Author Archive
Several years ago, I read a wonderful book by William P. Young titled “The Shack.” The debut of this fictional book created quite a buzz and received mixed reviews for its unconventional theological depictions. A book that originally was written solely as a Christmas gift for his children soon found itself on the New York Times Bestseller List and creating quite the stir.
The story centers around Mack, a father who is mired in his great sadness, who asks the burning question: “Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?” Four years earlier, Mack’s young daughter, Missy, was abducted during a family vacation. Though her body was never found, the police did find evidence in an abandoned shack to prove that she had been brutally murdered by a notorious serial killer who preyed on young girls.
When Mack receives a note in his mailbox from “Papa” to spend the weekend at the shack, he reluctantly accepts this peculiar and mysterious invitation and sets out to spend a weekend with someone who he suspects to be God. During his weekend, Mack encounters in bodily form the Holy Trinity in a way he never expected or imagined. Papa (God) is a large, matronly African-American woman. Jesus is a young to middle-aged man of Middle-Eastern descent. The Holy Spirit is played by Sarayu (Sanskrit for air or wind), a small, delicate and eclectic woman of Asian descent. And he also meets for a time with Sophia, who is the personification of God’s wisdom.
The story lightly dances across the lines of conventional Christianity and New Spirituality as Mack’s life-changing weekend with the Trinity unfolds. It explores and subtly questions traditional ideas held within religious theology — such as heaven, free will, the cross, and forgiveness — with a gentle application of an expanded perspective and an invitation to the reader to move beyond preconceived notions.
I enjoyed this book for the eclectic spiritual journey, for tackling some of the big and mostly unanswered questions surrounding religion and life, and for its ability to step tenderly outside the box in such a colorful and loving way. It is unusual to find books in the fiction section of the bookstore that inspire me. But I believe, whether you read “The Shack” from a background in Christianity or a background in New Spirituality, with an open mind, this book has a gift to offer everyone.
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
(If there is a book, movie, music CD, etc. that you would like to recommend to our worldwide audience, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Review”)
To Amanda, the “enemy” describes her devoted and loving husband of 25 years, Phil, a staunch republican.
To Phil, the “enemy” describes his beloved wife and life companion, Amanda, a proud democrat.
Phil and Amanda are partners in a relationship where a large portion of the principles and ideologies they believe in and subscribe to are starkly different. When I first heard about this particular couple, my first-blush reaction was one of disbelief. How could a vibrant long-term partnership not only exist or merely get by but actually thrive within a framework constructed upon so many contrasting points of view? Which led me to the follow-up question: How important are mirroring core beliefs to the vitality of a relationship?
Can a romantic partnership bridge the obvious gap between hot-button topics like pro choice/pro life, gay marriage, death penalty issues, and taxes?
And putting aside for a moment whether it “can”…must it?
A belief that a partner must share and embrace parallel understandings about most, if not all, of life’s day-to-day happenings could be the very thing that is blocking an experience of our highest potential and greatest remembrance. As we long for and seek to find relationships that support our already-adopted set of beliefs and firmly placed perspectives, perhaps we are overlooking the possibilities held within a relationship of distinction, one whose promise is to provide the highest and grandest opportunity for self-creation. Conversations with God, Book 1, teachings say, “If the world existed in perfect condition, your life process of Self creation would be terminated. It would end.”
Couldn’t the same be true within the context of our intimate relationships?
Differences within relationships present opportunities to experience oneness without the requirement of sameness. Whether our partners are interested discussing the most-recent debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney or having a conversation around last night’s yoga class or perhaps the day’s events at the office, a partnership will continually invite you to create a space and be present in the same way each and every time: fully, mindfully, openly, and lovingly. Not because the particular subject matters – politics, gardening, yoga, football, knitting, book club – but because the person with whom you share your journey, your beloved other, the mate of your soul, does matter.
Therefore, it is not important that we agree, but rather that we resist the temptation to be “right,” consciously inviting the full expression of life into our realm of possibilities. And as life has demonstrated to us again and again and again, we are most often provided some of our grandest opportunities within the disguise of that which we resist.
In the upcoming 2012 election, Phil will vote for Mitt Romney and Amanda will vote for Barack Obama. And they will thereafter continue on in their sacred journey, a partnership of their souls, expanding in the appreciation of their diversity and operating out of their deeply held belief that the essence of love is freedom.
