The journey ………. so far

Posted on by View from the ground

View From The Ground

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“I try to stay in a constant state of confusion just because of the expression it leaves on my face.”
― Johnny Depp

Welcome to the latest view from the ground. I hope you don’t mind, but this is personal.

There’s a lot of horrible stuff going on around us at the moment. War – senseless; murder – senseless; starvation – senseless; homeless refugees – senseless; homeless people on the streets – senseless. And that’s just the start. The world’s a mess, and it’s a mess created by the human race.

Why?

There’s a lot of people awakening to this mess and there is an awareness that something must be done. There’s a collective of people rising, and as a collective what we have is special. But I’m troubled. Deeply troubled. Something on a personal level is stuck.

I was lucky to have started my journey something like 2 1/2 years ago with Viv. As those who have read my blogs – probably 30+ blogs now – I was lucky enough to contribute to Viv’s book, These Wings Can Fly, and that’s where View From The Ground started.

Viv and I have always had a different view on our road of discovery – Viv from a deeper perspective, whereas I see things, as the blog page suggested, from the ground. It works.

Over the last 2 1/2 years, Viv has developed a strong understanding of her development and has grown incredibly – as a Shaman, a Reiki Master, and a healer, to name just a few. I’m proud of her and I know she will continue to grow.

My development is different. I know I have my own role to play, as an interpreter of what I see and hear. To seek to encourage others to find answers as to how we / they can heal our/themselves and in turn, heal each other, our communities, and the world.

I know that part of my role in life is to come out from behind the shadows of others and to make my own steps forward.

Through my blogs, I seek to connect with others, so that we can join hands and walk together. Through the blogs, I seek to reach out to as many as possible and encourage people to share their experiences and thus show we are not on our own. This is why I ask for the blogs to be shared. I would love to read posts from others.

For certain, as a collective, what we have – or is it, what we could have? – is special.

But, I am troubled. Maybe by the need to hear from others? Maybe by the question – is it just me? Maybe, and this is literally coming to me as I write, is it by the fact that I am looking to others? Maybe that’s just it, my belief that I need others.

In reality, I should be seeking to inspire others. To encourage others to find each other; to join hands with each other. Whereas I need to keep moving forward, interpreting what I see and hear, sharing that information and then moving on again. Not waiting for others to join me.

Maybe, that is the role of View From The Ground.

I’ve used this analogy with Viv. I need to see it that I’m in my boat on a river. There are people on the river bank. But I need to allow them to find their own boat and decide whether they want to follow me. Not wait to see if they want to get in my boat. We can all sail on the same river but we need to have the ability to sail at our own pace and maybe take a break every now and again.

And, again, this is coming to me as I type this blog and it is proving to be therapeutic, this is why I maybe shouldn’t be troubled. People have found their boats, and are sailing along. And that’s just great!

Maybe, just maybe, I shouldn’t be troubled. I should just celebrate that, as we all sail along in our own little boats, what we have really is special. And, at times maybe I just need to rest from my development. Maybe I expect too much of myself. Maybe I should just let it flow.

And there ends a rather personal blog. Thanks for bearing with me. I hope it makes a bit of sense. Just a confusing time for a lot of us.

Take care.

Jon

A new beginning

Posted on by View from the ground

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Welcome to the first View From The Ground blog on the new View From The Ground blog site. It’s a first and very new! Have I already said that?

It’s definitely a new beginning and I hope that you will join me on my continued development. I’m not going to call it a journey. That’s Corporate, 20th century speak. So, we’ll call it a development. It’s a development in self belief, self love, continued focus on gratitude, and overall mindfulness.

Anyway – welcome.

For the last 20 months I’ve been publishing blogs on the These Wings Can Fly blog site. All have been published as View From The Ground, and you may want to take a peek – http://www.thesewingscanfly.wordpress.com.

To be honest, this is a test blog to see how it works but what I would love to do is share one of my favourite blogs from the past. So, please read on – I’ve copied it below. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you will join me on this path of development. It will be fun – honest.

So, here we go, word for word – including links to previous blogs: –

1. 5.10. Make it count – A view from the ground

A View from the Ground – The Journal from Jon

After a recent View From The Ground blog – ‘My life purpose. Revealed’ – I was flattered and touched by some truly incredible feedback. It’s been wonderful to see how many people have taken time to read my blogs, as I do really enjoy writing them. When I say ‘writing’, it is more a case of having an inspired moment and then I let my fingers do the work. I won’t continue on that theme, to avoid going in an entirely inappropriate direction.

On the basis that my life purpose has been published, along with the transcript from Viv’s shamanic meditation, I am pretty much an open book. Those that know me will understand how (on the face of it) uncomfortable that makes me feel. I have already stated that I am a private person, and yet now I have revealed that I am the Interpreter for Healing and Humanity. Perhaps I should get a tee-shirt with that on. Over the coming weeks, I expect the actual depth of this role will become more apparent. I look forward to finding out more and will share my learnings on future blogs.

