Supporting Others and Myself

1. I can support you with truth.
2. I can support you in finding out what’s true.

3. I cannot and will not support untruth or lies.
4. I cannot and will not support you in believing untruth or lies.

5. I will have compassion for the ways that lies cause you to feel unnecessary suffering.

6. I will usually choose not to support you in clinging to the same lies that are causing you (to think you) feel suffering.

I have just summed up why I will not do counseling.

People cling desperately to the very lies that are causing them suffering.

We all do. I am not exempt.

The only way out of suffering is to notice the truth.

(Be aware that I did not say “find.” Truth is not lost. We are IGNORING it.)

Love, Ann

PS – Do not bother me with definitions of truth. Truth is the simplest thing there is. Any sign of complication and what you have is a lie.

Do You Want to Know the Truth?

People often write me to ask if I know a good book on how to heal X.

The answer is yes. I do.  Here is my reply to the most recent request.

Good morning, dear,

 

Kitties are good. I’m good. Roommate good. Etc. Thanks for asking. Hope you get to 100% again soon.

 

Last week I asked a good friend for books on healing sex addiction, that might have stories with examples of those who have made it through that, for another friend of mine. I searched the bookstores and online.  When my other friend replied, he said, “Nothing is going to be as good as Katie’s books.”

 

I realized after doing the literature search that he was right.

 

This is certainly true of the abandonment issues, as well. In fact, just about any “issues” will become much clearer if you want to know the truth and do “The Work.”

 

You can go read all kinds of books that will analyze and over-analyze and come up with theories and methods, and basically commit the error that Einstein pointed out decades ago, which is that we cannot solve problems at the level of thinking that created them.

 

The specific quote is this:

 

“The world we have made, as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far, creates problems we cannot solve at the same level of thinking at which we created them.”

                 Quoted in Des MacHale, Wisdom (London, 2002).

 

 

However, if you want a level of thinking at which you *CAN* solve problems, write Worksheets and ask the 4 questions and do the Turn Arounds. 

 

You will probably need help to begin. There is a free hotline on Katie’s site.

 

   Do The Work Helpline:

 

http://www.instituteforthework.com/community/index.php?name=nd_user_hotline&view=yes

 

 

Or, I can help you through, but that’s my business and I’d have to ask you to pay me, and if you use the free hotline you can save that money.

 

 

Before you even get the books, ask yourself one question:  Do you want to know the truth?

 

If you do, go for it. If you find you do not, don’t bother trying to read these books or ask these questions. You will just go around in circles.

 

Links to the books below. You can get used ones for cheap on Amazon.

 

Love, Ann

Paperback from $6.98
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0307345300/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256559568&sr=8-1
 
Hardcover from $4.20
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1400045371/ref=sr_1_olp_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256559568&sr=8-3

Truth IS

 

Offer Truth not Persecution

 

“Before I tell my story, before I sing my song,
Better you know where I’m comin’ from.”
Miten

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBoMY0C_A9I

My name is Ann and I have incest in my history.

I say it that way for a very specific reason:

Incest is something that happened in my past.

I am not a victim.

I am not a survivor.

I am a whole, healthy human being and I have found peace and joy that no one can ever take away from me. Not in spite of incest, and not really because of it.

Peace and joy just are.

 

Peace in our minds and in our lives is a cause-effect relationship.

(me)

 

“You move totally away from reality

when you believe there is a legitimate reason to suffer.”

Byron Katie, Loving What Is, page 288

 

“To empathize does not mean to join in suffering,

for that is what you must refuse to understand.”

A Course in Miracles , Text, Chapter 16, 1st sentence, Page 330

 

You know all of this.

If you don’t know that you know, I cannot tell you.

Why?

Because we humans lie to ourselves. Then we hang on tight to those lies.

We think we don’t want to know the truth. And when we feel that way, no one can convince us otherwise. We are “true believers” of our own lies.

Logic is useless. Appeals to emotion are useless.

The only thing that works is for us to notice that we are suffering and to decide there has to be a better way.

The only thing that works is looking for a better way.

When we look, we find it. And only then.

Sometimes we find it alone. Sometimes others point us to it.

The X-Files slogan was amusing to me: “The truth is out there.”

Well, yes, it’s everywhere.

“The truth is in here” is equally true.

Love, Ann

“You are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then [second] let go, so that [third] it can be replaced. The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. The final one does not.”

                  A Course in Miracles Workbook, W-p1.23.5:1-4

I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace.
I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.
I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.
I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit*** will undo all the
consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him.
I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God*** for me.

