Spiritual

This Moment

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THIS MOMENT

 

This time of joy or anguish

within this lifetime

is nothing more than

a moment

within a moment

within eternity.

 

A teardrop

that falls into a river

that flows into an ocean.

A flame

that becomes a firestorm

that quickly burns itself out.

 

I can choose to stand outside of this moment

and see it from a distant future

I feel it as a gift from time

only another ticking of the clock.

 

We dwell on the past

We plan and fear the future

When all we really have

is just this moment.

 

And all we need is now…

 

This moment

within a moment

within eternity.

 

© Michael Young 2019

Shurri 3

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BOOKS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE:

When it comes to my spiritual journey, the Universe always puts the perfect book in front of me at the very moment I need it… the moment my spirit can finally resonate with the life-changing revelations held within.

The most recent gift of perfect universal timing was OUT ON A LIMB by SHIRLEY MacLAINE!

             “Maybe one human soul was everything. And such a reality was up to each of us to relearn. Maybe the tragedy of the human race was that we had forgotten that we were each divine. And if we realised that, we could dispel fear from our lives. In dispelling fear, we could dispel hate. And much more. With the fear we would rid ourselves of greed and war and killing. Fear was the root and circle around which our lives revolved – fear of failure, fear of pain, fear of humiliation, fear of loneliness, of being unloved, of ourselves, fear of death, ultimately fear of fear.

              “Fear itself was insidious, infectious, seeping in from one point of unreality to permeate all our lives. Perhaps our belief in death was the gravest unreality of all. If we could truly know that we never really died, that we always got another chance, that no pain, no humiliation, no loss, was ever final, total and forever, maybe we could understand that there was nothing to fear. It could be that human beings were using their talent for complexity as an excuse to avoid the responsibility for being what we really understood we were from the beginning – basically part of what we called “God”, and without limitation masters of our own divine potential.

              “Perhaps reality was only what one believed it to be anyway. That would make all perceived realities real. Maybe that was the lesson I was learning – learning to think with unlimitedness… to believe that one can do anything, soar anywhere, become everything.”    ~ Shirley MacLaine 1983.    

 

Fear, that debilitating affliction, is simply not real… we create it ourselves and allow it to control us. There is nothing to fear but fear itself because it is our own self-destruction.

Of course, the real struggle is making these revelations a living part of my daily existence… the desire to stay unchanged is always strong and to want to remain in a familiar and safe place is very human.

I’ve seen from past experience, however, that when these books are handed to me I do eventually learn much of what was intended.

 

~ Michael Young 2019 

 

OOAL

PLEASE… READ THE BOOK… BEFORE you watch the movie below.  😉 

 

 

 

 

 

LOST?

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I realised today that I have lost my belief in myself.

 

When it comes to other people, in particular their writing, I have a gift of encouraging them to try, to keep going, to succeed. Three people have now gone on to write more than one fiction book because of my support and gentle encouragement.  In that same time, I have only written part of my first fiction, and it has laid untouched for over a year.

 

I feel lost.  I need someone to do for me what I do for others. To guide me, support me, challenge me, encourage me… to be a ‘team’ with me. I can’t motivate myself… I’m just not that kind of person.

 

I can’t ‘sell’ myself as one of my writer friends can. She takes on new courses or challenges so often and it leads her to results. She is inspiring! She has this amazing belief in herself.  I don’t have that same belief in myself. She goes out there boldly and finds a way to open up opportunities for herself and others.  I’m not brave like that. She has been the reason for most of what I’ve done to edit and publish stories for others and books for some. Now she is moving away after 7 years. 

 

When I was at school, many years ago, I was explosively creative. Writing plays, a movie script, filming part of the script. I wanted to be a TV Director and Producer, so I applied for NIDA… once. Instead of applying again until I was accepted, I got a boring job in a Bank and that was the end of it. 

 

I had no-one there to encourage me to try again. Just that one person who believed in me and in my dreams was all I needed to keep me going, but they were not there. I still need that now, more than ever.

 

I would say the most creative I have been recently was the five years I edited the Sonic Screwdriver Magazine for the Doctor Who Club of Victoria. What I achieved then was amazing, but it only happened because I had another person working with me as a partner. Just as there would never have been any ABBA songs if Benny and Bjorn had not been led to work together, the same is true for what we did with that magazine. That’s how I work best, as part of a team of two, sometimes more.

