In-ter-est-ing Times

I find myself feeling as if we were living the apocryphal,* mythological, ancient “Chinese curse”, May you live in interesting times. And “in-ter-est-ing” times these surely are.

Everyday presents a new labyrinth to get through as I juggle staying in the present moment and accomplishing my desired tasks. Unlike a rat running frantically to find the food at the end of a maze, I am learning to stroll each corridor. When I hit a dead-end or unexpected turn, I take a breath and either return, or explore the new direction. Either way, the passage I follow is new and can be, not only “in-ter-est-ing”, it can be fulfilling and a gift.

I am constantly re-learning to make a plan, and then be flexible enough to change that plan as I go along. I am actually practicing how to live in the present moment while not being locked into a future I can sense.

Quan Yin tell me these “interesting times” are a result of so many of us who are applying 5th Dimension Consciousness paradigms (Self-Forgiveness, Gratitude and the Love which unfolds itself) while navigating a 3rd Dimension Consciousness world. We are practicing kindness, graciousness, generosity of spirit and discernment, while we are building spiritual, emotional and mental resilience.

When frustrated beyond bearing, I return to my old, well-used mantras for comfort: Quan Yin’s Om Mani Padme Hum, Gratitude Practice, the beautiful Hail Mary, the Heart Sutra, or ‘give me this day my daily bread’. I do these mantras not to become more spiritual, or to escape from the frustration of navigating the world as it is today from a higher dimension of consciousness. I do them for the comfort they bring. Centuries of use have created fields of love, of awareness, of serenity, of hope, of belief, and of promise. I wrap myself in these fields for comfort and renewal.

May you, too, find comfort, fulfillment and purpose in these all too ‘in-ter-est-ing’ times.

Blessings,
                                  Charlotte

*Apocryphal: of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin.

Understanding – A Trap?

Last week I was introduced to three principles underlying the work of Dr. Brugh Joy: 1) Make no judgements, 2) Make no comparisons, and 3) Delete the need to understand.

Because so many of us are experiencing a kind of “gap” where nothing is quite wrong and nothing is quite right, I thought I would address the ‘need to understand’ this month. (Check out September when I share my perspective on the “gap” we seem to be experiencing.)

Too often the “need” to understand is a red herring, a distraction which takes us away from actually addressing the issue or experience we have convinced ourselves we “need” to understand. The idea being that, if we could understand, we would then know what to do; how to change, fix, or prevent it from happening again.

Mostly, however, pursuing the need to understand inhibits or prevents taking an action to address, embrace and heal the issue or event. The need to understand supports judgment and comparison and frequently ends in blame, instead of healing.

There is no way to understand why someone takes up a weapon and murders people in mass shootings.
There is no way to understand why police, who are oath-bound to serve and protect, kill so many and with so many rounds fired.
There is no way to understand why so many are committed to believing T’s biggest lie.
There is no way to understand why so many (including ourselves) have fallen into a fit of temper, self-condemnation, hopelessness, depression or rage.
The “need” to understand serves none: not you, not others, not the world.

So, what to do instead? Quan Yin tells me to do my basic practices – even (or especially) if they are not ‘working’ as they once did. Just do them! Do them consistently and with a sense of confident waiting.

You can do your basic grounding practice, stand behind your heart and a few rounds of your favorite mantra (not an affirmation).

You may choose to do several rounds of Self-Forgiveness and Gratitude practice.

In other words, move from a “need to understand” to healing what is not life-affirming, by doing your basic practices!

Thank you all for being such beautiful Light Bearers at a time when we all can use a reminder of who we are and have always been: Light!

                                                Blessings,
                                                             Charlotte

Unto the Fourth Generation

Sometimes, when I look back over the past 50 years of my journey to “wholeness”, and look at what the world has wrought, I find myself asking, “Good Lord, what was I thinking?” And sometimes, as I want to put my head down and cry for the state of the world today, I find myself asking, ”Was/Is all this hard work worth it?”

