OMTimes Magazine ( July) – Gifts Keep On Giving, Kathy Custren

Gifts Keep On Giving

A recent email about future possibilities managed to spark a little something. The day the email came felt a little odd to me. It turned out that my sense of disconnection was coming true in more ways than one–but more on that later.

The gist of the email was that there is more to life and that we were shifting into a new paradigm. Such messages are not very specific about what the future might hold. There was no defined vision to grasp. Naturally, that set me to thinking.

What might it take for us to envision another existence–a different and perhaps a better one from the one we are now experiencing?

1. Knowing/understanding what works best for you. ~ When it comes to relationships (people, work, etc.) what is it about them that empowers us and helps keep our own life in balance?

2. Regular attunement of self. ~ Connecting with Spirit; paying attention to dis-ease before it gets extreme.

3. Service to others. ~ Finding a way to align with the “greater good.” This may mean a multi-faceted approach, combining the material and spiritual worlds. Nurturing and caring for what we are and have. What goes around comes around.

4. Joining/acknowledgment of other forces/entities. ~ Moving beyond self; being a part of a larger group/tribe/effort, on a global scale; less of the ‘divide and conquer’ mentality.

5. Vision/foresight/planning and doing; what WE make it to be–sustainably. ~ Being proactive, asserting culture, groundwork, and sustainability. Using less forced compliance; something that provides a lasting positive expression (versus) chasing and fixing negative expression.

This will do–five little items–enough to count off on one hand if one has all five fingers.

In many aspects in life, we have worries about “making it” – physically, financially, politically, and spiritually. These can be task- or goal-specific. In order to make it through, we have to keep a view in sight–some sort of vision–with an eye on where we are going and what we “need.”

Separating wheat from chaff–shaking out–some cannot and will not “get it” and we must care about them as well. Compassion and love gives us chance to prove these aspects are strong in us, and that there is strength in love. We can choose to allow the feminine aspects light our path, instead of fighting to get our way because we know love comes through in peaceful, natural expression.

Discipline (in various forms), doing work, keeping focus is important. This means discipline as opposed to rote ritual. We are not all predisposed to rising and shining at the same time every day. Natural rhythms change, and we need to change along with them. This may be especially true for those people who feel or may have been told their concentration is not what it could be. We can all choose to progress.

There is a reason why books about 2012 and current wonderings about 2013 keep us guessing. It is up to us to figure out where we are going. There is no roadmap to the future or to sustainability. We can look to nature to show us the best way forward.

Similar to the many other systems on the planet, nature does have a way of replenishing supply. Demand may vary, but supply is always available in some measure. The same can be said for us, the human population, since we are part of the larger, natural whole.

There may be fluctuations, and there are actions we can take to ensure the way our relationship to nature continues. The very first would be to examine our relationship to the Earth and growth. Historically, this has meant finding our sustenance from planting crops. The crops now being planted are no longer natural products–they have been modified for reasons of profit.

Do we need profit or do we need to exist with our surroundings?

We have lived for a number of years along the profit path, and we can certainly see that it is a moneymaker–for those who have the money. Too many of us are left with illness or other dis-eases that make us ever more dependent upon the profit system. When there are rules ‘against’ being able to grow one’s own food or to otherwise exist with freedom, this takes away our connection to the natural process.

When we examine our relationship to others these days, we may find that technology with its effectiveness has both helped and hindered us. There are many wonderful things that come to us through technology–some great advancements that might otherwise have gone undiscovered. However, we are seeing yet another shakeout of separation when it comes to the ways technology affects our existence.

There was talk years ago about the digital divide that included worries about how poorer populations would not be as ready to make the leaps forward when it comes to communications and learning. Not having the money to afford such things as cell phones or computers would leave a good number of people behind.

The proliferation of affordable items has reduced those initial worries and replaced them with something else. Almost everyone can afford some sort of pocket technology today. Not everyone has the latest smart phone or the newest tablet; yet awareness and comfort with technology has certainly taken hold.

The problem now progresses to access–and whether a family or business can afford to join in on communications. While certain businesses or areas have open wireless connections, these hot spots are not available universally. This does affect the quality of life for many–both positively and negatively.

In addition to creative learning experiences, young people use digital devices as a means of diversion. They escape into alternate realities with game and role-playing, or spend many hours a day with their faces before a screen texting messages to each other instead of talking aloud. Parents are left wondering why there is a lack of social skills across such a wide number of young people and what can be done to improve what is lost.

We get used to new things rather quickly–especially when they are easy to do. It becomes a challenge to make an effort when there is technology right there to do it for us. Whether it is speaking, planting a field of crops, or building some piece of machinery, we are easing and conveniencing ourselves into obsolescence. There is nothing sustainable about that. We then become quite expendable.

Those of us who care, who seek to serve and define the indefinable, certainly have our work cut out for us. In setting the vision for whatever is to come, from our perspective, we do need to maintain our human rights and needs while at the same time removing that which no longer serves us. The imbalance must be corrected before it is too late.

It is this sense of dire doom that those profiteering from the current system would have us fear the most. Without technology, or convenience, or money, where would we be?

Frightening thought, right?

Almost as scary as imagining a world without us in it, we might say. Hmmm….

The sense of disconnection mentioned earlier came on a day when my personal email account was hacked by some entity in another location or two. This planned invasion of someone’s privacy is not uncommon. Fortunately, my life is a rather open book and people who know me were more concerned about my account being ravaged than whether the emailed message seeking money was true. If the thieves thought to make a profit from their attempt, it may prove rather fruitless.

More frustrating is that, with a few keystrokes, it set in play a vulnerability factor. Information is “out there” somewhere and less secure. Additional messages could come back to haunt people or companies who know me. The event was made more problematic by being away from the computer all day and unable to make changes happen quickly. This very same sense of frustrating, helpless disconnection can underlie what we all may feel when it comes to the way technology is misused and brings harm.

Technology is not part of the natural process, no matter how much we try to convince ourselves it is. Can we use it? Sure! Do we need it to survive? No, not all of it. A simple way to check is to take a look at our refuse.

The desire to use, tamper with, and destroy the energies or information of others certainly carries across domains and appears to be negative part of our nature.

Efforts to be sustainable are clearly linked with natural change. Sustainability may only be as effective as our positive strengths and vulnerabilities provide. The ability to overcome the frustration of disconnection peacefully and compassionately and return to being connected naturally, is one vision we must have as we move forward.

For our consideration. ~ Namaste ~ Blessings

By Kathy Custren

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