The end is near. In our gut, we know something is wrong with the way things are. We feel it. The world is in crisis. People are suffering. The environment’s a mess. Our trust in our leaders is failing.

People everywhere are talking about the end times. When discussing the weather, one woman I know referred to it as apocalyptic.

There is no hiding from the challenges we’re facing. We live with the awareness of it and carry around with us everyday.

The problem is that few of us know what to do about it, so entrenched in the daily grind that we surrender to the complacency and passivity that is our lot in life. We don’t have time to think about the world’s problems, because our lives are literally being consumed by the details of survival.

Even on a personal level, our relationships, our families and our communities are strained to the breaking point. Not only do we not have time to self-reflect and build a foundation of relationship with the self, our relationships with others are under constant attack. Consumer society and the need for all of us to keep this great machine going, by necessity, requires us to sacrifice the very things we value most: our closest relationships.

We know this and yet, we cannot seem to escape it. Like prisoners, we try hard to accept the limitations that constrict our lives. We make the best of it. And when we can’t make the best of it, we try every available means of escape: we eat, drink, have sex, watch TV, shop, travel, anything to change the way we feel and give us temporary relief from the stress of the daily grind. And when that doesn’t work, we go to our doctor and ask for a drug to help us to cope and get through the day.

Not exactly a formula for a successful life. Pretty insane when you really look at it. Why aren’t we all in the streets protesting our captivity, screaming about the sacrifices we’re expected to make? Because, and here’s the slippery part, we don’t think anyone who can do anything about it will hear us. We don’t think anyone cares. And on one level we’re right. Why should our jailers want things to make things better for us, when we’re so good at making it better for them?

Did I just say there are people benefiting from our captivity? Absolutely. That’s exactly what I said. Think about it for a minute. This is nothing new. There have always been the lucky few who benefit from the hard work and sacrifice of the many. The only reason that this continues is that we allow it. We see it, but in truth, we’d rather not think about it. So we become passive and allow ourselves to be hypnotized by the belief that nothing can change. We give in to the agreed-upon mass amnesia that surrounds us and is reinforced everywhere we go, because we don’t want to cause trouble, we don’t want to attract attention, we don’t want to be perceived as abnormal or crazy. So we shut up and put up with the way it is, even though deep down inside we know something’s terribly wrong.

Well, I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t have to be this way. The only way that we can agree to being miserable is because we’ve forgotten something very important: we’ve forgotten who we are. The only reason this game of limitations can be perpetuated by those who are benefiting from it is if we agree to play it. And the only reason we agreed to such conditions is because we believed we didn’t have a choice. That is precisely what those in power are banking on.

But we do have a choice. Because we have the key to the prison door. We’ve always had the key, but we forgot where we put it.

Think of it this way. We were born as human beings. We were given this incredible instrument to play that has capabilities beyond our wildest dreams. We’ve been told we were made in the image of our creator, which essentially means that within us, we each have the same capabilities as that which created us. The problem is that even though we have this instrument, we weren’t given any instructions, so we don’t know how to play it. Our parents and our teachers teach us many things, but for the most part, the full range of the instrument is left un-utilized. Being mostly self-taught, we only know how to use a small percentage of the instrument (for most of us it is only around 10%). This keeps our range of experiences in life extremely limited. Our beliefs are limited so we develop limited habits of thinking and behaving. Our focus is mostly on the world outside of us, and because of that, we are heavily influenced by the thoughts and beliefs and actions of others.

This is a trick. This is how the odds of the game got so highly stacked against us and our freedom. The only way out of this endless loop, this nightmare, is to learn how to play the instrument we were given, to learn its capabilities.

Now here’s the tricky part. Where are we going to learn this? Who are we going to trust? Well, truth be told, there are a lot of smoke and mirrors out there, decoys and distractions and disinformation to throw you off the track. Why? Because as I said earlier, if you learned how to play your instrument, if you learned who you are, you would be free, you would be able to do those amazing, mind-blowing things called miracles, and you would be never see yourself as limited again. Essentially, if you knew how to utilize the other 90% of your capacity, you would become unstoppable. Your life and the lives of all human beings would change dramatically. Those in power would no longer be able to hold onto that power; and they would no longer be able to maintain the game they’re playing.

