Gaia: Sacred Walk - Hope

Re: Fear and Hope

http://enlightenedthinker.gaia.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:59:11 GMT

WOW..sounds like one I shall have to read..and maybe share with my students eventually....
Thanks

Re: Fear and Hope

http://jillianne.gaia.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:38:48 GMT

Awesome. I will do that.

I've had that constricting fear that preceeds the dark night of the soul. There are moments too intensely painful to eek out the space held in faith.

Best book I have ever read on matters of faith and hope in the most dire of all circumstances is a book by Immaculee Ilibagiza. It is called "LEFT TO TELL". She survived the Rwandan genocide after spending over 90 days in a tiny bathroom with 7 other women while her neighbors screamed her name and searched for her as one more "cockroach" they were intent on killing. She emerged at 65 pounds and filled with a faith and hope that still brings me to my knees.

Most hopeful and beautiful book I've read!

Re: Fear and Hope

http://enlightenedthinker.gaia.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:27:10 GMT

Ok..yes, a much different thing. Yes, it does sound like a victim mentality, but it also speaks to lack of faith and also fear. I have felt this way before, it was during a "Dark Night of my Soul" and hopefully this will change for this person in time.

You can go to Project Gutenberg to get this story and download it free since Anton Chekhov is an older writer and past the copyright laws.

He has about 2000 short stories, I must warn you, but it should be there. I have my students download it from there. If not: google "in exile by chekhov." You will find it. It is 6-8 pages I think.

Re: Fear and Hope

http://jillianne.gaia.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:12:35 GMT

I agree with the idea of releasing expectations. This wasn't what he'd been talking about. It was the fear to hope at all. It was more of a "Why bother" and "Hope will crush you"..... which just said 'victim mentality' to me.

When I surrendered to the Divine and honored the hope I would find the man for me... I also let go of expectation on who that would be and how he would enter my life and simply opened myself up for something miraculous. I think that is how I would differentiate hope and expectation.

Do you know where I can find a copy of "In Exile"?

Re: Fear and Hope

http://enlightenedthinker.gaia.com — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:57:42 GMT

I wonder if he meant, he tried not to hold any expectation for something. There is a difference I think. If we expect, we then can be disappointed. What we have hope for does not meet our expectations. There is a Chekhov short story called:"In Exile". An exiled prisoner tries to tell a newly exiled Siberian prisioner that he should accept his fate so he will not live in disappointment. By accepting his fate, he can work to live in the reality he must inhabit. The younger man is aghast, (as you say Jill) that he wants him to give up hope. This older man is seen as callous and cold. Truth is, the man had no way of escape or release from his Siberian "prison". To have his wife be sentenced to coming there would be cruel. The old man had seen it over and over. He tells him over and over and over that "he'll get used to it". Sometimes, in light of circumstances it is cruel to hope for something that will nver "be" keeping us mired in the belief things will change. Sometimes, we need to face a very different reality. This older man was only trying to save this younger man from the despair he suffered. But...we have to always learn for ourselves! Expectations, cripple us sometimes. Different from hope, we sometimes see them as the same thing.

Fear and Hope

http://jillianne.gaia.com — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:16:37 GMT

I was shocked to hear someone say to me recently that he worked very hard to not hope for anything. "that way I'm not disappointed."

I was agast. Hope sustains me in all ways. How do you feel about hope? Where do you find it when you are discouraged? What happens to hope when you are afraid?

One Voice Can make all the difference!

http://jillianne.gaia.com — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:51:01 GMT

I wrote this some time ago for a newsletter...... I stand by each and every word. Our voices are powerful instruments!

Sometimes when I have a glimpse of the "bigger picture" I am humbled and awed at the threads that weave a greater tapestry.

In 1849 in Denmark a man was born to a huge family that totaled 17 children. At the young age of 21 he immigrated to America. It was a time of hardship. He survived many years of extreme poverty in filthy, overcrowded conditions. His life and his prospects seemed mighty dim and he grew suicidal. Slowly he pulled himself out of the pain of his surroundings. Eventually, he became a police reporter for a prominent NYC newspaper.

The fortuitous invent of flash for pictures met the capable hand of this writer/photographer. Rather than ignore what was an extremely painful time in his life, Jacob A. Riis wrote a book called "How the other half lives". He documented both in picture and through his writing the demoralizing and inhumane conditions of the tenements in New York City at the turn of the century.

Coming home one day he discovered a calling card with the words "Came to help". The card belonged to Theodore Roosevelt who had read Jacob Riis' book and was moved to act. Roosevelt visited the decrepit tenements with his new found friend. He was able to see the horrific conditions for himself.

