"We are all related"

No one is listening until you fart. ~Author Unknown

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. ~Winston Churchill

Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you. ~Robert Fulghum

Several people have mentioned that I mis-typed the date on yesterday's post.  Nooo, I did not.  I was compelled to schedule it for posting for yesterday after I submitted Wednesday's post.   There was no date indicated in the document itself, and as I wanted to note the day I received in the posting, I looked at the Properties of the file on my computer and found that it had been created 3 years ago the day of the posting exactly. 


Synchronicity is something I pay attention to in my life, whether I understand the connections right off the bat or not.   Faith is involved in that process.  Below is an excerpt of an answer I wrote to someone who emailed me a question about experiencing before believing.


"Always follow your heart, gut and instincts, because regardless of anything else, the answers are already inside you. Other people can only help to steer you in a direction, and it is up to YOU as to what you choose to "believe" or accept.  My personal opinion is that it is better to KNOW because of experiences rather than to BELIEVE because someone else said it. And the paradox becomes that eventually you get to a place of faith, which is knowledge based on no evidence or prior experience."


I have faith that by listening to my inner voices, the voices of my heart and soul, the voice of the God spark within me, that even though there are people who will decide I'm crazy, there are also people who will hear the messages that are theirs to hear.  Even if I am the only one, who by writing and listening, hears the message I wouldn't have heard if I hadn't written it.  If we leave this world having made a difference in just one person's life, our life mattered, we succeeded.  Even if it's our own life we made a difference in.  Because we don't know who else was watching or listening to us as we struggled along putting one foot in front of the other, having our individual relationship with Divine, in whatever form we see that as, and in that watching us and listening to us, their lives were enriched, changed or helped. 


That is what Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed at when he said "Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality." And what Marianne Williamson was speaking about when she said "And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."


That concept is what I cling to with tenacity and passion, with every step I take, every issue I resolve, every time I get to a point of it's too hard to do the right or appropriate thing, I can't go on, it hurts too much or it's too hard.  Knowing that I'm not doing just for me, I'm not breaking through just for me, I'm not feeling the pain on the path just for me, but for ALL, is what is a big enough motivator for me, no matter how small or insignificant I think what has happened is. 


I send Love and Light to you as you put one foot in front of the other today.  Please remember that there IS someone who knows that what you do makes a difference. I honor and thank you for all the steps you have taken in your growth and pain, because in that I have grown also.


Namaste', 


The Barefoot Bishop


p.s.   I finally figured out how to put a link in my website to this blog!!  Yay me!   lol