“The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the Social and the Political fabric of America. The confidence that we have always had as a people, is not simply some romantic dream, or a proverb in a dusty book that we read, just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea of which founded our nation and has guided us in our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else. We’ve always believed in a thing called, progress. We’ve always had a faith, that the days of our children, would be better than our own. Our people are losing that faith. For the first time in the history of our country, a majority of our people believe, that the next five years, will be worse than the past five years. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the presidency as a place of honor, until the shock of Watergate. We’ve got to stop crying and start sweating. Stop talking and start walking. Working together, with our common faith, we cannot fail.” ~Jimmy Carter, 1979
When I turned on the news at lunch-time today and saw the tragedy that happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, with tears running down my face I was flooded with thoughts, fears and emotions. Having been a former President of a Board of Education, and knowing how hard local leaders work to make our children safe, to have something like this happen is unthinkable.
Between the shooting in Oregon at just the beginning of this week, to today’s tragedy, one cannot help but wonder what is happening in our world. As I watch the news, many are looking to our leaders for answers and solutions. Can things be done on this level to precipitate change? Of course, but that is only the beginning. We as citizens, as humans, need to remember our divine contract. WE are the ones that have to make the change collectively. This is not about the President, the school systems or the even the individual who committed this heinous crime…this is about the loss of balance in our thinking and actions as a whole…as humanity.
Tragedies do not happen because God is punishing us or those involved. Tragedies happen to balance what is out of balance. What causes us to fall out of balance? Our individualist thinking, our loss of community, our selfishness, our fear, our focus on those things that fall away such as material items versus those things that matter such as the ones we love and our relationships. God and his angels watch these events with tears falling down their faces just as we do, and they are there to surround those who are suffering and hold the space so healing can happen. But God is not to blame. God does not “allow” this to happen…we do. He created this reality for us to be joyful, loving and live in a “paradise.” WE are the ones who fell out of balance. We took our free-will to a place that no longer serves us.
The energies surrounding us at this time will no longer tolerate hate crimes and individualist thinking. Time has run out. It is time to change. Those little ones who died today sacrificed their souls to show us that our children cannot be vulnerable anymore and to show us that we need to drastically change.
Pray for those who have crossed over, pray for those who survived and have to now cope with what they witnessed, pray for our leaders to make the necessary changes to move us in the right direction…but most importantly, pray that YOU are strong enough to make the changes that you need to make to step up and be the person you were born to be. If we each do our small part, we can change the world.
In honor of the little angels and adults who sacrificed their lives for our learning today…Love and light to you all.
Chris
Psalm 147:3 “Heal the broken-hearted and bind up their wounds.”
Kick Me
Do you ever feel as if you must be walking around with a “kick me” sign on your back? A BIG sign…like, one so big the Universe even sees it and says “ok, no problem!” When this imaginary sign is on your back, nothing in your world goes right. No matter what you do or say, ouch, another kick in the behind.
I spent the holiday week with a “kick me” sign on my back. I have to say that I am pretty sure this past week was the worst week of my life, even worse than the one when my Dad crossed over. There comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to look in the mirror and see a shadow…that one thing you know has been there, lurking right in front of you, but you haven’t had the courage to do anything about it. But now you know it’s time. Who said courage was easy anyway? This past week I found my courage…but it broke my heart.
We all make mistakes. Mistakes are how we learn our lessons. Some mistakes affect only us, but some affect those around us as well. Those are the ones that are the hardest. Hardest for those who realize they made the mistake and hurt others and hard for those in the sidelines who watch and are affected and hurt by that mistake.
When we are faced with doing something that is hard, we lose our breath, can’t focus on anything, have a sudden urge to run away from it all and either want to be totally alone or around a ton of people so we do not have to face what we are certain will come up if we are left alone. The movie, “A League of Their Own,” with Tom Hanks has a classic line I sometimes repeat to myself when life gets tough: “If it were easy, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great!” This line reminds me that it is the hard times in our lives that make us who we are. Those who we look up to and admire because of who they are or the life they have, have that kind of life because they made choices (hard choices) others may not have had the courage to make.
