And now the darkness of these times brings a recognition. It is a time for reckoning, or as my friend would say, a "come to Jesus."
Boys and girls, you and me, all of us, each of us, we have reached a critical moment in our story. We've come to the part where the would-be hero is faced with a crisis, and we know that means there is both danger and opportunity ahead.
We're faced with many critical and important choices, but let's just pick out two of them and call them Choices A and B. Choice A represents the danger part of the equation. Choice B, the opportunity.
Choice A takes us farther down the path we're already on. We know this path well. This is the path of the Drift, that nameless face of the collective, primarily the aspect that is still asleep in consciousness. This would include the majority of us. Most of us are still asleep. How do we know? Look around. What have we got? What are we doing to the planet? What are we doing to each other?
A gifted young man who traces his roots back to the Mayflower, whose family background and credentials are sterling, a scholar, a seemingly "normal" human being, allegedly commits a heinous crime by killing a dozen people and injuring several dozen more. We wake up for a moment and make some noise about gun control legislation, feel the hurt collectively, feel our connection to one another for a moment, and then we fall right back asleep again, and nothing changes.
What happened in Aurora was only one incident in a world of incidents equally tragic and senseless. War is tragic and senseless. Starvation, rape, torture, child abuse, "man's inhumanity to man" is tragic and senseless. Tragic and senseless things are happening all the time, everywhere. Because we are asleep. Because we've forgotten who we are.
And therefore, we haven't created a critical mass of awakened ones to generate a shift in the consciousness of the collective. Yet. And so this lesson keeps coming back around and will continue to do so until we get it. There will be more tragic and senseless things happening in the world and in our lives as long as we stay asleep.
Choice A takes us farther down this path of the Drift, where we're asleep and therefore unconscious. Here's the dangerous part: In this state, we appear to be separate. In our illusion of separation, we see all the pain of the world and we think it's happening "out there." We think it's about "them" or "those people" or "you people." We don't get that we're connected; therefore, we also don't get that this is about us.
"Whatsoever you do to the least of my people; that you do unto me." (Matthew: 25:40)
There are no "you people." We are all descended from the same source. Carl Sagan was right. "We're made of star stuff." We all trace our ancestry back to Africa, where humanity was born. And some believe we came from Adam and Eve, hence was born the story of our separation, the story of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace. We have lived out that allegory for millennia. Perhaps it's time for humanity to write a new creation story.
What we see happening in the world today is the product of our collective consciousness. Together, we are weaving the tapestry we call "life." And yes, there are those who exercise more "power," at the mundane level, than others in the world. They appear to have the power to destroy or to build. They appear to have the power to bring war or to bring peace.
But don't be misled into thinking this power to destroy or create does not also apply to you. We all have and we all exercise that power every day. A young man walks into a theater and allegedly uses his power to destroy life, and the collective is impacted by that choice. What we do with that experience, how we respond, who we become because of it will also tell the story of our collective intelligence. When do we become the expression of our highest nature, of the "all good"? Now would be a good time.
There are 7 billion people on the planet, and each of us matters. You matter. Your consciousness matters. It's that simple. It's that complex. It's complex because the majority of us still believe in the illusion of separation. In our sleeping state we have momentarily forgotten the truth, which is that we're all connected.
This is a difficult concept for humanity to grasp. It certainly doesn't look like we're all connected when we go around hurting each other. Nor does it feel like we're all connected. But the truth is, we are. It's time to become more skillful in helping our human family get this one.
In the illusion or the dream of separation we're driven by fear, which produces the experience of scarcity. Scarcity and insufficiency appear to be the prevailing winds of our time. This is not the truth. This is part of the dream of separation. Out of this dream of scarcity, greed is born. And out of this greed, more scarcity is produced. And if our individual and collective consciousness accepts this as the way it is, then that becomes the way it is by right of consciousness.
Welcome to the Drift, home of the fearful and the not so brave. And here's the thing, we all live in the Drift. We are not separate from it. But -- and this is a big but -- we still have a choice about how we're going to be in it. For we can wake up in the Drift and make different choices. Every time someone wakes up in the Drift and inspires some others to do the same, the Drift transforms. And that's Option B.
Transforming the Drift
It's time for humanity to write a new creation story. This is the opportunity part of the danger and opportunity equation.
Let's step up and admit this is a crisis point for humanity and then be about the business of saving ourselves. It's time for our collective slumber to be over. We get to choose how this thing is going to come down. You get to choose how it's going to come down for you. And so do I. Based on the choices we make collectively, this thing is going to evolve or devolve.
We're at the Dark Knight of the Soul, the intersection of Choices A and B, the point where we choose what kind of future we're going to live into and pass on to the next generations.
What will it be? More of the Drift? More fear, greed and scarcity? More wars and killing? Or will enough of us awaken to form a critical mass of awakening, transform the Drift and bring the darkness into the light?
The light is already here. There's nothing to do but embrace it, accept it, realize and recognize it as the essence of who we are. Recognize and embrace our oneness with all things, see what's really going on here.
At the level of the truth, it's all good. It's the "all good." Lean forward into it. Fall back into it. Get it all over you. Take a bath in it. Eat it from a spoon. Pour yourself into it and drink heartily of it. Drink from our collective cup of kindness, equanimity, compassion, generosity and love. It is the very nature of abundance, and it's all ours. There is enough for everyone.
And let us pray for each other. And if praying isn't your thing, do whatever is. If activism is your thing, get active. Do what makes your heart open. Do what needs to be done to heal your soul. Do what makes you know the truth about who you are and therefore who everybody else is. Connect. Love. Give. Open. Receive. Be grateful.
And keep doing it until you and the Drift wake up, for it is only by bringing the darkness into the light of our own love and acceptance, that we can possibly begin to transform the darkness of humanity. It is time to pass through this collective "dark knight" and emerge as the realization of our highest selves.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Do leave a comment below or come pay a visit to my personal blog and website: Rx For The Soul. Become A Fan and be notified when new posts appear. For personal contact, reach me at judith@judithrich.com
We send our love and prayers to those who suffered loss in the tragedy last weekend and to those still healing from its wounds.
Blessings on the path.
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