All Great Things are possible

April 15

I’m revisiting a wonderful book called Divine Audacity by Linda Martella-Whitsette. I just love this book. Consider this quote: “If we accept that all we know about GOD is also true about ourselves, we must accept personal responsibility for our thoughts, words, and acts. We can no longer pretend helplessness in the face of human experience. Admitting our Divine Identity requires us to draw from, yield to, and express the One Power consciously, every day. We have to live from this realization. It requires audacity.”

Living Fearlessly Feral is audacious. People misunderstand the words. I had a couple of very interesting exchanges with folks at the recent Centers for Spiritual Living convention that I attended. One called me a feral cat, complete with a rather bad rendition of a kitty snarl. Rather than stick around to discuss what I mean by feral, he simply turned around and walked away. Poor guy. Forgive them for they know not what they do. By the way, feral means nothing more than undomesticated. It means we do not base our lives on what society dictates, but on what is our own stuff. Our own truth. Of course this brings me back to the Divine Audacity quote, where we are accepting full and complete responsibility for our beliefs, thoughts, words and deeds.

Which takes a certain amount of fearlessness, because in order to live our truth, we have to be willing to go to that scary neighborhood within us and explore all the nooks and crannies. Since fear is a biological imperative, meaning it never goes away because it is a necessary part of life, such exploration is really about doing it through the fear. Using the fear as a tool, not as a barrier. Which is part of why I say that we live successfully because of the fear, not in spite of it.

As I am thinking about all of this, I am recalling a conversation I had with someone just last night. He said he made a list of his addictions and discovered he had seven of them. I thought this was a pretty profound and honest way of looking at oneself. But I also recognize that as long as we hang on to any addiction, whether it be co-dependency, gambling, smoking, drinking, sex, drugs or shopping, we are simply switching seats on the Titanic. I pointed this out to my new friend, who did not have his hearing aids with him (I was wearing mine! LOL!) and I am still not sure whether he heard me or not. Such is life when one is having a conversation with someone who can’t hear. And isn’t that a nice little metaphor?

What are the reasons for us not being able to hear? Is it as simple as not having hearing aids (or not being willing to wear them)? Or could it be something deeper? Could it be an unwillingness to change? Could it be a consciousness of closed mindedness? As opposed to one of openness.

And it occurred to me: what if all those addictions were simply ways of avoiding taking full and complete responsibility for the beautiful divine beings that we really are? What if we simply have such a great fear of shining our light that we will go to any lengths to prevent that light from shining? As Whitsette said, it requires audacity to do so, as well as being Fearlessly Feral.

One of the speakers I heard at the CSL convention was Rev. Dr. Sunshine Daye. She said “You can’t hear clearly while still protecting your illusions.” What illusions are we protecting that prevent us from hearing clearly? Such questions require deep self examination, and I have come to realize that not everyone is willing to do that.

She pointed out that clarity does not come from comfort, it comes from deep self examination.

Having benefited immensely from such deep self examination, I fail to understand why more people don’t do it. But I’m hoping my book, How to Live Fearlessly Feral, will help with that. Honestly, if more people would do the kind of deep self examination called for in my book, the world would be a better place.

And here’s where the fearless part of Fearlessly Feral comes in. We have fear. It’s there. It isn’t going to go away. But we can use the fear to support us in our own evolution to our next greatest level of living.

This is my mission in life. It’s the reason behind the name, it is the motive behind my latest book, How to Live Fearlessly Feral.

Because of apparently unsolveable publisher issues (not available in print version on Amazon, for example. If you want a print version, buy directly from me), I’ll be doing a re-release soon of the book, which will give me an opportunity to revisit it. I’ve considered changing the title of it, because of the pushback I get behind it (think narrow minded guy making kitty snarl noises at me). But each time I do I think to myself, “self, that’s not being very feral. That’s succumbing to societal pressure. You’ve promised you would not do that.”

Perhaps there is a middle ground there. Who knows? What I do know is that I am open and willing and with that combination, all great things are possible.

So today I am going about my business of doing daily stuff: dishes, cleaning horse stalls, laundry, etc, all the while embodying a consciousness of knowing that all great things are possible.

Which of course is so much fun to contemplate! What great things are possible for you today?