The Global Conversation

Tag: Lisa McCormack

  • A new “Brand” of politics?

    Russell Brand’s “Newsnight” interview with Jeremy Paxman has gone viral across social media, attracting over a million YouTube views a day since it first aired on October 23.  The English comedian, actor, radio host, and author who is notorious for incorporating drug use, alcoholism, and promiscuity into his comedic material, was recently appointed as guest editor of this week’s issue of London’s political and cultural magazine, New Statesman.  The interview began with the question:  “Russell Brand, who are you to edit a political magazine?”

    See what he had to say about that question and more in this video:

    Wow, is he on to something here?

    How do you feel about the fact that he has never voted, and encourages others not to?

    Brand says, “It’s not that I’m not voting out of apathy, I’m not voting out of absolute indifference, and weariness, and exhaustion from the lies, treachery, deceit of the political class that has been going on for generations now and has now reached a fever pitch, where we have a disenfranchised, disillusioned, despondent underclass that [is] not being represented by that political system, so voting for it is tacit complicity with that system.”

    How many other people feel this way, too, but don’t have the courage to say it?  Do we actually, as a society, have influence or power in the way our current voting system is structured?   Or are we willing to consider the possibility that if we want to see some significant changes in our current paradigm, we may be called upon to take some significant actions?

    Do the ideas which Russell Brand shares represent the kind of revolution Humanity is yearning for?  These certainly are the types of radical changes that will rattle powerful cages and cause the status quo to quiver in its tightly laced shoes, but is someone like Russell Brand too unrealistic, too “out there,” too unbelievable, too incredible?   He has been criticized for not offering actual and practical solutions.  But might it be possible that the solutions will unearth themselves in our choice to take the first step, which could be as simple as listening to each other?

    For so many, “politics” has become a dirty, ugly word.  The more divisive and complicated our political system gets, the more disenfranchised and disengaged large segments of our population feel.  How do we get to a point collectively where the system we have in place excites and invites?  According to Brand, “Imagining the overthrow of the current political system is the only way I can be enthused about politics.”

    Is that what it’s going to take?

    Are we ready for that kind of a revolution?

    I think it’s just the beginning.  What do you think?

    (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.)

  • Are killer whales simply sacrificial lambs?

    If we each took some time to dig through the archives of our family’s vacation photos, I would imagine many of us would be able to find pictures of us with our children at the local zoo or perhaps spending the day at an aquarium or enjoying an afternoon at the circus.  Kids and adults alike love to see animals and many are quite fond of watching them perform the unexpected trick or two, and big corporations know this and are more than willing to make those opportunities available to us for a steep price.

    But somewhere underneath the giggle-producing spectacle and the collective “oohs” and “aahs” and beyond the neatly pressed pages which hold our treasured family photos lies an uncomfortably nagging question:

    Is this the intended purpose for the animals that we share our planet with?

    In a recent controversial documentary titled “Blackfish,” director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, a mother who once took her own children to Sea World on a regular basis to see the shows, raises some thought-provoking questions about the safety and humaneness of keeping killer whales in captivity over the past 39 years at the wildly popular theme park.

    The events surrounding the death of Sea World trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010, when a 12,000-pound orca whale pulled her underwater during a live performance, became the catalyst to Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s film “Blackfish.”

    “I remember asking someone why an orca — a highly intelligent animal — would attack its trainer or essentially ‘bite the hand that feeds it.’  We sometimes hear of dogs mauling other people, but in these cases we don’t seem to hear about them attacking their masters. So why would America’s lovable Shamu turn against us? How could our entire collective childhood memories of this delightful water park be so morbidly wrong?”

    In an interview with CNN, Cowperthwaite said, “My hope is that we take the “Blackfish” momentum and use it to help evolve us out of animals for entertainment. These silly marine park tricks are of no social, educational or conservational value. We advocate, instead, for captive killer whales to be retired into sea sanctuaries where they can live out the rest of their lives in a dignified, sustainable manner.”

    Sea World has been critical of the film and released the following statement:

    “Blackfish is billed as a documentary, but instead of a fair and balanced treatment of a complex subject, the film is inaccurate and misleading and, regrettably, exploits a tragedy that remains a source of deep pain for Dawn Brancheau’s family, friends and colleagues. To promote its bias that killer whales should not be maintained in a zoological setting, the film paints a distorted picture that withholds from viewers key facts about SeaWorld — among them, that SeaWorld is one of the world’s most respected zoological institutions, that SeaWorld rescues, rehabilitates and returns to the wild hundreds of wild animals every year, and that SeaWorld commits millions of dollars annually to conservation and scientific research. Perhaps most important, the film fails to mention SeaWorld’s commitment to the safety of its team members and guests and to the care and welfare of its animals, as demonstrated by the company’s continual refinement and improvement to its killer whale facilities, equipment and procedures both before and after the death of Dawn Brancheau.”

