It is important to honor what aligns with you and to follow what feels right. Even if it doesn’t inspire anyone. What is important is for you to honor your energy.
What do you need to have your life be like at this time?
Feel into what that feels like.
Is it OK for you to be where you are right now?
It is important to honor what aligns with you and to follow what feels right. Even if it doesn’t inspire anyone! What is important is for you to honor your energy. Where you need to be right now is not where you will stay. The most critical thing for you is to be honest about what you need at this time and what you need to let go of. It is really all right to let go of the pressure to make something happen. It is necessary. When we push and nothing changes, there is information here for you. What you are doing is not correct for you at this time.
First things first: take the time to check in with yourself. Are you feeling emotionally and physically nourished? Are you feeling well-rested?
It is paramount for you to stay in touch with the flow of your energy. When we push, we lose power. We lose our ability to discern what is correct for us. When we push, we are out of alignment with ourselves and what we need to sustain ourselves. When we push, we lose connection to our center and our self-awareness. In this state, it is hard to tell if what we are doing is helping us get to where we want to go and giving us what we need. Worse case, we start to feel afraid that we are losing our grip on life, on our ability to remain in control.
Sometimes it is time to just stop, to retreat, rest, and renew. When you no longer feel joy and excitement, when you are out of ideas or can no longer get behind the ones you had, it is time to re-evaluate what you are doing and how you are doing it. Perhaps it is not so much that what you are doing is not correct for you, as it is a matter of timing and the availability of your energy.
Only you know how long you need to be in retreat and what will rejuvenate you. Retreating does not mean that you stop paying your bills. Do what you must to keep yourself together and do not take on any more. Please do not pressure yourself to be amazing or believe that you must do something right now to turn things around, ignoring the fact that you have been spinning your wheels for some time.
Your right plan of action will reveal itself when your vitality is restored and available to you. Your ideas and creativity will flow again.
We must always be our own advocates and allies; we are the highest authority for what is true for us at any time. Only you know what it feels like to be you and what you need. Find the pace that works for you at any given moment. It will shift from time to time and from project to project. Remember that how you do things and how fast you do them is unique to you and is influenced by how your energy naturally flows. You are not supposed to look like anyone else’s success or keep up with anyone else.
Please honor how you do things, and how you need to do them. You have a rhythm that is unique to you. How your energy flows is unique to you. It takes time and trial and error to truly know ourselves. Be patient with your process of discovering how you work and what works best for you. You will eventually find your personal rhythm of sustainability. You want to be in the flow that is your unique rhythm because this is where you feel good and where you are the most creative and productive. It is here that you are also at your most magnetic and radiant.
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Job loss and prolonged unemployment are ongoing realities for millions in the United States. I have personally experienced multiple layoffs, and each time I return to work, it has not restored the stability I once had. The financial damage caused by unemployment is rarely fully recovered, especially when savings deplete and debt increases—an almost inevitable outcome, given the inadequacy of unemployment benefits. Even after securing a new job, the burden of debt can feel overwhelming, making recovery seem like a distant goal.
While some people argue that personal responsibility or karma explains job loss, these beliefs overlook the widespread nature and frequency of unemployment, which affects all demographics. This issue is much larger than any individual’s actions and challenges the myth that hard work alone guarantees success. The concept of self-reliance overlooks the systemic forces that affect us all.
What stands out, then, is that employment depends on more than individual effort. Securing a job always involves others, whose decisions ultimately determine our opportunities—no matter how much we try to lift ourselves by our “bootstraps.” This interdependence challenges the notion that personal merit alone is enough to secure a job.
At the end of 2010, I experienced a layoff that lasted for 14 months. During that challenging period, I applied for over 300 jobs that matched my qualifications, but I received only two interviews. The first interview did not yield any results, while the second one led to a position at a law firm. Unfortunately, the role did not align with the job listing, and the actual duties provided little to enhance my resume. Nevertheless, after 14 months of searching and with dwindling resources, I was grateful to have a job.
However, just over a year later, I was laid off again due to the firm’s economic restructuring. This was yet another instance in a long history of layoffs that had persisted since the early 1980s.
To gain a better understanding of my situation, I sought input from others. My well-meaning friends offered various perspectives: “This is your karma coming due,” “You’ve ignored your life’s calling,” and “It’s a wake-up call from the Universe—figure it out before it’s too late.” These comments placed the entire responsibility for my hardships on me, while also suggesting an upside: if I can create discomfort, then surely I can create joy and abundance. Supposedly, this journey is about recognizing what the “Universe” wants from me, and I can’t achieve that simply by holding a job.
