I love stimulating conversation. I love conversations that make me think. The kind of conversation that makes me run headlong into researching more deeply what someone has said. I love to change my mind and I love conversation that helps me to do just that.
I will say that over the past couple of weeks I have had some of the most amazing conversations with spiritual leaders and mentors from different faiths and different backgrounds and it has sent me into really searching the depths of my soul for what I believe.
I was raised Christian, I spent every Sunday at church. I belonged to every group that there was and I loved the church community that brought me up. I sang in the choir, we had our pew. In my teen years, I taught Sunday school following in the footsteps of 2 of my older sisters. Short of the summer, I don’t think we missed many Sundays.
My mother was a fairly liberal thinker so by no means were we very Evangelical with our beliefs, we were not out preaching to the community about our beliefs.
My mother walked in the truth of the Golden Rule…do unto others and you would have them do unto to you and the tenant of Love thy Neighbour. It did not matter who you were, where you came from, your socio-economic status none of it mattered you were welcome in our home. She also showed a love for the land, a farmer’s daughter she knew the give and take that nature provided.
In my 20’s when I felt that Christianity was no longer speaking to me, I spent many years listening, studying, and worshiping within other belief systems. Days, nights, and weekend-long events spent exploring how other people and other religions worshipped and believed.
Time with Buddhist monks and teachers learning many Buddhist practices that I keep in my daily life today.
Time spent with Shaman’s from different Indigenous communities, releasing old thinking patterns and toxic beliefs in sweat lodges across Ontario. Sitting in circle with Indigenous leaders learning about their traditional ways and learning to honour the great mother and the land. Many ceremonial traditions that I still bring into my daily practice.
Time spent with Unity ministers as they speak about consciousness.
Time spent with Hindu gurus learning the practice of Oneness, Sanskrit, and Yogic teachings.
My library of information ranges from Eckhart Tolle to Richard Wagamese to Richard Rhor and The Dali Lama. My Bible sits with the Tao de Ching and The Bhagavad Gita.
All of the teachings and the learnings from all different spiritual modalities have molded me into the person I am and as I search them all more deeply they will continue to mold me into the person I will become.
Many people would argue that I should “pick a lane”, choose a belief system, and stick with it. Maybe they are right for them. That’s just not right for me.
My questioning is constant and my strong belief is that there is no one truth. No one knows the truth. We all just have an interpretation of what we believe the truth to be. Even if you call yourself a Christian, the interpretation of the bible and the interpretation of what it means to be a Christian is so incredibly diverse it really is proof that the truth simply comes from your own set of beliefs and values that you have come to adopt over the years of your life.
I have been sitting with a question and that question is Did God cause this pandemic?
Like I said I have had some amazing conversations in regards to this question, I have spoken with leaders from different religious sects, spoken to 2 Christian ministers, had a little chin wag with a Unity minister and emailed back and forth with a Shaman and a Buddhist meditation teacher.
The diversity of the answers has been some of the greatest thought-provoking answers that I have gotten and it has sent me on an inner journey of what I believe. My conclusion really is that they all had some insights but at the end of the day I needed to find my own truth in all of this. I said to one minister, I really like my answer so maybe this time I don’t want my mind changed. Do you ever do that? Ask a question, seek an answer, and then decide that you really don’t want to change your mind, but you are thankful for all of the information that was provided. Well, that’s me in this case.
Here is my answer, the answer that gives me solace and the answer I feel will truly help us change our way of living when all of this is over.
Our lives had become a hierarchy of living, we humans created a hierarchy not only amongst ourselves but with nature. Somehow thinking and believing that we were superior. Superior over others and superior to nature. When in reality there is as much value in every human and there is that same value in a tree or a rock or a bird. Our hierarchy beliefs had us treating each other and the planet as if they were somehow outside of ourselves when in reality we all are made of the same god consciousness and when one bleeds the other does too.
This was not how the Indigenous communities of every continent lived; they lived with honour and respect for each other and for the land, but instead of learning from them, we destroyed them.
Many of us see ourselves as separate from each other and the earth as a separate and because of this I believe that this pandemic is the great mother’s reset, God-consciousness reset the reset that says, Enough is Enough. If you don’t begin to love your neighbour, see people as equal, appreciate and love the planet that you walk upon. It’s all over. I’ve ended it before and I will do it again.
Another great belief is that there are so many of us who were tired of it all, who were wishing and praying for the rat race to end as much as prayer can move mountains so can conscious thought.
Within a very short time of this pandemic, there have been amazing strides in the way of caring for our fellow humans. Without the need to be constantly doing and over-consuming the pollution levels around the world have decreased.
The problem with seeing this pandemic as some kind of blip that we will get through and back to our normal lives means we have learned nothing and it is my firm belief it will happen again. Maybe in a different way, next time but something will force us to stop once again.
We could not sustain the lives that we were living before the pandemic. Do I believe there was a divine plan in shutting us down…you better believe I do. I believe it because that is MY truth.
In all of the teachings, I have ever been exposed to the one thing that all the great spiritual leaders taught was LOVE. The lack of Love for our fellow humans and the planet is what got us here and my belief is it is the regeneration of that same LOVE that will see us through and only if we continue to love will we get beyond wherever we are now to the place where Love knows no bounds.
My truth may not be your truth and it does not have to be, but I love discussion.
In Love Light and Laughter
Karen
