Calming the Violence

Posted on June 2, 2022 by Diana Rankin

Violence is erupting as you read this, and violence will continue to explode today, tomorrow, or the next day. There is a seething anger, fueled by fear across the US and the people have had enough.

What does this have to do with me? you ask. It’s not my community. It’s not my neighbors. It’s not_____.Yes, it is. We are all connected. We are all human beings, and we all have a responsibility to help stop the violence and just as importantly to stop the cause of the violence.

What can I do? you ask.  I am only one person, you say. One person. You are enough.

Following are thoughts on what you can do. Not one person is to do them all. Find the ones you are to do and get started on creating peace; get started on creating fairness among all peoples; get started on adding to everyone’s life. Your act may be simple and it will be enough if done with heart.

  1. Stop supporting movies that glorify and perpetuate violence. We take in the violence we see and with surround sound and big screens we take in the violence at deeper and more destructive levels.
  2. Deal constructively with your own anger. Anger energy destroys if not dealt with constructively. Instead of stuffing your anger until it comes out in a rage, deal with angry feelings by recognizing them and voicing them effectively.
  3. Exchange living in fear with living in love. Fear is contagious and so is love.
  4. Don’t let children play violent video games and don’t play them yourself. For children especially it’s often hard to discern where a game ends and life begins. There are enough scaries hidden under the bed. Don’t add more.
  5. Reach out to others, especially if you notice a young person is lonely or is being bullied. If you do not feel safe reaching out, then don’t, but if you can, do.
  6. If you notice a person who is being approached by police and they seem frightened of the police, become a witness. Get your camera out and film if possible.
  7. Report to authorities, and teach your children to report, any suspicious activity you see or suspicious posts on social media. If the authorities don’t take you seriously, make the report again and again until they do. You can also report to another agency.
  8. Be aware of what you are posting on social media. Are you adding to the problem with angry posts or are you adding to the solution with informed, verified, helpful information? Is there a balance with your posts, or are they only angry rants?
  9. Stand up for peace. Attend peaceful rallies.
  10. If you own a gun, look at why you know you are able to take another life. Guns have one purpose—to kill. If you have a gun, you must know you are capable of killing another human being. Maybe it’s time get rid of your gun.
  11. Speak up. On social media or in person, when you hear/read someone spouting false propaganda that promotes violence, speak up/write. Use facts and truth to back your argument, and of course, speak up/write in an assertive but civil and respectful manner.
  12. Write, call, and write and call again and again each government official who takes money from organizations that promote violence. Voice your opinion for sensible gun safety laws or for police to stop racial profiling, for example. Speak, write in a strong, assertive, and respectful manner.
  13. Donate to causes and politicians that support peace and human dignity and fairness for all citizens.
  14. Vote with your conscious. Use your vote to put local and national people into office who care about human life and are willing to stand up to politicians who are name-calling bullies.
  15. Say a prayer, meditate, laugh. All are powerful energies that can add love to our world.

Violence is epidemic in the US and in too many other places in our world. And it’s up to each and every one of us to make a choice. Are we adding to the violence or are we doing our best to add peace to the world.

It’s our choice. It depends on what kind of world we want to live in and create for our children.

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3 Easy Ways to Spread Love

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Diana Rankin

 Here are three simple ways to add love to our world.

Mail someone a card. The art of sending a note or card to someone has nearly gone by the wayside, replaced by the ease of emailing, texting, and other electronic communication. Yet sometimes it’s nice to find a card or note in the snail mailbox. Take a couple of minutes to write to someone special just to say I’m glad you’re in my life. Then add a stamp to the envelope and drop it in the mail. They’ll be glad you did. So will you.

Say thank you. In the busyness of our lives, we may forget to say thank you – two simple words with such big meaning. Take a moment to say thank you to everyone who crosses your path today – your family members, the grocery store clerk who rang up your purchases, the waitress or waiter who brought your food, the teacher who teaches your children, the valet who parked your vehicle . . . you get the picture. Everyone wants to feel seen and valued. A simple thank you lets the other feel appreciated.

