These Times...

Friend. Do not lose heart. You and I were made for these times.

I correspond with people from around the world, and of late, many are quite deeply and properly perplexed. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our turbulent world, because our world is simply the way it is.

Ours is a time of almost daily amazement and often (righteous) rage over the latest degradations of all what truly matters most to civilized people and even to the visionary.

Stand straight and seek to be right in all assessments. The glitter and hubris some have aspired to (while endorsing heinous acts against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless), is incredible. Yet, I urge you (ask you, gentle you) dear reader, to please not bankrupt your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times nor those who are responsible for such chaos. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is - we were made for these times.

Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing – we’ve been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plane of engagement. And those of us who grew up around the Great Lakes or by the shores of inland lakes, recognize a “seaworthy” vessel when we see one.

With respect to awakened souls, there have never been more able crafts in the waters than there are right now, right around the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal to one another -- as never before in the history of humankind...

Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats -- righteous souls on troubled waters with us. Even though our veneers may shimmer upon every wave in this stormy roil, we may rest assured that the long timbers composing one’s own prow and rudder, come from a far greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.

We have been in training for a dark time such as this, since the day we assented to come to Earth. For many decades (and worldwide) souls just like us have been felled and left for dead in so many ways -- brought down (over and over) by naiveté, by lack of love, by being ambushed or assaulted by various cultural and personal shocks -- to the extreme. We have a history of being gutted, and yet remember this especially -- we have also (out of necessity) perfected the knack for spiritual self-resurrection. Over and over again we have been the living proof -- that which had been exiled, lost, or foundered can be restored to life again.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward collapse over how much is wrong or un-mended in the world around us. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency too to fall into being weakened by choosing to persevere onwards -- to whatever is outside our reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That’s a blowing wind without a raised sail.

We are needed, and that is all we can know.

Although we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn't you say you were a believer – but a believer of what?

Did you not say that you would pledge your listener’s ear to a Greater Voice? Did you ask for grace? Do you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice of universal Greatness?

Understand the paradox: If one studies the physics of a waterspout, you will see that the outermost edge of the vortex whirls far more quickly than the inner edge. To calm such a storm, means to bring quiet to the outer layer, to cause it to swirl much less, and to more evenly match the velocity of the inner core - until whatever has been lifted into such a fluid funnel falls back to Earth, lays down, and is at peace again. One of the most important steps a person can take to help calm the storm, is to not allow one’s self to be taken in a flurry of overwrought emotion or desperation thereby accidentally contributing to the waves and the swirl.

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend small parts of the world that are within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts (or by whom), will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

After all, even the flap of a butterfly wing ultimately affects the direction and strength of the winds that make the weather. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of many such smaller acts, adding, adding to, adding more, and continuing. We know that it does not take "everyone on Earth" to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these -- to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both, are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you too will help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do. There will always be times when you will feel discouraged.

I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it; for like Thoreau, it is best to keep two chairs in a room – a chair for one’s for self, and another for a guest. I will not entertain the solitude of a room, outfitted with but a single chair of no community.

Similarly, it is not allowed to eat from my plate -- when a setting is for two or more. The reason is this: In my bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you are not alone and when you remember why you came to Earth -- who you serve, and Who sent you here.

The Good words we say and the Good deeds we do are not ours: they are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here.

In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall, and into your heart, and lay it out before your mind’s eye: when a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.

May this come to you with much love. May you always remember who you are, who you came from, and why you were brought into this wonderful, beautiful, needful Earth.

And so it is...