The Global Conversation

Tag: Conversations with God

  • Can I make myself love someone?

    What happens if you simply do not feel love for a certain person (even if it’s a spouse or mother). The feeling of “love” is just not there. Do you act as if you do or convince yourself that you do love them even though you don’t feel it until you do feel it? You can care for a person and don’t want any harm to them, but just don’t “love” them. Perhaps I have the wrong perception of what love is or can be. I love my two children to death (figure of speech); therefore, I know what feeling love is. What are your thoughts as I’m struggling with this.  Blessings, Lyne 

    Dear Lyne…My mother has always said we love in many different ways. I don’t love my sister the same way that I love my father. I don’t love a former sweetheart the same way I love my husband. I don’t even love my favorite cat Pippin the same way I love our kitten, Beanie! This is because each and every one of us is unique.

    I also think it’s entirely possible to love someone at an intellectual level, but not like them, or at least, not like their actions or their way of being in the world. Remember, we are vibratory beings.  And just as in music, vibrations either resonate and or they’re dissonant. When two vibrations resonate, they flow harmoniously together, but when two vibrations are dissonant, it feels quite uncomfortable. It might help you to understand, though, that just because certain wave forms may not resonate with each other, it doesn’t make either one of them “bad.”  Sometimes our vibes just don’t jibe!

    I’m sorry if this isn’t the answer you want to hear about your spouse, but I learned the hard way (after a long seven-year relationship) that I couldn’t force myself to feel romantic love. I loved the guy “to death,” to use your words, thinking that I would eventually fall in love with him, but it never happened. Our bond was loyal and deep and full of love, just not that kind of love. The chemistry was just not there and I couldn’t will it to happen, no matter how much I wanted to. Perhaps other people are different, but I know I’ll never go down that road again. Thankfully, we parted in the kindest, most loving way possible.  And after enough healing time, we ended up remaining the dear friends we were all along… thank God!

    Now, in the case of your mother, who you are expected to spend some amount of time with throughout your life, it may indeed, behoove you to act as if you love her if you want to spare her feelings, but always “to thine own self be true.” You either feel love for her or you don’t, and it doesn’t make you a bad daughter if you don’t. Give yourself the breathing room you need in the relationship and forgive yourself for your feelings if you haven’t done so already. If you think you can be with her from time to time in a positive way, you might feel good about doing that, especially for her sake, but I would make the phone calls or visits brief enough that you stay happy throughout the encounters. It wouldn’t serve either of you if the visits are so long they begin to deteriorate.

    I hope this helps, Lyne. If you need more personal assistance with this, please feel free to call on one of us CWG Life Coaches. The first session is always free. You can find out more about this opportunity by following this link here:

    Conversations with God Life Coaches

    (Annie Sims is the Global Director of The Conversations With God School, is a CWG Life Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to:  Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

  • The music never stopped

    “Ours is not a better way…ours is merely another way.”

    This concept is one of the basic tenets of the “Conversations with God” material and the prominent underlying message in this poignant movie I recently had the pleasure of watching called “The Music Never Stopped.”

    Based on a true story, this film revolves around the relationship between an estranged father and son who use the gift of music to bridge the painful emotional and physical distance existing between them.  When Gabriel’s overly strict father forbids him to attend a Grateful Dead concert in his teenage years, Gabriel runs away from his family home and becomes homeless.  20 years later, his parents learn that their son has a massive tumor growing in his brain which requires immediate surgery, and they are reunited once again to care for their son as he moves through this complicated and risky medical procedure.

    The unfortunate consequence to this delicate surgery is damage to Gabriel’s short-term memory, resulting in his inability to distinguish between the time period of the 1960s and today, and communication becomes frustrating and nearly impossible due to his almost catatonic state.

    Determined to reconnect with his son and repair their fractured relationship, Gabriel’s father, Henry, seeks the assistance of a renowned music therapist, whose research reveals that the key to unlocking Gabriel’s mind lies within the notes and melodies of the beloved music from his youth:  The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Steppenwolf, and the Beatles.  This new revelation invites Henry to overcome his sharp distaste for anything but classical music and venture into the world of classic rock-n-roll so that he may forge a new relationship with his son.

