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Thank you, God, for the moments when I do not know who I am, because they are the times in my life which allow me to re-experience that remembrance over and over and over again, each time in a new and profound way.
Thank you, God, for the people who challenge and push me, the individuals whose presence in my life feels abrasive or antagonistic. These are the relationships which provide me the opportunity to choose from and then experience the broad spectrum of thoughts, feelings, and emotions which are available to me and which have been created for me.
Thank you, God, for that space between what once was and what is yet to be, the pause between my choices, the interlude between the scenes of my life. I have come to know that what sometimes appears to be a lull, a barren space of nothingness , is actually the sweetest and most bountiful place to be, a space which quietly presents to me the infinite number of possibilities.
Thank you, God, for the children in my life who invite me to sit on the floor, barefoot, and just play from the center of my heart, offering me a gentle reprieve from the less flexible rules of my mind. I feel especially grateful for the souls who dance in the bodies of children, those who remind me to sing, to laugh, and to stop taking everything so gosh darn serious all the time.
I am sharing my own personal daily gratitudes with you today because I believe that if we can begin to acknowledge the gifts offered to us in all the happenings of our lives, those we judge as “good” and those we judge as “bad,” then we will have truly begun to live.
Aren’t all aspects of life living?
Aren’t all moments momentous?
Aren’t all events eventful?
Doesn’t each moment of our life serve to define our purpose? While we search and seek for the all-encompassing purpose in our life, that grand realization of who we truly are, could it be possible that we have infinite purposes and that we are experiencing our purpose over and over and over again as we move through the events and relationships we encounter in life?
What are you feeling especially grateful for today? Is there something taking place in your life right now which is creating some very real challenges for you? Is there a piece of your past that continues to write itself into the scenes of your play, something that if you were able to recognize and honor even one tiny gift that has been bestowed upon you through that experience may have the potential to change everything?
Will you join me in thanking God for the moments when we do not know who we are because they are the times in our lives which allow us to re-experience that remembrance over and over and over again, each time in a new and profound way?
(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 you are already familiar with the “Conversations with God” material, more than likely you have one or two insights or messages contained within the Cosmology that are especially meaningful to you, something that, when you first heard it, resonated with such clarity and fullness that it caused a noticeable and significant shift in your life.
For me, one of the most profound concepts to flow out of the “Conversations with God” messages is the following:
Your life is not about you. Rather, your life is about those whose lives you touch.
I remember the exact moment these words came into my life. I recall the precise instant when everything I thought to be true until that point was turned upside down. I was attending a “When Everything Changes, Change Everything” retreat in 2007, sitting in a dimly lit room along with 75 other people from around the world, when I first heard these exact words: Your life is not about you.
Well, if my life was not about me, then what IS it about?
If my life was, rather, about those whose lives I touch, then what does that mean for me? There has got to be something in it for me in the whole and sometimes messy scheme of things, right? After all, aren’t I the one doing the heavy lifting in my life here? Again, still having a hard time completely accepting the “not about me” aspect in all of this.
But while my mind was twisting itself into pretzels, trying to make sense of this completely new ideology that was just introduced to me, the next words flowed into my life:
You see, there is only one of us in the room. So what you do for another, you do for yourself. What you do for yourself, you do for another. And that is because we are all One.
And there it was, placed gently before me, the message which redefined the purpose of my life, the spiritual wisdom which altered the way I interact and enter into relationships with others. I had always proclaimed to embrace the concept of “we are all one,” at least on an intellectual or cognitive level. But my skewed vantage point thus far hadn’t allowed me to know this experientially nearly as often or completely as I would have liked.
Life feels harder and more external to us when we are simply each out to get our own, when we place expectations upon what we think we deserve. On the other hand, haven’t we all experienced the perfection of a truly selfless gesture towards another? The pure joy and quiet bliss of being of service to someone in need, without expectation of anything in return? Aren’t these instances of “not about me-ness” the ones that propel us into our own greatness, demonstrating to us all that there is no faster way to have something in your life than just simply going out and choosing to be it?
Oh, boy, do I still have days where I think life is all about me. I have plenty of them. I have moments when I question everything I believe to be true. There are times when I cross paths with people who I am convinced are not only separate from me but I am quite certain they are working in direct contradiction to me, motivated by an entirely different energy source than the one I am fueled by, even though at the highest level of awareness I know that is simply not true.
