Letting Go of Controlling Others

A belief that the behavior of others must be controlled — so that your observation of that good behavior will make you feel good — leaves you feeling vulnerable to their behavior. We would like to help you to understand that neither the good feeling you find when you observe wanted behavior, nor the bad feeling you find when you observe unwanted behavior, is actually the reason that you feel good or bad. The way you feel is only ever about your alignment, or misalignment, with the Source within you. It is only your relationship with the Source within you that is the reason for the emotions that you feel. While it is nice to find things in your physical environment that enhance your good-feeling; alignment with your Inner Being, your understanding of why you feel good, will make it possible for you to feel good regardless of the behavior of others. Understanding that the way you feel is really about your Vibrational Relationship with your Inner Being — with the Source within you... gives you complete empowerment and absolute freedom.
- Abraham-Hicks

Allowing Ease, not Effort

Most rarely align with their true power,
because it seems illogical to them
that there is power in relaxation,
in letting go,
or in love or joy or bliss.
Most people do not understand
that their true power lies in releasing resistance—
which is the only obstacle to their true power.
Most people do not expect their path to great abundance
to be one of ease and of joy.
They have been taught
that struggle and hardship and sacrifice
are requirements that must be met
before the reward of great abundance can be realized.
Most do not understand
that the very struggle
they deliberately involve themselves in,
in their quest for success and advantage,
actually works against them.
There are so many things
that you have been taught to believe
that are counter to the powerful Laws of the Universe
that it is difficult for you to think your way out.
And that is the reason
that we present this path of much less resistance.
We want you to breathe rather than try,
to relax rather than offer effort,
to smile rather than struggle,
to be rather than do.
For your true power is experienced only from inside…
- Abraham-Hicks

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Finding Freedom from Judgment

I just had an ah-ha light bulb go off!  

Here’s the background:

I have encountered different people and groups who don’t feel comfortable with folks who are ‘healing’.  

And by ‘healing’ I mean – in process: 

still releasing or potentially releasing all kinds of yucky stuff: hate, invalidation, competition, fear, etc

I am still in process, still healing, and there are people and groups that I feel especially uncomfortable with, 

because I know they perceive my brokenness / darkness / evil 

and I don’t feel accepted and loved because of that. 

 In their presence I get a more intense story that I ‘should’ be better, different, healed already! 

 I am not OK, just as I am, and just as I’m not…

Now, of course, because I am still in the healing and acceptance process, 

I have all these stories anyway 

– I want to hide under a rock and I don’t feel good about myself as I am, in some deep yucky levels of my system. 

 This is all MY stuff.

But SOME people and groups assist me to want to hide MORE and not feel good about myself MORE.  

This is my reaction to THEIR stuff on top of MY stuff.

.
I like to tell my students:

- Sometimes I walk in to a room and feel more warm, beautiful, charming and loved - YUM! 

This is likely energy bouncing back and forth with others and mirroring back to me things, for example, like validation from them to me (i.e. I’m ok, it’s ok)

- Sometimes I walk into a room and feel all of a sudden like a fat, stupid cow, and my Mother dresses me funny - YUCK! 

 There are a few options about what could be going on, one is: 

this could be energy bouncing back and forth with others and mirroring back to me things like invalidation from them to me (i.e. I’m not ok, it’s not ok). 

 Their invalidation bounces into MY own invalidation in my own system and hits/hurts/hooks. 

 My own crap is mirrored back at me, seemingly from outside, and more painful because of that! 

  
..........- Meanwhile, the more I heal, the less this is an issue, because as I let go of invalidation in my system, their invalidation doesn’t hit/hurt/hook me – it just sails right through my system. 

This is part of why things like: ‘healing yourself heals the world’ 

and ‘be the change you want to see in the world’, 

and ‘don’t walk anywhere to preach unless your walking IS your preaching’ matter so much. 

 This is part of why Spiritual Masters are such a healing influence in the world, and such a healing to be near: 

they don’t reflect back our shit (because they aren’t holding on to it) – it sails right through! 

They reflect back our Beauty and Wholeness – and so we can more easily allow our Beauty and Wholeness to BE. 

...........- AND Meanwhile, as long as I have a standard-issue human body, I am likely to have a little or a lot of invalidation 'lying around' in my space, 

and opportunities to let go of invalidation and many other kinds of ‘hooks’ in my system. 

