• Tag Archives challenge

  • Working with our Modern Plagues

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies 1 Comment

    What do we need to look at within ourselves when we consider these modern plagues? We saw the Egyptian plagues had a probable natural cause while these modern plagues are largely self created.

    Consumerism/Debt, Deforestation, Addiction, Poverty, Celebrity, Climate Change, Female Infanticide, Politics, Suicide, Terrorism/War.

    All this has been created by our thoughts of who we are at this point in time. Again I was finding it difficult to begin this post I had some ideas but when I put myself in front of it nothing happened.

    I begin a new job tomorrow. Leaving my current abode and moving to another area about an hours drive away. Living on site taking up the position of Catering Manager for the YMCA Camp at Wainui Park.

    I went for a bike ride through my favourite spots,  a sort of a good-bye. I’m sure I’ll be back but it won’t be the same.

    Its autumn here in the Southern Hemisphere.

    South Hagley Park
    South Hagley Park

    Leaves are fading, falling, carpeting the earth. Along with acorns they crunch under the tyres as I take the path through the park.

    Seems as though we are in autumn (fall) universally. Harvesting those things we’ve created through our thoughts. The good and the bad. Thoughts about who we are individually and globally.

    Is there a coldness entering our universal consciousness? A time of what worked during the summer of our age beginning to become frozen. Do we need collectively to embrace a wintertime? To consciously allow a winter bleakness to enter our psyche that we can better appreciate the springtime that’ll follow. To huddle together, deriving common warmth. Burning away the deadfall, those branches of thought that no long serve our global community, that have outlived their necessity to the tree of humanity.

    deadfall

    What will follow this conscious embrace of winter, this burning away metaphysically the deadfall of “civilization”, the “civilization” through which have emerged these modern plagues. The ideas and and thoughts that serve our concept of a common humanity will be the first shoots pushing through the thawing earth as winter turns to spring.

    And yet throughout a winter there is still greenness to behold, still flowers to spark our imaginations for the unfolding beauty.

    Are there areas of your life that seem to falling away, parts of your psyche going cold to ideas you have about yourself. Can you see the seasons at work within yourself?

    Blessings

    Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Facebook Post to LinkedIn Post to LinkedIn Post to Squidoo Post to Squidoo Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post


    📂This entry was posted in Nature 📎and tagged

  • Questions

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies 2 Comments

    I’ve had a challenging week. I’ve been working and it has meant not attending to my blog. I’ve felt something amiss. Back to working in kitchens. Standing on my feet in one spot for hours. Preparing the same old dishes for the same old rugby games. Feeling the pain in my feet at the end of the day, looking forward to a day off and the pain to recede. Knowing its going to be the same old again when the next shift starts.

    Arriving home last Wednesday and turning my computer on I found the message, “msconfig is missing or corrupted – use recovery disks to reboot your system”. And I knew what that meant. I’d loose everything that was there and I’d have to start anew. Starting anew. And that was the way I saw it a new start. I was back online by later that night. Downloading updates. My laptop is circa 2002. And the speed of cable broadband. A few hiccups and stumbles. Still stumbling even now. A toddler just getting up on his legs for the first time. Finding it interesting with both Firefox and Internet Explorer on my system after the recovery. Downloads not working in Firefox will work in IE.

    Questions arise when things aren’t working properly. How do I make this work. Are the resources I have limiting what I am able to achieve. I was working on a website for a friend just prior to this happening, inspired by the tutorials I found on YouTube, and the templates in HostGator. I can do this I thought. And the more I used the little knowledge I had the worse it got. Am I meant to do this? I’d love to put this together for him. Playing with the templates in Photoshop. Sorting through the code, but not really feeling I know enough about more complex pages. Sure I’d put together a simple page but somehow this was different. I need to honour my limitations and be honest about them and either seek help or pass the project on to someone more knowledgeable.

    The Code. A funny thing happened to me while I was in a bookstore. I found a book. The Code. ByTony Burroughs. It is subtitled 10 Intentions for a Better World. Was my sorting through html code in fact a pointer to a deeper code? A code poses questions. A code delineates an ethical basis for living. And The Code certainly does that. The 10 Intentions are: Support Life, Seek Truth, Set Your Course, Simplify, Stay Positive, Synchronise, Serve Others, Shine Your Light, Share Your Vision, and Synergise. Each of these intentions will beg a personal question or questions from us. How do I? What might I? Who with? Where will I?

