The Global Conversation

Tag: Lisa McCormack

  • Unseen, unheard, unloved…unthinkable

    The body of Yvette Vickers lay unnoticed and unmissed in her California home for what some have speculated to be several months beyond the moment of her passing.  The B-movie actress and former Playboy Playmate, perhaps best known for her role in the cult classic film “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman,” not only died alone, but her physical presence was not missed by even one of the over 7 billion people that currently occupy our planet for an unimaginable amount of time.  In spite of the fact that people at one point actually paid money to view her naked body in Playboy magazine and people paid money to be entertained by her roles in a few low-budget films, not one single person checked on her, asked about her, looked for her; and most disappointing of all, not one person expressed love to her.

    How can something like this happen?  How is it even possible for someone’s life to end virtually unseen, unheard, and unloved?   And perhaps the bigger question is:  What can we do to change that?

    As disturbing as this particular story may be, the fact that millions of human beings on our planet today live in isolation and loneliness is perhaps even more disturbing.  The statistics surrounding an ever-increasing population contrasted against the staggering numbers of people moving through their days alone seems absurd and completely implausible.  A logical mind would struggle to understand such a contradiction in facts, let alone understand how an entire population of people could continue to do very little, if anything, about it.

    What piece of the puzzle are we missing?

    At what turn did  Humanity get so horribly off course?

    While a percentage of our population is benefiting from living in a world pulsing with the frenetic energy of fast-paced technology and more advanced ways of communication, we may want to pause and take notice of the large percentage of our population that is being, quite frankly, forgotten and left behind.  And even among those who have immersed themselves in the fast lane of the “information super highway,” it is becoming more and more evident that we, as a society, seem to be aloofly drifting away from the true intention of our relationships: to touch, to gaze, to smell, to hear, and to BE with each other in such a way that we may know experientially Who We Really Are.

    But the fact that so many people live day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year clouded in loneliness and feelings of insignificance cannot be entirely and solely attributed to modern-day advances in communication.  Somewhere along the line, we have simply forgotten what matters.  We have forgotten that our neighbors matter.  We have forgotten that the elderly lady pushing her shopping cart in the grocery store matters.  We have forgotten that the children who are ignored on the playground matter.  We have forgotten that the man sleeping on the park bench, without a home to go to, matters.  We have forgotten that every single solitary expression of life which lives and breathes on this planet matters.

    Of course, on a spiritual metaphysical level, no one is ever truly alone.  But there is certainly a huge disconnect somewhere between the knowing of that and the experiencing of that as millions of people are struggling right now, in this very moment, to feel some semblance of meaning and purpose in their lives.

    But how does somebody make a difference in the life of another if they don’t feel their own worthiness or experience their own significance?  How can anyone possibly give something they simply don’t have in the first place?

    Conversations with God offered to us the powerful message of:  “Whatever it is that you wish to experience more of in your life, be the source of it in a life of another. There is a universal law that plays its effect here. When you give what you want to another, you cause yourself to notice that you have it.  And since reality is a matter of perception, it is your perception that has caused you to imagine that you do not have it. When you give it to another and cause them to have it, you suddenly come to the realization that I could not give it to them if I did not have it to give. Suddenly you become aware that you had it all along.”

    And when we live our lives within this framework of understanding, what then have we allowed ourselves to discover about ourselves?  About life?  About God?  About Who We Are and Why We Are Here?

    Could we all commit to stepping outside of our comfort zone to present someone who feels unseen the opportunity to be seen?  Or to hear someone who feels unheard?  Or to love someone who feels unloved?  Even if the person who feels unseen, unheard, or unloved happens to be you?

    (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation.  She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team atwww.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • Yoga in schools: helpful or harmful?

    The parents of two California grade school students have sued to block the teaching of yoga classes in their children’s physical education class, complaining it promotes eastern religions.  The action was filed by The National Center for Law & Policy, an Escondido, California-based nonprofit “legal defense organization” focusing on “protection and promotion of religious freedom, the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, parental rights and other civil liberties.”

    NCLP attorney Dean R. Broyles filed the lawsuit against the Encinitas Union School District in San Diego County on behalf of plaintiffs Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock, claiming “The program is extremely divisive and has unfortunately led to the harassment, discrimination, bullying and segregation of children who, for good reasons, opt out of the program.”

    The integration of yoga into the physical education program has been highly effective in reducing hyperactivity and stress.  In schools around the nation who are implementing yoga into their health and wellness programs, they are seeing a marked decrease in the number of students who harm others and/or themselves and a reduction in aggressive behaviors which are commonly associated with violence and drug use.  The yoga classes, which incorporate breathing techniques to alleviate stress, promote relaxation, and increase body circulation, have been proven to increase students’ confidence and overall well-being.