                   A Course in Miracles,  (T-5.VII.6:7-1 1)

*** The concept of “God” or “Holy Spirit” is totally optional, and for me best replaced with “truth.” See prior posts for my transitions on this topic.

I Can Respect Your Right to Believe In

 

the Easter Bunny, but that doesn’t make him real.

I know people who believe in “the power of intention” or “the secret” or whatever the latest “I can control the uncontrollable” pop phrase is these days.

To put it very simply, control is an illusion – always. 
 
That scares people.

Apparently we don’t know enough to know that this is the only safety. We cannot know all that is needed to have control. It is actually best for us not to have control. We could not do that job. We can’t even calm our minds for 5 minutes, much less keep up with every heartbeat, breath and organ function in our own bodies, let alone other people, institutions, situations or the world.
 
To explain in detail, you will find that for every time someone made an attempt to control some person or situation where they got what they thought they wanted, you can find at least as many times that attempt did not work, usually *more* times that it did not work.
 
These failures to control get explained away with various things from “you didn’t hold your mouth right” to ” someone else’s control was more powerful” to “you had to do it on Tuesday in a blue dress” or “Jesus did not will it,” etc.  The worst one is “oh, for that you have to pay me $1000 for the Advanced Control the World Workshop… ”
 
Reality is much simpler than all of these inadequate explanations: we have no control. There is no “power of intent,” and “the secret” is a lie. There is no secret.
 
That may sound like bad news if someone fears something.
 
But it’s actually good news.
 
We don’t need control.

What we *have* is something far more beautiful, and that “something more beautiful” is what I teach through The Work, The Sedona Method, Quantum Wealth, IAM Meditations, etc.
 
I give people an experience of the beauty & mystery, so that gradually, we lose the lie that there is anything we can (or need to) control.
 
It is clear in the Sedona Method’s simple question “Is this about wanting safety, control or approval?”  That is The Sedona Method, or the crux of it.
 
The next step is to release wanting.
 
Only through releasing wanting can we actually have.
 
It seems paradoxical when we are stuck in all that wanting, wanting, wanting.
 
When we are wanting, we are not having.
 
That sounds obvious, but that is a large part of what anything that we try to follow that imagines we can have control is teaching. It’s teaching wanting, not having.
 
It’s the letting go that contains the “magic.”
 
That’s why I say that:

“Peace in our minds and in our lives is a cause-effect relationship.”
 
We cannot control anything, not even our minds, but if we investigate and observe, we find the peace that is already there. 
 
Love, Ann

Weight and Safety

You know, our grandmothers and great grandmothers knew things that we have forgotten. Ancestors farther back than that may have been in tune with their surroundings so much that they didn’t even have the questions we have.

Like what?

Fat, for example. Farmers and those who raised animals knew what caused fat. So do we, but we ignore it.

Diet products and exercises and diet food, books & programs have got to be a multi-billion dollar business.

And why?

Because we have forgotten (or ignored) what our ancestors took for granted, and in so many ways. But I’m only going to mention one:

Safety.

Every time I have lost significant weight I have been between office jobs, had a solid lover that helped me feel safe and/or was doing Flow Chiropractic which restore a sense of safety to the central nervous system (www.flowwith.com)

What does an animal do when it is afraid besides fight, flight & freeze?

It stores food and provisions in case there isn’t any more on the way for a while.  We produce hormones that tell our bodies to hold fat. Insulin does that.

This is one of the answers to the fat dilemma, not just in my own body, but lots of us. We are scared.

Are our fears rational? Most of the time, no. We fear a lot of things that just aren’t a problem. We terrorize ourselves with “what if’s” that never come to pass. We act like our boss, our spouse or the government is “out to get us.”

And in our fear?  Our bodies start holding onto food and fat like there is no tomorrow. We have convinced ourselves there won’t be.

I have noticed that I always gain weight in an office job. Is it the office? Is it some kind of trauma response because I worked for my father when I was a child?

Oh, I can make up those stories.

But really, all I want to do is to notice that I am in no danger. I am safe. Now and always. With or without a partner, or a chiropractor or constant outside reassurance that I am safe.

Lately, I have forgotten to remember. I am surrounded by people who are maybe even more frightened than I am, both the customers and my co-workers. A few weeks ago there was a death in the office, a suicide. A few weeks before that, an ex-lover was contemplating ending his life.

But I know what to practice when fears come up.

