The Truth in Shoveling Snow

            I woke up this morning to find the beauty of yesterday still surrounding me in my tiny cabin in the mountains.  The sun shines over the ridge behind my home to light up the mountain on the other side, a morning ritual I have come to cherish as I await the brief glimpse of pink, blue, and gold as the rays touch the mountain tip.

The view from my window

            I am here, warm, safe, protected.  The day begins with a prayer and the understanding I have worked so hard to find, that the truth of life is in the simplest and smallest of moments and thoughts.  I feel the love and the blessing I have sought for all these years and the desire to share it is renewed again.

            But as I sit here now, the day more in motion than not, reviewing the realities that others are living with war, crisis, murder, pain, suffering….my tiny moment gets lost.  How do you share what appears to be so very small when the rest of the world is focused on what seems to be so very big?  How do you convey that the big only got big because the small was swept aside and became lost of its own importance?

            I have spent the last two days shoveling the snow from my drive on the hopes that someday I can unbury my car and leave my tiny home.  Each shovel is one small act that on its own means very little.  I began when there was no ground to be seen or path to be found.  I just began in a random spot to lift the snow and move it away from where I stood.

            There is a sense of satisfaction that can't be described but only felt when you have worked hard and can now see your accomplishments.  The snow is not gone, but I can see my progress.  The fatigue in my muscles tells me I have accomplished a worthy goal and they feel satisfied to have exerted so much effort. 

25% done.....

            As I stood with my shovel and looked upon a vast amount of snow, it felt overwhelming…how could I ever get through all of this snow?  But I began, one small scoop at a time.  It has taken me many hours to do what a machine could do in a few minutes or several men could do it just a few more for a few dollars.  But the difference would be that I had not cleared my own snow, I had not felt my own muscles move, and I had not created my own space to now move freely in.

            Some would say I have taken the harder path - but I feel more like the turtle than the rabbit, slow and steady will win my race - no one else's.  What is the value of our time to us really?  No money is made by shoveling my snow myself, but the value to me is greater than anything a dollar can buy. 

            We are so focused on saving time and money to get more time and money, but what are we really seeking?  What value do we search for?  What goal is it that we seek to find that could be greater than the one we have here waiting for us in every tiny moment and simple thought?

Lilith will share her love too!

            There is no war nor murder that will bring us an answer that we think we seek.  There is no distraction that will cure the pain and suffering we so desperately as a society seek to avoid.  But how does one person tell another this?  It can only be discovered on one's own, with the infinity of time to find what is waiting for us in plain sight.

            I want to share with you what I have found - the truth as love and simple blessing that it is.  But it is not glamorous or sexy or elusive or expensive or dangerous.  It just waits, patiently and certainly for anyone who is ready to find it.  And so too will I wait, shoveling my snow, writing my words, and sharing my truth so that when anyone is ready to share the love and blessings with me, I will be here - patiently waiting for you.

jill

jillelizabeth.net

Problem or Solution?

Yesterday I wanted to further understand the problem of what is happening to the world - and I did....but here's the issue with naming the problem, sometimes it is really, really hard to let the problem go when it is SOOOO overwhelming!

I started thinking more about how we want to know what is happening, but the reality of it can be so devastating and frightening that a normal human response is to shut down, distract, or in my case go much lower in my mood than I wanted for my self.

You can't know what you do want until you name it and we most easily find the name and ownership of what we want when we name and own what we don't want.  What is happening in the world right now is a whole lot of what we don't want going on.

It is a true revolution for change or is it a facade to move us further into our fear and thus increase the control?  Do we face it or fight it or forget about it?  How do we know what is real when both sides are too incredible to fathom?

The immediate thing to do is to be aware you are off vibrationally when you find yourself more in the problem than not!  For me, a good way to ground myself back to where I want to be is to get outside, and yesterday provided stunning blue skies above a small lake surrounded by snow.  It just doesn't get any better than that!  How can I stay down when beauty surrounds me?

The problem can suck you down and drain everything you've got if you don't stop it in time.  I do not believe in hiding or denying what the problems in our lives and in this world are...but I do believe, well I know, that relief and resolution only comes when we let the problem go and move into the solution.  No one ever felt better or did anyone any good by staying stuck in the problem, no matter what its name was.

Monday is here again...Revolution and Consumer Spending

Mondays mark to me the beginning of another cycle, a new beginning of sorts.  This Monday I feel what is getting to be ever more common - a strong pulling into two directions at once.  Part of me still trying to function within the old world and another part wanting to let it all go and step fully into the new world.

