Pushkara is a Whidbey Island lightworker who owns a gypsy wagon and plans a tour, “SingPeace! Pilgrimage for Peace and Global Harmony.” Steve and I encouraged her to write, collaborate and contribute to the Golden Age of Gaia via articles or video offerings. Here’s her first, full of wonderful insights.
I have just come off of an 8-day immersion in writing a grant proposal for my “Roots of hOMe” video project.
I learned about funding from a lightworker buddy, Becca Atkins, who heads an amazing program, ArtReach and Second Step Players in Connecticut which engages people with mental health issues in creative endeavors. They stage musicals, do stand up comedy, and perform songs – all of it written by folks in institutions or day treatment.
In their performances, you cannot discern client from staff member! This program should serve as a national model for approaches to mental health issues.
I shared your article, “A Mature Lightworker Community” with Becca Atkins. One thing led to another, and she suggested I respond to the request for proposals from the Surdna Foundation for funding via a new program, “Artists Engaging in Social Change.”
Hadn’t we just been discussing that very thing during your West Coast Express tour? And didn’t your article very clearly lay out a template or “context” for the kind of far-reaching vision that would inspire and sustain community action?
The Surdna Foundation RFP (request for proposals) had my name and the gypsy wagon journey of SingPeace! Pilgrimage for Peace and Global Harmony written all over it!
We’ve never asked for money from any source until now. In fact, the last grant I applied for was during my teaching days in the ’70’s. But aren’t we looking for opportunities to extend a hand or a leg up, locally and globally, to the human community so that we can all experience the oneness and unity of purpose we came here for?
I had only 8 days until the midnight deadline, barely an hour ago. So, that’s where I’ve been all this time.
Having left a trail of core issues, vasanas exploding and exposing the tender underbelly of resistance and negativity in my otherwise cheerful nature, I’m happy to report that it’s “in the can.” I submitted the proposal.
Before continuing with my tale, I want to say more about the “crisis of confidence” that I experienced while writing the grant proposal.
Time was short; the pressure was building to “get it done.” I went into a rage and wondered who and what I was becoming. Chagrined and ashamed, I announced that I wasn’t going to put myself and my family through that, again.
Looking closer at what had set me off, was the reality that I’ve accepted a mission that I cannot do alone. I won’t do it alone.
Calling together the forces of the universe who would hear and heed my declaration, we had a confab, a palaver. I did most of the talking. We got a few things straight, the Mother, the archangels, the Ascended Masters, my Gurus, the bunch of us.
On the same weekend, I attended a benefit sponsored by the Veteran’s Resource Center which serves 13,000 vets (non-active duty) living on this tiny island. “Soldier’s Sanctuary” is a film about Vietnam servicemen returning to plant trees with former enemy combatants in the Peace Trees Garden.
I’d just been writing these folks into my grant proposal, but this was my first encounter with them.
The next day, the Whidbey Institute was celebrating the life and legacy of Thomas Berry, with a panel and community exchange of ideas about “Living the New Story—a New Cosmology, Community, and Commitment.”
At this event I heard echoes of the conversation about ‘context’ we’d had when you visited here.
“The Universe story is the quintessence of reality. We perceive the story. We put it in our language, the birds put it in theirs, and the trees put it in theirs. We can read the story of the Universe in the trees. Everything tells the story of the Universe.
The winds tell the story, literally, not just imaginatively. The story has its imprint everywhere, and that is why it is so important to know the story. If you do not know the story, in a sense you do not know yourself; you do not know anything.” –Thomas Berry
What did Steve write about ‘context?’
“If we want our project ideas to inspire people enough that they take committed action, the first thing we need to create is a global context for them that inspires.
“If we plant fruit trees to benefit the community and that’s the sole context we operate in, I’m not clear that we’d generate a great deal of enthusiasm for it. We might but it might not last past the duration of the actual planting.
“But if we build it as the first step toward ending global hunger on the planet by 2017 by modeling planting for communal use, we may transform our idea from one of limited appeal to one of a much greater and deeper commitment – an idea whose time has come. “
A truly global context is holistic, universal, and inclusive. It describes a whole. It applies everywhere. And it leaves no one out, unless they want to be left out or disqualify themselves by acting in ways that the society as a whole won’t tolerate or condone.
“A truly global context calls us forth… being called forth sees us reach a place where we’re ready to take committed action, with no reservations. It creates enthusiasm. It moves us to action. It inspires momentum.”
Momentum is what I’ve got, so much so that I had to put this note to you aside so that I could carry on with a flood of day-to-day details. A host of helpers, unseen and on-the-ground, are here, wanting to be a part of the action.
The focus of this shift into high gear is within my awareness, my “story,” if you like. I saw how I was propelled by a “gotta get it done” narrative.
I’ve removed the word, “get,” replacing it with two others: “invite” and “allow.”
Minus the internal resistance, the former daily grind has given way to eternal flow. Nice, huh?
Naturally, in the new environment, rapid-fire syncronicities appear, even more invitations and opportunities to allow and engage appear.
A recent gem came in the form of a conversation between Dr. Wayne Dyer and Abraham/Ester Hicks. I’ve incorporated it into a practice.
You could call it “frequency monitoring.” With the first thoughts on waking in the morning, I become aware of the relative ease (alignment) or dis-ease (misalignment) of my thought stream.
Abraham explained that the course is set in the first 17 seconds, and that the “Law of Attraction,” allows for a more intimate alignment with Source if in the next 17 seconds and the 17 seconds after that, etc., our “focus” continues in the direction of the higher frequencies.
This has become a sort of “action plan” for me, to direct my focus and intention, effortlessly allowing momentum to build, frequency to rise and clarity to ensue, resulting in alignment, a feeling awareness of presence…absorption…joy, love, knowing.
Here, in this state of re-cognition, Purno a’ham vimarsha, the perfect “I-consciousness,” the “monkey mind” has no power. It holds no sway.
The “I” roams freely in the higher frequencies, soothed, breathed and bathed in purest sat-chid-ananda, existence-consciousness-bliss.