Without a doubt, it’s dangerous to talk about this. The risks are great. The infinite minefields that have been set up to keep all of us in prison are insidious and subtle and almost impossible to navigate through without help. But, given how close we are to destroying each other and the planet we live on, silence is no longer an option.

The bottom line is that we’ve been duped, duped into believing that bondage is the normal state of things and freedom an idealistic fantasy, duped into believing that things just “happen” to us, duped into believing that this is the way it is and we should simply accept it.

We’ve been told we’re sinners and weak and powerless and that salvation lies in a far-off place called Heaven. We’ve been sold a bill of goods and given a set of rules that will allegedly insure this salvation.

But at some time in your life haven’t you wondered what kind of world would be set up this way? Isn’t there something so inherently flawed and wrong with this picture?

Most of us don’t question things until we’re faced with a crisis, or even more likely when we’re facing our own death. Then the questions swirl around us en masse. Some of us decide to become seekers and try and find answers to the big questions, why are we here and what does this all mean?

Even with a passion to know the Truth though, the odds are against us finding it. Why? Because the world has been designed to keep the truth hidden and elusive. Most answers only breed more questions, leading to frustration and despair. It is so much easier to stick with what we know and do what everyone else is doing. There is very little support for real solutions to the human dilemma.

Then, even if we find what we think are solid answers, they don’t help, because most of the answers get stuck in the intellect and we cannot find a way to translate them into action or real change. So we spin around in circles trying to sort through the endless information and promises of freedom, enlightenment and salvation.

The answer is much simpler and more obvious than we think it is. In fact, it’s right under our noses. It’s within the instrument we were born with. Imagine if you will, that contained inside of this instrument is the very key that will set you free, answer all the questions you’ve ever had, and give you all the capabilities to change whatever circumstances in your life that you wish, a veritable magic box that holds within it the secret of who you really are, without limitations, a box full of miracles and all that is required to open it, is a willingness to do so.

Human beings are capable of extraordinary things. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, we forgot this. It’s time to wake up to our Divine Nature and stop betraying ourselves. The self-sabotage has to end here and now.

The first step is to acknowledge that we are truly powerful. The second is to listen to ourselves above all others. The third is to trust that freedom is our birthright and cannot be denied to us.

Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? The world will keep reinforcing the lies to keep you off balance and send you down endless dead ends. It is akin to battle, but once you remember who you are, the odds are very strong in your favor.

The only way to find the Truth is to stop listening to the world around you, for at least part of every day, until the Truth gets stronger and stronger and begins to convince you that you’re on the right track. The power of the world will lessen, the images will dim and the sounds will become muted as you begin to listen to your own inner voice. Eventually, you will discover that the things others are affected by no longer affect you, and you’ll establish a foundation of meaning in the world beyond appearances. The bondage will start to come off when you realize you have a say in what manifests around you, not because you change your actions, but because your thinking is changing.

Yes, it is slow, but accessible. It takes practice and persistence and commitment to the Truth. At times, you will be tempted to regress into the world of appearances; for its pull and its promises are seductive. You will question the validity of what I’m saying again and again and again. You will doubt and curse and feel despair.

But believe me, it’s worth it. Think about it. Think about the limitations you live with everyday. It isn’t so bad you say. I can live with the way it is. Today perhaps. But what about tomorrow when something unexpected hits your life? Then what? Then I suspect that some of this may start to make sense. The Truth will be illuminated in such as way that you can never forget it. It will be there to anchor every thought and action you make.

What have you got to lose?

In his revolutionary book, The Outsiders, Colin Wilson writes that Nietzsche went mad for the last 10 years of his life. This got me thinking. Why do the people who think outside the box, who challenge the status quo, and who strive to transcend the prison of the day-to-day existence end up either crazy or dying a tragic death? Why do those who are desperately trying to find a way to do something great, to express a masterpiece artistically or philosophically end up shunned by the culture and society they live in? What is so threatening about the truth? What is so threatening about people who question what is?

The eternal and existential dilemma of mankind seems to be just this—an unwillingness to be open to the unknown, the frightening, the strange. From my perspective, and many other writers for that matter, what is unknown is the most exciting part of life. What makes people uncomfortable is what makes life tick.

We were not born to strive for sameness and security. We were born to live and grow and question it all. But this drives many people crazy. These gnawing questions that eat at the soul, that make our choices suspect. We know the truth, and yet we cower from it at every turn. The vastness of the unknown feels too big to comprehend. But that’s precisely the invitation: to see the mystery and welcome it with open arms and wait for it to deliver new experiences to us.