 

Maybe it’s just me struggling to see ‘the wood for the trees’ as they say.  Maybe my eyes have slipped below the waterline and I’m struggling to get my head back above water.  Maybe it all seems and feels far worse than it really is…

 

But one thing is clear; I need someone to believe in me now. Someone to believe in my gifts, show enthusiasm for what I write and create, to gently support and encourage me to succeed. 

 

I do it for others. Is it too much to ask that someone does the same for me?

 

Michael Young 2019

Shurri 2

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BOOKS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE:

SHURRI 2

spirit-vs-matter 1

We are in a state of separation between spirit and matter, between our very souls and materialism. We are half-awake with our toys and technology. We don’t hear our souls crying to be recognised as part of creation, so we will wake up. The world we have made and live in does not bear witness to the divine. It bears witness to our greed, our delusions of power, and to the righteous of religion. We kill for the determination of our religious power. We kill for the individual’s democratic right to plunder the Earth as we separate ourselves more and more from the Earth’s divinity. We live separate from our true selves.

 

The Buddhists speak of non-attachment, which is different to detachment. I was beginning to see the difference. Our attachment to so many things makes us forget why we are here and what we are supposed to be learning about ourselves…

 

Shirley MacLaine 2011.

 

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=-S-yW5wVa3kC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

IOAT

IOAT 2

 

Shurri 1

 

Shurri

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BOOKS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE:

Shurri

I always thought SHIRLEY MacLAINE was a nutter. (I’m sure that’s what “they” wanted me to think!)

Now I realise that she is just a few steps ahead of me on the same spiritual journey as millions of others.

I’ve just started reading her 2011 book “I’m Over All That”.

 

This book has sat on the shelf in my bedroom for a long time.  The shelf where I have a collection of books for “future reading”.  In fact, it’s been there for so long I have no idea where it came from or when it was purchased… or how it got there at all. Late last week I was walking past the shelf, and “saw” the book for the first time… like it had not been there until that moment when it suddenly caught my attention.

I love how the universe provides me with an endless supply of “the right book at the right time” to help me along my spiritual/life journey.  The book I was previously reading was one that had to be digested in slow portions because it was way beyond average daily reading… “Catastrophobia” by Barbara Hand Clow, which I now realise is a book that Shirley would definitely have read herself.  (That magical “one degree of separation” appears again in my life.)

My initial thought at seeing “I’m Over All That” was, ‘that sounds like me talking, I’m over it all too,’ followed by ‘this will at least be something light to contrast with the heaviness Catastrophobia.’ As I started to read, I realised it was actually necessary for me to have read the two previous books so I could appreciate all the wisdom that was waiting for me in this new book.

The timing was simply beyond what I would expect for my life, but as always, it was perfect.  I’d been struggling with a cold/cough/sinus infection for over six weeks. I caught it at the Cher concert we recently attended, probably because I’ve worked from home for over a year my immunity to minor bugs has lowered, so it was easy to pick up something form all those “germy people breathing all over me” in the crowded venue.  I was getting depressed from the long illness and didn’t understand why it was hanging around when all my blood etc tests showed me to be healthier than any average person. 

I read a comment in Shirley’s book that suggested illness is often a sign that we need to change something in our life. Long story short that led me to ask my “people” (guides, angels whatever you prefer) who gave me an immediate answer, which I then started to question, so I consulted my Angel Cards which, in only ONE selection pounded home the same point… that I had to re-balance a certain distracting obsession in my life immediately.  So I made the agreement with them and, with the help of my doctor, I began to see an immediate release from the illness. 

No, I won’t tell you the specifics, but suffice to say it was one of those very “human” situations where you know the obsession or addiction to some distraction is taking over your life, but you just keep ignoring all the signs… until the universe has to back you into a corner and MAKE you see what you are pretending to ignore.  This time I was backed into the corner and handed a book written by Shirley MacLaine published seven years ago to slap me back to reality… and get me writing again as well!

There’s so much in “I’m Over All That” that resonates with me, it’s like I’m becoming more and more like Shirley without even knowing her… or put more simply, we are on the same spiritual journey through a very similar list of life lessons. (By the way, if you want to know why I’ve called this post “Shurri” you’ll have to read the book 😉  )

Shurri 1

Here’s just one of those passages:

I’m Over Fear Taught In The Name Of Religion. (Page 28).

