We Have Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself ...

What is it about fear? Why is it so very powerful? It permeates our culture, our experience ... it sells newspapers, increases ratings, motivates our behavior. Whether we feel compelled to hoard our money, protect our borders, go to war, go to work, get a flu shot, or go to church ... if we peeled back all the veneers of the why's, the wherefores, and the conventional wisdom of doing a thing, we're quite likely, if we are ruthless honest with ourselves, that fear is the baseline motivation for much, if not most, of what we do. As a culture, as individuals.

The other motivational force, which is far more powerful, but which gets far less air- and focus-time, is Love. See, we don't seem to yet trust that Love is not only the most powerful force in the universe, but that it's the ONLY power in the universe. Love is all there IS. And even as I type that, as you read that, there is likely a litany of "yeah-buts" in your head, saying, "yeah, but what about all the pain, all the suffering, all the injustice, all the evil that I see all around me?"

When we don't trust Love to be powerful, when we see love as mere sentimentality, a nice "extra" in life, when we sideline it as an add-on, then we turn to the faux power of fear -- the power that exists only in the dark recesses in our own minds ... those places that are in need of the Light of Love.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he ... and so when we empower fear in our own minds, we will project that fear outward, into our environment, into our culture, into our experience. Fear, we may notice, is contagious ... panic can spread like a mental pandemic, resulting in either paralysis or riots, lashing inward or outward, or both.

When we are fear-motivated, we tell ourselves a fear-based story ... and our stories are projected onto life around us; we create a self-fulfilling prophecy of our own fears. We indeed attract what we fear.

Here's what God says about fear:

Fear not. For I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

What we need, it seems to me, is rest. Rest from the cacophony of our fear-based thinking ... rest from the belief in separation from God. In conscious union with God, the mind rests, for then our minds function as the Mind of God... and thus the life of God becomes our life, the experience of God becomes our experience. In that state of rest, our mind comes into it's proper function: an avenue of awareness.

What if we have, and are, all we need?

What if nothing can be added to us, or taken away from us?

What if no evil can touch us?

What if all that God is, is already established in us?

"Son you are ever with me, and all that I have is yours."

What if good doesn't so much come to us, as it expresses itself IN us, and flows through us, to others...?

What if we only need to be still and know ...?

I see that God will never leave us nor forsake us ... that nothing which is created (which includes my own mind) shall ever separate me from the love of God (& God is love). I see that the kingdom of God is within ... in our midst. Here and now, at hand. We have only to accept and partake, in order to experience it. We have no need to try to recapture some mythological "glory days" of the past; nor do we need to endlessly await the elusive-and-yet-"soon-coming" utopia of the future. NOW is when we meet the I Am.

All that's in the way, is what we believe ... which is predominantly fear. Fear that we don't measure up ... fear that we are separated from God ... fear that we have fallen into depravity ... fear that we will be punished for doing/believing wrongly ... fear that God is disappointed and must be appeased ... fear that we don't have the foggiest notion of how to appeal such a One... fear that our attempts won't be good enough ... fear that we, or our offerings, will be rejected ...

But we created these fears ... and we can choose again. Repent ... for the Kingdom of God is at hand. This is not, as many have taught, a threat ... but a delightful and delivering promise. "Turn from the insanity of your own thinking, and embrace what God reveals, within you, to you, through you."

There is only One Power in operation in this universe, and that is Love. Fear makes a lousy and cruel substitute for love. Sure, it may "get the job done" but at what cost?

Anything that I accept as a power apart from God may harm me ... not because "it" can, because it is merely a shadow. If I *believe* that someone, or something, can harm me, then I will indeed suffer ... NOT from what someone/something has done, or even because of what I have done, but because of my *belief* that there is a power apart from God. I create my own idols, and then I suffer from their supposed power over me. Graven images are not just on stone ... they can be engraved upon my own mind, as well.

The harm comes from my deviation from Truth. And, once I know this, once I am aware of this, I can repent, I can choose-again. I can tell myself "a different story." I can submit my own perspective, and receive the perspective of God.

Even if "evil" comes at me from another person, I do not need to fear that one, and neither must I hate them ... in fact, in hating another, I actually "bind" that one to me. Evil is a funny thing ... in being a no-thing. When it is projected from one to another, it can only cause harm if it is accepted. If I do not accept this "gift", then it continues to belong to the one who brought it to me. Projecting evil is like swallowing rat poison ... it harms the one who swallows it. I do not need to accept any rat poison ... and the best response for one who has unwittingly swallowed rat poison, and is thus spewing it, is compassion.

