Imagine Nation

"If I could tell the world one thing

It would be that we're all OK

And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful

And useless in times like these

I won't be made useless

I won't be idle with despair…"

~ Jewel, Hands

Here in the Great Turning, the predominant emotion is often fear — the same energy as excitement. What we feel is a matter of interpretation.

It's a time of incredible expansion, according to every cosmic weather report I've seen: an opportunity to compost our "harrumphitude" concerning Trumpelstiltskin (thanks to "mythic news" weaver of context Caroline Casey for these deLightfully winnovative words). If you have skin in the game vis-à-vis Trumpelstiltskin, this is the ripe moment to play your Trump card.

A Subtle Shift Makes the Diff

The key is our collective readiness and willingness to segue from living in Alien Nation to co-creating a global heart community, Imagine Nation. The shifts are subtle yet substantial: from thinking we're alone to realizing we're all one.  

In Alien Nation, self-flagellation is popular. "I'm the only one I know who can blackball myself in my own community," a woman despaired recently, explaining how, in angrily speaking her mind about an issue vital to her, she piqued the one person who might have proven most helpful, had she spoken with Spirit Tongue. I empathized, as I've often carried my own whips, too. Practicing self-love is the hardest task most of us will ever master.

Yet it's so apparent that everything is vibration: while food shopping in a happy frame of mind at my local organic grocery, trading quips from old Monty Python routines with the customer in front of me at check-out, I was bowled over when the young cashier offered, "Would you like me to burn you a CD of their skits?"

True Happy Hour

A New Yorker cartoon shows a man standing in front of a sandwich board outside a bar. READ MORE

Profound or Profane? What's Your Story?

I love The Velveteen Rabbit, a "children's story" that has reached across generations to touch hearts and minds for almost one hundred years. I referenced a particularly potent passage in a radio interview earlier this year, and more recently quoted the same material in a client blog post on creative aging. One of the regular readers, a rather dour sort, had a very different response to this glowing passage: he called it "garbage," "crass" and "repugnant".

To say I was shocked is putting it mildly.

The real question is, what story was he receiving? Clearly not the one I intended. Comedian Fred Allen said, "A human being is nothing but a story with a skin around it." My skin is rather thin since my awakening journey. Yet I'm still running a storyline.

Alan Shelton has crafted a way through. The creator of Story Theory and the Globalish Institute says, "Story is more than something you tell, read or watch. It's a moving target that comes to life as you live it. Without the proper rooting, you (or your organization) could easily live someone else's life." Story Theory and the Globalish Institute grew out of Alan's own roots, in downtown L.A. What better way to engage the future than to engage with the world in which you've been steeped to a potent brew?

Every day we hear words that our minds can weave into stories either profound or profane. The distinction lies in how deeply we listen, and whether we respond from our head or our heart — ideally, a blended wisdom of both, in service to a higher purpose.

The classic quote that angered the above-mentioned blog reader follows. I'd love to know how you feel about it:

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, or bit by bit?"

"It doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Approaching The 11:11:11 Gateway

Six years ago this month, I blogged about the upcoming 11:11 portal, which also equaled 11:11:11 numerologically: 11 + 11 + 2005 (7) = 2+2+7 = 11. (Of course, this year we won't want to add up the elevens, of we'll end up with 6!).

While I'll be covering the upcoming Stargate extensively in my November What Shines newsletter, this information from 2005 is extremely on-point:

Archangel Michael through Celia Fenn calls the 11:11:11 the Doorway to Absolute Integrity, an alignment of all aspects of our higher and lower selves. This balance is achieved through the Heart chakra, and will not be an easy passage, as everything that isn't aligned with your higher purpose will fall away — including work and relationships.

Michael says that "Energetic and Physical Symptoms of the 11:11:11 Stargate may include:

* Physical exhaustion and the need to sleep very long hours. This is because the physical and emotional bodies are aligning with the higher vibrations of the spiritual bodies to facilitate the complete alignment of higher and lower aspects.

* Emotional stress and the ending of relationships. Everything that is not in integrity will end. Some endings may include hostility as repressed angers come to the surface.

* Depression and sadness. A feeling of being unable to cope or of failing. Fear not: this is meant to be and your higher aspect is guiding the alignment process. It is not a test and there is nothing to pass or fail. If you are experiencing these symptoms of the alignment, then you have succeeded in this next step of the Ascension process.

* An increase in the apparent chaos of life. As you become more centered within the peace and stillness of your Soul and Divine Essence in the alignment process, the outer world will appear even more chaotic and frenetic. Do not allow this to pull you out of balance. Stay within your calm and peace.

* Feelings of emptiness and loneliness and becoming tearful. This is part of the complete surrender to the higher aspect. You have released the hold of the lower ego self and surrendered to the guidance of the higher. This process of alignment represents a 'no space' or 'void' in which the ego self may feel very alone and lost. Do not allow this to overwhelm you. Just know it will pass and you will move forward into the full realization of your potential as a human angel.