I never cease to be amazed at how far some religious people will go to turn their destinies over to god rather than take charge of them for themselves. If the devil really does exist, he would beat his chest with pride at how significant we humans have made him. More movies and books have been made heralding his existence than anything else… because the FEAR of him makes so much MONEY. Fear seems to be the most common human emotion and the easiest to exploit. Fear of god, fear of the devil, fear of terrorists, fear of death, fear of life, fear of race, (fear of authority), fear, fear, fear. Learn how to propagandise FEAR, and you can control a civilisation and make a LOT of MONEY…

 In fact, everywhere I have traveled in the world, the conflicts I’ve seen stemmed from organised religion in one way or another…  

 What I was learning about religion around the world as I traveled was that it afforded each denomination and culture an opportunity to BYPASS RESPONSIBILITY for itself and assign that task to god. (Also creating their devil in the image of their longtime cultural enemy or their “imagined” enemy, also declaring them an enemy of their god to justify their godless hatred and war.)…

Therefore, I gave up religion a long time ago. I’m over all that religion thing and have been ever since I put my experiences with my own karma together with my strong sense of SELF-RESPONSIBILITY…

Shirley MacLaine 2011.  

(Emphasis is mine… Michael Young)

Problem Two

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Problems? Don’t talk to me about problems…

Went to pre-book our seats online for MAMMA MIA Here We Go Again in GOLD CLASS at the local cinema. We rarely go to the movies, usually wait for the Blu-ray or Netflix options.  We had two gift cards that we have struggled to use, so hard to find a movie we will both love.

Found two perfect seats for the Tuesday session. Was disappointed to see that the “Cheap-arse Tuesday” sessions are only $32 not $42… we won’t get the full value of the gift cards. Then the damn online booking system said the gift cards were invalid… AND they want to charge a $7 booking fee… to book it ONLINE where it costs them NOTHING! OMG!

So I had to take the damn 5-minute drive to the Pacific Werribee shopping centre to pre-book the tickets in person. Then I couldn’t find a car park space close to the cinema and had to walk in the cold for a few 100 metres to get to the entrance… at least I had my hoodie to cover my head.

I was concerned I may have had to wait because it was the busy time, but a staff member came up to the desk right away and served me. We looked for seats on the Tuesday, but she could only see ones along the side, not in the middle like I prefer, so decided to try Thursday instead. The Gold Class cinemas have 8 seats across and six rows of seats but I like to be somewhere in the middle four seats. After a bit of umming and eerring I decided to compromise and go for two side seats on the Tuesday.

When she went to select the seats for me, she discovered that the two seats I originally wanted on the Tuesday were actually available, the ones I tried to book online. So I booked them. There was no booking fee either! Just think how much it cost them for her to do that booking compared to me booking online which cost them nothing.

Yes, FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS indeed!

Problem One

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Problems? Don’t talk to me about problems…
My mobile just fell down the side on my electric reclining lounge, my dairy-free ice cream is melting all over my home cooked Peach/Apple/Cranberry pie, I have to get up again because I forgot to put the USB into my laptop so I can watch the latest episode of The Young And The Restless on my 64″ HD 3D TV… AND… it’s getting to warm in here so I’ll have to turn the heating down!
Meanwhile, tonight on the streets of Wyndham (western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia) there are people, even families sleeping in their car or on the street, or god knows where while the wind chill factor turns the temperature to -7 degrees! But, hey, we don’t have a “homelessness problem” here, of course not! (…if we keep denying it, it will go away…)
Yes, FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS indeed!

COMMENTS:

AMY:
The Salvo’s are doing a great job assisting homeless in Wyndham.
But they cannot do it all. We must recognise our homeless and all pitch in together.

LISA:
White lion also doing great work with homeless youth but again can only do so much.
We have a huge lack of resources here as in crisis accommodation, mental health services rehab facilities for drug and alcohol (major contributors to homelessness).
Unfortunately posting on facebook although it brings awareness people very rarely take further steps.
Make donations of time and or money to organizations that can assist these people.
Write federal and state MP’s calling for more to be done.

WOLF:
You can join me knitting sleeping mats, blankets etc.