The Global Conversation

Tag: challenges into opportunities

  • I Got Lazy.

     

    CWG says that everything…everything…is an opportunity to decide, declare and to demonstrate who we really are.  Even, and especially, the things that seem most devastating and tragic.  Such as the loss of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

    Over on another of the CWG sites, The CWG Helping Outreach, we had a discussion about what messages, to us as individuals, and the world, might be gleaned in the wake of this still only “apparent” crash.

    We discussed several things.  Transparency, or the lack thereof, of governments and their agencies immediately after the disappearance. (CWG says we should live in a world of transparency.)  The need for updated tracking capabilities in aircraft.  (It would seem you and I can be more readily tracked via our cellphones than can an airplane!)  How the media handles such things.  (Can we say speculation and sensationalism?) The Spiritual knowing that no one does anything that isn’t, at a soul level, of their own choosing, including dying.  That we all, those of us observing, and those of us who participated in the event, may now decide who we are in connection to it.

    It would appear that one reason they haven’t been able to find the flight, and the reason it is still an “apparent” crash, is because the searchers were sidetracked by all of the trash we, as a human race, have thrown into the ocean.

    An article in CBCnews Technology & Science  describes the extent of our ocean trash.

    “‘Basically, the world’s oceans are plasticized,” says Marcus Eriksen, executive director of the 5 Gyres Institute, a conservation group that researches the amount of plastic pollution in the planet’s seas.’”

    “Oceanographer Charles Moore, who works with the Algalita Marine Research Institute in Long Beach, Calif., estimates there could be 200 million tonnes of plastic debris floating in the seas. This calculation is based on the belief that 2.5 per cent of the world’s plastic lands in the ocean.”

    “These estimates don’t include the detritus that’s sitting at the bottom of the oceans, which, as he says, is “virtually unknown.”

    Also from cbcnews/ World,  this graphic is disturbing to me:

    Ocean gyres map

     

    There is overwhelming evidence of the destruction to marine life caused by our trash.  Yet we continue to thoughtlessly consume and dispose.

    I must now make a confession.  I got lazy.  I lived in Taiwan and Denmark, and each of those countries charged for plastic bags, so I got into the habit of either reusing those bags, or bringing my own, reusable, bag.  I carried them with me in my purse at all times.  Then, after moving back to my home country, the U.S.A., I gradually got out of that habit.

    So I have decided, and am declaring, that I will now recommit myself to always having at least one reusable bag in my purse, and always have a bag of reusable bags in my vehicle…my demonstration of who I am.  This is one of the remembrances I have been caused to notice because of flight MH370.

    I will, further, encourage all others to do so, both with my words and with my actions.  I will also agree publicly with those who wish to charge for plastic bags.  I will continue to support organizations and people who wish to create a change in how we use and dispose of our resources.

    It is my feeling that one of the reasons the Malaysian flight was created and agreed to, on a soul level, by these wonderful souls, was to cause us to look at what we are doing to our world.  The end of their lives is, realistically, just a blip on the radar of human experience, but…drawing attention to what is contributing to the possible end of the entire human race would give immense glory and meaning to these deaths.  Perhaps, if we let it, this flight might just be looked at in history books as the beginning of true environmental change.

    That is what I have come up with, so far, regarding the “meaning” or “purpose” of the disappearance of flight MH370.  What have you decided?  Remember, nothing has any meaning, save that which you give it!

    (Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com  She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • Happy Holidays? You get to decide!

     

    Dear Therese,

    Well, it’s that time of year again.  The time of year that I start out with good intentions to be cheerful and helpful and not get upset by my husband’s family.  But Thanksgiving was a disaster, and I am so very worried that Christmas will be the same.

    Here’s the thing.  Every year for the past 14 years it is the same story.  My husband’s sisters just let their mother do all of the work in the kitchen, and the fellas are off in the living room watching the football games, and I am the only one in the kitchen helping my mother-in-law!  The ladies are all drunk, and there is an inevitable fight that breaks out, and they accuse me of not joining in with the family.  I want to be part of my husband’s family, but how can I do this?

    Not so jolly Joanna in Illinois.

     

    Dear Joanna,

    Boy, will a lot of people resonate with this one!

    I am going to make the usual suggestions, like, can you alternate holidays, or find a way to limit your time at the event?  Have you tried actually asking your husband’s sisters, or mother, just what they think you could do to fit in better?  Sometimes communication does actually work, but we really don’t want to risk the status quo, (even though it sucks) being made worse…and we don’t like to acknowledge it, but even that is a choice.

    Now I am going to ask a question.  Just how is this serving you?  What is it that you are getting from playing this little scene over and over?  Until you figure out what that might be, you may just keep on playing your role in perpetuity.   So, Joanna, do you enjoy being the “victim”?  Do you secretly enjoy being “superior”?  Maybe you are being given the opportunity to say “no” (and not taking it)?  Do you really want to be part of this family, or is that just something you say because it is the “proper” way to feel?  Joanna, there are so very many things that could be going on, and only you, of course, can honestly answer the question for yourself.

    There is a word I used there that is very important, Joanna…opportunity.  Life continues to give us the opportunities we require to have this journey as our soul desires, and sometimes those opportunities look like difficult choices and honesty with ones self.  If the same thing keeps happening over and over again, it is a pretty sure bet that there is something you are not willing to look at.