    This story places before us an opportunity to talk about our relationships with these magnificent creatures and consider how we desire and choose to define that relationship.  As I look around and watch humanity cage, maim, sell, slaughter, hunt, train, manipulate, mutilate, exploit, oppress, wear, and eat some of the most extraordinary life forms around us, I can’t help but wonder:  Do we have this all “wrong”?  Are we grossly misunderstanding the purpose of our furry, scaly, finned friends?  And why have we give such names as “killer whale” to these beautifully majestic mammals who are simply doing what comes naturally to them?

    Of course, there exists the possibility that the animals and mammals are here as supporting cast members, souls whose agenda is to simply play the role of “sacrificial lambs,” if you will, in the scenes of humanity’s play, existing for the common and highest good of all.  But do animals even have souls? In one conversation I had recently, I was offered the matter-of-fact point of view that animals could not possibly have souls, pointing out that man was created superior to animals and that animals just simply cannot be equal with him, a belief system that some theologies hold to be true.

    I suppose it is this level of thinking which creates a desire to capture and possess some of the most exotic and exquisite animals on earth and why we are also more than willing pay money, large sums of money, to people who are capitalizing off of their involuntary loss of freedom.

    And while the possibility exists for anything to be true, I continue to return to that same uncomfortably nagging question:

    Is this the intended purpose for the animals that we share our planet with?

    And now I invite you to share your thoughts, your ideas, and your feelings about what may be one of our most misconstrued, yet most significant, relationships.

    (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.)

  • Marianne Williamson for Congress!

    Marianne Williamson, best-selling author of some of the world’s most beloved spiritual books, such as “A Return to Love” and “Healing the Soul of America,” announced Sunday that she is running as an independent for the U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 33rd District.

    The theme of her campaign you might be wondering?

    “Create Anew.”

    Marianne Williamson is no stranger to politics and spiritual activism.  She is the emeritus chair for The Peace Alliance, an organization dedicated to promoting a culture of peace; facilitator of Sister Giant seminars, designed to promote “a higher level of contribution among those of us who want to increase our efficacy as activist and/or candidate, in order to uplift the tenor of American politics and in so doing help heal the world”; and a teacher of A Course in Miracles, a course of study that assists people in relinquishing a thought system based on fear and embracing one based on love. (www.allvoices.com)

    There are many out there who believe that spirituality and politics don’t mix, that they do not “play nice together.”   Will Marianne Williamson be the person who demonstrates not only the possibility for spirituality and politics to work together, but the one who actually produces the outcomes yearned for — but not yet seen — by the American people, offering to Humanity, as Ms. Williamson said, “a new consciousness regarding our political discourse”?

    I feel inspired upon reading this exciting news, and I am wondering what the world thinks about this.  How will her prominence in the new-thought community benefit her campaign?  How might it hinder her?  Is America ready for someone who isn’t functioning from or catering to the ultra-religious voting sector?   How does the fact that she is running as an independent come into play here, if at all?

    According to Williamson, “I believe that a wave of independent candidates, all committed to a huge course-correction, is necessary to turn our ship around. I feel my campaign, and most importantly my win, can help inspire such a movement.”

    On Ms. Williamson’s website, the question is posed to her:  “Why should I think you’d be a better congressman than Rep. Waxman?” the current representative whose 38 years in Congress has earned him a reputation of being one of its most influential liberal members, to which she replies, “The voters get to decide if they think I’d be better; what I can tell you is that I would be different. And I do not think of Congressman Waxman as my opponent. We’re simply candidates for the same position.”

    Is she the person who can breathe new life into our political system?  Does she have the ability to actually implement and demonstrate some of the New Spirituality concepts that many of us have talked about right here on this site?

    Marianne Williamson posted this message on her Facebook page:  “Politics shouldn’t be the least heart-filled thing we do; it should be the most heart-filled thing we do. It should be a collective expression of our most enlightened selves.”

    Now, that is someone I’m interested in seeing more from.

    How about you?

    (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.)

