Natalie Sudman, the author of Application of Impossible Things, and my guest on Episode 12, asked me to write an article for her Facebook page. Following is what I wrote:
The last few weeks have been interesting times. There’s a saying, “May you live in interesting times.” It was initially a curse. However, it can be a blessing to live in interesting times. We are still going through the coronavirus pandemic. We have been confused and thrown off-kilter by that. Many of us spiritual people are asking, “Why are we going through this? What’s the lesson in it? Some people are asking, “Why am I here during this time?” Many said there was a great awakening coming. We were waiting to see what that might be. Could this be it?
Two weeks ago, we witnessed police officers slowly kill George Floyd in front of a crowd of witnesses and on video. It shocked the nation. It shocked the world.
As a spiritual person, I ask all the time, “What’s the lesson in this?” As a black man, I experience things differently than other people do. But, aren’t we all the same underneath? We’re all spiritual beings. In our true form, we have no color or gender. So, why should color and gender make any difference while we are here? Shouldn’t we be able to ignore these trivial differences, and say “All lives matter”?
We come into this incarnation for a reason. We choose these meat suits that we animate for a few decades, for a reason. The diversity is no accident. As a young man, I wished the world to be colorless. I was not too fond of the fact that I was called Black. I felt that that was limiting to me. I felt like I was simply a human being. I fought against that for a good part of my life. I did not want to be identified as less than.
I recall a conversation in my early 20s, 35 years ago. This was long before I knew about life planning or soul planning or anything like that. I remember saying to the person, “If I were to look down to earth from heaven and decide what body I was going to incarnate into, I would never choose to be a black man. Why would I want that? It’s a disadvantage. People look at me as less than. I don’t have the same opportunities as other people have I. Why would anybody in their right mind choose to be a black person?” Three decades later, I understand. My experience here would not be nearly as rich had I not been a black man, in America. I have had to learn patience, perseverance, forgiveness, tolerance, etc. at a level I would not have gotten had I been born in different skin in a different time or a different place.
We have the differences we have on this earth because everything is here to teach us a lesson.
As we navigate these times, one of the lessons is of course, that we’re all in this together, and that we all are one. But, because of the differences we have chosen, we have challenges that we must address. We are here to address those challenges.
The unrest of the last couple of weeks has been very uncomfortable for all of us. We’ve watched images on television of looting and rioting. We’ve witnessed many peaceful protests. We’ve seen police acting very professionally. We’ve seen police working with empathy and sympathy, along with the protesters. And frankly, we’ve seen some bad behavior from the police and looters and rioters. We’ve seen a 75-year-old man get shoved to the ground with apparently no compassion from the officers who did it or the officers who witnessed it. We’ve seen police pepper spray non-violent protesters. We’ve seen police destroying medical supplies for people. We have seen the full gamut of human emotion and behavior. For many of us, that has caused us to look deep within. That act of turning within is a blessing in and of itself.
I have been encouraged as I’ve watched the protests. I see an awakening. I see young people leading the way. I see crowds of Black, White, young, old, suburban, urban, shouting Black Lives Matter understanding it doesn’t mean only Black Lives Matter but that until Black Lives Matter, not all lives matter.
Americans are coming out and saying it’s time to end the injustice that we have had for over 400 years in a way like we haven’t seen since the 1960s when I was a boy. In fact, this seems bigger and more diverse than even in the 1960s. I have been encouraged.
I was listening to an editorial this morning by a popular figure on a national news network. He sees the unrest in the last couple of weeks as descending into anarchy. His view is that we need to crack down and put an end to this. He sees “us” (I don’t think he sees me as of his “us”) as losing our nation. So, we have different perceptions depending on where we’re coming from. I see a new dawning, maybe the beginning of the end of injustice. He wants to return to “law and order”. He wants to go back to normal.
As beings on this planet at this time, I believe we chose to be here. And it’s not just about personal development. I don’t think it’s primarily about personal development. I think we come here to work together as teams. It’s not all about you or me. It’s about we. We are here to raise the vibration of the planet; to raise the collective consciousness. Everything that we do feeds back into the collective knowledge. Natalie’s book “The Application of Impossible Things” points to this when she says when she found herself in the first environment with these beings that were there to learn from her experience. As you and I are experiencing these things we’re not experiencing just for ourselves, we’re experiencing them for our entire planet. And we’re experiencing them for beings who aren’t even incarnated now.
As we live our lives in these Earth suits, we have to be two things at once. We have to be the person that is incarnated. We have to deal with the reality of being in this body, at this time, in this place. This 3D world is important and what we do in it matters. We have to be fully grounded and fully engaged and what’s going on. To not do so is to shirk our responsibility to abandon our mission.
Some people give in to the temptation as spiritual people to check out and to not be engaged. They will either ignore what’s going on around them, or they will say, “Well, it’s all the way it’s supposed to be. So, I don’t have to fight against this.” What if we’re here to fight against it? What if we’re here to push back against the things that we are not for our highest collective good?
I want to fight to bring about an end to the injustice and to have peace. You can’t have peace without justice. Peace without justice is capitulation. I also want to bring everyone together and let everyone realize that what is good for one of us is good for all of us. Until we all have peace and justice, none of us really does. We live in interesting times and we are being called to engage. How will you answer the call?