I have thought further about being told in the meditation that I should loosen my tie. Well, I’ve taken this by the neck (get the anatomical humour!) and in the last week I have had 2 days in the office week without a tie on. I was worried that I might get told off. No!!! There I go worrying again (you need to read the above mentioned blog to understand that reference).

In reality, the loosen the tie reference is an instruction for me to relax, be less formal and, I guess, open my mind a little more. Whilst I have been on this journey with Viv there is no doubt that I have become more open minded. However, I do sometimes have momentary lapses of bloody-mindedness. Where I have an opinion and that is it. However, to fulfil the role as the Interpreter for Healing and Humanity, I need to open my mind to everything.

Now, as I type this, sitting home alone on a Sunday afternoon – glass of red wine in front of me; bracelet on a different wrist due to having a minor bout of road rage earlier (see the blog Red Raw Wrist) – this was justifiable as some Muppet didn’t realise a green traffic light signals time to move; Niall playing on the IPod (check him out at www.niallmusic.co.uk and on Twitter – @worldmusicniall. He has an excellent new CD – Total Serenity); I feel the need for a meditation, so will be back soon.

20 minutes later – wow! Very relaxed, having used one of the tracks from Niall’s new CD. At risk of repeating myself from earlier blogs, if someone had told me I would meditate most days 2 years ago I would have laughed out loud.

I find meditation an incredible practice and one at which I am very much a learner. It is becoming apparent that a lot more people meditate than I realised. I read a great Dalai Lama quote “If every 8 year old in the world is taught to meditate, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation”. I find this amazing. Just think. Is it really that difficult to imagine teaching every 8 year old to meditate?

This brings me onto the title for this blog – ‘1 5 10’. It kind of goes hand in hand with the Dalai Lama quote but I guess I am thinking of starting on a small scale. My thinking is what difference could we make to the community / the world by starting with a 1 percent shift in how we think; how we behave; how we treat each other.

Think about it. If tomorrow, you smiled at everyone you see. Accepting that there will be a small group of people who will think you are weird (definition – very strange and unusual, unexpected, or not natural. See my previous blog for more on this subject), but the majority of people will walk away feeling a little bit happier. They in turn may then smile at people they see and, within minutes your act of happiness spreads throughout your community. That one act by you may cause a one percent shift in your community.

It’s all about taking progressive steps – start at a one percent shift, move to five percent (accepting that is a 500% increase in effort), and then step up to a ten percent short (and that is only a 200% increase).

I look back on my personal journey and would like to think that by sharing what I have learned – mainly through Viv – can help others step forward and start improving their own lives, through positive thinking, through being grateful for life, and through feeling love.

That moves me, seamlessly, onto a learning from my shamanic meditation. I was told I am to “Love everyone as you love Vivienne, Benjamin and Livia. Think of all your thoughts and feelings for Vivienne, Benjamin and Livia. Spread this out to humanity.”

Those who know me know I am a very private person, not in the slightest tactile, and am overall limited in how I show my affection. So, to be told my role is to love everyone as I do my nearest and dearest placed me in a bit of a dither.

However, this part of the role also links to a wider definition to ‘loosen the tie’. As I have said before, I always thought my life purpose was to protect Viv, Ben, and Liv. However, the meditation has told me to loosen that tie and love everyone, to protect everyone.

It was a big eye opener and I take the message as one of taking the care and kindness that I show to Viv, Ben and Liv out into the wider community. Ultimately, if we all cared for each other just ten percent more, imagine what a positive effect that would have. So, if my role is to take the baton and start the race towards a more caring, loving society – bring it on (but, my only request is for some leniency on Mondays).

It is an interesting aspect of my personal role and something that has caused me further reflection. In reality, I am a naturally caring person – but perhaps I have limited the caring to my family and friends. I would like to think I am caring within the work environment, but some may argue that point. I now see that I must open my eye, loosen the tie, and be aware of the wider need to love everyone. Updates will follow on how this progresses.

So, there it is. As I said in the ‘My life purpose. Revealed’ blog, I accept the role I have been granted, and promise that I will do all within my power to succeed. I will tackle it in sensible stages – and will make a one percent difference; five percent difference; and ten percent difference. My challenge to everyone who reads this – do the same. Please join me on this quest, this journey. I would love to hear about what you are doing.

And – look at that, this is the first blog that I have managed to complete without a single plug for the magnificent, 5 star rated, book – These Wings Can Fly. On the basis of my success, you might like to celebrate with me by going to Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com and having a look at how you can obtain a copy of the book. Whilst you are there, I would strongly recommend that you continue celebrating by having a look at Vivienne Duke’s second book,  Awaken Your Inner Hero.

Love life; it’s yours to enjoy. Help your neighbours, you never know just how grateful they may be. Laugh a lot, you may just cheers someone up who is feeling a little sad.

Love and peace to all.

Jon