A couple days ago one of my colleagues brought up in conversation that her life has changed a great deal over the past few years, but every once in a while thoughts of her old life pop into her mind. She compares her current experiences with her past. Her life now is radically different, so much so that she sometimes wonders if she did the right thing by embarking on a path that led to so much change.
My friend worked inside the public education system for years even though the policies she endured made it almost impossible to serve her students well. When she talks about that part of her life, there is obviously frustration and pain associated with her memories. Regardless of how she felt she suffered, she admits a sense of comfort in it because it was familiar. Her plan now is to open her own school and nothing about that is familiar nor is it comfortable.
I can relate quite well to her situation, because I taught at the college level in the education system for a few years. At first I thought it was my dream job, but after a while the union and management policies within the system made it unbearable. On my last day as a teacher, regardless of the financial security the job represented, leaving the building and stepping out into the faculty parking lot felt like getting out of jail.
As I listened to my friend recount the horrors of working within the system, I had a realization. In my case, there were three main groups within the faculty that I had observed…those who simply complied without complaint, those who did not agree but had no answers, and those who vehemently opposed the suppression and knew what changes would be effective.
A light went on for me. Until that moment I had not considered what a gift it is to have the awareness that life can improve and to have insights into how it can be done. We marvel at the visionary heroes of the world, forgetting that we have the same inherent qualities. We get so involved in micro-managing our activities that we lose the broader perspective.
Why are we here?
I have an image of us floating off the edge of the planet in space, before we were born, observing all the various genetic lineages of Mankind. From that perspective we can clearly see the aberrated ways of thinking and behaving that instigate suffering. Our responsibility is to heal the brokenness; restore joy and abundance. In a large council, we strategize and formulate our plan. Each one of us agrees to take on a particular lineage, to bring about balance and wholeness. So as each one of us is born into the body of a family, we adopt cellular memories and the history of its ancestors.
But then, even as babies we begin to give up our awareness of the greater perspective and agree to the conditions of the environment. We gradually push all knowledge of our “Observer selves” into the subconscious and become the products of the broken DNA we came to heal. We take on the belief that we are these bodies, these jobs, these relationships, these diseases, earthly desires and so on.
Yet, when we can step back for a moment and look at it all from a distance, the lives that seem to be all-consuming are so miniscule in the face of the universe they are but a momentary flicker.
So, what to do about it? My Elder and mentor, Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha once described how at the end of each day with her Grandmother, they would review what was of the “world” that day and what was of the “Observer.”
What a wonderful, practical way to constantly stay connected to your purpose! Most of us have been trained from early on that we have little control over what happens and something external is to blame for our circumstances. By the time we’re three years old, we’ve probably heard someone tell us “no” a few hundred times. We learn to think and act like victims.
Imagine existing in a paradigm where we know we are here to influence every part of life we experience and interact with in a benevolent way. Every suppressive notion and system we encounter is simply the “Observer self” showing us where we can make the difference.
What a blessing to know that each time a complaint arises in our thoughts, is an indication we have the love in our hearts to make it better.
We can really do something about the corruption in the world. Remember what I said earlier – some people agree to go along with it while others would support solutions if they could but find them. Then there are the visionaries with the creativity and intent to manifest the answers.
Change is not comfortable because it means breaking away from habitual, familiar ways of being. The cellular memories in our bodies resist it. But if we can experience unhappiness or a sense of suffering while involved in life, it means we have been born with an internal gauge that alerts us to the need for improvement. Not everyone has that ability. That’s why we’re here. To lead the way. It’s our gift to All Life.
Here is another article you may find helpful:
The Desire for Change: Be the Force that Affects Inertia