And THAT is a concept that has my vote!
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
Hollywood Director Tom Shadyac, most notably recognized for directing blockbuster comedies like “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “Bruce Almighty” and “The Nutty Professor,” detours away from familiar territory in his thought-provoking documentary “I AM,” where he tackles head-on probing questions that a large number of people in our world are asking today:
What is wrong with the world?
What can we do to make it better?
After a debilitating bicycle accident in 2007, Shadyac journeyed into a self-exploration of his own life and examined closely the obscure concept of “happiness.” As he sat in the living room of his 17,000-square foot mansion, surrounded by priceless antiques, expensive cars, and a luxurious private jet, he came to the realization that none of these “things” made him any happier. And he proceeded to sell and give away everything he owned, moved into a mobile home, and set out to create a documentary about what is “wrong” with the world.
Shadyac describes the movie “I AM” as the “Ultimate Reality Show.” The film highlights interviews with scientists, psychologists, artists, environmentalists, authors, activists, and philosophers in its quest to discover the meaning of all life. “I didn’t want to hear the usual answers, like war, hunger, poverty, the environmental crisis, or even greed,” Shadyac explains. “These are not the problems, they are the symptoms of a larger endemic problem. In I AM, I wanted to talk about the root cause of the ills of the world, because if there is a common cause, and we can talk about it, air it out in a public forum, then we have a chance to solve it.”
Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the scientifically supported discoveries emerging out of this nonfiction documentary are in alignment with many of the messages held within the New Spirituality movement:
“Humans actually function better and remain healthier when expressing positive emotions, such as love, care, compassion, and gratitude, versus their negative counterparts, anxiety, frustration, anger and fear.”
“The heart, not the brain, may be man’s primary organ of intelligence, and that human consciousness and emotions can actually affect the physical world.”
“Humankind’s real power comes in their ability to perform complex tasks together, to sympathize and cooperate.”
“I AM isn’t as much about what you can do, as who you can be. And from that transformation of being, action will naturally follow.”
I wholeheartedly recommend this film of awakening, where science and spirituality link arms, out of which gives birth once again the undeniable realization that: We are all connected.
Visit the I AM website here.
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support . To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
(If there is a book, movie, music CD, etc. that you would like to recommend to our worldwide audience, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Review”)
My ex-husband and I padded the bank accounts of several high-priced attorneys and occupied over two years’ worth of courtroom time and resources, mired in the pain and enveloped in the confusion surrounding our divorce, a word which suddenly and ferociously became a synonym for our own personal “war.” And most regrettably, we allowed our distorted sense of “victimization” and perceived “failure” to interfere with our ability to be the loving support system that our only son desired and deserved. We, like so many others, found ourselves consumed with the upheaval in our relationship and paralyzed by the illusions of fear and need, as we found ourselves sinking deeper and deeper into despair and moving further and further away from any concept of who we once knew ourselves to be.
Until one day everything changed.
And I mean literally in one day. And more profoundly, not only in one day, but as a result of one choice:
I changed my perspective.
It was glaringly apparent, after years of bitterness and conflict, that what we were doing wasn’t working. So why were we continuing to do the same thing over and over again, making the same choices and expecting different results? Which, by the way, is the phrase Narcotics Anonymous offers as the definition of insanity in its time-honored book on addiction.
When I shifted my perspective and held my relationship, and the experiences provided to me within it, in a new light, this is what I was allowed to remember:
First, our relationship was not ending. It was merely changing. The purpose and intent of our union always was and always will be integrated in our human experience in the way we choose for it to be. We can choose to consciously and purposefully include and utilize the opportunities blanketed within this experience, or we can choose to continue to react to the experience as one that is happening outside of us and, therefore, to us. Two very different realities are birthed out of each respective choice.
Second, this relationship was drawn to and co-created by us both as a vehicle within which we were both given an opportunity to experience an aspect of ourselves not yet remembered, not yet expressed, not yet demonstrated. And because I do not believe that life is a series of random happenings, and I also do not believe that life shuffles us through a predetermined script, I knew there was a larger opportunity being offered here to create meaning and to declare purpose and to know and experience ourselves at a higher level.
