing things that are not kind, tolerant or loving. This leads to feeling separated from love and going into the low frequency codes of guilt, shame and blame.

As they say," It is all in the mind". Your mind is your most prized possession, but it is only of consequence when used wisely.

The world is changing and people have started talking about the "New Earth". Did our minds ever conceive of anything so drastic and dramatic entering the lives of humanity, and then turning it into a Global scenario?  Well, life has changed permanently, although we can still agree with the cliched phrase, which is that "Change is the only Constant" 

Over the years, in the mad rush over materialism, human values had taken a back seat. The stresses of life were mainly, "What what one could, or couldn't buy".And yet, all that mulling over seems to be a thing of the past. We are living in the times of a Pandemic, which has brought the world down to its knees. 

The garden grew this way and

that as a circle of flowers gathered

to discuss the meaning of life. The

tulip leaned toward the peony and

asked, “Is there a purpose to any of

this?” The peony, drooping toward

the ground, replied, “Oh, can’t you

see? Our purpose is to open when

filled with light.” The rose shook

its pistil, pondering, “If this is a gift,

then who is the giver?” The shrubs

and trees fell silent till the iris gently

swayed, offering under the wind,

“The giver is that great force that

causes us to break ground.” A young

boy was listening and thought they

were talking about the fate of young

boys. He told his grandfather who

knew the boy had heard the

secret of all desire.

We each discover the Timeless Center through love and suffering. And just seeing the Center burn under everything changes the way we look at the stars, the way we hold the wood we gather. It changes what we see while making love. Once entering this moment, waves of feeling ache close to the bone. I used to think that ache was sadness, and spent many years trying to get rid of it. But now, it is deeper than not getting what I want or losing what I need. Now I feel this ache, the way the earth feels its core grind about that central fire that no one sees. It is the slight burn of being here. Thankfully, we are brought in accord with life by making a covenant with the sweet ache of being here, each of us hollowed, in time, to an instrument of care. It’s how the fire of life that no one sees keeps singing. This is our destiny: to awaken our soul by loving the Center under everything. This is the hard-earned peace, which no one can teach, that keeps the light of Spirit rising in the world.

A Question to Walk With: Describe what it means to you to wake close to the bone. How would you describe the difference between sadness and a feeling of depth?

Did you truly choose this path?

The Practice:
Find your own way.

Why?

The human body has about 100 trillion cells (plus another ten quadrillion microscopic critters hitching a ride, most of them beneficial or harmless). Each one of your cells has aims – goals, in a sense – controlled by its DNA: cells conduct processes aimed at particular functions, like building bones or gobbling up harmful invaders. Cells also work together in larger and larger assemblies in pursuit of broader goals, such as the 100 billion neurons in your brain that run the nervous system, which as a whole is itself the master regulator of the body.

In effect, there are layers, hierarchies, of goals in the body – and a similar architecture of aims in the mind. For example, operating right now is the goal of moving your eyes over these words, which serves the goal of understanding them, which serves larger goals such as desires to learn new things, new skills, and to be truly happy.

In short, whether in the body or the mind, there is no life without goals. Trying to “transcend” goals is itself a goal. The only question is: Are your goals good ones? In other words, do they lead to happiness and benefits for you and others rather than suffering and harms?

Times are tough for a lot of people right now. I get that’s an understatement but I am fortunate to be able to continue to serve and keep my business doors open so I feel I am in a position of privilege and can help people, and so I am, in any way I can.  The other day, I felt moved to send money to an old friend whom I know is out of work right now, just as a gift. We’ve known each other for years and had attended a woman’s group together when I lived in the US full time. She posted on Facebook that this happened to her. So my spidey senses went ding ding and I sent it.

When she received it, she called me and said, “Oh, Colette I can’t believe you did this.  Thank you, but I really can’t accept this. I’m good. I just know Spirit is going to look after me. I am really tuning in to manifesting something.” 

I paused and thoughtfully said, “Well, how did you think that was gonna happen? Maybe Spirit just told me to send you cash because you’re not working. You’re a single mom with small kids and no job! That is pretty darn good manifesting!”

All she could say was, “…Oh!”

Is the entry point to making leaps in consciousness always preceded by darkness?

