August 2008

These two weeks, August 1 to August 16, are about changing how we react to fear. If we can gain insights, we can respond differently to situations that will be coming our way in the next 5-6 years. Here is why:

When I create or make a choice out of fear, I am giving myself no love. By choosing or moving while I'm in fear, I will withdraw and contract. That choice will be a choice that on some level disempowers me, and sends the message that it isn't safe to be here to others.

When I choose out of my own sense of desire and courage, anything I create or choose will continue to move out as an open, loving and empowering quality. Anyone who comes in contact with something I've created out of my own desire, be it a song, an article, or a podcast, will find that same empowerment and love opening within themselves. Because it is already within both of us.

Love is our experience of knowing Spirit, and fear is our experience of being separated from Spirit. Knowing this, we can adjust our tuning.

I've been thinking about fear. It's everywhere. I turn on the TV news and hear about lack of money, the financial systems coming apart, and people behaving badly. My junk mail has an ominous tone in it, assuming that someone must get elected, or must not get elected, in order to save our schools or lifestyle or community.

Fear is our separation from Spirit. When we are in fear, we experience it physically, emotionally and mentally. The kind of fear I'm speaking about is a fear we step into ourselves. Which means we can step out of it.

"Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth)." This wonderful quote comes from Abraham Maslow, courtesy of www.silvers.org. Maslow continues, suggesting that to break the cycle we can "Make the growth choice a dozen times a day." These choices need not be gigantic. Start with what is right in front of you.

What do you really want? For most of us, fear is stopping, slowing, or clouding our ability to answer this question clearly.

It occurred to me that fear manifests in so many ways, and is so prevalent that it has become nearly invisible. It is considered a natural part of life. We have come to expect it and embrace it so much that we longer register when we are experiencing fear. I would say that it is no longer a question of if we are in fear mode, but to what extent or percentage we are in fear mode. Even in deep meditation, I can find at least 10 percent of my body still engaged in fear.

In my Midwestern U.S. culture and upbringing, fear was mixed in with food and water as a daily supplement. It was the primary motivation for most small daily choices. You couldn't go outside without proper clothing (what would the neighbor's think!) You had to give money to the right organizations. You couldn't be seen getting mail from certain companies. You couldn't be seen talking too long with the 'crazy' neighbor. And for me the biggest fear-rule was that you had to say nice things at all times, especially when you or the other person didn't feel like it.

I remember my mother chastising me for answering a neighbor's query "how are you feeling?" honestly. "Not very good' was my reply to the neighbor, who happened to also be my mom's best friend.

I had broken my leg, and at the time was in a heavy cast and on crutches. I was about 11 years old and living in the northern U.S.. It was snowy and icy outside and I was stuck in bed or on the couch for months during the healing process. As a young teen, in the age before internet and cell phones, my life was miserable. No friends, no phone calls of any length (we were on a party-line), no privacy, nothing to do, and my mother buzzing around me 24/7. Looking back, I think my saying I was 'miserable' was an understatement!

The next day my mother took me to task for answering the neighbor's question honestly. "No one really wants to know how you feel," explained my mother. "When you are asked 'how are you?' just say you are fine." I could see that there was no option. There was a fear around letting any crack or weakness show. If I wasn't fine, it meant something was wrong. And at that time in my culture, that meant weakness. And there was, and still is, a great fear around being perceived as weak.

But I find that weakness can turn to vulnerability. And when I let myself be vulnerable, I let Spirit remind me of how much I am loved, and how much my guides and angels and my friends want to support me.

Those little cracks and imperfections we judge within ourselves are opportunities to share compassionately. I love how the Dalai Lama can meet fear-based questions with a smile and an understanding of what lies behind the question. Much to the consternation of U.S. television interviewers, his answers are frequently not to the question that is asked, but to assuage and address the fear that prompted the question. Compassion reveals how Spirit can move through humans. Most of us would state that yes, there is already a bridge between all human hearts. Acting compassionately towards ourselves and others illuminates this bridge so that others may see it as well.

Building New Bridges

For many years my guides have pointed out that the unsacred (profane) masculine structures will not function forever. As we move into the new level of consciousness, we see differently. Rather than be in fear about what is falling apart, can we look to see what can be built?

It occurred to me that if my attention is on the past, on what worked yesterday, and I am trying to get that same system to work today, then I'm not seeing what other way I might do something. In the past, I sent out press releases to newspapers, who published little articles and people saw these and came to my concerts. I still do this, but fewer newspapers have money to write articles about local events. So now, most people come to my concerts through word of mouth and my newsletters.

This means more people present at the concert understand the importance of Spirit and energy and healing. The concerts go much deeper into silence. People walk out differently than when they came in. They report dreams before and afterwards. Their guides and my guides and all of the Archangels are obviously working together to create gentle yet substantial changes in the larger fields of consciousness that we share.

It is much harder to do that with hundreds of people wrestling with having to sit still (because they don't know what meditation is and aren't used to being still) and with kids smacking each other over the heads with the paper program while the parents assume no one will notice. Obviously, my old way of advertising brought in more people, but not always those who could both benefit from the energy-surround, while stepping into it and co-creating it with me.

I don't rule out, as we all are awakening, creating large healing concerts again. I believe that is somewhere in the future. For right now, I know how events feel to me. And I'm excited by creating concerts (and workshops and gatherings) that reflect our joint abilities to find the bridge between our hearts that already exists. It is that quality of depth and stillness in Spirit that is my focus now. It nourishes me in a manner that fills me and lets me move out into the world. And I believe it nourishes others.

In the Christian Bible there is a story about not putting new wine in old wineskins. As a typical suburban kid I had no idea what this meant! As an adult, I see the parallel to what I am experiencing in the world now. Something old cannot contain or safeguard something new. The new must be contained by something also new.

Looking at what used to work, and trying to build based on what used to work, is like trying to build a new building in quicksand. What was won't work now, or in the future. The energies that made up our old systems are being re-absorbed into Creation. The old systems are falling away.

Our future choices will flourish and grow if we make them based on what is here now. See the foundation, whatever it is that is working for you now, and let your choices come to you from the aspirations of your heart and your desires. Don't try to build what was. Build what is now possible. Next month, next week, or even next year something more will be possible. So start with what works for you right now, today. Then you will be ready to build with the new that is coming.

-Norma Gentile
(with a little help from Atamira, my Hathor guide)

N O R M A' S    E V E N T S ~  For information on these go to: *  www.HealingChants.com  * Norma Gentile is an intuitive healer, professional singer, and teacher. Her recordings include "Meditation Chants of Hildegard von Bingen." She teaches others how to magnify their own intuitive and healing skills with energy, sound and movement. She can be reached at www.healingchants.com  or 734-330-3997  *