Tag: change

Love Can Change the World

Imagine a world where systems and laws were based on love.

May 7, 2023

Tagged change, love, Projection, Self-love, Shadow work

Full view here

What would it be like if we lived in a world where love, not materialism reigned supreme? What would it be like if we lived in a world where kindness and compassion were more important than profit? What would it be like to live in a world where the health of the earth was more important than corporate greed? What would it be like to live in a world where medical care was a right not a privilege, where bodily autonomy was a given for everyone? Imagine a world where systems and laws were based on love.

When Marianne Williamson ran for President in 2020, she talked a lot about the power of love to change the world. She was dismissed by the media, and she became a subject of satirical memes depicting her as out of touch with reality. Evidently fixing the world with love is not a very practical solution in the eyes of the most of the populous.

But what if love is truly the answer? I believe that it begins with self-love. Each of us comes into the world with a lot of baggage – childhood wounds, trauma, shame, regret. Deep down many of us tend to see ourselves as unworthy and un-loveable. When we don’t deal with those shadow parts of ourselves, we project them onto others, judging them through our own lens of pain and suffering. So it becomes easy to point fingers at the shortcomings of others, while ignoring our own.

When we love ourselves, we don’t have to control others. We don’t need to have power over others. Unless another person is causing serious harm, we don’t need to deter them or punish them. When we love ourselves, we can allow others to be who they are, love whom they will, and live their lives without being judged by us. When we love ourselves, we are free to love others. We are free to emanate empathy and compassion because we are giving ourselves that same empathy and compassion.

It is not always easy to determine the most loving course of action in certain situations, especially when it comes to life and death. Is it more loving to prolong someone’s life because we can, or is it more loving to allow them a dignified death? Do we sacrifice the one to save the many? What about “tough love,” when it comes to helping our children learn and grow? Is it really loving to give them everything they want, or do we draw a line? It is up to us and our evolving consciousness to make the most loving decisions we can even in the most trying of circumstances.

If each of us determines that every day, in all circumstances we will lead with love, empathy, and compassion, I believe that we have the power to change the world. If I lead with love, I will share a kind word, a smile, a laugh with everyone I meet. I will meet hostility with compassion; I will fill up another’s cup with my own, without worrying about what I am giving away; I will base decisions on what is the most loving thing to do, not on what I will gain; I will let my light shine freely and encourage others to let theirs shine too. I will give love freely and with abandon to humans and non-humans, and to the earth herself.

Certainly love doesn’t seem to be a practical way to change the world. It feels woo-woo and New Ageish. But if each of us walks the earth in love, we can harness the immense power of love to make a difference in someone’s life, one encounter at a time. And that can eventually change the world.

Barbara Garland
May 2023

When Does the Spiritual Become Political?

The Gift of Lament

It is just as important to acknowledge my pain as it is to acknowledge my joy.

Goddess Inspired

April 28, 2023
2 Comments on The Gift of Lament

Tagged change, Grief, Lament, Mourning, Tears

Full view here

In my last blog, I wrote about being present to our personal and collective woundedness. I feel that it is just as important to acknowledge my pain as it is to acknowledge my joy. In truth, they are two sides of the same coin. We don’t recognize our full range of emotions unless we have felt the full range of our emotions. Although we don’t often use the word, to lament is not just to mourn, but to mourn deeply and publicly.

Last week, Fr. Richard Rohr’s daily meditations talked about public lamentations. The Hebrew people not only mourned privately, but they publicly lamented deep loss. This is in deep contrast to our modern culture which tends to downplay any kind of strong emotional response, especially if it is public. When a politician or celebrity cries on camera, social media has a heyday, creating memes that spread like wildfire. When a woman cries, she is considered to be too emotional. When a man cries, he is considered weak. Those who are grieving deep losses are expected to get over it and get back to “normal” in a matter of days. People are even afraid of breaking down at funerals! I find myself apologizing for my tears if I “lose it” in public. Tears are reserved for private spaces when one is alone because we wouldn’t want to make anyone else uncomfortable.

So many of us are feeling the deep grief of the past few years. We have experienced so many deaths, so many losses. However, We are clear-eyed about what is happening to the earth. We understand the consequences of trying to hide the truth of our history, of book bans, of inequity, of denying the personhood of so many classes of people. And in that clearness of vision lies a deep grief. I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to wail, to cry out to the God/dess in my own helplessness and frustration. I have thought many times that we need a national day, not of prayer, but of mourning which includes a set time for all of us to collectively raise our voices in one giant primal scream.

