The Present

The Present

“Yesterday’s History, Tomorrow’s a Mystery, Today is a Gift, that’s why we call it The Present.”

We are at the beginning of a new Gregorian year, giving fresh wind to the wings of our many fluttering New Year’s resolutions. The guilt-wrapped aftermaths of our holiday over-indulgences are absolved by renewed thoughts of how to make lasting amends to unhealthy diets and habits. With our schedules constantly crammed by ever-mounting responsibilities, further grid-locked by global socio-political unrest and environmental instability and clocked by a time which seems never to offer enough available hours to a day, we may wonder where all the peaceful balance inherently lies. And all the while this daily cycle continues, there are still vaster rhythms and greater cycles affecting the very core of what we are currently experiencing both Within and Without.

We are in highly transitory times and our collective paradigms are shifting in powerful and sometimes frightening ways. This potent transition we are currently in is known by many names, some of which trigger fear of the unknown, while still offering hope and inspiration for the incredible potential of global transformation and healing.

It is Kali Yuga in Hindu Cosmology, for the Hopi Indians it is the emergence of the 5^th World, or the Return of Saquasohuh (Blue Star Kachina), for the Maya it is the 8^th Galactic Underworld Level of Consciousness where we now quickly advance from a planetary awareness to a galactic one at the closing of the Tzolkin Long Count. The current time is astrologically known as the Age of Aquarius, with Pluto soon to transit into Saturn-ruled Capricorn for the next 16 years and a rare and very powerful Venus Transit to occur in 2012. In New Age Circles it is the Age of Light, the activation of Christ Consciousness (Divine Heart) en masse. Astronomically our Winter Solstice 2012 Sun is going to be aligning with the Milky Way’s Galactic Centre, a majestic event know to occur approximately every 26, 000 years. To the Anishnabe peoples it is now Time to Light the 8^th Fire Belt. For Christians it is the Second Coming of Jesus or the Rapture and for the Lakota it is the Mending of the Sacred Hoop, to name but a few modern day prophesies related to the current era.

At the very heart of these diverse cultural cosmologies and time-sensitive prophesies there is one common theme woven throughout: We are now becoming something never before experienced collectively and we should courageously acknowledge this while actively preparing ourselves for great transformations. There is also an open invitation to recognize the urgent need for enlightened and unified change to take place on Earth, in a compassionate and co-operative way.

Recognizing that we are all in this transition together, whatever THIS may be, can inspire us to honour the timeless values of love and compassion in the form of patience, listening, sharing, gentle guidance, appreciation, gratitude and respect. Breathing these benevolent qualities into our human relations can only serve to bridge separation and help to create more co-operative alliances, all the while strengthening our grass-roots networks who are working to empower positive and sustainable choices in our communities.

Amorah Quan Yin, channel, author, healer and visionary, offers the following 4 evolutionary principles for living in alignment with the demands of these spiritually attuned times:

1. Our purpose here is to evolve physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

2. Every human being is Divine Essence made of light and love whose nature is goodness.

3. Free will is an absolute universal right; impeccability calls on the self to surrender its free will to divine will in faith and trust.

4. All of natural existence is sacred beyond how it serves or meets the needs of the individual self.

Making it a priority in 2008 to observe such credos and to actively detoxify ourselves of resentment, frustration, anger, intolerance, prejudice, and negative judgment is a most meaningful resolution with far reaching implications, offering us inner peace and a sense of hope. The gift of love and acceptance is a very special gift indeed, one which keeps on giving well beyond the emptied wallets and unwrapped parcels of our commercialized holidays. And there has never been a better time for such a Present.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

Look for these Labels

'Tis the Season: And Here's The Reason

"Tis the season to go shopping...fa la la la laaaaaaa la la la la
Out of pockets money's dropping..fa la la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa la la la la"

With the commercial christmas season upon us, our spend-thrifty urges and hedonistic desires may reach a startling peak as we are sensorally lured, enticed and seduced to eagerly dish out cash and credit for a whopper of a materialistically fulfilling holiday. Corporate-Santa's bells are jingling everywhere from the north poles to the south and like pavlovian reindeer, we follow blindly through the blizzards of capitalist culture, our noses lit to a trail which inevitably leads to the bottoms of our tree-farmed trees, plastic stockings and our corporate bank accounts.
Spend! Spend! Spend!

But do we really know what we are doing it all for? Are our gift-giving motivations pure and simple, heart-present and authentic? And an even BIGGER question for us all to ponder is: are the gifts we're buying fattening the bellies of the big profit bullies, or are they sustaining the valuable efforts of our local producers and manufacturers.

It may seem hard-core to be a diligent, informed and compassionate consumer because it often requires knowing things one may not be so thrilled to know about our favourite child-labour chocolate or about those fancy 'Made-in-India-for-next-to-nothing-and-sold-for-insane-profit shoes our lover gave us in the lovely 'Made-in-slave-labour-China' cellophane wrapping which will leech into the soil for years after it is brought to the boxing day landfill. It may mean spending a little extra money to ensure we are supporting our local, living economy so that the "small people" in retail can survive another season against the towering monoliths of Walmart, Target, and the agendas of the IMF and World Bank.

The more people who make a concerted effort to celebrate a conscious christmas, the more empowered and democratic our communities will eventually become. How we spend our hard-earned money can be a daily meditation in promoting socio-political justice in the world. If we choose to become informed about the importance of buying bio-regionally grown produce and foods (hopefully certified organic), and about the importance of purchasing fairly traded items from countries who are protecting the integrity and safety of their workers, and about the importance of looking to our own neighbourhoods to provide locally made gifts and products which ultimately support the home-grown economy enough to thrive, we are indeed making a HUGE difference. And buying fair trade goes a long way to help protect the modest interests of small-scale producers and farmers in third world countries who are already suffering tremendous economic loss due to the falling commodity prices and unfair international trading agreements.

Be the returning light of change you wish to reverberate in the greater world this season. It is within our power to impact the greedy dominance of corporate rule by bringing our lucid consumer choices back home to the grassroots level of public accountability and local sovereignty. Seek out the most humane and environmentally friendly products available as your gifts. While it may seem difficult to "afford" the cost of more fairly priced products, we can't afford to lose our peoples and our planet to the capitalist greed agenda.
And the disturbing truth is: we already are.

Online Documentary film
by Robert Beckford
about international trade exploitation:
'The Great African Scandal'

Fair Trade Options:
Ten Thousand Villages
The Fair Trade Foundation
Ethiquette.ca
Gifts With Humanity
Fair Trade Federation

Get Political-sign an online petition:
Make Trade Fair