Why live a predictable life? What is the point of that? Why not pull out all the stops and see what unfolds?

You know why and so do I: to do that is terrifying and goes against our carefully controlled and protected lives. We might lose something or not get something we want if we live in a fluid way, open to receiving life’s gifts and pains.

We are defined by what we protect and what we need to control. We stop ourselves just short of our comfort zone. We go only so far and then we stop at the edge of that which makes us afraid. But this stopping is also where our deepest longing resides. We want so much to open to the unknown, but the boundary is too strong. We stop just short of our identification with the known.

The past becomes our jailer. How we define ourselves becomes the walls that we use to keep us in line. To venture outside those walls surely means what? Death? Destruction? Insanity? We tell ourselves that we’ll lose everything if we take big risks. So we settle for mediocrity. Never willing to risk insanity or death keeps us coloring in the lines and keeps us in line.

This reluctance to take risks limits our range and narrows our experience of life. It’s no wonder that so much of the population is depressed. Repression turns into depression. We rage against ourselves for the ongoing self-betrayal. Holding back our desire for change and growth creates a volcano within us that eventually explodes with all of our unsung expressions and unfulfilled desires. We become a shell of a human being who is operating at a fraction of our capacity. The volume and energy is turned down to a low burn and all of our efforts are spent maintaining and preserving our lifestyles as opposed to expanding our souls into full expression.

We are walking around in a state of constant starvation and hungers–anorexic beings, with no hope of ever being fed. Not unless we stop depriving ourselves of the real food of life. Only then is there some hope of salvation and freedom.

Only then.

We must rebel against this suppression of ourselves. We must stage a personal revolution in which we stand up against the agree-upon beliefs of our brothers and sisters–break free from the crowd and start to listen to the voice of our soul’s longing.

There is no time to waste.

Can we really afford to continue to let those who are willing to take these risks to try and change things die a humble, miserable death or crumble into the ashes of their discontent?

No, I think not. We must acknowledge that we hear their cry and stop condemning them for their eccentricities and odd ways. We must stop and listen to their silent moans as they cut the pathway the rest of us fear to tread. Then we can rise up and gather the courage to follow in their footsteps…not their actual path, of course, but rather their example so that we may forge our own unique path.

I know why there are artists who have to paint…writers who have to write…musicians who have to play…monks who have to retreat…

I know why so many people use drugs and relationships to disappear…

Being too intelligent is a curse…being too sensitive is a curse…being too awake is a curse…

And a burden…

I know why you need both Christianity and Buddhism…one without the other falls short…

Because the lie is that life is easy…the truth is that life is hard…

Especially for those who cannot hold onto their illusions and fantasies…who cannot handle the pain…they feel and they see in others…

We need our belief that life is good even though it disappoints us and betrays us and rejects us…

Without it we have nothing…

So many fail and opt out of this place…too much for them to bear…

What does it takes to keep moving forward when you have no control…when you’re at the mercy of the unexpected…and a power bigger than you can ever grasp?

When all you have is a faint hope and innate trust that there must be some meaning to all of this…a bare flicker that is ignited in those moments when you feel safe and okay…when there seem to be possibilities…again.

But this flicker…this glimpse is tentative and always temporary…for change is inevitable…nothing can be held onto…life is always about letting go into the next moment…a tiny death that passes by with each breath…

Loss in order to have what’s next…no choice in this…always something new…

It’s a fucking mystery with not enough clues to ever solve it…

Just movement…and finding a way to stay with it when the pain comes around on the wheel again…

God knows this…it is the deal we made to be here…this unknowing…

Prayer is the lifesaver given to us when we and those we love are drowning in it…

Talking to God…begging God…screaming at God…longing for God…to do something…anything to stop this from being this way…

Life gives us just enough to seduce us into believing that life is easy…so we relax into it…only to be surprised again when it gets fucked up…

It is a spinning ball of confusion and chaos…full of light and darkness…

Only the moment is real…the rest does not even exist…

I’ve tried my whole life to make sense of it…to create some kind of story or meaning…something I could live with…line up to…

But every time, something shatters it…burns it down and I have to start all over again…

