“IMAGINE”
“Do not fear when the winds of adversity blow. Remember: the kite rises against the wind rather than with it.”
This saying was on a poster picture hanging on the wall of my doctor’s orthopedic clinic today. There was no credit given, however its author might well have been the doctor himself, a very personable and encouraging individual with an optimistic outlook on life—on top of being a great surgeon. The saying itself is very applicable to our time of adversity where we fear for our lives in the face of a very aggressive virus sweeping the planet and harvesting souls in such an unprecedented and untimely manner—angels ascending on “Jacob’s ladder” without a pause. Hopefully, the vaccination will slow it down . . . and, if it follows the usual path viruses take, COVID-19 will run its two-year course before mutating to a less viral version, with or without a vaccine. (See my HealthLight Newsletter for important information about the Covid-19 vaccine.)
As many are recognizing, we are on the threshold of a major reset in our way of living on the planet. Radical change is being forced upon us by dire circumstances: this pandemic, climate change, violent shifts in weather patterns—hurricanes, snow storms, floods, droughts and wild fires. On top of all that is the solar eclipse in Sagittarius on December 14. (Go to Pam Gregory for a complete astrological forecast.)
The reset underway, however, is not in a downward but rather an upward spiraling direction. A new day has dawned. A New Earth is unfolding out of the New Heaven descending upon human consciousness. Another Golden Age is at hand. Lift up your heads and face the winds of change and rise to greet the New Day!
IMAGING A DIFFERENT WORLD
Imagination is a mental activity. Imaging, on the other hand, takes place in our consciousness. My imaging lately is of an anticipatory nature. I find myself imaging the kinds of changes we will undergo as “new norms” set in—especially in the way we buy and sell services and products. With so many unemployed and lacking funds to feed their children, heat their homes and pay their rent, what are we going to do? The only solution I can imagine is to circumvent our monetary system altogether and start giving to one another according to each one’s needs and means. We CAN DO this, you know.
This I know from personal experience back along the way when I placed my healthcare services on a giving basis, as I related in the previous post. The following is the article I wrote about that pioneering event while attending an Ontology Training Class with my family in 1973 at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado. (I was participating in a class “work pattern” at Sunrise Ranch when this picture was taken. Even as I write this post, I am putting the finishing touches on our storm-damaged floors, the last item on our list of home repairs! Yea!). Enjoy the read.
“HOW DO YOU LIVE, DOCTOR?”
This is a question that I find myself answering day after day in my chiropractic office. It comes as a spontaneous reaction to my answer to a previous question, that inevitable question that tends to
crash through the air during a heart-to-heart conference with the patient: “And how much will all this cost me. Doctor?” Of course it is interestingly worded in many different and revealing ways, like: “What will the damages be?” and “How much will this set me back?” or “And what are we talking about … ?” (“In terms of cost” is implied here but for some strange reason fearfully avoided.)
My answer depends somewhat on which way the crucial question is phrased, but always leads to a basic presentation of our Cooperative Fee System: “There are no charges, as such, for our services. Our patients give each according to their individual means for our service, which is given freely. You also may participate with us in this program.” (This is basically the “GPC Service Principle” which was initiated by Dr. George Shears some thirty years ago and which has become the basis of service for many chiropractors across the continent. The initials stand for: God-Patient-Chiropractor.)
The reaction to this different approach has overtones of mystification. The immediate interpretation of it usually implies that the good doctor is either participating in some government sponsored research program, or is independently wealthy. If neither of these, then he is certainly a generous Christian man, but he doesn’t know how dishonest people are—and how can he survive if he doesn’t ask a fee for his services! So the question forthrightly pops up: “Well, how do you live, Doctor?”
I always appreciate this benevolent concern for the doctor’s welfare as well as the patient’s lack of immediate comprehension of the full implications in my answer to his simple question. After all, his mind is geared to receive dollars and cents signs and I give it the cosmic creative principle of Giving and Receiving. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see this underlying error in human thinking: that health, and therefore life, is a matter of dollars and cents. On one occasion, a gentleman who simply could not wrap his brain around this principle, vehemently insisted I charge a fee for his care. When I refused to back down, he got up and walked out of my office. I felt compassion for him, understanding well the challenge I had placed before him.