 

I ponder Joseph Campbell’s Hero's Journey, the “Dark Night of the Soul”; considered to be a spiritual depression, an acute existential crisis requiring a deep dive into one’s darkest depths that must be endured before enlightenment. Dark Night of the Soul is not a new concept, the earliest origins date back to a poem written by the 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross. The void, or “the abyss” as I used to call it, appears to be the critical “space/place” of healing. The properties of this void intrigued me, is this “the nothing”(ness)?

 

It took me back to thoughts of one of my favourite childhood films and of Atreyu on his quest in The Neverending Story. The protagonist having endured the depressing death of his beloved horse Artax, is now on board the luck dragon; Falkor, in search of the borders of Fantasia…The experience within the void prickles with pure potential. He must pass through 3 gates to give a new name to the Childlike Empress, and save Fantasia from vanishing from existence.

All of us in Humanity’s Team hope you and yours are navigating the lockdown with peace and equanimity. We know how challenging it can be to find quiet space at home, attend to kids, and support seniors who might have special needs.

I’m writing to you today about something that has emerged as an urgent priority during the Coronavirus pandemic.

This urgency is that we not let the opportunity slip away from us to transform the ‘pause’ we are currently experiencing in our communities and in the world. Pause means temporary stop. Generally, when we move past ‘pause,’ we continue in the same direction.

We are going through a very emotional time right now with all of the changes we are facing during the pandemic. Many people are feeling on edge — anxious that they might lose their jobs, worried over making ends meet, and scared about keeping themselves and their families safe.

People may also be feeling loneliness due to social isolation, disappointment over canceled plans, and an overwhelming sense of uncertainty about what the future holds.

We know that stress is harmful to our physical, mental, and emotional health and our relationships. Higher levels of stress have been proven to wreak havoc with the body's ability to regulate inflammation, potentially making us more susceptible to physical illness. 

Feelings of negativity, pessimism, worry, and despair may also corrode our sense of well-being and rob us of the joy and the hope we need to make it through difficult times.

Fortunately, there are things we can do to cultivate feelings of calm, hope, and positivity, even when we face a personal or collective crisis. Here are a few:

Does money buy happiness? Experts will tell you “no, of course not,” but according to a new survey, 90 percent of the top 1 percent of U.S. household income earners—those who earn $500,000 per year or more—claim to be “completely” or “very” satisfied with their lives overall. 

If money doesn’t buy happiness, then what’s going on here?

The Difference Between Wealth and REAL WEALTH

The 1 percent that are completely or highly satisfied with their lives are embodying what I call “living in a state of REAL WEALTH” rather than just a state of monetary wealth. Monetary wealth is unsustainable in terms of supplying happiness since it relies entirely on external factors to provide fulfillment. REAL WEALTH is deeply satisfying since it goes much deeper than that.

Wouldn’t ya know! The enemy isn’t Russian, Chinese, or even North Korean. It’s not an enemy that the Pentagon can shoot down with a missile. Not one the NRA can aim an AK-47 at, shouting “Make my day!” 
 

It’s just a tiny invisible thing that under the microscope resembles my grandmother’s pin cushion. 
 

But, it’s got us – Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, Americans, everyone – asking:
 

When will the Coronavirus crisis end and we return to normal? 
 

The simple and obvious answer, yet one that may seem difficult to accept, is: “Never.” 
 

Never?
 

Yup. The old normal is gone. Global catastrophes like wars and the Great Depression change the world forever and this pandemic will have similar impacts to those of a major war or depression. Except the enemy is invisible. We won’t be breaking any bent-knees-general’s sword or demanding surrender conditions from a bomb-vested terrorist.

“From the moment you were born, throughout your childhood, early adolescence, and late teens, you have been conditioned out of your authenticity and away from your Divine Essence.“

You have been influenced and altered, so you could please others. You have conformed, learning to live from fear, inadequacy, and scarcity, because those are the energies that dominate the world you live in, where it is wrong to get angry, to feel sadness, to feel pain. You created a facade that was good enough

Everywhere you looked, there it was—­conditioning, an insidious control mechanism that makes you believe you must think, look, speak, and act a certain way to gain love and acceptance.