    When we set set an intention and walk with trust into our day we are posing a question of Life, of the Universal Intelligence, – “How will my life unfold now I have set this intention”. No doubt there will be wonder and mystery.

    I was inspired by my blogger colleague Marvin D. Wilson from Free Spirit where he poses the question, “Should Christian fiction provide answers or lead us to questions?”

    Maybe that question could be posed for not only Christian fiction but also for fiction of a spiritual nature. And non fiction as well. As Marvin says, “In non-fiction, say the memoirs of a Christian missionary, or a theological discourse, or a texbook for seminary, then yes – of course – you are writing for Christians … present your best Christian ideas and revelations and lay out your premises for leading a good Christian life. Give me your scholarly interpretations if you have exemplary intelligence and enlightenment on the subject of Christianity and are able to explain the path in new and refreshing ways”.

    These can also lead to questions about whether what is interpreted is a truth for me personally or whether I need to walk a different path in order to discover my personal truth. I prefer to exchange the words Christian and Christianity for the words Spiritual and Spirituality. They offer a more universal context.

    Mythology arises from the spirituality of ancient and not so ancient cultures. And as a result we find questions arising as we study different cultures. Though there is a certain disbelief to mythological stories what are the things we can believe? What are the elements that we question? Are there questions we imagine will lead us to an understanding of our spiritual natures.

    Questions create answers. Answers create meaning. To look more deeply into ourselves we need to ask the deeper questions of ourselves. And the more profound the questions the more wisdom becomes rooted in our psyche. I heard the term Coyote Teaching from a VisionQuest protector trained by the Tracker School in New Jersey when he visited Christchurch early last year. It seems this method invites trainees to look more deeply into whatever process is going on for them and to pose more questions based on what they discover.

    Each question we pose of Life opens up more questions for us. There is no doubt that each question posed will open up cracks in the shell of the ego allowing the light of divinity to shine more brightly as time unfolds. Through questioning the Divine Sculptor chips away at the stone of our being carving out the beauty of our soul’s form.

    Nothing is certain when following a path of intention. We’re not sure what the universe will provide. In the unknowing is a darkness and the deeper into darkness I go the closer I feel to the light.

    Blessings.

    Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Facebook Post to LinkedIn Post to LinkedIn Post to Squidoo Post to Squidoo Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post


    📂This entry was posted in Creative Mythology 📎and tagged

  • Working with Qualities of the Soul: Madness

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies Comment

    I had completed my blog for the day. It’s been taking two or three hours to get my blog to a point where it is in a shape for posting. So the day is almost half gone by the time I get the post up and then move into the rest of the day.

    Parts of the day, small parts are spent going round and round in my head – What’s happening here? Why am I not getting any offers of work? When am I going to get some money going into my account? When am I going to get a ring from the credit card people, the telecom people, the bank? I was honest with the companies I had outstanding debt with. I see what is most important in life. Shelter and food. Those are the two things that are in focus when my financial wellbeing wasn’t so well. Paying the rent. Putting food on the table. There has even been a week when paying the rent went out the window.

    The whole experience I’d describe as a madness. Why have I allowed this to happen? What is it that I am seeing within myself as I make this passage? I had a similar experience over the Xmas period 2007-2008 but I had some holiday pay to carry me through. There was uncertainty then, though nothing compared to this time. I consciously stopped that facility through my pay earlier in the year. What was I doing – saying to the universe show me the worst?

    If  I’m appearing mad to myself how are others experiencing me? Do they think I’m mad? I’ve noticed a sort of coolness in some. And I wonder about that. Others are supportive, being with me through the process.

    It has been interesting watching what has been going on inside of me as I notice the way my son has been tackling the same no work space. I notice my frustration as I sense he’s not giving all he has to the process and I wonder how much of that is me not giving my all to my life. How much of this madness has to do with my not being all I am meant to be? How much of this madness has to do with fear? Of not being or doing enough with my life.

    Enough about those areas. There were good things going on as well. I visited my friend whose house I helped paint. We’ve been working on a business proposal for a while now that has had its share of challenges. We were finalising a flyer. We had talked about paying for distribution but as we considered it further we thought we deliver them ourselves. Will keep our costs down. So all good to go with that.