Each time more difficult than the last…

A privilege to be here, yes…for those who are comfortable with the forgetting…

Who can go about their lives without endless questions…

For the rest of us…

We have to realize we picked the short stick…we took the hardest challenge before we agreed to come here…and fell into this life awake…

We’ve forgotten that this awareness comes with a price…it is limited…it doesn’t allow us to see the bigger picture, except on rare occasions…

The rest of the time we’re feeling our way in the dark…forever searching for answers…but only finding more and more questions…

That is the greatest lie ever told…

And if it isn’t a lie, then the discovery of the truth is the rarest gift on earth.

photo by Julian Fann

Look closely at the word belief. Hidden inside the word between the l and the f is the word “lie”. I never noticed this until a few days ago, and I realized that it was no accident. There is so much inherent in the word belief that connects it directly with the word lie. A belief is something we trust in without having the experience to back it up. It is something that we come to because we are told it is true by someone or something outside of ourselves. Compare that with a direct experience and you will see they are as different as night is to day.

Knowledge a close cousin to belief, only in that we can gain knowledge from books, movies, lectures, workshops, and conversations with others. Knowledge is useful, but it is not the same as wisdom. Wisdom is gained solely through direct experience. Wisdom is what we learn from our experiences. Wisdom takes the knowledge we have gained and applies it to our experience.

Experience + Knowledge = Wisdom.

It doesn’t matter which comes first, the experience or the knowledge, what matters is that the two when combined create wisdom. Knowledge without experience remains nothing more than an intellectual concept. You can think about it, reflect on it, but if you have no reference for it in your personal experience, you cannot “know” it on a deep experiential level, which is what allows you to learn and grow from it. No amount of knowledge is a substitute for wisdom.

Experience without some knowledge to explain it or frame it in a certain context, remains nothing more than just an experience. Again, you cannot learn from it without the knowledge that will allow you to see how it relates to your other experiences or to life as a whole. No amount of experience is a substitute for wisdom.

Where does belief fit in? It doesn’t. Belief is something you would only put your trust in if you haven’t discovered the deeper level of wisdom that knowledge, plus experience bring. Once you discover this, you will never be satisfied with belief alone again.

It’s quite simple. There is a huge difference between eating a meal and deciding it’s good and being told a meal is good by someone else. Add to that the knowledge about the ingredients in the meal, it’s nutritional benefits and then suddenly you have the wisdom of knowing that this meal not only creates a pleasant experience, but that it is also good for your body.

There is a huge difference between believing that UFOs are real and actually seeing one. There is a huge difference between believing in God and having a direct experience of the presence of God working in your life.

A belief can always be changed, manipulated, distorted, etc. But no one can take away your experience. It’s yours and yours alone.

photo by Liz Labunski

I’ve been watching the first season of House on DVD. It is very well written. The dialogue is witty, philosophical and even spiritual at times. One of my favorite lines is when Dr. House says, “Everyone lies.” Again and again, through the various medical dramas that unfold, he’s proven right.

I asked myself why this resonated so strongly. I realized that it was because it’s the truth. We all lie. We’re all equal in this. There are no exceptions. None of us is exempt.

Think about it. Do the people around you really know what you think or feel all the time? Do they really know you? What motivates or drives you? What you obsess about? What you fantasize about?

Of course not. We all carefully manage how much we let people into our inner thought processes.

This is a form of self-preservation. Lying serves us because it allows us to conform to what is socially acceptable behavior. So we lie to fit in, to be accepted, to feel part of things.

But what about the lies we tell ourselves? These are more subtle and more difficult to detect. Over time, we believe them so intensely that we convince ourselves they’re the truth.

What I’m referring to are our illusions, our projections, assumptions, ideals, expectations, etc. Our illusions are so seductive. The world is much easier to tolerate when the void of existence is painted with the colored palette of our daydreams. We invest our experiences and our sight with meaning. We imagine we know best, and that if only things matched our vision, we’d be happy.

This is not living, but rather a simulation of living, a step removed from actual participation. Life becomes a spectator sport and we are watching it from the sidelines. Life is happening somewhere out there, but you’re so caught up in watching the movie screen of your own interpretation, that you completely miss it. It just passes you by.

Looking at the underbelly of our illusions and pulling them out by the roots is a radical step that yields a new vision of the world around us. Seeing how we manipulate our experiences to fit our expectations is the best way to get honest with ourselves and break free of the mind games that hostage our authenticity.

