 I have been thinking so much about the philosophy of the Australian Aborigines in their belief that we keep the memory of the pleasure found in an object and treasure that, not the object. Thus we can let the object go (no matter how sentimental we feel about it. A very HARD thing for me) but keep the wonderful joy and feeling we knew when the object was in our possession.This was recorded in Marlo Morgan's book, "Mutant Message Down Under" and it SO appealed to me when I read it. I felt such perfect attunement and resonating to the Real People's simple outlook on life and it feels so right in my own heart. It is almost frigntening, and perhaps I should say it should be frightening to see how " civilization" as opposed to Society's tag of "uncivilized", "ignorant", "uneducated" for certain peoples, has so brainwashed our minds we are conditioned to think along channels directed only by the streams of technical knowledge, man-made rules and laws, what the "'signs of the times' dictate", the latest fads and fashions, modernization's conveniences and everything that robs us of simple living and being in harmony with Nature, the earth, sky and mankind, as far as we can learn this. I only know my soul feels free and liberated when I look out to the horizonless sky above me and watch a bird fly free, unfettered and unhampered by 'musts' and shoulds' and 'do's' and don'ts' and so, is not tossed this way and that not knowing which command to obey or who to believe. I am remembering my time when recouperating from my cancer treatments in Montana, sitting by the window every day and looking out across the fields to the mountain ranges - watching the sunlight turn snow to glistening wonder, and mentally walking down the lane 'becoming' the gifts Mother Earth offered as I passed by. I felt ONE with the freedom and unbounded sky, felt the harmony of birdsong echo in my being, became the new Life rising through each blade of grass, GREW with the trees encased in living bark, protection from the elements, I WAS the joy in the wagging tail of the dog, the challenge of the cats chasing their prey, the beauty of the flowers and the scent they gifted to those who stopped to smell their fragrance. There is no peace and tranquility such as when ones soul and being is in true harmony with Nature, with Mother Earth, and the desire to give back to her what I would take to meet my needs, respecting all life for we are all connected and part of oneness. I remember after returning to the Tri Cities for my surgery when I saw a spider in my bedroom, that instead of squishing it as I was wont to do, I gently put it outside in the garden, understanding that it had its own purpose for being there and it wasn't my place to kill it wantonly when I had no need for it. I am reminded of the Native Americans, whose love and relationship with Nature is so close to my own heart, and how they do not kill unless they have need, and will always thank the animal who has gifted them its life. There is always respect and gratitude given to the sacrifice. Man is so mindless of his debt to animals - killing by the thousands, birds, fish and creatures alike - leaving carcasses they cannot use, e.g. taking tusks and leaving dead or dying elephants without thought besides their own greed, ambitions and the dream of Money. Polluting streams and air and earth with their cruel and thoughtless behaviour. Where have we come, who think we have intelligence, sophistication, and are so civilized? Man,who must kill and start wars to to have more land - rather than to share with all what the Creator has given us so freely. Plenty for all - yet we build fences, raise walls, mark off our territories in pride and jealous possession, shutting out others, unallowing of those who have nothing, unwilling to share and know the joy and richness of oneness. Oh how nearsighted we are in never seeing beyond our own small sphere of personal wants and needs. Christianity preaches Jesus and His selflessness yet the churches squabble amongst themselves for bigger churches, larger collections, different names to promote their varied trains of thought and creed. I do not think this was the intent of Jesus. I think his message of love and peace was to promote oneness and equality, not destroy them in the interests of personal gain or one group's dominance and reputation over another. Whose place is it to judge or say that any tribesman, Aborigine, Native American, Inca Indian, African native or Non-Christian who, in simplicity and love treat each other as ONE, living for the good of the whole without pettiness, partiality, governments and religions to set rules and limits, is wrong? Who is to say such are slated for hell if they do not believe in, and follow Jesus and are not called "christian", that they will go to hell? Does asserting we know we are a christian mean we must subscribe to this thinking or the name christian is a mockery of the meaning "Christ's one", immediately seperating onesself from non-christians who are barred from their heaven because they are not Jesus worshippers? This is not a judgment but a logical sequence. These, non-christians (so often illiterate), who are ALREADY living what Jesus taught, have no need for