    This film is compelling in that it demonstrates how adopting a new perspective can be transformational and healing.  Life is a never-ending process of change.  When we fear change and resist change, clinging tightly and begrudgingly to our thoughts and beliefs, as Henry did, we may very well find ourselves so stuck in “our way” that we miss the opportunity being presented to us in “another way.”  Our relationships invite us to experience life in ways that gently, and sometimes boldly, challenge what we hold to be true by offering us an opportunity to see – or in Gabriel’s father’s case hear – things in an entirely new and different way.

    I highly recommend and encourage you to consider adding this wonderfully original film to your next movie night!

    “The Music Never Stopped” can be found on Netflix and is available on video from most movie rental sources.

    (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”)

  • A child’s life of gratitude

    Neale Donald Walsch said recently, “A master lives in gratitude at every moment.”

    How can we guide our children to find their own meaningful experience of a life of gratitude?

    In the U.S., the month of November is often a time to reflect on one’s good fortune.  As we approach Thanksgiving, social media is inundated with “30 Days of Thankfulness” posts, while many renew their attention to charitable giving and volunteering as an outpouring of their gratitude. These phenomena are demonstrations of one of the core concepts of Conversations with God, “There is Enough,” which teaches us that the world is an abundant place in which every person can get what they need and that scarcity only exists as we, collectively, allow it to persist.  Feeling this way in November is a great step toward a thankful life, but what about feeling gratitude during the other months of the year?

    In a society which is centered on external factors of happiness — acquiring more material things, improving physical appearances, and glorifying competition — it can be difficult to instill a constant and unshakeable sense of inner completeness in your family’s hearts and minds; however, when approaching life through your spirituality, you learn that instead of looking out there, you must start searching within to find fulfillment. In fact, the root of all happiness is gratitude.  Being grateful helps us to see everything more positively, even the aspects of our lives we wish to change. Encouraging children to embrace and embody gratitude assists them in their spiritual development, as well as their view of the world around them.

    Children learn by example. One way to demonstrate your own gratitude is to, as they say, find the silver lining in negative situations, and share those sentiments with your children. Another way is to share your abundance with others by donating time, resources, or just a kind word to another.  Giving of yourself to another person helps you appreciate your own gifts and blessings. A daily practice of gratitude allows it to permeate your thoughts more fully, becoming an integral part of your Be-ing. To this end, children, whether school-aged or even younger, can contribute to your family’s daily gratitude journal by drawing pictures, writing words, or even verbally expressing gratitude (for you to write for them).

    Whatever way you choose to bring an awareness and practice of gratitude into your home, it will bring you closer together. I believe you will find that it takes the edge off of a rough day, endears you to each other, and easily becomes a large part of your dialogue and vocabulary…allowing you, and your children, to live in gratitude at every moment.

    (Emily A. Filmore is the Creative Co-Director of www.cwgforparents.com.  She is also the author/illustrator of the “With My Child” Series of books about bonding with your child through everyday activities.  Her books are available at www.withmychildseries.com. To contact Emily, please email her at Emily@cwgforparents.com.)

  • Who and what is God?

    Conversations with God was given to humanity to bring us answers to Life’s Great Questions. And the greatest of all our Great Questions has been, and continues to be: “Who and what is God?”

    Most of us clearly understand that God is not a very large and handsome man in the sky, with a long white beard and a flowing robe, sitting on a golden throne in a bejeweled room, surrounded by wing flapping angels.

    Yet while we are pretty clear about what God is not, we are not nearly as clear about what God is.

    So let’s see what God has to say on the subject.

    In Conversations with God, God made it clear that God is without form, gender, or substance in the way that we know it.  God is, rather, that of which all things are made.  The Essential Essence of which everything in existence is comprised.  That essence contains Supreme Intelligence.  And Total Awareness.  And Absolute Power.

    It is omnipresent and omniscient.  It is everywhere because it is everything that exists in any place at all.  It knows everything because without that which it knows, nothing that exists could come into being.  It is the Source and the Substance at once; it is the Creator and Created.

