THIS INCARNATION 6

P.97-98

In our work here today we are walking a fine edge between what we might call free will and determination or predestination. Essentially all is within our level of choice, but as we incarnate here on planet Earth our soul has already made some about what our lessons are this lifetime. Of course we have a choice, while we are here, either to learn those lessons or not at this time, even though eventually we will always choose to grow with them.

It might be important to realize that without speaking of it too much, we are continually distinguishing between the Self that you are and the personality self that you have adopted and created for this lifetime.

As was mentioned before we are pushing the envelope. We are pushing the intellect as far as it can go within its linear understanding of life, and then going beyond it to a much broader understanding that cannot be completely explained in words.

During our lesson today, I was blessed to be given the vision of the French impressionist painter Monet. If you were to stand close to one of his creations, all that you would see would be a bunch of colored dots seeming seemingly without shape or form. If, however, you were to step back, all of these very colored dots would come together in a particular form or shape and the entire picture would be revealed.

Here we are in a particular life circumstance, trapped in this limited view of things as being stuck in this one little dot. And in our own overwhelmed state of mind, so identified with this one piece, thinking it is the whole thing. This one piece could be an illness, our own or someone else's, a deep tragedy, or it could be as simple as spilling something on the floor. “Why did this happen to me,” we cry.

As soon as we ask that question consciously, we can become aware of the varied choices that are available to us. Let us suppose we take something simple as a cup of coffee or tea that you have spent some time in preparing and have been looking forward to. As you are ready to take the first sip, that you have anticipated for so long, the cup slips out of your hand and breaks on the floor scattering shards and liquid all over the place.

“Why did this happen to me?” you ask again. The least conscious answer would be, “I don't know why things like this always seem to be happening to me. I never really get what I want. Life sucks.” So we wrap ourselves in an old Image of victim consciousness, and have just reinforced our identity within this framework of limitation and victimhood.

If we happen to be a little bit more open in awareness, the answer to the question “Why did this happen to me?” might take the tone of self-judgement. “It happened because you're an idiot! You're never paying attention. What makes you think you deserve a nice cup of coffee anyway?”

If you are in a scientific, overly intellectual mode of thought and are denying your emotions,  you could reflect that the fallen cup was simply the result of the law of gravity.

Going a little bit deeper, you might realize the dropped cop happened so that you could go beyond self-judgement, so that you could learn patience, so that you could realize stuff happens in life, and can not always be explained.

Deeper still, “No matter what life circumstances might be, I remain a Divine Child of God unconditionally loved.”

If the cup that was broken happens to be important to you, you might also go through a whole series a possible lessons. One of the final ones being “Even though I was attached to that cup the meaning that I gave it is beyond the material world. The cup was made by my granddaughter and even though it no longer exists, it is still a symbol of the love she has for me and that I have for her. In fact, I can even be grateful because I have released some of my material attachment to that love and realize it now on a deeper level of my being.”

it is also important to realize that the lessons we choose are not simply those that affect us as individuals, but that many people are touched because of their involvement with us and our involvement with them. Do you see how the mystery of life circumstances, the mystery of our own lessons, our own creations, becomes more and more multi-layered as we open ourselves to a deeper and deeper reality?

A final piece for today is that there are many reasons why a particular lesson might show up again and again. We do have the choice of learning a lesson or not, or perhaps putting it on hold for a while. But even that choice is part of our learning. There might be lessons that I do not choose to take on at the moment because I do not deem myself as being ready for them. There might be some lessons that tap me on the shoulder, as it were, and will keep coming back until I realize that the power and strength to work with them or learn from them is now a part of my awareness.

It might be, when presented with a particular lesson, that I continually approach it from the limited sense of my personality self and therefore keep pulling away. Whereas the next time it confronts me, I realize that I am aligned with the divine power within myself, and now because I am in Spirit, I am ready able and willing to take on this lesson. The lesson and perhaps even its form has not changed, but my perception of myself, the one who is faced with this lesson, the one who is learning, has become deeper and more powerful

“Not everything is predetermined. We do not say that. But we do say that you encounter yourself through your fellows in ways that are predetermined, to grant you the opportunity to claim the lessons you came here for. What does it mean to claim a lesson? To agree to it. Now, you may agree to the circumstance or the challenge. “I need to know what it feels like to be the prisoner or the keeper this time around.” “I need to know that I am still in my worth regardless of what society has told me.” “I need to learn that I can transform myself in ways that amaze me because I know who I am.” But these are choices you make to grow. And if you turn down the opportunity for learning that is presented in each of them, you will call the opportunity to you again. There is no shame in this. You may take the test again until you say, “Aha! I know! I understand, and I know that I may move forward in my worth in this new knowledge I have accepted as my own.”

Every week I am so blessed to be with all of you. In love and gratitude.