Even if I am spoken of as evil ... even if I am perceived to be a horrendously-deceived tragedy-in-the-making, I don't have to let that concern me. I have no responsibility to prove anything or defend myself. I can let the world, and everyone in it, entertain any sort of notions they choose. I can bless those who curse me, I can do good t them that hate me, and pray or them which despitefully use me and even persecute me. I can pray for their awakening ... but I have no need to fear them, or to hate them... which will only harm me.

This is becoming true for me: if I do not entertain evil in my consciousness, there is no evil operating in my world. I may see the same events, I may witness the same circumstances, I may experience the same assaults ... but if I see them as confusion-manifesting, then I can pray with Jesus, "Father, forgive them, & help me to forgive them, for they know not what they do."

If I see a presence or power apart from God, then evil exists for me. If I see someone/something to hate, fear, or resent, then I am only seeing an image that I have created within myself... for hatred, fear, resentment all begin as thought, and are a self-created image, and thus totally lacking in power or reality. Figments in my imagination. Monsters in the closet. If I look at them closely enough, and shine Light upon them, the monsters turn into dust-bunnies ... just as those I hate turn into the confused-beloveds.

See if this impacts you like it does me: Evil is nothing but a suggestion or temptation to accept a creator apart from God.

Woah! Did you know that's what we do, when we entertain thoughts of evil...? It's an appearance, from within our own minds, our own imaginations ... projected out where we can see it, and thus to know that we need more Light shone in dark corners of our thinking ... we need more renewal of the mind. How GOOD to know that...!

If I rest in the truth that God is the ONLY power, and that that power is Love, I find myself discovering, to my dumbfounded joy and delight, that all manner of blessings drench me...! I can abide in the truth of God's kingdom, here and now, on earth. I can abide in the awareness that God is all in all, in everything, with everyone and everything living and moving and having their BEing IN Him...! I then find myself "accidentally" and "FIRST-naturedly" living the Abundant Life. Glory be! This formerly fear-based and pessimistically-streaked woman is gob-smacked that this is becoming my reality...! Gadzooks!

Yes, indeedy, circumstances may confront me, and appear to be terrifying, threatening of disaster, and YET, Christ says within me, "It is I, be not afraid." I notice that God has odd ways of reminding me of Himself. Sometimes, no oftentimes, the very thing which *appears* to be a disaster is the very vehicle of my awakening to the reality of the spiritual life. Often, when we believe our lives are falling apart, they're truly falling together, perhaps for the first time...!

That which appears to be evil can actually be opportunities for my transformation ... as they challenge what I thought I believed, showing me what's deception, and what is truth. It takes what it takes for the prodigal to wake up and smell the pig-sty, remember who he really is, and thus return Home to God. The "long ways off" can be speaking more of an awareness-distance, than of a geographical-distance...

I want to come to the place, and thus it is happenING, wherein I recognize God as the Soul of every person and God as the activity in every situation.

Can you hear the Voice of God, here and now, within you..?

I will never leave you nor forsake you. Why all this struggle? I am in the very midst of you, closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. Why struggle as if you had to seek for Me and search for Me? Why struggle as if you had to hold on to Me? i will never leave you; I am with you always.

Stop fearing; stop doubting. Rest in Me, in My arms, in My love, and let yourself be at peace. Trust the I who is at the center of your being. Believe that I can do all things in and through you. Believe that there is a Presence at the center of your being whose only function is to bless, to love, to be an instrument of My grace. Trust Me. Believe only in Me. Fear not.

Shalom, Dena

P.S. Next, I want to explore why the fear entered in ... I want to look closely at the doctrine of "original sin."

Musings on Duality...

Having had this conversation elsewhere, a few times actually, I thought I'd muse a bit on it here as well ...

So what IS duality?

Duality is the belief in a power of good, and a power of evil ... most
traditionally seen as the "battle" between God and the devil.

But the battle is all in our minds ...

It also breaks down into the insistence of seeing things as polar (& competing) opposites, i.e., black/white, up/down, hot/cold, right/wrong, in/out, included/excluded, painful/joyous, acceptable/unacceptable, brokenness/wholeness, me/you, heaven/earth, life/death, and so on ...

