Crisis brings illumination and change!

Imagine an opportunity that changes how you think and do everything in your life?  What an amazing moment that would be bringing expansion and a better viewpoint into our lives! Experiencing a circumstance out of our control that forces us to change would be scary and tremendous! Kind of like the circumstance we are in currently with the Covid-19 virus. And yet what if we fight those circumstances in order to stay the same?  To keep the same beliefs and practices without taking them to the next level is to try to hold back a car by pressing on the brake and the accelerator at the same time. The car eventually is smoking and revving and wanting to move forward but fear and inability to trust the way forward makes the situation much worse until the car burns out and dies or the foot slips off the brake and the car runs into something creating a huge catastrophe.  I think the fisherman's term is fish or cut bait.  Do something, one or the other. I have been thinking about how I spend my days and how they resemble the same routine since I stopped working 40 hours a week at the Natural Foods Store as the Vitamin Department manager 5 years ago. My whole way of living slowed down and I became really depressed at first. The constant go go go of my life came to a stand still, by my choice, but it was the next few months that were the hardest to get through. The waking up early and getting in the car with my lunch and my coffee was gone.  The place to be at a certain time was gone.  I had the whole day to think about what to do.  And there was an enormous amount I could have done but I was hit with this inertia and was paralyzed with the decision making process.  So many days I had spent promoting something else outside of myself, so many hours spent working at a job that did not have really any connection to my life besides how I ate and the supplements I knew to take for an optimal physical condition. In other words my spirit and soul were not engaged in my work and yet I did this for years.  I realized I had to get to know myself again. I had to find ways to feel positive about who I was and what my interests were. I had already had an intuitive business on the side for over 10 years but never thought I would engage in creating something I could do everyday that would sustain me or keep me interested.  But I did it and I love what I do! 

I know that many people going through this moment in time having to work more hours until you think you just can't move anymore or sitting at home going out of your mind from boredom or fear of not having enough to pay bills is feeling like more than you can handle but you are handling it.  You are doing more than you ever thought you could do.  You are finding ways to occupy your time wisely by reading books, meditating, praying, exercising completing house projects and finding meaning in everything you do. We are so much more capable of great things than we ever give ourselves credit for or attempt to do on our own.  This time is the great opportunity to change how we are into something better. So when I see people creating moments of blame or division or pouring their own beliefs onto everyone as if we should all follow the way they think I am saddened and feel like sighing after a good long yelling at the top of my lungs.  Please look at your inner world not just your outer world to see if it might need adjusting!  Blaming is always the easy way out of fear and feeling unsure about things but don't do it, try something else.  Try looking at what is causing the fear and deal with it! Just because you feel your belief whether religious or political is the right one for you don't assume we all should feel the same! Try something different!  Hold your beliefs softly, gently and offer them with respect not condemnation.  There are many paths forward as there are people so do not waste your time trying to convince all of us that your way of thinking is the best, it isn't.  It is right for you and perhaps a group of people who think like you but not for everyone.  So stop holding everyone hostage with your likes and dislikes, your religious and political beliefs that may or may not be like everyone else's.  Be ok with being the only one in the world looking at life with a certain perspective but respect and learn about other ways of thinking. Look at how you can improve your own ideas on life and the beyond by opening your mind, considering someone else's thoughts on the topic.  See other ways of doing things, become flexible and bend like the reed in the wind not the oak tree that breaks and loses it's limbs in a storm.  When we hold our ideas, beliefs lightly and not grasping and tightfisted we can begin to see that other ideas might fit into our own along side or be absorbed into an amalgamation, a rainbow, a pot of soup with wonderful healthy ingredients!  Life is not meant to be the same for everyone, we speak different languages, we have different cultural expressions, we love each other uniquely and deliciously diverse.  Why should we all worship the same vision of God in the same way?  Why can't we celebrate the diversity that is present in our world?  Why can't we begin to learn about and understand the many ways to run a county politically.  We do not all have to be the same! But we do need to get along.  We do need to have respect and allow the difference to express itself in the unique way that it does.  And if we can all see that difference is what makes this world so beautiful and amazing what a place this could be!!  If we all had gardens the same way with carrots on the left and zucchini on the right with corn down the middle and not deviate how sad and boring that would be and the very idea seems ludicrous but so many of us do this everyday with each other. Demanding that your God be the only God worshiped in the way in which you worship.  Demanding that everyone vote the same way because your way is obviously the only way that is the best.  When did we all become so full of ourselves to think we all know what is best not only for ourselves but for the whole world.  The audacity simply astounds me at times and saddens me that we have this amazing wonderful garden to play in and everyone has become a bully with being in charge of playing with the ball and we can only abide by your rules.  Take a breath.  Relax. Let go. If we share our ideas and listen to other ideas. If we celebrate a new cultural tradition it just might become our new favorite for awhile.  If we learn a new language and find similarities in our ways we can begin to heal and trust.  We are not supposed to be the same.  We are supposed to embrace our differences. I am a student of world religion I embrace them all, I have brown hair and brown eyes, my ethnicity is a combination of many european nations and even some first nations, native American.  I love freedom and I feel a great need to help humanity and those who are in need so I vote for those people and those bills that assist people.. I love to eat food that has lots of flavor and enjoy ethnic foods of all kinds.  Who are you?  There is a poem by Rumi called A Great Wagon and the middle verse goes like this: 

 “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”  Rumi

So I ask you, plead really, when you want someone to be like you in all that you believe or understand about the world, please reconsider, allow them the dignity of being who they are and do not feel compelled to change them for your own comfort.  See them as a unique human being that is just different from you not someone to change into you. And then embrace the idea that you and they can get along just as you are, just as they are, in all your differences.  The world is meant to be enjoyed by all of us in each unique and beautiful way.  Enjoy the difference that we all are, it is what God meant to do.  The Divine wanted us to experience diversity otherwise we would all already be the same.  We are the garden each a different beautiful colorful flower and together we make the world a beautiful place! 

So much love to all of you may you all have peace and love in your hearts as we traverse this time of immense change and growth!!

Annapurna Devi