Flying at 30,000 feet – sanity – Gossip – SMN ZOOM meet
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View of the aircraft wing above the clouds at sunrise.
My Christian friend and colleague David has done it again. What has he ‘done’? He was there and present for me. As I mentioned yesterday he has to put up with my utterings and ramblings but I don’t think he realises how much inspiration is released in my consciousness when “two or three are gathered together in My Name”. We know that when two or three people get together anyway there is a group support situation but when the spiritual side is factored in, or could I say the increase in bandwidth is involved, the whole situation can be seen from a higher and broader perspective.
I started the conversation by saying that with flying, the clouds and turbulent weather are to be found around the 10,000 feet mark. At 30,000 feet under normal circumstances we are above the clouds and fly smoothly. I liken this to our situation in this crazy world. The whole question is where do you position yourself? We are told to be ‘in the world but not of it’ which is sound advice and applicable at many levels. If our souls and hearts are flying at 30,000 feet which is ideal, being a part of God and therefore part of the light, we can look down on the clouds at 10,000 feet, knowing that they are there, but not being battered around by them. People who survived the concentration camps were more likely to survive if they had faith.
I am reminded of the adjuration ‘be as innocent as doves and wise as serpents’. I love this analogy and I try to keep to it. You see the same thing from the innocent point of view as seen from the sky, and the streetwise point of view as seen from the ground. Notice that the text does not say either/or, it says you need to do both at the same time. So I would represent the innocent dove aspect as the neocortex and the soul, and the serpent as the normal everyday mortal mind.
Back to the cloud analogy. We have the capability of mind to either reside at 10,000 feet or 30,000 feet. This is part of our spiritual software built into us when we were born and that will never change whilst we are alive as human beings. It is not difficult. Truth is never difficult in its key elements otherwise the coming of great teachers such as Jesus or Mohammed would be an act of sadism if it excluded those who did not have the intellectual capacity to understand abstract ideas. Hence the simple nature of the parables. The problem is that some of Jesus’ ideas we resist on various pretexts but that is another matter.
So, as a result of having the impulse to talk to David, I’m writing this piece which hopefully will spread some sort of light somewhere. As I have said many times before, we do not know what is achieved through our words and actions in the same way that a stone thrown into a pool cannot see the ripples it causes
The same thing applies to very considered advice I gave to someone last Friday. They were in great difficulties at work and I pulled out all the stops to offer them free service because the charity they were representing was in need of soothing balm and I considered that giving this person advice and support was the best way of contributing to an organization because of course it’s not just about money, it’s about the way people in the various teams of this charity cooperate in harmony.
I received no acknowledgement or thanks and maybe I never will but the point is I’ve put it out there, I’ve made the offer, and if some of the things I said were uncomfortable then so be it. Jesus did not come to win any popularity contests, and David Icke, that worthy campaigner, says the same thing. If we predicate ourselves on what others MIGHT think of what we say we might as well forget it because we are swimming with the river of entropy and not against it. To do anything worthy these days you have to swim against the current which requires not so much physical strength but the vision of a spiritual belief coupled with strength of character and of course, knowledge.
By coincidence I was watching one of my favorite YouTube channels by ‘Mentour’ who is a qualified pilot and talks to people in very technical terms about what happens before or during various times that aircraft got into difficulty or even crashed. There are many parallels between the problems that pilots had and our journey through life. See if you can spot them. One of them is that in cloud the pilot lost situational awareness. They also made mistakes due to panic.
Paul Coelho wisely said ‘I am my own best friend and my own worst enemy. Before coming here, I was thinking I don’t deserve it, that I wouldn’t be able to meet your expectations, and that you had probably chosen the wrong candidate. At the same time, my heart was telling me that I was being rewarded because I hadn’t given up and had fought to the end’
We can see someone doing something that is obviously not in their own interests but they won’t listen to anyone else. It could be going with a partner that everyone else can see is a user. That is why we can perform as a friend best if we give people honest and open feedback. However there is another aspect to all this. It’s no good saying to someone who has been in difficulty “why did you not tell me before” when you’re yourself were not open or approachable enough to hear what they might have had to say.