    So with all these demonstrated obvious benefits, why would anyone resist such an advantageous program, one that has a proven track record in schools and communities around the world of noticeably enhancing lives in both a physical and emotional way?

    The complaint in this case is citing that the introduction of yoga in the school unlawfully promotes religious beliefs.  The lawsuit objects to eight-limbed tree posters they say are derived from Hindu beliefs, the “Namaste” greeting, and several of the yoga poses that they say represent the worship of Hindu deities.  The plaintiffs are not seeking monetary damages; they are asking for the removal of the program in its entirety from the school’s physical education program.

    In this particular situation, once again, deeply rooted fear-based religious beliefs (ironically, the very thing being protested against) are attempting to crowd out change, an example of inflexible belief systems clinging desperately and fearfully to an Old Cultural Story which embraces an idea that “THEIR way is THE way.”   Or it could be entirely possible that they have NO idea what “their” way even is and just simply believe that “another” way is arbitrarily wrong.

    But why do stories like this continue to exist where the fear that holds this Old Story together is so enmeshed in its antiquated concepts that it prevents those who hold it as true from being able to welcome change, even when such a change has been demonstrated to be beneficial and life-enhancing for so many people?

    Could it be possible that Old Cultural Stories continue to exist because the concepts held within them actually are best?

    If that is so, perhaps there is no place in schools for yoga, and our children should only move their bodies in largely approved and unmistakably pragmatic ways, such as doing jumping jacks or kicking a ball on the playground or, better yet, throwing balls at each other.  Perhaps unruly children who have not learned how to quiet their minds enough to sit in class and pay attention for any length of time should continue to be medicated with mind-numbing drugs and/or sent to the principal’s office repeatedly to be punished for “acting out” in class.  Perhaps children would be better off not knowing how to control their breathing and utilize it as a holistic tool with which to calm themselves in moments of anxiety or pressure.  Maybe, if we wait long enough, the dysfunctional system that we have in place will one day eventually demonstrate itself to be beneficial.  And in the meantime, we should just shelf all these crazy new alternatives that are currently available — and working — for our children.

    The way I see it, if we still did things in alignment with what they thought was “best” when I went to school years ago, our administrators today would be liberally spanking our children with a wooden paddle.  Fortunately, that belief system has changed.  And fortunately, for the students who attend the Encinitas Union School District, they have someone like Superintendent Timothy Baird who is standing behind the yoga program and will continue to offer it to their students because of its health benefits.

    What do you think?

    I say:  Bring on the yoga.

    (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 I had a crystal ball…

    I have never been a fan of flying.  As a matter of fact, I downright dislike it.  There is probably not a better example in my personal life of a time when fear-driven thoughts crowd out clarity and dominate and distort my reality.

    What if they forgot to tighten a bolt? 

    What if there is a leak in the cabin pressure? 

    What if we hit a flock of birds?  Hey, that’s actually happened before! 

    I once said to my husband while boarding our flight, “If I could just look into a crystal ball and be assured that we will make it safely to our destination and land without incident, then I could relax and actually enjoy this.”

    Of course, those “crystal ball” assurances I am looking for never appear, just as they never appear in any of my day-to-day happenings.  What I do recognize, however, is the mere fact that I desire an assurance for a particular outcome only serves that aspect of me that doesn’t understand the much broader interweavings of what is going on here in this process of life.  And, oh, how quickly my Mind is willing to buy into the story that events must unfold in a certain way, one that protects or preserves or prevents, which only perpetuates the false thought and, thus, belief that I have something to lose.   

    How many times in life do we hold back or avoid certain situations because we think we have something to lose?  And what exactly is it that we believe we will no longer have if we do a particular thing?  Or if we enter into a new relationship?  Or if we depart from an old relationship?  Or if we change careers?  Or write that book?  Or if we demonstrate who we really are to everyone…all the time?

    What I have come to know for myself is that in those moments when I come from a place of fear, I guarantee my own loss.  Not the loss of what I think I might lose; but rather the loss of something much more significant:  the loss of my Self.  In an effort to avoid a perceived loss, I actually cause loss to occur — the loss of experiencing my Soul’s desire.  It is only when I include the perspective of my Soul that my field of vision expands to see that there is nothing to lose except that which I deny myself in the process of thinking that there is.