    It always was, is now, and always will be.  It knows no beginning and no end.  There is nothing that exists outside of it and there is nothing that exists inside of it without it.  That is, simply put, there is nothing that is not God.

    This Essential Essence uses Itself to recreate Itself, and calls upon Itself to empower Itself, to be Itself, all by Itself.

    It needs nothing, requires nothing, demands nothing, punishes nothing.  For what could It possibly need?  What could It in any case require?  Why would It demand anything?  And who—pray tell, who in the world—would it command or punish?

    That which has everything and is everything and wants and needs nothing holds only one desire: to express and to know Itself through the glorious experiencing of Itself…and to create this possibility.

    That is the reason that life as we know it was created.

    Every human being who has stepped into the living of this possibility has achieved all the things we as a sentient species say we want to achieve.  And they have done so without hurting, without damaging, without killing.  We say they have lived the lives of “saints.”  Yet they have merely lived life as it was intended to be lived ‑‑ a way in which most human beings have adamantly refused to live, for the most ironic reason of all:  We think it is too good to be true.

  • Answering your child’s biggest question

    The biggest quest in this life, if you are a parent, is to assist your child/ren to know Who They Really Are, and the fact that you are their gateway into this world can make the feeling of responsibility overwhelming. The first thing you have to do is understand that you have absolute freedom to be the human/person you wish to be–and that it has nothing to do with how much money you have or don’t have, how much love you had or didn’t have, or even how you were treated as a child yourself. Once you understand that, showing your children how they can be Who They Really Are is much, much easier.

    Every child has the same basic question, and you can be sure that it is in their mind, whether they ask it out loud or not. The question is:  “Who am I?” And the older children grow, the more urgent the question becomes. Life — for all of us, but for children, especially — is a search for personal identity. Children learn that the way they comb their hair, the clothes they put on, the way they walk and talk–everything, in fact, about the way they are, begins to form their identity.

    Not coincidentally, in Conversations with God some of the most important questions asked are “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”  Answering those questions leads to an understanding of “Who We Really Are,” the exploration of which begins with the Soul. 

    Who You Really Are is, of course, about much more than what you do for a living, where you live, how you look, how much money you make, how you dress, etc., as we noted above. Most adults know this. Children, on the other hand, may not. Which is why they will beg for that new piece of clothing that is now the fad. (“Mommy, I’ve just got to have it!”) Or that new gadget that has hit the streets. (“Everybody but me has one!”)  It’s not easy to teach your children that Who You Are is more about how you see yourself, your intrinsic self-worth, and the love you extend to yourself and others. These are adult concepts that children cannot be taught through talking nearly so effectively as through showing.

    That will be very challenging if we have not asked and answered life’s most important question ourselves.

    Because “Who am I?” is asked so much, it makes me deeply aware that we, especially parents, are, in fact, on a great quest to find out Who We Really Are, and who our children are in relation to ourselves. That, it seems to me, is the whole purpose of life. It is a pretty deep thing to think about (unless, as Neale Donald Walsch would say, it is not!) So the big question here is, if I am still learning who I am, then how in the world do I show my children who they are?

    Here is my thought. Maybe, just maybe, we each already know, but ignore it. Perhaps we come here to remember who we are. Perhaps through our remembering, disguised as a quest of discovery, we experience the true magnificence of being, and of our connection to everything.

    What we are invited to remember is that we can be anything we wish to be.  We are each constantly creating a new “Me” in every moment, just as if we are each a division of cells, sloughing off and rebuilding ourselves. There is no amount of knowledge that can show us to ourselves. Reading, taking a class, and listening to the world around us are all great ways to gather ideas of who we can be, but the “Who” we are must come from inside of us. How we live, act/react, hear and interpret our inner selves (and the world) make up “Who” we are.  And that is the message we are invited to send to our children.

    How do we best send it? By demonstrating it. Children watch us. They watch us more closely than we might think. We are “modeling” for them every day in every way. And they will soon begin to imitate us. You can watch it happen!