I question my thoughts:

1.  Is it true?

2. Can I absolutely know that this thought is true?

3. How do I react when I believe this thought?

4. Who would I be without this thought?

Turn it around (to self, other or an opposite). Is that Turn Around at least as true (or truer?) than the original thought?

Find another Turn around.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Thank you, Steven. Thank you, Katie.

Love, Ann

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
 

                     – Frank Herbert, Dune

Insomnia?

Good morning,

Did you sleep well last night? 

I did.  I haven’t always, though.

There was a time several years ago when I was constantly worried about money:  Could I pay my rent? How I was going to make the car payment? Would it all be taken away?  Would I be evicted?

Basic survival fears.

Think about it:  do animals sleep when they are afraid of attack? Afraid they are going to die?

No, of course not. They stay awake, stay vigilant, trying to stay alive.

Were my situations life-threatening?  Not really. No.

Even if I were evicted,  even if I did lose my car, whatever happened, it wasn’t likely to be life-threatening.

Katie says, “Reality is kinder than your thinking – but only always.” I didn’t know that then, but I do now.

And what if something was life-threatening? 

What if I were sick? In pain? Dying?

Well, maybe that’s just part of it, part of being human.

Check.

Do you know anyone who has never been sick or in pain?

Of course not. It seems to be a feature, not a bug, as the computer geeks say. It’s part of the experience. We all get sick sometimes. We all have pain sometimes.

Welcome to Planet Earth!

And do you honestly know anyone who is not dying?

Nope. We are all dying.

So, why lose sleep over it?

I know that I can’t just ask you that question and assure you of a good night’s sleep.

What I do recommend is that you question your untrue thinking.

Most likely, at some point, your experience may change. And even if it doesn’t, knowing the truth, maybe instead of fretting over not sleeping, maybe you’ll just watch a movie or read a book or take a midnight stroll under the full moon.

Really.

If you want to ask me about this, make a comment, please do – right below this blog there is space for that.

Love, Ann

“Peace in our minds and in our lives is a cause-effect relationship.”

                                                                   – Stacy Clark

Yes, But I’m Different . . .

Two sentences out of my email last night to a friend:

I THOUGHT I WAS DIFFERENT.  OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD.

I’m not even bothering to censor that. I typed it as you see it – all caps and everything.

Since April, I have been experiencing a cascade of revelations, an internal psychological Flood of Biblical proportions.

Christian analogies aside, I thought I was living in a world, a body, a mind that was a certain way, did certain things, did not do certain other things, and was, on the whole, rather unique and different from all other worlds, bodies and minds – not only different from those I know, but different from all that ever lived or ever will live.

WRONG.

Let me say that again:  WRONG.

Now let me get personal: I WAS SO WRONG.

It started when I did that piece of The Work on “work” with Steven that I blogged about. That somehow reminded me of a sentence stem we often use for The Work:  “I’m a person who . . . (fill in the blank)” I started questioning all the “I’m a person who . . . ” sentences I noticed. 

You know the ones: 

I’m a person who makes X amount of money, does X type of work, likes coffee-flavored ice cream, and hates green peppers. Yeah, any and all of them. They are all fodder for self-revelation. Try it. You’ll like it. At least, the results of the inquiry are likely to be quite freeing. And isn’t that what we were after?

I realized that if life is a school, I was (from some perspectives) flunking some basic courses (you know – money, relationships, career – little things.) If life is a game, I was losing. If life is a play, I had a tragedy. And that NONE of that was necessary.

In fact, I have had the answers to the tests; the rulebook & the moves; the script and the score, for over 20 years now. It is no secret. (It’s not even “the” Secret.)

But I was different.  Those didn’t apply to me. 

You may be thinking the same thing about what I just wrote. I can’t stop you. But read on. Ask some questions. See what you find.

Why is it that we still have things we call “problems” or “issues” or “patterns” or . . . anything we go to therapists and self-help books and ministers and religious texts and weekend – even week-long and longer – seminars to try to “fix?”

Why?

Why, when people give us answers, even answers they say worked for them, do we not “solve” the “problem” and get on with laying in hammocks and smelling roses and enjoying the Darjeeling?

Okay, I’ll admit there is more than one correct answer to the question. In fact, it will probably take at least 3 answers to get a fuller picture. I’ll tell you what they are:

1.  The people we paid for “answers” were wrong about what actually worked.

2.  “Problems” are a feature not a bug.

3.  We . . . I don’t know how to tell you this . . . we, each of us, is no different from anyone else – at least not in any way that would prevent us from “solving” “problems.”