    If I withhold my expression of love in my relationships for fear of rejection, even in the smallest of ways — a look, a gesture, a kiss, a touch, in words — I am losing the opportunity to experience myself as an unconditionally loving being.  If I avoid challenging tasks in my career for fear that I might “fail,” I am losing the opportunity to experience the full spectrum and outreach of my capabilities.  And if I fear flying in an airplane, afraid of losing my life, I am causing myself to lose the opportunity to know myself as an eternal soul.

    And those, to me, are the greatest losses of all.

    (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.)

  • Want to experience God’s love?
    Give up pizza and chocolate

    I never really fully understood the purpose of “giving up” something for Lent.  As a child, growing up in the Catholic religion, I just simply did it because I was told I was supposed to do it, never really grasping the intent of this long-held ritual.  However, I guess in some way, from the perspective of a child, I approached it as a personal challenge just to see if I could do it, but always wondering why God would want me to give up pizza or chocolate, which were my two favorite “things” as a young child; and, therefore, the two things that I must forgo during Lent.  Because, as we all know, in order to truly be in God’s favor, you must give up something that you love, some object or experience that would cause you to suffer in the absence of that particular thing.  And as a very small child, pizza and chocolate had grown to be my “loves” in the universe of my short and tender years.

    Fast-forward now 40 years later, while I understand the history behind the Lenten season, I still remain unclear as to the purpose of giving up “something you love” in the 40 days that fall between Ash Wednesday and Easter…or at ANY time.  At this point in my life, it has become abundantly clear to me that I experience more joy, more peace, and more of a knowing Who I Really Am when I align myself with that which is serving me and to change what is not.  Why would God desire, or actually command, me to remove experiences from my life that bring me joy?  Must the path to God be traveled on a road of suffering?  Why have we imagined a God who manipulates love in such a way?

    Lent is not the only example of how we, as a society, have bought into an idea of forgoing and suffering as a path to The Creator.  There are Yogis who live in the Himalayan Mountains who devote their existence to a life of renunciation, abandoning material comforts and even food in their pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.  It is commonly known that Catholic priests refrain from not only sex, but they resist even entering into a romantic relationship with another based on a belief that it will allow them to better serve and please God.  People who observe the Jewish and Seventh Day Adventist faiths abstain from eating pork and shellfish because of beliefs they hold about what God wants. Those who belong to the Jehovah Witness faith will not celebrate birthdays, nor will they even receive a blood transfusion in medical emergencies, because of beliefs they hold about what God wants.  Many women in the Pentecostal faith will not cut their hair because of beliefs they hold about what God wants….just to name a few.

    Now, an idea that I could more readily embrace would be engaging in 40 days of placing intention on the things that foster our ability to realize and actually experience our Highest Selves and our ever-present connection with God.  I can remember no time in my life where the deprivation of something I love has led to an experience of knowing God.  I can, however, recite numerous occasions where allowing the things I love to flow into my life abundantly most certainly and vividly created a deeper understanding and knowing of Who I Am and what my relationship with God is.

    This idea of suffering has long been misunderstood and misused as a way to “win” or “earn” God’s love.  We are pained to see the visible suffering in the world around us, but we are quick to voluntarily suffer in an effort to seek approval and acceptance from the one source of unconditional love that we actually have.  Why do so few embrace an idea that we do not have to do anything to receive God’s love?  Is that thought too frightening?  Is that concept too easy?  Is that idea too risky?  Would we place that expectation on our own children in order that they may experience our love?

    After all, we are making it all up here, aren’t we?

    Why are we making it up in a way that feels so hard?

    (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 God doesn’t want anything from me,
    why do I expect so much from you?

    Yes, it is almost here again, Valentine’s Day.  The arrival of this “Day of Love” can produce a broad spectrum of experiences for those who are touched by it.  For some it will glide in on the wings of new-found love and breathtaking romance.  For others it will simply not arrive at all – or at least not in the way it is desired.  Either way, has Valentine’s Day evolved into just another holiday which places the focus of what it is we all imagine ourselves to desire in a relationship firmly in the thoughts, choices, and actions of another?  Will he buy me flowers?  Maybe he will shower me with expensive jewelry or escort me to the finest restaurant in town?  Perhaps she will have sex with me?  Will I even be the recipient of a thoughtful card?

    But what happens when the thoughts, choices, and actions of another on this particular day fall short of what we are hoping to experience?  Is Valentine’s Day truly a day of love, a celebration of partnership, a reminder of our unity?  Or rather, is it just another day of consumerism, the perfect setup for unrealistic expectations, and perhaps more divisive than cohesive when it comes to moving forward in our partnerships?

    Are we so attached to the external shiny objects that are dangled in front of our senses on this day – the flowers, the candy, the jewelry, the food, the sex, the presents, the promises – that we lose sight and stray off of the path that will truly lead us to the experience of joy, happiness, and love in our relationships?