 Learning to let go of hooks will remain a game I have the opportunity to play: one of the healing games ; )

.
A couple interesting things to note about this illustration:

- Jesus spoke about ‘judge not lest ye be judged’ 

 If I hold judgment (competition) in my space, I will not only judge others but also judge myself – there is no way around it. 

All the energy in our system, in this case judgment, is a two-way street! 

If I want to experience the world as safe, easy, joyful, 

I must let go of things like judgment, 

otherwise I will never allow myself to fully enjoy the grace, peace, freedom of God.  

- More about energy in the system being a two-way street: 

 The more I allow the spiritual fruits into my life, and allow the intellectual and emotional and other energetic ‘garbage’ out of my system, 

of course it is more comfortable for me to BE myself and PLAY in the world. 

Also it is A LOT easier for OTHERS to be with me and play with me, as well.

.
These shifts may seem simple to say, and sometimes harder to do, but I believe 

PERCEIVING/ VALIDATING where the issues are (one could call this acknowledging Truth) 

and CHOOSING to allow change (one could call this allowing Grace ; ) 

gets me a great chunk of the way there. 

 We have a lot more power than we may think, 

and a lot more spiritual help than we may acknowledge! 

And I am blessed to utilize spiritual techniques that totally ROCK for supporting me to make these kinds of changes! 

And of course, I am still learning and growing. 

As I said above, sometimes I still give my power away when I experience judgment: especially with ‘very spiritual’ folks. 

I tell myself things like this:

- They know BETTER THAN ME who I ‘should’ be and what I ‘should’ do. 

I should listen to them, not myself and God…

- Oh, their judgment really is valid, I really DO SUCK. 

 I should go back and hide under a rock and feel bad about myself until I am ‘fixed’

… Like that’s gonna happen: 

acceptance and change is hard enough, 

doing that while beating myself up, under a rock: THAT sounds like a rock too big for God to move ; )

.
I’ve been stuck about these issues 

of allowing other’s judgment of me 

(especially ‘Authorities’ judgment... and punishment!) 

to be true for me, well, my whole life… 

But so much has shifted and changed and lightened and become easier in the last decade, 

this place of stuckness around judgment by ‘spiritual authorities’ has kinda stood out like a ‘sore thumb’. 

A place of obvious discomfort and darkness in my life; 

a life that I am generally allowing to be continually freer and easier…

.
SO, I just had an ah-ha light bulb go off!

Tonight – AH-HA – TA-DA. 

 I got some light on the subject, some insight, some traction! 

And already I experiencing shift... 

BBWWWAAHHHHAAAAHHHHAAAA (Happy Halloween! ; )

.
OK, this is what happened:
Michael came out of his office radiating FEAR.

Let me back up and say 2 things:

- My partner Michael is amazing and wonderful. 

He, and also we, are up against some incredibly challenging, fear-inducing stuff. 

 Fear is a very valid reaction under the circumstances, and generally he is doing a really Great job with it.

- If I am ‘owning’ my fear, I can handle it in my space. 

If I am not ‘owning’ my fear, if it is part of my ‘shadow’. 

I will experience it less (maybe much less or not at all), 

BUT those around me will get ‘hit’ with it more – it will radiate out around me. 

This helps me understand some really paradoxical experiences in my life: 

Why do folks think I am being a ‘witch’ when I think I am being nice? 

 Why am I afraid of some people who seem to be gentle and kind?

.
OK, so, 

Michael came out of his office radiating FEAR.

It felt very uncomfortable to me and I thought – ugh. 

I don’t like this, I don’t need this on top of my stuff, 

I want one of us to go away so I can feel better and not have to deal with all this fear… 

And Ah-ha! I got it. 

THAT is what is going on with these people and groups that I feel especially uncomfortable with! 

They are not comfortable with whatever I am experiencing, 

or not wanting to experience in my space: hate, invalidation, competition, fear, whatever. 

It is hitting them in the places they are not healed yet, either; and ‘hooking’ them. 

They are HOOKED, so they are not happy in themselves and they are not happy with me for ‘CAUSING’ it! 

This is great news: this is just regular garden variety, every-time-we-turn-around energy action-reaction described above. 