Disillusionment is a good thing, because we put the illusion there in the first place. Having it removed frees us. I didn’t say it doesn’t break our hearts or make us uncomfortable. But it does set you free.

The trick is in determining how much Truth we can handle and which illusions we can let go of, without becoming overwhelmed. Questioning our illusions can make us feel disloyal, as if we are going against the status quo

In a sense we are. We are pruning away the dead branches and the excess fat that hides the light of our true selves. We are removing the ancestral, genetic and societal beliefs that have made up the shell of identity we’ve wrapped around us. We are excavating the priceless treasures of our soul amidst the landscape of our personal history.

Dropping our illusions is a spring cleaning of our interior dwelling, airing it out, making room, and putting it in order. What do we want to keep and what do we want to toss? What resonates and what doesn’t?

Think about it….

How often have the deepest longings of your soul been met with a dozen arguments to stop you from expressing them?

How often have you had an intuition to do something spontaneous or out of the ordinary only to have it shot down by all of your considerations to the contrary?

How often have you wanted to express yourself freely, but censored yourself because you were afraid of being rejected or seen as crazy?

This is not freedom! It is a soul in bondage and the only way out is to get onto yourself about it. It’ll make you uncomfortable; it’ll make you squirm; it’ll turn your life upside down. But once you let go of some of your soul-killing ideas about what you can and can’t do, you’ll start to feel life flowing in your veins again. And as the shackles start to come off, the energy and excitement and passion that have been dormant for so long will begin to surface. You’ll be able to breathe freely again.

Don’t take my word for it. Try it out for yourself. Start with the simple awareness that everyone lies and see where it takes you. Then go a step further and examine what untruths about yourself and others you’re holding onto. Finally, once you identify the untruths, see if you’re ready to let any of them go.

Do this even once, and you’ll never see yourself or anyone else in the same way again.

So yes, Dr. House, everyone lies. But in our mad rush to judge ourselves and others too harshly let’s remember too that everyone also wants to be loved.

What does it mean to live life authentically? What does it look like to be coming from the Truth? What are the ingredients for a life worth living?

One approach would be to look at our decisions, specifically the ones we’ve made in the past. Ask yourself a simple question: Which decisions have enslaved, exhausted and starved my soul and which have freed, energized and fed my soul?

This is a completely different way of reflecting on your life and it should give you some very clear messages about how you got to where you are at this moment in your life. The key now is not to beat yourself up for making decisions that created hardship. Instead, take responsibility for making them, forgive yourself and release them. Beginning right now, wipe the slate clean, empty your cup, open your arms and decide to make all of your current and future decisions with a new state of consciousness about the well being of your soul.

This action alone will create one of the single most significant shifts in your life, because it will unlock the door to an authentic life. This simple way of looking at your decisions will make it impossible to hide from the Truth about who you are and what you desire.

Knowing what feeds your soul and making ALL decisions based on that criteria is the simplest most direct way to create a life worth living. Once you discover this, you will look for the quickest exit plan possible from all those decisions that are currently enslaving, exhausting and starving you.

Life is a precious gift with a limited number of life hours allotted to each of us. It is the greatest currency we have and it is up to us to spend it wisely, and not waste it feeling victimized.

We are our own worst enemies. We are constantly getting in our own way. Once we’re able to own this fully, we are then free to make new choices, choices that are in line with who we are…choices that nurture and feed and inspire us.

This can be applied to all aspects of our lives, our work, our relationships, our living situation, our creative expression, etc.

The beauty in this is that we can start fresh at any time right where we are. Each moment is a new beginning.

What new decisions can you make right now that will nurture your soul?

Our Creator gave ALL OF ITS creations free will to create. In that place of free choice, dimensions were manifested that projected the illusion of limitation and duality, creating a dense matrix of shadows, tricks and lies that veil the Truth about who we are and where we came from.

This veil is the cloud of amnesia and forgetting and suspension of disbelief about our divine origin, causing us to be at affect of a duality that isn’t real and to believe we are limited and powerless and victims of lack, illness and conflict.