What is Karma? I want to take some time to explore the feedback on my question, “What do you think might be going on here?” First, let’s start with a shared understanding of karma. In Hinduism, karma refers to the principle that individuals reap the consequences of their actions from this life or past lives, and possibly even multiple previous lives. It is a cosmic principle that emphasizes that one cannot escape the repercussions of stealing what rightfully belongs to someone else—especially essential items like food, clothing, shelter, and funds that are necessary for a person’s survival.
Moreover, taking away resources that enable someone’s well-being—such as education, reputation, and health—disrupts their ability to live the life they are entitled to, a life they may have agreed to before birth. Stealing someone’s foundation of support is akin to stealing their life force, and in this sense, it can be compared to murder, as it removes all choice from the affected person.
This act creates a significant imbalance in both personal and universal order, which must be corrected. Ultimately, no one can avoid the necessity of returning what does not belong to them. While some may believe they can postpone facing the consequences for multiple lifetimes, an unavoidable force will eventually compel them to restore balance and do the right thing, whether they like it or not.
Karma is magnetic. When you are in the vicinity of someone to whom you owe restoration (or who owes you), you will feel drawn to them. Often, you will feel an overwhelming attraction. The intensity is not easily dismissed. This is necessary to establish a relationship that will allow you to resolve past painful interactions. Note that there is also attraction with dharmic agreements (but perhaps without the burning intensity of karma), such as teaming up to perform a mutual task. Follow the yellow brick road as it were, and the purpose of the connection will eventually be revealed. In both cases, there is a mysterious pull that you will want to explain as “that person is fascinating,” or “that person is attractive,” or “they have something to offer that I’ve been looking for.” In any case, your karma has hooked you—or your dharma is calling.
Sometimes karma takes on the form of direct payback. What you did to another will be done to you by that same person. In this instance, the other person is forcibly taking back what belongs to them rather than waiting for you to return it graciously. This is far less pleasant than engaging a relationship that may have other mutually rewarding aspects, but lacking gracefulness as it does, it gets the job done, and you are released from that karma. This is the form of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but more advanced souls prefer to avoid such literal payback. It is far more pleasant to heal the broken connection between you by offering gifts that serve the same purpose as returning stolen goods. This also opens the opportunity to take the relationship to a higher level, one in which you mutually find ways to assist each other’s journey. The willingness to do this will depend on the severity of the original theft. It will be much harder to accept someone who previously murdered you as a friend you can trust. It can, however, be done.
Often karma works like this: instead of being drawn to a person or a situation (place of employment, organization, course of study, educational institution, and so on), you find yourself the surprised and unwilling recipient of a series of unpleasant and life-altering events. Bewildered at how and why these events have occurred to mess up your life, you may begin to search, not only for the cause behind those events, but for the meaning that might be behind them. In this scenario, you are experiencing what it is like to have crucial support taken away from you, allowing you to intimately understand what you did to another when you stole what they needed to live a flourishing life. This type of karma is sometimes referred to as self-karma because it is not brought about by the direct manipulation of another person but by an agreement you made with your higher self to understand the ramifications of undermining or destroying another’s life options.
Unemployment as Prima Facie Evidence of Karma Given the above, I could conclude that I might be in the midst of self-karma. Alternatively, I’m receiving direct payback from former employers, reflecting past actions of mine towards them. If stressful circumstances are always a sign of karma, unemployment becomes a forced restoration by my employers, repossessing what I once denied them: livelihood. That’s one possible answer to why I lost my job. But other facets exist. Perhaps karma is not involved at all. The immediate reason given, downsizing, often points to a complexity that encompasses more than a simple explanation.
How to Know If It’s Karma How do we determine when karma is at work? I don’t believe there is any way we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we have entered karmic territory. Still, when you feel as though you have stepped into the twilight zone – meaning that the status quo of your life peels away unbidden to reveal strange images, dimensions or new insights, or time seems to slow down and even freeze, or there’s nothing you can do to convince the other party of your good intentions, then you might be in the zone of karmic payback. Other things may also be happening that have nothing to do with karma and are not the subject of this discussion; however, it is sufficient to say that karma can manifest similarly to what I’ve just described.
