"Keys to a Better Life"
Over the past couple of weeks two Facebook (FB) occurrences captured my attention more than others. One was to do with local politics and the other KONY2012.
When the KONY2012 film swarmed FB, I took the time to watch it. I was deeply moved by its contents in a number of internal and external ways. It moved me into action by reviewing related posts on FB by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Anthony Robbins, Louise L. Hay, Wayne Dyer and others. I visited the Invisible Children and related websites. I reviewed a number of related FB pages, including videos and YouTubes posted and, by my internal response to what I viewed, I was lead to ‘Like’ Pages and repost the KONY2012 film as well as the Invisible Children’s LRA Defection Flier video.
My contact with this FB occurrence made me feel uplifted, not by the atrocities the film reveals of course but by the commitment, passion, devotion, focus, determination, courage, unity, compassion, and generally progressive manner these individuals are demonstrating themselves.
The other event that occurred last week was that I came across a FB discussion between a local council candidate and local media representative. Their dialogue also moved me however it didn’t generate any of the feelings the KONY2012 film did. From this representation I wanted to distance myself, was deflated, disheartened, and saw no signs of how this style of self representation and discourse did any good for the individuals, or the community.
Since then, I have seen posts and a video contradicting the Invisible Children cause and all of the ones I have seen are again what I consider to be a contracted version of our highest representation. The stance taken is to attack, belittle, put down, make demands of, and generally discredit another while in one manner or another promote self. Not to mention the angry, attacking, often profane, ignorant comments individuals post with the intent to also judge and discredit. Given we are all doing the best we can with the information we have, perhaps this is their way of feeling better about themselves and to continue using those outside of them as a distraction from looking within.
Regardless of the situation, we each have our own process for discerning whether a thing is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ as well as the ability to exercise our intuition on such matters; both of which are more easily accomplished when our personal values and personality are being progressively refined. The negative folk amongst us always find negative evidence to support ones views while the positive amongst us the positive views - for the axioms “birds of a feather flock together” and “like attracts like” are truisms for a reason.
Regardless of what we bring to our attention, what matters most is how we choose to respond to it. This is the difference between being an observer for the purpose of defining and refining our self, or getting sucked into the vortex and making a judgement about what others are doing and who they are being. Instead of getting sucked into the vortex of disharmony and chaos, another option is to ask our self, “What can I learn from this situation?” and “What does this situation teach/tell me about myself.”
By doing so we go from Awareness to Uncritical Observation and from a place of uncritical observation, we can choose and Desire what we perceive to be a better definition of personal expression. Once defined, by Focussing our attention on what we now want, and expressing Gratitude for its inevitable fulfilment, in time that desire refines our personality and comes into expression.
Do not imagine anything but good,
because under the law of thought combined with substance
it will sooner or later come into expression,
unless you head it off, eliminate it by denial.
~ Charles Fillmore
All events, situations and conditions are merely temporary occurrences in our grand contextual field for the purpose of providing us with an opportunity to further define and refine our highest personality.
Awareness is the Key and all the rest is 1, 2, 3.