Third, I was led to a deeper understanding of what “forgiveness” means…and what it doesn’t mean. Neale Donald Walsch’s new book “The Only Thing That Matters” says, “Absolution is not necessary, since all human action is based, at its root, in love, however confused, mistaken, or distorted its expression.” And as “Conversations with God” puts it: “No one does anything inappropriate, given their model of the world.”
The marrying of these two spiritual concepts created the perfect recipe of change for me and facilitated a new perspective, one that propelled me into a deep sense of appreciation and profound gratitude in relation to someone who once was my partner and who now is my friend.
When some of the top stories in today’s headlines are “Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ Bitter Divorce” or “Real-Life War of the Roses,” as described in a story by ABC News where Michael Rose and Rona Rose’s divorce resembled the popular Hollywood movie that coined the popular phrase and amplifies the rage of a bitter divorce, I now understand the gift I have been given and value the opportunity to share my personal experience to help others.
Why are we as a society enamored with the downfall of celebrity or high-profile relationships, as the rows and rows of tabloid magazines in our grocery store checkout stands reflect? Perhaps it soothes our own perceived sense of failure to notice that the “most notable” in our society, too, are struggling with relationship challenges. Perhaps our egos hurt less when we think someone else hurts more.
What if, just for today, you assigned a new meaning to something that is changing (perhaps a relationship) in your life?
What if you saw this event through the lens of an entirely different perspective?
If there is a new perspective that feels better than the one you currently hold about a particular situation that you are facing, what is standing in the way of you embracing it?
Could you “end the war” right now?
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support . To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
Is it ever “okay” to hit a small child?
Or to hit anyone, for that matter?
In the small rural community of Ocala, Florida, as reported by www.Ocala.com, “Newly elected School Board member Carol Ely wants to bring corporal punishment back to Marion County schools, two years after the controversial punishment was banned.” And she is receiving support to reinstate this primitive method of discipline, one which involves an adult school official swinging forcefully a large wooden or fiberglass paddle with the intention of striking the tender buttocks of a young child.
Another Marion County board member, Angie Boynton, said while she “does not personally believe in paddling, she would support it as long as parents give permission.”
I am only left to imagine the significantly diminished level comfort and security that public declaration offers to a young child whose home life may be painfully lacking in boundaries, a young child whose own parents’ preferred form of communication is physical force, behavior born out of an “Old Cultural Story” way of thinking where “spanking is a matter of tradition and good old-fashioned discipline.”
If, as Ms. Boynton said, she does not “personally believe in paddling” but will “support it as long as the parents give permission,” why is she not standing in the light of her own truth, what she has publicly professed as her “personal belief”? By the way, the percentage of parents who gave permission to school officials to paddle their children during the years this “code of conduct” was in place and being utilized was reported by Ely to be 95%.
In a recent article reported on FoxNews, in Springtown, Texas, “When Taylor Santos, 15, allegedly let a classmate copy her homework, Vice Principal Kirt Shaw disciplined the girl with a large wooden paddle, which he swung with a violent, upward motion, according to the girl’s mom, Anna Jorgensen,” leaving her teenage daughter feeling numb and burned and humiliated.
As disturbing as these stories are to me, what really caught my attention is not so much the observation of what is happening, but the observation of what is missing…the absence of which pointed me, once again, to one of the critical questions posed to us in “The Storm Before the Calm”:
“Is it possible that there is something we don’t fully understand about God and life, the understanding of which would change everything?”
The answer is undoubtedly yes.
Stories like the two I’ve illustrated invite us to consider the importance of and the possibilities held within having a conversation around questions like this. But are the limitations and restrictions placed upon our children in relation to what they are allowed to hear about and talk about in school blocking their opportunities to see the infinite number of possibilities, all leading to the experience of knowing more fully who they really are? And is it possible that, likewise, that the teachers, administrators, and school board members are also being prevented that same opportunity to experience life at a higher level? Thus being the reason why the only or best choice they are being allowed (or choosing) to see is the one based in fear and not the one based in love?
If every child had the opportunity to learn about the God of their choosing, to explore their own spirituality freely and openly, to appreciate the diversity of their fellow classmates, and to understand a new definition of “relationship” within a new context, a new perspective, a Soul Perspective, could we not potentially eliminate a “need” for most, if not all, of what we perceive to be, for lack of a better word, “bad” behaviors?
