Bridges all over the World

I like to keep track of the countries that my viewers come from, now up to 53. I wonder who these people are and what are their thoughts about achieving unity of spirit among all countries of the world. Some of my readers come from trouble spots: Iraq, Bahrain, Pakistan, South Korea  . . . .  Not that there isn't trouble everywhere in the world, but these nations and some others in particular are making headlines in the news these days. Seeing that people from these places are reading my blog reminds me that there are real individuals in those countries - they are not just the statistics we see in the newspaper.  My list of countries reminds me to send light and healing prayers to each nation where people are longing to live in peace and justice and willing to risk their lives toward that end.


Sometimes I think about the world, and how, at any one time, people are giving birth, people are dying, people are celebrating wonderful occasions, people are appreciating the beauty of the natural world, and people are suffering - from disease, famine, war, and other horrors. All of these experiences are part of life, and while I want very much to live in a world where only peace and beauty exist, I know that, at least for now, this is not a realistic dream.

Today my 18-year-old niece is having extensive surgery on a leg that was injured in a car accident Friday morning. She also broke her neck and her pelvis, but she survived the accident that killed a young man, and the driver has been arrested for DWI. This kind of tragedy may pale in comparison to  the crises in Japan and Libya, but it's the main focus of my prayers today because my love for my sister and her family is more tangible than my love for people I don't know.

Every member of the human family has burdens to bear, tragedies to endure, and losses to count. Some suffer more than others, but I don't think anyone is exempt. I believe that if human souls had wanted easy lives we would have stayed in the spiritual realm from whence we all come. We chose to come here in order to learn and grow through adversity, as well as to enjoy the material blessings of the physical world. I know my theology doesn't make sense to those who believe that our souls first came into being with this earthly life. However, the concept of choosing our life circumstances in order to grow makes sense to many, especially those who realize that life is not only eternal, but always evolving.

In these current times the hard lessons seem to be coming fast and furious. The positive side of this is that prayers and meditations for peace and healing are being sent out in greater force than ever before. More prayers create more light and love, and so the planet grows closer to being a place where peace prevails.

Seeing all of the countries from where my readers come lets me know that people everywhere are praying for oneness and looking for ways to build bridges with one another. I thank you all for being channels of blessings to our world.

Building Bridges to the Muslim World by Emily VanLaeys

The other night Mark and I attended a program at the Oneonta Unitarian Church called: "Understanding Islam: An Evening to Build Bridges." A lot of people in Oneonta and the surrounding area are interested in building bridges with people of other faiths, as proven by the excellent attendance at our annual Thanksgiving interfaith service and other events, such as this one. The attendance was so good for this dinner that people were seated at tables all over the building.

The halal meal (which abides by Muslim dietary rules) was hosted by the church’s Mali Task Force that sponsors 51 students at a private school in Mali, a West African country. The recipes were Pakistani in origin: delicious, and hot enough to clear out any sinus problems you might have had! The meal was shared by community members from many faith backgrounds, including special guests from Sidney Center’s Sufi community. 

After dinner we watched a film titled: “What a Billion Muslims Really Think.” You can see it online: http://floppingaces.net/2010/09/18/inside-islam-what-a-billion-muslims-really-think/. The movie is based on a Gallup survey of Muslims worldwide, and includes some interesting revelations such as: only 15% of the world’s Muslims are Arab, and only 7% of them support violent terrorist tactics. The movie was followed with a question and answer period, with answers provided by a local professor of world religions, and a member of the Sufi community. Participants agreed that this was a wonderful opportunity for members of different faiths to learn more about each other.

If only more Muslims and Christians/Unitarians/Jews had such an opportunity to break bread together and talk. So much of the misunderstanding between people of different faiths and cultures stems from misinformation which is difficult to sort out without honest and open communication. I recently befriended a Muslim woman from Saudi Arabia on Facebook. She is a member of a Facebook group called “Anti-Islamaphobia.” This group posts videos and quotes with the intention of clearing up misnomers about Islam, but someone in the group has the idea that disseminating misinformation about Christianity will help their cause. 

My new friend posted this image on her FB page:

I tried to explain to her that these ideas are taken out of context from some obscure Bible passages that no Christian follows literally. She asked for the scriptural references, which I hesitated to give her because she didn't seem to understand that these ideas, being thousands of years old, do not apply to anyone today. I did give her the scripture in which Jesus saved a woman from stoning by saying to her accusers: "He who is without sin may cast the first stone."

