"Gems By Julie"

"Growing Up"

March, 2010

In his book, Further Along The Road Less Travelled, Scott Peck says, “Since we cannot go back to the mother’s womb, to infancy, we must grow up. We can only go forward through the desert of life, making our way painfully over parched and barren ground into increasingly deeper levels of consciousness.”
According to Peck, Growing-up means making our way painfully over parched and barren ground, and moving forward into increasingly deeper levels of consciousness. Most of us, if not all of us, have painfully moved forward over parched and barren ground in our lives. For some of us it has been:

1. A relationship that isn’t healed.
2. An addiction over:

A. Food
B. Drugs
C. Tobacco
D. Shopping
E. Relationships that we can’t seem to control

3. A resentment that we can’t let go of.
4. A financial set-back
5. A physical condition that we are reluctant to face.

Regardless of the form, Most of us, at one time or another have faced some parched and barren ground in our lives. And the good news is, that most of us have been willing to move forward into increasingly deeper levels of consciousness. That of course, is because in each and every one of us, there is a divine presence that is always ready to help move us forward when we are ready to do so.

In every era of history and in every culture, people have created and cherished the story of a hero or heroine, whose life is transformed by moving forward through parched and barren ground into increasingly deeper levels of consciousness.

As children we were entranced by fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty. As adults we thrill to the excitement of stories like Melville’s Moby Dick, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and the current movie Avatar. And of course, Bible stories like Jonah who is swallowed by a whale and lives to tell about it. And Daniel’s escape from a den of hungry lions.

Our attraction to these stories is that they are symbolic of our own Struggle through parched and barren ground into increasingly deeper levels of consciousness. The beginning of those stories always finds the hero on the brink of a major change; feeling like the world is closing in. Whatever the reason, in every story there is a yearning for something more. Then one day, the hero or heroine receives a wake-up call. It could be an extraordinary event, a dramatic experience, or just an inner whispering. In Moby Dick Ishmael’s depression is a summons to return to the adventure of the sea. In the Wizard of Oz, a tornado serves as a call to whisk Dorothy into her journey to OZ.

A call can be disguised in a thousand different forms. Perhaps your call came in the form of a serious illness, a financial set-back, the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, The end of a meaningful relationship, or just a nagging dissatisfaction with your Life that made you feel like I don’t know what I want, but this sure isn’t it.

Those experiences, regardless of how they showed up, were wake-up calls to remind you that that you were ready for a re-birthing. Life is a series of little deaths and re-birthings. Infancy dies and is reborn as childhood. Childhood dies to be reborn into Adolescence. Adolescence dies to be reborn as adulthood.

If you will objectively look back on your life, you will see that every new expression, every rebirth followed the death of the old. Yet you discovered that the new job, the physical healing, the loving relationship, the sobriety were not the whole story. They were simply the death of the old, and the re-birthing of the new which always requires care, attention and commitment.

When Jesus, our way-shower, said, “Father, let this cup pass from me,” just before his crucifixion, he was acknowledging the difficulty of his re-birthing practice as he surrendered to death as a prelude to life.

So what is keeping you from your next step of re-birthing?

Is it:

Fear of rejection?
Fear of failing?
Fear of what others will think?
Fear of financial ruin?
Fear that you are too old to begin again?

Fear that you are too young to be taken seriously,

As Richard Bach says in his book, Illusions:“Argue for your limitations and sure enough they are yours.”

Since ancient times, 40 has been the mystical number of completion. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, Moses was 40 when he was driven from Egypt, 80 when he led the Israelites out of Egypt, Jesus was in the desert for 40 days. According to modern-day-thought, Life begins at 40, and according to psychology, it usually takes 40 days to change a dysfunctional behavior pattern.

During this 40-day period of Lent, you can tap into the energy of release in the planet and begin again. That makes the Lenten Season the perfect time to stop arguing for your limitations. Lent is the perfect time to die to the old like Jesus did, so that like him, you can be born into the newness of life on Easter morning.

In his book, Homesick for Heaven, Walter Starcke says: “Being kind to yourself means to face up to what is taking place within you without having to put your head in the sand and mentally dope yourself with platitudes.”

Instead of doping yourself with platitudes, and self-deception, you can Tap into the energy of release in the planet during Lent and let it help you to die to the old and be reborn into increasingly deeper levels of consciousness by Easter morning.

Happy Easter!

©2010 Rev. Julie Johnson, Ph.D.