It’s true you can live right alongside someone who has a completely different life than you do. I was helping a friend on her computer and she pulled up her Facebook feed. She and I have mutual friends but totally different lifestyles. I was surprised at all the arguments and meanness in her news feed, from people who are nice and kind when they post on my FB page. I had no idea. I read some of them and was surprised how most were misunderstanding something that was said, something that I thought it was obvious and clear what they meant. I thought boy we do live two different lives.  Most of my FB peeps post really interesting stuff with very few posting outright meanness. Either way whatever I see come across my newsfeed, it’s evidence of my vibrational resonance.

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I’m a big believer in the power of metaphor to show me who I am. I got a good lesson recently on how carefully I want (or not) to listen to something that may be difficult to hear. A woman called wanting several Canadian subscriptions, wanting to give me info by phone since she doesn’t have email. She had a very strong accent, I don’t know French and that accent is unfamiliar to me. I had hay fever, a clogged head and kept losing my voice. I no longer had a land line, so it was REAL difficult to decipher the addresses that she was saying on the cell phone. I told her I’d call her back.

I immediately sent her a letter with stamped return envelope, explained the temporary hearing/voice issue and asked her to mail me the info so there was no error. She mailed it back and I found her handwriting very small, words very close together.  When that happened, I knew I had inner work to do to make it right for her.

I first went to the post office site to the Canadian postal lookup. I found the correct spelling of the French street names and postal zone of each address. Looking VERY carefully, I could make out the spelling of the names. I created my labels, packaged up the May Horizons for each and another letter to the client, enclosing her invoice. My lesson was that if I slowed down and paid close enough attention, there was no reason I shouldn’t have gotten it the first time she called. I’ll know better next time.

Sometimes I feel guilty when I want to stay quiet and on my own, some say I’m wasting life if I’m not spending it with friends. But that’s not true. There is more to life than the outer 3D physical life that we live. There’s an inner life that is just as real and just as responsive. When I interact with this inner reality, I’m not just going into my head and working out personality conflicts and inner compulsions. I’m being led to ever greater disclosure and understanding of the circumstances and people and events around me.

When I understand them, I respond to them differently.
When I respond to them differently, my world changes.

How to discover this inner reality? You spend time in contemplation and as questions come to mind, you’re guided to answers. Sometimes you’re guided to other people, sometimes you’re guided to dive deeper within.

A friend remarked, watching a group of young professionals knocking back shots and multi-pours of alcohol, “wonder what their livers will be like in 20 years if they keep this up.” I was never a big drinker, never liked the taste or the buzz. I have a few friends who used to be big drinkers when young and apparently still are. It’s taken its toll healthwise: tummy issues, liver issues.I think of the tummy like a bucket that holds our nutrients and things like over drinking makes it rusty so nutrients leak out.

The liver is the machine that processes it all and removes toxins from our bodies, so I keep that machine clean. Excess drinking, sugar and prescription drugs clog that engine. Lotsa folks can drink and take Rx with no problem. Lotsa folka can’t. It helps to know which you are.

LOVE is the key. If you are not in love with yourself, your spouse, your family, or friends, find someone or something to love today. If you are fighting, sad, confused, depressed, or sick, find something you can look up to and feel better about. If you are depressed or stuck, get up and move your energy.

Stuff will come at you constantly. Instead of trying to avoid it, strengthen yourself from the inside so it doesn’t dis-rail you. People will always be pulling the rug out from under you. Learn to dance on a moving carpet.

I’ve reached a tipping point with several real life friends. As my friend, you’re allowed to have your own opinions, whether I agree with them or not. But it changes how I feel about you when you make mean spirited generalizations about an entire group based on a few mouthy fanatics. It changes how I feel about you when you continue to bad mouth former and current candidates. Your words reveal a biased media is your news source but the meanness is what gets to me, so we stay off these topics when we speak. The fact that you spend so much time on bashing the loser liberals who all want something for nothing will keep me at arms’ length. I can love you but have unfollowed you so I don’t see those things that are your right to say. But I’ll be sad to miss the rest of your life experiences.

Ram Dass as Richard Alpert

“We’d be sitting somewhere and I’d say, “Did I ever tell you about the time that Tim and I …”
And he’d say, “Don’t think about the past. Just be here now.”

Silence.

And I’d say, “How long do you think we’re going to be on this trip?”
And he’d say, “Don’t think about the future. Just be here now.”

Be Here Now

I’d say, “You know, I really feel crumby, my hips are hurting …”
“Emotions are like waves. Watch them disappear in the distance on the vast calm ocean.”

“He had just sort of wiped out my whole game. That was it — that was my whole trip — emotions, and past experiences, and future plans. I was, after all, a great storyteller.

So we were silent. There was nothing to say.”

Visit http://ramdass.org

I see folks complain they hate Facebook because their news feed is full of negativity and complaining. That’s not a FB thang, that has to do with who you have as FB friends. I seldom see complaints on my news feed because I have either unfriended toxic people or unfollowed dear friends who are whiners or whose viewpoints I don’t agree with. I learn something new and useful every day.

Image by Cliff Pollard

Since it’s all an illusion anyway, does it really matter if your mantra comes from a trendy pop up guru or an ascended master? What matters is how much YOU believe it matters. A lifetime ago I prayed for years to the “wrong” invisible and mystical being yet found comfort and wisdom, guidance for personality integration and personal growth all the same. That was bcz that was what I set out to find and that was what I BELIEVED I found. The Universe aka Divine Source aka Great Spirit aka God aka Your Inner Being or Higher Self aka Source Energy (etc ad infinitum) will connect with you thru any means you make available. Whether someone else thinks its “the real truth” or not.