They are HUMAN, they are annoyed because of their hooks, their unhealed parts. 

 That’s the whole story – hallelujah.

.
I erroneously had it in my head, in my heart, that since these people and groups were ‘spiritually advanced’ 

therefore, the ‘problem’ couldn’t be THEM it must be ME! 

If they were annoyed I must be very, very bad 

and I better run to find my rock to hide under. 

But all of a sudden I could acknowledge that they are annoyed because of their own hooks. 

If they weren’t hooked, they wouldn’t be annoyed!!  

.
I have to say that one again: 

If they weren’t hooked, they wouldn’t be annoyed!! 

I am not especially BAD.

I am just a normal human being filled with all kinds of energies, including hate, invalidation, competition, and fear – JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER HUMAN – each in our own unique measures. 

Oh, what a relief!

.
This allows me to let go of loads of pressure that I have been carrying! 

 It doesn’t matter who this person is who is judging me, 

it doesn’t matter how ‘spiritually evolved’ they seem, or how ‘spiritually capable’ they are. 

If they are judging me, it is their ‘problem’, not mine! 

 Interaction with me is lighting up for them something they can allow God to heal, if they so choose. 

And if they don’t choose to let it go, it’s NOT MY FAULT. 

 If they are suffering about their reaction to my energies, it is between them and God 

– it is not something for ME to suffer about!

And of course I don’t like uncomfortable reactions to me, 

but heck, I have tools for this! 

This is garden-variety, this is just more healing, like I am doing every day – I can handle this! 

When I don’t take it personally, when I don’t make up stories that I am ridiculously rotten, 

THEN I can get un-hooked quite easily. 

 I can just ‘Let Go and Let God’!

.
So, to finish the story…One More Time: 
Michael came out of his office radiating FEAR.

It felt very uncomfortable to me and I thought – ugh. 

I don’t like this, I don’t need this on top of my stuff, 

I want one of us to go away so I can feel better and not have to deal with all this fear… 

Then I had an Ah-HA moment, which as these things do, took a micro-second ; )

And because of that insight, 

I easily and almost immediately STOPPED resisting and judging him for his experience, 

and how he was not ‘owning’ his experience 

and therefore spewing FEAR ‘all over me’. 

And started releasing my own fear, and allowing love and acceptance instead. 

Again, almost immediately, my very uncomfortable reaction to his fear went away. 

And then, almost immediately, his fear stopped spewing out. 

It was that easy and that fast: healing happened in a few seconds… 

and he and I get to live in a different world than we had been living in before.

Hallelujah and Amen!

.
Lastly, I find this interesting: 

 a couple days ago, I had a cool interaction on FB which started with the Jung quote which begins: 

‘We cannot change anything unless we accept it.’ 

(See here for full quote, its really good ; ) 

Then, a friend brought up 'The Paradoxical Theory of Change':'

When you hate something and you try to change it, it will never change. 

When you accept what you hate, change occurs spontaneously.' 

This reminded me of what I have been hearing from many folks since I was a teenager: 

‘What we Resist, Persists’.

‘What we Resist, Persists’ is a principle which many have found to be true and useful, including myself. 

But I haven’t really understood WHY it is so? 

So I have been ASKing.

As I finish writing this sharing, 

I am finding that I am RECEIVING:

much of what I have written here seems to address this very issue: 

some of the reasons why judgment (competition), resistance, fear, hate, etc., 

directly block shift, change and healing from occurring in ourselves and others; 

and why letting go of these energies encourages healing and change, within and in the world.

Again: 
Hallelujah and Amen!


Peace, Love and Understanding, 
; ) w

The so-called "WAR" between men and women

What if the issues between men and women weren't all or mostly because we are different sex/genders, but rather because we are love/sex objects for each other?

I am very enrolled in Imago theory, which basically says: I am attracted to those who remind me of my early care-givers - in positive and negative ways. I want to bond, love and be loved, heal and be healed - and make it come out RIGHT this time. Often this feels very good in the beginning, and devolves to feeling not so good and going not so smoothly as time goes on... especially if I am not conscious about healing myself, supporting the other, deliberate in my communication, and especially receiving directly from God.

I like to share in meditation classes a picture that one of my 'healees' showed me a few years ago. She was monogamously married, but infatuated with some guy - you know the story...

