It's been a while...

... since my last blog, and when I think about why that is, here's what I come up with:

There are times when it is good to share your ideas, beliefs, opinions etc. with others; times when sharing those things feels like it could be beneficial to some -- not just sharing for the sake of expressing yourself in order to extract high opinions from others, but sharing in order to help someone other than yourself.

Then there are times when it doesn't feel right. Maybe this happens because you don't feel people would benefit from hearing what you have to say, or maybe it's because you aren't confident it what you have to say and need time to marinate on your thoughts in order to present them properly. Or maybe it happens because you simply don't have anything to say and want/need to be silent.

I'm not sure why I've been silent on this blog for a while, but since I'm writing this today, it seems as though the silence is over... at least for now.

And with that I'll transition into a thought that is very exciting to me:

Last night I got together with a friend of mine I hadn't seen in a while, and she took me to a bookstore called the Bodhi Tree here in Los Angeles. In addition to being a store of spiritual and metaphysical books, they also hold lectures and talks (most of them free) on a variety of topics. Last night was my first time there, and we walked in on a talk already in progress. The man was speaking about oneness, and the pervasiveness of love, and the importance of Now, and the limitation of definition and division, and lots of other things that came to him. The wonderful thing about the evening was not just the things he spoke about, but also the fact that the room was filled with people. Mind you, it wasn't that large of a room, but there were probably 50-60 people there, many of them with smiles on their faces, or their eyes closed in deep attention, or with their palms together and against their chin, mouth, nose and forehead.

The ideas and concepts that this man spoke of are not new. They have been around for centuries, and I am sure that he would be the first to tell you that. So it is not fantastical newness that is so special, but rather the fact that places like the Bodhi Tree exist, and people, in large numbers, are open and ready to receive these ideas.

More and more people all over the world are coming to these ideas and concepts in what appears to be a massive shift (and many believe a heightening) of consciousness. I am seeing examples of this everywhere -- my experience last night is one example, and another big example is the phenonmenon that we all experienced this last Tuesday morning.

The inauguration of Barack Obama was unprecidented on so many levels that you can't help but recognize a change in our human perspective. The sheer number of people involved in the ceremony, both in Washington itself and around the world in front of televisions, is impressive by itself, but when you include the overwhelming sense of joy and love that these people projected, you discover just how truly special this event is (I mean to say "is" and not "was" for the moment will live through history and remain important always). President Obama was calm, patient, unafraid, humble and determined to make a difference when he took the podium, and when an incoming U.S. president speaks of love in his inaugural speech... well, you know things are changing.

I'm not sure how many other people agree with me and feel that we are living in exciting times right now, and I don't know how many people are on board with the concepts of oneness and the Power of Now, but I suppose I don't have to know these things in order to stay excited and in the Now. Everyone receives the ideas/concepts/beliefs that they need in the time and fashion that they need, and trying to force it any other way strips the meaning from the experience.

That is the beauty of what is happening right now in our world: this massive, sweeping shift in consciousness has been slowly building up steam for years and years now, and it's been happening without a central figure beating a drum and waving a flag pronouncing the supremeness of the cause from the top of a self-righteous mountain. There is no team to join, no side to choose, no jersey to wear expressing how right your organization is, because there is no organization. We're very used to dividing up into groups and arguing for centuries how we're right and you're wrong, so this new movement is quite unfamiliar and unique to us. Maybe that's why it's so powerful, and maybe that's why it's working...