What if, in our children’s most formative and delicate years, instead of paddling them, we gifted them with the wisdom to create the life of their dreams by utilizing a process of asking and answering the Four Fundamental Questions of Life:
1. Who am I?
2. Where am I?
3. Why am I where I am?
4. And what do I intend to do about that?
Perhaps if we incorporated larger explorations of Oneness and Beingness into our children’s current curriculum of history and mathematics and government, we would (maybe even in our lifetime) truly witness the birth of a new world, where politics would inspire and unite, instead of dividing and separating; where world countries would co-exist in peace and celebrate each other’s diversity, instead of condemning and engaging in war; and where our children would grow up entering into purposeful and meaningful life partnerships and experiencing relationships without conditions, relationships which nurture Self-expression and provide for the ultimate demonstration of each individual’s Highest Self.
Life is inviting us.
How will the pages of our New Cultural Story read?
Is there, as “Conversations with God” says, another way….a path without a paddle?
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support . To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
51-year-old Bob Carey, standing 5-foot-10-inches tall, and weighing more than 200 pounds, is appearing around the country in only a pink tutu and creating a 61-page book of his self-portraits in an effort to support his Beloved Other, Linda, who has advanced breast cancer.
His extraordinary journey has taken him to the Grand Canyon, Coney Island, Times Square, The Washington Monument, a cow pasture in the midwest, and Giants Stadium, just to highlight a few. You can view some of the images from his self-published book here: Tutu Breast Cancer Project.
Linda Lancaster-Carey, 51, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2003, says, “He’s not afraid to put himself out there. It’s his own body, with all its imperfections.” The Careys say laughter has always been at the heart of their relationship and that the photography allowed Bob Carey to focus on something other than his own fear and anger surrounding his wife’s illness and the loss of his father to lung cancer and his mother to breast cancer.
The Careys’ story demonstrates the level of unconditional love that so many people desperately yearn for but fall short of time and time again in their relationships, a level of love and commitment that perhaps may have not have been as fully experienced but for Linda’s illness.
I imagine there was an earlier time in Bob Carey’s life where he would not have even considered donning only a pink tutu in the middle of Times Square, much less actually do it. Even now, some members of the media have been less than kind, colorfully pointing out the flaws in Carey’s physique, to which he replies, “The photos are about transforming into somebody I’m not. It’s about being vulnerable.” Carey is also feeling pushback from critics who question his actions, women who are put off by the pink tutu and those who have grown tired of the “pinkification” of October, which has been designated as Breast Cancer Awareness month.
In the midst of darkness and pain and uncertainty, Bob Carey answered the question, “What would love do now?” He pushed past the illusions of fear, embraced his vulnerability, and stepped into his next grandest version of himself, gifting to his wife and all those whose lives he touches the remembrance of his own sufficiency and divinity. His act of self-definition now spans the country, if not the world, so others, too, can remember more fully who they are: as sufficient and divine.
Conversations with God, Book 1, reminds us:
“What you do for your Self, you do for another.
What you do for another, you do for the Self.
And this is because you and the other are one.
And this is because…
There is naught but You.”
Perhaps the Careys’ story will serve to inspire us all today to do something extraordinary, something silly and unexpected, an expression of pure givingness to our partner, and thus to ourselves — or to ourselves, and thus to all of humanity — as a demonstration of our Highest Self and our deepest affection and in remembrance of who we really are.
Yes?
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support . To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
By the time Jenny Lee was 28 years old, she’d already had 26 plastic surgeries:
Breast implants (twice)
Cheek implants
Chin implant
Lip implants (3 times)
Nose jobs (3 times)
Breast lift (3 times)
Liposuction on her arms, hips, thighs, stomach & knees
A full body lift
Botox injections
Veneers
Why?
Her answer to this one-word question is simply, “Because my husband told me that my breasts were too small and my nose was too big.”
In an effort to achieve her perception of perfection – (including a belief that these choices would somehow become the source of her partner’s happiness) – Jenny Lee attempted to literally recreate her body, thus hoping to recreate her reality, through a painful journey of surgery after surgery after surgery.