However, the proof of release from the karmic pudding ultimately comes down to this: you will know when a karmic tie has been released when the charge of the situation is gone. You no longer feel compelled to remain in a relationship with someone, or at a job that was replete with unsolvable issues, because after the restoration has occurred, you begin to feel calm, balanced, and neutral about the whole thing – that is, after you are done processing your human reaction. It is as if you have awakened from a long nightmare, and you know you are now in your right mind because the fever that once held you in its thrall has finally broken. At this point, it is a matter of choice whether you walk away (assuming you haven’t been irrevocably dismissed) or stay to create a new, healthier configuration that all parties agree to take to a higher level.
Signs of the Times Sometimes it isn’t the karma of the immediate parties that is in play. It could be the signs of the times, that is, the historical context that everyone shares, and which is the common denominator to which everyone, regardless of station, status, creed, race, or gender, is subject. According to a July 28, 2013, article, Survey: 4 in 5 face near-poverty, no work (published online at TPMLIVEWIRE by Hope Yen), “Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. Survey data…points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.” From another article: “The vast majority of people in the United States will experience poverty and economic insecurity for a significant portion of their lives.” For the statistics behind that statement, see Gary Lapon’s article, Poor Prospects in a ‘Middle-Class’ Society, August 18, 2013, published in the online magazine Truthout.
Without too much argument, I think we can agree that national and world affairs are an inextricable superimposition on the course of our lives, mixing their enormous bandwidth into the much smaller frequencies of our own. We barely need to raise our heads to see that fracking, the broken nuclear reactors of Fukushima, the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, ethnic genocide, human sex trafficking, and many, many more life-ravaging actions have a reach and impact far broader and deeper than any personal karma could hope to claim. These acts are karma against the entire planet, generated intentionally on an incomprehensibly large scale by the abusive politics of power.
The Global Karmic Pandemic of 2020 In 2020, the entire planet found itself at the mercy of a pandemic caused by a new virus, SARS-CoV-2. Some believe this virus was cultivated through the imbalances resulting from the cruel and unconscionable ways human beings treat animals and the environment. The extreme physical cruelty that caged animals in wet markets and factory farms endure affects their immune system. Forced to live in filth and lacking health and freedom, they become easy hosts to bacteria, parasites, and viruses, which quickly overwhelm their bodies. These malefic entities easily pass to humans (and then the animals get blamed and subjected to inhumane wholesale slaughter). When you consider that these beings have emotions, live in constant terror, and endure horrific pain, it is clear that the damage done is multi-dimensional with far-reaching effects and is nothing short of sacrilegious.
There is also a belief that this virus originated in a laboratory. Regardless of its origins, one must consider that the actions taken to create it or cause it to be manifested reveal a disrespect for life, including a disregard for the impact on the planet as a whole.
The effect of this virus, whether one wants to call it karmic or not, is nevertheless karmic in its impact. When I first wrote this article in 2013, the number of people suffering from unemployment was far, far fewer. Yet each one of those people suffered no differently from those whose multiple sufferings are directly related to unemployment. At the time, the numbers were not enough to influence change in federal and state policies. Now the numbers are striking — off the charts — and yet Congress must argue and delay taking obvious action to do what needs to be done. They must do their job and take care of their people, or add yet another straw to the unraveling of the structures that support the lives and well-being of human beings. Not doing what you have been tasked to do with the explicit power to do so, especially at the level that can make or break civilization, creates karma.
The Destruction that DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) Wrought In 2025, the new administration’s actions resulted in a blindside ‘cleansing’ of multiple departments in the federal government, leading to thousands of people losing their jobs. Most of these departments were already understaffed, making their ‘cleansing’ severely crippling. Some departments were shuttered entirely. The eradication crusade against ‘waste,’ ‘fraud,’ and ‘abuse’ included demanding that law firms, universities, and individuals exercising their right to free speech restrict their businesses and activities to comply with new rules. Legal scholars universally regard these new rules as unconstitutional, but the consequences for violating them have been severe. Although the majority of lower courts have ruled that these actions are unlawful and unfounded, the administration continues to pursue its objectives in defiance of these rulings. The Supreme Court has vetted the racial profiling of brown people and people with accents. The Department of Homeland Security’s ICE forces are responsible for the violent assaults and detention in squalid hellholes of thousands, including pregnant women and children.