    Don’t get me wrong.  I am not a prude.  And I love romance – hey, I am the “Romance & Relationship” columnist after all!  But I have found myself on the receiving end of feeling disappointed on Valentine’s Day for not receiving a card or a gift and constructing some pretty harsh judgments around that, placing myself in a position of asking myself, “What is that about?”  Especially when that particular person never let a moment go by where his love and presence were not wholly known and deeply felt in ways that transcended the potential of any material expression.

    If God does not want or need anything from me, why do I place those expectations upon the person with whom I share my life’s journey?  Could it be that somewhere along the line I was taught and then adopted the idea that love was measured in direct proportion to that which I was either giving or receiving?   The more you give me, the more you love me?  The more I receive, the more I am loved?

    And if that is not the case, then how DO we express this thing called “love”?

    How do we express that which is so profound and so complex and so seemingly “unexpressable” in our limited human capacity?

    My life has demonstrated to me that the answer to that question is foundationed in first understanding and living each moment of your life in full awareness of the Agenda of your Soul, and understanding that the people with whom we share a relationship also have a Soul Agenda — whether they are aware of it or not.

    But what  does the Agenda of my Soul have to do with Valentine’s Day?  Or my partnership?  Or anything I do, for that matter?

    It has everything to do with not only those things, but each and every choice I make and the entire purpose of my life.  If I am clear on the Agenda of my Soul — or at least recognize that I have one — and when my partner, too, is living in alignment with his Soul’s Agenda, then our love, our companionship, our presence in each other’s life becomes an expression of that purpose and that intention, creating moment after moment of experiencing our communion with God and Unity with each other, reaching completion of that which we are here to experience…Over and Over and Over again…knowing ourselves as Soulmates and remembering who we really are.

    I could be wrong.  It could really about the chocolates and the lingerie and the sappy cards.  I could measure the extent of my spouse’s love and commitment against the value of the gifts he may – or may not – give to me.  I could hinge the purpose of our relationship upon a single day, in single a year, and what I “get” out of it.

    But I don’t think so.

    I sense that it is much, much larger than that.  I may happen to receive a sweet card or some exotic flowers or perhaps go out for a romantic dinner on Valentine’s Day.  Or I may not.  Either way, I am very clear on one thing:  my Soul will not yearn for more or less than the perfect experience of being exactly who I already know myself to be:  LOVE.

    (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.)

  • I just want to be happy

    How many times has the phrase “I just want to be happy” crept into your thoughts and tumbled out of your mouth?  Perhaps someone close to you has uttered these six words in the midst of their own “unhappiness” on an occasion or two, looking to you for the solution?

    But just what does “happy” look like?

    What images does the word “happy” conjure up for you?  Does it represent a state of being which so far life has kept from you like a callous game of keep-away?  Does your mind paint a pleasant scene of someone other than you skipping gleefully down a flowery stone path, indulging in an ice cream cone, and humming a joyful tune?  Is it in that perfect relationship that you envision and yearn to be a part of, the one that looks nothing like the relationships you are currently experiencing?

    If you Google the word “happy,” the first image that pops up is a giant yellow smiley face.  Is that what it means to be happy?

    If not, what does it mean to be “happy”?

    And why do so many people claim not to experience it on a regular basis, if at all?

    Our spiritual leaders teach us that a happy life is a peaceful life, doing what brings us joy.  Our parents tell us their only wish for us is that they want us to be happy.  But if we don’t have any real concept of what “happiness” is, how will we even know if we ARE happy….or, for that matter, have any idea how to get there?

    Maybe we are closer to a state of happiness than we actually think we are.  Perhaps we are simply hung up somewhere in that space between what we think “happy” looks like and what happiness truly is.

    We have become a fun-seeking, happiness-producing society:  Take more vacations.  Engage in a hobby.  Go out for date night.  Ladies’ night out.  Men’s night out.  Eat more.  Drink more.  Play more.  Get more.  Do more.  Have more.  But what would happen if we valued no moment in life as more “fun” than another?  What if we perceived all of life as equally fun, equally meaningful, equally purposeful?

    Maybe happiness isn’t found in that which we think we are not doing enough of or in that which we think we are not getting enough of.  What if we considered the possibility that happiness is already there, always there, patiently waiting for recognition, quietly knowing its potential?  Perhaps happy is found in the deep sense of knowing that no matter what is taking place in my life right now, no matter how chaotic or discombobulated or challenging it may seem, that everything is occurring to serve my highest good and the highest good of all.  Could we accept the nonsensicalness of it all, at last experiencing the highest level of happiness, knowing that life does not have to be one continuous sweeping run of “fun” experiences unfolding before our very eyes?