When I looked at it, and saw very clearly that energetically this guy was a 'gumball machine' to her - she believed she could receive the things she was missing in her life and her 'heart' from him (she completely made-up this idea, but it was an enrolling fantasy nonetheless ;)

I saw that she really could receive all the things she was looking for outside herself (from the elusive gumball machine), directly, energetically, in a very real way: from God and from her connection with the earth (this is a soul practice, which is delicious and I highly recommend, BTW ;)

My assumptions:

- Being self-contained, receiving what we need spiritually first, from within, is not a common practice in our culture.

- Most people don't even have a concept this Can happen, and certainly don't know how to Open to this kind of soul experience.

- Meanwhile, the basic paradigm in our society is "fall in love" (find a gumball machine that will give me the best approximation of what I need, do whatever I have to do the get the gumball machine to give me what I want; repeat, ad nauseum). 

Then probably "fall out of love" (when the cost becomes much higher than the value of the gumballs... then I need to find a new and better gumball machine).

- Our basic beliefs around romantic relationships in our society don't serve us very well...


If I need something from my gumball machine that I can't get it to give me, or I can't find another gumball machine: isn't it a very small step to judging, blaming, hating the sex/gender from which I enjoy finding my gumball machines? Is it really the FAULT of the 'pink' team (or the 'blue' team, or 'purple') that one of the 'pink' (or one of the 'blue', or 'purple') gumball machines won't line up in perpetuity to be a good-little-gumball-provider for me?

Meanwhile, from the other side: 

when I go around trying to get my needs met from others, 'outside myself', I can get very attached, controlling, irrational, manipulative, desperate, etc. 

It isn't pretty - really, you don't want to see it... 

*I* certainly don't want to see how ugly I can get! 

It may be easy for some to make up a story that I act that way because I am on the 'pink' team. Sure, I act certain ways because I am in a female body and because I am socialized as a female in this culture – but the REAL issue with my behavior, in this particular scenario, is not about which sex/gender body I am in, rather it is that I am STARVING for gumballs!

I act crazy when I am starving - most people do - it is understandable. 

I hope we can deepen into more compassion for each other around this. 

And most importantly, I hope we can all continue to learn to go to God for the gumballs: because we really do need them – we just don’t HAVE to get them ‘out there’. 

Actually when I Have them 'in here' already - they quite magically SHOW UP 'OUT THERE'... it's just how it works... (there are some good reasons why this is so, but it is off-track in this conversation ; )


Meanwhile, I am not saying there is no value in a sexual and/or romantic partner - because certainly there is! 

But, the more I can be self-contained - the more my basic needs are met: 

the more I can choose to enjoy and invest in relationships or not: 

the better my relationships go! 

So, when I do, especially, the soul 'work'; as well the emotional and relational and communication-al 'work': my relationships are Quite Delicious, and I am generally easy and fun to play with, in them.


So, back to my main point: 

How much are the issues about gender? 

How much are they about other things, such as:
- Having so much pressure on my love/sex-object to fulfill so many of my needs, as the examples above.
ALSO:
- Dealing with all the projections, emotions, thoughts... I have about past intimates as well as how my intimates SHOULD be 

There is A LOT of unconscious stuff that comes up for me in (especially) my romantic (as well as other) relationships, that is completely irrational and non-tangential!
- projections, emotions, thoughts... I have regarding whatever sex/gender I am relating to ("men ARE this"... "women ARE that")

THESE things are an awful lot of baggage to try to have a relationship through! 

And these are just the obvious issues that come to mind as I write this...


My experience has been, as someone with several long and short-term romantic/sexual relationships with each gender: 

for me relational strife has very little to do with how annoying men are and how annoying women are - because I can tell you from hard experience: 

they EACH can be freaking annoying in intimate relationship, as I certainly can be, as well ; )

SO I am not enrolled that the issue of sex/gender is the most important issue. 

I recognize it is an issue to be managed and enjoyed, 

but these challenges are much easier to manage as I do my work, and deal with some of the other issues as named above. PTL!

Thanks for reading!
; ) wendy

... I'm here...

I’m not here to be perfect, I’m here to be happy.

I’m not here to be perfectly happy, I’m here to be a work-in-progress happy.