What is this about? Human beings have a dark nature that desires to conquer, subdue, and exclude. Conquering has also often meant breaking and destroying systems and structures that, despite not being perfect, nevertheless cobbled together processes that supported humanitarian goals. There is nothing sacred when this nature is unleashed. Think of the Dust Bowl effect, the swarming of ravening locusts, tornadoes, or hurricanes. Has the karma of the United States, whose founding fathers were wealthy white slaveowners, come home to roost? Are we being shown that democracy, voting rights, and equal opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of justice were always tenuous? And are they tenuous because these were never solidly based on the genuine belief that all people are created equal and all have the same right to a life where they can actualize themselves? The truth behind all the lies is being brutally revealed on a giant screen that everyone can see, and will hopefully inspire the necessary corrections and restorations to be addressed.
It is very likely that when so much breaks and falls apart, our karma has caught up with us.
Karmic Impact, Delays, and Detours It is not sustainable to be repeatedly knocked down in the name of paying back karma. It doesn’t make sense to continually remove a person’s livelihood, leaving them unable to fulfill their life tasks and agreements. In other words, it may not be karma that is at work. When we painstakingly created the agenda for the current incarnation, we agreed to address our karma – working through past unbalanced painful situations with others, the working out of our own self-karmas — as well as our dharma-through the continuing expansion of our souls. We do this by surrendering to experience, including specific life tasks, agreements, facilitating and mentoring others, relationships, upgrading old skills and learning new ones, and stepping up into a larger (or smaller) game, to name a few. To fulfill both karma and dharma, we bring through the themes of a dozen or so past lives that are consonant with the themes of our current life. The goal is to realize ourselves more fully.
But things don’t always work out as planned. Sometimes we have to fill in the gaps, creating and re-creating from scratch. We can experience delays, detours, or reroutes. Sometimes there’s a deliberate abdication by those who agreed to help us. And, life isn’t set in stone. The best-laid plans of the wisest souls are still subject to the slings and arrows of unpredictable fortune – accidents and other people’s choices.
When your efforts to make yourself at home are repeatedly obstructed, it could be because you are presenting yourself for membership in a tribe whose tasks and agreements are not in alignment with yours. They will not recognize who you are or what you have to offer. This is true even if you function competently in their environment. The phenomenon that occurs in these instances is a lack of familiarity at the soul level and a lack of agreements of various kinds, including work agreements, facilitation agreements, mentor agreements, and opportunity agreements, among others. The phenomenon of lacking agreements makes one a foreigner. And although foreigners can be seen as attractive because they are different, those same differences can also be perceived as threatening and even repulsive. If you find yourself in a workplace where you experience constant abrasion, and the tribe is busy creating “evidence” to support their low opinion of you, it is time to leave. It is not likely you will be able to convince anyone of your value. You may consider that what is at work here is a form of self-karma in which who you are is ironically mirrored back to you by reflecting who you are not.
However, finding yourself in situations like this doesn’t always mean that you are working against your own agreements. It might mean that, or it might mean that the community that holds your agreements is not available. Your creativity and willingness to participate wherever you find yourself are essential to keeping the threads of your life from unraveling. Sometimes it is necessary to make things up as we go. The upside is that we develop mastery in flying by the seat of our pants, using our own initiative and wits to keep body and soul together.
The Larger Context We all live within a context that has been shaped and is being shaped by capitalism gone wrong. Those of us who know better make no bones about this – human beings have created a political and economic civilization built on the belief in power-over, competition, and the “survival of the fittest.” This paradigm is pervasive, and even if one sees right through it, we as individuals are still left to deal with its consequences. Without a cultural belief that embraces the right of everyone to the tree of life, which includes making available the financial resources and opportunities to allow individuals to bring forth their best contributions, each one of us is on their own. Some of us have family and friends who can, from time to time, help bridge the gaps, but many do not. Even so, without a larger societal support structure that recognizes the grave reality of unemployment and resulting poverty, the suffering of millions will continue. These comments are also meant to include the handicapped, the aging, the lesser skilled, and those who suffer from debilitating physical or mental issues. Their entry into the “game” is even more severely circumscribed.
The reality is that for most of us, our voices are limited, and our contributions are often undervalued. Nevertheless, we cannot give up or surrender. We must believe in our right to be here and in the necessity of fulfilling our unique purposes. It is essential to recognize a universal truth: without our full participation, the evolution of life and the Tao itself will be hindered.