    Maybe happiness is experienced in loving exactly where you are…and not where you think you should be.

    Maybe happiness is experienced in loving exactly what you have…and not in what you imagine yourself to lack.

    Maybe happiness is experienced in loving exactly who you are…and not in who you think you are supposed to be.

    I don’t believe that happiness is reserved for a select few, nor is it earned or doled out to those who most deserve it.  It is experienced within our choice to BE it.  It is felt in companion with sadness and confusion.  It is known in the moments when life requires us to stretch the furthest and bend the most and love the deepest.

    What does “happy” look like to 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 soul named Bob

    It was recently brought to my attention that my driver’s license had expired and that I had been driving around town “illegally” for over two weeks.  This troubled me, of course, because I immediately thought for sure Murphy’s Law would pay me a visit and I would, for the first time in years and years, now ironically get stopped by the police for a moving violation or a broken taillight or, worse yet, maybe find myself involved in an automobile accident, my expired license only adding to my misfortune.  Yes, I was frantically writing my own best-selling “what if” story.

    But my mind was also busy imagining a situation that perhaps, at least more immediately, was even worse than that — the dreaded thought of having to make an early Monday morning visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew my lapsed license.  Oh, just the thought of waiting in those long lines, only to be served by overly tired, underpaid, and under-appreciated government employees who spend long dreary days in a gray office with no windows, determined to suck all of us into their miserable lair.  Thought by thought, I was erecting giant walls of resistance around me.

    So I came up with a plan.  I would be the very first one in line!  That way I will avoid those long painful lines and maybe find myself fortunate enough to be served by someone at the DMV who hadn’t yet been worn down and numbed by a full day of monotony.  Yes!  That is what decided to do.  So I smugly arrived at the DMV at 7:45 a.m., knowing they opened at 8:30 a.m., and feeling confident that I would be the first to arrive.

    Except I wasn’t.  I was not the first person in line.  I was the second person in line.

    And this is when I met Bob.

    Bob is an 82-year-old gentleman who, like me, came to the DMV office to renew his driver’s license.  But it did not take long for me to experience the “real” reason Bob was there.

    Bob was there for me.

    This soft-spoken, kind man, with a smile that extended into his eyes, thought that the driver’s license office opened at 8:00, only to discover that he now had 45 minutes to wait outside on the unforgiving hard sidewalk, with nowhere to sit, nowhere to rest his frail legs.   But what he did have is someone to talk to, to share his life with, to laugh with, to be present with, someone who understood the much, much larger reason for his “mistake” in thinking the DMV opened at 8:00 and someone who also now understood the underlying purpose in my premeditated “plan” to beat the crowd.

    I was there for Bob.

    In those precious 45 minutes, I learned from Bob that he said goodbye to his life-long companion just six short months ago.  And he misses her dearly.  I could feel his sadness and deep love for her.  I knew that Bob was experiencing her presence just by having someone to share her memory with, that her essence was alive and very real in our interaction with each other, and I was honored and profoundly touched to be chosen as a surrogate with whom Bob could once again experience her love and grace.

    I learned from Bob that he wobbles when he walks sometimes.  But he says he does not think of or label this as “stumbling” or “wobbling.”  Bob says he is dancing.   And in our short time together, Bob danced a lot.  I wonder if in some of these seemingly unsteady moments his soul is engaging in a breathtaking waltz with his beautiful wife?

    I learned from Bob that even though he is no longer able to travel around the country in his motor home as he once did with his Beloved Other, there is a wonderful channel on his Dish network that shows beautiful scenery from around the world — majestic mountains, tranquil beaches, and colorful fields of flowers.  And if you get up really early in the morning, at 4:00 a.m., as he does, you can watch that program and “feel like you are right there. ” And “if you are a believer,” as Bob offered to me, “they even scroll some scripture across the bottom,” to which he gently and thoughtfully added, “if you want that.”

    I learned from Bob that even though his life partner has continued on in her soul’s journey, he still greets each new dawn with purpose and appreciation.  While he oftentimes yearns for the physical presence of his wife, he understands that he still has soul work to do and a life to live and experience – and he has decided to show up in his own life with humor, kindness, and intention.

    There was a point in my life, not too very long ago, when I would have missed entirely the enormous gift being presented within this relationship and within this experience.  There may have even been a time where I would have avoided this wonderful elderly gentleman altogether by inconspicuously burying my face in my phone or casually dismissing him with a polite smile.   Boy, am I thankful I am not living in that space anymore.