Listen. We are so often busy trying to be heard that we forget to listen. Show someone you are grateful for them by listening to what they say, really listening without judgment, really listening without forming your comeback, really listening with your ears and with your heart. You just might be surprised by what you hear.

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Phillip’s Wisdom on Respecting Our Differences

Posted on May 16, 2022 by Diana Rankin

You pull into your life that which you must experience. All that is within your life cooperates to give you the experience. This is not to say you control the experience or how another cooperates. Although we all are connected, we are also separate manifestations of the same substance. Your left hand may act independently of your right hand, or they may act in cooperation of one another. Either way they are both of the same body. A hand will act in the way of a hand while a cell that was organized as a liver will act in the manner of a liver, not a hand.

Why do you ask another who is a hand to act as a liver?

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My Voting Experience  

Posted on May 12, 2022 by Diana Rankin

There was no line at my polling place this morning. As I walked toward the door a volunteer held it open for me and greeted me. Inside, three women sat at a long table, with other volunteers behind them. Everyone was kind, helpful, courteous, the way it should be for every human being at every place where we cast our ballots for who we think is the best candidate for the position.

I handed the poll worker my driver’s license. She asked me my name, then held up an i-pad for me to check my party affiliation, and a few other questions. When I put on my rain jacket as I left the house earlier, I hadn’t thought much about its color, blue, or the cap I put on, blue. Guess my party affiliation was pretty clear. The mask I wore also marked me for a Democrat in a rural, red county. No one else wore a mask, only me. Still, there was no quarrel with me, only courtesy, and the desire to be helpful.

The volunteer handed me the paper ballot, which we still use in my rural Ohio district. Earlier this week, I used Google to study who was on the ballot that I might not know about, so marking the ballot was easy and quick. Next, I headed to the machines where the ballots are stored, touched by no other hands until delivered to those who will count the votes.

Next line was to check off my name to assure no one with my name voted again. The one man in front of me was having a friendly conversation with the two volunteers at the table, so I had a moment to relive the last five minutes of my life. It was gratitude I felt, gratitude that I can vote blue in a red county/state without fear of repercussions or unkindness toward me. And I felt sadness, sadness that not every person in this country can feel this safe or have this kindness shown to them, or to not have to stand in line in inclement weather for hours just to exercise their right—and obligation—to vote.

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Learning Patience

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Diana Rankin

In the Western/US culture in which I live, we are impatient. We do not like being in the space between what was and what is to come. Sitting in the Irish mist, I call it, because it reminds me of time spent in Ireland when I could not see around the next curve in the road or in my life; those time after something has ended and before the next begins. We want it now and we want to know the whole picture, not just the beginning. But life is full of those spaces between here and there, and seldom are we shown the second step until we actually take a first one, which we are only shown after patiently spending time in quiet of the mist.

“When we last spoke, you suggested I read poetry,” a friend writes. “It reminded me of our talk about the Irish mist.” I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke Letters to a Young Poet

Rilke’s words speak elegantly to spending time in the Irish mist, moments of needed reflection that help us let go of that which was and grow into that which is to come. Where I live, in a rural wooded area, patience comes easier for me than it used to when I lived in the city. Perhaps it’s age as well that allows me to sit quietly and watch the morning mist rise from the farm fields on the other side of the trees, still bare from winter’s winds. Perhaps even, it’s a bit of wisdom that allows me to reflect on that which was, to heal and clear my wounds and un-attach from life’s past joys, so when the time is right, I can move into the next phase of my life, allowing the next creation to unfold in Divine time. If we are able to do this—allowing our lives to unfold naturally rather than pushing at them—that which comes is ready for us, as we are ready for it, created by our dreams and built by our patience.

