The Unifying Lessons of Fiction

I feel blessed that I can do a variety of writing styles.  For a living, I write for business.  Marketing, technical, and content.  Which is, if I may say so myself, a nice range.

But I also really love writing from my heart for this Blog and some of my other projects like the book I’m working on called “Love Letters From Your Soul.”  I hope someday to publish a commercial personal/spiritual growth book.

Fiction probably brings me the most joy and delight.  I love to write rock fiction, or what I like to refer to as romance and passion in the exciting (and now relatively extinct) music business.  With, I always hope, a bit of growth mixed in.

I have to admit, more often than not, I am reading a spiritual/personal growth book.  I do get  into fiction now and again, though. I count myself as a Harry Potter devotee.  And I can gobble up books on Arthurian legend.  Not averse to a good cozy mystery either.  I have seen more than my share of movies and amazing films.  Soap operas have been my secret pleasure for years.  And am proud to count many fine story tellers among my close friends.  So I do know a thing or two about story.

For many years I held the notion that nonfiction expands and fiction is merely an escape.  But I am changing my mind about that.  I’m coming to see that fiction plays an important role in our growth as human beings.

Fiction, when done right, gives an intimate views into the minds and hearts of others.  We feel a connection with well crafted characters.  We see parts of ourselves acting through the story. And parts of others we know.  We may not like them all, but we can come to understand a little more about why they do the things they do. Good fiction makes clear the character’s motivation.  If you don’t buy that you’re unlikely to enjoy the story.  It’s like Science Fiction:  If they give you a good basis for belief, you will follow a good writer just about anywhere out there.

It is a study in understanding.  In the best cases, it can open us up to the experience of being the same. Seeing how we all share the same DNA and our motivated by many of the same things.  Even someone who appears to lead a live very different from ours.  It creates bridges into other worlds.  And has done so long before the Internet.

Story is a very powerful tool for learning, history, growth and motivation.  At the heart of all stories is a person, an entity, a living, breathing creature.  Relationship and struggle are the playthings of story, reflecting life as we know it.

At its best good fiction gives us a view of oneness. It talks of unity and how we are all the same.  The more we can feel that the better for all of us (for the one of us.)

The Power of I Can

Faith the size of a mustard seed can spring forth a wonderful, strong plant. If you are convinced that you can, if you know without doubt that you deserve it, there truly isn’t anything you can’t do.  (As long as your faith holds out.)

It’s true that small seeds can grow fast. But if there’s even a small crack, the seed may not grow at all. The true Power of I Can comes when it’s whole and complete, with no gaps, no slippage.

Perhaps it goes beyond faith.  I sometimes see faith as the hand that you can hold to help you believe.  Is faith a knowing?  Or is knowing what happens when faith expands and takes hold of your heart?  Whatever you call it –  when you have that full heart of belief, when you don’t even have to say you have faith, when it’s so deeply implanted in you, you can move mountains!

If your intention is laser focused and you believe so deeply that you just know you can, it’s like having a very powerful vehicle.  Put some passion in the gas tank and you are on your way!

I saw a movie called “Iron Sky.”  I think it was crowd funded and that’s cool.  The best way to describe it is a futuristic black comedy, featuring Nazis on the moon, eager to take over the Earth, and a somewhat questionable woman president and her bitchy assistant. The plot never seemed to be able to decide if it was Science Fiction or a commentary on political beliefs.  A comedy, a somewhat twisted romance or an action film?  If one person had a clear intention, a sharp vision of what it was going to be, I think it would’ve worked a lot better.  But the focus was diluted somewhere along the line and it turned out (to me, anyway) a mess.

This I Can power is one of those Spells of Doing I like to talk about.  It could be one of the most important ones.  It comes through your wand of Choosing (with your intention).  When the magic you are conjuring is that of I Can, you have some powerful stuff happening.

Belief and Trust

I am grateful for this powerful combination for doing everything with fun and ease.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could see everything as enjoyable?  Perhaps the only thing that keeps us all from living that way is Belief and Trust.

It’s fun to believe!  To make believe, believe in magic, in fairy tales, that all will be well, in God . . .  When life is treated in this light-hearted spirit, we can set our hearts to believe that all is well, that we can handle whatever comes up.  How delightful to step into belief!

Trust is the easy part.  Resting into trusting that all is well. Just relaxing and letting go of any disbelief, unclenching. I think it is a more natural state for us. So we can just sit back and allow ourselves to trust.

This is not a lolly-gagging bit of easy going.  Like in Tai Chi, the easier, lighter hand is the stronger hand. In that state the body is far more aware and prepared to strike.