But these are the gifts that life is consistently presenting to me, the golden nuggets of opportunity that surround me, even though I may not be able to readily see them and might even find myself resisting them. These are the moments when I get to decide who I really am. These are the times when I get to ask and answer some important questions: Why am I here, right here, right now, at this exact moment in time? Who is it I am here with and for? Who might life be calling upon me to be?
These are the instances when I remember…my life is not about me.
(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.)
Very few events in our world are universally recognized by the mere mention of the date of their occurrence. If I were to suggest the date of 7/20/1969 to you, would you know immediately that I am referring to the date Neil Armstrong became the first human being to step foot on the moon? Or if I said to you the date of 11/9/1989, would that automatically trigger your memory of that being the day the Berlin Wall fell?
But what if I were to say to you 9/11?
It would be my bold assumption that a large percentage of people would instantaneously associate 9/11 with the chilling terrorist events that took place 12 years ago today in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
But I am not here to open up a dialogue about WHY the events of 9/11 took place, or HOW they took place, or whose fault it is or isn’t. No. There are plenty of places out there for those types of conversations to flourish. Rather, I am here to create a space of spiritual reflection in the aftermath of something so devastating, offering to each of us an invitation to notice the ways in which we have defined ourselves both individually and collectively in relation to this most unforgettable day. A “Day of Noticement.”
Because, you see, if we can find some small glimmer of meaning or purpose amidst the fallout of an event of such magnitude, imagine what we might discover we are capable of achieving in the day-to-day occurrences in life — the relationships which are unraveling, the careers which are ending, the financial abundance which eludes us, just to name a few.
Are we noticing the way Life has embedded into the happenings of our life the gift of opportunity? Do we acknowledge the way in which we are contributing to it All as powerful creators? Do we ever honestly attempt to answer the ever-present and looming question of: How in the heck did we as a society actually even get to this point?
I get that perhaps most of the time it appears as though someone or something “other than” ourselves is creating the things in our life we are not comfortable with or pleased about, imagining that the negative happenings around us are the result of an energy which exists opposite to and other than the loving energy of God. I also get that often this way of thinking goes hand-in-hand with similarly thinking that solutions or significant changes will also, therefore, come from someone or something “other than” me.
It is during these moments of turmoil and destruction that we yearn most to receive a message from God, to be assured that, yes, God does exist in a way that we can understand. But we have blinded ourselves to the possibility that our conversations with God might occur in ways other than the way we expect or hope for them to, because surely God would not speak to us through those situations we have labeled as “bad,” would She?
Until we open ourselves up to recognize the ways in which Divinity flows through everything, the things we label “good” and the things we label “bad,” an understanding that allows us to know that there is nothing that is not God, we will continue to deprive ourselves of the conversation we so deeply desire and we will miss entirely the opportunity to experience the only reason there is to do anything: “as a statement to the universe of who you are.” ~ Conversations with God, Book 1.
The people in the world who desperately desire to live in a world free of violence have openly expressed their thoughts and opinions, and their active participation in what is taking place in our world right now ultimately played an integral part in thwarting a military strike against Syria, resulting in a new world being birthed right before our very eyes as humanity creates itself anew once again.
So on this day of global contemplation, one which still, 12 years later, continues to reopen emotional wounds, a day which floods our minds and hearts with sadness and despair, perhaps we might consider the possibility that even the tragic events of 9/11 can serve as an opportunity for us each to make a statement to the universe of who we are and transform the cycle of destruction into a declaration of self, all in recognition of who we choose to be in this Moment of 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.)
The events taking place in our world right now are sobering. The people who have placed themselves in powerful decision-making positions in our world are faced with the imminent and arduous task of choosing what happens next for all of us. And, frankly, people are afraid. It seems as though every option available at this point carries with it a disproportionate level of negative fallout, the thought of which creates more fear and uncertainty and a growing sense of powerlessness for large segments of the earth’s population, even placing the most agreeable minds in direct opposition to one another as we search and clamor for the best possible solution for everyone.
