For years, a phrase has been in my head and, to a certain extent, it has guided my thinking; that "this is a yes-based Universe". I have been assuming that I had heard it in an Abraham-Hicks audio, but just now I couldn't track down my exposure to the concept. Anyway, it is the notion that whatever we put our attention to -- whether they are possibilities or events or conditions we love, or possibilities or events or conditions we hate -- whatever we pay attention to will manifest and grow. Our attention is the equivalent of saying "yes" to aspects of life, and they will grow fastest if we are passionate. This is great when we are passionate about the positive, but hellish when we are passionate against the negative.
I am old enough to remember countless "wars" -- the war on poverty. The war on drugs. The war on illiteracy. The war on homelessness. The war on terrorism. We have fought disease (and are currently fighting COVID). We are fighting climate change. We are fighting racism, violence against women and many other groups, oppression, poverty, inequality, and financial extremes. Most of our current institutions either foster these conditions or fight them. For people of good conscience, all of these are extremely undesirable conditions. And yet in my lifetime, the harder we have fought them, the worse most of them seem to have become. When have we ever "won"? By fighting, or giving things angry attention, we reinforce the extremes and the duality; we unwittingly say "yes" to the negative situation and to constant conflict. We, ourselves, become angrier, and dragged down into the most spiritually- empty places of all, hopelessness, rage, despair and deadness.
Right now, on a global level, it seems like every major news event is giving us the opportunity to wake up and move beyond conflict. It is hard. It goes against all of our instincts to turn our backs on people in trouble, not to actively fight for them. (And, no, turning our backs only to pursue enrichment and fun for ourselves is not a spiritually-viable option!) But once you realize that fighting always creates more conflict, there is only one way to proceed: using all that passion energy to create a completely new paradigm of peace, harmony, love of "the other" and nature, health, beauty and unity. The energies of conflict and creation are completely different, and they will feel different in our bodies and souls. It's hard work, in fact, to shift the numbness and fatigue that so many of us are experiencing. Unwittingly having said "yes" to negativity and conflict over a lifetime takes a huge toll, and it's hard to find the energy to create, especially over 60. I am clearly seeing the manifestation of some of my own inner and outer conflicts right now, in my body and in my spirit. But perhaps there is a gift in exhaustion. Whatever "it" is, whatever crisis is in the ascendent, I cannot fight it any more. What little energy I have left must go to my small role in creating an entirely new, unified, love-filled paradigm. Even if I must re-focus a dozen times a day, even if I must remind myself of it in this blog a dozen times a year, I need to keep saying yes -- to love and life. To a better, conflict-free future. To more beauty and love than I think I can stand. Yes.
