I was recently speaking with someone I’ve grown to truly love, even though we haven’t known each other very long. I was surprised and somewhat confused when she said that she was concerned that somehow the love I was feeling for her wasn’t actually love because I tend to look for, and see, the best in everybody, not just her. I was taken aback, unprepared to defend my outlook or even offer her an explanation for the love and admiration I had been expressing to her. Momentarily I gathered my thoughts, and consulted my heart, and then I admitted that she was correct in her assessment of my tendency to see the best in people, but I went on to explain that the tendency wasn’t the driving force behind my love for her. I further explained that the love I’d been offering her, was an expansive expression of the love that I have for myself and many others, and naturally it included her. Still seeing the doubt in her eyes, I went on to describe my understanding of love – how I see love. As you might imagine, I’m visually oriented, so my description was indeed a visualization. Imagine that each of us carries a sphere of love within us. The sphere expands and contracts in direct relation to our capacity to offer others unconditional (pure) love. And yes, our capacity to love others is inextricably tied with our capacity to love ourselves, unconditionally. There is one other feature to this visualization that I’ve come to understand recently. When we give love freely to others, without expectations or conditions attached, the sphere (our capacity to show love) does not diminish. It expands exponentially.
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Pennsylvania
Just a few moments ago, this morning actually, I announced the inception of a new type of community. I wrote an invitation on Facebook for others to join me in the creation of this new community – I named it an “Alt Unity”. I’m extending the same invitation here, on the Grand Providentia United website, because that is why I started this site in the first place. I wanted to offer an alternative safe place to be, for those who’ve become disillusioned with current traditional communities.
I’ll lay out some of the dreams and intentions that brought me to the formation of this Alt Unity, and I’ll also describe some of the practical workings as I’ve envisioned them, in tomorrow’s entry. Until then, may your moments be free from fear and overflowing with love.
Alt Unity is a term derived through the process of conscious invention. Whenever I can successfully manage to subdue my own scattered thoughts (ego), for even a moment, and in that moment, I establish a connection with consciousness at its Source, I discover that I/We each have direct access to all the knowledge, wisdom and creativity we require to evolve and thrive in this world. So, here is the definition of Alt Unity, given my current capacity to define it: Alt Unity is an evolutionary progression of community as we’ve previously understood it. Alt Unity is an offshoot of common unity (community), in that it is based on a different commonality, a different connectivity, a different unity between human beings. The unifying commonality that defines Alt Unity is our undeniable conscious connection with one another in the current moment. Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, no matter our level of conscious awareness, we are sharing, and influencing, the present moment.
Our Time Shared on the Bridge
In the previous paragraph, I put forth a preliminary definition of the Alt Unity, but I’m quite certain that the definition will always remain fluid, and the flow of the Alt Unity will determine its eventual manifestation in the physical world. To take it one step further, our collective conscious intentions (and Source) will be guiding the evolution of the Alt Unity until it becomes precisely what it is meant to be. It is what it is, and it will be what it will be. For some who choose to join Alt Unity, this will be a difficult concept to embrace. Giving over their control, and self-determination to the collective consciousness for any amount of growth or personal reward, will seem to be impossible. To others, it will feel more natural and liberating than any common unity they’ve ever experienced before. Imagine trusting, without reservation, that the world and your place in it, is evolving into precisely what it is meant to be. Trusting in the nature of what is, what has been, and what will be, is currently a baseline concept of the Alt Unity.
You’ll notice below that I’ve added a virtual tip jar. As a lifelong working artist, I’ve always struggled with the economic systems of this world. Early in life, I was given the message that creativity (art) was effectively worthless because it is a luxury rather than a commodity. That art is only worth something to those who can afford it. In the past decade, I’ve come to realize that those early learnings have not been serving me well. Creativity is what I have to offer. Creativity is what I do best. Your contribution will make it possible for me to create more. To be more.
Collective conscious intentions, with the crucial assistance of Source, will guide the flow of the Alt Unity toward where it is meant to be in each successive moment. I am currently feeling the urge to apologize to many of those who have been reading this blog. Some of you may be exhausted by the other-worldly nature of my writing. I can imagine your frustration, especially if you are looking for facts or something solid to hang your metaphorical hat on, and all I continually provide you with are riddles within riddles. It’s ridiculous! Instead of apologizing though, I’ll now turn toward reason, rather than continuing to entertain metaphysical imaginings. Specifically, I’ll spell out the reason that I’ve decided to initiate the Alt Unity at this moment in our shared story of humankind. To accomplish this task, I will need to describe the reach of the intentions already sent forth and the ultimate expectations of the outcomes yet to be manifested by those intentions. And beyond that, I’ll need to give you an explanation of where Iam at in the here and now, and where I’m expecting we’llbe in the perceivable future.