Today unrest is brewing all around this world.  There are many who are calling for revolution and even more calling for change.  Yet at the same time so many are waking up, there's just as many if not more, still sleeping as I read reports of consumer spending habits are returning to previous norms now that the recession is ending - did I miss something, ending for who?

But all of that still must be woven into the everyday reality that is our individual lives.  Money, food, shelter, relationships - these realities have not changed and still require attention and decisions.  But the polarities are building as to which decision we should be making and the difficulty of knowing which world we want to support with our choices.

As I sit in my house trying to decide what to do with all the stuff of the old world, what do I take with me into the new one?  Will I choose something I won't need or even worse, leave something behind that I will?  As I write these words will I sabotage a future job with my ideas or am I ready to let go of the past and find a new way to survive in a world I can't quite see yet?

Who would have thought the idea of being able to grow food while driving my soon to be mobile home is more exciting to me than the suggestion by a family member to publish materials I no longer believe in, even if they would generate income.

For me, the decisions that I struggle with are how to stop prostituting my self in this old world doing things I don't agree with or believe in to make the money to live the way I have been told I should.  And I don't mean that in the oldest profession in the world sense, but in the more general and common sense - jobs that crush our soul, debt that crushes our spirit, and the lack of time that crushes our will to live.

I can see the big picture answers, the end of the road - but what I can't see right now are the short steps to get there...what to do in the next ten minutes that is of value to me in the new world and not a recreation of the old.

It's still Monday and I'm still in a bit of a rambling mode...but things are getting clearer and with each new Monday, closer to where I want to go.  The New World is my home, not this old one.  And, like a child who is tired of the traveling, I feel myself asking - are we there yet?

What You can do for Egypt in your own Home

It is at this time impossible to not be aware of what is happening in the Middle East and most prominantly Egypt.  Thousands are demanding freedom from what has been for them repression as it has become too much to take, so they are taking to the streets.

I don't think there is anyone who has been hungry who doesn't feel something stir within them demanding that their hunger end.  While much of the world watches fed and comfortable from their couch, it is hard to relate and even harder to know what to do.  So by our human nature we tune it out and tell ourselves it is not our fight and move on to the next form of entertainment or distraction.

But what can we do, really?  If we are to build a new world, how do we fix the old that is beyond our ability to comprehend the complexities that made the old system?

And to that I say, we can't.  We will never understand fully how everyone and everything got to where it is.  Trying to understand through analysis and education may provide a level of comprehension, but it will never be complete.  The best thing we can do is acknowledge it is a mess and then focus on what we can do to create a version we DO want.

But letting go is hard, because to let go we've got to acknowledge we were part of the problem.  What do you, sitting on your couch, have to be responsible for in Egypt?  We are all part of the problem when we believe it is okay for others to be repressed, hungry and denied.  And in return, we are only making more of the same for ourselves.

Violence and protests will not change anything, though they give a temporary euphoria that change is possible.  What every person protesting really wants is their freedom.  Freedom to feed their family, freedom to earn a living wage, freedom to express themselves.

And that my friends is something we ALL have in common.  Where we differ is how we want that freedom to look - and here's the thing, we are all free to disagree on that point.  So we can really only help each other by supporting the abstract idea of what we share - our right to be free.

So how can you help?  Every time you take responsibility for your own freedom you empower the mass conscience to find more of its own.  We are all connected and there is no one thought that is not available or affecting to anyone else in this universe.  We don't judge, we just simply join in the idea of freedom.

I can only speak of the USA, but as a nation, we have done more to restrict the rights and freedoms of others in this world in ways and at levels that if we really understood, we would hide in shame.  We make the assumption our way is the right way and we demand it from others.  But, what if another country or another species came to our "home" and told us what to do and how to do it, how free would we feel?  What gives us the right to do this to anyone else?

The USA is getting its payback right about now and until we own our own desire for true freedom by also owning our denial of others freedoms, we'll all be stuck.  In the same way that the middle east can't deny the freedoms of its women and children and get true freedom for its men by its government.

Freedom for one, must be freedom for all or it's not freedom.  You can help the Egyptians as well as everyone else on this planet by owning your OWN FREEDOM.  And when I say own, I mean take full responsibility for it.  Each of has placed our freedom in the hands of some other power when its only true home can be in our own hands.  Own that and you not only help your self, you help the world.