    No one can truly change or mold your children into someone different than that which they naturally are. The attempt by some parents to do so is one of the biggest mistakes that parents can make. We each, alone, get to do that for ourselves; we each, alone, get to choose Who We Really Are.  As your children watch you do this, they will learn how to do it for themselves.

    As an adult you can do this by understanding your own voice and accepting it…not only listening to your inner voice and the power of your words, but also the simple action of hearing (listening) to your outer voice…the sound of your own voice. Listening to and honoring your real self is the only way to consistently present your true self in the world. And doing that will be a wonderful modeling for your children.

    Looking for tools in this? Well, I can tell you that understanding the messages of Conversations with God assists me in every moment of my life as a parent and in my connection with my spirit. I have been lucky. Since I was a child I have had the understanding that we are free to love the things we love, dislike those things that make us uncomfortable, and feel freedom in making those choices.  But I am not certain that most people truly understand how free they are to think and feel as they choose.  And the CWG books have put me back in touch with what I, myself, knew as a child.

    Just think about that for a few moments.  Ask yourself, and then ask your child (at an appropriate age, of course):  Do you feel free to make your own decisions? If they say “no,” ask them why not.  But be ready for answers that may relate directly to you.

    If we do not feel the spiritual freedom of which I speak to define ourselves, for ourselves, based on our own inner understandings from a very young age, then we might actually begin to limit our understanding of ourselves. Through this limitation, we might actually take steps down a path which leads to what I call a “society box” in which we cage the human emotions that we all have, contradicting the messages of our own knowing and doing what others think is best.

    To help your children avoid this trap, begin by showing and telling them that none of those things mentioned a minute ago matter, that all that really matters is how they see the world, how they feel in it, how nature brings life effortlessly to itself, to them (and to us), and that Life just happens.

    It feels to me that being Who You Really Are should happen effortlessly even through the uncomfortable times. What does “effortlessly” mean? It means allowing life to unfold naturally, as it comes, without struggling for or against it. In this you will automatically be Who You Really Are.

    Interesting that we are told by others to “just be ourselves.”  Why would that even come up? Shouldn’t being ourselves be obvious, natural, and effortless to us?  How is it really even possible to be anything other than “yourself?”

    Teach your children to just be themselves, and do this by you just being yourself, authentically and openly in every moment, and you will have taken a huge first step in answering parenting’s toughest question: Who Am I?

    (Laurie Lankins Farley has worked with Neale Donald Walsch for 10 years. She is the Executive Director of his non-profit School of the New Spirituality and creative co-director of CwGforParents.com. Laurie has published an inspirational children’s book “The Positive Little Soul.”  She can be contacted at Parenting@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

     

  • My virginity goes to the highest bidder

    Catarina Migliorini is a beautiful 20-year-old Brazilian woman…who also happens to be a virgin. She will be engaging in her first sexual experience in an airplane in-flight between the countries of the United States and Australia with a man from Japan named Natsu. While this may sound like an unusually exotic and romantic experience, this arrangement’s unique set of circumstances have thrust this story onto center stage, where it is receiving worldwide attention and is being met with overwhelming criticism.

    The man known only as “Natsu” beat out several other wealthy men from around the world as the highest bidder in an online auction at VirginsWanted.com where he paid $780,000 to have sex with a virgin.

    Where the story gets even more interesting, and perhaps slightly more morally complicated, is that Catarina has pledged to donate 90% of the money to charities that will build homes in the struggling Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.

    In an effort to circumvent any laws regarding prostitution, the tryst is scheduled to take place in an airplane flying 30,000 feet in the air.  Answering to the outcries of engaging in prostitution, in an article in New York Daily Mail, Catarina responded, “If you only do it once in your life, then you are not a prostitute, just like if you take one amazing photograph it does not automatically make you a photographer. The auction is just business, I’m a romantic girl at heart and believe in love. But this will make a big difference to my area.”

    Do the proposed altruistic intentions of Miss Migliorini outweigh or mitigate the morality questions that this arrangement gives rise to for so many outraged observers?

    Why is it that the bulk of the public disapproval is being aimed at Caratina’s involvement in this peculiar relationship and not equally levied against “Natsu” (who is remaining curiously anonymous)?