    My encounter with Bob is a reminder that what I think is going on isn’t always what is going on.  My well-laid plan to beat the crowd at the DMV and to make sure that I avoided an uncomfortable personal experience had nothing to do with what I originally imagined.  Bob and I had a soul agreement long before our bodies arrived at that particular location at that particular time and in that particular way.

    How would our lives change if we viewed every person with whom we interacted as an intentional and purposeful gift?  Have our souls chosen the people who are in our lives and those that are held within our next choice?  Or are we just randomly bumping into each other?  It is easy to view our own biological families and chosen partners and our children and friends as gifts.  But what about the passers-by?  What about the person next to you in line at the grocery store?  What about the “overly tired, underpaid, and under-appreciated government employees who spend long dreary days in a gray office with no windows”?

    We sometimes realize after-the-fact that something big, something of importance, something Divine has just taken place.  But when we come to this same realization “in the moment” we are actually experiencing it, we can see the opportunity we are being given to remember a little bit more about who we are and why we are here, and we become powerful creators and flow-throughs of God’s love.

    At 8:30 on the nose, the doors to the DMV opened and I followed Bob into the building.  We parted ways to go to our respective service windows, immense feelings of gratitude welling up inside me.  When I arrived to meet the person who would be assisting me that morning, the person to whom I had projected unfavorable predictions upon, the individual whose mere existence I was a short while ago resisting, I was warmly greeted with a radiant smile and a cheery, “Good morning!  How may I help you today?” – and I immediately knew another opportunity was presenting itself to 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) 

  • Food fight!!!
    Are you ready to get your hands dirty?

    Joining the progressive movement of environmental stewards who are zealously embracing and actively stepping more fully into the concept of sustainable living, Jennifer and Jason Helvenston, Orlando, Florida, set an impressive goal of producing 75% of the food they consume on the property they own and live on.  And what a bountiful and lush edible oasis they have cultivated with their own two hands, a 25×25 foot vegetable garden in their front yard, brimming with succulent tomatoes, mouthwatering leafy greens, and a wide variety of other colorful and nutrient-dense produce.  Their garden has grown to be so plentiful and robust that they generously share it with neighbors and friends, educating passers-by with gardening techniques and sharing the gift of their wisdom and experience freely.

    Sounds wonderful, right?

    Not to everyone, unfortunately.

    This health-boosting, life-sustaining, crafted-with-love patch of vegetation, affectionately named the “Patriot Garden” by the Helvenstons, is on the chopping block by the City of Orlando officials for not being in compliance with the City’s code.  Fines of up to $500 a day will begin to accrue if the young couple does not uproot their garden and replace it with code-appropriate traditional grass.

    But these forward-thinking, earth-friendly homeowners are not going down without a fight.  “The greatest freedom you can give someone is the freedom to know they will not go hungry,” said Jason Helvenston. “Our Patriot Garden pays for all of its costs in healthy food and lifestyle while having the lowest possible carbon footprint. It supplies valuable food while being attractive. I really do not understand why there is even a discussion. They will take our house before they take our Patriot Garden.”

    It is alarming to me that in a day and age where the natural resources on our planet are being pilfered, the food we consume is laden with chemicals and preservatives, and, perhaps most unimaginable of all, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in our world who die every day because they do not have a morsel of food to put in their mouth, that we would consider placing more importance on maintaining outdated zoning codes or landscape uniformity/conformity than we do to the welfare of our planet and the well-being of all our brothers and sisters.

    We, as a society, are ignoring and destroying one of our most important relationships of all:  Our relationship with Mother Earth.

    At what point in time did it become more important to have a perfectly manicured lawn than to contribute to the vitality and sustainability of life as we know it?  What levels of indifference and negligence and abuse will we allow ourselves to sink to before the results of which will ultimately cause us to agree at least on some basic level that we have got some real work to do and some significant changes to make, both individually and collectively, locally and globally, if we want to continue to rely on our planet to support and sustain us in the way we have come to expect it to?

    With the legal muscle of the Institute for Justice Florida Chapter backing them, Jason and Jennifer Helvenston are launching “Plant a Seed, Change the Law,” a protest of Orlando’s law, which they say violates their constitutional right to peacefully use their property to grow their own food.

    And they just may be putting a dent in some of the City’s antiquated laws as some Orlando planners have proposed changes to the code.  Upon entering office several years ago, the city mayor himself, Buddy Dyer, launched Green Works Orlando with the goal of becoming one of most environmentally friendly cities in the country and established four community vegetable gardens around the city.  But City officials admit the code has fallen behind the rebirth of urban gardening.