I think that as we move through the days and weeks, and perhaps even months, ahead, it will be important for us all to pay attention to and tend to any overwhelming feelings of negativity and heightened levels of fear that we may find ourselves experiencing. Fear is an immobilizer. It halts our creativity and cripples our ability to see with perspective and to choose with clarity. So how do we maintain a steady, or even semi-steady, sense of clarity and perspective during these times of turmoil and uncertainty? How do we keep our heads above water and still remain active participants in what happens next?
For me, in my personal life, even during some of my darkest moments, life always finds a way to remind me in sometimes small but always extraordinary ways that goodness and light do still exist and can simultaneously reside with the heaviness and hopelessness…if I give myself permission to see it. Now, that is no simple task in moments which are enveloped with despair and fear, when it feels as though everything I believe to be true is demonstrating itself to be false, and when the kind of God I so desperately want to embrace is not showing up in my life in any appreciable way.
But while it is not a simple task, it is one that is always possible. And not only is it possible, it exists right in front of us, alongside the darkness, available for each and every one of us to see and to experience. Life speaks to us in ways we might not hear if we are not really listening.
For instance, we may want to notice Ehab Sadeek, an Egyptian Muslim who owns a bagel store in Winchester, Massachusetts, who says he will give 100 percent of his profits to the One Fund Boston, an organization established to raise money for victims of the Boston bombings, and will continue to do so until the last victim is out of the hospital, calling the marathon bombers “cowards who don’t represent my faith or religion.” ~ The Good News Network.
Or perhaps we might want to take note that 673 of the brave men and women who are currently fighting California’s raging wildfires happen to be convicts participating in a voluntary program through California’s Conservation Camp initiative, a joint effort by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which allows inmates to take on the role of firefighters for $1 an hour. “They are in the thick of it,” Capt. Jorge Santana of the CDCR told NBC. “They work 24-hour shifts. They sleep in tents at base camp. They work side-by-side with other firefighters.” ~ Huffington Post Good News.
Then life also gave to us Malala Yousafzai, who, on her sixteenth birthday, nine months after being shot in the head in an assassination attempt by a Taliban gunman in northwest Pakistan, addressed the United Nations Youth Assembly in New York with a wish for universal equality, universal opportunity, and universal education. Once targeted for death because of her outspoken advocacy for her own education and those of other Pashtun girls, she now speaks on behalf of women and children everywhere. Her message is one of fearlessness and hopefulness. It is an inspiring call to justice. ~ The Daily Good.
How could we ever truly forget Antoinette Tuff, the bookkeeper in Atlanta, Georgia, who single-handedly prevented yet another mass school shooting by simply talking to the suicidal gunman with compassion and understanding?
And what about the man who stops to offer his jumper cables to the person with a dead car battery? Or the people in the vehicle in front of you at the drive-through who randomly and generously paid for your coffee or purchased your meal? What makes a person stop in traffic to carry a disoriented turtle gently to safety on the side of the road? Or the individual who just happens to come into your life at that perfectly timed moment and in that perfectly designed way?
Seemingly small examples? Yes, perhaps they are. But these are the moments that make up this thing called Life. These are the golden strands of opportunity and hope that weave the fabric of our experiences and remind us of who we are in relation to each other and why we are even here in the first place. We would be well-served to continue to contribute our energy into the bigger happenings in our world, yes, to consciously choose with our voices and with our votes and with our money. But we are equally well-served to incorporate and welcome the goodness of life into our experience, to strive for a sense of gratitude amidst the chaos and change, and to see the way God is moving through it all.
What would love do 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.)
Even though I author a “Romance and Relationship” column here on The Global Conversation, there are frequently occasions when I write outside the boundaries of that particular category. Most often that happens when I hear of things taking place in our world which I think would benefit from us taking a closer look at and then entering into a dialogue about. But in this particular article today, I am sharing a story with you that can be portrayed as nothing but pure, authentic, and wholesome romantic love, the kind of romantic love which demonstrates in such a clear and moving way what relationships yearn to be.
I would like to introduce you to Fred Stobaugh, a 96-year-old gentleman who lives in Peoria, Illinois. In 1938, Fred married his sweetheart, Lorraine, and he journeyed through the next 73 years side by side with his beloved wife, cherished partner, and wonderful friend.