The cruel twist in this story is that after Jenny had the breast enlargements and the plethora of other procedures, instead of finally receiving what she desired most, her husband’s love and affection, she was met with a new unwelcome response from him: resentment and jealousy… because now, ironically, she was receiving too much attention from others.
Reading this story about Jenny caused me to reflect upon why women – or anyone, for that matter – began perceiving themselves as less than whole and adopted belief systems which embraced the notion that certain conditions create happiness, not only within ourselves, but within others: “If I have thinner thighs or less wrinkles, I will be worthy of love”…”If he was taller and had more hair, he would be perfect”….”If she would look this way, I would feel that way.”
We cram our feet into uncomfortable shoes.
We stuff our legs into binding pantyhose and hip-slimming Spanx.
We pluck our eyebrows and color our hair and bleach our teeth.
We only feel pretty when we have make-up on…and we have become experts at “Photoshopping” out our perceived flaws.
Why are we doing this?
What is it that we are imagining ourselves to need? Or be lacking? Or simply not remembering?
“Communion with God” says “need” is not only the first illusion, but the grandest illusion, the illusion upon which ALL other illusions are based. The illusion of need manifests in all areas of our lives, but it becomes particularly painful when it permeates the most sacred space of intimacy within a partnership of souls. Some people feel unworthy to stand before their beloved other unclothed. Some people withhold from their lover the most sensual physical experience of love. Some people go so far as to undergo 26-plus cosmetic surgeries to “fix” what they think is “broke.”
What can we do to change this?
As our society continues to shift and inch closer to the understandings and concepts held with the New Spirituality, will we remember that it is through the transformation of our thoughts about Who We Really Are, rather than our ideas about who we think we should be, that we will be presented the grandest opportunity to experience ourselves as whole and perfect….and as God?
Or is it perhaps that an alteration of our physicality is just another path to a spiritual transformation?
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support . To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
For those of you yearning to hear the internal whispers of your soul amidst the noisy chatter of an unruly mind…for those of you longing to experience the calm bliss of simply “being” when your experience of life at this moment feels like a never-ending cycle of “doing”…perhaps the soothing voice and gentle rhythms of Snatam Kaur is something you would be willing to make a regular part of your day.
The transcendent power and healing qualities of the devotional chants of Snatam Kaur have elevated it to become one of my most beloved choices in my musical collection. Her songs combine a unique blend of ancient chants sung in Gurumukhi, the sacred language of the Sikhs, and English.
Snatam Kaur (whose name means universal, nucleus, and friend to all) uses her music to bridge diverse cultures, faiths, and traditions, and to promote peace and inner strength. When asked what her definition of ‘peace’ is, she replied, “I feel peace is defined in each person’s life in the moments of their greatest struggles and challenges. Peace is the ability to stay true to yourself, and in any situation find the light or find the way to grow and transform in that situation, while uplifting yourself and other people.”
The purity and clarity of Snatam’s voice radiates and her soft spiritual chants touch your soul. Her albums “Anand,” “Celebrate Peace,” and “Grace” are just a few of my personal favorites. You will quickly realize that understanding the language in some of the songs is not a necessary element to having a profound experience of bliss and peace, that her music transcends the confines of any one particular language, and that her universal message of oneness is one that is deeply felt.
The book When Everything Changes, Change Everything speaks to the importance of meditation, whether that be a sitting meditation, a walking meditation, or a “doing” meditation; that some form of meditation is “the single most important commitment of your entire life: a commitment to your soul, to be with your soul, to meet your soul, to hear and listen to and interact with your soul.”
If your attempts at meditation thus far have been unsuccessful, I invite you to consider incorporating the sacred mantras of Snatam Kaur as a gentle assistive tool to elevate your meditative experience to the next level.
I close now with the lyrics to one of Snatam’s songs, “Long Time Sun,” an old Irish blessing which is currently sung by thousands worldwide as a parting prayer in Kundalini yoga classes:
“May the Long Time Sun
Shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on
Guide your way on.“
You may read more about Snatam Kaur and purchase her music on her website:
(If there is a book, movie, music CD, etc. that you would like to recommend to our worldwide audience, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.