    To see a photo of the Helvenston’s front-yard garden and to follow their Patriot Garden blog, click here.  If you would like to support the Helvenstons and their ability to continue to grow their own food, you can sign their petition to the City of Orlando here on the Change.org website.

    After all, this movement is not solely about supporting Jennifer and Jason’s rights to grow and consume their own produce; this is much, much bigger.  We are at a critical juncture at this time on our earth where we all are faced with a choice, an opportunity to decide what is truly important, what truly matters.  And as a natural outgrowth of that choice, if we desire to ensure that our world will continue to be an abundant and peaceful place for us and our children and their children and their children and their children to live and grow and thrive upon, we will do as the Helvenstons did – boldly declare that decision, stand up to the stagnant and rigid beliefs held within the pages of the Old Cultural Story,  and “get our hands dirty” by beginning to co-create the kind of world that we all desire and the kind of world which God intended for us to have.

    (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation.  She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team atwww.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • If I say “I love you,” will you say it back?

    Isn’t it heartwarming and wonderful to watch very young children, two-, three-, four-year-olds, who express and demonstrate their love so spontaneously and unreservedly?  It’s not unusual to hear the collective sound of a harmonious “awww” from observers on a playground witnessing two new young friends sharing in an impromptu hug or unforeseen kiss on the cheek. These children live in pure awareness.  Their love is unfiltered, not yet programmed, authentic, allowing them to exemplify the level and kind of love we all yearn for but have somehow forgotten how to experience.

    But why have we forgotten?

    At some point in our childhood, we are exposed to and told to believe in a different kind of love.  This different kind of love works swiftly to reprogram what we come here already knowing:  that we already ARE love.  This different kind of love then works tirelessly to convince us that if we “do this” or “be that” or “do things in a particular way,” we will finally earn and be rewarded the love of another.  Haven’t we all, at some point or another in our lives, yearned to hear the words “I love you”?

    But what do we really mean when we utter these three words to another with an underlying hope that we will, in turn, hear “I love you” back?   To say nothing of the paralyzing fear that the possibility exists that we may not be the recipient of another’s confirmation of love.  Would it be possible to be in a relationship where the knowing of one’s love was so palpable that the desire and need to hear this verbal affirmation would no longer present itself?

    Somewhere along the way, in an attempt to capture the essence of love in a way that makes sense, we boxed it into our language, as we do many of life’s esoteric ideas and concepts, and formulated our own version of love.  We have minimized, twisted, stretched, warped, contorted, and manipulated this small but powerful phrase — “I love you” — to the point that its meaning is almost spiritually unrecognizable.  We hinge or hasten our expression of love upon some need-driven expectation of what we may or may not receive in return.

    Imagine a world where we did not condition our love, or the expression of it, upon an assurance and acknowledgment that we will be loved back, a world where everyone demonstrates their love freely, openly, and unconditionally, where love was not bartered over or bargained for.  I have, on more than one occasion, found myself asking the question:  Are we even capable of experiencing unconditional love for a period of time beyond an occasional moment or two?

    And the answer I receive is that if we fully awakened to who we really are – all of us – we would never place another condition upon our love.  We would not need to prove love’s reciprocity because we would already know and feel its omnipresence.  Fear and doubt would never cause us to hesitate in expressing our deepest gratitude and affection to anyone, as we would no longer buy into a perceived need to self-protect; but rather we would each place into the world our highest intentions and actions, giving freely from the source of our own abundance, understanding that the entire purpose of our being here in the first place has very little, if anything, to do with ourselves…and everything to do with all those with whom we share our path.

    I once saw an interview with Tony Robbins, the well-known motivational speaker, where he was asked if he gets nervous before he walks out on a stage in front of thousands of people.  His answer was (paraphrasing):  “If I thought that going out on that stage had anything to do with me, I would be nervous, tongue-tied, struggling to find my words.  But going out there has nothing to do with me.  It is about those people in the audience.  I am here for them.”

    That, to me, is unconditional love, giving your gifts absent the necessity to receive anything particular in return, a choice and demonstration of your Highest Self which arises out of a deeper understanding of why you are here.   Unconditional love asks, “Who am I in the room to heal?  And how will I let them know I am here?”

    Perhaps as our world continues to shed its Old Cultural Story, the one which carries with it a “different kind of love,” we will collectively begin to once again behold the world as our playground, just as we did when we were children, spontaneously and unreservedly declaring and expressing, returning to Love and a remembrance of Who We Really Are.