I’m not here to tough it out, I’m here to savor this moment.

I’m not here to notice what’s wrong, I’m here to celebrate what’s right.

I’m not here to perfect the world, I’m here to witness its perfection.

I’m not here to accomplish greatness, I’m here to see the greatness in what I accomplish.

I’m not here to prove myself worthy, I’m here to know myself worthy and accept the benefits.

I’m not here to gain others’ approval, I’m here to approve of myself – and let it go at that.

I’m not here to take life seriously, I’m here to take life as it comes – And chuckle.

I’m not here to impose my beliefs on others, I’m here to suspect we all have a chunk of the truth.

I’m not here to struggle my way to my goals, I’m here to envision them, welcome them, and dream up goals anew.

I’m not here to feel frustrated, I’m here to feel fulfilled yet eager for more.

I’m not here to regret the past, I’m here to say goodbye to it – With a kiss.

I’m not here to work off karma, I’m here to play in the clay of creation.

I’m not here to fear death, I’m here to allow my fears to die.

I’m not here to live in bliss, I’m here to ever move in that direction.

I’m not here to fidget over setbacks, I’m here to appreciate overall progress.

I’m not here to search for God, I’m here to rest assured there’s nothing else.

Author unknown

Experience Reality

.

All that really matters is that we have our own authentic, direct, immediate and intimate experience of God. It’s not difficult, because God doesn’t withhold Himself. But you have to look for God where he can actually be found. Which is within. Jesus says in Luke 17:21 – “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The kingdom of God that’s within you is the truth about what you actually are. What it really is that you truly are, is what God is that can actually be experienced.

So with deliberate intention look directly within. Experience what is actually there. Taste what you actually are. Meet what God actually is. See for yourself where God truly is found.

You don’t need teachers’ descriptions. Do you need to have the flavor of watermelon described in order to be able to taste it? Neither do you need to have your oneness with God described in order for you to be able to experience it.

We’ve been conned to believe we only can taste what we’re taught. But that’s not true. The only way to experience what’s real, is to taste it all by yourself on your own. There’s no other way it can happen, and no other way that it will.

The reason you can directly experience what God truly is, is because God truly is within you. He couldn’t be more immediate, intimate, available or closer. Never mind what you’ve been taught about God. Never mind what you’ve been taught about yourself. Watermelon descriptions are useless. What you want to do is intimately meet what you actually are. There’s no other way to experience what God actually is.

- Ben Gilberti

Choose: the spiritual way or the un-natural way, the material way

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Exerpts from White Buffalo Teachings

When I was 12 years old, words of our ancient Prophecies were instilled in me by our Spiritual Elders of that time. Those Prophecies concern drastic changes that would come to all life upon Mother Earth. These changes are here with us today!

Our Prophecies tell us that we are at the Crossroads. We face chaos, disaster, and endless tears from our relatives’ eyes - or we can unite spiritually in peace and harmony. It’s time to bring the Message of the urgent need for Peace, of creating an energy shift throughout the world.

As Keeper of the Sacred C’anupa Bundle, I ask for your prayers for Global Healing. Our Mother Earth is suffering. Her wonderful gifts — the water, the trees, the air — are being abused. Her children — the two-legged, the four-legged, those that swim, crawl and fly — are being annihilated. We see such atrocities occurring everywhere.

Nineteen generations ago the beautiful spirit we now refer to as Pte-san win-yan (White Buffalo Calf Woman) brought the Sacred C’anupa to our People. She taught the People the Seven Sacred Rites and how to walk upon Mother Earth in a sacred manner. She said, "Only the good shall see the Pipe…the bad shall not see it or touch it."...

We must comprehend in each of our hearts and minds the two ways we human beings are free to follow, as we choose: the good way, the spiritual way - or the un-natural way, the material way. It’s our personal choice, our personal decision - each of ours and all of ours.

You, yourself, are the one who must decide. You alone can choose. Whatever you decide is what you’ll be - good or bad. You cannot escape the consequences of your own decision. On your decision — yes, on your own personal decision — depends the fate of the World.

You can’t avoid it. You must decide. You personally - each of us personally - is put here in this time and this place to decide the future of humankind.

Did you think you were put here for something less?

Did you think the Creator would create unnecessary people in a time of such terrible danger?