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Phillip’s Wisdom on Sorrow

Posted on May 2, 2022 by Diana Rankin

Why Do We Have Sorrow in Our Lives?

Q. Do we only create part of our reality? If we manifest what we want, why the sorrow?

Phillip’s Wisdom:

As a soul while in Spirit World, you decide the greater picture of that which you want to create when you enter human life. Your choices will reflect that which you have experienced in lives lived and that which you want to create in the new life.

Once in human form, you pull into your life that which you are to experience. All that is within your life cooperates to give you the experience.

Your desires will cooperate with the experiences you are to have to fulfill your soul’s mission. This is not to say that all will be easy or without sorrow. The sorrow comes from experiencing that which we judge as bad or painful or too hard to do. Patience is required to bring into form that which we are to manifest, as is the intention, the work, and the requirement to surrender.

That which you create does not mean that you control the experience or how others cooperate with you. Although we are all connected, we are also separate manifestations of the same substance. Your left hand may act independently of your right hand, or they may act in cooperation of one another. Either way they are both of the same body. A hand while a cell that was organized as a liver will act in the manner of a liver, not a hand. You cannot ask a liver to act as a hand any more than you can ask a human to act differently than they are. Each individual has their own journey, and the choice of their chosen experiences is up to each individual.

All humans have free will. This is to be remembered and respected for one’s individual life and for the lives of all. One cannot inflict their will upon others to fulfill their wished experiences.

There is always more than one way to complete the desired soul mission. It is also to be remembered that which is not fulfilled in this life will be waiting for the next.

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Phillip’s Wisdom on Manifesting

Posted on April 27, 2022 by Diana Rankin

It is not that you must go in search of anything. It is that once you have gathered the right ingredients together, you then must become that for which you have gathered the ingredients. This is what is meant by “Seek ye first the kingdom of God within.” There is nothing you can find outside of you that does not come from within you, though you.

When we say to gather the right ingredients, we are instructing you to bring into awareness thoughts and emotions that align with the energy of that which you desire. To have unlimited prosperity, you must have the consciousness of what this is. To have a spiritual partnership with wealth, you must align with the energy of this. To do so requires the healing and clearing away of all that is not in alignment of what you desire. This is where most fail, because of being unwilling to go through the cleansing and healing process, and then realigning the awakened consciousness with the newly found understanding of the higher consciousness of the desire.

To just say, “I desire unlimited prosperity,” opens the door to the process. One then is given opportunity to begin the alignment with the energy of unlimited prosperity. The cleansing removes the obstacles in the thinking that is unlike unlimited prosperity. The healing then is repatterning thought patterns and rewiring brain patterns that have kept you from the desire of unlimited prosperity.

Even as the cleansing and healing are taking place, new patterns of unlimited prosperity are forming, and the results are manifesting in your life. Once the cleansing and healing are complete, new thought patterns emerge with the new energy of the desire. No longer are you trying to visualize unlimited prosperity and pull it to you, but instead you are now the vision itself of unlimited prosperity because you have entered into – and become one with – its energetic flow.

To clarify what we have said, imagine you are 120 volts and that which you desire – unlimited prosperity – is 220 volts. To switch from 120 to 220 requires some rewiring.

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As we heal, we heal the world—

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Diana Rankin

Denying the existence of evil does not heal the world of evil. Quite the contrary. It allows evil to exist and flourish. If we believe we are God/Spirit/Energy having a human experience, then we must do all we can to bring that Love that we are into our human experience. We must look evil in the eye and call it out, not with anger, but with the power of love.

Before we can recognize evil within another, we must first be aware of our own emotions of anger and fear. We must be aware of how we strike out at others. We must be aware of our own fears that force us to try to make you believe as we believe, which comes from an insecurity of our own beliefs (If you believe as I believe than what I believe must be correct).

As we look within, we must call out that which harms our spite for that is what is harming others. As we see the anger and fear in the other, we must turn within and see the anger and fear within ourselves. Then, and only then, can we heal our wounds and exchange our angers/fears/evils compassion and kindness.