You need to understand the enormity of the challenge Riis & Roosevelt met. The tenements were truly horrors. The worst had stalls set up which would sleep six per stall (the size of a queen bed). There was no ventilation, indoor plumbing, insulation, heat, or bedding. Bottom floors received the sewage that ran off during rain. Picture your life held to sleeping in wet muck and sewage next to strangers.

As New York Assembly man, NYC Police Commissioner, Governor for NY State and finally U.S. President, Teddy Roosevelt worked to change these horrific conditions.

The willingness of Jacob Riis to rise above the adversity he had experienced and offer a voice of advocacy cheers me greatly. He had the choice to become embittered. He had the "justification" to allow the low points in his life dictate the man he would become, and yet he allowed the man he was dictate a better way of life for millions of people and their children, and the children that followed through another century.

Problems we think are insurmountable aren't. One simple person can change the course of the future! In case these words seem empty and overly optimistic, one man, Jacob Riis, spoke up with dignity and assurance that change needed to happen. One man heard him. The nation changed.

We live in times that beg us to change. Your voice matters. I believe there is someone to hear. All it requires of us is to sound the call and rise to the challenge.

Hope maximum

http://crudebliss.gaia.com — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:08:17 GMT

Say if you hope that the world will become peacefully; say it does, say if you hope the world to stop starving, say it does, say all have enough money and live happily ever after, say everyone does...

But wait, reincarnation does exist, it's a true reality, you will always want more coz the very entity that you are made of (the soul; dahh!) is a light of God, and God's bliss is infinite in quantity; not like the vivid shapes and size and limits that are in this worldly possessions.

So i think hope should be that of 'every soul achieving self realization. (salvation)'
I bestow all the cosmic energy in the worlds unto the reader; to make you realize your self.

Re: Tolle's book

http://jillianne.gaia.com — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 20:39:55 GMT

Scott,

that is how he found his answers. It doesn't invalidate the answers. Sometimes the heartbreak of loving a child can take you through the shoes and straight into insight and enlightenment.

Pick the book back up!!!! RIGHT NOW! lol

Re: Tolle's book

http://singerseeker.gaia.com — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 15:27:40 GMT

it's interesting, i was just talking with someone about in the days before modern psychiatry, the rich used to go away to some spa for months or a year to recover from a breakdown... the poor didn't have this luxury but it is truly a gift to be unencumbered to have long stretches of solitude to heal and grow... and yes, i've come to understand that about being a celibate or a hermit, that it can be very fulfilling...

sorry to hear about the foot... :( hope it's better soon and that your spirits rise once more.

love,

nicole

Tolle's book

http://smokingbear.gaia.com — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:35:38 GMT

I just picked it up again, read thru the forward and such and got to his first chapter. I immediately put the book down and am now forgetting abouty it. It was at the exact point that I put it down years ago. First, not all of us wake up and find a pencil beautiful, while such an epiphany would be welcome, and in fact is paryed for, it was followed by a period of time which Tolle says he spent an extended period of time sitting on park benches in a blissful state. Obviously, he had no one else he was responsible for. He dropped out of the things that cause most of us 99% of our trials and tribulations. No children, no mortgage/rent, no nothing. How did he eat? I now understand why priest don't marry or have families. Not only is it to leave them unencumbered to deal with others Spiritual issues, it is so that they are free to deal with their own dark nights of the soul. It must be wonderful to drop out of society and not deal with bills and children needing new shoes.

Re: There is always Hope

http://smokingbear.gaia.com — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 13:42:55 GMT

I've got Tolle's book....I think I need to break it back out.

Thank you all for your support and Jill for your inspiration and creating a place such as this. There is so much I need to learn and to do.

Today, I am facing some physical challenges. A bout of the gout has settled in my right ankle and I can hardly put any weight on it. Talk about ow.

I am hoping for hope......

thanks again, all.

Re: And then hope is restored!

http://jillianne.gaia.com — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 13:08:58 GMT

Scott,

I thought I would come back and add my thoughts. I loved so much what Burt and Nicole had to say. And.... none of this will come to a surprise for you...

I have come to honor those "bottoms" that we each hit. When it feels like there is no where to go. It usually means that we've run to the end of the trap we set up for ourselves and then we join the process of cracking open.

I've been listening to "The Power of Now" with Tolle. It reflects so much of what I've been looking at and talking about. Including the death of ego. That perception of who we are vs. the reality of who we are. He talks about the difference between Clock time and Psychological time. That idea of perceptions and stories that we tell ourselves which lead to suffering.

I think you are at the edge of a place where all things are possible. And this horrible feeling is simply the death of your hold on a false ego. And it simply happens one tiny minute at a time.

And then hope is restored!

http://jillianne.gaia.com — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 01:16:58 GMT

Smoking Bear - You already know what I have to say. One foot in the forward direction. Hope is held in the small moments of surrender.

