SPRING TAKES A HOLIDAY

I awoke this Morning and there was two inches of snow on the ground. We now have five or six and it is forecast that we may receive fifteen inches before it is done. That would be a record. The record, for any day in April is 13.6 inches on April 14, 1983.

Of course, this gives me experience in learning to surrender to what is. Actually, it is not bad. The air is filled with falling snow. I have finished my outside chores. All I need to do is gather the eggs this evening. The falling snow gives me the sense that I am living in a soft white cocoon. I don't have to go out in it. It is cozy.

I had an Aunt, whom I was once very close to, die yesterday Morning. My Mother was the oldest of nine children. Her family lived less than two blocks away. In fact our houses were connected by an alleyway. We trafficked between houses daily. The four younger of my Mother's sibs were more like brothers and sisters to us [my brothers and sister] than Aunts and Uncles.

This particular Aunt was about eight years older than me. When I was 8 or 9 she and her girl friends loved to tease me. Of course, I loved it; getting attention of such Goddesses was wonderful.

This is not a time for grieving. She wanted to leave and I celebrate her decision.

The death of one close to me is not an end. Love lasts forever. Of course an unforeseen death is a shock and can send one reeling. Fortunately I have experienced few of those events in my life. My parents died gracefully and home in bed. They were ready to go. I feel I can talk to them as freely now as I could when they were alive and now they can understand what might have been a puzzle to them when they were still in the body.

Likewise, I now envision my Aunt seeing clearly what might have been foggy before. I see her being aware of the unconditional love that surrounds us all. As I sit here I can feel a connection with her. I can see her as a teenager with her red lipstick and saddle shoes looking at me with a quizzical look.

No, I don't think folks leave us when they die. They may go on to other adventures, they may go to other worlds, but we don't lose our connection. We can't lose our connection, because we are one. We are all part of Source and we are returning to Source. On our journey, let us experience great adventure and great joy, let us love each other tenderly. We will rejoin and cross each others' paths many times on the way to the awareness of absolute oneness.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

STRUGGLING VERSES SURRENDERING

Winter returned this Morning. The temperature when I got up was 27 degrees F. It is forecast to snow Wednesday and Thursday. We may get 2 to 3 inches. Although, atypical it is not uncommon to have a Spring in Minnesota that is reluctant to come. We had one in 1975, the year we moved into this house, the frost wasn't completely out of the ground until the end of April; by May 1st when we moved in, it hadn't dried up yet and we got the moving truck stuck going across the yard.

I have learned to accept what is, when it comes to weather {well most the time-I can imagine certain family members clearing their throats-Yes, I have complained in the past} Accepting what is, is an ongoing process. That brings me to the topic for today.

Many of us try to achieve enlightenment. We can't. Enlightenment will happen when we are ready. We can't try to open our eyes. But we can remove some of the thoughts, judgements and beliefs that keep them closed. We need to understand how much our beliefs, many hidden from us, affect how we see.

Throughout the ages there have been different paths towards learning to see. I don't know much about 'seeing'. I just know quite a bit about what keeps us from 'seeing'. I am no further along the path than the rest of you. I think we are all going to emerge together.

As I see it we can divide the paths, roughly, into two categories. The meditation path, which helps one quiet their mind and examine how they think and 'be'. One learns to see reality by dispensing of the usual static our egos' create.

Then there is the method taught by Krishnamurti, Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan, et al. Instead of concentrating on a mantra, breathing etc. one pays acute attention to everything they see. Everything one perceives is focused on intently. For instance if one looks at a leaf, they look at it so intently they empty their mind of all thought that would distort what they see.

No matter what path one takes, being aware of our thoughts and not attaching feelings to the ones we don't want is important.

It is one thing, understanding how important thoughts are and how we are limiting our consciousness. It is another thing being so serious about it that we limit our consciousness. Can we see how important it is without taking it so seriously? Can we take it seriously without being serious? Perhaps the word has two meanings.

I have learned for myself, that struggle is useless. We learn what thoughts lead to pain and which ones lead to happiness. When we are anything short of joyous, we can ask ourselves, what thoughts and feelings have we been indulging in. We don't have to struggle to learn. It is all laid out before us. We do need to pay attention, however.

It is all unlearning. We can't struggle to unlearn. We can pay attention to what 'is'. We are learning to surrender to what 'is'. What is all that space between our thoughts? It is Love. Love is the energy of the universe. It exists between the elements of the atom as it exist between planets. Love is the only energy there is.

When we surrender to what 'is', we will see nothing but Love.

I must add that lightheartedness is key. Laughing, dancing, music and celebrating every occasion. Loving with laughter brings us closer to the day our eyes fully open.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

HOW CAN WE HELP?

