Tag: freedom

A Soulful Reflection for the New Year

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Tropical Sunset

I am posting this under “Freedom to Be” as living from this reminder empowers you to BE!

A Soulful Reflection for the New Year

Remember … live one day at a time.
and sometimes it’s about just breathing in
the present moment a little more deeply and
being conscious of the need to “chill.”

A reminder:

When we become caught up in “urgencies”
remind yourself there is no urgency in creation …
It’s ongoing and there is a perfect sequential process to its unfolding.

Imagine if the flowers, trees, and all we beheld
in nature were in a hurry to grow. Mother Nature doesn’t rush or push.
She just nurtures the process of that growth through the seasons,
with the rising and setting sun. Take time to breathe.

The Divine Creative Process is always at work.

I am realizing in all I have experienced –
In new creations and letting go of the past,
that my strength has come from
my trust and faith to move on.
My empowerment is when I take a deep breath,
place my hand on my heart and open to
new clarity, where calm and order can take place.
No matter how cloudy or challenging the day,
I envision the sun behind the clouds. I can always access that inner strength.
and renewal that awaits my recognition.

My well-being is an inside job … and it begins with
tender, loving, care of myself … one day at a time.

I enter this New Year – committed to that TLC and passing it on with love and regard for all I come upon.

Here is a brief video with 7 Beautiful New Year Quotes:

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.

Non-Attachment with Passionate Pursuit!

Silhouette of man on mountaintop

Principle 4. Never give up – but be willing to step back and align to your true passion.

Life is about the willingness to step back – let go – reassess and realign to what is yours to “Be.” It is riding the waves of grief and loss as well as joy. They are all my teachers. My passion is derived from joy and sorrow and being the Victor of this adventure of life.

Essential to this Principle: I must practice non-attachment to outcomes and remain in passionate pursuit of what is in my heart to give and be!

That Principle can be a great challenge – and I am adding that additional sentence on the website!

I am not aware of what tomorrow may bring; however, I can be conscious of what I choose to bring to it.

A quote from Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning.

The last of one’s freedoms.

“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”

Out of the horrors of his time in the German concentration camps, he created a therapy called: Logotherapy – the heart of which was about:

“His most famous memoir begins by outlining a personal experience through the gruesome Auschwitz concentration camps. The three years he spent in concentration camps became more than a story of survival. Frankl embodies the modern-day definition of resilience.

He muses about the quest for meaning, the transcendental power of love, finding humor, and discovering courage in the face of difficulty. In the worst circumstances imaginable, Frankl held to the belief that the most critical freedom is an individual’s ability to choose one’s attitude.”

My stepping back at times has been crucial to draw forth the innate strength within me, a day at a time. In that quest, I do find new passion and purpose and I can choose the attitude that lifts me up and through to ever higher ground.

In 80+ years there is a profound gift of honoring and celebrating the distance travelled. Like all, I have faced dark nights, pain on all levels, grief that still comes in waves, and rising through this world with the beliefs in duality and others that have been crippling at times to my well-being.

In letting go of controlling outcomes – let me be in passionate regard for what I am being in the moment and let that move me on to all that is before me.

I cherish what my years and friendships have given to me. My passionate pursuit – the authenticity of Charles – rising to ever deeper purpose and value of self and others, never giving up and always willing to step back!

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.

Lighten Up!

meditation

Week two of continuing to revisit the 5 Key Principles. Look back on week 1, entitled Practice, Practice, Practice.

2 – Be Aware of What Is Yours to Carry and What Is Yours to Set Free.

What baggage we carry that has never belonged to us, and we keep adding to it with more stories that keep us entrapped in emotional quicksand of lies and untruths about ourselves and others.

I honor that I took on great responsibilities in my youth and felt it was absolutely mine to do. There is no regret in all those years – yet there is great awareness that I carried that sense of obligation for decades longer than I needed to. My sense of identity and value was solely in being there for my family and others.