Nicole, thank you for what you said. It is very true.

Burt..... I love the way that you offer things. This is the only path I know for finding your way out. To understand that there is no true separation. It is a matter of remembering connection to source.

Re: no, sadly sometimes we lose hope

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:22:10 GMT

Dear SmokingBear: I don't know the particulars of your situation. I do know that at some point in their lives many men and women awake to an emptiness at the core of their being, an existential hole, if you will. They will try and fill this hole with any number of things: alcohol, drugs, food, promiscuity, material possessions, etc., but it can never be filled that way. Nor will the love of another person serve, which can be painful for those dear to us. The only thing that will help is to find and tap into the endless spring of Love that exists within all of us. It's there; it always has been and always will be. I don't know if this applies to you, Bear, but I heartily join with Nicole in urging you never to abandon hope and to take comfort knowing there are many who hold you in their hearts. True story I heard in an interview at the National Holocaust Museum: each dawn the inmates at a concentration camp were called out to hear the commandant read the orders of the day. The interviewee always stood next to a short little man who repeatedly whispered the words, "Thank God...thank God...thank God." One day our narrator could stand it no more and bitterly whispered to his fellow inmate out of the side of his mouth: "What do you mean, 'Thank God?' What do you have to thank God about?" The short man motioned with his head toward the commandant: "Thank God I'm not like him." Both men managed to survive. Look for even the tiniest crack in your sorrow, my friend. That's light coming through it.

Re: no, sadly sometimes we lose hope

http://singerseeker.gaia.com — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 12:09:26 GMT

dear bear, you are going through a very difficult and painful time, and at times when it's this dark, it's hard to imagine the sun will ever shine again... but it really does, and the deepest pain can create a cup within us to be filled with the greatest joy, when the time comes...

remember that you are wonderful, and that you are loved.

namaste,

nicole

no, sadly sometimes we lose hope

http://smokingbear.gaia.com — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:08:27 GMT

and that is where I sit today. and I know I am in trouble. For 48 years now, I have always been able to find solace in music. Now? Even the music cannot reach me. My faith in myself and in my world, and the world in general, has been shattered. My soul and spirit cry out for rest and there just isn't any. I know I should be grateful for a roof over my head and food in my stomach. I should be appreciative that I do have work. But, it's just not reaching me. I need to have hope. If not for me, for those closest to me. But, there are times when I just start crying and crying and crying. Sadly, sometimes we lose hope.

Re: There is always Hope

http://saxman.gaia.com — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:19:33 GMT

Dear DeeDee,

Your right there is always hope that tomorrow will bring better circumstances but often in our hope lies the dispare of disbelief. Just as you mentioned that you feel it will take 100 tomorrows to fix today shows your disbelief. Don't live by what your thoughts tell you life will be like because the brain only knows what it has experenced. It cannot fathom tomorrow and certainly not next week with any degree of knowing.

Come to know the you that lies within the thoughts telling you that there is hope and in this hope you won't have to wait those 100 days.. Your change can be immediately. But with this comes the responsibilty of action on our part. Such as in finding work or new work and getting rid of all the excuses we've made up to justify our failures. Before you can trust what is true you have to discover it . And that answer lies between your thoughts of dispair. Take care of keep moving forward, Gary

Re: There is always Hope

http://nicholerenee.gaia.com — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 18:06:41 GMT

Hope is everywhere and in everything. Anything we believe can be seen, because we want to see it so badly. Seeing/Finding the silver lining in every situation and praising it makes life so much easier emotionally. Coping with a bad situation becomes effortless when you know that it's for the best.
There are certain situations in life that seem hopeless like our current state of political affairs. I have to really try hard to see that there are still people out there that wants what's best for the greater good. Zaadz helps me out ALOT!

Re: There is always Hope

http://elenaloves.gaia.com — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 22:54:53 GMT

Dear Dee Dee, The fact that you are here at Zaadz, a community of hope, and that you are part of the Sacred Walk pod, among many other things, exhibits the hope that is alive in you. It may take all you have right now to share with us how hard these days are, but I applaud your strength to take your energy and to place in here in words so that we can offer our support and help us kindle your hope, which still is alive within you. There is no greater gift than to receive hope. Allow yourself to open up to the hope that is held here for you. It is also hopeful that you are able to hold dear to your children and to your education. This is an act of hope, itself. To recognize the people and things that bring meaning and love into your life. I send my prayers and cyber hugs to you and know that you willfind the strength within the days ahead to see feel the healing taking place in your life. Allow yourself to dream of what you are longing to manifest in your life and believe that you will manifest your heart's desires as time unfolds. Keep the faith sister, and may the long time sun shine upon you, all love surround you, and the light guide your way on! Blessed Be! Elena