    And perhaps most importantly:

    Is there truly anything “wrong” with this mutually agreed-upon rendezvous?

    Within the teachings of Conversations with God, God reminds us that there is no such thing as “wrong” or “right,” that if such a concept were true, upon whose definition of “wrong” or “right” would a thing be judged as so? As demonstrated by the mere fact that prostitution is legal in one out of the 50 states in the United States — and legal in some countries around the world, but not others — even laws that have been designed and created to draw a distinction between “wrong” and “right” do not across-the-board define wrongness or rightness.

    Setting aside for a moment questions surrounding the legality of this arrangement, does the purchase of the presumed sexual innocence of this young lady create any larger questions around what our relationships are intended to provide? Larger questions around what the sexual experience, both physically and spiritually, is intended to serve? Larger questions around whether sex is best reserved for only the most committed and monogamous partners…or whether it is a gift to be enjoyed freely and playfully between consenting, passionate, creative, spirited adults?

    Examining our thoughts and perspectives, and questioning the data that we are relying upon, creates opportunities for us to stretch and flex our “belief” boundaries and helps us to understand more fully what it is we hold true about ourselves, what it is we hold true about relationships, and ultimately what it is we hold true about God.

    With the November 6 presidential election right around the corner, stories like this one serve as a bold reminder to me that many, many people will be casting their votes largely — or perhaps even solely — based upon morality issues and deeply held values. However, if we do not know what it is we believe, why we believe what we believe, or even take the time to think about it, how can we expect to be purposeful and creative participants in this Game of Life?

    (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.)

  • My boyfriend can’t forgive me and doesn’t trust me anymore

    My boyfriend can’t forgive me because for the first year we dated I never invited him to my apartment. I was embarrassed because his apartment is so much nicer than mine, so I was always making excuses not to have him over. He thinks it was because I was unfaithful and living with another guy but nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve tried to explain it to him but he’s still holding it against me. I love him so much and miss the good times we had together. How can I regain his trust?… Mandy

    Dear Mandy,

    You’ve learned the hard way, I’m afraid, that relationships can’t prosper fully when one is intentionally withholding information from another. That said, if you’ve sincerely apologized and explained your reasons and he still won’t forgive you, it’s probably time you have a heart to heart talk and try to find out what’s really going on with him. Set an intention for clarity and honest, open, peaceful communication. Here are a few talking points that might help get you started:

    The way I see it, and please correct me if I’m wrong, if you haven’t yet forgiven me, it must be for one of these three reasons:

    1. Because I haven’t explained why I did what I did, well enough for you to understand. I’ll gladly try one more time if you want me to.

    2. If I have explained it fully and you understand what I’m saying, but you choose not to believe me, there is nothing I can do about that.

    3. If I have explained it fully and you understand what I’m saying and you do believe me, but you choose to hold and carry a grudge, there is nothing I can do about that, either. 

    Are any of these scenarios true for you or are you using what I did as an excuse because you don’t have the courage to tell me that your feelings about me have changed? Or maybe you never really felt the same way about me that I feel about you?

    CWG says there is nothing to forgive; there is only to understand. God fully understands the reasons behind everything we’ve ever done—what our fears were, what our thought processes were about that fear, and why it drove us to make that “mistake” (of course, there really are no mistakes in the Universe). That is why we need not ask forgiveness from God. Even before we ask it is already given.

    Also, Mandy, we must always understand and forgive ourselves if we expect to receive understanding and forgiveness from others. This is how the Universe works at a metaphysical level—it reflects back our own thoughts about it. So perhaps the larger question is, Have you forgiven yourself?!

    (Annie Sims is the Global Director of The Conversations With God School, is a CWG Life Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to:  Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

  • Sleeping with the ‘enemy’

    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.)

     

  • Don’t replace one set of beliefs with another

    Remember, with this, as with all communications from God, take what you read as valuable, but not as Infallible. Know that you are your own highest authority. Whether you read the Talmud or the Bible, the Bhagavad-gita or the Quran, the Pali Canon or the Book of Mormon, or any holy text, do not place your source of authority outside of you, but, rather, go within to see if the truth you find there is in harmony with the truth you find in your heart. If it is, do not say to others, “This book is true.” Say, “This book is true for me.”