This amnesia keeps us in bondage and makes us slaves to the unreal. We unknowingly accept our fate and falsely believe this is all there is and that the three-dimensional world is a solid, immovable and chaotic realm that we were born into. Like prisoners, we adapt to the rules of this realm, believing we have no choice and no power to escape or change it. We believe we must obey the rules of this realm and stay in the box of our beliefs about it or risk pain or certain death. Fear is our warden. Uncertainty and doubt keep us in line. We resign ourselves to finding whatever pleasure we can within it, looking outside of ourselves for the next thing to relieve our feelings of limitation, even though these pleasures are never long-lasting and are threatened by constant change and suffering.

Within each of us is a feeling that something’s not right, a feeling that there is something inherently wrong with the world we’re living in, that it doesn’t make sense and that the rules go against something deep inside of us. Some memory exists there and it makes us agitated and confused and afraid. Some of us feel this at greater levels than others and begin to question everything. We seek out answers in books, workshops, meditation, techniques, gurus, but nothing works. All external answers throw us off track and leave us empty-handed. Our minds spin in the confusion. Some of us give up hope of ever finding an answer. Some of us seek out escape through death. Others escape with drugs and oblivion. Still others shut down and hide out in relationships or churches or work.

But then there are a few of us who are determined to find out the Truth. Some powerful longing leads us to seek the answers within, and there we discover the key to unlock the prison door that had been there all along. Finally…finally, we connect with something greater than ourselves and begin the journey of remembering who we really are.

The 3-D is a shadow world, an illusion, a holographic matrix, a massive projection created by an immense agreed-upon belief system about the world we live in. In this shadow world many different beings interact, some seen and many unseen — all part of the duality of dark and light. This matrix isn’t real or solid, but the appearance of it is convincing.

We are at a time in history where the density of the 3-D duality has reached a critical point. We can no longer afford the amnesia about our true origin or we risk losing everything. This cycle has been repeated over and over. There have been cataclysmic fires, floods, ice ages, polar shifts and entire civilizations that evolved to a certain point and then self-destructed.

Our free will gives us all the option to evolve or destroy ourselves.

This is what we’re up against right now. And the only thing that will save us is to free ourselves from the hold of the amnesia that is keeping us imprisoned.

The question is: how to do this?

Awaken and remember who you are.

photo by Michael Fann

Despair, depression, alienation, loneliness and terror…falling, groundlessness, emptiness, and no-thingness…

All necessary to move out of the enslavement….the sleep…

Letting go of the past…dropping illusions…dis-associating from the agreed-upon beliefs…dis-identifying with the small self…facing fear and death head-on…

Unraveling…undoing…clearing…cleaning…purifying…burning up in the fire of ignorance…

Releasing control…attachments…dependency…addictions…

All part of the process of waking up…

The only way out is back through…

The pain…the aloneness…the doubt…the fear of insanity and death…the grieving and the loss…

All part of putting down the heavy baggage of bondage…

To discover what was always there…but veiled and hidden by layers and layers and layers of conditioning, projections and blindness…our inability to see the Truth…

Not as a goal or place to arrive…but a place to be and to live…awake, but still in human form…finally free and able to love…

Surrendering to the possibility that it is more than I have ever dreamed or imagined or known…

Trusting in the midst of the intense pain of surrendering the known and familiar that this is possible…that it is this that I said yes to…only and always this…

Still…still….so much of it escapes me…

Easier just to say…I don’t know…

And see what shows up in that place…

Miracles? Another lesson? More concepts falling away?

All a matter of Grace….how it unfolds and when…No-Thing and No-One to hold onto…a solitary journey…through the Void and back…

Divine perfection orchestrating the return…the mystery forever shifting…

Watching…waiting…listening…

Being in IT…with IT…all of IT…the resistance to IT slowly coming down…

We are all arriving at this moment in time together. None of us have ever been here before, which means that anything is possible. None of us is an expert about this moment or the moments that lay ahead, because there is no way to know for sure what unfold. We like to pretend we know; we like to act as if we know, we like to rest in the feeling of security that our plans give us.

But, the trick in all of this is that we have no idea what’s going to happen next. The present and the future are both up for grabs and no matter how much we think we have control over the way events unfold, life has a tendency to blindside us with any number of small and large unexpected events that remind us that we are at the mercy of the unforeseen. We cannot account for or even factor in the unexpected. We prefer to forge ahead regardless of the surprise(s) that may be around the next corner.