My Saudi friend uses an internet translator to translate my English into Arabic, and vice versa. The translations are poor, and so the language barrier adds a further challenge to the differences between our cultural and religious backgrounds. I really don't know if she understands what I have tried to explain: that Jesus came to replace the old biblical laws with the divine law of love and mercy. As my communication with this woman continued, I realized that her goal was to convince me that Islam is the only way to the kingdom of heaven. She assured me that Islam recognizes Moses and Jesus as true prophets, but that Mohammed is the best and the last. She also stated that Buddha was sent by Satan, so Buddhists are actually devil worshipers!
I wish that the Gallup survey had asked how many Muslims believe that theirs is the only path to God, because it is just such exclusive thinking that leads to discord between religions. 

On the same day that my Muslim friend wrote: ". . . to say and believe there is no god except Allah and Mohammed is his messenger -- this is the key of heaven and few want to get it," I also received a message from a fundamentalist Christian who warned: "ALL other religions are false and deceptive." Words like these lead to conflict and ill-will among God's children. 

Events such as the community halal meal foster goodwill among diverse peoples. But such events assume a basic attitude: that peace and goodwill among the world's people is our shared goal, and the goal of our God -- whether that God is called Allah, Jesus, or some other name. Do we fear the torment of hell after this life, as these two internet friends think we should, or do we want to be more loving in this life, in order to end the hell on earth that is caused by pride and self-righteousness? The people of the world cannot build bridges of peace and understanding unless we agree that they must be built.

Internet Bridges

The  'Friendship Visualisation' shows pairs of friends between the world's cities. 

               

                 The internet is helping humanity to build bridges all around the world at an incredible speed. Spiritual networks connect people who want to learn from each other and coordinate their efforts to pray for peace and visualize heaven on earth. People of different faiths are connecting to increase understanding and tolerance. My own little blog, “Building Bridges of Oneness,” has attracted viewers from 50 countries, from every continent except Antarctica.  (Do they have internet in Antarctica?) The internet is responsible for bringing together love matches between people who would never have met otherwise. One of my cousins (from New York) is happily married and living with his wife in Mexico – a lovely Mexican woman he met on the internet! Many of the couples that I have married in my work as a wedding celebrant met on the internet. Thanks to the internet I have made new friends all over the world, including a kindred spirit living in California, who I have yet to meet in person. 

                We have all seen how social networks, and Facebook in particular, have helped people to locate lost friends and relatives, and facilitate revolutions, such as the one in Egypt. Thanks to Facebook, I have just met a lost family member, the daughter of a cousin I never knew. This branch of my family was disinherited many years ago, after my Italian Catholic uncle had married a Jewish woman, and then they couldn't agree on the religion their sons would be raised in. Rather than seeing his sons raised as Jews, my uncle chose to leave them and their mother. This is an example of how religion prevents people from making decisions based on love, rather than doctrines or religious laws. 

                Now it is time to build bridges of reconciliation between the remaining members of this family which was torn apart by stubbornness and pride so long ago. Because of religious differences, two boys grew up without a father, deprived of the extended family that I took for granted all of my life. The young woman who contacted me on Facebook grew up believing that her father’s father had been murdered, when he had been living with a new family; the ones that I knew as my aunt and cousins. Is it a coincidence that one of her brothers bears the same name that was given to the half-brother her father never met? And her other brother shares the same name as my cousin who lives in Mexico! 

Of course I loved my aunt and uncle, and the cousins I knew when I was growing up. Many mistakes were made long ago, but past sins do not preclude one’s ability to love all those involved. I hope to learn more about my disowned cousins and their children, and perhaps even meet some of them. None of the cousins involved are responsible for the mistakes of their parents or grandparents. I really hope that they will realize this so that the half-siblings and their children can extend hands of friendship across the bridge of reconciliation. What a wonderful demonstration of Love this would be – a way to honor the One who is God of Catholicism and Judaism, and strengthen the bridge between these two religions.   

Sealing the Door where Evil Dwells

         

             Last night I attended the monthly meeting of a local group: the Mind, Body, Spirit Collective. This is a wonderful collection of light workers and energy healers that get together for a talk by a member of the group, a guided meditation, and a delightful potluck supper.  During last night's presentation we learned about the sacred meaning of words, which led one participant to point out the connection between the words Satan, Saturn, and Saturday. He said that Satan, being a fallen angel, cannot do anything without God’s knowledge and consent. The fear and evil that Satan generates is necessary so that we can fully appreciate the love and goodness that it contrasts with.

               

I am familiar with this explanation for the existence of evil, and I don’t disagree with it, but I spoke up last night and said: “Haven’t we experienced enough evil by now to know that we don’t need or want it anymore?”  I believe that humankind has known enough violence that at least some of us are capable of appreciating a peaceful existence for eternity. I know I am!  