And then, in the back of my mind, I hear Rosalyn saying, “The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the 4th generation – and YOU are the 4th generation.”**
Once again I am struck by how deeply her declaration resonated with me, not really understanding what she meant.

“Sin”: This is a word, a concept that raises all my red flags. It is a judgement on people that, in my feeling nature and opinion, might be termed cruel and unusual punishment. As a result, I immediately move to a deeper understanding of the word as a metaphor, symbol, or a mis-translation.

I do not see “sin” as wrong-doing or badness, or prompted by ‘the devil’, and certainly not something anyone is ‘born into’. I find myself recognizing Rev. Wally Skagg’s perception of “sin” as ignorance. Not uneducated or stupid, I see it more as a lack of conscious awareness of the Universal Laws under which we all live. I see it as a lack of consciousness, and certainly an unrecognized separation from Soul-Self.

People living in “ignorance” are caught in the social, religious, ethnic, and educational mores they were raised in. They are not just unable to change, but do not realize that they could change, or, in fact, that there is anything to change from, or change to. They are locked into the ego-masks and roles they were raised in, that, in fact, they inherited from their generational families and cultures (‘the sins of the fathers’), and are struggling to come to terms with since the advent of 5th Dimension Conscious.

Rosalyn stated that we, the students and teachers in the room, were ‘the fourth generation’, and that the “fourth generation” was a reference to to the fourth chakra – the heart center – the “Seat of the Soul”. She noted that we were all in the process of healing from our old training (the sins of the fathers) so we not only could open our heart centers, we could actually live from them.

We who have, from a deep yearning or from desperation, fought to find a kinder, more loving way to live are “the fourth generation.”
We who have fought to free ourselves from the generational family dysfunction into which we were born, are “the fourth generation”.
We who find ourselves to some degree outsiders, at times separated from our families, separated from our society and often separated from our religion of origin, are “the fourth generation”.

We, you and I, are joined by many “fourth generation” people, of all ages and from all backgrounds. We came into being to help generate and midwife the shift into 5th Dimension Consciousness.

Many of us could be called one of the various waves of what might be called, “Starseed (or Star) Children. Depending on the time we were born, we would be recognized as
Indigo Children (the original ‘flower children’, who came to tear down all of the old traditions), Crystal Children (who came to teach compassion, tolerance, patience and gentleness), or Rainbow Children (who came to heal and re-balance humanity and the planet, and reveal truth). Regardless of the age we were born into, we have followed our Soul’s Path, and as “the fourth generation” we have been the vanguard heralding the transition and transformation into 5th Dimension Consciousness.

So . . . When I want to lay my head down and cry, and ask, is all the hard work of coming into integration and learning to live from my heart worth it?

Unequivocally, I say, Yes! The journey is and has been ‘worth it’.
Unequivocally, I say, Yes! I am ‘worth it’.
Unequivocally, I say, Yes! The world is moving in the direction we have come to guide it toward; peace, honesty, integrity, compassion, kindness and love.

Congratulations, you “fourth generations” folks, I’m honored to be one of you!

Blessings,
                                                 Charlotte

**
Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9
“You shall not bow vow down those them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me. (Part of the 10 commandments)
Numbers 14:18
“The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.”
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice:
“The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.”
Rosalyn Bruyere:
The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the 4th generation.

Love and Grief

So many dead! Dead by Natures’ events, dead by disease, by war and so many simply murdered. The world’s dead weigh heavily on my heart and in my mind, so I have begun to do “rescue” work several times a week. I find I am, however, inexorably drawn to heal the hearts of those who are left behind; those  who are unexpectedly hurled into unimaginable loss and the devastating grief it brings: The heart and mind-numbing grief that so easily can become anger, despair and rage.

In my healing work I seek some clear path that will embrace and support the grief of loss, and also stop that gathering of rage which brings on the darkness of the Soul.

Doing rescue work with the children killed on the 24th (and what a sad, sad note that we have to name the date because there are so many to choose from), and their parents, I found a glimmer of a possible path forward.