    Once you have answered the question above, ask yourself this question:  Is this serving me in the way I would really prefer?  If the answer is “no”, then ask yourself how you could see yourself acting differently, if you had the courage…would you walk out of the kitchen and ask for help?  Would you leave your mother-in-law alone in the kitchen?  Might you re-think those moments in the kitchen and cherish the one on one time with her?

    You see, Joanna, once we look at who we are Being in any circumstance, we get to decide if we are happy or miserable…we get to actually choose which one serves us in that moment!  AND get to decide that we can do the same thing we have always done, but, as “The Only Thing That Matters” says, do it for an entirely different purpose.  We can know that even the mundane, and the painful are spiritual events, and we get to choose to look at them one way or the other.

    I’ll bet, Joanna, that if you go to the Christmas event with the mindset that you are going to look at each person as individuations of Divinity…if you decide to BE the calm center in whatever chaos may ensue…that you will have a very different experience than before…and you may even see the family transform before your eyes as well.  But even if they don’t, you will have transformed your own unhappiness, and that seems like a pretty good gift to give yourself!

    Therese

    (Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com  She may be contacted at:                                                              Therese@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.)

    An additional resource:  The CWG Helping Outreach offers spiritual assistance from a team of non-professional/volunteer Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less. Nothing on the CCN site should be construed or is intended to take the place of or be in any way similar to professional therapeutic or counseling services.  The site functions with the gracious willing assistance of lay persons without credentials or experience in the helping professions.  What these volunteers possess is an awareness of the theology of Conversations with God.  It is from this context that they offer insight, suggestions, and spiritual support during moments of unbidden, unexpected, or unwelcome change on the journey of life.

     

  • many many things….make me unhappy!!

     

    many many things……………. make me unhappy!!

    nine years ago, my son would born, then I took a taxi to hosipital, because my husband hadn’t car, but my father had at that moment. When my son had been borned, my father and my brother hadn’t came to hosipital to visit me. My brother might be couldn’t come because the visit time just 1:00pm to 4:00pm, he needed to work, but my father hadn’t come just he didn’t want to go to hosipital. He visited my son and I since I came back to my house. but now my brother’s daughter borned, he drove his car to go to hosipital for them, he had come to hosipital to visit them, also he always to help them, my father and mother treat his wife well, everything homour my brother and her, they love their daughter so much, they don’t like my son because they think he is a naughty boy. They always altercation to my son when we go to their house everytime. They also don’t like my husband, because he haven’t make them happy, give anything to them, money…..etc. I said that just a little bit , In additon, many many things……, I can’t tell you one time…..may be you think I always compare with anothers special my brother. Yes, I think so , but I can’t accept my parents not fair to me.

    Unhappy …………….

     

    Dear Unhappy,

    HAPPY NEW YEAR! What a great day to have this question, since this is a day we consciously decide to change…and I have some suggestions on how to do that!

    I would invite you to read the book, “When Everything Changes, Change Everything” (WECCE). This book is all about how to deal with Change in your life, and how past data (our past experiences among other things), creates how we think and feel today.  Unhappy, the nine Changes discussed there guide us into understanding that we always have a choice as to how we feel in any situation…no one makes us unhappy, we allow our unhappiness.  We all have the choice to be happy by changing our minds about what makes us unhappy.  

    Life is all in how we look at it, Unhappy. Could it be that not having your family in your sons life is a good thing that you just do not see at this moment?  Most of life is quite unseen except when looking back at it, but that backward look can be taken immediately after the event or thought…it does not have to take years.

    You talk about things not being fair.  Unhappy, I believe life is always fair.  It is how we judge things that make things look unfair.  Consider changing your mind about this as well.  For instance, your niece has the attention of your family, but because of this you have been given the opportunity to look into yourself and see what is really important instead of only looking at the outside of things.  you have been given the opportunity to forgive yourself and others.  you have been given the opportunity for compassion.  You have been given the time to be with your son and husband more.

    And you have been given the opportunity to choose a different way of being a parent to your child.

    A huge part of changing your mind about things that have happened is Gratitude for all that has happened…and for all that is currently in your life. Without things that seem to go “wrong”, we can never understand and appreciate things when they go “right”. When we are fearful and without gratitude, even for the things that seem awful, we stay in the feeling of “awful”, and are not capable of moving into feeling “joyful”. CWG contends that each moment of our life is an opportunity to demonstrate who we are…life is not full of challenges, it is full of opportunities!

    Which means that we must practice changing our minds.  It doesn’t usually happen overnight, because our past data is our life…but it can be done with grace and Love.  Take moments every day to just look at what you feel is working in your life, and notice what it feels like in your body.  (This is a small meditation, BTW.)  That is the feeling you are looking for…and you will have created it all by yourself!  

    Sit and just say, “I am Grateful for Life” and feel it, and enjoy the feeling.  When you know what this feeling is, you will recognize when something does not feel “Grateful”, because your body will not feel the same easy feeling.  For instance, when you say “Life is unfair to me.”  I’ll bet you have tightness in your chest, maybe a lump in your throat, and gut, and more.  Now say, “I am Grateful for Life.”  I’ll bet you can notice the difference in the feelings!  When you notice the difference do you know what you have done?  You have just created a Change!  and you can do this with everything in your life. You will naturally wish to have this feeling and create it more and more!

    I hope you read the book, Unhappy, and go to the website at www.changingchange.net for a continuing discussion with our community there.

    Therese

    (Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of the global website at www.ChangingChange.net, which offers spiritual assistance from a team of Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less, and offers insight, suggestions, and companionship during moments of unbidden, unexpected, unwelcome change on the journey of life. She may be contacted at Therese@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.)