a Bible to instruct them in what they already know and follow. It is not the following of a MAN, called Jesus, but I believe it is the LIVING what he taught and lived that is the condition to keep our soul prepared for eons of eternity. I believe so called religious and christian men and women could learn so much if they would drop their judgmental thoughts that only Jesus followers will go to the heaven they believe in. The contradictary Bible over which men fight,argue and debate till they are blue in the face, and from which they choose what to extract and what to discard never accepting the whole book as truth - seems so futile and confusing in the face of the simplicity of the people of the Earth who dispense with theories, speculations, assumptions and presumptions and simply love eachother in a selfless, caring, non-expectational, non-conditional oneness. There is no need for a preacher when every tribal member or 'civilized' person lives the message day by day loving eachother as they would love themselves with no intent to harm or hurt. Why have one person "higher" than the others, why build buildings that need money to repair and maintain? Why divide everyone into different groups with different names - we all have a name, and sometimes more if we so choose, but we do not share that name with others or make it a point of difference to argue over whose name is more closely following Jesus. My name is Goessoftly, for this book and for other things, places where to go softly seems the wisest path to walk. It is a gentle name, and I am a gentle soul and so - it is enough for me Life is so simple and so uncomplicated to follow with the simplicity of a child and this is what Jesus taught - yet pride and selfishness, greed and ambition are so unyielding in the face of simplicity. There is nothing complicated about seeking another's good and thus shaping ones own character in goodness. This does not need a Bible or a Theological college and degree. It does not need a Concordance or a preacher to explain how to be unselfish. ALL can love their fellow neighbor be they friend or stranger, rich or poor, coloured or white - it does not need a church group name or a philosophical title. Oneness is not found in a myriad DIFFERENT tenets, creeds and philosphies - Oneness is found where each person seeks a harmony and balance between themself and others, blending with the Earth and most of all, knowing quiet oneness with their soul's Creator. I am realizing how far off track I have been getting again, from simply BEING - seeking harmony and balance. I have needed this time of sickness, fear and questioning to bring me yet again to the place where I can leave my own thinking. To allow the lessons I can learn to simply unfold as I need them in whatever experience may come my way. Such unloading of the burden of the need to question, to wonder, to doubt, to make a plan when my journey will unfold as it will unfold as I let it. This is FAITH. Faith is not believing in what is not, but in what IS that hasn't yet been shown to us. It is allowing Life to BE even when we do not understand how it can make sense but we must learn to wait until the lesson is revealed. I am learning so slowly to know the true meaning of faith. It is not in having or creating a plan for my future but faith in a plan already drawn that will be shown when it is time and not before. This is true faith. I do not have faith when I am questioning because when I am trusting my Creator, questions are not needed for I have no doubts in his divine all knowing power. He is a Father, creating me in the image of his love and every virtue in his heart if I would seek that image and reflect his love and share the the caring of his heart with all. This is all that is needed in my earthly sojourn - faith in my Creator and to share with others what I learn till it is time to go. It is not faith in a book that only some, (the literate and educated) may or may not read, but faith that lives in my heart. The same code of living the bible and other teachings preach - the same simple faith that so called heathen, pagon and non-christians live by every day, taught by the Creator's Spirit and not of man. This does away completely with any question of belonging to one particular man entitled faith or group or church - such is not needed in the jungle, the bush, the savannah or the desert. I do not think these tribesmen, natives, aborigines nor the residents of City ghettos, or those who like myself do not profess a christian title are lost forever for the harmony and oneness that so often far exceeds the preachings of the "saved", and who are "tolerated" ( not truly ACCEPTED) by the ones so sure of their christian beliefs. I am so much more at home amongst these so named "lesser" people than mixing in the sophiscated artificiality of the so called civilized and "saved". This does not mean I wish to seperate myself from such, nor that I feel in ANY way a better person than they, just that I feel more at ease and at home with the "unsaved". I am no less than the Pope nor better than the lush who staggers out of the bar. We are all people with the same heart of flesh beating in rhythm to the pulse of Life - we are all connected