Tag: Conversations with God

  • What to do when you’ve done all you can do?!

    I’m trying to take my career to the next level by applying for work with some people who are quite famous. They say they love my work and will consider me when they have an opening. I feel like I’ve reached out to them as much as I should at this point, so how do I stay on their radar without making a nuisance of myself? …Edwin

    Dear Edwin… Don’t forget that celebrities are really just people, too, in a different place along their path. They don’t have anything you don’t have. Their awareness that they have it is the only difference. Don’t be in awe of them. Just love them for Who They Really Are and allow their perceived successes to be an inspiration to you. Express your gratitude to them for showing you what you are also capable of, and be a friend when given the opportunity to interact with them.

    For now, just send loving vibes. Let the energy do the work of reaching out. We always think we have to do it on the physical plane, but we don’t. It is equally effective to reach out energetically as long as we do so from a happy, excited-about-the-prospects-and-possibilities place. Surround them with love and light and envision your working together. See it as happening now. Pre-pave it at the energetic/thought level and love it into existence. This is how to consciously create everything. Simply love it into existence!

    Don’t try to force it into being. Never force it. That gives the opposite result because it is a resistant action, and what we resist persists.

    Love-Allow-Embrace-Expect-Experience-Enjoy!

    (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 war is over

    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.)

     

  • Expansion by Contraction

    Most people look at the addicted person and see a waste of life; others see lost potential.  As for me, I see a person who is moments away from a spiritual awakening that can change not only their life, but possibly the world.  Does this sound like and outrageous claim to you?  Well, let me back it up.

    Let’s go all the way back to the early 1930s.  There you will find a man, a drunkard named Bill Wilson (later in life to become famously known as Bill W.)  This man could not stop drinking, or if he could stop, it would not be for long.  And each time he started again, his drinking became worse and worse.  He was in and out of hospitals four times and was at the end of his rope.  His family and friends were fed up with his antics.  His drinking ruined his reputation at work, and it was known that he could not be relied upon.  By all accounts, this man was the living example of a wasted life, sure to die a premature, painful, and lonely death.

    Enter the unknown, the unforeseen, and the miracle, if you will.  This is where the unexpected comes in to play and why, as humans, we should always hold the space for our reality to change and our consciousness to expand.  Bill, the life long drunkard, found sobriety; he also found a way to keep it.   According to Wilson, while lying in bed, depressed and despairing, he cried out, “I’ll do anything! Anything at all! If there be a God, let Him show Himself!”  He then had the sensation of a bright light, a feeling of ecstasy, and a new serenity. He never drank again for the remainder of his life.

    Does this story sound similar to anyone we know?

    In finding his own sobriety, he also co-created the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, hence changing not only his life and the lives a few people around him, but actually changing the lives of millions around world.  The 12 steps have long since been the most effective method for those suffering from “hard” addiction to achieve sobriety.  Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of the 12 steps, many members have achieved a level of freedom that many without an addiction in their lives  may never experience.

    The Bill W. story is a glaring example of how, by eliminating a detrimental aspect of one’s life, you can then open up the space for something truly transformational to take place in the world.  This is available to all of us, as we were all created in the image and likeness of God.

    God does not reserve greatness for only a select few, and we all have had or will have opportunities presented in our lifetime to do great things.  For me, I choose to seek the path that will enrich the lives of those who are presented to me.  It would bring great joy to my life if what I have learned and experienced through the messages of Conversations with God and the 12 steps could be given to those to whom happiness, joy, and  freedom have not frequented.

    What gift could you bring to the world?  And what would have to change in your life to make that happen?  Are you ready to take those steps today?  What is your greatness potential?

    (Kevin McCormack is a Conversations with God Life Coach, a Spiritual helper on www.changingchange.net, addictions & recovery advisor.  To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@theglobalconversation.com.)

