Life Matters
Life Matters
By Mark C. Hughes @ The Karma Institute
It all matters. Life matters. As the days turn into months and the months will soon turn into years, I have been searching for answers to our current world dilemmas. It is as though we have just awakened from a long slumber and can’t believe what has gone on while we have all been asleep, unconscious. It has all happened so suddenly. Or has it? It is like a modern day episode of The Twilight Zone. This episode is not far fetched but certainly far reaching because it is affecting millions of people in dramatic ways far greater than the horror one might have considered plausible. We don’t have the dramatic effect of extremes or the supernatural. What we have in this version is so subtle that it came from years of living unconsciously with the choices we made in our daily lives. Choices that are now echoing the consequences to our blind living. The awakening is offering an opportunity for re-evaluating and re-adjusting our values. We are being nudged to move closer to those things that we hold dear to our hearts.
Our Business Matters. While the world watched with an apathetic value system, we allowed greed to take the place of integrity. Business decisions after business decisions were made to advance the wealth and power of those in the positions that had the ability to really make a positive difference. Instead of looking to the greater good they looked to the greater self. Self-indulged with the fixation of materialism, our economic world has now collapsed due to the self-serving interests of the few at the expense of the many. The pendulum will swing back. We will once again shake hands and treat our word as our bond. We will return to an era when making corporate decisions were for the welfare of the entire economy rather than what serves their bottom line. We will reach out and help our neighbors because we will all feel the hardships from a struggling economy. We will build strategic alliances with those that possess integrity over those that simply possess deep pockets. We will seek to make a difference in the world by doing deeds that collectively serve the welfare of our community rather than fill our ego with a false sense of success. Our Business Matters. Through the suffering and the struggle of the coming years, our values will be re-aligned in ways that were never imaged during the boom years.
Our Family Matters. More and more families will feel the pain of loss and misfortune. Once looked upon with judgment, more and more families will be honored for their perseverance and determination. There will be a greater sense of empathy for those that are less fortunate. Pride will return to the family when they turn to each other rather than away from each other. Our elders will earn an honorable place in our homes and families will seek to find the good in each other rather than find fault. Extended family members will join together and share the responsibility of housing and the raising of children. We will no longer define our relationships by petty differences but by common ground. While we will learn the importance of taking care of ourselves, we will become more accepting and more willing to extend a helping hand to others. Our Family Matters. Although we will see much strife, our family units will pull together and demonstrate determination like never before, seeking gratitude with all the gifts we experience in our daily life.
Our Community Matters. With each passing month we question the sacrifices we will have to make. They may be many. They may be great. That which we have taken for granted will be gone. Cooperation and collaborative efforts will replace that which has been paid for in the past by federal grants and government spending. Communities will transition from isolation to participation. Neighborhoods will come together to do things tax dollars did in the past. Non-profits will feel the strain but their services and their role will be regarded with the greatest of respect. We will become a more generous culture, a more humanitarian thinker. We will begin to look at adversity in a whole new way. Opportunities for change will ignite innovative measures to do things differently. The perspective of materialism will be replaced with values that promote downsizing and doing things economically. Our Community Matters. During the shift, our society will experience having less, needing less, but connecting more and rekindling the spirit of partnership and togetherness.
Our Spiritual Matters. In search of strength and determination with these coming years of economic uncertainty, we will learn that our greatest resource is ourself. Leaving behind is the fear that we are not enough. Through struggle comes triumph. With adversity comes greatness. We, as a people, will turn to our greatest power to conquer these coming years of upheaval- the inner voice that will guide us through the dark days and take us to a brighter future. We will learn that there is reassurance from outside support but we will embrace that our single most powerful beacon of hope is trusting what we know. We will, in growing numbers, turn inward for encouragement and validation that the steps we take are the right ones, that the convictions we hold for a better tomorrow are possible. We will develop a promise of faith by acting on what we are guided to do. We will turn inward and develop an unyielding faith in our ability to tap the inner God-given resources to bring us to a place of safety and wellbeing.
Life Matters. It all matters. There are no accidents. The choices we made in the past have brought us to our new lessons in the future. We can make the decision to focus on the dark side or turn the obstacles into opportunities. Opportunities to strengthen our families, opportunities to rebuild our integrity in our work and in our world, opportunities to reconnect with people and experience the brilliance of their soul, and finally, we are at the perfect time to explore our inner strength and seek to call upon our innate knowing and become a culture of one. It is hard to see the blessings in disasters. It is painful to watch those around us suffering. Yet, these turn of events have clearly opened the door for all of us to consider what is important and make the readjustment in of values to take us to our next evolutionary process, the unfolding of our natural spirit/