Quan Yin and most of the Heart Masters that come to help me do the work of healing the heart reminded me of the following:
The heart can hold either Love or Hate, not both. We can choose to hold dear, to cherish, the love we feel for those who are dead, so that even in our grief they continue to live within us. They are in our hearts, an indelible part of our energy fields, and the blessings of their presence in our lives can live on.

I have come to see that when we people our hearts with anger, with rage, with a need for revenge (which all to often we call “justice”), we have truly lost our loved ones, for there is no room for them in the face of such anger. We may never be able to forgive those who murdered our children, our parents, our family and friends. We can, however, choose to fill our hearts and minds with the love we shared with them. Each day we can treasure the love we felt for them, and the love they gave us. We can go forward every day bearing that love as a banner and in the memory of their lives. And when we do, we change the world!
I am reminded again and again, that just as hate begets hate, so too does Love beget Love.

The deep healing states I have been experiencing have offered some deeper realities about Love.
Love is its own courage.
Love moves us forward in the face of devastating loss.
Love encourages to explore beyond our comfort zones.
Love challenges us to embrace and be open to new loves, even in the face of our fears of loss; even in the moments our despairing grief.
Love supports and nudges us to seek happiness when happiness seems to be forever stolen from us.

I am assured that in the face of unconditional, steadfast Love, even those who seem intractably locked into a nightmare of hate, fear and despair will eventually awaken.

It is that unwavering Love which calls each of us to acknowledge the seed of That Love as the foundation of our Human-selves and our Soul-Selves. That Love, from which we all came and which we all are, calls us to be more present to It with each breath, with each action, and when we are facing our own fears in each challenge.

That Love is eternal and untarnished and It expresses Itself through you and as you!

Thank you for joining me in my commitment to live from the heart of That Love, as we work to heal the world, one heart at a time.

Blessings,
                        Charlotte

THE COIN AND KOAN* OF LIFE

No one gets out of life without experiencing grief and loss. Sometimes the deepest grief comes when we look back at our life and think how much of our life was wasted! Wasted in anger. Wasted in fear. Wasted in confusion.

No one gets out of life without experiencing joy and delight. Sometimes the most delicious joy comes unexpectedly and from something unconsidered and passed over which has suddenly caught us by surprise!

Perhaps the most deeply felt grief is that we somehow choose to focus on  pain instead of  comfort, or laughter. Sometimes the exhilaration of unexpected joy happens when we simply turn our head and see what has been there all along!

I believe one of the qualities of Uncompromising Love is that we can choose to mark and grieve the loss, and mark and celebrate the joy, and also to recognize in our bones that both are passing and both are deserving of our unswerving gratitude.

The other side of joy is sorrow. Not the “opposite” of joy – it is the other side. Not “opposite” as to push against or overcome, but androgynous, encouraging us to experience the fullness of life.

Another dimension of sorrow is joy, just as another dimension of joy is sorrow. They are the warp and weft of the fabric of Life! they are two sides of the same coin, and as such a true koan* of life.

The experiences of sorrow and joy, grief and gratitude are not limited to physical or emotional life. We cannot “run” to “spiritual life” to avoid or escape them.

Quan Yin has stated that there is not a physical life and a spiritual life. They are the same life. There is, like Love, only Life. She shares, though rarely, that her heart hurts for us – for the fears which close our eyes and hearts to the outrageous beauty and exquisite joy of simply being alive!

So it is that Quan Yin and I wish you all the joys and sorrows, all the griefs and gratitudes of a full and wondrously rich Life!

              Blessings,
                                  Charlotte

*Koan: Oxford Languages defines koan as: A paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used by Zen Buddhism, to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment.

In the Presence of Love

“From Love you come
To Love you return
Remember, there is none other.”
Dojén, as channeled by Eric Barthell,III

“There is only Perfect Love.”
Quan Yin

“How do I know if I love someone”, I am asked. “Simple”, I reply. “Close your eyes and think about that person, picture them in your mind, how do you feel?” “My heart feels warm and I smile”, is the response. “You love them”, I say as my heart warms and I smile.