    (Questions in the ADVICE column are answered by a team of life coaches who write for this online publication. Address questions to:Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • We are nearing the 2nd stage
    of Earth’s transformation

    GOD: You are nearing the second stage of the process of transforming life on your planet, and it can be complete in a very short period of time—a few decades to one or two generations—if you choose.

    The first stage of this transformation has taken much longer—indeed, several thousand years. Even this, in cosmic terms, is a very short time. It is during this period of The Awakening of Humanity that individuals whom you have called teacher, master, or avatar self-identified, and then undertook the task of reminding others of Who They Really Are.

    As the number of people who are touched by this early group and their teaching increases to critical mass, you will experience a “quickening of the spirit,” or what you might call a breakthrough, in which second-stage transformation begins.

    Now the adults begin teaching their young—and from that point on, the movement is very quick.

    Your race is at this breakthrough point now. Many humans felt a shift when you moved into what you called your new millennium.  This was a key point in the onset of a global shift of consciousness, in which you are now playing your role.

    The key to continuing this momentum lies with your young. If the education of your offspring now includes certain life principles, your species can make the quantum leap forward in its evolution of which it is capable.

    Build your schools around concepts, not academic subjects; core concepts such as Awareness, Honesty, Responsibility. Sub-topics such as Transparency, Sharing, Freedom, Full Self-Expression, Joyous Sexual Celebration, Human Bonding, and Diversity in Oneness.

    Teach your children these things, and you will have taught them grandly. Above all, teach them of The Illusion, and how—and why—to live with it, and not within it.

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

    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.

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

    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).)

  • God will never forgive you for anything

    (Part 3 of a 5-part series)

    This is important. Please read…

    If you think that you are going to be forgiven by God for anything you may have done “wrong,” you are mistaken. Conversations with God tells us that God will never forgive you.

    Read that, never. As in, never ever. For anything.

    It won’t matter how much you beg, it won’t matter how much you plead, it won’t matter how many times you fall on your knees begging for mercy. God will never forgive you for anything, ever.

    If you are looking for forgiveness from God, you are looking in the wrong place.

    Now there is a very good reason that God will never forgive you. God has nothing to forgive you for. You have never done anything in the entirety of your life that could displease God. You have never done anything that could anger God. You have never done anything that could damage or hurt God.

    Do you believe in a Deity that would or could have any reason to be unhappy? Do you believe in a Deity that would or could have any reason to be angry? Do you truly imagine that the God of this Universe (which today’s science is now telling us is actually a universe of Universes…a Multiverse!) could actually be hurt or damaged in any way…much less by something that Little Old You have done?

    Well, no, you might say, God doesn’t “punish” human beings because they have offended Him. God sits in judgment and punishes human beings because Perfect Justice demands it.

    In some minds that makes sense, and helps people to reconcile a Totally Loving God with a Fearful Deity who would nevertheless condemn His children to eternal and unspeakable agony for their “offenses.” Yet Have you ever heard the phrase, “There ain’t no justice…”? Well, that’s how it is in Heaven. There’s just ain’t no justice. And the reason there is no “justice” is that the whole concept of Justice depends upon the existence of Right & Wrong. And there’s no such thing as Right and Wrong. That’s an abstraction, an hypothesis, constructed totally in the mind of Man. And it’s been twisted beyond recognition even in its imaginary form.

    The reason there is no “justice” in Heaven is that in Heaven, everything is Perfect. As well, everything is Perfect “on Earth, as it is in Heaven.” For Earth is part of Heaven…and we just don’t know it.

    You have never done anything that could cause God to punish you in the name of seeking “justice.” Do you seek “justice” in the case of an 18-month old baby who knocks over the 200-year-old vase that was the irreplaceable Family Heirloom? Do you punish her with everlasting separation from her Source of Life and Love?

    Do you imagine that human beings are much more than 18-month-old babies in the Life of the Cosmos, and in the Mind of God? Is it your thought that God sees us as fully conscious, totally aware, completely knowledgeable, unlimitedly wise beings who are absolutely responsible for their every thought, word, and action in a Reality about which they know and understand Everything?

