This week:
My Soul Hurts with the Madness in the World by I Won’t Back Down!
“We are usually in one of these three situations.
- We are stressed out because a circumstance is not happening the way our old story perceives it should be happening.
- We are temporarily happy because a circumstance is happening the way our old story wanted it to happen.
- We are experiencing true deep fulfillment because we are connecting to this moment and to the truth of what we really are. As we do this, we transcend the need for our circumstances to be any way because our connection is to ourselves. This causes circumstances to change much more rapidly in our favor but we don’t care because our connection, truth, happiness are with ourselves, this moment and the universe. We transcend the need for things to change but ironically, that is why things change for the better. We are able to release everything as we connect to the bigger truth. We stop playing small games in the addiction world and expand with the universe in the moment.
All three ways serve a purpose.
The first two will repeat themselves over and over until we fully understand they no longer serve us.
The third way is where we will all end up, eventually…”
Kyle Cease
The Earth’s Prayer a 21st Century Complement to the Lord’s Prayer:
Recent current events couple with conversations with a conscious leaders men’s group I am proud to be part of reminded me of this prayer I stretched myself to create some years ago.
Emboldened by the feedback from my brothers I decided to share it here, and while inspired on a summer trip to Europe in 2009, I think the spirit within is still relevant.
The PowerPoint shares both the back story and the final output. The text is on the left, and the rationale, deconstruction, analysis, inspiration, wrangling, etc is on the right of each slide, with the final composite integrated at the end.
As you will see, I was crazy enough to grapple with heavy topics and issues such as:
- Faith, different faiths (institutional and highly personal), no faith but perhaps a different calling/connection, all together
- The nature of God, the nature of Nature, a Natural g-d (spirit),
- Transient v. Imminent Truth,
- Humility to a Higher Self and Accountability to one’s Personal Self,
- Investing in Loss (surrender/subservience) and Investing in Growth (stewardship),
- Dis ease with prayer and the disease that lack of faith (of some kind) can bring,
- The Strength of “Father” augmented by the Compassion of “Mother”,
The list goes on…
We are sometimes socially directed to stay away from three taboo subjects; money, sex and religion. While this may be true for broad social interactions, as relationships deepen, one can’t have a real human connection without some appropriate discussion of one or more of these- to some degree- so here goes…
Finally, with any form of creative expression, there is by definition vulnerability and exposure, made exponential in this case, tackling a subject of this magnitude and emotive content, so be gentle on me…
If this is out of your comfort zone, simply delete it.
The Earths Prayer
Tom Petty’s Passing…
“I turned anger into ambition,” he told one interviewer. “Any sort of injustice would outrage me. I couldn’t contain myself.”
His songs stayed down-to-earth, with sturdy guitar riffs carrying lyrics that spoke for underdogs and ornery outcasts and I was privileged to see him one last time just a week ago…
In a world of legal wrangling over musical IP he was ok with musical accidents.
In 2015, when Sam Smith belatedly realized that the chorus of his hit “Stay With Me” had all too much in common with “I Won’t Back Down,” written by Mr. Petty and Mr. Lynne; he quickly shared the songwriting credit. “A musical accident no more no less,” Mr. Petty wrote in a typically laconic statement. “In these times we live in this is hardly news.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/arts/music/tom-petty-dead.html
A talented songwriter, Tom Petty was also a great musical collaborator. Enjoy these legends celebrating another legend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y
It Starts with You:
Every Monday Matters is committed to inspiring a new normal, where individuals and organizations understand how much and why they matter to themselves, the community and the world and is a nice complement to Soul Food Fridays!
http://everymondaymatters.org/
If you are local…
“No More No More”- A Free Human Trafficking Awareness Program October 11th from 3:30 to 6pm @ UC San Diego
I will be emceeing this event so please join us if you can…https://www.eventbrite.com/e/no-more-no-more-tickets-36841783767
Thanks this week go to Paul C and the men in the CLC, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and All of Us that Know it Starts with Us and Won’t Back Down!
Pay it forward
Love, Neville
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“When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present….we experience heaven on earth.”
Happy Soul Food Friday! 