* Deep feelings of peace and gratitude as the alignment is completed and you move into the full experience of the 11:11:11 portal. As you wake up to the inner changes you will celebrate the intense power that you will feel as the higher and lower aspects lock together and the flow of crystal energy and higher awareness moves through your bodies and into the planet's crystal grid system. You will begin to feel a sense of complete harmony between yourself and the planet as your ninth dimensional energies activate fully into the crystal grid system. It is time to celebrate!"

Feeling squeezed? Make juice!

It's August, it's hot, and our planet's going to Light. Everybody's feeling just a little squeezed now — in all ways, not just financially. Yet we don't necessarily envision the squeezing as creating more juice, which it can, and does.

This consciousness upgrade looks different from person to person, making for some strange interactions and a great reminder to take a deep breath before responding from habit when something or someone pushes our buttons. Weird feelings, depression, anger, etc., may not necessarily be "ours". Since we're all being strongly affected by this transition, it's important not to take on energy that is bubbling to the surface to be transmuted — to yield rather than shield.

This is core training in learning to surrender — into strength. In an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, (a reliable source of evolutionary metaphor) a boy is the only survivor of a decimated ship. When the same "enemy" starts firing on the Enterprise, Captain Picard orders, "More power to the shields," yet the assault worsens.

The youngster (who is on the bridge in the hope he'll know something that makes a difference) suddenly pipes up, "Hey! That's what the other captain kept saying just before the ship was destroyed: 'More power to the shields.'" Picard, always a quick study, immediately orders the Enterprise to drop its shields. His crew thinks he's given a suicide command — and it works. Resistance is futile …

This is an example of turning the squeeze into real juice: making courageous choices, strengthening our rapport with our inner voice. Evolution is putting the squeeze on us to expand into the unknown — and we're being "fresh-pressed" as a collective. Where we'll end up is wholly new territory: something we co-create by yielding dried-up beliefs to the extraction process. The more energetically hydrated we are, the more enjoyable the ride, even when the heat is on.

Is Your Battery Corroded?

Last evening I stopped to put gas into my trusty Toyota, which is now old enough to graduate from high school. When I turned the key afterwards: nada, zip, no reaction. I popped the hood, and sure enough, the battery (barely a toddler) was laced with corrosion.

What ensued is comical this morning, not so much last night. The first AAA driver I called gave me a jumpstart, but said he was a tow truck and therefore had no tools to clean the battery. He sent me sputtering down the road to a nearby Kragen's Auto Supply. The Kragen employee helpfully cleaned the battery terminals while the battery was recharging in the store. We then asked another customer if he'd please help me with a second jumpstart, and, although at first nothing happened (tension!) at last the car sprang to life.

I thanked both Samaritans profusely, backed up, and — it died completely.

This time when I called Triple A, I did request a tow truck. When Dave arrived, he asked what the problem was, and I recounted the evening's events. But instead of hooking me up for a tow, as I expected, he asked me to pop the hood again, and expertly found quite a lot of additional corrosion under two of the bolts, that the Kragen's employee had missed in the dark. After this, the car started up just fine, and I drove home.

Since my car has often symbolized my body and/or my life, I immediately began to identify areas where my "battery" (life force energy) might be corroded. Even when we think we're in great shape, having done a lot of work on ourselves and transmuted dross to light, there can still be a bit of corrosion hiding in the corners of our mind, sapping our power, creating "terminal illness" on many levels. Our battery isn't dead; it just can't fire because of the insidious slime gnawing through our façade, encroaching on the cables to make a clear connection impossible.

The solution, with cars, with our bodies, and with Life in general, is to alkalize: get the acid waste (rage, frustration, disgust, hatred, fear, despair …) out of your system through the powers of love, appreciation, enthusiasm, self-worth, service, joy … and your battery will continue to serve you faithfully for many years to come.

Memorial Day: Releasing the war within us

This weekend the United States observes Memorial Day, a federal holiday enacted after the Civil War to commemorate the men and women who died in military service. Yet there is no recognition of a more insidious war that's being waged globally, every day, by billions of people: the one we're fighting with ourselves.

In our civilized, industrialized, pasteurized, homogenized world, we're frozen into form, ossified in the material — and inured to the whispers of tree leaves, the murmur of brooks, the hissing of summer lawns. Now it takes a rock and roll band pounding 110 decibels directly into our ears, and still most of us, earbuds securely in place, walk on placidly. It's a false peace, and we know it. The uneasiness stirs in our bones, barely kept at bay by the jackhammer rhythm of life in the 21st century.

It's as if we've all been secretly anesthetized against the pain of those who yearn — and it's our yearning, our fear, our wounding, our wonder, that's wanting. But turning to face the music means accepting the invitation to the Dance. And most of us have forgotten how to dance — if indeed we ever knew. We find it easier to lash out in anger: rage, the undiscovered country. If being "outrageous" means getting the rage out, Americans are black belts. READ THE REST!