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CONNECTING WITH AN OPEN HEART

CONNECTING WITH AN OPEN HEART

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Last week I received an invitation from a small town in Wyoming to a ceremony for Vietnam veterans. The names of each are being etched into a plaque to be mounted in the town square next month. They invited me as one of their own – a vet from Cowley, Wyoming. I felt the depth of the honoring this town has for me and for my fellow veterans that came from there. I was so appreciative, but the thing is, I am not from that town!

I was busy, but I emailed back: I served in Vietnam, but I am not from Cowley. Thank you so very much for thinking of me. I feel like I have been adopted. Love, Gary. Within hours another email arrived: Hi Gary. I do not know how you received this email. I am aware of your great work. I love your books…and am baffled as to how you landed on this list. Love, John

Now I have a connection with Cowley, Wyoming, and John and the people in Cowley and the people from Cowley who served their country. This came at the perfect time for me. Linda and I live in a small town, also. Sometimes I forget how many people have read my books and appreciate them. This unexpected invitation helped me to remember, and it filled me with joy. I cannot say it was a misplaced invitation, because it found the person who needed most to read it. Me.

If you think you know all you need to know to reach beyond your familiar environments – to create authentic power – please consider my story. Without reaching out to others, you will never swim in the vast ocean of meaning and fulfillment around you. Like a small fish that has never left a coral reef, you will live in the illusion that you have experienced all your life offers you and that your joy and freedom demand. This is the life I was living when this picture was taken.

Connecting with others with an open heart is the greatest challenge and reward of the Earth school. Only frightened parts of your personality resist it, and they are the parts that confine you. The next time you feel withdrawn, uninterested, preoccupied, or overwhelmed, try giving the frightened parts of your personality the strongest challenge you can. Open yourself to someone. Open your heart and share your attention. Share the precious presence you are in the Earth school. See what you can learn about yourself. See what you can contribute to others.

You may also want to look at other frightened parts of your personality that could be keeping you from connecting with your heart, such those that are extroverted, the life of the party, gregarious, full of themselves, and too busy to answer an email that obviously doesn’t pertain to them.

Life beyond the reef is amazing.

Love.
Linda & Gary

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Kindness

Kindness

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Last week our granddaughter graduated from Oregon State University. Linda and I were thrilled. The guest speaker surprised everyone. Instead of the usual encouragement to climb mountains and follow dreams, he suggested that the graduates be kind. “As you grow older,” said this wise and accomplished Turkish businessman who also has founded a four-year university in Turkey, “you will find that your most fulfilling moments will be times of giving or receiving kindness.” I agree. Dreams, aspirations, and successful ventures are not difficult to accomplish compared with developing kindness toward others and toward yourself. When you are encapsulated in a frightened part of your personality – such as anger, jealousy, despair, superiority and entitlement, inferiority and need to please – how can you experience kindness for others or for yourself? How can you experience kindness when a frightened part of your personality wants to kill someone or kill itself?

Our species is expanding in its perception beyond the five senses. Getting the job done, finishing first, having it all – now lead nowhere. These goals are parts of the pursuit of external power. External power is the ability to manipulate and control. Pursuing external power now creates only violence and destruction. Our evolution now requires us to create another kind of power – authentic power. Authentic power is the alignment of your personality with your soul. It is the ability to distinguish in yourself the difference between love and fear and choose love no matter what is happening inside you (such as anger, jealousy, etc.) or what is happening outside you (such as a 911-type event).

If you are called, we invite you to attend our annual summer retreat this year, the Journey to the Soul, in Portland Oregon and learn about authentic power and practice creating it and spiritual partnerships. The Journey is different each year, and Linda and I enjoy more and more sharing it each year.

Eventually we will all graduate from the Earth school. When you do, kindness will be your way of life, your joy, and your fulfillment.

Love.
Linda & Gary

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YOUR BUCKET LIST

YOUR BUCKET LIST

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Do you have a bucket list? Five-sensory humans think of physical experiences they want before they die, for example, parachuting, mountain climbing, or going to Paris. The parts of their personalities that originate in fear need experiences like these to make themselves feel valuable. Multisensory humans think of the contributions they can make to others and the world before their souls return to nonphysical reality, for example, tenderness, compassion, patience, and gratitude. The parts of their personalities that originate in love contribute these things continually, and contributing them brings meaning, purpose, and fulfillment to the personality.

As a personality ponders its limited time on the Earth, it is able to compare more clearly the experiences that it longs for from love and the experiences it desires from fear. Five-sensory bucket lists cannot satisfy multisensory humans, and multisensory bucket lists cannot satisfy five-sensory humans. Their perceptions, aspirations, and intentions are different.
A trip to Paris or sailing on an ocean are not always distractions from your fulfillment. But sometimes they are. Let meaning be your guide. Review your bucket list if you have one, or experiment with writing one. Then consider whether the goals on it are worthy of your remaining time in the Earth school.
Love.
Linda & Gary

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