  • A swift kick in the pants

    This past weekend, 17 states across America experienced technical difficulties with Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, an electronic system that allows state welfare departments to issue benefits via a magnetically encoded payment card to its recipients.  The temporary disruption in the electronic debit system caused distraught shoppers to abandon their shopping cards filled with food and other personal necessities in the checkout lanes and leave stores empty-handed because they could not access their benefits.

    This same disruption in service also mistakenly removed the set spending limit on EBT cards for some people in a couple Louisiana Walmart stores, creating a situation where law enforcement officers were called into the stores to help maintain order as shoppers took advantage of the windfall and swept through the aisles, buying as much as they could carry, knowingly exceeding the budget that had been established for their personal accounts.

    My point for bringing this to the table for discussion is not merely to talk about the fact that it happened, or how it happened, but rather to engage in a conversation about the ensuing public reaction to it.

    On a local talk radio show, I heard an angry caller exclaim that “those people” should just get jobs, as he has so commendably done, and that they shouldn’t be receiving free handouts anyway.  He said they deserved this “swift kick in the pants,” referring to those distressed shoppers who left stores without food for their families.

    And in my reading of the news stories that have surfaced around this incident, many of the opinions being conveyed in the commentaries seem to mirror his sentiments, which created some nagging questions for me.

    How many people feel this way, that we should not have a public assistance program?

    If it is a matter of amending or supplementing the one we have, how would that look?

    Do we have a responsibility – or at least, at a minimum, a desire – to aid the people in our communities, in our countries, and in our world whose lives are less than easy?

    If we don’t consider it our responsibility, what is the alternative?

    Do we really want to live in a world where it is “each man for himself”?  Really?  Is that even possible?  What is the purpose of our relationships with each other anyway?

    Could the solution be as clear-cut as some people vehemently assert, that those in need should just simply “get a job”?

    And what about the people who took advantage of the broken system this past weekend and took more than they were allotted?  Is it possible for any of us to experience a level of compassion that would help us to understand what would cause someone to make that particular choice?   Can we think of a time or times in our own lives where we tricked the system or took more than our fair share?   What is the sponsoring thought or belief that causes us to resort to those types of decisions?  Is there a soul purpose or agenda or desire that might be at play here?

    For me, one of the single-most difficult concepts to accept is the fact that there are people in our world who do not have food to eat, that there are people who starve because they do not have even the smallest amount of nourishment to sustain their bodies.  It is unimaginable with the resources that are available to us.  So when I hear someone declare that they deserve this “swift kick in the pants” in describing someone’s inability to buy food, I start having a lot of questions around where we are as a society, how we got here, and how life looks for us all as we move forward together, like it or not, on this planet earth.

    Your thoughts?  Your ideas?  Your wisdom?

    (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.)

  • Three things you need to know

    As I was driving to work the other day, I heard the local radio personality announce, “And stay tuned for the three things you need to know from the radio station that keeps you up to date with what is important in the world.”

    Oh, my goodness, I was going to arrive at my destination well before they told me the three things I need to know.  Should I stay in my car and risk being late for my appointment while I wait for these vital pieces of information?  What will happen to me if I don’t hear these three crucial nuggets of wisdom?  Because if I need to know them, won’t the absence of knowing them surely have dire circumstances for me?

    Could it be that I need to know that the American government is continuing to play intramural hardball with each other at the expense of the very people who voted them into office, the very people who they claim to have their best interests in mind?

    Could it be that I need to know that former Olympian Bruce Jenner and his wife, Kris Jenner, are now officially separated after 22 years of marriage?

    Could it be that I need to know that there are people who reacted sharply with racist comments and harsh accusations in response to Nina Davuluri becoming the most recent Miss America because of her Indian origin?

    Could it be that I need to know that a young pregnant woman in Mexico City gave birth on the front lawn of a medical clinic after being denied care from the medical personnel inside the facility who told her she was not ready to deliver?

    Or maybe I need to know that the foods I am eating are entirely wrong or what movies I must be watching.  Perhaps I need to know which preschools my children should be going to in order to ensure they will be successful adults or how to Feng Shui the furniture in my living room.  Maybe someone will tell me what car I’m supposed to be driving, what brand of jeans someone “my age” should wear, what length my hair is supposed to be.  And surely I need to know which politician is involved in the latest sex scandal.   And, of course, here is the big one that someone must tell me now:  which version of God I am supposed to be embracing?

    Where does the long list of “things I need to know” end?

    And how is it that everyone else knows what I need to know, and I don’t?