Don’t forget, dear British people, our famous standoffishness and not wishing to upset someone or trouble them. This fear is hugely magnified in this Woke age when if you say anything mildly critical or even in humor, you are going to be accused of hate crime. I hope this ridiculous fad passes soon, otherwise we shall all turn into retards.
The value of gossip in my view
The word ‘gossip’ is associated with the word malicious which is not accurate. I find that gossip aka informal conversation or exchange of information is a very useful way of obtaining street level knowledge that might ease your path in your daily life. On balance I find it a very useful thing. See examples below.
The etymology of the word ‘gossip’ is interesting
late Old English godsibb, ‘godfather, godmother, baptismal sponsor’, literally ‘a person related to one in God’, from god ‘God’ + sibb ‘a relative’ (see sib). In Middle English the sense was ‘a close friend, a person with whom one gossips’, hence ‘a person who gossips’, later (early 19th century) ‘idle talk’ (from the verb, which dates from the early 17th century).
Francoise met a friend called John who had great difficulty with wax in his ears. He went to the doctor who referred him to the nurse. The nurse told him that the NHS does not offer de-waxing ears any more. He complained that private costs were £70. When I heard about this I immediately set about finding cheaper alternatives and found one who would do a perfectly professional job for 45 pounds albeit for one ear. I mailed this information off immediately. His wax is in both ears and it more or less means he’s deaf unless you shout, so I hope he does something soon and then we can invite him round to our place for coffee and a chat
John also used the occasion to tell us all the things that he did not feel comfortable with when talking to other people. For example talking to trees and getting a response from them, his talent for automatic writing and its cessation. Wondering how to get through to higher powers etc.
She also chatted with our local egg supplier, Dee, and mentioned my cataract operation. Dee shared that a friend of hers had had a cataract operation in Frome Hospital but unfortunately that particular unit is now closed because they can’t find anyone to take it on.
How to share a spiritual perspective with people we do not know
I find all zoom calls can be hit and miss especially when you have to fix on a title in advance. Last week we in the Scientific and Medical Network group were supposed to discuss relationships and we started off by everyone discussing hugging and they could not be persuaded to part from this theme so obviously the needed agenda emerged.
This week we had the above title, how to share spiritual perspectives etc. For some reason the first half an hour was taken by people discussing ghosts and aliens. It took a good hour for people to actually get around to discussing the subject. You always get some unexpected gems so it’s better to wait until the end of this one and a half hour session because something someone says really strikes home but you have to sit through a lot of material which is either known already or irrelevant.
Maybe a whole session will prove to be worth it for one phrase.
I spoke up on the title above. I found it poorly based so I deconstructed it.
How To.. Is a very mechanistic way of thinking. it is like fixing a car or how to cook a meal it’s not method it is state of mind.
Share – it takes two to tango as we say so you need the interest of the other person preceded I would suggest by their trust.
Perspective – no two people can possibly have the same perspective and if you’re going to change their perspective that is a long-term project because perspectives were honed when we were very young.
People we do not know. That is an incredibly naive statement. I would rather say come up people with whom we are not aware we have an affinity with. Who knows we may be a soul match with someone walking down the street towards us, or with the office cleaner. The whole point is to be honest and open about yourself and this will create an atmosphere where people can share their true selves.
Below are some snippets of what people at the meeting said and at this time of the evening I’m not going to do a full precis.
I have been to a large number of these ZOOM meetings and I have enjoyed each and every one for a number of different reasons, some more, some less. Sometimes I have a lot on my mind and I cannot concentrate so I tend to look at my other computer screen and multi-task. Fortunately my ZOOM image on the screen is small so no one can see what I’m doing.
Altogether then a good day. I hope you enjoyed this diary. And this on a rainy and dull October day.