These times demand collective courage and a willingness to dig deeper to make a difference. We need to be aware of how our personal contributions contribute to injustice and inequality, recognizing where our words and actions may be thoughtless or unkind. Individually, we must strive to live righteous lives with conscious awareness. By doing so, we can help mitigate the consequences of both individual and collective karma.
These times also call for the creation of a community that takes its directives from an ideology that fearlessly declares: We are all one; it is unthinkable to leave anyone behind.
I wrote this piece to examine how we respond to traumatic, life-altering events—specifically, how we might remain engaged after irrevocable change disrupts our intended path, and whether such turning points are accidental or purposeful. I aim to explore how we maintain meaning and agency in the face of unforeseen upheaval.
The following discussion is limited in its exploration of these ideas, but it provides a starting point.
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If I do what I agreed to do (follow my soul’s intentions), will my life unfold smoothly?
This is not the astral plane where injury can’t happen. On the physical plane, your intentions often clash with others’, leading to conflict and even destruction. These obstacles don’t mean you’re on the wrong path; instead, they illustrate that purpose does not guarantee ease. The main question persists: how do we stay connected to our purpose when our path meets resistance? Stay committed to what you believe is your unique purpose, even in the face of external challenges.
In other words, following your intentions doesn’t mean you’re not going to have to work hard. When tracking your purpose, your choices and actions will align with your beliefs and goals, not with what others expect of you. When you are true to yourself, you gain clarity and the deep satisfaction that comes with being on the right path.
Your soul intentions will cause discomfort.
Indeed, following your soul’s intentions often brings discomfort, which is necessary for growth and change. Discomfort forces us to seek solutions and propels us from inertia. While seeking comfort won’t automatically lead to fulfillment, it can spur the necessary action. The essential argument: Creation and meaning arise from tension; discomfort reignites our engagement and creativity, demanding we actively shape our path even when security is lost.
What if my world explodes even though I’m doing what I agreed to do by following my soul’s intentions?
Now and then, life throws us serious curve balls—unexpected shifts that derail our plans. The 2000 film Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks, exemplifies this: Chuck Noland faces total upheaval after an airplane crash leaves him stranded. With his established life destroyed overnight, he is forced to confront whether and how he can rebuild his sense of meaning and agency. This story illustrates the fundamental question: how do we respond when our lives change in ways we did not choose?
A hypothetical exploration of Chuck’s soul choices. Holding up a lens that looks at the events in a life as the direct result of soul choice, some questions (far from exhaustive) come to mind about Chuck’s life-transforming event:
1. Was he following his original soul’s agenda before he crashed into the ocean, and was the course of his life untimely ripped by an unforeseeable accident? 2. Was he forcefully reminded to return to his original intentions, and if so, what might those have been? 3. Or, was his ordeal on the island always meant to be the next phase in his unfolding life plan?
Before I proceed, I would like to clarify that I do not offer definitive answers, but rather ask these questions to illuminate how we can find meaning and agency in the aftermath of life-altering, unexpected events. The process of grappling with these questions may offer insight into how trauma helps us regain purpose and direction.
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Question 1: Was Chuck following his original soul’s agenda before he crashed into the ocean, and was the course of his life untimely ripped by an unforeseeable accident?
Scenario 1: As an employee of an international company, Chuck was doing what he came here to do. He was developing leadership skills, including those in managing others, time management, and relationship-building with coworkers, supervisees, friends, and intimates. He was successful at his job – he accomplished his goals, and he was competent, trustworthy, and reliable.
He planned to get married, have children, and support his family both emotionally and financially. He handled stress and responsibilities maturely. Conscious of time as a resource, he lived a deliberate life with clear plans.
Then his tightly crafted, intentionally designed life was completely derailed by a horrific accident.
The accident destroyed his old agreements. He had to reinvent his life, creating it one moment at a time. What did he bring to this sudden shift? Everything he knew and was capable of.
Chuck could have died in the ocean, but instead, his life raft drifted to an uninhabited island. Perhaps he was guided there, or maybe it was just luck.
If he were guided, there was a higher intention for his life to continue despite it being thrown so completely off course. If it was an accident that he landed on a shore, he was still faced with the choice to give up on his life or to do whatever he could to survive and find a way to return to the life that had been ripped from him.
Do we choose to give up or persevere?
Whether or not there was a higher force that guided Chuck to the island shore, he still had a choice to make. He could continue living or find a way to exit.