These are really practice mechanisms.  When you’ve played with these two for a while, you will find yourself transforming into Knowing.  Add some gratitude along the way and you can arrive quickly at that place where you no longer need to trust. It always has been, always will be.  In that comfortable space, you know you can handle whatever happens.

I’m using this method to help me hold a stronger vision of people.  See them as whole, well, and abundant, rather than needy.  Believing that they will be fine. Trusting their lives will be whole again.

Musings on Expectations

Interesting things these expectations.  On the one hand, they are good to pave your way.  When you know something’s going to mess up, you expect it and it doesn’t upset you so much.  Expecting only good things to come your way opens the way for nothing but good  to come to you.  Expectations can set you up to accept, allow and open to life flowing.

On the other hand, expectations can trip you up.  Expecting others to act a certain way or that things will happen in a certain way, is futile at best. How much does anticipating that things will mess up create the circumstances ripe for exactly that?

People who expect to have a good meal on the table, expect to have money and be healthy, tend to have all those things.  How much of our expectations affect the weather, I wonder?  Or allow the sun to rise each day?  The collective conscious belief is a strong one.  What you believe about life tends to put you in a position of expecting, which can set up the conditions for that being your experience.

I’ve not thought this all the way through.  I welcome your comments on this concept of expectations.Interesting things these expectations.  On the one hand, they are good to pave your way.  When you know something’s going to mess up, you expect it and it doesn’t upset you so much.  Expecting only good things to come your way opens the way for nothing but good  to come to you.  Expectations can set you up to accept, allow and open to life flowing.

On the other hand, expectations can trip you up.  Expecting others to act a certain way or that things will happen in a certain way, is futile at best. How much does anticipating that things will mess up create the circumstances ripe for exactly that?

People who expect to have a good meal on the table, expect to have money and be healthy, tend to have all those things.  How much of our expectations affect the weather, I wonder?  Or allow the sun to rise each day?  The collective conscious belief is a strong one.  What you believe about life tends to put you in a position of expecting, which can set up the conditions for that being your experience.

I’ve not thought this all the way through.  I welcome your comments on the concept of expectations.

Strongly Held Belief

After an especially good coaching session with Paulette Terrels, we discovered that I seem to have a need to make a fuss and complain about things. I don’t do it all the time and it’s usually not vocal.  Certainly, I’ve made progress and it’s breaking up. But through that deeper awareness, I routed out a deeply held belief which has been quiet, but steadfast.  I’m not sure if I can fully get my head around it, but I’m going to try.

I know it does me no good to dwell on the negative.  And I’m usually quick to shift gears, aware that the complaining blocks my progress toward allowing what I want to flow.  I have experienced this in action when I do allow the good feelings and thoughts to take over.  When I rest easy and trust it will happen.  Things work out so much better.  Just recently, I marked a weekend on my calendar to go to the beach.  I didn’t know how I was going to get there, where I would go, etc.  But an invitation came the Monday before.

And, yet, even as I write this, I want to moan and complain about something and find a crutch.  I feel the negative tendencies holding me back, pulling me down, poking holes in my positive energy, making a mess of everything.  Still, I cling to it, as if it were a life raft.

Why?  That is the question.  Maybe I think people won’t like me or resent me if I’m too happy, too cheerful.  Perhaps I worry that I’ll miss something I need to see.  That I’m somehow being lazy or irresponsible if I don’t take a “cold, hard look at what’s wrong.”   I either won’t know what to change or otherwise neglect my need.  What if I fall asleep to my desire to change? Some may take the view that I’m not really looking at the reality unless I see the negative.  (I guess it doesn’t matter that I’ve spent years seeing only the negative and skimming over the positive.  Or like it wouldn’t be a good idea to try it the other way around.)  I must think that I will somehow “forget” what it is I want to change.  Another thought might be that the grumpies provide “proof” that I need things to change. I’m not sure about all this.  I suspect there’s even more to the story, deeper along.

Sometimes, just hearing the possible reasons  (or seeing them) can help to blow them away.  I do know that much of this is nonsense.  It doesn’t  wipe it all away, but it can help when faced with it to remember that it’s not really true.

When I get stuck in this muck of negativity, it’s hard to extricate myself.  It usually takes someone else – like a coach – to point out where I am.  When I’m in it, I’m not aware of these reasons.  I just have a sinking feeling that I must pay attention, hold onto the gripes, or I won’t get what I want.  Now, I might be a little more aware of the reasons that I can let go of.

The Good Truth is that as soon as I realize where I am, I can step out of that pile, wipe off my shoes and put my feet into cool water.  Then, pick up something that feels better and keep on going.