           Following this meeting I went home and went to bed, where I experienced my usual sparkly peace and light-filled waking moments between periods of sleep.  I also had a vivid dream that echoed the experience of the evening’s gathering.

I was at a dreamtime meeting where the presenter announced that she was going to demonstrate a technique that allows people to experience their connection with every part of Creation. I had volunteered to be the subject of her demonstration. She told me that I would have some experiences that would feel very real even though they wouldn’t actually happen, so if I got scared at any point, I should let her know by tugging my ear lobes and wiggling my fingers in my ears.

                I then experienced different aspects of nature, the most vivid being the snow that I actually saw and felt falling all around and on me. I saw several wild animals, but none of them noticed me until one large lion came straight toward me, looking like it was going to attack.  I pulled on my ear lobes and wiggled my fingers in my ears. Immediately the lion turned into a smiling lion-man with obviously friendly intentions. The presenter told me that I could not touch him, but all my fear was gone.

                This dream confirms for me my belief that when we choose to experience love rather than fear – we will. And so it shall be: that those who choose love over fear will enter the new world that will be heaven on earth: a place where violence, evil, and fear have no place.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

from The Lord's Prayer

Let the Plan of Love and Light Work Out,
And May It Seal the Door Where Evil Dwells.

                                           Let Light, Love, and Power Restore the Plan on Earth.

 from The Great Invocation

Avalanche of Love! by Emily VanLaeys

I am participating in the Avalanche of Love this Valentine’s Day morning. I spent the first hour of the avalanche in meditation, feeling so much love, light, and joy for the world that tears brimmed in my eyes. I imagined the world as it will be when all of humanity has returned to Oneness in Love. I saw myself visiting every country of the world, each one beautiful with its unique culture, abundant with the joy of the peace and freedom that will come when all oppressors have disappeared with the passing of the temporal world.  In each country I will meet new friends, eat the food that they offer, listen to the stories that they tell, wear the clothes that they create, dance to the music that they play, worship the divine as they do, and drink in the beauty of the landscape that surrounds us. I will travel to each place on the wings of love, and all of my friends, new and old, will visit me just as easily!  I will serve them the best food I can imagine in the beautiful settings I will create just by thinking about them. Everyone will manifest what they think about, and we will think the most sublime thoughts because we will be so full of love and light and joy.

I am spending the second half of the Avalanche writing this, because I can only think and imagine for just so long before the thoughts insist on pouring themselves into words that I can share! There are 3,800 people around the world joining the archangels and light beings in this Avalanche of Love, filling ourselves with love and sending it out to drench the world in its glory. Unlike so many spiritual activities, the goal is not to seek enlightenment for ourselves; but to spread so much Love and Light throughout the world that more and more people will awaken to their true identity as children of Love, brothers and sisters of Creation, and wellsprings of Light. 

I have been corresponding with a spiritual seeker who has been struggling to overcome his self-absorption while hoping to achieve spiritual enlightenment. I have suggested that the secret to spiritual-growth may be not to seek it for oneself, but to seek it for the world. It is the ego that separates us from one another; creating conflict and unhappiness. Jesus said: "Those who want to save their life will lose it; and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." I'm sure he was not speaking about losing our physical bodies. But when we lose our ego attachment to our particular personality so that we can be One with Divine Love and Light, then we discover our true purpose as our Higher Self. 

Each Higher Self is connected to every other.  As my Higher Self, learning to hold more and more Light and Love, I am doing my part to create more of the same in every heart and every soul. As the hour-long Avalanche of Love ends, the world is holding more Love and Light than it did an hour ago! And this is just one of the many such events that are happening more often as humanity awakens to the divine plan: our return to Oneness and Love.

Blessings to all my dear readers.  Blessings, Love and Joy!

Indigenous Peoples as Builders of Bridges by Emily VanLaeys

Photograph by Noah Jackson

For many centuries the indigenous peoples of the world have been persecuted and oppressed by “civilized” expansionists who observed how the natives of various cultures lived close to nature and dismissed them as “primitive.” Those who are more technologically advanced have had the technology to back up their aggressive goals; and equating technology with wisdom, have assumed that the natives had nothing to teach them. 

Now that environmentalists are bemoaning the destruction humanity has wreaked on the earth, intelligent people recognize the ancient wisdom of indigenous peoples who, in many ways, were more spiritually advanced than the Christians who conquered them with state-of-the-art weapons hundreds of years ago. 

