Iron Men October 17, 2009

As a two decade fan of Oprah, I have anticipated the beginning of her new season. This week  Mike Tyson spent a full hour with Oprah. The interview covered a new documentary that was out, I remember seeing it at my local Blockbusters. I was only mildly interested because I had a very negative opinion of Mike, yet I turned it on to watch during my afternoon respite.

What struck me about the interview was Mike’s intelligence, composure, emotion and peace. I think the inner peace and wisdom I felt from him was most unexpected. I have casually followed Mike’s career over the years, although I find boxing barbaric. Yes it’s categorized as a sport, some say an art form, but beating the hell out of each other is difficult for me to understand. 

Do you remember the fight Mike had some years ago which ended before the snacks were in place and your beverage of choice was sitting next to you. I don’t remember who he was fighting, doesn’t really matter, but I know those that  got pay-per-view weren’t happy, it ended in minutes, a knockout in the first round. You had to admit he was a bad man!

As much as he was untouchable in the ring he was a mess in his life. Money, lots of money, can be the root of all evil, if your head isn’t on right. I don’t have any real money, but I’m just saying.

Remember the alledged rape, prison time,  and the infamous bite seen around the world when he took a plug out of Evander Holyfield’s ear. Oprah covered all of this, including the death of Mike’s baby girl earlier this year. Mike had become a punch line for so many comedians over the years and I will admit I was one of those laughing, loudly.

Mike displayed a depth that I didn’t know existed.  I imagine there were millions of us impacted by his honesty and purity of his words. Apparently Oprah did as well to have Mike return to the show a few days later. The  interview generated  many comments and questions. Oprah asked Mike if he felt the public’s heart opening up to him. He realizes he’s a work in progress, but found him to be a humble man looking for his place in the fabric of humanity.

Evander Holyfield was one of the millions watching that show and called asking Oprah if he could meet with Mike on her show. They had not spoken since that infamous fight. Mike said his apology wasn’t sincere at the time it was given, and I belive most of us “got” that too.

When Mike and Evander met, extended their hands and shook I felt a powerful, beautiful healing moment. Mike said what he needed to say for closure and Evander spoke of forgiveness he carried in his heart for Mike all this time. You heard the mutual respect of these two “iron men”. The words they spoke where not many, but the power and the scope of them was tremendous. Both men, warriors in their own right, found peace. Their peace was beautiful as well as heart warming, an experience shared by all of us. I was pleased beyond measure to know that each in their own way wanted to take this experience to our youth and stand as examples for working through conflict and coming out better for it. I don’t know about the rest of you, but this spark can do nothing less that trigger more peace as found by these Iron Men.

Namaste’

STREET CLEANER October 1, 2009

Conflict comes to all of us at one time or another; it’s a fact of being human. Conflict is a natural disagreement resulting from people that differ in understanding of their needs, values, beliefs, and attitudes.

Needs are things that are perceived as essential to our well-being. Conflicts arise when we ignore our needs, the need of others’, or a group’s needs. “I need a certain amount of income to sustain me in the manner to which I have become accustomed.”

 Values are priorities or standards, or the misperceptions of what is of priority to our well-being. “There is value in earning an honest dollar.”

 Beliefs are firm opinions; trust or confidence of something beneficial to our well-being. “I believe my God is better than your God.”

 Attitudes are opinions, a way of thinking or behavior reflecting this opinion. “She walked into the room with the attitude she was far superior to anyone else in the room.”

 Power is another important influence on the number and types of conflicts that occur. This also influences how conflict is managed. Conflicts can arise when people try to make others change their actions or to gain an unfair advantage.

Serious conflicts arise when people hold incompatible values or when values are not clear or one party refuses to accept the fact that the other party holds something as a value rather than a preference.

 Many people let their feelings and emotions become a major influence over how they deal with conflict. Conflicts can also occur because people ignore their own or others’ feelings and emotions. Other conflicts occur when feelings and emotions differ over a particular issue.

So, what do we do with conflict? How does a Lightworker handle conflict? Ignoring the situation won’t work, because we know sooner or later the issue must be dealt with or it will keep showing up until we find a remedy. So, one of the first steps is to get honest. I mean really getting honest with ourselves and that honesty enables us to ‘clean up our side of the street’. Once we are able to identify our crap, then it’s time to start cleaning up our side of the street, and that ain’t easy, but it is necessary.

 I was introduced to the twelve steps by my Cowboy. He came to Harmony looking for answers, which he found after a divine intervention, most likely orchestrated by his deceased spouse, the compulsion to drink was removed. He began to download metaphysical information and was led to join AA to maintain his sobriety and fulfill the calling to helping others toward recovery using both metaphysics and the twelve step program.

 The following are the steps that are outlined in Alcohols Anonymous’ “Big Book”. The subject is alcohol, but we can substitute alcohol for drugs, food, all addiction, fear, anger, hostility, the list is endless. Here are those steps toward recovery as provided by Bill W. and tweaked just a little to work for all of us:

      I.        We admitted we were powerless over alcohol (fill in the blank) that our lives had been unmanageable.

    II.        Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

   III.        Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understand Him.

    IV.        Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

     V.        Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

    VI.        Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

  VII.        Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

  VIII.      Made a list of all persons we have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

    IX.        Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

    X.        Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

    XI.        Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him,   praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

  XII.        Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics (and any others that can benefit from these steps), and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

 Now I image that anyone facing these twelve steps would be overwhelmed at the prospect. So don’t look at the twelve steps as one, but look at each step as just that, one step at a time. With time, and patience, we can work toward our spiritual growth. We are the authors of our own story, therefore, we can write a different ending.  One thing to keep in mind is the actor, which is you, can be self-centered, ego-centric, mean spirited, self-pitied, self-deluding and retaliatory, so let’s claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. Life doesn’t stay put, life is fluid, always moving, so there is always change and that change must be factored into your plan of recovery.

We have to quit playing God, it doesn’t work; only God can play God and that’s alright. We are the actors of our story and God is the director. With our connection to the God of our understanding, we can find the power, and wisdom and the will to walk these steps. As metaphysicians we know that the road may be rocky, but we are equipped to take on all the challenges that may be further down the road.

 Action is the last character to our story. Without action, we are no further along than sitting back and looking at a post card. We see paradise but have no way to get there, and we want to get there and bask in the light of Mother/Father God, or the God of your understanding. We want to see and experience it all for ourselves.

Once we walk through all the steps, when we have taken our own inventory; when we have connected with the God of our understanding then I believe we have cleaned our side of the street; after that we can sit back and see what new adventure life has in store for us.

Namaste’