I know. It’s a hard pill to swallow. It makes no sense at first.

There’s just one tiny little – majorly important – fact – about this:  it’s true.

So, let’s look at the first answer: the people we paid for answers are also . . . wrong.

Because memory is reconstructed from fragments, not saved en toto like a video, but with many additions, deletions and distortions – nothing is as we recall it – not even the well-intentioned interpretations of those who want to teach us how to “solve” a “problem.”

Daniel Gilbert’s book, Stumbling on Happiness, contains explanations and more, with pages and pages of footnotes documenting the research. I just finished reading it, and none too soon! Get one.  There are 130 used copies on Amazon starting at $4.50. With shipping, it costs less than a lot of us will spend on lunch today (another topic I’ve been questioning – my “latte factor” see David Bach’s book Smart Couples Finish Rich, but I digress.)

The point is – because of the way our minds work when looking at the past to see what “worked,” we will invariably misunderstand and reconstruct it in some way it ain’t never been. Then, because we may have had some success since then, and because we have a charismatic personality (or a good agent) we get to sell books & seminars and go on Oprah to tell everyone what we mis-remember that didn’t actually work.

When it doesn’t work for everyone, we tell them they didn’t hold their mouths right – that ain’t it.

According to the research in Gilbert’s book, the only time we can get reliable data from someone about what is making them happy is in the middle of the experience. He says that we can, and should, use this as a guide for our choices, but only if we want to have the most reliable answers possible. Otherwise, we can continue to count on mis-remembered and mis-reported and misunderstood memories from those who are trying to sell us something.

The second correct answer is a variation on the “That’s not a bug; it’s a feature” wisdom from computer geekdom.

Problems:  Bug or feature?

Well, we all have them. They are built-in. We have them regularly. They don’t stop. Even those who have achieved what we think we want have had them – in abundance!

So.  Bug or feature? 

Feature.

Definitely.

Get used to it.

If these ideas intrigue you at all, if you’ve ever spent a dime to solve some personal issue – then spend these dimes to see what Gilbert says would actually work. And there is always the libarary. 

I’ll bet you still won’t do it. Why? 

Well, let me tell you:

This is the kicker, yet another truth that set me free, another answer I didn’t want to hear, another perspective that might have saved me 3 decades of ignorance, that I was finally suddenly able to accept after Gilbert’s book and Sashen’s classes and the Conspiracy of the Universe led me, as they say, “kicking and screaming into my bliss”

I AM NO DIFFERENT FROM ANYONE ELSE

– not in any way that matters when I want to know how to be happy.

I breathe air.

I eat food.

I walk on 2 legs, have one head, 2 arms, 10 toes, 10 fingers, keep going . . .

I laugh. I cry. I shit. I die.

I want what everyone else wants, and I get it the same way anyone else would.

Considering the landscape of human experience, and I mean the WHOLE landscape, the basics of being human, the things I have held tightly to, the things that kept me so blind, are the tiniest fraction of my entire reality as a human being.

Mostly, I am just like you.

And as I wrote to the Right Reverend Doctor Mr. Sashen last night (really, someone should give this man an honorary doctorate – in life):

I am humbled & amazed.

I’m so in love with the whole thing that I can hardly contain myself.

I’m sitting here with tears in my eyes again.

Love, Ann

PS – I was looking for a closing quote and I found a great review of Gilbert’s book with an interview:

                   http://www.powells.com/authors/danielgilbert.html

Oh, and here’s a quote, from Daniel Gilbert in the above link:

“I can guarantee you that half the things in Stumbling on Happiness will turn out to be false. The beauty of science is that we just keep stumbling along, slowly accumulating facts that we can rely on. I’m talking about a lot of very new research. A lot of it is mine. There may be fifteen or twenty scientists working on related problems, and I’ve talked about their work, but until we have decades of research on this, with hundreds if not thousands of scientists working on the same problem, we won’t know which parts are right and which are wrong.”

                                                          – Daniel Gilbert

 

Silly Question & Silly Answer – Email with a Former Lover

Recently, Jean wrote that she missed me.

I wrote back asking what about me she missed. I titled it “Silly Question,” because I wasn’t sure she’d even know and wondering why I was pursuing it, anyway, as we’ve been estranged for some years over some things I said during our break-up that caused her some trouble with child custody arrangements later.  What I said was true, but it was neither kind nor necessary and an apology wasn’t going to take back the consequences.

