A Note from Neale...

My Dear Friends... 

I know I don't need to tell you that just ten days from today is Christmas Eve — a very happy time of year for so many people. And yet, for many others, who have suffered deep loss or who are facing very large challenges during these says, the Holiday Season can be a very difficult time... and understandably so. For some people, everything that was important to them has been taken away... 

For all of us there comes a time when all that's left is God... 

It happens in most people's lives more than once. It is that moment when you feel totally and completely isolated. It's that time when you feel, not that no one is hearing you, but that there is no one to hear you. You are really all alone. There is no one else, even when there is someone else in the room. There is nothing more, even when there is plenty more all around. There is only you, even when the world surrounds you. Perhaps especially when the world surrounds you, there is only you. 

Yes, there comes a time when all that's left is God. Nothing else matters. Nothing else has any meaning. Nothing else calls to you, magnetizes you, demands your attention — or is even worthy of it. 

This time comes, it seems to me, either when you have nothing or when you have everything. This moment arrives when everything else has been taken from you and there is nothing left, or when everything has been given to you and there is nothing more you could possibly want.

When this moment arrives, it is a great relief. It is a release, a letting go. And yet, for many of us, there is still a tiny part of our being that yearns for the single thing that so many of us have never had: complete acceptance and unconditional love. 

Somebody love me just the way I am. 

We have not been able to find that in another. We thought we could find it in another, we hoped that we could find it in another, but we cannot. We cannot even find it in ourselves. And because we cannot find it in ourselves, we cannot give it to another — and that is why we cannot find it there. For we cannot find anywhere what we have not placed anywhere, and we have not placed complete acceptance and unconditional love anywhere. We cannot even be okay with the weather, for goodness sake. We can find something to complain about around everything. 

And so, we seek what is not there, for everything we seek to find in life must have been placed there by us. If we have not placed it, we cannot find it. What we do not place into life, we do not find, because we are the Only Source There Is. 

If we cannot find forgiveness in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find compassion in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find tolerance in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find mercy in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find peace in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find acceptance in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. And if we cannot find love in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. 

All these things we must place into Life. First, into our own life, then into the life of another. Or, for some, it is the other way around. I want to say for most of us it is the other way around. For most of us, it is nearly impossible to give ourselves what we most want to receive: forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. 

Most of us cannot give these things to ourselves because we know too much about ourselves. We think ourselves to be unworthy of these things. We imagine ourselves to be something other than what we really are. We cannot see the Divinity that Divinity Itself has placed in us. We cannot see the Innocence. We cannot see the Perfection in our imperfection. 

Because we cannot see these things in ourselves, we cannot give ourselves what we most want to receive. Yet, because we are not totally blind to what is good and worthy in the world, we are often able to see these things in others. We can often see Divinity in others. We can often see Innocence in others. We can often even see Perfection in the imperfection of others. And so we can give others forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. We can, but the question is, will we? 

Too often, we do not. Because of our own wounds, we cannot heal the wounds of others. And so we deny our world the things our world needs the most. We deny our world forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. And when we deny these to our world, we deny these to ourselves — for what we have not placed into the world, we cannot receive from the world. Again, let the New Golden Rule be repeated: 

There comes a time when we realize that we are the Only Source There Is. No one is going to give to us or to the world what we are unable to give to the world, and thus to ourselves. Not for very long. 

The first place we find this out is in relationship with another. What we are unable or unwilling to give to another, we will not receive from the other. Not for very long. If we cannot give the person across the room forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love... we cannot look to the person across the room to give these things to us. For they only have to give what we have given them. 

We imagine in relationship that the other person has what we do not have, and therefore, that they can supply it to us. This is the great illusion. This is a great mistake. This is the great misunderstanding. And this is the reason why so many relationships fail. We imagine that the other is going to supply us with forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. We imagine that the other is going to supply us what we cannot supply to them, and what we cannot even give to ourselves. And then we become angry with the other. And then we become angry with ourselves. And then... 

... we realize that there's nothing left but God. We turn, then, to God. Please God, give me forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. Please give it to me, so that I may give it to others. 

The world is rapidly approaching this turning point. We are coming to understand that God is the Only and Original Source. Now all that we need to do is understand, as well, that there is no separation between God and us. When we grasp at last this foundational understanding, when we embrace, finally, this basic truth, we will change ourselves, change our relationships, and change the world. 

Until then, we will not. And we will wait for that moment when we realize... that there's nothing left but God. Hopefully, we will arrive at that moment before we create it... in the most crude of ways possible: by destroying everything else until there is nothing left. By destroying our relationship until there is nothing left. By destroying our world until there is nothing left. By destroying ourselves until there is nothing left. 

Conversations with God contains a startling statement. It is something I've never forgotten. God said, "It is not necessary to go through hell in order to get to heaven." I invite us all to remember that on this day. I invite us all to embrace a new notion about ourselves and about life: not that there's nothing left but God, but that there's nothing but God. 

When we see God in every other person and in every other thing, then we will have dropped our illusions, we will have stepped aside from our childish imaginings, and we will treat everything and everyone as if it, she, or he is Divine. And if you don't think that will change your life and your world, think again. This is the Pathway to the Soul. 

Love and Hugs,