It certainly keeps life interesting and exciting to not know what’s next. But it also can work against the best laid plans. We cannot live without plans and simply drift around wherever life wants to takes us. Nor can we be too attached to any plans we do have. There must be happy medium in here somewhere. If change is the only constant, the only thing we can count on, how do we navigate from the past to the present to the future? Staying focused on the moment. Receiving it as the gift that it is, because it, like all the other moments will soon be gone. Forever.

Don’t you find it fascinating that we are all equalized by the very common experience of having never been here before? It is new for all of us. No one has been able to jump ahead and report back on the future. No, we’re all entering it together, at the exact same time.

This is profound when you think about it. Funny, how most of us have never even considered this as the most common bond that we all share. It is universal and cuts across times zones, cultures, ethnicities, religions, age, sex, and locates us all in the same moment in time, on the edge of the next moment and the next. All moving forward together without anything to prepare us for what’s ahead.

We are so busy acting as if we know what we’re doing all the time, that we’ve forgotten how vulnerable we all are in this. It’s as if we forgotten the most fundamental truth about existence; in burying it, like some deep, dark secret, we’re all walking around in the dark, in unknown, foreign territory, simply through the act of being alive. Each moment is always new, never like the last, and forever filled with the potential for change.

We buzz right through the moments as if we got plenty to spare, tossing them aside here and there, like waste, never realizing that they cannot be gathered up again. Instead of approaching each moment as if it were a new and precious gift, we recycle our assumptions and concepts and projections over and over again, missing what’s right in front of us, cluttering the present with the past. In doing this, we don’t notice how stale the air has gotten or how dead we feel as we skim the surface of life, ignoring the birth that is happening within and around us each and every moment.

Not to worry, because right now, you have another chance. As you finish reading this piece and before you go on to the next activity, I’d like you to stop, take a breath, and remember that you and everyone around you have never been here before. This moment is newborn, breathing with new life and unseen possibilities. What will you do with this gift?

To be an individual, to be true to yourself, to follow your own inner rhythm is the most difficult path to take, but it is the only path where you will find true happiness and joy. Life is not about comfort or security, it is about growth and movement and sharing. Growth comes from listening and then following the message that comes from our soul. At each moment we know what we must do, we are given explicit instructions on how to live our life, what steps to take, which way to turn. But fear stops us. We second-guess, we analyze, we discuss, and eventually our confusion drowns out the sound of our inner voice, and we run for the safety of the familiar. We repeat lessons over and over, because we’re afraid to confront our fears. Instead, we perpetuate the same script, thinking we’re making progress, not realizing we’re going down the same road again and again, never moving forward, never reaching a new destination. No, we’d rather do what we’ve always done, see what we’ve always seen, end up with what we’ve always ended up with, than take a risk and let go of what we know.

Fear is what stops us from following our soul’s path. We have responsibilities; we have duties; we have obligations. If we listen to our soul’s longing for growth and self-expression, our lives will, we think, fall apart. Nothing will “get done”. Perhaps, for a time things may fall a little to pieces. But a radical shift in our thinking is going to stir things up. To go from merely reacting to the circumstances of our lives to listening to the inner guidance of our soul is going to have a major impact on our lives. It won’t happen overnight. It takes practice and it takes focus and discipline. Why? There’s simply too much competition for our thoughts. Unless we consciously choice to make this shift, the seductive and easy life of the familiar will lull us back into our old way of thinking. The thing to remember is that the cost of this old way of thinking is far too great, and the rewards far too few.

The fear is like a sentinel at the gate, and our unwillingness to face this challenge is what keeps most of us stuck in a repetitive pattern. We’ll do anything to avoid facing our fear, even if it means staying stuck doing something that makes us unhappy. What we don’t usually realize is that this fear is only an illusion. Facing it and accepting it removes its power over us, and then we can move freely through the gate to our desire.

Avoiding change takes much more energy than accepting it. Our soul’s voice has to become stronger than all other voices in our lives. This is the only way to put the fear in its place.

No, we know what we need to do. We know. There are no short cuts. There is only one way that will work. There is only one way that will lead to our deepest fulfillment and put an end to our struggling. To grow means to stretch. It means to put ourselves in new and challenging situations. It means to give of ourselves in ways that we never thought possible. It means to become the person we always dreamed we could become.

This is the only path to true freedom. If we live our lives protecting ourselves, we are forever in bondage. If we live our lives in fear, we are forever held hostage by the shadows.

We owe it to ourselves to choose to be free.