The Cosmic Picture
The most practical description I can currently formulate, of what the Alt Unity will become, where it will be located physically, and how it will manifest positive change, is as follows – The Alt Unity will become a worldwide creative projection, intended to heal and preserve the human race, to replenish and protect the Earth’s environment and its inhabitants (on which, our physical survival depends) and to promote broad reaching societal change that will sustain the viability and relevance of our shared efforts toward these primary objectives. It is intended that the Alt Unity will remain unbiased as it relates to race, religious belief, cultural origin, political ideology, or any other defining characteristic that points to our differences. Instead, the Alt Unity is intended to remain focused on only the aspects of humanity that we share. Our commonalities.
The Alt Unity will manifest, in the physical sense, as a series of large-scale collaborative creations, placed intentionally at specific locations around the world. These creations will act as focal points and gathering sites for the reception and transmission of collective conscious intentions. The visual appearance of each of these focal points will be designed through a conscious creative collaboration, each creation having its own unique interpretation with relevance to the specific location on the globe and the cultural heritage of its local inhabitants.
And this creative projection of collective consciousness will be the subject and the object of the “True story, as Yet Unfolding…” The surrealistic documentary that I am intending to create once I am versed in the language of film.
Most of us are taught early in life about our inborn freedom of will. For many young people, the instructions on this subject seem to be blaring at them from every angle. So much so, that they feel overwhelmed by the flow of information, advised restrictions, and proper guidelines concerning the use of something they were initially taught, was free and available to everyone. Concerned parents, organized religions, educational institutions, political systems and even our closest friends want to offer us advice on the use of free will. Some sources will warn us that we do have freedom of will, but there is a potential for grave consequences if we should choose to lay claim to, and assert it, under any circumstances at all. Quite often, these teachings in particular are motivated by the desire to gain access to, and achieve power over, our freedom to express our personal will. Some people, in their deep desire for ultimate control, have chosen to exploit the free will of others to advance the expression of their own. In all fairness though, the people who are exploited this way are in truth, a willing party to that exploitation, in that they have handed over some (or all) of their will, erroneously believing that it is the best choice for them. Perhaps they believe that their will is weak, therefore they need to attach it to a stronger will in order to make it worthy. Others, in their fear, perceive a potential vulnerability that the expression of their free will may beget them. After all, if you are expressing your personal will (making it known), you are also opening yourself up to potential criticism, or at worst, physical attack by the possessors of opposing wills. And so, at a very early age, many of us begin to fragment our will, doling out portions to individuals, institutions and our own belief systems, until finally, we seem to have no stake in the determination of our own willfulness. We eventually perceive that our will is no longer free, it has been bought and paid for, it has been enslaved by the world at large.
“Distorted Self-Image“
The good news is, that all is not lost! In truth, there is no loss at all. We can redeem and reclaim our freedom of will, whenever we decide that the time is right. The only things that stand in our way are the misguided thought patterns we’ve adopted along the path. And, who better to discard misguided thought patterns than the one who adopted them in the first place. We can choose to stop entertaining negative beliefs about the current status of our will. We can decide to break our individual will free from the bondage of fear and systemic conditioning and allow it to return to its rightful position as the initiator and manifester of positive intentions in our lives.
Thank you for setting aside some moments to read here! I’m truly grateful for your supportive attention. I will continue to explore free will as it relates to the setting of positive intentions in tomorrow’s blog entry.
If we’ve already perceived that our personal will power is truly free, and in the light of that perception we’ve made a conscious decision to accept its guidance in the directing of our daily affairs, then why does it seem like such a drain of energy when we practice the use of this so-called freewill? In my limited understanding of the concept of free will, I intuit that the majority of the resistance we encounter while exercising it, is arising from within ourselves. We’ve been conditioned in one way or another, to believe that being willful is somehow wrong. Many of us have been institutionalized by authoritarian systems of government who, in an effort to gain power over our freedom of will, have taught us that any expression of personal willfulness is indicative of a character defect which they’ve categorized as “nonconformity”, and they’ve placed this defect beneath the broader category of “undesirable selfish behaviors”. Quite a few of the world’s organized religions teach that our free will should be, at the very least, sublimated to the will of God, and at best, completely forsaken for fear of following your will into eternal damnation. For those who’ve adopted these theological doctrines to motivate the curtailing of their own free will, I would ask – Why would an omnipotent God create human beings with the capacity to express personal willfulness, if there was never any intention to let them practice it, freely? Surely, a benevolent Creator would have had your greatest earthly potential in mind. The God of my understanding apparently takes great pleasure in my individual expression of free will. Otherwise, why would I feel such incredible joy when I practice the art of personal willful expression? My will must be free!
