Inspiring Stories of Love, Healing, & Empowerment

Inspirations

September 2002
Issue Number 11

Welcome to Inspirations! Global Community For All sends out this e-zine filled with short, inspiring stories of love, healing, and empowerment once every three months. We share these wonderfully inspiring stories to encourage and inspire each other to be the best we can be each day of our lives. Thanks for joining us, and may these words inspire us to ever deepen our commitment to love, heal, and empower; to open to divine guidance; and to choose what's best for all.

What Led Me to Help Build a More Just, Peaceful World - Jean E. Barker

Outside my window flies the Earth Flag.  It shows the whole planet surrounded by blue.  It is one planet amongst a universe of infinite grandeur.  On it live many species of which one is the human species. Today we know that humans are disrupting the very way of life of all the rest of the species of living beings.
  
I remember seeing the New York Times headlines in 1945 that said ATOM BOMB DROPPED ON HIROSHIMA.  I was only ten. Since that time I have asked the question, why do humans make war, doing incredible destruction on plants, humans and other animals?  Why must we kill to get what we want?  Is there no other way? Is it not possible to solve the problems we face through listening to each other, honoring each other and seeking to find ways to meet our survival needs so that all might live with this planet's bounties without destroying it and ourselves?

 I was a student at Oberlin College and spent a year in the Philippines in the mid 50's and then traveled to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Burma, India, Pakistan, and parts of Europe. I saw the varied conditions of humans, and returned puzzled about why there is so little sharing and caring.  Why is fear at the heart of so many, fear of losing abundance or even the little that there is?  

Later in my life I spent some years with my family in Japan teaching English and loving the diversity of human expression. Going to Hiroshima brought vividly to my eyes the suffering that had happened there.  Some time later I became an advocate for economic sharing through OikoCredit, an international loan banking institution, traveling to various countries to listen to the needs of those who are economically poor. Each opportunity to learn about others around the world has prompted me to believe that there is hope in learning new ways to be together on this planet, ways that are not destructive and self-serving.
 
 There is the light ahead that reveals itself one step at a time. That light is getting brighter and clearer.  I want to be one of those who are gathering together in communities around the world to bring this light clearly into the open to solve the challenges that face all humanity. It is a way that is not the way of military force and destruction. That way does not work. It is time to stop that way because it only increases the suffering and pain. It only increases the evil that creates fear. This light takes in the darkness, letting it be present, and so changes the reality.

 This past spring I helped to guide a group of people in studying how to move from violence to wholeness.  It is a process that asks of us that we become transparent so that we can create a new way to live together as people on this planet Earth.  I feel we are being guided by a God who loves us all deeply, and wants wholeness for all life. That love is in each of us. In this process we need to be able to forgive, to stand in the shoes of the other, to honor our many wonderful differences, and to celebrate our common joys.  It is possible to create a new human community on Earth. Let us then begin.
  

The Story of the Lizard King
(Told to Fred Burks in a dream during 5 days of silence last month)
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Once upon a time there was a Lizard King.

The Lizard King loved his son so much that he spent all of his time

Lavishing his love and gifts on his spoiled son,

While the kingdom went neglected.

The only one the lizard king would listen to was the Wise Sage Lizard.

Wise Sage Lizard tried again and again

To warn the Lizard King against spoiling his son too much,

But in this one thing, the Lizard King would not listen.

As the King's son grew, he came to hate Wise Sage Lizard.

Everyone else in the kingdom, trying to gain the King's favor,

Would pour great gifts on the King's son.

Only Wise Sage Lizard would ever scold or rebuke him.

One day, the Lizard King's son went to the King's altar when the King was not around.

This was the one place his father had forbidden him to touch.

As he reached out to touch the goblet on the altar,

Wise Sage Lizard walked in.

On seeing the King's son place the goblet to his lips,

Wise Sage Lizard callout out in a frenzy,

Stop!  That is poison! 

If you drink it you will die!

The Lizard King's son, on seeing this, felt drunk with power.

Never before had he seen Wise Sage Lizard lose his composure.

He drank the poison, even knowing it might cause him death,

As it gave him such pleasure to see Wise Sage Lizard in a panic.

The more he drank, the more panicked Wise Sage Lizard became,

Until he was dead!

Wise Sage Wizard fell over in deep grief and wailing.

On hearing the commotion, the Lizard King rushed into the room.

Seeing his son lying dead with the altar goblet in his hand,

And his Wise Sage Wizard on the floor wailing with grief,

The Lizard King fainted.

From that day forward, the kingdom was covered with darkness.

No matter how much Wise Sage Wizard tried to convince the King

To forget about his son's death and rule his people,

The King would not listen.

Not only did the kingdom fall into deep darkness and despair,

The royal palace itself

Was gradually reduced to shambles and ruin.

Only Wise Sage Lizard still carried the light full in his heart.

One day, seeing that there was no hope for the King or his kingdom,

Wise Sage Lizard sadly departed the remains of the dark kingdom.

Guided by his own light,

He took the long, arduous journey to the land of the Sun.

Once there, he took a piece of the light of the Sun,

And created a new people,

With the hope that one day,

This new people would come to live fully in the light.

Knowing that his role on Earth was done,

Wise Sage Lizard then took the long journey

Beyond the Sun

To the Holy Palace of Records

In the Holy Palace of Records, Wise Sage Lizard opened the Sacred Texts of All History.

There he read the sad story of his own lizard people and of his lonely journey.

He read the history of the people he had just created, too,

For in the Holy Palace of Records is recorded the history of all time - past, present, and future.

Reading the sacred text of the new people he had just created,

He saw the history of his own lizard people being repeated by this new people.

But before finishing the story,

Wise Sage Lizard put the sacred text down and smiled.

For suddenly Wise Sage Lizard realized the Truth beyond all time.

Even though one day this new people might fall into the same darkness of his own people,

There would be created yet another people to try again,

And if necessary, there would be created another people still.

And another, and another, and another.

Until one day, beyond any shadow of a doubt,

Wise Sage Lizard knew that there would come a people who learned to live fully in the light.

And on that day, all the people who had fallen into darkness

Would be embraced by the people of the light and brought in to live as brothers in the light.

For the final chapter of the sacred text of all history

Describes a time beyond all time,

A place beyond all space,

Where all beings are fully united in the light of love.

(Note:  at the end the this dream, I received a message that the Lizard King's son in today's world is technology, though I personally would add sex and money to that)

Thanks for sharing in these inspiring stories with us.  We wish you lots of inspiration and all the very best in the coming month.