    And if others ask you about the way you are living because of the truth you have found within you, be sure to say that yours is not a better way, yours is merely another way.

    That is what this present communication is. This communication is just another way of looking at things. If it makes the world more clear for you, fine. If it puts you more closely in touch with your own innermost truth, good. But be careful not to turn this into your new “holy scripture,” for then you will have simply replaced one set of beliefs with another.

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    Editor’s Note: If you would like to COMMENT on the above excerpt, please scroll down to the bottom of the ancillary copy below.

    If Conversations with God has touched your life in a positive way, you are one of millions of people around the world who have had such an experience. All of the readers of CWG have yearned to find a way to keep its healing messages alive in their life. One of the best ways to do that is to read and re-read the material over and over again — and we have made it convenient and easy for you to do so. Come here often and enjoy selected excerpts from the Conversations with God cosmology, changed on a regular basis, so you can “dip in” to the 3,000 pages of material quickly and easily. We hope you have enjoyed the excerpt above, from the book: Communion with God.

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    About Book-On-A-Bench…

    If you believe that the messages in Conversations with God could inspire humanity to change its basic beliefs about God, about Life, and about Human Beings and their relationship to each other, leave those messages lying around.

    Simply “forget” or “misplace” a copy of Conversations with God on a bench somewhere. At a bus stop, or a train station, or an airport—or actually on the bus, train, or plane. At a hairstyling salon, a doctor’s office, a chiropractor’s office, a park bench, or even just a bench on the street. Just leave a book lying around.

    If everybody did this, the message of Conversations with God could “go viral” in a matter of weeks. So I invite you to participate in the Book-On-A-Bench program and spread ideas that could create a new cultural story far and wide.

    = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

    ABOUT NEALE…

    Neale Donald Walsch is a modern-day spiritual messenger whose words continue to touch the world in profound ways.  With an early interest in religion and a deeply felt connection to spirituality, Neale spent the majority of his life thriving professionally, yet searching for spiritual meaning before beginning his now-famous conversation with God. His With God series of books has been translated into 27 languages, touching the lives of millions and inspiring important changes in their day-to-day living.

    Neale was born in Milwaukee to a Roman Catholic family that encouraged his quest for spiritual truth. Serving as his first spiritual mentor, Neale’s mother taught him not to be afraid of God, as she believed in having a personal relationship with the divine — and she taught Neale to do the same.

    A nontraditional believer, Neale’s mother hardly ever went to church, and when he asked her why, she told Neale: “I don’t have to go to church — God comes to me. He’s with me and around me wherever I am.” This notion of God at an early age would later move Neale to transcend traditional views of organized religion.

    Neale grew into an insatiably curious child whose comments about life seemed to possess a wisdom beyond his years, and often caused relatives and family friends to ask, “Where does he come up with this stuff?” While attending a Catholic grade school, Neale would often pose questions in catechism class that would extend past the traditional grade school curriculum.

    Finally, the parish priest invited Neale to his rectory to answer the difficult questions that he didn’t wish to address in front of the rest of the class. This meeting turned into a once-a-week visit that blossomed into an open forum in which Neale learned not to be afraid to ask questions about religion and spirituality—and also learned that his asking these types of questions did not mean that he would offend God.

     

    Joyless spirituality is observed.
    Is rigidity and anger sometimes produced by religion?

    By the age of 15, Neale’s involvement with spiritually based teachings led him to observe that when people got involved in religion they too often seemed less joyful and more rigid, exhibiting behaviors of prejudice, separateness, and even anger. Neale concluded that for many people the collective experience of theology was not positive.

    After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, but academic life could not hold him and he dropped out of college after two years to follow an interest in broadcasting that eventually led to a full-time position at the age of 19 at a small radio station far from his Milwaukee home, in Annapolis, Maryland.