Here is my first email:

There may not be a way for you to answer this, but for some reason, the past couple of days, I’ve been wondering:
 
You have said a couple of times that you miss me.
 
What is it that you miss about me? 
 
Maybe there’s a way to have/share that without threatening your security about confidentiality and Stuff?

She replied:

Not a silly question.
 
With the exception of the times I find you either bitchy or inappropriate, I miss your company.  In addition to being a think first, dynamic Priest, I often experience you to be bright, thoughtful, interesting, and stimulating.
 
You’d think these things wouldn’t be hard to find, but sadly, I find that they are.
 
Hope this helps.

Jean

So, I tried this:

How can I share those things with you without threatening the safety & security of your confidentiality concerns?
 
Email comes to mind. Just a thought.
 
Love, Ann

Jean wrote:

You can to some extent, but probably not very deeply, as I have learned that I can’t ever trust you to not turn against me if you are hurt and/or I cannot trust in your judgement of what constitutes inappropriate behaviour.
 
On the surface, it can be fine, but I always need to watch myself, protect myself, be on guard.
 
That’s why I am angry and sad.  IMO, your behaviour cost us our friendship.

Jean<

So, stepping totally out of my business and into hers, I sent:

Jean, when you learn how not to place the cause of your happiness or unhappiness outside of yourself – no matter what – well, if you ever do, we’ll see what happens.

There isn’t a single true sentence in your email.

That’s not an attack. It is the kindest thing I could possibly tell you. Knowing that, in anything, would instantly, infinitely and permanently change your life in every way you ever dreamed of wanting and more.

I know me. I’ll continue to check in sometimes, see how you’re doing, whether you’ve . . . there’s a Hitchhiker’s Guide quote for the moment.  Arthur Dent is lying in front of the bulldozer in Act I, Scene I, and Mr. Prosser the foreman, asks Ford Prefect, “Has Mr. Dent come to his senses?”  Ford replies, “Can we assume, for the moment, that he has not? And that he’s going to be lying in front of this tractor all day?”

Nevermind, that may not be funny to you for lack of HHGG familiarity and the other stuff.

I’m not saying what I did was right. I am only saying that it’s over. The same way I do regarding my father. That situation ended completely and forever in 1975.  To continue to beat myself up with it, would only hurt myself. Therefore, Daddy and I have a fine relationship. I generally don’t bring the past into it. He apologized. He never did it again. Those events are over and done with, forgiven, even when I experience things that seem to be the effects of that.  I now know that these are really only the effects of my thinking.

Mind you he didn’t change, either. I know who he is and I love him like that.

Notice the truth and lies disappear.

Alright, enough typing. I’m going to post this on the blog.

Don’t worry – I’ll use a pseudonym there.

Did you know that part of the way people are able to write memoir in our country without being sued is that truth is a defense in a court of law? Stories about events have many sides, as evidenced by eye-witness accounts, just minutes after the fact, of any newsworthy event that has ever occured.

I miss you, too. I am reluctant to stop typing because I may not have occasion again for a while.

Love, Ann

I miss her sometimes, too.  She’s right where she always was, though, in my thoughts.

Katie says, “No two people have ever met.”

Crazy Busy? (Shampoo Method – Zooming in on Peace)

Why is it that whenever I try to schedule tea with my New-Agey friends, they all say the same thing?

“I’m just crazy busy.”  or “I can’t schedule that far in advance.”

Now, barring any halitosis or offensive personal attributes on my part, surely these people, all of whom claim to be “on a spiritual path,” can manage their time and schedules?

I think they are really feeling that overwhelmed.

Why?

For a while, I used the signature quote, “When God created time He made enough of it” which is apparently a Celtic saying.

Maybe they were too busy to notice or comment on it.

After they tell me they don’t have time to relax and get together, they start telling me how they’re taking new vitamins and scheduling hypnosis sessions and starting a new exercise regime to handle their stress. In other words, they’re busy trying to “fix” themselves.

I don’t get it. Aren’t we meditating? Didn’t we do our “Yoga for Relaxation?” Or chant our mantra today?

Okay, maybe all those things don’t deliver the “peace that passesth understanding,” as promised. Oopsie! And none of them have any effect at all if we stash the CD’s in a corner and never use them.

Maybe we are NOT BROKEN!!! What could we do with all the free time we would have (not to mention money) if we weren’t so busy trying to “fix” ourselves?

I realized as I was writing this that if I am not careful, this will turn into another one of my posts promoting “The Shampoo Methods”  (see the sidebar on the right) and the “IAM Meditations” http://www.advancedmeditation.com/cmd.php?af=570391

Look at those, if you wish, but whatever you do, stop a minute. Yes, right now.