Brian McLaren, from the Center for Action and Contemplation, says that public lament is important because our tears keep things alive for us – they keep alive the folly of what is happening, the rage toward injustice, the desire for change, and the creativity of truth-telling. Lament is what keeps us from giving up and going along with the status quo. Lament is what drives us to change things, to turn around and change direction, to be open to new and better possibilities. Lament opens the door to growth.

My wonderful spiritual director, Eunice Schroeder, wrote: “But what if they [tears] are evidence of a deep flow of Spirit? What if they are a (often misunderstood) gift? Someone once told me that tears are ‘God’s lubricant.’ What if, when given the gift of tears, we are invited to join with the whole family of humanity in experiencing ALL the emotions of life itself?”

I have come to believe that I am not the only one who is experiencing a feeling of deep grief for the world in which we live. I invite those of you who feel that grief to embrace it as gift, a gift of the God/dess which calls us to lament and cry out together for change in the world.

Barbara Garland
April, 2023

Birthing A New World

Humans have a choice: to either fight to retain the status quo, or to work toward our own enlightenment to make the world a better place.

Goddess Inspired

January 15, 2023

Tagged change, Growth, Spiritual Rebirth, Suffering

Full view here

The last few years have been a roller coaster ride of highs and lows – of tragedy and death, of war and pandemics, of agony and ecstasy. Climate change, a pandemic, extreme politics, war, insurrection, women’s loss of bodily autonomy – these all point to an upheaval in society. But along with that upheaval must come a rebirth. Humans have a choice: to either fight to retain the status quo, or to work toward our own enlightenment to make the world a better place.

Clearly there is pain and suffering in the world. Just because one is on a spiritual path does not mean that suffering and pain will end. In fact, it may very well intensify. The prosperity gospel implies that if we are good people who believe in Jesus, that we will be spared any discomfort – financially, emotionally, spiritually, medically – and we become very angry when that doesn’t always come to pass. However, as we look at the prophets, the saints, or those who are enlightened, the opposite is true. They suffer precisely because they are spiritually enlightened. Speaking truth to power doesn’t always end well for the person speaking the truth.

I believe that those of us on the spiritual path are here to midwife the birth of a new age. What am I called to do individually? Midwifing a new age is a bit more than one person can handle to say the least. The truth of the matter is that I and my fellow seekers are part of a vast collective which is becoming more and more conscious that the world must change if humanity is going to survive. The old institutions, structures, religions, governments, and economic systems are no longer working – if they ever did. As each of us becomes more conscious of this fact, we are looking at ways to make a difference in our own spheres of influence.

How do I make a difference? I believe that the answer is to become the self that my Soul calls me to be, to become completely and wholly myself. This means that I must move beyond my fears to speak my truth. I must raise the hard questions. I must be willing to unflinchingly unmask my own shadows and still love myself unconditionally. I must be able to see the Divine in everyone, including myself. I must be willing to open my heart to the suffering of the world. In short, I must BE LOVE in everything I think, say, or do. I must be willing to sit with uncertainty, to be a vessel that can hold my own pain as well as the pain of others.

This is not an easy calling, and I have more failures than successes. However, if each of us becomes LOVE in the world, together we can usher in a new, more enlightened age. We can become the ever-widening ripples of love which ultimately birth a kinder, more compassionate world.

Barbara Garland
January, 2023

Service Changes the World

When thousands of us join together with our time and our treasure, we can begin to change the world.

Goddess Inspired

June 3, 2022

Tagged change, hope, Making a Difference, Service

Full view here

Service Changes the World

Tomorrow I am getting on a bus to attend one day of the week-long Rotary International Convention in Houston. While there I will visit the House of Friendship, which will showcase Rotary service projects from around the world. These projects include prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs, cleft palate surgeries, literacy, peacemaking, improving the lives of women and girls, and others too numerous to mention. The convention itself will focus on this year’s theme, Serve to Change Lives and will include sessions on increasing club diversity and carrying out meaningful service projects.