When stranded and isolated, we can either give up or surrender, or we can engage fully with the unknown. Isolation and scarce resources can break the faint-hearted or push you to find courage and embrace life, even with no idea what it may look like.
Although Chuck’s ordeal was unplanned, he had to decide what to do with it. Creating his life alone, he faced the challenge of building from scratch—drawing on his inner resources without support from others. He had to become the creator of his own survival.
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Question 2:Was Chuck reminded, by harsh intervention, to route back to the original intentions for his life? In which case, what might they have been?
Scenario II: Chuck wasn’t living his true purpose, just relying on existing skills. He was competent but not working on what he was meant to do. He had already mastered these skills and was avoiding the effort needed to grow in new ways.
Sometimes we ask for wake-up calls.
The truth was that Chuck had resisted taking on new skills and relationships in his previous incarnations, and now his resistance had come back to haunt him. In fact, he had asked that this time around, if he failed to track his original purpose, that he be reminded in no uncertain terms that a change of course was required. Enter a horrific accident. Now his tightly crafted life was completely and intentionally derailed – by his own design.
The accident ended his stale patterns. Forced to improvise and adapt, Chuck was pushed to develop new skills and a fresh mindset. Only by losing old comforts did he find the drive to evolve into who he needed to become.
Ultimately, the soul seeks not only survival but growth, meaning, and transformation. No matter how disruptive or unplanned the detours may be, it is through these challenges that we find both our resilience and our purpose. Our task is to keep moving forward, to reinvent ourselves if necessary, and to trust that even in times of upheaval, our lives can evolve into something meaningful. By embracing each twist in the journey, we discover new dimensions of ourselves and our path.
Who was this person that Chuck needed to become? It was the person his soul required him to become. The soul wants to be fully present and engaged. The soul needs to have experiences that challenge it to expand and develop new aspects of itself. It is inherent to the soul to be creative and to be dynamic. As sparks of God, we are each a god in our own right. God is the mastermind par excellence of Exploration and Creation. When his/her incarnational expression spends too much time going over the same lesson plan, the soul will endure boredom only so long.
What was included in Chuck’s new lesson plan?
Self-reliance. The courage to persevere in the face of an unknown future The courage to persevere without external aid from tools or others. The courage to tend his own wounds. Profound creativity in designing new applications for otherwise mundane objects. Learning to deal with and accept severe restrictions and limitations. Learning new skills.
What else did he learn? He came to know his heart’s desires. He understood what was truly meaningful to him now that he was removed from the din of his former noisy and hurried life. He came to be in far greater alignment with his soul.
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Question 3: Was the life-changing event of living on the island simply the next phase in the story of his unfolding life plan?
Scenario III: As an employee of an international company, Chuck was doing what he came here to do, but there was more he had agreed to. He was developing leadership skills, including those in managing others, time management, and relationship-building with coworkers, supervisees, friends, and intimates. He was successful at his job – he accomplished his goals, and he was competent, trustworthy, and reliable.
The truth was that Chuck had resisted taking on new skills and relationships in his previous incarnations, and he had asked for an intervention that would require him to make a radical departure from life circumstances that no longer offered his soul either challenge or excitement. However, he still wanted to polish his abilities to handle the challenges of high-level leadership demands, and so included those in the first part of his life. When the time came for him to achieve sufficient mastery, he wanted to be allowed to step up to new life skills. And so it came to pass.
When Chuck was finally returned to his former life, he had a medicine bag bursting with new skills and self-knowledge. With these hard-won and intrepid tools under his belt, his capacity to handle whatever life brought him had increased by magnitudes. Whether or not he had asked for training in new levels of mastery, he was nonetheless given a stark and unprecedented opportunity to do so.
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Additional Reflections Sometimes life takes unexpected twists and turns, getting out of hand. Sometimes we don’t have much in the way of resources or know-how to deal with unknown territory. What can we do? We can find help where help is available – usually in unexpected places. We now have a genuine opportunity to reach deep within ourselves and beyond to seek solutions that will give us the momentum to move forward and escape from dark places. Not only do we seek solutions, but we also strive to find the courage to face our fears. We find hope in each breath, and we receive messages and guidance from sources that were previously hidden from us. In extremity, our senses intensify, giving us the ability to understand the language of signs and symbols that were previously invisible and incomprehensible.