Check inside.

Are you feeling peaceful?

I don’t care if you run around at a faster pace than others around you. That’s just Pacing (see Compatibility Factors on the right).  I’m just asking if you’re feeling peaceful or stressed out?

Do you have time for the things you want to do?

Or are you running around like a head with your chicken cut off just like all those “corporate America” types we like to bash for “not being spiritual?”

Check.

“Zooming in on Peace” might be an interesting thing to do.

Can you find one place in your body that is peaceful right now?

Just one – a small place will do. Could be your little toe or the back of your hand or your ear.

Now, “zoom in” on that peaceful place, as if you were looking at it through a microscope. Magnify it.

You might end up a little blissed-out sometimes when you do this.

Zoom in on it some more. Keep repeating this for a while.

Shampoo Method – Lather, rinse, repeat!

Keep doing that until . . . well, until you’re done.

And when you finish that, if you feel like it, call me and we’ll make a date for tea!

Love, Ann

“Peace in our minds and in our lives is a cause-effect relationship.”

 

 

“And Crawling on the Planet’s Face . . .”

” . . .  some insects, called the human race, lost in time, lost in space…and meaning.”

Do you recognize this quote?

It’s from Rocky Horror Picture Show, circa 1975.

Why would I open an Earth Day blog with that quote?

Because I wonder about things like Earth Day and environmentalism.

My Mother taught me to question things, even things she told me and things she believes. And believe me, my Mother is an environmentalist type who believes in “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!” She started a recycling program at her church when she discovered they had none. I was writing letters to the editor of our city newspaper when I was a child, pointing out green goo in the river and wondering when they were going to clean that up. They did, too, and it gave me quite a sense of my ability to help and improve things.

But now I’m asking, “What if?” again.

What if the temperature fluctuations of the planet that we’ve only been recording for a few decades are normal?

What if cars and industrial pollution have nothing to do with the disappearance of the ozone layer? Or the melting of the polar ice caps?

What if all of this stress is only that – something else to stress about and beat ourselves up with?

I sent my mother a note about the piles of paper documentation generated in an office my friend, Angela, is working in. Angela said they would stack up as high as a tree. Mother replied, “Idiots!”

Instead of nodding my head in automatic agreement, I tilted my head and wondered, “Is that true?”

I mean, isn’t it a given that planets have a finite life, just like human beings? They don’t last forever. Nor do I think they should, necessarily. After doing the IAM Meditation, “Zooming in on Death,” you may see why I question this fear and avoidance of death.

Is there maybe a reason to suspect that we are simply, as Steven Sashen once put it, “An ant farm with thoughts?”

I mean, what do we do?

Katie says, “We sit, stand or lie horizontal.” That’s about it.

Steven, in a similar vein, says something along the lines of:  once we have a place to sleep, something to eat and someone to sleep with, that’s pretty much it.

Haven’t you noticed?

The rest is stories.

Maybe we have an exaggerated sense of our own importance on the planet?

I’m not saying we are not important, but isn’t it this sense of self-importance, “crown of creation,” latest-and-greatest in the evolutionary lineage that has something to do with the arrogance with which we make choices about our resources in the first place?

Could it be that supposing we are the cause of all the environmental shifts and changes in the world is part of the problem? Not part of the solution?

What would it take for us to have a little humility? Where could that lead us?

For Earth Day, I suggest we all take out a sheet of paper, perhaps a “Judge Your Neighbor” Worksheet (see the right-hand column or www.thework.com.) On that sheet of paper, make a list of all of your thoughts both “good” and “bad” about the environment, the Earth, your place on it, your responsibility for the environment, etc. and ask the Four Questions, then write the Turn Arounds.

1.  Is it true?

2.  Can I absolutely know it is true?

3.  How do I live or react when I believe this thought?

4.  Who would I be without this thought?

Turn it Around. (To self, other or an opposite)

Try it.  See what happens.

When you get to Question #3 about reactions and how you live, stop to wonder: is this thought peaceful or stressful? And be sure it is really peaceful before you say so.

Could it be that it’s really excitment or an adrenaline rush that you are calling peace? Peace is a calm thing, not a rush to go out and save the planet. I don’t know what you’re feeling. Just check.

I’d love to read your comments when you’re done.

So . . . in honor of my Mother, that’s my Earth Day blog.

Will you ask those 4 questions with me?

Love, Ann