The day before yesterday, I was able to water my chickens and sheep using the hose. No more carrying water this year. That is a big event on Laughing Water Farm. Summer rules are much kinder on this old man.

The snow is now in patches and piles and I can roam around the farm at will. This Morning I set up the benches and chairs in the sheep pasture. The sheep had turned them all over and they have been completely covered with snow for four months. This is a place where I like to pause and meditate during my chores. The benches are set where the pasture slopes down to a tree covered low spot containing a pond that was dug fifty years or so ago. It faces East so the warmth of the rising Sun bathes one with peace and the feeling that all is well with the world.

Jamie and I have been contemplating what we should do with our pastures. The sheep pasture has been in continuous use for over a hundred years. It seems like it would be too useful to let it convert to woods. Our goat pasture was cropland until twenty years ago when we converted it to pasture. We have another area that we let go back to woods beginning back in the late seventies. It has been a delight and an education to watch Nature take back the land. We just have twenty acres. The sheep pasture is about seven acres. The goat pasture about five. We have a small garden patch. I mow about two acres of yard area and orchard, the rest is evolving into woods.

We have been slowing down our homesteading operation of late. I sold my turkeys and my geese. We are not planning on raising milk goats. Currently we have about thirty laying hens [old fashioned breeds], six sheep and one goat. We will have a flock of chickens as long as I breathe. The main reason we have sheep is to keep the pastures in good condition.

So as I live out my eightieth year on planet Earth how do I want to proceed? Part of me would like to take on more animals, have a bigger garden, produce more etc. However, when I get up and walk around, I realize, hey, I'm not 35 anymore or 45 or 55. I am getting to be an old codger. Hard to believe, I know.

So the question I ask myself and all of you, how can we be of help? How can we be of service to humanity? Everything we are now doing needs to change. Corporate agriculture is slowly poisoning us and the rest of the planet. Corporate industry is raping and destroying the Earth chasing money and power. Our medical field has been captured by capitalistic greed. I don't want to go on. We all know that society has to take an about face and seek health and wealth for all of its citizens.

We are One and all of us have a gift, that when it is expressed will bring peace, joy and well being to the rest of us. We all know in our hearts how we can best contribute to the well being of all. We need to think about that, now. It is time.

We can surmise what we need. Our cities and towns need to be surrounded by organic gardens. We need medical people willing to break out of the capitalistic model and return to the art of healing. We need an education system dedicated to raising folks up to be free beings who know their autonomy. We need visionary planners who can see how humanity can live at one with nature.

Most of all, we need reeducation. We need to learn to give up many cherished ideas of looking at the world. We need to accept the fact that our vision has been shaped and molded to continue the creation of the world we now realize we don't want. What does a world created by love look like?

My conjecture is, some events are going to happen which will shock us and rip the scales from our eyes. We will have to face how manipulated and controlled we have been. Those of us who have made themselves ready will need to minister to the rest.

I have envisioned groups of people coming together to make healing centers, with the goal of relearning how to live on the Earth in a sane and respectful manner. We have so much to learn about who we are and why we are here. We have been stark raving mad for a long, long time.

So I sit here today, wondering, how can I help?

Love and Peace,  Gregg

HOW CAN WE BE OF SERVICE?

Spring has finally arrived on Laughing Water Farm. There is a lot of snow to melt but in the last three days it must have diminished by half. Sitting here, I can look out one window and see a pasture, free of snow and greening up. When I stand up, I can see a larger picture and note there is still deep snow on most of it. Today, it is forecast to reach 70F! The world will look different by this Evening.

Many of us who are awakening have been looking for ways to be of service. One way we have served is by helping others to awaken. We have found that you cannot pry someone else's eyes open. If we are too assertive and threaten their belief system, we merely reinforce what they think they believe and drive them away, literally or deeper into their convictions. It happened to me this week, where I pushed an old friend too hard to see something I thought he should be ready to see. It will probably turn out all right, but if I had it all over to do I would be gentler.

If we find ourselves in the role of teacher, we must let the pupil decide what he/she needs to learn. It is a matter of discernment and careful listening. It does us no good to teach what we think a person needs to learn. Guidance is one thing, imposition is another. As always, love is the answer. Being in the moment and being love will always point us in the right direction.

We may be entering a time when more hands on service is required of us. We talk a lot about how paradise beckons and how great it will be when we all know our oneness and love for each other. First we must traverse the transition stage. I don't think it will be as chaotic as many predict. But it will be stressful.