in our humaness. So for me, to love, to seek harmony and balance,and feel all are my brethren, all are my equal, all deserve (and have), my respect, my love, my being the best I can be to be to help them in their travels through Life - this is how I would live. I need them as much as they need me and I am so grateful for those who travel with me in my sojourn. Only MAN divides and seperates, puts his name, his mark on what in the begining was created Oneness. This was divine yet humans in their pride seem to HAVE to put a name on the path they choose for their salvation. Why is this necessary ? Would it not seem so futile and so insignificant in the sight of the Maker of all things? Does man really think he has a patent on the blueprint for eternity ? If the bible is the only recipe for being saved and all who believe one part of it along that line, state those who do not believe the same will not be saved, that is judging. If they cannot accept ALL the bible teaches and all that is written with its contradictions and confusions, and it is surely the most disputed and debated book, why should one part be any truer than the others? If it is indeed the only truth of God why is there ANY controversy about its teachings, it states clearly that God is not the God of confusion and I believe with all my heart that he is the same Father of the rest of his creation besides the Father of professed, saved-by-grace christians. I believe their living just as Jesus did, is as much an entry into eternity's blessings as anyone else. Do christian bible believers think that God really wrote only ONE book for only the literate and educated to read to be saved? Or is it POSSIBLE that the conditions written by man in the book, came from those with the same prejudice shown today towards the so called ignorant, lacking wisdom, iliterates of third world countries and in our own countries, whom the Creator created with as much love as the professed 'christians'? Did God really design a salvation for only one set of his creation and not have the power of his Spirit able to teach ALL his creation if they are willing to learn without a book to lean on? It does not fit when looked into - not if our Creator is so able to do as he wishes in any place of the Universe. Man seems to need a crutch to assuage guilt about sin and to have a person, Jesus, to take on the blame and guilt which is indeed a comfort - but I do not believe it is in any sacrifice or dying that sin is erased, but in the living in harmony and oneness with daily seeking to put right where we have stumbled that prepares our souls to enter eternity. Why the need to follow Jesus' teaching if his death and simply believing in that, will guarentee salvation? If this belief is true we could live any way we wish, do any evil we like, behave according to every wish and whim because if we BELIEVE Jesus died for our forgiveness then we WILL be forgiven in the end regardless of how we have sinned - it is but a matter of belief. I do not believe this - I believe it is in the perfecting of his teachings in our lives while on earth that will determine our eternal future and where our soul will be. I am so looking forward to passing over from the limitations of our human condition to the timeless wonders of eternity. Those who pity me and feel sad, believing I will miss salvation for the way I live and what I believe may be surprised when we cross paths in the eons ahead and we shall see who worked the hardest in the preparing of their soul. I can be as wrong as any and there is NO one who can say without a shadow of a doubt exactly where their soul will go when life's last breath is breathed. For me, the two great keys to bringing, and living in, peace and harmony is to truly LOVE and to keep things simple. No doubt many scoff in thinking how naive I am, and that is fine, it is their right to think as they wish. I would ask them if they can look with total honesty into their heart and say they know true and complete peace of mind, soul and heart in the path they choose to walk in. If it is so, we will know only love and richness in our walk together. We will indeed walk in oneness. All men are created equal for we all posses a heart and soul to steward and prepare during Life's one shot on earth. I have much to learn but I am so grateful for this time of learning before it is too late. I am truly grateful for the challenges Life brings, the joys and the sorrows that have shown me true wealth is in lived goodness, and that to share without question of who I am, and what I have, without expectation of return is how I can contribute to the oneness that this divided and conflicted world needs so desperately. I value those who have walked with me and still do, in my sojourn and from whom I learn so much, and feel so loved. Goessoftly Retired Therapist www.goessoftlyishere.com (permission for reprints is required)     | BEAUTY | LOVE | SPIRIT OF MY HEART | ANALOGY | ONENESS | | THE HEALING PROCESS | DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER | POETRY | Biographical Entries | THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE | STORIES FOR LITTLES (Pigmus and friends) | |
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