Driving Slow in the Fast Lane

Got projects?  These days, it seems like most of us are juggling several balls in the air in various areas of our lives almost constantly.  The reality is that with nearly instant communication available 24/7, the pace of modern life is just fast.  So how do we, as Lightworkers, balance the need to still operate in this world without getting caught up in it?

I recently took a trip to downtown Denver on the I-25 corridor and that gives new meaning to the word fast.  The road twists and turns through the center of the city with at least four lanes of traffic all jammed next to each other and just about everyone seems to be traveling at least 10mph over the speed limit.  I don’t make the trip often, but it’s a great opportunity for me to practice being slow while traveling really fast.

As I drove, I noted my tension rising (and my grip on the steering wheel tightening!)  I kept wanting to drift over into the right lane where the entrance and exit ramps were slowing down traffic.  But a little voice suggested that I didn’t need to go slow, just to feel slow.  So, I did some deep breathing and re-focused, so that I cleared my mind of anxious chatter.  The inner peace and calm became my experience, and the speed of life around me became mere blips on my radar screen.   I no longer felt fast (even traveling at 70 mph) and the pace of life felt calm and relaxed because what I was feeling came from within.

My little car trip reminded me that I can apply this same principle anywhere else in my life. I realized that I had allowed all of the projects that I am currently working on to create feelings of stress and a desire to constantly put on the brakes by delaying and even canceling some of my projects.  But the projects weren’t the problem.  By getting caught up in my anxiety over deadlines, I had allowed my inner speed to match the outer speed of life, which felt too fast.  I was trying to slow down the outer by putting on the brakes instead of focusing on the inner. 

Once I began approaching my projects from a place of inner slowness, I found I could still work through them very quickly and make rapid progress.  I was able to get back in the fast lane, while still experiencing life from the slow lane.  I still feel as if I have all the time in the world, while outside life is speeding up all around me.  Now I’m back to asking my Soul with confidence, “Got projects?”

Divine Consensus

Many Lightworkers hold a vision for achieving Oneness, but have you ever asked what that really looks and feels like?  Recently, I’ve been involved in group projects in several areas of my life, each requiring all participants to come into consensus before we move forward to the next step.  Working on these group projects has really just been practice for coming into Oneness!    I’ve enjoyed the camaraderie and community spirit of collaboration, but I have also struggled with differences of opinion on how to work together to accomplish a project.  How do you move forward when you don’t agree?

During this process, I’ve realized that one of my greatest fears about coming together in Oneness is that we’ll all end up being the same; that in order to work in unity, we’ll have to meld together into a bland, cohesive blob without creativity or originality.  And yet, the ocean of Oneness is not a lifeless blob at all.  Each drop in the ocean is indistinguishable from the others when merged as one body, and yet they are expressing very differently.  Drops at the bottom of the ocean express themselves as slow motion in the cold and dark, while drops near the top are often dancing around in a frenzy of activity.  They all carry the same properties of the ocean, while manifesting those properties in unique ways.

So, the question of how to be “we” and also be “me” is best answered by looking within to the “why.”  If you ask a group of people the best way to get to the top of a mountain, one person might say Route A since it’s the most scenic, while another might suggest Route B as the most direct, and a third might prefer Route C because it’s the safest.  When we are working toward the same goal, such as reaching the top of the mountain, we can see that how we get there is really a matter of stylistic difference.  Attachments to how we do it fall away when we focus on why we do it.  Because in the end, the “why” is what really matters.

True consensus is about following a common inner vision.  That common goal still allows for creativity in how to express the vision on the outer.  Android is currently showing a fun television ad campaign that illustrates this concept.  One ad shows unusual pairings of animals who have become close buddies- such as a dog and an orangutan hanging out together.  Another ad shows people of very different backgrounds giving each other versions of a “high-5.”  They are all celebrating their originality while honoring their commonality.  When we work together in Divine Consensus, we can work in harmony and cooperation while still being unique.  As the tag line for the ad campaign says, “be together.  not the same.”