    From there I went to a planning and assessment seminar at Work and Income. I’d collected some of the bits and pieces they wanted me to bring but had neglected a few things so I wasn’t overly confident that there was going to be any change to the situation there. As I was going in I was receiving texts from the temping agency I’d signed up with saying they had work for me. It was all happening. It kind of felt surreal here I was signing up for unemployment and receiving calls about jobs at the same time. The madness of it all.

    And other things began opening up also. Just bumping into people I hadn’t seen for weeks. I’m not sure whether this process has changed me or that something else on a more global perspective changed. I am moving again at least financially. And I’m committed to sharing myself through my blog.

    Life is too precious. I thought about not connecting when I saw people on the street that I knew. I considered just biking on to my appointment. Life is much more satisfying when I stopped to smell the flowers along the way. In  a metaphorical sense people are flowers – they bloom when treated to some positive attention – a smile, a hug, recognition. When the sun of a smile, of recognition, of a hug shine on me I can’t help but return the compliment.

    Life is good.

    Blessings to you.

    Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Facebook Post to LinkedIn Post to LinkedIn Post to Squidoo Post to Squidoo Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post


    📂This entry was posted in Soul 📎and tagged

  • Working with Aspects of the Soul: Freedom

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies Comment

    I definitely felt freer within myself yesterday. I’m forming a new habit through blogging and it feels positive.

    Once completed I easily moved on to another item I felt I needed to explore. That I look to receive some financial support even though it will only be temporary. I filled out the papers even though in some sections I felt resistance to what they were asking. I rang the Work and Income Department of the New Zealand government. They wanted to put me back to the work broker I had consulted with before. I didn’t want to revisit that experience. I took the planning and assessment option.

    I’m not resisting work. I’m open to receive work that comes my way that takes account of my full talents and abilities and is in alignment with my purpose for this lifetime. I’m not going to take the first job that is waved in my face by a bureaucrat.

    Once I’d completed the paperwork I had to collect some data from my current employee at Christchurch’s AMI Stadium to verify my earnings last year. It was also an opportunity to pick up my knives which I’d left there after the previous game I’d worked on. While there the boss gave me a run down on what was coming up for the months of February and March. It seems intense. And it feels right.

    Part of this decision is based on working with a 75 year old chef. Most of the people that he’s worked with over the years have left and I’m getting the feeling that this may be his last season there. I want to be there for that. He has a fifteen year old daughter and feels a duty to work to provide for her.

    I don’t get a sense that he feels free to do what men of his age are doing – enjoying retirement. He’s down to earth, has had many experiences in his lifetime, he keeps in touch with a lot of the people that have worked alongside him, and mostly has a humorous way about him. He knows what he wants to do and does it, he’s always ready to show the young ones how to do a particular task if they’re struggling and are open to be taught. There are times when he’s unsure about something and allows himself to seek clarification. He’s a shining example of what it means to be human and privilege to work with him. Thank you Jimmy.

    When I got home I connected with the temping agency I signed up with to check on work availability. I was beginning to think it was a little weird that when I was painting I was receiving invitations to work and then once painting was over the notifications stopped. If as a Creative Mythologer I am aware that the world is always a reflection of my dominant thoughts what was with that? I have no aversion to work. I am choosing to put myself out there to work and I am choosing to commit to my blog that others may find a path to their transformation.

    Don’t you hate when you look at a word that seems right and when you check its wrong and sometimes it just looks silly. That’s how it was when I began looking to see if I spelled commitment right. I had two t’s before and was sure it was right. What might that be saying around my belief of commitment.

    Making a choice and being committed to that choice creates freedom. Freedom that comes from the acknowledgment of commitment. Of bringing all of who we are to the banquet that is life. In making commitment we allow ourselves to truly be with whatever it is we are committing to. Commitment to truth is liberating. To follow what is true in the face of what seem to be overwhelming odds. To imprison ourselves to being true to our Self is the paradoxical path to freedom.

    I was feeling imprisoned by the challenges and resistances I was facing and yet as I faced and embraced the resistances that were begging me to honour them I enabled myself to feel freer. The day became clearer and my disposition lighter.

    I received a wonderful email which touched me from a friend. I honoured the promise I’d made to myself to begin the article I was planning. It was started and the day closed out with a sense of peace in my heart. Life is Good

    Blessings

    Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Facebook Post to LinkedIn Post to LinkedIn Post to Squidoo Post to Squidoo Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post


    📂This entry was posted in Soul 📎and tagged