“Serpent Sublime” Copperhead photo taken in Blue Ridge, GA.
The Snake, the Frog and the Freedom of Will
Whenever I’m experiencing an emotional hardship or spiritual tribulation, I feel the urge to take a walk outside. I’ve learned that a long walk alone in the woods is usually more healing to my soul than any other activity that I could choose to engage in. Nature, it seems, can absorb and transmute my human suffering, then reflect it back to me in the form of a natural panacea for whatever is currently troubling me. And so, when I am in pain, I immediately feel the need to take a walk.
On one such occasion, I was walking along a path at the De Soto National Memorial in Bradenton, Florida. On this particularly beautiful, blue-sky, sunny-day, I remember being deeply absorbed in my own troubled thoughts. My marriage of twenty-plus years appeared to be coming apart at the seams, and the pain of it was, I had no idea how to sew it back together. But walking wasn’t working, and thinking was working less than walking, so I was becoming more miserable by the step. That was when I heard it… A small but clearly distressed voice, saying “Help Meeeee!” I stopped walking so abruptly that my thoughts seemed to wrench free from my head and continue up the path, unconcerned that they were leaving my body behind. I looked self-consciously around me, completely startled and thinking someone might be playing a prank on me. Surely, I was just being punked. I half expected to see a child of the corn come running out from beneath the mangroves, giggling and carrying on, cheerfully singing “I got you! I got you! I got you!”. Instead, I saw no movement at all, but I did hear the voice again “Help Meeeee!” It sounded like the voice of a terrified tiny gnome, yelling as loud as possible in an effort to get my full attention. When I finally managed to gather my wits, I was able to zero in on the source of the voice after two or three more pleading calls for help. There, on the top of a wooden sign attesting to the exploratory genius of Hernando de Soto, was a garter snake with a leopard frog sticking out of its mouth. On closer inspection, I could see that the snake had already consumed one of the frog’s rear legs and the other one was bending backwards as the snake slowly swallowed its prey. As I watched, entranced by the unfolding drama, the frog let out another pathetic plea. “Help Meeeee!” Even when I was looking straight at it and fully aware that it was a frog and not a person, I still heard a distinctly human voice. That voice was begging for my help.
“Frog Friend in the S.M.art Studio” 2011
I quickly made the decision to enforce my own will on the situation. I bet many of you are thinking “Who in the hell thinks like that?” I mean the very idea of enforcing one’s will on a frog and a snake engaged in a struggle that has been played out over and over, without human interference, for many a millennium. Nonetheless, I really wanted to save that poor frog. After apologizing to Mr. Snake for what I was about to do, I grabbed hold of his ample head just behind the lower jaw and pulled the snake’s writhing body from the wooden signpost. Recognizing its vulnerability, the snake released the frog’s leg to free up its needle-sharp fangs with hopes that it could then sink them into my fleshy fingers. As soon as the frog had its leg free, it hit the ground jumping. Big happy leaps, seemingly. And I seemed to sense an amphibious gratitude left behind along the arched trail of its departure. As for the snake, well let’s just say that it wasn’t impressed by my heroic actions. I set it down cautiously, once the frog had a good head start, and the snake gave me a cold and disdainful look as it slithered away into the tangled mangrove forest.
I’m sure that certain environmentalists would likely chastise me for this behavior, claiming that I had altered the outcome of an important environmental event – namely the predator eats prey event. And certain well-to-do socialites would say that my actions were repulsive and that I should wash my hands thoroughly after handling those disgusting creatures. But, in my final analysis of this true story, I prefer to take a more philosophical approach to describe the nature of my actions. I chose to enforce my free will in a situation that shouldn’t have concerned me at all. I did it with the intention of changing the future circumstances of both the frog and the snake. I have no idea what the outcome of my intentions were, regarding the life of the frog or the snake, or the world for that matter, because you know what they say about the butterfly effect, but I do know that it was me intentionally practicing my free will. And ultimately, I know, that exercising our free will is a very good thing, to practice!
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