Know that you are essential to this World. Believe that. Understand that. You yourself are desperately needed.

This is the message that I carry to you as we stand at this Crossroads in history — I, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, known also as Horse Man, Keeper of the Sacred C’anupa (pipe) brought to the Lakota-Dakota-Nakota Nation by the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman nineteen generations ago.

Hau kola. I am honored to greet you. I honor your sacredness, your humanness. I ask you to honor mine. It is good that we meet. Yes, good. Wasté! Mitakuye Oyasin.

When we say Mitakuye Oyasin — "All Our Relations" — many people don’t understand the meaning of those words. The phrase Mitakuye Oyasin has a bigger meaning than just our blood relatives. Yes, it’s true; we are all one human race. But the word Mitakuye means relations and Oyasin means more than family, more than a Nation, more than all of humankind. Everything that has a spirit.

The Earth herself, Maka Unci, is our relation, and so is the sky - Grandfather Sky - and so is the Buffalo…and so are each of the two-leggeds, the four-leggeds, those that swim, those that fly, the root nation, and the crawling beings who share the world with us. Mitakuye Oyasin refers to the interconnectedness of all beings and all things. We are all interconnected. We are all One.

Don’t call us "earth-based," as if we worship the Earth. We don’t worship her. We honor her. But to worship anyone, we, the Indigenous, will never do that. We humble ourselves to the sacred energy of all life knowing we are one. We stand up when we address the Creator, we bow down and touch the earth, to acknowledge and give thanks to our Mother.

We see ourselves as part of the universe, part of all that is seen, and part of all that is unseen. We recognize that we are no better - and no worse - than the grasses, the trees, the birds, the insects, the animals, the stars.

But we also understand that we humans are different. Each being of Creation has a unique role and place, and a specific task to perform. Our Original Instructions tell us what our role is, where our place is, and what our task is as human beings.

Do you know your task? Unless you know it, and then perform it in this life, you have strayed from the Good Red Road that the Creator - Wakan Tanka - has given each of us to walk.

Even those who don’t know how will pray or meditate. They will learn to contribute their energy. All people need to learn that within each of us, we have this ability and gift.

Yes, our life energy must be a gift for our future. Your life, my life, everybody’s life must follow your given path.

So pray or meditate. Follow your inner path and learn just how powerful you are and learn that you are a leader for your people, your family, your children, and the Mother Earth.

What happens within us happens in the World.
We are the Message of the World.
As we are and as we do,
So the World will be.

When the people of all colors pray together with the Sacred C’anupa (pipe), or with any other sacred gifts given by the creator, even with just our natural spirit energy — without anger or resentment or prejudice — extremely powerful things can occur. When we do this with a good heart and in a sacred way we can - and will - change the world!

When you begin to believe in the sacred way of life, you will begin to understand the importance of the sacred sites, knowing that they are a connection to Mother Earth. You will understand the traditions and the ability to see the prophecies that were passed down through the generations of Ancestors, who lived in harmony. They had seen what was in store for their seven generations to come (us), they prayed we would re-find the "key" to harmony in understanding the Spirit of the Circle of Life. It is then that you assist in bringing health, prosperity and balance back to Mother Earth. That is human sacrifice and spiritual growth. That is the way. We as the Buffalo People believe in this circle of life, where there is no ending and no beginning. The process of mending the sacred hoop continues.....

Know that you yourself are essential to this world. Believe that. Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. You yourself are desperately needed to save the Soul of this World. Did you think you were put here for something less?

-Chief Arvol Looking Horse

Messenger

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Messenger
Mary Oliver

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
/ equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
/ keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be
/ astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
/ and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
/ to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

The Warrior is a Child

Recently reminded of Twila Paris' The Warrior is a Child

Blast from the past!
And, I often think about this image, when things get rough, and I start draggin'

They don't know that I go running home when I fall down
They don't know who picks me up when no one is around
I drop my sword and cry for just a while
'Cause deep inside this armour
The warrior is a child.

Might as well take the opportunity to enjoy the fantastic, useful, encouraging, inspiring and all-too-true scripture on which this song builds, below.

Blessings! Wendy

Ephesians 6 (NKJV):
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints...

