On the Minister's Mind
by Rev. Laine Morgan
Who are you traveling the road of life with these days? As many of you know, I just returned from a long period of traveling, and I did so with 7 other people, therefore there were 8 of us on planes, trains, boats, touring vans, and buses. Eight of us were constantly together trying new foods, wearing interesting sarongs, feeding large bats, walking steep terrain to waterfalls, navigating crowds of people, observing the culture around us, dancing, telling stories, laughing and sharing everything.
When you spend 21 days in a group, you learn the importance of selecting good travel companions, and that is especially important for me energetically and spiritually. I find great value in being surrounded by people who see the glass half-full, who expect positive outcomes, and look for the good in everyone and everything, because being in the company of another person, or in this case - 8 other people, is one long conversation.
It would have been easy for us to point out evidence of the problems of the world and the challenges of humanity wherever we went, but that is not how we focused our attention collectively. Those aren’t the conversations we were having.
In her book, Living a Committed Life, author Lynne Twist wrote - "One of the things that happens when you “wake up” is you realize you're swimming in negative conversations, in negative media coverage, and in people's complaints about the world, perhaps even your own. And those negative conversations which are a dime a dozen and everywhere you look, are conversations that keep us stuck in a victim story, as though we can't do anything about these things. We may think we are just being "realistic" about the ways of the world, but it's important to recognize that negativity and cynicism disempower us."
I agree with Twist that waking up spiritually and becoming more aware of what is really happening in your world usually reveals quite a bit of negativity and cynicism around us. Most of us wake up to find ourselves “traveling” with people we chose a long time ago.
At first, and for many years, I tried to change the conversations around me. I attempted to introduce more positive perspectives but often found myself sitting quietly instead as they continued to share their fears and complaints. However, over these past several years, I have allowed my circle of life travel companions to evolve as I have grown closer to more people who are not stuck in a lower perspective or vibration, instead willing to see the good with me.
Commit to looking around and paying attention to those who see things with an interpretation that is lifting you up instead of dragging you down. Afterall, life is one very long conversation. You will be amazed at how sweet the journey can become with the right folks chatting on the bus with you!