    Do you conceive of human beings as being at the top of the Evolutionary Process that produces Sentient Beings in the Universe? Or is it possible that we have no idea what’s going on here, not the slightest conception of the Reality in which we find ourselves, and are just now truly birthing ourselves into the Cosmic Community of Sentient Beings?

    If the second were true, is it your thought that a righteous and virtuous God would punish us with Everlasting Damnation and Eternal Torment in the Fires of Hell for having made what even we would call a simple childhood mistake if we were witness to a toddler “misbehaving”?

    What kind of a “God” do you think we have, anyway…? Do you imagine that we truly are Children of a Lesser God?

    (Neale Donald Walsch is the publisher of The Global Conversation internet newspaper and the author of the Conversations with God series of books. His latest book, The Only Thing That Matters,  distributed by Hay House, is now available in print or audio form from Amazon.com by clicking here.)

     

  • Where does God stand on debt?

    I am 38 years old, employed in a fairly secure job, but the debt I have is starting to cause me to become anxious and afraid.  I have modified my spending, but I still can’t seem to get even, let alone ahead.  I don’t go out with my friends much, and the thought of dating someone, and what that will cost, is overwhelming. I never intended to get to a point where I considered defaulting on what I owe; however, it is now causing a great deal of stress in my life.  What would God say? What is the right thing to do in my situation?   – Tom in Tacoma, Wa.

    Hi, Tom… Your situation is all too common in these times.  Many of us have found ourselves facing a similar situation, some have thrown their hands in the air and defaulted, others have found ways to keep their necks above water, and others have used the situation to motivate themselves into higher wealth and abundance.

    Now, some of those in the latter category will take the experience of being overwhelmed with debt and decide they will not do that again; that is, they will be more conservative with their money moving forward.  Others in that group will think they are invincible and live even riskier lives; of those, some will achieve greater success and some will continue to experience feeling broke and broken.

    You see, Tom, I believe that God wants for us what we want for ourselves, nothing more, nothing less.  If we want peace, God wants peace.  If we want extravagance, God wants extravagance.  To Her, it makes no difference.  So I believe God would say to you the following: “Tom, what do you wish to experience?  What do you want to feel?  How may I help you to achieve that?”

    So if I may turn the question around on you, Tom, is it possible for you, in the moment, to see that everything is perfect, everything is the way it should be?  Can you believe that you are safe right where you are right now?  If so, where would you like to go from here?  Are you in the right job for you?  Is there something you love doing and feel a strong sense of purpose in?  Is there something that you feel you have a gift for, a gift that you are not using to your benefit or the world’s benefit right now?

    What I am trying to get at here is that God does not care what you are doing, what your financial situation is, or how you go about handling that situation.  What God does care about is that you do whatever you do consciously, knowingly, and lovingly.  So, Tom, make a decision (for to not decide is a decision in itself) on who you will be in relation to whatever it is that you do.  “Being” must always come first in the conscious person’s daily affairs.

    (Kevin McCormack is a “Conversations with God” Life Coach, a Spiritual helper on www.changingchange.net, and an addictions & recovery advisor.  To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@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.)

     

  • How to reconcile CwG with my Christian friends?

    How can I lovingly respond to friends who tell me that the only way to access God is through Jesus Christ and that I will be condemned if I don’t accept him as my Lord and Savior? I love Conversations With God and still attend a Christian church, but I am beginning to feel alienated there. Please help!… Patt

    Dear Patt… My father, who believes as your Christian friends do, once told me he was worried about my Soul. I told him as earnestly as I could that God and I have a wonderful, loving, close personal relationship and he need worry no more! I think it helped ease his mind.