The Peace of Wild Things

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The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

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What We Resist, Persists

from Jung to a group of ministers in 1932:
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People forget that even doctors have moral scruples  and that certain patient’s confessions are hard even for a doctor to swallow  yet the patient does not feel himself accepted unless the very worst in him is accepted too.  
No one can bring this about by mere words.  It comes only through reflection and through the doctor’s attitude towards himself and his own dark side.
.If the doctor wants to guide another, or even accompany him a step of the way, he must feel with that person’s psyche. 
He never feels it when he passes judgment. Whether he puts his judgments into words or keeps them to himself makes not the slightest difference. To take the opposite position and to agree with the patient offhand is also of no use. 
Feeling comes only through unprejudiced objectivity.

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This sounds almost like a scientific precept and it could be confused with a purely intellectual, abstract attitude of mind, but what I mean is something quite different. 
It is a human quality, 
a kind of deep respect for the facts, for the man who suffers from them, and for the riddle of such a man’s life.

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The truly religious person has this attitude; he knows that God has brought all sorts of strange and inconceivable things to pass and seeks in the most curious ways to enter a man’s heart. 
He therefore senses in everything the unseen presence of the divine will. 
This is what I mean by unprejudiced objectivity.It is a moral achievement on the part of the doctor who ought not to let himself be repelled by sickness and corruption.

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We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses. I am the oppressor of the person I condemn, not his friend and fellow sufferer. 
I do not in the least mean to say that we must never pass judgment (discernment?)when we desire to help and improve. 
But, if the doctor wishes to help a human being, he must be able to accept him as he is and he can do this, in reality, only when he has already seen and accepted himself as he is.

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Perhaps this sounds very simple but simple things are always the most difficult. In actual life, it requires the greatest art to be simple. 
And so, acceptance of oneself is the essence of the moral problem and the acid test of one’s whole outlook on life. 
That I feed the beggar, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ
– all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. 
But what if I should discover that the least amongst them all,the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all offenders, yay the very fiend himself, 
that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy whom must be loved, what then?

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Then, as a rule, the whole truth of Christianity is reversed. 
There is then no more talk of love and long suffering. We say to the brother within us, Raka, and condemn and rage against ourselves. We hide him from the world. 
We deny ever having met this least among the lowly in ourselves and had it been God himself who drew near to us in this despicable form we should have denied him a thousand times before a single cock had crowed.

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Healing may be called a religious problem. In the sphere of social or national relations, the state of suffering may be civil war 
and this state is to be cured by the Christian virtue of forgiveness and love of one’s enemies. 
That which we recommend with the conviction of good Christians as applicable to external situations we must also apply inwardly in the treatment of neurosis. 
This is why modern man has heard enough about guilt and sin. He is sorely beset by his own bad conscience and wants rather to know how he is to reconcile himself with his own nature, 
how he is to love the enemy in his own heart and call the wolf his brother.

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The modern man does not want to know in what way he can imitate Christ but in what way he can live his own individual life, however meagre and uninteresting it may be. 
It is because every form of imitation seems to him deadening and sterile that he rebels against the force of tradition that would hold him to well-trodden ways. All such roads for him lead in the wrong direction.

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He may not know it, but he behaves as if his own individual life were God’s special will which must be fulfilled at all costs. 
This is the source of his egoism, which is one of the most tangible evils of the neurotic state. 
But the person who tells him he is too egoistic has already lost his confidence, and rightly so, for that person has driven him still further into his neurosis.

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If I wish to affect a cure for my patients, I am forced to acknowledge the deep significance of their egoism. I should be blind indeed if I did not recognise it as a true will of God. 
I must even help the patient to prevail in his egoism. If he succeeds in this, he estranges himself from other people, he drives them away and they come to themselves, as they should, for they were seeking to rob him of his sacred egoism! 
This must be left to him, for it is his strongest and healthiest power.

It is a true will of God that sometimes drives him into complete isolation. However wretched this state may be, it also stands him in good stead, for in this way alone can he get to know himself and learn what an invaluable treasure is the love of his fellow beings. 
It is, moreover, only in the state of complete abandonment and loneliness that we experience the helpful powers of our own natures.

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- C.G. Jung, CW 11, Psychology and Religion: West and East, Chapter V, "Psychotherapy or the Clergy," § 519-520
(WRW added whitespace)