Letting Go of Destructive Patterns

For Eva and Bill

Change is in the air! Within the past couple of days, an incident occurred in my life that made me extremely angry (much too angry for the apparent situation if the truth be known). Without going into detail, let's just say I was (once again) being taken advantage of, and anger hit me like a brick wall. It was as if all the anger and resentment I have carried through many lifetimes all came into focus with this one little incident.

A great deal of emotion has confronted me the past couple of weeks. Anger. Resentment. Worry. Fear. All extreme. It took listening to the wise words of someone who is also in the middle of resolving crisis to help me recognize this emotion is here to bring about the opportunity to identify old destructive patterns in order to let go of them and create something new--something better.

As I began to focus on why this little incident brought up so much anger for me, I started to see a pattern--in this lifetime and in lifetimes past. Somehow, somewhere I got the idea that I was strong and that I could (and should) take on pain so others did not have to take on so much. In other words, I have developed quite the martyr complex. In the process, I have denied myself the very things that I want in life--even denying the full power of who I am. I have spent a long time playing small so others did not have to take full responsibility for themselves.

The reality is, my martyrdom benefited no one! Not myself. Not even the others I believed I was saving from pain. The fact of the matter is, we come to this world to learn. Many of these lessons require a great deal of pain because pain makes such a big impact on our lives. The only thing my martyrdom truly did was make me resent the things I gave up in order to save others from pain!

So now it's time to make a change. The anger of my little incident has been the catalyst for me to analyze what is wrong in my life and make appropriate changes. I'm really not sure how this will all play out. I do know that it is important for me to take everything one moment at a time. I need to live each moment of now so that I can deal with those emotions as they come up and begin to change all the ways I be that are this pattern of martyrdom. It is only by letting go of my destructive patterns that I can make room for something new. Something different. Something better.

Everything in the world right now screams to me that now is the time to give up all our destructive patterns. Change is here! Let's step up and create the space for a bold, new, wonderful world! We have the power to create lasting change! We are the change we wish to see in the world!

I am so honored to be taking this journey with each and every one of you! Namaste!

The Choice: Righteousness or Truth?

In our world today, there is a right/wrong, good/bad mentality where it is important to establish the side you stand on. Very often, we believe that righteousness and truth are one and the same, and choosing your side involves discovering what is true (or so the story goes). The question becomes are righteousness and truth the same thing? It is my belief that righteousness and truth are not the same things and the difference between the two is key to shifting consciousness.

The concept of righteousness revolves heavily around the idea of being "right". In other words, for every situation there is a right side and a wrong side. We are taught that standing in righteousness involves discerning the "right" side and then following it. The thing is, depending on the society you grow up in, what is "right" can mean different things to different people. For example, people who follow the Bible often believe being gay is a sin solely on the basis that they Bible says it is a sin. They do not take into consideration that fact that many gay people are born to and raised by good Christian people who do everything in their power to promote heterosexual relationships. Many of these gays do everything in their power to conform to what they have been taught is "right" at great personal sacrifice and expense. These people deny what is inside them--what they were born with. How can this be "right"?

The concept of righteousness inherently brings about separation. What do I mean by separation? When you choose one side as the "right" side, you begin to identify with that side. You believe your choice means you have to live by certain rules and keep yourself pure from what you see as the "wrong" side. You will proclaim your differences and most likely maintain some sort of distance from those who oppose your point of view. Keeping yourself away or apart from another is separation.

Truth is very different from righteousness. Many people believe truth comes with a whole series of rules, but the fact of the matter is truth has very few rules. Truth is simply the way things are. All things exist in truth. Truth does not separate and divide. Truth is not limited to a particular view. What we believe to be "the rules" is really righteousness disguised as truth.

When a person chooses righteousness over truth, he makes the decision to keep himself separate from those who do not agree with his view of the world. When a person chooses truth, he allows everything to exist and works to build Oneness and unity in the whole.

We have come to a point in history where the choice between righteousness and truth is key to our survival. If we continue to believe there is a right and a wrong and we must choose sides, we will allow our differences to destroy us. If we can learn to see ourselves as connected to one another and live in truth, we will no longer be bent on destroying each other for our differences and can live in peace and harmony. The advancement of all those on planet earth requires this transition out of separation and back into Oneness.

Ask yourself this vital question: will this choice bring about separation or Oneness? The choices we make today will bring us either closer or farther away from a peaceful, loving planet. Make your choices count!

No More Boxes!

Don't call me American.
Or Christian.
Or white.
Or female.
Or straight.
Or liberal.
Or conservative.
Or smart.
Or stupid.
Or funny.
Or boring.
Or any other label you use to define me.
What I express today
May be entirely different tomorrow.

I am not a label.
Labels are limitations--boxes,
And I was not born
To be contained.

I am all things,
And all things are me!
I was born to experience
And experiment.
To run.
To stumble.
To play.
To study.
To love.
To hate.
To dream.
To create.
To choose.
To exist.

I have lived in enough boxes
To last many lifetimes.
I AM,
And that's all I need to be.

~Cindy Shippy Evans

Money Musings

After listening to a recording of a radio show by a gifted psychic, Andrew Bartzis, I was inspired to have a little dialogue with "money". In our society, we are taught that inanimate objects do not have sentience. However, because of experiences I have had in the past, I have been able to connect on an energetic level with many sorts of things--trees, crystals, Mother Earth. I know that everything has a message if you are able to tune in to it. I am grateful to Andrew for reminding me of this.

I took out a one dollar Federal Reserve Note from my purse so I had something a little more concrete to focus on. The energy coming off it was so negative and HUGE it was all I could do to continue to hold it. All my personal negativities came to the surface as well, which added to my agitation.

The first thing that dawned on me was that the energy I was feeling was not from the dollar itself. It was the energy placed on it by people who desired to use it to control others and the world. The energy was placed on it specifically to suck all the resources away from the people who used it. It was a very draining energy, and I understood it was designed to steal not only physical and financial resources but energetic resources as well.

My thought was to use my own energy to try to neutralize it. This did not work very well and I felt my efforts blocked. I then asked for inspiration and felt guided to ask Mother Earth and my friends the Elementals (spirits/energies of things in nature) to surround and neutralize the energy. This worked much better and I felt myself free to directly communicate with the dollar itself.

This dollar had a lot to say when I was finally able to communicate with it! It was upset by the fact that it had been used to control so many people and was consequently disliked by many people. It hated being in the hands of a few when it wanted to experience all different sorts of people and be used for many good endeavors. At this point, I understood money was also trapped by the same people who would enslave the vast majority of the population.

Suddenly, I felt the structure of a Ho'oponopono prayer come to me naturally. I felt the need to tell money how sorry I was that I allowed others to keep it from me and to ask its forgiveness. I thanked money for wanting to be there for me and reassured it I loved it regardless of how others had manipulated it.

I left the experience with a much softer place in my heart for money, and I am focusing my energy to help money in its endeavors to be used for the abundance of all.