    Of course, I’m being slightly facetious here to make a point.  But how many times and in what kinds of ways are we being told we need something in our lives in order to be, do, or have something else?   In order to be happy?  In order to be abundant?  In order to be in a relationship?  And do we ever stop to consider where we are getting that information?

    Buried deep beneath our belief that somehow we are incomplete, insufficient, less-than, it seems we have forgotten the nature of who we really are.  We have caused ourselves to miss entirely the opportunity to experience ourselves as the source of our own joy and happiness by looking to and accepting external sources of information for our answers and our truth, even when that information is not in alignment with our own wisdom.  Can you imagine a more perfectly vulnerable position for someone to be in if and when somebody else wants their truth to also be yours?

    For me, it has been my experience that the understanding of what I need to know is most often realized in the space of nothingness, in the stillness of nature, and in the absence of words.  And while the outside world provides us an extraordinary opportunity to apply our consciousness through the process of choosing and creating and recreating, I believe there are not 3 things we need to know, nor are there 100 things or one million things.  There is only one thing we need to know; and that is this:  we already know.

    “Life (as you call it) is an opportunity for you to know experientially what you already know conceptually.
    You need learn nothing to do this. You need merely remember what you already know, and act on it.”

    ~ Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Vol. 1

    (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.)

  • Perfectly imperfect

    If there was one word in our language that I wish we could eliminate, or at least redefine, it would be the word “perfect.”  Actually, not the word itself, but rather the idea that we are somehow inherently less than or in need of being improved upon,  and that the only way to experience a life of happiness, joy, and freedom is to be, do, or have something different than we are already being, doing, or having.

    The irony is that in our quest for perfection, as we have largely come to understand it, we are blocking our own ability to see ourselves as who and what we truly are, which is – ironically — perfect.  The expectation bar has been set mighty high by many of us.  And buried deep beneath its many complicated layers of judgment and insufficiency lies the opportunity for each and every one of us to experience our natural state of wholeness and completeness.

    For many, life has become a distorted sort of treasure hunt, a mission, a goal-oriented conditional experience:

    If only I had more money, then I would be able to buy the big house on the hill and have designer clothes and even that bright red sports car…because that would bring me happiness.

    If only I had thinner thighs or larger breasts, then I would attract a partner who would desire me and finally have the relationship of my dreams…because that would bring me love.

    If only my house was always clean and organized, then I could finally relax and read those books which are collecting dust on my bookshelf or have the time to take that yoga class…because that would bring me peace.

    If only I had a better job, then I would make more money so I would be able to buy the big house on the hill and have the designer clothes and even that bright red sports car…

    If I had all these things, finally my life would be perfect.

    And the cycle is perpetuated – want, strive, push, want, strive, push, want, strive, push – which still does not produce the outcome we think we are supposed to have, which causes us to push harder and strive more, leaving us utterly exhausted and mentally drained and completely detached from any notion or concept about who we really are.

    Does a state of “perfection” exist?

    What would it actually look like if it did?

    Why do we yearn to be more?  To be better?   And why are we willing to trade in our happiness in exchange for a concept that demonstrates itself over and over and over again to be unrealized?

    Is “perfection” something that we are capable of experiencing beyond perhaps the exact moment we are born into this world?   There are some who would say even a newborn baby is not perfect, that they, too, come into this world flawed, in need of fixing or improving upon, to the degree that they are actually in need of forgiveness.  Is that conceivable or even possible?

    I sense that there is some level of perfection woven into the universal tapestry within which we find ourselves a part of, some purposeful fluidity that encompasses each and every one of us, even though the collective cognitive grasp of what that might be seems to lies just beyond the boundaries of our understanding.  But I also believe that we are provided momentary glimpses into this realm of deeper understanding, demonstrated by numerous occurrences in my own life where an experience of overwhelming sensation of goodness and joy fills me and reminds me that there is a harmonious energy at play here in the seemingly random happenings in my life.

    So today I will celebrate my imperfections, I will laugh at the choices that feel like mistakes, and I will be grateful for all the “wrong” turns I make and awkward or embarrassing things I might say.  I will stop wishing I was that and feel appreciative because I am this.  I will open my heart to extend the same appreciation and kindness to all those who share this life journey with me, knowing that these are the moments that I believe are best described as, well, perfect.

    “If a snowflake is utterly perfect in its design, do you not think the same could be said about something as magnificent as your life?”
    ~ “Conversations with God” 

    (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.)

  • Aren’t all moments momentous?

    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.)

  • Your life is not about you

    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.)

  • The only reason there is to do anything…

    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.)

  • A love letter from Fred

    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.)