    Restless by nature and always seeking to expand his opportunities for self-expression, Neale in the years that followed became a radio station program director; a newspaper reporter and, ultimately, managing editor; public information officer for one of the nation’s largest public school systems; and, after moving to the West Coast, creator and owner of his own public relations and marketing firm. Moving from one career field to another, he could not seem to find occupational satisfaction, his life was in constant turmoil, and his health was going rapidly downhill.

     

    A life-changing accident.
    A desperate questioning that touches the world.

    He had relocated in Oregon as part of a change-of-scenery strategy to find his way, but Fate was to provide more than a change of location. It produced a change in his entire life. One day a car driven by an elderly gentleman made a left turn directly into his path. Neale emerged from the auto accident with a broken neck. He was lucky to escape with his life.

    More than a year of rehab threw him out of work. A failed marriage had already removed him from his home, and soon he couldn’t keep even the small apartment he’d rented. Within months he found himself on the street, homeless. It took him the better part of a year to pull himself together and get back under shelter. He found, at first, modest part-time jobs, once again in broadcasting, then worked his way into full time employment and an eventual spot as a syndicated radio talk show host.

    He had seen the bottom of life living outside, gathering beer and soft drink cans in a park to collect the return deposit, but now his life seemed to be on the mend. Yet, once more, Neale felt an emptiness inside. In 1992, following a period of deep despair, Neale awoke in the middle of a February night and wrote an anguished letter to God. “What does it take,” he angrily scratched across a yellow legal pad, “to make life work?”

     

    The books that began a spiritual revolution.
    The words that opened doors again.

    Now well chronicled and widely talked about, it was this questioning letter that received a divine answer. Neale tells us that he heard a “voiceless” voice, soft and kind, warm and loving, that gave him an answer to this and other questions. Awestruck and inspired, he quickly scribbled these responses onto the tablet.

    More questions came, and, as fast as they occurred to him, answers were given in the same gentle voice, which now seemed placed inside his head, but also seemed clearly beyond his normal thinking. Before he knew it, Neale found himself engaged in a two-way, on-paper dialogue. He continued this first “conversation” for hours, and had many more in the weeks that followed, always awakening in the middle of the night and being drawn back to his legal pad.

    Neale’s handwritten notes would later become the best-selling Conversations with God books. He says that the process was “exactly like taking dictation,” and that the dialogue created in this way was published without significant alteration or editing. He also says that God is talking to all of us, all the time, and that he has come to understand that this experience is not unusual, nor does it make him in any way a special person or a unique messenger.

    In addition to producing the renowned With God series, Neale has published 18 other works, as well as many video and audio programs. Available throughout the world, seven of the Conversations with God books made the New York Times bestseller list, with Conversations with God: Book 1 occupying a place on that list for more than two-and-half years. Walsch’s books have sold more than seven million copies worldwide and have been translated into 37 languages.

    The With God series has redefined God and shifted spiritual paradigms across the planet. In order to deal with the enormous global response to his writings, Neale formed the Conversations with God Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to inspiring the world to help itself move from violence to peace, from confusion to clarity, and from anger to love.

     

    The work expands.
    A movement begins.

    Neale founded the School of the New Spirituality and its CWG for Parents program to bring parents the tools to share new spirituality principles of a loving, non-condemning God with their children. He also founded Humanity’s Team, with branches in over 30 countries, now promoting the concept of the Oneness of all people and of all of life.

    What Neale calls his “final creation” is The Global Conversation, an Internet Newspaper dedicated to exploring day-to-day events on our planet within the context of The New Spirituality, and offering people across the globe the opportunity to not only witness the playing out of humanity’s Cultural Story in the news, but participate in re-writing that Story, through their contributions and posted comments on the newspaper’s site.

    Neale’s work has taken him from the steps of Machu Picchu in Peru to the steps of the Shinto shrines of Japan, from Red Square in Moscow to St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City to Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

    Everywhere he has gone—from South Africa to Norway, Croatia to The Netherlands, the streets of Zurich to the streets of Seoul—Neale has found a hunger among the people to find a new way to live; a way to co-exist, at last, in peace and harmony, with a reverence for Life Itself in all its forms, and for each other. And he has sought to help them develop a new, expanded understanding of God, of life, and of themselves that allows them to create and experience this.

