No, my computer isn’t confused, nor am I writing in gibberish..although it is fun to speak in gibberish:)  Last month, my friend Rev. Gary Culp was what we call the Speaker/Spark at Circle of Miracles in Doylestown, PA.  For 18 years, Gary was the minister at Pebble Hill, another of my overlapping spiritual communities. Now he and his wife Jennifer Culp live part of the year (the cold part) in Sayulita, Mexico and part of the year in Bucks County (aren’t we lucky?) When they are in our neck of the woods, Gary and another friend named Denny Daikeler perform dance pieces together. On this day, Gary had been speaking about what he calls the Maya Cosmogenesis and the myth of the ‘end of the world’ in 2012. It is about transformation, transcendence and evolution, rather than the fear based hype that is peddled by the media and Hollywood. One of the first things Gary shared was that the word EVOLUTION is NO-IT-YOU-LOVE  (Know it you love…spelled backward.) Cool beans, huh?   What if you knew that love was not only a verb (a doing), but a being and embodiment of all that you are?  How would you live your day to day?

He and Denny did this amazing, as always, dance that had as its theme, walking in someone else’s shoes. Gary took off his well worn Birkenstocks and Denny her slightly elevated platform sandals, and took turns dancing about in each other’s foot wear. It afforded them a different perspective which is what it seems to me, the healing of the world and the new paradigm are all about. Cooperation rather than hostile competion, coexistence rather than clobbering each other. Really seeing the other person for the precious creation that they are, rather than the ‘other’. I have to admit, that I occasionally find myself  (or really, lose myself) walking in the dangerous neighborhood of fear and judgment. I allow my buttons to get pushed when I see someone doing something counter to my values. Walking into the supermarket yesterday, I watched a man wantonly toss his lit cigarette onto the parking lot. For a fleeting moment, I thought to remind him that the parking lot is not an ash tray, but I hesitated for safety reasons….he was a big, burly dude. He could have been a teddy bear on the inside, but I wasn’t about to take chances. I have a few friends who smoke…not around me, though. I saw one yesterday and as we hugged, I could smell the smoke heavily clinging to her. I grimaced and said “I love you AND it bothers me to be around cigarette smoke, even after the fact.  When are you gonna quit this nasty habit  (for her own sake too)?”  Did I hold judgment about her?  Yes. Even more so, because this friend is in the healing profession.

Today at the gym, I happened to be watching what I call ‘get a life’ shows, splashed across several screens. One was Divorce Court, with a couple who were splitting because he claims she is a poor housekeeper and can’t cook and she says he is controlling and all he wants to do is ‘procreate’ and have her ‘make him 3,4,5 babies’ (like she is an Easybake oven) when he has 9 children with other women already. He was telling the judge off, and wouldn’t keep his trap shut for a moment.  Co-dependent City, since this woman knew what she was getting into when she hooked up with him and the judge predicted that she would go back with him. Did I hold judgment about these people? Yup.

One of my professional hats has me working with people who make destructive (of self and others) choices. I can hear the critic yammering away inside my head, as I attempt to express loving compassion in the midst of their struggle and yet I want to waggle my finger, to put it mildly. And then I remember that if I had their lives and experiences and the attitudes and beliefs that shaped them; the world view and interpretation of events that they do, I might make the same decisions.

What if I could use the concept that was so beautifully illustrated in the movie Avatar…”I see you.” and truly acknowlege the God-within each being I encounter?  I would then know that I am and you are simply love.

http://youtu.be/O4jYr4502M0  I See You by Leona Lewis