The deepest yearning in the human heart is for love. The drive to become wealthy, famous, or powerful has, at its heart, the desire to love and be loved; to somehow be worthy of love. Even the search for a personal connection to “god” is a search for love. While the search for love is all too often externally focused, I personally believe that love in an inside job. That, as Quan Yin teaches, “the joy and the healing of love is in the loving, not in the being loved.”

From Quan Yin’s perspective, a living personification of unconditional, uncompromising love, love is a verb; an action, not a goal, and a conscious choice. Love then becomes a daily (sometimes hourly) active choice; a choice for connection, which is Love, instead of disconnection, which is Fear.

I can choose to “love” someone and at the same time choose NOT to interact with them because of their destructive behavior. I can choose to wish them well, put them in god’s hands, and also refrain from commingling our lives. I can choose to cut the emotional, psychic and physical ties with love, or with kindness instead of with fear, anger or hurt. I can choose to love my own flawed, human self, and also love another’s flawed, human self in the same way.

To love does not mean that dependence, interdependence or personal or intimate relationships must or will follow. It does mean you offer the same acceptance and generosity of spirit you want for yourself, and hopefully, give yourself.

When I finally stopped questioning what love was, and simply basked in the experiences of love and its many facets, I stopped believing that I lacked the capacity to love. Every time I smile (even masked and six feet apart) at someone, stranger or friend, I am in the presence of love. Every time I make time for someone to speak, even in a business capacity, I am in the presence of love. Each time I am able to simply accept someone for who they are being at the moment, I am in the presence of love. Every kindness, including slowing down so a speeding car can cut in front of me, I am in the presence of love. We are taught, especially as healers, that love heals. I believe that the true healing of love is to love; love others, love pets, love nature, and most importantly to love oneself.

I recognize that there are people who, when thought about, inexorably produce a tightening of my shoulders, a grimace on my face and a heaviness of heart; it is clear that I do not love them in any form whatsoever. Even though I know they carry Light, as does all sentient life, I am incapable (or unwilling?) of “seeing” it, responding to it, or even, in some cases, acknowledging it. I suspect it is my loss, not theirs, for choosing to not love diminishes me.

Perhaps the truth is that you and I are the presence of love, and we are simply acting out the love that is the essence of who we are. And as we consciously choose to be in the presence of love, we become, as Quan Yin encourages, the presence of love.

During this month when we celebrate love, may the Valentines you choose to receive and the Valentines you choose to give remind you that you are always in the Presence of Love, that you are the Presence of Love, and that, indeed, ‘there is none other’.

 Blessings,
Charlotte

Musical Mission Statements

This is a traditional time when folks make their New Year Resolutions! You know, those promise/wishes we hope to accomplish as we turn over a new leaf at the New Year.

I think, instead, it would be wise to construct a Mission Statement for the year. What, you may ask, is the difference? A resolution is all to often an action to “fix” something about yourself you think is wrong: lose weight, exercise more, stop smoking, meditate every day, etc. A Mission Statement is a formal summary of the aims and values you want to align your life with during the year.

As a musician, I suppose it isn’t too surprising that I find phrases from songs as the seeds of a possible Mission Statement for myself. I offer these for your enjoyment – and perhaps to get you started on your Mission Statement for 2022.

“This little light of mine, I’m gonna’ let it shine.”
Harry Dixon Loes

“Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again.”
Dorothy Field & Jerome Kern

“Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine, out of the falling rain.”
Peter Yarrow

“I’ll be your candle on the water, my love for you will always burn.”
Al Kasha & Joel Hirschoon

“Put on love every day, don’t save love for a special day, just put on love every day.”
Mary Lou Walker

“You leave love in your wake with every step that you take.”
Amy Carol Webb

“Will the circle be unbroken.”
Roy Acuff

“Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me. I will hold Your people in my heart.”
John Michael Talbot

“In the end, only kindness matters.”
Jewel

Take some time, let the path you wish to walk this year rise up from the silence of your heart, and craft your Mission Statement in whatever language fills you with joy.

                                                          Blessings,    Charlotte