Courage is not acting without fear; it is acting in spite of fear. When you feel lost inside because of something that has happened to you or someone you love, there is one thing and one thing only that is the cure to feeling better: YOU. Life is made up of hard choices and painful events. It is not what happens to us that makes us, it is the choices we make after that “something” happens that build us into who we will become. Tragedies, death, poor choices made by the ones we love dearly, financial hardships…all of these things are enough to break a normal human. But, you are not just human. You are a divine spiritual being having a human experience. That means you are more than the physical body you can touch and the feelings you are currently feeling. You are an essence that never dies, feeds off of joy and loves unconditionally. Never underestimate your true divine nature. We are all small pieces of God on earth playing a role to help move humanity forward. No one said it would be easy. You cannot take away other peoples lessons just to spare them pain. Your path is the only path you can walk. Don’t try to live your life and everyone else’s at the same time…trust me, it will only exhaust you. Live your life the best you can and remember to take one day at a time, breathe, choose those who surround you wisely, feed your mind and body positive, nourishing “food,” and practice trust. Trust that you knew what you were doing when you came here and trust that God has your back.
I’ll pray for you if you pray for me?
Chris
Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc. You can learn more about her at www.ChrisSopa.com. Find her at Facebook.com/ChrisSopaInternational, Twitter @ChrisSopa, LinkedIn, and Google+.
“Choosing the Life You Were Born to Live: How Changing Your Thoughts Will Change Your Life” by Chris Sopa published by Balboa Press.
“It is time to stop talking and start walking; stop crying and start sweating. Working together with a common faith we cannot fail.” ~Jimmy Carter, U.S. Presidential Speech 1979
In the movie What the Bleep Do We Know, Dr. Hagelin describes a rather unconventional social experiment conducted in Washington D.C. Over a two month period of time, 4,000 individuals came together to meditate daily with the intention of lowering the crime rate. Normally during the summer in Washington D.C. the crime rate sharply increases due to the warmer weather. From June 7th through July 30th 1993, the time-frame of the meditation experiment, crime in Washington D.C. was reduced by 23.6%. The likelihood that this was merely a “coincidence” was calculated at two parts per billion, also noting that Dr. Hagelin’s experiment was repeated 48 times with similar results in prisons, inner-city schools, war-torn areas like Nicaragua, Iran, Israel and Lebanon.
Recently, the United States has encountered a natural “tragedy,” referred to as Hurricane Sandy. She left her mark on New York, New Jersey and several other locations for quite some time to come. Whenever any challenging or tragic event occurs, there are always two by-products; gratitude and an opening of the heart. These types of events leave you feeling very thankful for what you have, the people in your lives and sometimes plain thankful for being alive. This gratitude leads to an opening of the heart and our altruism kicks into full gear. We immediately want to help in some way…our “hearts go out” to the people who were affected by the tragedy.
Studies have shown that altruism is hard-wired in our brains. When hooked up to brain scanning machines, people who were asked to think about giving money to someone had the same exact parts of their brain light up as when they thought about selfish pleasures such as eating and sex. (It brings a whole new meaning to the term “this is better than sex!”)
What came up for you during Hurricane Sandy? Were you grateful? Did you wonder in what way you could help? Did you feel empowered or like a victim who has no control over what happens? Everything happens for a reason…even natural events. They are meant to wake us up; to force us to think and do things in a different way when no other way has worked. They are there to teach us something about ourselves and how we relate to each other. What does it really mean to you to be “alive?” Is it all about you or is it about us?
When I hike the Inca Trail in Peru, the shamans teach you to always give back to the Earth that which you took. If you pick up a rock, give back to the Earth something in your possession – a piece of hair or a sacred article of your own. Everything is about balance. When Mother Earth creates a hurricane, she is balancing her energy. What happens is as much about us as it is about her.
Instead of reflecting upon why this happened, turn the mirror inward. Where does your life need balancing? What is some personal “tragedy” in your life trying to teach you? Is there anything in your life that needs to be “washed away” so something new can have room to enter?
Think about it…not everything is how it seems.
“The best medicine of all is the simplest medicine. Let us all learn self-love, self-forgiveness, compassion and understanding. Then we will be able to give those gifts to others. By healing the person, we can heal Mother Earth.”
~Elizabeth Kubler Ross
Praying we all finally step into who we are,
Chris
Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc. You can learn more about her at www.ChrisSopa.com. Find her at Facebook.com/ChrisSopaInternational, Twitter @ChrisSopa, LinkedIn, and Google+.
Announcing the publication of “Choosing the Life You Were Born to Live: How Changing Your Thoughts Will Change Your Life” by Chris Sopa published by Balboa Press.