But what if, rather than being opposites (& thus in competition), what we really have is a display of a spectrum ... a continuum of the same thing, depending on our perspective when we see/experience it..?

What if we're meant to see these as two sides of the "same coin," and that both to be understood, appreciated, and even embraced, in order to enhance and bring meaning to the human experience...? For how do we learn what something is, until we've experienced what something is not?

Ponder these quotes for a moment:

“When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner, and the above as the below, and when you make the male and female into a single one, then shall you enter the Kingdom.” Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas

“The human mind rarely sees beyond these opposites to the Greater Unity that necessitates them. But the mind can awaken to Greater Unity, and in this lies the purpose of Creation and of humankind.” Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael

“The creating intelligence must become what it creates if it is to fully express its own non-duality.” Laurence Freeman in Jesus, the Teacher Within

As I now see it, and as I find affirmed in scripture, there is One Power, and
that is God ... God is good, God is love. God is all in all. God created all
things, including humans with a penchant to "fall" (& I now believe that the
fall was necessary) ... and God called all that He had made "good", even "very
good" (& He never took it back).

And all things work together for my good -- no matter how I may perceive them and judge them at the time (for my perception is very, very limited and skewy). I notice that the way in which I perceive/judge a thing (or a person), is the determining factor in the way in which I then experience a thing (or a person)

Any other "power" is only in my mind ... and I can project that "power" out, and "see" it and experience it (and we see the effect of this in the world around us -- the collective belief in evil creates manifestations of evil.) As a man thinks in his own heart so IS he. Jesus says that evil comes out of our own hearts (or "unrenewed minds"). What comes INTO us doesn't affect us, but what comes OUT of us can defile us.

If we believe lies, the lies will seem like "truth" to us.

I see that the belief in duality (seeing more than one power), is to go against
the first commandment ... the Lord our God is ONE - beside Him there is no
other. In choosing to see a world filled with duality, we are creating the mental image (an "engraved" image in our minds - or, an idol, if you will). On that foundation will be built much (all!) shame, guilt, pain, suffering, and the very human vs. human mentality we see manifested in the world all around (and even within) us...!

If we believe a thing, then that thing will be "as truth" to us.

I see that we were told to stay away from the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil"... the level of self-deception that there is anything BUT God in operation "out there".

In looking a bit more closely at this, I notice that trees are often biblically symbolic of a "way of understanding," or a "mindset." We're told to eat from the tree of Life (God's Life, God's Perspective), not from this tree of Duality. I also see that the Hebrew word for "knowledge" can also be translated as "perspective" ... interesting. So, perhaps it could more clearly be said: "do not partake, or let into yourself, the mindset of the perspective that things can be defined as 'good' or 'evil'." IOW, while we are in human form, and subject to our carnal/egoic minds, we have no business, and indeed no *ability*, of correctly discerning what is "good" and what is "evil." Further, God declared ALL that He had made to be "very good." And what exists, anywhere, on any plane, which was not created by God...?

When I connect the dots, I see that the concept of duality is nothing more than an illusion in my own mind.

I have to settle the matter within me, and then I will observe the world around me differently ... I have to be willing to have my eyes opened, to have the veil lifted, so that I can see as God sees ... and I do believe that this is His will and desire for me, for you, for everyone. And I do experience that we can either cooperate with Him, or resist Him.

I believe I will come (& am coming) to see that everyone is doing the best they can, based on what they believe -- if they believe lies, if they believe they are evil, if they believe they are an enemy of God, then they will ACT that way.

I believe I will come (& am coming) to see that people are just confused ... they do not know Who is within them (what other Source of life do we imagine there IS?). I will come (& am coming) to see that the Kingdom of God/Heaven is within me, and once I see/experience it there, and everywhere, it transforms everything else I see.

Duality, is believing that there is anything BUT God.

I see that God is Omnipotent (all powerful -- no power but God), Omniscient
(all-knowing, no knowledge but God), and Omnipresent (there is nowhere in which God is not -- "where can I go from Your Presence ... if I go to Sheol, You are there").

AISI, we're *still* to stay out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ...
all too often, religion trains us to climb that tree, judge everything we see as
"good" or "evil" and then throw rotten fruit.

