Newsletter December 2006 by Cathy Combs

The Ultimate Paradox: Peace In Darkness

Each December we move into that awesome, contemplative, renewing dark time of year. We celebrate the longest night! I am thunderstruck by so many deep awarenesses lately. I am currently taking a class on building my prayer consciousness. I am also continuing with my prayer partner in Mastermind Prayer. Each week we share our intention with our prayer partner to hold our intention for the week. One of the lines of the Mastermind Prayer process speaks of practicing unconditional love. I was absolutely thunderstruck by my realization that by withholding love from anyone for any reason I set up an adversarial relationship with the God of my being, the very Love of my life! I realize now what a profound act of Self-love unconditional love is! In one fell swoop I realize the profound error of so much of our human teaching! I realize deeply the less I trust myself the more I seek to control others. The less I love myself deeply the more I seek to control the outer!

If I never have another awareness in my life that is all the work I ever need to do. To step into the God Consciousness of Unconditional Love is the ultimate spiritual realization, the ultimate expression of trust! There’s no need for control in that state of being! There’s just a profound Love. My life foundations have been knocked sideways. I see fully now if I truly am Spirit Incarnate, Love Incarnate, which I believe we all are, then I am Unconditional Love Incarnate! There’s no fear. There’s just a need for the willingness to lay down old patterns and move into profound Self-Love. This challenges so many of my human understandings. I want things to be equal. I don’t want to be doing all the work. I see the fear and control pattern there. If I can’t do something from a spirit of Love I would be better off not doing it at all. Then I sure would have a clear view of myself. I would not like what I see! It’s such a clear picture of empty and afraid. I see so clearly now that if my inner peace changes by what is happening in the outer I’m focusing on fear, not Unconditional Love. I see so clearly now that pain comes from withholding unconditional love. I thought that withholding love would keep me safe, keep me free from pain. It doesn’t! It just keeps me empty and afraid. It works that way for all of us. I very much want to move into this new pattern of Unconditional Love. I want to stay centered in who I really am as a spiritual being having a human experience!

Divine Love is always present. All I have to do is rest in the silence of Its Presence! In sense-based consciousness we think of “the silence” as darkness. We have been taught to fear darkness when in reality it is the very heart of awe and reverence. When we go to “the silence” regularly we see it is so awesome, so beautiful, so restorative. We wonder, “Why don’t I go here more often?” Why would I ever want to leave this state of Peace and Love? I have asked myself that question so many times. It’s as though I have so self-identified with fear that Love is too much to handle, too much to take in, too opposite of what I have come to believe I am.

As we move into the 21st century we are universally opening up like never before to a new spiritual awakening! It’s awesome to behold. As I go into the dark time of this year I celebrate the precious reality that each moment is the holiest time of year. The Divine is everpresent each moment. I celebrate that wherever I am I’m on holy ground. The Divine is everpresent. I consciously celebrate that I’m an expression of this holiness! So are you!

We’re all making a global difference in our own way. I want to highlight some recent examples of other people making a global difference. I love this wording from Starhawk and her Reclaiming Collective, “Voting is a magical act, a spell to change the past, present, and future. It is a time to choose to be Co-creators of the multiverse.” I truly love this spiritually based politicism and empowerment. We’re wholly realizing it truly is our “response-ability” to change the world! Another change agent is Bev Harris, “the bright light behind the HBO documentary”, “Hacking Democracy”. Andy Stephenson worked so tirelessly on this film he lost not only his health but his life! Another healing journey of immense importance is expressed in a wonderful story on Oprah recently. Two people have started “The Challenge Program”, dealing with racism and homophobia in the schools. Other schools are following their example. School administrators understand that in order to be longlasting these life lessons must be wholly incorporated into every aspect of the learning environment each year! The students were given an opportunity to come together to tell their stories of how they were hurt by jokes and stereotypes. The students apologized to each other. They held up their hands in the ASL symbol signing, “I Love You.” The students were crying. They acknowledged how their words and actions had hurt others. They didn’t want to do that anymore. Even the football players were crying. This is so important to me as a mental health professional. It’s an example of breaking down yet another societal stereotype that is so very damaging; the myth that being strong, being masculine, means you can’t cry. That translates to don’t feel your pain. Don’t acknowledge your literal impact on others. That leads to violence of all kinds. It is such a violence to our human spirit. We are all human. We have feelings. We must express our feelings in each moment so we can stay in contact with the flow of life and love as it moves through us! I cried watching these students move to a new place of understanding in their lives. The joy of reconciliation these young people were experiencing was palpable even through a TV screen!

These experiences remind me of my favorite paradox stated by St. Francis of Assisi, “There is nothing so strong as gentleness, and nothing so gentle as real strength!” That is the paradox I vow to live in my life. I vow to live fully in the consciousness that it is safe to be gentle. I certainly know it is healing to be gentle. As we move into this healing, restorative dark time together may we take time to contemplate and activate how we will move toward a new expression of life and love. May we take time to consciously move into the places of fear we still hold onto thinking that is what defines us! May we release these misconceptions as we honor the Love that is the true Light of our being. May we celebrate brand new the restorative, contemplative dark time. May we celebrate brand new the dawning of the new Light of Love that is our new understanding. Blessings of this holy season to you my dear sisters and brothers of Planet Earth! I wish you unparalleled love, peace and joy!!! May we be the change we wish to see in the world! May we recognize, honor and express the true Love and Light of the world we are now! This lifetime is meant to be joyous! May it be so! By our very conscious intention it is so here and now! Blessed Be! 

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