Greetings of the new year!
So, the Mayan "apocalypse" has come and gone, and we're still here. By the time you read this, America may have gone over the "fiscal cliff" or narrowly averted doing so, and we'll all be standing around scratching our heads wondering what's going to happen next.
The world did not end on Dec. 21, 2012, as some had feared or predicted. It's 2013, and life goes on, as most of us knew it would. The Mayan calendar signaled the end of an epoch. It did not indicate the end of the world.
In my last post, and for much of last year, I have written about this time in our human history known by indigenous peoples as the time of the great shift, also called the "great awakening." The Mayan legend has it that the end of their calendar signals the end of time, and some would add, "as we know it." These words, "as we know it," are key, for based on appearances only, we might not be able to discern anything different on the material plane.
Stepping into this new year, notice your experience. Does anything feel different for you, or is it pretty much the same as before? Maybe you haven't taken the time to check in with yourself. Maybe you, like me, have been very involved with your family and the holidays, and you've been busy having a good time. And maybe this hasn't necessarily been a time of self-reflection.
So tune into your inner world for a moment. See if you can carve out a few moments of time and put some space around you so you can drop in to yourself and see who's there, waiting to be met by you, right now. If you stopped whatever you're presently doing, became still, and tuned your awareness inward, past all the noise of the outer world, who would you meet? Who is this person expressing itself as you now? Be with that person for a moment. Tune into them and listen. What do they have to say to you?
If you were standing at the threshold of a new time for the personal and the collective, and if the person you're becoming is the one you just met when you checked inside, and if that person had an important message to tell you about who you are to become starting now, what is that message? Who are you becoming?
Whatever message you receive, consider that it could be the key to your own awakening, a map to your own future, the one that wasn't already going to happen anyway. Let me explain:
There are several possible futures awaiting you. There's the one you can see already. It's the predictable future, and it's based on all the choices you've already made leading up to now. This is the future you can see and describe, and it probably looks a lot like your past. You've already set this future in motion, and it's on its way already. It's coming and will be here soon. You can look on your calendar and see it already laid out.
But there's another future out there, also waiting for you. It's the one you can't see from here, the one you could never predict and certainly the one you couldn't see from your past. This is the future that doesn't look possible from here. But it's also on its way. Whether or not this future ever arrives at your doorstep will be up to you. As the founder of Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes, taught, "It is done unto us we believe." Your beliefs will determine the kind of future you call forth.
When we talk about a collective shift, we are talking about an awakening of our collective consciousness. And even though there are not yet massive indications of that happening "out there" in the world, it is happening as an "inside job," within those who are ready to awaken. Does this include you?
Looking at the world today, not much has changed in the outward appearance of things. There is still much suffering. Humanity is still warring and killing, and fighting and operating from fear and scarcity. There are still homeless people and families struggling to make ends meet. The consciousness of fear and uncertainty still dominate the land.
This is the context in which we find ourselves, here at the beginning of 2013. And within this context, we are being called to awaken. In the face of what looks like the deepest and darkest times in modern history, when humanity looks as though it has really gotten it wrong and lost its way, in these times we are being called to awaken.
So whether or not it looks any different to you from the outside, know this: Waking up is an inside job. Whatever you expect your future to bring isn't going to show up "out there" until you've done your homework from the inside out and have taken upon yourself as your sacred responsibility to awaken.
This is how I hold it. Waking up and helping to awaken others is my sacred responsibility. There is no greater service to mankind than to be a catalyst for one's own awakening. But you can't stop there. That's just the beginning. It's also about using your light to awaken the light in others. That's a mighty and holy task. Are you up for that?
This is what it means to be part of this time of awakening. This is why you and I are here, on this planet, now. We've come to be here to help illuminate the darkest times. We can likely expect that conditions will worsen before they get better. Our task is not to bemoan the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Ours is to remain connected to the truth of our oneness, regardless of appearances.
Regardless of all the shootings that may occur that rip our hearts out and bring us to our knees, our task is to be a living reminder that love trumps fear every time. Regardless of all the pain and suffering that still dominate the world, our task is to know, on behalf of the whole of us, the bigger, deeper and transcendent truths about who and what we are.
No matter what it may look like, if the oceans didn't part, if the sky didn't open, if the angelic choirs didn't ring in the new era, our task is to be still and know that all is one and to hold that knowing near and dear to our hearts, especially during these times of upheaval.
A reader wrote to me seeking advice about what to do now. She shared that her dream was to become a coach and support others seeking to know themselves. But after reading my last post, she decided that job probably would no longer be necessary, since everyone was going to awaken all at once. I assured her that supporting others to know who they are is a perfect "assignment" right now, and to pursue her dream, for she will be needed now more than ever.
And so this is the thing about waking up. It is an inside job. There is nothing that is going to happen to you. Awakening will happen from you. You can wake up because of, or in spite of, whatever's going on around you.
The portal has opened. Your name has been called. It's up to you to step across whatever appears as obstacles and proceed into your future. Do not worry about how to get there. Your mind cannot see the way. But your soul knows the way. It's always known the way. Follow your soul. It will lead you home.
My very best wishes to you for the new year. May this be a year of peace and prosperity. May you come into full recognition of your own magnificence. May you open to the abundance that awaits your willingness to receive it. May all that is good and true dwell in your heart.
I'd love to hear from you about how this time is occurring in your life. What do you see or feel about your own future and the future of humanity?
Please feel free to leave your comments below and/or come pay a visit to my personal blog and website at Rx For The Soul. For personal contact, reach me at judith@judithrich.com. I love receiving your questions, personal shares and inquiries.
I'm off to Mexico next week to support a group of people doing their work of awakening. I'll see you back here in a couple of weeks. Blessings on the path.
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