    (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 “Dear James” letter

    I was born on the last day of the year.  So the annual transition of “out with the old and in with the new” feels especially pivotal to me as I reflect with gratitude upon what once was, I look forward with hope and anticipation for what is yet to come, and I explore more deeply the larger reason for my birth.  And, yes, I do make some “New Year’s Resolutions”; however, they have nothing to do with resolving to fit into last year’s pair of blue jeans.  And while more money flowing into my bank account rather than out of it would bring some much-needed financial relief, I will not be making that my top priority either.  Nor will I be committing to get a better job or setting my sights on traveling around the world sampling exotic foods.

    Part of the reason why I believe New Year’s Resolutions “fail” is because the purpose for which we enter into such agreements with ourselves has very little to do with the purpose of our lives.  I am sharing a letter I wrote to my 18-year-old son, as it captures the essence of how I feel about the arrival of a new year.  The gifts I have been given the opportunity to receive and give within the context of my relationship with my son have been some of the most profound and life-changing.  And I believe deeply that by allowing the gifts to flow through me to you, they become a gift to us all.

    “Dear James,

    As night gently falls on 2012 and the promise of a new dawn in 2013 hangs in the air, billions of people around the world will be resolving and committing to make changes in their life, hoping to stick to long-lasting resolutions that will finally deliver to them the things in life we all desire most — abundance, prosperity, better health, joy, security, happiness, and love — believing that this time, this year, their well-intentioned efforts will resemble more than simply a “to do” list for the first week of January.

    I wonder if you, too, feel that yearning, if you hear a beckoning to a higher calling, if you desire to make new choices with an eye on shaping and defining not just your experience for a particular year, but with an eye on shaping and defining the entire purpose of your life.  Ah, the purpose of life — the question that has perplexed scholars and religious teachers around the world, the question which has led countries into war and tested and stretched the fabric of every relationship we enter into, the question that is most looked at in the final moments of our physical being here on earth:

    What is the purpose of my life?

    My Beloved Son, I am here to share with you the answer.

    I will begin by sharing with you what the purpose of your life is not.  As my good friend, Neale, has shared many, many times, the purpose of life has very little to do, if anything, with “getting the girl, getting the car, getting the job, getting the house, getting the spouse, getting the kids, getting the better job, getting the better house, getting the promotion, getting the grandkids, getting the gray hair, getting the office in the corner, getting the retirement watch, getting the illness, getting the burial plot, and getting the hell out.”

    And so far, in the 46 years that I have been blessed to have on this earth, this has demonstrated itself to be true – life is not about any of those things.  I’ve had most of the things on that list, and some of them more than once.  And I am here to tell you that the purpose for my life was not realized or remembered by “getting” or “having” any one of them.

    So if life really isn’t about any of those things, then what is it about?

    This is what I know to be true:

    The purpose of your life is to create the purpose of your life.

    When you were a very young child, it mattered not to me whether you played baseball or joined Cub Scouts, whether you went swimming or read a book, or whether you ate pizza or spaghetti.  And now, as a young man who is living on his own, it matters not to me which career you choose or what area of the world you reside in, what you have for dinner, how you enjoy your spare time, or what kind of clothes you wear.

    Do not confuse “not mattering” with “not loving.”  My love for you is without conditions.  These choices would only matter to me if somehow the level of my love for you was attached to a particular outcome designed by me or hinged to a misguided idea that somehow you could fail in this Life game.

    I want for you what you want for you.

    And here is where it gets even better, James:

    God wants for us what we want for us.

    Society will tell you that in order to “earn” God’s love, you must be a certain way and do certain things.  Have you questioned this for yourself?  Have you wondered why a God who is “unconditionally loving” would place such conditions upon his love?  Have you dared to imagine a different kind of God?

    And if God wants for us what we want for us, and the purpose of our lives have nothing to do with what we have or what we get, what will the arrival of a new year mean to you?   What will you strive for?  What will you draw upon to ascribe meaning to the experiences in your life?

    Your life is an opportunity.  Within every occurrence, there is an opportunity for you.  And within every relationship, you are an opportunity for someone else.  Will you see those moments and embrace those gifts, both those that are being given to you and those you have to give?  As the world collectively and consciously welcomes the New Year, perhaps the largest number of people purposefully and simultaneously placing positive energy and intention into the world, how could our world not become a better place?  Where will you be in that process?  And WHO will you be in that process?

    What will you decide and what will you declare the purpose of your life to be, my beloved son?”

    What will the arrival of a New Year mean to you, my friends?  A new car?  More money?  Fitting in last year’s blue jeans?  Or perhaps at last the answer to one of life’s biggest questions:  What is the purpose of my life?

     (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team atwww.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)