Aligning with our Souls There are some exquisite gifts to be attained in the process of standing for our lives. The more difficult the challenge, the more ferocious we must be in our resolve because that is what is required if we are going to live. The more difficult the challenge, the more determined we must be in our intentions to live the lives we have agreed to live. The more difficult the challenge, the greater the demand to find creative solutions that will get us clear of the breakers. And why should we live? We must live so that our souls can continue to experience more love, more beauty, more joy, more knowledge, more connection, more excitement, and more anticipation of what is yet to come and what we can yet become. There are some exquisite gifts to be attained in the process of standing for our lives. The biggest one is that we become more aligned with our own soul. And when we are aligned with our souls, we know intuitively what our right lives should look and feel like.
We often forget or fail to truly grasp the reasons behind life’s reversals. While we may have asked for intervention on behalf of our souls, it is also possible to be thrust helplessly into irrevocable life shifts that were not part of the original plan for our lives. Despite being cast away – whether or not of our own choice and design – we can still forge our way forward in reliance on the most powerful intrinsic attribute each one of us possesses. And that is our legacy, as chips off the old block that is God, to be the Creators of a new life.
When you express your unique piece of the Tao, your life will be a beautiful reflection of who you are, because you will be being who you came here to be and doing what you came here to do.
Carry on my wayward son
There’ll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don’t you cry no more
Carry on, you will always remember
Carry on, nothing equals the splendor
The center lights around your vanity
But surely heaven waits for you ~ Kansas
You are already whole. The physical you, manifesting now, is a smaller but still beautiful version of your entire self. Whether you are thriving or struggling, remember: what you see is just one piece of the whole you. No matter your situation, only a part of your spirit is present here. Your essence, or higher self, never incarnates but watches over your experiencing self and remains whole, no matter what happens.
You might wonder how wholeness is possible in a world filled with suffering and atrocity. How can we consider ourselves whole in the face of personal and collective pain? How can anyone believe that wholeness or grace can persist even amid evil and suffering?
Let’s take a moment to reflect on the human spirit, which remains resilient and indomitable even in the face of unbearable circumstances. History provides numerous examples of such courage and resilience, including figures such as Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Mother Teresa. These individuals did not succumb to despair; instead, they held firmly to their beliefs and pursued the truth, despite facing overwhelming opposition and suffering.
How did they do this? What kept them going?
They believed in a cause greater than themselves, took action to change conditions, and remembered their original purpose, even if only as a deep compulsion for truth.
How do you keep going if it’s just you?
You cannot take on every cause. Follow your own guidance and stay on your path by living your unique soul purpose—your dharma. You aren’t expected to work alone. Seek organizations working for causes you care about, and find your mission mates there.
How do I discover my dharma?
What do you love? What do you care about? Look there for your dharma. Use your gifts for the benefit of everyone. You received these to help you fulfill your dharma. What calls you to bear witness or speak truth? There lies your dharma.
To strategize social justice work, regularly meet with a supportive community to uplift one another as channels for mutual support and grace. You can’t face evil alone; grace supports your spiritual immune system and acts through you when you respect your sacred mission.
It’s all an illusion anyway.
Since we are already whole, is it correct to conclude that the horrors of the world are an illusion? Some new age schools of thinking answer, “It’s all an illusion, anyway; everything is perfect as it is.” This prompts a difficult transition from personal and spiritual wholeness to confronting real suffering.
Tell that to the Syrians who are being turned out of their homes and massacred. Tell that to the victims of Sandy Hook. Tell that to the 27 million women and children who endure bestial treatment in the enforced slavery of sex trafficking. Tell that to the victims of the Holocaust. Tell that to the Vietnamese who were decimated by the murderous ideology of “Kill Anything that Moves.” Tell that to the women of India, who have been raped and murdered, many generations over. Tell that to the Native Americans. Tell that to the Native Americans who walked the Trail of Tears. Tell that to the slaves of African ancestry. Tell that to the undocumented workers. Tell that to women who have been subjected throughout history to violence against their gender.
It’s a worthless debate. This question becomes even more apparent when we consider what happens to our understanding of wholeness when we are the ones experiencing great suffering. Here, the philosophical notion of illusion clashes with lived human pain.
How can you be whole and maimed at the same time?
Your ultimate self is always whole. The part of you in this world may be wounded. Connect with your Spirit Body to heal your Physical, Emotional, and Mental Bodies. Remember your promise and why you came here. What contribution are you withholding by forgetting your courage?
You can use the tools that will bring heaven to your aid. You are already holding them. What are these tools?
