Gazing in the Mirror

November 4 - Life's Journeys

We must be willing to let
go of the life we planned
so as to have the life
that is waiting for us.
~ Joseph Campbell

I tune in to the inner call
of Spirit and surrender to
the perfect guidance that
comes from within me. I
allow God's wisdom to speak
through me and direct me.
~ Ernest Holmes

I once watched a dvd called "Finding Joe". The original founder of the Zaadz community (where my outreach known as Living Metaphysics got its start), Brian Johnson, has a significant amount of air time in this production and I am happy for him. It must be a wonderful recognition as a philosopher to be alongside a giant like Joseph Campbell. The video is actually an illustration and some thoughts about "The Hero's Journey". Alan Cohen also has significant air time and is even featured in the intro. I attended one of his workshops, when I attended Celebrate Your Life, back in June 2009 in Chicago. That's why he felt so familiar to me. Spirituality heavy-weight Deepak Chopra had a lot of air time also. Some lesser known personalities – Mick Fleetwood (of Fleetwood Mac fame) and Tony Hawk (the Wii skateboard game hero in my own household) had important parts in the video.

My husband did not hang in there with this video very long at all. I understand, it is not of interest to him, clearly a bit too obviously New Age (after all – it was full of words like consciousness and bliss). My older son stuck with it remarkably well, even though he often complained that he was bored or wanted it to end, he would then peek back in on it even after having walked away. Afterwards my son was re-inspired within his own 2 imagination-created superheroes. Before this video he had been feeling they were "too babyish" for him now and that he really ought to leave these imaginary friends behind as he matures (he was at the time I first wrote this essay a ripe old age of 11 !!). Truly there was nothing in the presentation that I wasn't already familiar with but it was well done and the focus was on the basic foundation for most of our human collective stories and movies – whether about real people or made up for entertainment – so that I do believe it is definitely worth anyone's time spent watching "Finding Joe".

With a context and pattern such as Joseph Campbell has laid out one can easily see their own related experiences. I believe that my own first "Hero's Journey" was when I left my first marriage with a young daughter in tow. Which led to my second Hero's Journey, when I allowed my daughter to go back into her paternal grandmother's and father's care, while I journeyed across country in an 18-wheel semi-truck. That particular "life" was one long adventure, once taking us up into the forested wilderness of Humboldt County in Northern California – just one of the many little vignettes we experienced together. Leaving that relationship was definitely an adventure and another Hero's Journey for me.

My call to leave came when I had left a music session to use the restroom and returned to find my romantic partner (who I had lived with for many years at that point and had been a co-driver with on that 18-wheel truck) kissing another young woman who was present in that room. Truly the plan to leave had already been simmering in me for a long time as my unhappiness had grown intolerable and I had already been saving money by setting aside whatever I could from my grocery allotments but that moment when I found him kissing another woman in the house that we shared together was definitely the last straw for me. I had to leave secretly in order to leave safely at all. Leaving took me to the city of St Louis where I didn't know a soul. That leaving eventually became the good fortune of meeting my husband who I have now been married to for over 30 years. Joel Goldsmith describes such moments in our lives as "When this Inner Grace takes over and goes before us to make the crooked places straight and does all things for us, then we have entered a period of life called living by Grace." My adventure was truly "graced" and I felt the effect of that "grace" clearly.

Joel Goldsmith also stated that this is the true meaning of grace — being so tuned in to the God within that life unfolds exactly as it should and we are provided with just what we need at the moment we need it. The Celebrate Your Life conference was another such Hero's Journey for me. I had to overcome my fear of not being able to have my own desires supported by my husband in order to even be able to go there. I had to endure my husband's displeasure at being forced to make a journey that was not of his own initiative. Even though he and my sons had traveled with me, my husband did not even speak to me the whole weekend as though we were not sharing that experience and in a real sense we weren't. I was at the conference from early in the morning until late at night. He and the boys would sleep in and then go sightseeing. It was not that they had a bad time in and around Chicago. It was simply unusual for them to be doing their sightseeing without me. He told our sons that I was going to "mom repair school". Then on our drive home he told me that he wanted me to give up "spirituality". I had to stand my ground on that one. Really, me ?, give up spirituality ? It is like asking me to stop breathing !!

The whole experience of being at Celebrate Your Life WAS magical and it was empowering (which is truly what most Hero's Journeys are). I had to overcome my Dragons and I made my "return" in which truly I brought back home with me many beneficial growth characteristics including a new resolve to get through my personally mucky/dangerous situation – the one I was attempting not to see but had to work through regardless. I do credit that conference and a personal coach I met there and worked with for some months following that conference with getting me over the hump (that was blocking the completion of my responsibilities and I believe now that procrastination was due to various fears related to its resolution). Eventually I did achieve a complete success resolving it to an orderly outcome.

~ perspective

I am open to the opportunities
that come as calls to adventure
and if they resonate within me
I am not afraid to step out into
the unknown and discover where
they are trying to lead me.
I peel away the layers of
other people's expectations,
desires, or suppression of
my own innate core essence –
which would keep me from
achieving my purpose in life.
I know that I am always Divinely
guided and I know that pathways
are always prepared for me and
I am attuned clearly enough to
take the road less traveled when
I feel it is meant for me.
I hang on loosely and just as easily
let go for I understand that Life
is movement and that movement is
how the vitality, genius and the
vigor of my own Life express
most easily.
I am fearless about living and
always willing to face the "little
deaths" that come knowing that
on the other side of each transition
is something exciting, new and good.

#bliss #coaching #infidelity #life #myth #procrastination #resolution #responsibility #spirituality #success