Shedding the Old Skin

A friend shared this link with me yesterday, and I think it's a great one to use as a catalyst for my first post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-lanza/does-the-past-exist-yet-e_b_683103.html

I've been pondering the universe a lot lately...how we're all connected, not only with other humans, but with plants and animals, rocks, air, water, elements, and everything we observe around us. Much of my thoughts on the subject have been guided by some profound books:

• The Celestine Prophecy (given to me by another friend who had a hunch I might "connect" with it - thank you, Kelly!)

• The Buddha and the Terrorist

• The Seat of the Soul (haven't finished yet, but the parts I read have removed any fear I ever had of dying)

• Spontaneous Evolution

• A Tear at the Edge of Creation: A Radical New Vision for Life in an Imperfect Universe

The 13.7 blog on the NPR.org website has been fascinating and mind-blowing and VERY well-balanced if one takes the time to read ALL the comments (one of the main bloggers is the author of the last book listed above).

And lastly, the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?" also had a profound influence, but I had to watch it maybe three times before I started to understand, and some of the things I'm STILL trying to grasp. (Need to watch it again...soon.)

Back to the link at the beginning of the post...

Reading it made me think about how, when you feel sad about something that happened to break up a friendship or relationship in the past, and out of the blue, that person contacts you and asks if you're mad at them, when all along you thought THEY were mad at YOU, and suddenly everything is forgiven and all is wonderful again....well, it's almost as if the upsetting event in the past **disappears**. It never existed. Sometimes the hurts take longer to heal, and take a LOT more work to move past them, but my marriage is living proof that it IS possible to do just that.

I have learned SO much over the last 4 years of my life, and now, it's like the dam has broken, and I just can't get enough! I feel like I have to make up for lost time. I am the robot "Number 5" in the movie "Short Circuit". I *need* input!! Oddly enough, I no longer crave the "escape" offered by fiction, either in books or movies. Whereas before, textbooks or nonfiction were *definite* cures for insomnia, and fictional books would deprive me of sleep through no fault of my own. The roles are now *reversed*. My objective self, the one observing and analyzing this strange turn of events, just nods wisely, a smug smile twitching at the corner of my lips.

My goodness, have I gone to the next phase of life? That one where they say you're "older and wiser"? Why yes, I think that could be it. And yet, "the fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." There is SO much yet to learn. But the more I learn, the more I understand it has to be learned *sequentially*, and in baby steps.

Most of us have been infused with certain beliefs and myths we learned as we were growing up, either from our parents, our childhood friends, our spiritual advisors, our surroundings, or even, for people MY age, incorrect scientific evidence that has now been disproven. Each new possibility, each new paradigm or mind-boggling idea, opens like a flower bud in time-lapse photography, and as each one finds its way into my brain, I feel a myth or legend that was ingrained in my belief system fall away. The darkness is being lifted. The layers of the onion are peeling away. Change is no longer frightening. It is welcome. I think I'm "molting". No wait, I'm *evolving*. That's it!

Change is happening all around us, and it is accelerating at a rapid pace. Some people can't handle it, and, in fact, I find myself getting panicky at times. However, I recognize this change inside of me AND all around me as both exciting and frightening, exhilerating and worrisome. That, of course, is how it HAS to be, and so I accept it wholeheartedly.

Peace Be With You,

LJT