    (Neale Donald Walsch lives in Ashland, Oregon with his wife, the American poet Em Claire (www.emclairepoet.com).)

  • Are you willing?

    Has your life become one struggle or challenge after another which never seems to end? It doesn’t have to be that way any longer. Eventually all come to a time and place where enough is enough and we become willing to do whatever is necessary in order to end the pain we are facing. It is sad we endure so much more than we have to in most cases. Many are just not yet willing to let go of the old, the past, in favor of a new and uncertain tomorrow, a tomorrow filled with joy and purpose, when we become open to the possibility that our struggles are really in our own best interest and not something we need to avoid.

    All too often we spend the majority of our lives trying, unsuccessfully, to avoid any person or situation which may have caused us pain in the past. Not only do we unsuccessfully avoid the pain, typically we just increase the number of situations in life which will cause us pain in the future.

    As we learn to embrace the changes going on in our lives not as something we need to avoid, but instead as part of the process of our growth, we are now moving towards a life of creation rather than one of reaction. When we begin to create our lives consciously, we no longer have to get so caught up in all the challenges and dramas life brings. We now have a choice in the matter on how we will respond to change.

     AN ENERGY SHIFT IS NEEDED

    I have been working through a personal challenge of my own in my life. Each time I think I am making progress and getting closer to finally moving beyond it, I find myself slipping back a couple steps. Fortunately, I have been through this process a number of times and know each little bit of forward progress is, in reality, a huge step to overcoming my challenge, even if I slip backwards now and then. It shows me I still haven’t reached the point of being entirely willing to let go.

    I was talking with a friend recently about the challenges she faces after her epileptic seizures, both the physical ones as well as the mental ones. From talking to her, I saw how just shifting her energy slightly, before and after she experiences her seizures, she would be able to transition out of the negative energy states much quicker if she had just a bit of willingness to have a different experience. I was happy to hear from her yesterday that even though she had a seizure-filled weekend, she was up and functioning quite well by Monday afternoon.

    Willingness is an action step in many cases. The way to see if someone is willing or not is to see how they will take action in their lives. Talk is cheap, and our actions speak much louder than words in many cases. I see this often in the recovery meetings I attend. We will have new people come into the program, their life in chaos due to the addiction, yet they do not follow through on the suggestions they receive from the members with experience. To me, this is a perfect example of a lack of willingness. In many cases, following a few simple suggestions (willingness) could have made all the difference for them.

    WILLINGNESS FOLLOWS YOUR PASSION

    “Passion is the love of turning being into action. It fuels the engine of creation. It changes concepts to experience…. Never deny passion, for that is to deny Who You Are, and Who You Truly Want To Be.” – Neale Donald Walsch

    Neale’s words here are a perfect example of how we can increase our willingness to succeed in life. The more we are in touch with and doing things in our lives that fuel our passions, our dreams and visions, the easier it becomes to raise the bar on our levels of commitment to achieve more.

    Think of a time in your life when you wanted something so bad and you were willing to do anything to achieve it. Maybe you had to start your day early and end it late. Perhaps you had to stretch your comfort zone and try new things. We will not have that type of commitment for something we are not passionate about. It is like a fuel to get us moving each day, striving to be and do more than we may have ever done in the past.

    When the actions we are taking in our lives are an outward expression of Who we Are and Who we truly want to be,  it opens us up to become entirely willing to do the things in life which we may have balked at in the past. This is willingness in action.

    IT’S POSSIBLE TIME

    As we dial into each moment, staying focused on our dreams and passions, we are just steps away from all we desire. Presence in this moment is another tool of willingness.

    Willingness is a choice you must make over and over again until it becomes a habit you are not willing to let go of, no matter what happens in your life, no matter what obstacle shows up!

    The next time you face a major challenge in your life, take the time to pause and remember willingness is the spiritual solution to all your problems.

    (Mark A. Michael offers mentoring based on his understanding of the concepts and principles of “Conversation With God” and is part of the Spiritual Helper Team at www.changingchange.net.  He can be reached at www.beyondfaithintofreedom.com.)