I have been a Rotarian for 13 years, and my husband has been a member for over 50 years. Although the perception of Rotary over the years has been one of good old boys having lunch, the truth is that Rotary is a dynamic group of men and women whose motto is service above self. It is an organization dedicated to service and solving real world problems. Through the Rotary International Foundation, this worldwide organization has eliminated polio in all but two countries. It has built countless water systems, provided thousands of wheelchairs, built libraries, funded drug rehab centers and job training programs, given scholarships, and worked diligently for peace through exchange programs and international peace programs.

In several previous blogs, I have struggled with what I can do to make a difference in the world. Things seem bleak and hopeless in so many areas of life, and it is difficult to think that anything that I do will help. As I continue to struggle with these issues, it occurred to me that my involvement in Rotary and in other worthy causes is what I can do. I can’t save the whole world, but my involvement in trying to make a difference through Rotary and other organizations can help people have better lives and provide opportunities that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. It can make a difference one person at a time.

Being involved in something greater than oneself may not seem like much. But my small effort contributes to the whole. When I join with other people in a small service project, our joint efforts produce something much bigger than any of us could accomplish alone. Our joint efforts move the needle just a little in a more positive direction. When thousands of us join together with our time and our treasure, we can begin to change the world.

When I look at what organizations, not just Rotary, accomplish for peace and understanding around the world I begin to see that change can happen, that peace is possible, and that by joining those efforts, I can make a difference. Whether it is Rotary or some other organization, find a place to plug in where you can serve others in some small way. It will bring brightness to your own life while changing the world one small step at a time.

Barbara Garland
June, 2022

Hope

This morning I am feeling particularly hopeful, even in the middle of what seems like the end of the world.

Goddess Inspired

September 12, 2020

Tagged balance, change, connection, empathy, hope

Full view here

Hope

This morning I am feeling particularly hopeful, even in the middle of what seems like the end of the world. Just in the past few weeks an enormous hurricane has made landfall in Louisiana; Ohio is recovering from hurricane-like winds; apocalyptic fires are burning in California, Colorado and Oregon; racial unrest and injustice is rampant; the economy is in shambles; people worldwide are suffering; and we are in the middle of a pandemic that shows few signs of being under control. The year 2020 will go down in the history books as a year of catastrophe after catastrophe.

So, you may rightfully ask, how anyone could be hopeful as the world seemingly reels out of control? I don’t discount the very real tragedies that are occurring daily and the death and destruction that is a part of all that is going on. I don’t minimize any of the things that affect real people every day. But rather, my hope stems from the awakening that 2020, in all of its horror, is bringing to our world.

I have discovered in myself, and in others, an incredible empathy for the depths of suffering that has not been there before. I am seeing a desire on the parts of millions for a new awakening and a new way of looking at the world. I am seeing the rise of the Divine Feminine bringing back wholeness and balance to the planet. I am seeing evolution in real time.

For myself and many others, there is an awakening happening in the depths of our souls. There is keener awareness of the inequities and the injustices that are happening around the world. There is a greater empathy and desire for change. There is a blossoming of the God/dess within and a rise of the Divine Feminine. There is an enormous push for change and greater balance around the world.

Right now, the world is in the Void, with a capital V. The old is passing away, but the new has not yet been born. No one is sure what the new will look like, and it is extremely difficult to let go of the old. The desire to go back to ‘normal’ is strong. And yet, so many of us don’t want to go back to normal, if it means that we continue on the same path toward annihilation.

In the Void lies hope – hope that the world is reaching the tipping point of enlightened souls who will take us to a new normal. In this normal, hunger and homelessness will be things of the past. Racial injustice and social poverty will no longer exist. We will revere and care for Mother Earth and adopt sustainable practices that will restore nature’s balance. Balance will be restored between consumption and preservation. As I work to bring balance to my own mind, body, and Soul, I am one of millions who are opening themselves to balance too. My hope is that together, we can change the world

About

New blogs will be added to this post every Friday.

Contact Me

womanspiritspeaks48@gmail.com

Name *

First

Last

Email *

Comment or Message *

About Me

I am a seeker of truth, a truth teller, a lover of the Divine Feminine, an aspiring writer, a mystery, an open book, a work in progress. I have lived a long and varied life, and now in my seventies, I am being called to share some of what I have learned over the years. I hope to share the wisdom of the deep Feminine that is being channeled through me.

If the Goddess has ever whispered to you, I invite you to join me on an incredible journey of love and discovery. May you hear Her wisdom through these words.

Related Posts

Related Posts

Related Posts

Related Posts

Related Posts