In my 60’s I did step away from that profound sense of obligation, however, I still carried in my ministry and work that I had to be there for everyone – and always available. I was still adding to my luggage – that only I could lighten by stepping back and awakening to – I can travel more lightly.

From events that took place in my work and wonderful new friendships and love in Ft Lauderdale, there came a time when I realized, I wanted to explore a whole new freedom and no longer “carry” being there 24/7 for everyone.

It was time to set Charles – Free. I let go of my church leadership and through the imprint of COVID and Black Lives Matter – I created Mind Your Own Becoming – a non-profit forum for open and meaningful discussion of our times that we come to authentically listen.

Check our Opening Home Page on What we are About and our Mission, Vision statements.

I also decided to move to Montana having been born in Colorado and being one of the founders of the Big Sky Retreat from its beginnings in 1976. The mountains were calling me for a sense of being home where I could claim new growth – and “Lighten Up.”

I let go of all except for sending packages to Clancy, Montana, where I was to discover a new sanctuary space, and packing my new Jeep Cherokee with all I could. A beloved friend Rev Kent Barnard traveled with me part way to Texas.  From that point on I was by myself and arrived in Montana, May 1st, 2020.

Through this decision for the first time in my life I do not feel driven in time and schedule. I am here for what Kahlil Gibran defines as “Work is Love made visible.”  I am refired, renewed, redefined, and awakening to my full value – without the need to prove it to others.

I am conscious to look at my baggage ongoing and the self-judgment I carried throughout my life, generationally and personally. I seek to live from valuing how far I have travelled and the rest before me is meant to be the best because I have “Lightened Up!”

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.

Forgiveness is an Ongoing Journey of Freedom

I can grow for no one except myself. The first Principle of Mind Your Own Becoming – “Free others to be where they are, not where you want them to be.” Sometimes that is an extremely painful lesson when we so want full healing for those we love. The fourth Principle of MYOB: Remember – Forgiveness Is an Ongoing Journey of Freedom for You.

From my booklet – “Mind Your Own Becoming – Love Wins.”

“In my forties, one of my nieces shared a secret held for years. My brother-in-law had violated one of my nieces from the time she was a young child into her teens, attempted to rape another and threatened another with death if she ever told. I confronted that with all the family, knowing I could not be silent. My sister had one teenage son from that marriage, and I included him in exposing that painful secret. My sister also revealed my birth father had violated her and she kept her relationship with him through his life. I sought to offer support and ongoing counsel for everyone. Nothing turned out as I had prayed. Two factors were heartbreaking to me, my sister knew of the violation and did nothing. She remained with her husband. This shattered family as I had known it.”

My sister’s message that she lived from – you’ll get through it – be silent. The poison in that message is that we don’t just go through it unscathed. We live with that message and base our decisions out of fear and not feeling heard or loved. There’s shame, embarrassment, and anger that “seethes” through the years. It results in acute dysfunction, co-dependence, addictions, and disease and that continues in the next generation.

Acceptance and Forgiveness

My confrontation did not create a magic wand where there was sudden enlightenment and transformation; however, it broke the seal of silence and planted the seed for future generations.

It was also a journey to accept that my sister chose to continue the marriage with my brother-in-law, and it took years for me to find peace with that decision. However, there is a deeper spiritual principle in all our evolvement, and that is to accept someone where they are and not where you would have them be. That acceptance, however, does not mean that I have ever questioned my actions of breaking the silence. There was an immense and painful price involved. I came to realize that abuse shattered my family before I broke the silence. I know also there was a moment of revelation that finally someone was listening.

This has required me to understand the principle of forgiveness on deeper levels and honor the words written earlier, abuse begets abuse. I know my brother-in-law suffered great abuse as a child and never healed those deep wounds. I must have as deep a compassion for his soul journey as I do for every family member. Silence can seal us into victimhood or breaking it can send us on the path of a life lived not out of fear but planting the seeds of healing for ourselves and future generations.

There’s more to come on this subject of Acceptance and Forgiveness – above all for myself. We are living out of fear or love – (Course in Miracles) and Love Wins!

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.