Monday, November 7, 2022

Instruction Manual

 

How to Create a Better World

“The world is going to start over again and we have the opportunity to make it a more humane place. We need a more balanced, humane system. We need a more honorable government. We need people to come first. We don’t get to that place without a crushing transformation.”

Caroline Myss

          I listened to Caroline Myss’ video about the meaning of our current imbalance. She told about walking the El Camino in Spain, the ancient pilgrimage that began after the crusades and is still going today. She described how, on the path, everyone is traveling in the same direction, and for the same purpose—to gain spiritual answers, to find something their soul yearns for, to heal, to transform. Everyone on the path is open and caring, sharing food and stories and companionship along the way. She gained an insight about the way transformation happens by stepping off the path, onto a regular sidewalk in a town. Just one foot off the El Camino path, ordinary life was going on—people were going in all directions, horns blaring, chaos reigned. And then she stepped back on the path where everyone had the same agenda, the same goal, the same search. Everyone was kind and supportive of everyone else’s journey. What a difference! She called it a “tunnel of grace.”

          Grace transforms ordinary people from chaotic and anxious to calm and unified. She spoke about how people have an idea about divine nature that looks like human nature, which it isn’t. Divine nature, she said, isn’t interested in whether a person can pay to keep a roof over their head or feed themselves. Divine nature is mystical and miraculous, but the concerns of everyday life are ours to fulfill. We are the fulfillment when it comes to questions of care and concern—we are the ones who must help those who are helpless, homeless, hungry, in despair. That’s our job, not the Divine’s. We are the ones with the power to help our fellow travelers, but first we must accept that it’s our job, and not expect magic from our Divine Source. Our help can heal, support, give hope and pave the way to transformation in other human beings.

Myss says that is how grace works—not by magic, but by calming us down on the inside. It quiets us so that insights can come through. Once quiet, we can see the way forward and how to become one who travels in a tunnel of grace, who helps and encourages and prays for guidance. We are all headed in the same direction whether we know it or not. Encouraging each other on the path is one option. Perhaps we don’t have to have a crushing experience such as war, or violence in the streets to transform. We are the ones who can choose to create a kinder, more humane world. We are the bringers of transformation. We are the purveyors of hope. All we have to do is move in the same direction and help each other along the way.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane

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