It all depends on what we deem to be the truer reality ... the world we see
around us, or the spiritual realm. This takes a shift in consciousness ... I've
come to see that I'm a spiritual being having a human experience.

(this is also backed up by discoveries in science, i.e., quantum physics)

Let's go back for a minute to those seeming "opposites" that we observe through the lens of duality ... if I change my thinking, and accept that they're sides of the same "coin", and that they show me a divine dichotomy, and if I allow them to be perceived as a WHOLE, something amazing happens:

- When right and wrong are united, I experience compassion.

- When love and hate are united, I experience forgiveness.

- When good and bad are united, I experience non-judgment.

- When male and female are united, I experience balance.

- When hope and despair are united, I experience trust.

- When Heaven and earth are united, I experience peace,and joy.

And when I see that, I can enjoy this world around me far MORE than when I used to fear it as "evil"...!

Shalom, Dena


P.S. I am aware that two areas in my life, which are in need of a "shift," are health/sickness and finances. God-incidentally, after putting out this desire, I received a book in the mail yesterday, that directly addresses a shift in the perspective of sickness/health ... I'm excited about it, and cannot wait to share it here!

Waking up with a Thought...

I awoke today thinking some thoughts, that didn't seem to be my own ... they came to me, unbidden ... from that spirit/Spirit intersection ... and I felt prompted to share. Receive if you will, reject if you must (it's really ok, either way -- I'll still love you!).

Regarding the source of evil ... I know that our traditions teach us that evil arises from satan ... but I no longer believe in a dualistic perspective ... that God is the source of good, while satan is the source of evil. Jesus says that the source of evil is our very own hearts *Mark 7:21).

(For the record, I also no longer believe in a traditional satan/devil, but that's for another post...)

I see that God declares that He is the author of all things ... bringing about both good and calamity (same word for evil) ... and really, since all things work together for good, all things are ultimately good -- it's only our limited perspective (the "story we tell ourselves") that defines a thing as "good" or "evil" to us ... and I believe we are still to stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, since we're not equipped with God's discernment, or eternal perspective (instead, we seem to insist upon climbing that tree, and pummeling folks with rotten fruit ... our judgments of their externals). Only God knows the heart - only God can truly discern and judge. We are called to love, regardless of whether we deem a person to be a brother, friend, neighbor, or "enemy" (love IS a force far more powerful than judgment could ever be).

Yes, I do see that Jesus spoke (to the self-righteous religious leaders, who thought they knew "absolute truth"), and said to some that their "father" was the devil, the father of lies.

Now ... do we really think we're meant to read this literally, or are we to read it within the context of a metaphorical rendering? We need to step back from our propaganda-ized, 2,000-years-removed-from-reality perspective, and consider the context, the historical setting, the beliefs of the time, and how *they, then* would hear this - rather than relying on how *we* have been taught to hear this. Do we *really* think that the devil/satan actually created life...? How may Creators do we believe in? There is only One Source of all life -- God. All things on heaven and in earth come from him, have their being in Him, are sustained by Him, and return to Him -- at least, if we're going to believe the scriptures.

There is no competing/counterfeiting life-source ... the only competition is the egoic bent of our own minds, and the individual and collective stories we tell ourselves.

Paul tells the (pagan, pluralistic) Athenians that "we are all God's offspring" ... and Jesus Himself makes it clear, during the Sermon on the Mount, that our problem is *within*. Our problem is our own thinking ... our minds need renewal, to line up with our hearts (these hearts which God told us He would give us ... trading "hearts of stone" for "hearts of flesh" ... hearts which are connected to Him ... hearts which are no longer to be seen/declared as "deceitfully wicked" and untrustworthy -- hearts through which the very Spirit of God communicates with us). At least, if we're going to believe the scriptures.

To really experience the Absolute - that life is radically good, that life courses through us, and that this life is the very presence of God - is to experience the essential pattern. When we experience the transcendent quality of God, when we encounter the Living God in an experiential (not merely head-knowledge) way, suddenly everything is ok, despite the absurdity, the injustice, and the inevitable pain in life. This life is a spacious and abundant life (the life Jesus spoke of, the life He brings, if we can receive), able to even absorb the seeming contradictions we encounter ... God is so great, so bottomless, so vast, that He can even absorb the "contraries," even the apparent collisions of opposites. When we experience Him in this profound way, it feels like a universal amnesty ... a total forgiveness of ourselves, and of everything/one else...!