“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” is the title of a highly successful and now retired Off-Broadway musical in New York City which emphasized in a light-hearted fashion what has sadly come to be the not-so-light-hearted and oftentimes painful experience found in so many relationships: partnerships foundationed in neediness and expectation, two of the “three love-enders,” as described to us in the book Friendship with God, with the third “love-ender” being jealousy.
Conversations with God offers to us the following insight:
“When you lose sight of each other as sacred souls on a sacred journey, then you cannot see the purpose, the reason, behind all relationships.”
If we are entering into our relationships with the idea that our partners must BE a particular way or DO a particular thing in order for us to experience the depths of our own happiness and abundance, the expansiveness of our own joy and light, and the fullness of our own completeness and sufficiency, we are functioning within an understanding of “love with conditions” and misguided ideas of what perfection truly is.
In an era where the divorce rate exceeds 50%, what is really going on here? What are we not understanding and, thus, not being allowed to experience?
Are our limited understandings and parameters in relation to this institution called “marriage” too narrow to hold a space for a deeply fulfilling soul partnership to thrive? Have we placed unrealistic human boundaries on the aspect of ourselves that is without limits?
Most of us, at one time or another and at one level or another, have experienced the joyful bliss of a budding relationship and the devastating heartbreak of its demise. So many of us are yearning and searching for the perfect partner, what is often termed a “soul-mate,” only to experience repeated outcomes of disillusionment and disappointment; yet there are those who have discovered and held onto that seemingly elusive but deeply satisfying recipe of love and commitment.
Why does this experience of a spiritually rich and loving relationship evade so many in what seems to resemble a cruel game of hide-and-seek? It has been my own personal experience that a gentle shift in perspective can elevate a relationship from an experience of division and angst to an experience of unity and bliss. This type of shift will invite me to take a conscious step away from my expectations and attachment to outcomes; to separate myself from my mind’s craving to be “right,” which oftentimes requires making someone else “wrong”; and to be fully present in the completeness of not only myself, but in the completeness of my beloved other.
Perhaps someone, someday, somewhere will create and produce a musical about relationships that carries with it a message from within the perspective of The New Spirituality, and perhaps a title of…
“I Love You, Without Condition, Eternally.”
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support . To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
Thank you, France, for demonstrating that, YES, our world IS evolving and moving towards a more loving and accepting society, breaking through the intolerant barriers of an Old Cultural Story which dictates in what form love is to be experienced and expressed and moving into a New Cultural Story where couples of all genders are free to experience and enjoy the rights and privileges afforded to ALL loving relationships.
According to a recent article in The Telegraph, “France is set to ban the words “mother” and “father” from all official documents under new plans to legalize gay marriage,” giving equal adoption rights to homosexual and heterosexual couples.
Justice Minister Christiane Taubira told France’s Catholic newspaper, La Croix, “Who is to say that a heterosexual couple will bring up a child better than a homosexual couple, that they will guarantee the best conditions for the child’s development?”
As expected, this proposed law is being met with vehement resistance by members of the Catholic Church. “Gay marriage would herald a complete breakdown in society,” Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the head of the French Catholic Church, told Christian’s RFC radio last week. He is further quoted as saying, “This could have innumerable consequences. Afterward they will want to create couples with three or four members. And after that, perhaps one day the taboo of incest will fall.”
Wow, is the suggestion really being made that the legalized union of two loving same-sex mutually consenting adults is one step shy of a parent engaging in sexual relations with their own child or brother or aunt? And perhaps I’m confused, but isn’t it heterosexuals who have been historically, and still are even to this day, entering into multiple-partner relationships? What does THAT type of irrational conjecture have to do with a same-sex partnership being afforded the opportunity to be a legally and socially recognized union?
And just WHEN and HOW did God’s glorious gift of sex become a tool to be used to judge, control, manipulate, bring shame upon, and condemn? Do we honestly imagine a God who created the possibility of deeply felt love to exist between two souls – whether that is a man and a man, a woman and a man, or a woman and a woman – only to then be judged and punished for simply being who they are? What is it that we are actually afraid of here?
I applaud this bold step forward the country of France is proposing, a step that embraces the forward movement of The New Spirituality and celebrates everyone’s ability to enter freely and fully into a legally recognized union that supports at an equal level the depth of their love and the holy union of their souls.