Dana Gluckstein reveals the gift that indigenous peoples have to offer the world in her book of photographs: Dignity, which was published to support the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to celebrate Amnesty International’s 50^th anniversary. The following is an excerpt from an essay by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, found in Gluckstein’s book:

“Indigenous Peoples remind us . . . that the first law of our being is that we are set in a delicate network of interdependence with our fellow human beings and with the rest of creation. In Africa recognition of our interdependence is called ubuntu. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong to the whole, to the community, to the tribe, to the nation, to the earth. Ubuntu is about wholeness, about compassion for life.

Ubuntu has to do with the very essence of that it means to be human, to know that you are bound up with others in the bundle of life. In our fragile and crowded world we can survive only together. We can be truly free, ultimately, only together. We can be human only together. To care about the rights of Indigenous Peoples is to care about the relatives in one’s own human family.

The Indigenous Peoples of the world have a gift to give that the world needs desperately, this reminder that we are made for harmony, for interdependence. If we are ever truly to prosper, it will be only together.

And this also includes what used to be called ‘inanimate nature,’ but what the elders have always known were relatives in the family of earth. When Africans said, ‘Oh, don’t treat that tree like that, it feels pain,’ others used to say, ‘Ah, they’re pre-scientific, they’re primitive.’ It is wonderful now how we are beginning to discover that it is true—that that tree does hurt, and if you hurt the tree, in an extraordinary way you hurt yourself. Every place you stand is holy ground; every shrub has the ability to be the burning bush, if we have eyes to see.”

As a thoughtful Christian, Archbishop Desmond Tutu does not see a conflict between his Christian beliefs and the spirituality of Indigenous Peoples. Any Christian who considers it heresy to accept their gift might benefit from reading “The Canticle of the Creatures,” written by Saint Francis of Assisi 800 years ago. The following is an excerpt from this magnificent hymn of praise:

All praise be yours, my Lord,

through all you have made,

and first my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day;

and through whom you give us light.

How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor;

Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

All Praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon

and the stars; in the heavens you have made them,

bright, and precious, and fair.

All praise be yours, my Lord,

through Brothers wind and air, and fair and stormy,

all the weather's moods,

by which you cherish all that you have made.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,

so useful, humble, precious and pure.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,

through whom you brighten up the night.

How beautiful is he, how cheerful!

Full of power and strength.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through our Sister

Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us,

and produces various fruits with colored flowers

and herbs.

Lessons from the Sea by Emily VanLaeys

The Sea by Peter van Laeys

I have seen the ocean in all of its moods: angry and tumultuous, happy and playful, calm and serene. When I was a child, I hated the huge, haughty waves that caught me unaware and tumbled me over and over in the sand until I could fight my way out' coughing and trembling with relief that I had escaped the powerful grip of my enemy. Still, I was lured back to the ocean beach again and again. After all, the sea was my friends when frisky wavelets darted in and out, splashing my legs with tingling salt while I leaped among them.

When I was growing up, my family lived on the Great South Bay, just a ferry boat ride from the Fire Island shore. I could go as often as I could pay the three dollar fare, or beg a ride over one of the bay bridges. In later years, I moved away, and a trip to the ocean became a rare treat. When I visit the shore with my husband and children, the exhilaration of the fresh, damp wind sends me sprinting and twirling over the crunchy sand, like the child who once feared and loved the ocean with equal passion.

I crash through the breakers until I reach calm water, where I lie on my back, rising and dipping with the rhythm of creation. The sea is my grandmother when her ancient waves roll majestically, holding me afloat as I gaze up at cloud-embrodiered skies.

After a day at the beach, I lie in bed with my eyes closed and feel the whole room undulate around me, gently rocking me to sleep. Or I might feel that I am still stnading on the shore, where the great waves finally end in a thin film of water that ripples under my feet. The sand shifts beneath my toes as the ocean sucks in the foam. Another frothy breath replaces the first as it recedes. Ebb and flow. The ocean never takes back without returning its life-giving breath.

The year after I graduated from college I worked in a dead-end job where the bnoss made me shorten my name for the convenience of our clients, and my first love stopped answering my letters. Feeling lost, I drifted with the flow of life to Yellowstone Park where I worked for a summer and met my future husband. The sands shifted and I was happily married, following my mate to a city I didn't want to live in. There I found a satisfying job, good friends, new knowledge.

The waters of life carried us to another state where we bought our first house and planned to start a family. Our spirits ebbed when years of infertility and miscarriage shattered our dream. Gradually we picked up the pieces and found hope in the adoption process. Again the shifting sands, the flow of spirit-filled life, brought a successful pregnancy; a healthy daughter.

And so life has continued. Intervals of frustration or disappointment are followed by periods of fulfillment and joy. During those joy-filled times I'm a child again, finding a channeled whelk or a bit of polished glass that a wave brought to me. When I stand at the water's edge, the sea is my teacher.