We can't live there 24/7, but if we taste it even once, it's *enough* for an entire lifetime. When the veil parts, even once, and we see that life is radically ok, then we see that we are indeed (and always were) a child of God. That union is palpable, and nondeniable. We see that we have all we need, and always did. Nothing left to prove, nothing to attain - as a child of the Living God, we see that all He has was always ours. It's simply a matter of recognizing, honoring, trusting. And we are startled to our core to discover that when we know God in this way, we seem to know and accept our own humanity -- as well as the humanity of everyone else. When we meet ourselves at this revelational level of awareness, we also meet God. We have no access to who we are except through God, and we have no access to God except through forgiving/accepting/rejoicing in our own humanity.

The problem is the wariness, and even the fear of, experience. People who have not yet had an experiential encounter with God can tend to be rigid, dogmatic and controlling about doctrine ... it seems to stem from anxiety about not yet having had an experience of God. Missing the whole, they can cling desperately to some small portion.

The great commandment is not "thou shalt be right." It's to love. To BE in love, with God and all that God has created. All that is needed to participate in the Abundant Life, is to surrender and be grateful.

It doesn't require being "correct" .. we are all enmeshed in various forms of skewy thinking. This is status quo with the human experience. It's been said, "if you understand it, things are just as they are. If you don't understand it, things are just as they are." I sure don't want a God limited to my understanding ...!

The real question is never, "how right is this," for that leaves me, and my own understanding, as the reference point -- an impoverished state to merely exist in. The real question is: "what does this have to say to me? what does this have to teach me? what's the gift in this for me? How is God in this event? even, how is God in this suffering?"

Every experience, whether it appears to be "good" or "evil" to my skewed perspective, is yet-another opportunity to learn how to love. This very moment has a message ... this very moment has a fullness.

Show me, God ... draw me ever-more into Yourself ... continue to show me who You really are, and who I really am. Show me Yourself in every person I encounter, every experience that greets me ... peel back the veil of my own skewed--and-limited perspective ... let me question what I *think* I know, let that which is of man be shed, so that which is of God may emerge out of that stifling cocoon of "correctness-and-certitude" and rock my world with the absolute beauty of Your radical grace...!

Thank You.

Shalom, Dena

Totally Depraved...?

I notice that whenever there's an urgent need, that human beings act with incredlble assistance for one another ... without thinking, they respond with unselfish honor, self-sacrifice, and deep compassion.

Why, then, do we believe the human doctrine that man is basically evil..?

I see that when we think/react out of our egic natures, we do indeed demonstrate selfishness that progresses to evil ... but when we respond from our deepest selves, good comes forth...

Perhaps we just need to really know who we are, as God sees us, rather than how the theologians have declared us to be..?

Shalom, Dena

Jesus Calls Us "Evil"...? Really?!?

Mt 7:9-11 - "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you
are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your
Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I shared this verse with someone today, showing the lavish nature of our God ... but the phrase "you then, though you are evil" ... gave me pause.

I went to several versions, and the Peshitta, which is taken from the Aramaic
(the language Jesus used), and taken from the Septuagint (the version of the
Bible Jesus quoted) ... and it *actually* says:

"if you then, though you ERR..."

Egads, from "err" the translators chose "evil"...!

How we've been taken for a ride by those with an agenda...!

Dear God, how many have been led to believe that they're evil, due to the
traditions of man, rather than what Jesus actually SAID..?!?

Shalom, Dena

"What About Evil? What About Injustice?"

I'm having a similar conversation
elsewhere ... I was asked, "what about evil, what about injustice?"

Here's what I shared, for what it's worth:


(disclaimer: this is what I've come to believe, at this point in my own journey
... not claiming that this is "all truth", or that any of us can grasp "all truth" while in a limited form of humanity...)


I believe that God made all things, and sustains all things ... that God is IN all things (& all humans as well). I believe that in Him we live and move and have our being ... I believe that He is the only Source of life ... apart from Him there is no life at all... but nothing and no one is apart from Him ... indeed, everything and everyone is a part *of* Him.

Given that, all is GOOD. It's our perception that would tell us otherwise, because we eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we think we can tell what's good, and what's "evil" by our own perception. But we discern and judge with a faulty, limited, temporal perspective ... we do not yet see how ALL things work together for good, as we're transformed into the likeness of Christ. We perceive from our ego, rather than from the Mind of Christ (the intersection of Spirit and spirit within us).