In April of this year, Fred and Lorraine’s journey together changed when she transitioned out of her physical body here on earth, leaving him facing a life without her for the first time in over 73 years.
Shortly after her passing, Fred came upon a singer-songwriter contest being hosted by a local recording studio and began to jot down some lyrics to a song dedicated to and written about his sweet, sweet Lorraine. The official rules of the songwriter contest required interested applicants to send YouTube links via e-mail to their studio. But since Fred is not a professional musician and didn’t know how to use YouTube or the internet in that way, he handwrote his entry and lovingly placed it into a large manila envelope and mailed his song titled “Oh, Sweet Lorraine” to Green Shoes Studios.
“Oh, Sweet Lorraine” Lyrics:
“The memories always linger on.
Oh, sweet Lorraine, no, I don’t want to move on.
The memories always linger on.
Oh, sweet Lorraine, that’s why I wrote you this song.”
What was about to take place in Fred’s life was beyond anything he could have ever imagined.
You see, this is where the paths of Fred and Lorraine Stobaugh intertwined with the path of Jacob Colgan. Jacob is a musician and music producer at Green Shoes Studios, who happened to be the person to receive Fred’s entry in their singer-songwriter contest. He was so moved by it that he decided to contact Fred and, with his permission, offered to professionally produce it.
You can see the video documentary here:
Within the powerful messages of Conversations with God, we have been given an opportunity to view our relationships in a way that perhaps we have never considered before, one which invites us to view our partnerships and relationships, no matter how fleeting, as not ones of simple chance or mere coincidence, but rather purposeful fulfillments of our souls’ deepest yearnings and desires; to understand and embrace the idea that the people with whom we encounter and interact with are not just random experiences, but rather we are spiritually motivated and connected participants in each other’s ultimate communion with God.
Is it some haphazard occurrence that Jacob Colgan and Fred Stobaugh met in this way? Or is it possible that the crossing of their paths was long before decided, not in a tightly scripted way, but in some powerful and wonderful way which also involved the soul of Lorraine, so that they, and now you and I, could have an experience of Love never before experienced? So that Fred can continue to experience the eternal essence of his beloved lifetime partner long after the presence of her physical body ceases to be? So that Jacob Colgan can experience what it feels like to help return someone back to themselves and, in doing so, experience the light of his own Divinity?
I guess we will all walk away from a story like this with a different understanding and experience. As in all of life, we each get to make it up in whatever way we choose.
The important question to ask is: How am I going to make it up this time?
(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.)
Michael Brandon Hill walked into Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, an elementary school just outside Atlanta, Georgia, armed with an AK-47 type weapon and an ammunition stockpile of an estimated 500 rounds. From outward appearances, one can only assume that the intentions of this man were not what we would commonly term “pure.”
None of us can be exactly sure what Hill’s ultimate plan was, but one thing that he surely did not plan on taking place on this particular day was meeting Antoinette Tuff, a bookkeeper who works in the front office of the school, an encounter that would change everything. Not only would this unexpected relationship significantly change his life, but it would alter the lives of every other person who would be touched in some way, to some degree, by the events that ensued as a result of it.
You see, Antoinette had some quick and important choices to make when Mr. Hill came into the room she was in and began firing his gun at the floor. Even though she had been trained in how to react in this kind of situation, she didn’t have the luxury of thinking about it for a while or making a “pro” and “con” list or weighing out her options. No. Her next choice and her next action had to be made almost instantaneously and simultaneously.
What Mr. Hill did not expect was to come face to face with someone like Ms. Tuff, someone who drew upon her own struggles in life to be able to see through his pain and, in spite of her own fear, offer him an opportunity to make a better choice. She did not run or scream or attempt to defend herself with some level of physical or verbal force. Instead she reached out to Michael Brandon Hill with calmness, understanding, and love….yes, love. She was able to talk the gunman down and bring the situation to a peaceful resolution without anyone getting hurt. By sharing her personal challenges in raising a severely mentally disabled child, a husband who left her after 33 years of marriage, she convinced the suicidal gunman to surrender.
“I told him, OK, we all have situations in our lives,” Tuff said. “It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could, too.”
