You Just Can't Make This Sh*t Up

Prior to my recent blog post, I hadn't posted anything in a almost a full year.  That's a pretty long dry spell.

What I've been finding this summer though is that the more I get back to walking, meditating, and my yoga practice, the more I want to write.  Because things come together in unexpected ways and I want to keep track of these non-coincidences.

For example, I posted my most recent blog on Saturday, August 3.  This was  highly unlikely timing because we were leaving for a vacation on Monday the fifth.  I did not have time to be composing a blog post.  We have never been abroad; never been on a cruise; never flown out of JFK; never coordinated all this with three adult children.

So I published my post in the flurry of packing everything we would need for a two week cruise in a suitcase weighing less than fifty pounds.  I wrote about being vs. doing.  Since my upbringing taught me nothing about being and everything about doing, this idea of becoming more aware of the quality of being was a radical departure from my norm.

One of my errands that weekend before we left was to see if there was any chance I could get a book I had ordered from our local bookstore.  The release date was August 6, but by then we would be in Venice.  I was hoping to snatch it early to read on vacation.

But it wasn't in the store yet, according to the young man I spoke to at That Book Store.  I'd have to wait until we got back.

The funny thing is I mentioned this book in my August 3rd post, the one where I was exploring the notion of being vs. doing.  I've always been comfortable doing.  But just being?  What does that even mean?

So this question is floating in the background of my mind as we travel.  I notice Italians have a distinctly different way of being than Americans.  In Portofino you sit by the seaside under an awning and eat lunch for three hours.  You have to ask for the check.  They bring you tangy limoncello whether you ask for it or not.

Everything is s-l-o-w-e-r and  full of old-world charm.

Our first night back home I'm up in the middle of the night because it's morning in Italy.  I putter around, change the wash, and re-read my blog on being.

A few days later I had picked up my book, Beyond the Known:  Realization.  Right there on page one of the prologue it says:

The right to be was gifted to you at the inception of your soul.

A couple of pages later, the reader is invited to  Be as you are.  Be as you are.  Be as you are.  (Prologue, xvii)

I'm sitting at Heirloom Market sipping a peanut butter banana mocha espresso (without the espresso) gasping out loud at the seamless way the universe is apparently delivering Its advice on BEING!

I should clarify that Paul Selig, the author, is channeling a group of teachers who exist in the spirit world.  If this sounds a little nuts, I understand.  But this work is so profound that I went to Burlington, VT to hear him channel last summer. IMHO, he's the real deal.

These spirit teachers call themselves The Guides.  In this new book they say:

What lies beyond the known must be understood by you, not only as your potential, but as your true inheritance.  And as you say yes to what comes, the mission of your life becomes crystal clear.  It is not what you do, it is how you be....               (Prologue, xx)

WHAT?

In my recent post I also wondered how I would be called to serve in the unknown future.

No problem!  The answer is literally in my lap.

Your service, we have to suggest, which is  being (emphasis his) at this tone or level of vibration, calls the principle of the Christ to the manifest world for the purpose of reclaiming it in the higher octave.                                              (Beyond the Known:  Realization, p.6)

Your service... is being....

You just can't make this stuff up!

The principle of the Christ that they refer to is not the historical Jesus.  The Christ is another name for the divinity that resides within each of us (often despite appearances to the contrary).  When we realize, or know, ourselves and all others as such, we are seeing each person's  True Self, their Eternal Self, or their Christed Self.  The divine in every man, woman and child.

Pretty wild, right?

I'm grateful that Life is conspiring to bring me back to the writing page.  My summer practices -- yoga on the cool patio pavers in the early morning shade, meditations with no time limits -- these bring me back to my self.

Or maybe they lead to a new way of being -- one less encumbered by what I have always thought I should be, should do, should have, should accomplish.

This morning on twitter?

Just be and enjoy being.  Eckhart Tolle.

You just can't make this sh*t up!

Pluto's Curriculum

This evening I sit at my kitchen table with with the slider open.

A cool front has swept out the heavy humidity.  Light rain falls on the full foliage of high summer. The sound of rainfall is soothing, like a long sigh.