We discern on a conscious level, but truth is often found on a subconscious level ... which is why we can *know* a think is true "in our hearts," even while our minds are protesting.

So, yes, we humans do perceive things to be "evil" and we judge things to be "unjust" ... and certainly harm seems to be done. We can indeed harm relationships, but we cannot really harm another ... though we can perceive to harm, and to be harmed.

Once we realize that we are not our bodies, but that we *have* bodies ... that we're really our spirits (& we're having a human experience), and that what we see is not what *is* (& even quantum physics proves this to us), that there is no death (it's merely the horizon of our perspective, but life is, by it's very essence, eternal), then we can lose the perception of evil and fear.

God has often met us where we are, and given us the level of truth that we could/can handle ... Jesus told His disciples that He had MUCH more to show them, but they couldn't bear it then (and can we now bear it?).

God shows us in the OT that He is the One who created evil (calamity) ... for we cannot experience goodness without the context of evil. We cannot know hot without cold, light without darkness, joy without sorrow ... they're really just the same thing, on a continuum.

So, too, we cannot experience Oneness without the illusion of separation ... which is what I believe this human life is all about -- to experience "separation" from God (though He does not experience separation from us), so that we can experience returning to Him. All things come from Him, and all things return to Him, for He is all there is.

So, I see, in the absolute sense, that there is no real evil, just the temporal perception of it.

BUT - we are called to experience what is "not us" in this life, so that we can know who we really are. So, when we experience harm, and even harming another, we can know that it's not really who we are ... and we can choose to respond differently.

If I see that someone is experiencing what appears to be evil, or injustice, I can choose to do something to ease their suffering ... the first thing I would do would be to intervene in some way ... but I would ultimately want to invite them to go deeper, to come to know God in an authentic way, and to come to see who they really are as well, in Him, of Him.

I'm invited to do unto others as I would want them to do for me -- to love others as I do myself. I can meet them where they are, feel whatever they're feeling, be with them, and help them to start to see the illusion that's really causing the pain.

It's not what happens to us that hurts us, as much as what we *think* about what happens to us that hurts us...

Maybe if I share a story, it will help to illustrate what I'm talking about.

A woman was at a workshop, being confronted with these very notions ... that all is good, that even death is good, and that no one dies before they choose to (on some level ... though they can be consciously as surprised as anyone else when they die). She was enraged by this, due to what she'd experienced. When she married, many years previously, she could not conceive ... and so they adopted a little boy, Bobby. Shortly after the adoption, as is often the case, they conceived a baby, and raised these two boys together. Bobby was always told he was adopted, in ways he could comprehend. But when he started school, he was tormented by the other children, who said, "Bobby's so ugly his own mother gave him away -- Bobby's mother didn't want him!" He was hurt and furious, and his adopted mom couldn't console him ... his adopted mom told him that when he was 18, she would help him to find his birth mother. For years he reminded her of this ... and gave her agony, through acts of rebellion, acting out his pain-of-rejection in a myriad of ways. She loved him through it, and even took his lashing out, as he reminded her, over and over, that he would find his "real" mother when he was 18. On the day he turned 18, he took off on a motorcycle, and died in a tragic accident.

She looked at the workshop leader, and said, "Tell me, what sort of 'good' is that? What sort of God would allow my son to miss out on what he wanted most? How did my son choose his death?!?"

The workshop leader closed his eyes, and prayed, "I need help here God, give me the words for this woman..."

Out of him the words spilled ... "Your son Bobby got what he wanted that day ... he didn't know it consciously, but his birth mother had died, and so he went to meet her, to be with her, because his job here on earth was done. It was his time, and he got what he most wanted. He's worked to bring you to this workshop, so that you could know this, so that you could know he's happy, that he's so grateful to you for all you did in loving him through those tough years, preparing him for the reunion with his birth mother. He's waiting for you, and wants to introduce his two mothers to each other. He wants you to be able to live in peace and joy until then."

The woman's expression changed from rage and pain, to utter joy and peace, with tears streaming down.

Our perspective changes our experience.

If we change our thinking, we can change our world, and then invite others to do the same...

(and that's where I am right now, awaiting further revelation...)

Shalom, Dena