What will happen if banks take a holiday for a couple weeks? There will have to be a period of readjustment to a new system. Our present debt choked monetary system is on life support. It won't last out the year. The dollar, as the World Reserve Currency, has been the benchmark on which all currencies are based. As the Petrol Dollar, by agreement it is the only money a country can use to purchase oil, thus our money is backed by oil. Note how our foreign policy has been geared to controlling all oil producing countries. With our naked aggression, all over the world, we have finally irritated people bad enough that they are willing to dump the dollar as the World Reserve Currency and buy oil with other currencies. Up to now the countries of the world have avoided defying us because they see what happened to every country that has. Since we are going to bleed them dry one way or another, they have nothing to lose.

{Okay, I need to make a note. As a citizen of the United States I say us. But it is obvious not us. I don't know a single person who supports these machinations. Those who support it are generally confused by the fear generated by those in control. I, personally, don't know any American citizens who want to control the world and invade all the oil producing countries. For short hand reasons, I refer to these people as The Cabal. They are international in scope and  the World Wide banking industry is at the helm.}

Those of us who have paid attention could see this coming for a long time. The Cabal could not maintain their control because it depended on manipulating people with fear. In order to get people to go to war, they need to be divided and made afraid of each other. We are all equal in power. We just haven't realized it. We cannot be controlled if we refuse to be afraid. We have decided we want none of that old manipulation and we want to embrace Love. That is why the corrupt systems of the world have been crumbling, they cannot stand up to the light of love.

Back to my point. We are going to need to see how we can be of service. We have been raised in a competitive world, and even the best of us, sometimes don't perceive the needs of our neighbors. During this period of readjustment, we need to be alert to how we can best help those who may be in need. Being of service demands discernment, respect and affirmation of equality[the giver and receiver are one].

Perhaps I will return to this topic on Friday.

Love and Peace,  Gregg


  

HOW DO WE SEE?

We will continue our discussion began Friday, "HOW WELL DO WE SEE?".

On the surface it looks like there is no way out. We are programmed to see by thought management, so we perceive according to what we believe. It appears to be a closed circle. We continue to create what we think and feel and so continue to perceive our own projection of 'reality'.

We have many teachers, both ancient and modern, who are here to help us see through the illusion. The ancients knew we did not see reality and surmised that we saw what we expected to see. There is a Greek philosophy built around this concept. And, at least since then, this concept has been alluded to by many philosophers and artist.

In India, China, Japan and Tibet disciplines arose to help people quiet their mind and learn to experience what is. We, also, know these disciplines existed in Native American cultures. Perhaps, they existed in most indigenous cultures.

With the rise of our modern world, which roughly correlates with the ascendancy of Christianity, this idea, that what we experience is an illusion of our own making, has been discouraged. Religions exist in part to control their parishioners. They are not known to encourage people to see differently.

For as long as we can see in the past there have been teachers sent to help us break out of our perceptual blindness. At this moment, there are many, many teachers. Many of them don't think of themselves as teachers. They post and re-post messages on Facebook and other places on the internet. Their message is, "Look Look, see this" or "Love Love, love everything" As long as we look and love we raise the consciousness of all and help bring about the breakthrough that we yearn for collectively.

We all came into the world with the goal of learning more about oneness and continuing our journey to rejoin Source. There are as many paths as people and no right path. Every path leads back to Source.

Breaking out of our shell or disguise, seeing what is really there, however one wants to put it, is approached in different ways.

The traditions coming from the East tend to focus on quieting the mind. Ceasing the creation of one's individual thought processes and 'seeing'. Meditation, in many different forms, is the main vehicle.

Many teachers, both past and present, have taught that one need only to focus on Love. It works like meditation, except that it is ongoing. Whenever one realizes his/her thoughts are not loving they realign their thought to love. Some focus on being. Some focus on doing [being of service]. In both cases the doing comes out of the being.

Many others think it is important to understand how we got entrapped in the first place. These folks need to understand the nitty gritty of how we are being manipulated. They need to understand the lies and manipulations of the controllers. They are not content to know that we have been manipulated and molded into our present situation, they need to know how and why. 

Some folks are comfortable learning through all approaches available, depending on the point in their evolution.

What matters is keeping our eye on the goal. Unconditional Love for everyone. We seek peace and tranquility in our own mind and will it for everyone. We are 'one'. We can only give to ourselves. Let us love ourselves and radiate love to the world.

We are knocking on the door of paradise. It is opening.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

HOW WELL DO WE SEE?

We walk the Earth with the power of Source. We have immense power and we create continually. Yet, we feel like little bits of nothing against the vastness of the universe. What is this discrepancy about? How can we be so powerful and feel so weak?