We heal ourselves not by denying what is but by looking at what is and exchanging that which does not help our lives and our world to live in peace and harmony. As we heal, we heal the world.

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5 Ways to Lift Your Spirits

Posted on April 15, 2022 by Diana Rankin

Sometimes we feel overwhelmed with all that must be done. That sense of too much to do leads us to doing less, which in turn, leads to the lack of joy in our lives. That’s when we need to take a breath and regroup and find happiness in the simple pleasures in life.

Here are a few simple ways you can lift your spirits:

Smile It really is that simple. Smile at the grocery cashier and the other people in line. It will make a difference in someone’s life, including your own.

Make a Phone Call  In our day of texting, we often forget the wondrous sound of the human voice. The music of your voice letting another know you are thinking of them may make all the difference in their day. . . and your life. 

Bless You, Bless Me  If we have the blues, we may find ourselves a bit short tempered. Instead of getting angry at another, simply say bless you and bless me. This simple prayer will change the energy within you and between the two of you.

Remember the Critters
Cheer yourself up and help the critters by keeping bird feeders and wild cats and other critters’ bowls full. Set out a bowl full of water. Use old dog houses or other containers and blankets to create habitats for wildlife. On a rainy or cloudy day, watching the birds feast or seeing an empty food dish in the morning and knowing you have helped a critter will warm your heart.

Add a Bird Feeder Do you know someone who is shut-in? Put a bird feeder outside their window for days of enjoyment. Make sure you visit every few days to keep it full.

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Phillip’s Wisdom on Gratitude

Posted on April 7, 2022 by Diana Rankin

Gratitude, or thankfulness as some say, is a state of grace that produces in you an energy that creates the life you are meant to have. By this is meant that gratitude begets joy.

            When living in gratitude, you live without expectations of what you think life should be and instead live in a state of acceptance. This simple shift allows you to be love. When you are love, love comes to you in all the glories love has to offer. Instead of expecting love to come in one form and from one direction, you open to receive love returned from multiple forms and multiple directions.

            This is not to say you should never plan or never ask for your needs to be met. Quite the opposite. It is the manner in which you ask and the expectations of receiving. The asking for and receiving from may not come from the source you expect.

            You must always begin by remembering your true source, which is the God Head. Some may call this God, Goddess, Spirit, Universe, or Universal Love. By whatever name, your source is the Divine Energy that works through all life. Free will gives each human the right to accept or refuse your asking. There in is where humans see the conflict, but in truth there is no conflict. That for which you ask does come to you; however, it may come in a different form and/or from a different source than you expected. If you are tied by your expectations, you are unable to see that you are being given that for which you asked.

            Suppose, for example, that you are seated at a table that is laden with food. You ask the person on your right for the potatoes. The person on your right is deep in thought and does not hear your request, but the person on your left overheard your request and is able to offer you the dish. If you are caught in expectations, you will become upset that the person on the right is ignoring your request and you will ignore the person on the left who is offering you what you asked for.

            If, on the other hand, you are not caught in expectations, but instead living in gratitude for the gift of receiving the potatoes, what does it matter if the person on the right or left is the conduit?

            Now humans say this works for dishes at the dinner table. The principle is understood in its simplest form, but what about human relationships? How does it work here?

            The principle does not change. It remains the same: When you live in gratitude that for which you are grateful multiples. That which you ask for comes to you through life forces from the Divine Source. It may come in a different form and from a different source than you thought, but you can only receive once you open to receive by letting go of the control of directing how and from where the gift comes and stay in gratitude for the gift.

            When you live in gratitude, you stop clutching at life and stop trying to control the source and form of your gift. Life begins to flow through you, you learn to ask for gifts that are more appropriate for you, and those gifts that come to you are so much greater than anything you could have thought of. When you live in gratitude, the gifts that come are always from the Divine Source of Love.

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