Grace. Prayer. Community. Friendship. Self-reflection. Self-care. Connect with your heart. Remember. Bend, don’t break. Stay strong. With abundant energy, it’s easier to face adversity.
Grace encourages us to live boldly, even in the face of fear. Will Grace shield you? Not from every challenge, but enough to guide you toward your soul’s intentions. The field of Grace is always present and active in the world. You are still here, aren’t you?
What if you’re too depressed to take further action? What if you’ve given up in overwhelm? How do you transform your condition?
At this point, the fundamental question shifts from personal pain to a broader consideration: how do we transform the darkness in the world?
Refuse to surrender to the belief that darkness is more powerful than light. Refuse to surrender because you do not accept that darkness, no matter how powerful, how painful, or how savage, is the ultimate reality. Refuse to believe that you have nothing of value to contribute. Bear witness to your own suffering. Continue to act on what you believe is the greater truth. Connect to the eternal flame of the peace within, the peace that passes all understanding. Stick to your dharma.
Know that your spirit has what it takes to be in this world. You would not have been put here otherwise.
Choose actions that serve humanity, as this aligns with your higher self. Setting intentions and following through allow you to realize your full potential. Develop your gifts to the fullest extent and utilize them for a meaningful contribution. You have the capacity to fulfill your purpose.
How we recover from disappointment, shock, and loss depends on the meaning we assign to those experiences. If we see ourselves as powerless victims, recovery will be slow or stalled. When we believe happiness is behind us, we lose hope and energy. The fundamental difference between resignation and a joyful life is having something meaningful to look forward to.
Transitioning from resignation to passion starts with believing in something worth living for. A sense of purpose, aligned with your highest calling, reignites hope. When you embrace your agency, you partner with life and renew your drive to create and engage.
But, you say, I don’t have anything to live for. I’ve explored my interests as far as I can with the resources and circumstances I currently have. Nothing seems compelling anymore. All right, then. It’s time to take a new approach, starting by reclaiming your power to revive your passion.
Let us begin here: from where you sit,
What do you have too much of?
What do you have too little of?
What would you enjoy having more of?
What would you like to have less of, or be rid of altogether?
What skills and capacities do you need to cultivate to have more of what you desire?
What disciplines do you need to support those skills and capacities?
Answering these questions clarifies what empowers or disempowers you. This awareness fosters empowerment and revives passion, reconnecting you to meaningful action. Passion fuels your creativity and restores your sense of purpose and power.
Your interest in pursuing anything may have faded. You may feel that you’ve made an effort to follow your path and applied your resources, but if the results have disappointed, you may have given up, living with resignation and inertia. While you meet your basic needs, life may now lack excitement.
To regain engagement, release regrets about past choices. Instead, treat each day as an opportunity to answer your calling. Focus on activities that feel meaningful, taking small steps without needing immediate answers. By responding to what draws you, your life’s purpose will gradually emerge.
By listening to your intuition, you’ll be able to take the next step more effectively. You don’t need to wait for inspiration. Act on what you know is true for you, and you’ll soon remember your passion and reconnect with your path.
The dominant cultural message tells us our worth is based on appearance, status, success, and recognition, making life harsh for many. This world is marked by limitation. Here, actions have consequences, and choices yield results; therefore, we naturally seek ways to gain positive recognition and security.
Physical life is enjoyable when our basic needs are met. When they aren’t, feelings of worthlessness arise, but facing these challenges may reveal the potential for inner fulfillment.
Some believe that life divides us into winners and losers, attributing success solely to individual choices and efforts. This mindset overlooks individual contexts and experiences.
Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that I must earn my worthiness or right to be here, and that the only way to do this is to attend the best schools, wear the finest clothes, possess an Ivy League degree, and have a substantial income? Are you saying that if I don’t have the right stuff, I might as well slide under a rock, curl up in a ball, and wait for death to take me?
Many accept their personal truths, but mine is different. My life, shaped by my unique path and purpose, diverges from the mainstream. I am not alone in this.
Everyone faces different limitations, which can create confusion and questions about survival and worth, urging us to rise or fall.
What appears true may not be; your experience, actions, and meaning-making define your life. Live with authenticity.
While we are connected, we are also diverse. We are none of us the same. We are profoundly unique and individual, and what we have to offer is exceptional as well.
We each have unique contributions. Not everyone is destined for conventional achievements; all are called to meaningful journeys that leave a lasting impact on others.