Despite the fact that many of us accept, by now, that we create our ongoing experience with our thoughts, we still feel helpless about it. We feel it is a process that is somehow beyond our control.

If we really accept that we are the authors of our experience, we are, at least, as significant as writers, directors and actors of the movie that is our illusion. Think of that, it is our film, we can have it the way we want.

On the other hand {there is always 'on the other hand'} our existence is an ongoing saga that has covered many lifetimes. As producers of our experience we may have called for situations that we cannot understand, without seeing the larger production.

The fact that there are things we might not know how we control or how they fit in does not explain our sense of helplessness. It doesn't explain how easy it is to slip into victimhood.

Two things we can look at: One; the shaping of our thought processes by those who would control us for power and money. Two; the molding we experience from our culture.

You might say, "Are not they the same thing. Don't those in control use culture as their primary control mechanism?" Yes, those in control constantly attempt to tweak culture to control us. But even without postulating a group that benefits from controlling us, culture in itself is a powerful influence.

Those in control want to keep us feeling helpless and dependent, we are just tools to them and they use us to service their needs for power and wealth. They use fear, and all the emotions derived from fear, to keep us under their thumb. Separation is their aim and war is their game.

We are born into this world with our eyes wide open. We soon see 'what side our bread is buttered on'. Our spirit is huge our body is small and helpless. When we are born we are aware of both the hugeness of our spirit and the limitation of our little bodies and depending, on our care and nurturing, we can maintain this awareness for awhile. By the age of three most of us have lost the awareness of our spirit, at least, the hugeness of our spirit. Many of us have always known there is much more to us than bodies.

The shaping begins as soon as we leave the womb. We miss the warmth and unconditional acceptance [love] of the womb. In our attempts to regain the unconditional acceptance of the womb we give up what individual perception we have to 'see' the same way our caregivers 'see'. We accept the interpretation of the world those around us have.  

Many of us have a rebellion in adolescence. We see the 'emperor has no clothes'. We want to find our own way. Sometimes, we can only use negativity to rebel and we quickly experience the power of society. If it is reward or punishment, most of us capitulate and join the crowd of consensus 'seers'.

The process of culture shapes and molds us and fires us in a kiln. By the time we are thirty, our thoughts and feelings form rigid patterns. We create our life according to our past experience and we doom ourselves to foregone conclusions. That is pretty hopeless isn't it.

Thankfully, it is not quite that gloomy. We each have in us a part that will never give in to the mindlessness of the ego. Somewhere buried, in the most stoic and rigid among us, lies the truth of who we are.

The disguise, that shell that was molded and shaped in the fiery kiln of our culture, can be cracked and will be cracked. It will be shed like the butterfly exits the chrysalis or perhaps cracked open and shed in fragments like a hibernating frog emerging from the mud. Regardless, we will be free, it is our destiny.

No matter to the degree we have been entrapped by our culture, the limitations we have imposed on ourselves can not stand up to love. Falling in love with ourselves cracks the mold and melts all constraints. We are free beings of light. Own it.

On Monday I will write about the different paths we are on to realize our truth. Have a good weekend and Happy Friday!

Love and Peace,  Gregg

HOW ARE WE DOING?

I read things that assure me mankind is awakening and the awakening cannot be stopped. In my heart I know that to be true. Yet, I need encouragement sometimes. The news in the mass media can be so dreadful and if you pay attention to it, it seems like humanity is determined to go off the cliff like a horde of lemmings.

Then I look around me, I talk to my neighbors and friends, I see the love that emanates from them. I see their love and compassion for others. There is strong agreement; we no longer support the old ways of violence and domination. We know that force will never bring peace. War will never bring the end to war. Violence will never bring the end to violence. Anger will never bring justice.

We can see that folks are waking up to the idea that if we want peace, we need to seek it in ourselves and extend it. Love, peace and joy are more infectious than anger and violence. We can spread love throughout the world merely by holding it in our own hearts. We have passed the tipping point, more people now believe paradise is possible than those who are afraid humankind cannot change.

All of us, living and breathing on this planet, are subject to doubts. Don't be concerned, you won't backslide. The whole planet is bathed in love as if The Source were holding the Earth in a loving embrace. We can't help responding to and multiplying the love that surrounds us.

Celebrate Love every day. Let us get acquainted with ourselves. Let us get to know what is at our core. The center of our being is Love. See that core of love in everyone. We will understand our oneness by seeing who sits or stands beside us and looking through their disguise and seeing the love that they are.

Our awakening cannot be stopped or delayed. Soon we will be stripped of our disguises of separateness. Overwhelming Joy will be ours.

Love and Peace,  Gregg