I've been out of synch with the rhythms of Nature; but then again, Mother Nature herself is out of synch.

Usually at this time of year I'm busy working on a new project or planning fall events.  But this year, even the momentum of the Spring Equinox didn't shift this feeling of being in limbo -- on some kind of inward sabbatical.

I had an astrological reading the week of the Equinox, expecting to take advantage of the energy of light increasing, crocuses sprouting and stars shifting.

But my reading made sense of what wasn't happening.  Certain things had culminated for me on the previous Winter Solstice.  Now  I'm in a period of change.  Inside the chrysalis.

I'm not good with sabbatical.  Time off is not my thing.  I like momentum and goals.  Getting stuff done.

My astrologer, Carol,* sees it differently.

I love her interpretation of what's happening out there in the cosmos.  In my experience, when there's an astrological event, like a Super Full Moon, ten astrologers will give you ten different interpretations.  Carol's take always registers an inner  yes.

About this sabbatical, she says, We are in preparation; we're being re-positioned. 

Our entire society -- from the personal to the national -- feels at the very edge of sustainability.  The status quo is giving way.  And while it's good in many ways, if/when it crumbles -- what's out there?  Beyond our familiar structures?

And how will I be called to serve then?

What's going on with you, Carol says, One of the things the universe is coaxing out of you,  is to look at your insecurities -- and not knowing is a big one.

But, she laughs, You know a lot!  You are a knower.  Your mind is brightly lit and very creative.  

Despite this, I find not knowing unsettling.  I like to look to the future with some sense of what's forthcoming.

She mentions the massive shifts we are living through and how becoming comfortable with the unknown -- in other words, trusting -- is something I'm being invited to master.

This is part of my run-in curriculum with Pluto.

Pluto's power is largely inexplicable and difficult to understand.  Wherever Pluto appears in your horoscope, that area of life will show a marked change.  

Named after the Roman God of the underworld, Pluto signifies death and rebirth.  It is the planet of regenerative forces, of destruction and annihilation, and then complete transformation.  The keyword is elimination; Pluto wipes the slate clean.*

This astro-curriculum is teaching  me the value of letting go of my habitual ways of (over) managing everything.

Pluto advises me to relax my defensive ego.

And most challenging -- getting around my need-to-know mind and dropping into the lesser-known chambers of my heart.

   This is actually Pluto!

So this summer  I'm letting myself be.  I'm practicing being as opposed feeling like I should be doing this, that or the other.   All. The. Time.

My non-doing curriculum consists of the following, in case you want to study along with me:

Early morning walks to the pond, cool air on bare arms.

Admiring markings on the outstretched wings of the low-gliding hawk.

Tracking the turtle making his way across the undulating water.

Spying two racoons under the dock, looking up from behind their bandit-like masks.

Practicing my vinyasa in the verdant morning shade.

Embracing the sky in a series of sun salutations.

Sitting on the planks of the back porch on my cushions and sinking into uncharted realms in meditation.

Removing my (literal) mask and being met with a field of light behind my closed eyelids. Streaming into my third eye.

I trust that the shifting quality of my being will continue to inform what I choose to do.  I'm already deciding differently.

Getting comfortable with simply being is my current project.  Attuning inward vs. being directed by old ideas of what I should be doing -- it's a practice!

But I've got this curriculum  I'm working with, so it feels promising.  Change -- anything beyond the known -- always involves some trepidation because we're human.  We like stability.

Yet to reach sustainability -- unity, cooperation, and the ability to make choices that benefit humanity and the planet for seven generations -- something's got to give.

Maybe it's an old way of being, a way we are (painfully) outgrowing.

Maybe this curriculum teaches a way of being that yields as-yet-unknown riches.

 

Acknowledgments:

*Astrologer Carol Ciocco can be found on Facebook.

*Pluto information: The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need by Jaonna Martine Woolfolk

*Neale Donald Walsh, author of the Conversations with God series, first introduced me to be, do,  have -- in that order.

Paul Selig's channeled text, Beyond the Known: Realization (shown above) is due out August 6.  Soon! Having read all of his earlier work, I highly recommend it.