Greetings, Luminous One!

When searching for ways to more Courageously face today's confounding issues, I often reflect upon other epochs in our earth's history when there must have been a similar uncertainty and unnerving feeling of the world being upside-down and inside-out. 

World wars, natural disasters and pandemics have rocked civilization to the core many times in the past, yet somehow there have always been survivors to tell tales of triumph in adversity. Global mythology and holy books are full of such stories of Courage.  

My question is: how did they summon their mettle? Was it always there just waiting to be tapped, or did it spring up spontaneously in an existential moment?

The first stage of Courage inherently involves facing the stark reality that a danger truly exists. All avoidant hiding from that fact must cease.

Only when we dare to acknowledge a threat can we mount a resistance to it (the second stage of Courage).

Pulling last month's theme into this discussion, perhaps the most Courageous thing we can do, therefore, is to boldly see Truth, speak Truth and be Truth, even if it's uncomfortable and means going against consensus reality. 

Recently, I had a message from Merlin that spoke to this: he said that many people are living in a "channel of fear" without even realizing it, and this is hampering their ability to make Courageous decisions.

And where has this fear brought us? To be a nation increasingly divided and passionately torn. We know we are witnessing the unraveling of a great dream of a democratic union, one that was worth fighting for at one time. 

The next question that must be asked is, "Am I contributing to this breakdown by holding judgements that have alienated me from certain people or groups?"

Now, please understand that I perceive you as a wonderful person who is committed to your spiritual evolution, or you wouldn't be here. 

The reason these questions must be continually asked, however, is because we've been presented with issues that seem to demand our declaration of which side of the fence we're on. The problem is, if we're on one side, the other side is destined to become the new enemy.

This kind of entrenchment is the real culprit as it perpetuates "Either/Or" mentality.

This slicing-and-dicing of society has been intentionally accomplished through a stealthy program that many people are beginning to awaken to, and I suggest we "Just say no" to it.

Let's face that dangerous division and Courageously stand against it.

Because we recognize this as a set-up from a dualistic perspective, don't we? And we also know that it's the reality we're leaving as we begin to master the higher realms of non-duality.

In non-duality, we can still have opinions, but they won't keep us from recognizing the Truth of our Oneness with each other.

We can still choose love no matter what the different viewpoints are. It all starts with Courage.

On this weekend, when we honor those who have served this imperfect, topsy-turvy country of ours, let us hold high the vision they felt was worthy of their sacrifice.

And remember that at our cores, we have more in common than that which divides us: We are One, we are Love, we are Truth. 

A Brave And Startling Truth

by Maya Angelou

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth

And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms

When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil

When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze

When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse

When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who,
without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world

When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing,
irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.

~~~

We heard this week from two remarkable, Courageous healers who dared to follow their guidance in forging a path to be of service in the world despite physical challenges and pushback from others. (See videos of Carol Robertson and Rowdy Koenig.)