Being aware of this disproportion in human minds, mainly because I’ve dealt with it in my own, I’ve learned to look beyond it and to see a sincere innate curiosity in the patient’s question—-an inner knowingness, latent perhaps but very real, that there must be a right way of doing things in all facets of our living. So I address myself to this truth in them and gladly oblige to let them fill this void in their hearts with a true response to a genuine offer. These moments always lead to a most warm and relaxing conversation and exchange of honest feelings. As far as I am concerned, the healing processes go into action here in these relaxed moments of agreement and insight.
One day, as I was explaining to a new patient how this approach allowed me to be free to do whatever might be needed and right for the patient’s return to health without being limited by a set price on my services, he was so taken with delightful surprise that he burst out laughing. I asked him what it was that amused him so. He replied, “Well, to be honest, I was not sure at first that I was hearing correctly. I thought I was the oddball in my thinking about service and money. This has been my exact attitude for years. When I service an engine, my mechanics are constantly encouraged to work on the basis of integrity and honesty, and we do the job right or else the customer doesn’t pay for it until it is right. And you know, that’s the only way to operate a business successfully. Just be honest and open with your customers and take pride in doing the job right, just for the sake of doing it right and preferably the first go at it.”
Well, as you can imagine, I was thrilled to meet such a man and I’ll always remember the intense feeling of agreement we shared together in those few moments and the subsequent rapport that even now continues to grow between us. I think it was then that I stopped trying to measure the immeasurable rewards of true and noble service.
Integrity, honesty, nobility, kindness–when demonstrated openly, these qualities of man’s true nature always engender the same character in those with whom we have our daily transactions. And I think we need to deliberately put this to practice in our every moment and aspect of life by beginning to be perceptive and sensitive enough to see the rightness in others. Even if others do resist giving it forth in their expression themselves, we know that it’s there in them because we know it is true in us. So we can learn to really serve by giving one another an opportunity to release our inherent sense of rightness–addressing ourselves to that in one another and trusting that we will touch what’s right and beautiful. We can learn to be patient in this and masters in the art of true living. This IS the real business at hand for all men and women of Earth in these
momentous times.♥
ABOUT THOSE “LOAVES AND FISHES”
In my gut feeling, the “miracle of the loves and fishes” was about sharing and not about multiplying. The biblical story portrays the Teacher manifesting food for the crowd. I rather believe that when the people saw His disciples sharing their bread and fishes with others, those who had brought food with them began sharing it with those who had not. Thus the crowd was fed, and there were even leftovers. That, to me, was the real message of the story—a story about the abundance of provision in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Wealth is to be shared around and not hoarded.
“IMAGINE”
Attunement colleagues and friends reminded me today that this year marks 40 years since John Lennon left this earthly sphere after being gunned down. I leave you, then, with the lyrics of his legendary signature song, IMAGINE.
As I look back to the 1980’s, we had just completed a fourteen year cycle practicing our profession on the GPC no-fee system. I say “we” because I was joined by two other colleagues seven years later when I moved my practice to Baton Rouge, Louisiana from Denham Springs. So, we were unknowingly modeling a way of serving and living as John Lennon imagined it could be. I suppose we were dreamers as well—and I’m still dreaming, imaging a New Earth. Enjoy the lyrics.
Imagine there’s no heavenIt’s easy if you tryNo hell below usAbove us, only skyImagine all the peopleLiving for todayImagine there’s no countriesIt isn’t hard to doNothing to kill or die forAnd no religion tooImagine all the peopleLiving life in peaceYou may say I’m a dreamerBut I’m not the only oneI hope someday you’ll join usAnd the world will be as oneImagine no possessionsI wonder if you canNo need for greed or hungerA brotherhood of manImagine all the peopleSharing all the worldYou may say I’m a dreamerBut I’m not the only oneI hope someday you’ll join usAnd the world will be as one
Dreams do come true, and images do materialize in season. I think this is their season, John Lennon. Thank you for dreaming.
Healing Tones 