    Living in Nashville, the city some refer to as the Buckle of the Bible Belt, I sometimes find myself in conversations about my CwG work with fundamentalist Christians. When this happens, I make an effort to relate to them in terminology that they can understand. I look for common ground in these discussions because the foundational principles of Jesus’ teaching and Conversations With God are not so very different, although CwG offers us a much larger view of Life and how it works. Knowing that each of these discussions is an opportunity to gently introduce people to CwG and to help expand their spiritual awareness, I try my best to be impeccable with my word and as loving as possible.

    Since you are being proselytized to, Patt, you may want to suggest setting judgment aside and listening with an open mind when discussing each other’s beliefs. Then speak your truth, but soothe your words with peace and loving kindness. Don’t be surprised, though, if, as time goes on, you feel yourself being pulled more toward other people who share your beliefs. You may even find that a different church or spiritual center more deeply resonates with you, and please don’t feel guilty about it if this happens. You may make wonderful new friends who will support you on your life’s journey and in your spiritual growth.

    (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.)

     

  • Unveiling the modern goddess

    My sister had just exposed to me this new point of view:  Affirmations For the Everyday Goddess by Pamela Wells.  Very thought-provoking affirmations.   This “Goddess” stuff was new to me.  I hadn’t really been exposed to or been around (in my mind’s current awareness anyway) Goddess thinking; however, I dug that title for sure.  It was new and refreshing to me.

    She was sharing how she really related to this certain Goddess and had her little statue in her kitchen window.  The following day I visited a Unity Church as a guest of a friend.  While we were in their gift shop, I looked over on the countertop while checking out and commented to Mary, “Look, there is a book on Goddesses.  That’s what my sister was just speaking to me about.”

    Well, as there are no accidents, this woman promptly turned around and said she was the author of the book.  It was one of those times when one ‘knows.’  God is there as miracles are happening left and right.  So I bought three of her books and had her sign them.  She then gave us, Mary and myself, a little sharing of her life and insights right there in the front of the bookstore.  It was a special moment for all.

    The book is called:  “Unveiling the Modern Goddess: Thru Symbolism, Chakras & Myth” by Karen Marie Castle.  (Purchase the book on Amazon)

    She shared with us how if she had not gone ‘inward’ (a deep meditation), that this book would not be here.  She had this unexpected transformational experience during a Holotropic Breathwork session that lead to a whole different path in life for her, as detailed in her book.

    I appreciate the colors of the cover of her book and her sharing her healing as she weaves her story around the ancient myth of the Goddess Inanna, who appeared to her during that meditation.

    Personally, I am very grateful this book on “unveiling me as a Goddess” came into my life.  My sister is the same one that years ago gave me my first Conversations with God, Book 1.  That sat on my shelf for a few years because I thought the title was kind of weird.  As the renowned and highly respected author/mentor/friend of that book and Conversation of God series of books, Neale Donald Walsch, says:  “When the student is ready…the teacher will appear.”  Jill led me to Conversations with God and now to adoring my Goddess within.

    Thank you, Jilly!

    I love you eternally.

    An excerpt from the back cover of Unveiling the Modern Goddess:  Thru Symbolism, Chakras & Myth, by Karen Marie Castle:

    “The mystical story of the Goddess Inanna can guide us to achieving our greatest potential.  Unveiling the Modern Goddess:  Thru Symbolism, Chakra & Myth explores our own journey through life. Utilizing the chakras energy system and the symbol of Inanna’s myth gives us clues to understand our life development and indicates where we need to heal and thus become a more whole human being.  Underlying this powerful understanding is a message for all women to come forward and take responsibility for our Mother Earth and for our children.  Women are being called as beacons of light for our human evolution.”

    (Mel Dee lives in the United States and is a nursing student, part-time bartender, part-time house attendant (a one-on-one mentor in their/our evolutionary process),animal lover, soul lover, people lover and peace lover!  She also volunteers on the site www.changingchange.net as a spiritual helper.)

    (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”)

     

  • What would love do now?
    Wear a pink tutu in Times Square, of course!

    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.)

     

  • If only you were ‘this,’ then I could be ‘that’

    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.)