And in what may be the most incredible moment captured in a 9-1-1 recording — one that comes after Tuff has convinced Hill to surrender and shortly before the police come in — Tuff tells Hill that she loves him: “It’s gonna be all right, sweetie,” she says. “I just want you to know that I love you, though, OK? And I’m proud of you. That’s a good thing. You’ve just given up. Don’t worry about it.”
You can listen to the full 9-1-1 recording here:
Stories like this one are deeply moving to me because they are such a clear demonstration of what we are all capable of, the depths to which we can draw upon not only in our day-to-day happenings in life, but in times of turmoil or upset.
This particular scenario could have turned out much different had Antoinette Tuff chosen to flee or if she had allowed fear to dictate her next choice. The challenges she was facing in her own personal journey up until this very moment allowed her to demonstrate herself as clarity, as wisdom, and as strength in a moment of significance.
In the powerful messages contained with the Conversations with God books, God said, “I have sent you nothing but angels.”
The moment will come for each of us to consider these very words and to make a choice, as Antoinette Tuff did, to embrace them…or not. We may not find ourselves staring down the barrel of a gun, as she experienced. But we will have the opportunity on more than one occasion to see the Divinity within someone whose expressions or actions make it challenging to do so. We will also have the opportunity on more than one occasion to experience our own Divinity once again after our own expressions and actions cause us to forget. And we will have the opportunity to see someone like Michael Brandon Hill as an angel sent from God when all outward appearances speak to the contrary.
It is in these moments when we most fully understand and experience what it means to create our life anew. And if Antoinette Tuff can demonstrate that this is possible in an extraordinary situation like this, imagine the infinite number of possibilities we all are being given all the time.
(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.)
The situations facing Humanity today seem daunting. So much so that they can feel pretty overwhelming on an individual level. Some days I experience the certainty of my role in effecting positive change. But some days I find myself questioning my ability to make much of a difference, much less a significant change, in the world in which I live. I have even been tempted in certain moments to believe that my perceived “lack of ability’ means I should just leave the “heavy lifting” to someone sitting in a more powerful or influential position.
Have you experienced this sense of powerlessness? Does your heart and soul yearn to be part of the solution, yet your mind doesn’t know where to even begin?
The good news is that we are all powerful. We all have the ability to create change. We all are in a unique position to influence the way life is lived on our planet. And the even better news is it doesn’t require financial abundance or a large team of brilliant philosophers nodding in agreement with you. It doesn’t require a captive audience or a best-selling book. And you don’t even have to be a spiritual master.
It simply begins with your next choice. It starts with a decision to choose in accordance and in alignment with your beliefs. It unravels from the expenditure of your energy into actions that support and foster the type of world you wish to live in.
For example…
Maybe today you will begin using paper bags at the grocery store instead of plastic, a non-negotiable decision to protect the well-being of our planet.
Or perhaps you will locate the local farmers markets or co-ops in your area and begin purchasing your food from the people who farm organically right in your own backyard, so to speak.
What if you stopped buying bottled water and began to filter your own?
Might it be possible that you could do without Starbucks for a day or two and instead give that $5.00 or $10.00 to someone who could really use it?
Would you be open to initiating more conversations with the people you come across in your day-to-day affairs? The couple waiting in line behind you at the movie theater, the delivery man in the elevator, the lady ringing up your purchase at the convenience store?
Are you willing to consider an entirely new way of thinking about why you are even here in the first place, on this planet, right now? If your ideas about that changed, how might that impact the choices you make in your relationships with other human beings, the animals, the plants, the food you eat, the water you drink, the air you breathe, the land you walk on?
Are you prepared to try something new, maybe one thing, and take one small step in the direction of the larger global objectives placed before us?
Yes, some of these are simple ideas. But, hey, who said changing the world had to be complicated? Who declared that it has to be all or nothing? Maybe you have some ideas, thoughts, or opinions you are willing to share right here with the visitors who come to this website, ways in which we can all contribute to the abundance and health of our planet and the well-being of all human beings who share this space we call home. I urge you to feel free to express them. After all, we are The Global Conversation.
I part with the practical and loving words of someone very wise, my own wonderful mother, who once said to me: “I want to leave the world a nice place for my grandchildren to live in.”
That is the kind of world I want to live in.
(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.)
How to balance personal stability
with the plight of humanity by
establishing a sense of global empathy.
WE DO LIFE ON THE EARTH
