Focusing on What Truly Matters

The meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.

—Viktor E. Frankl

It’s hard to believe it been exactly three weeks today since the terrorist attacks in Paris. Living in Brussels, November became a scattered culmination of emotions for me, as it became focus of world news in the days following November 13. Just as I start to find my bearings, there’s yet another similar tragedy in San Bernardino. And while the zenith of emotion has produced lots of words, it’s going to take a lot of editing before they have any comprehensible meaning. It’s only now that I’ve settle down enough to write something that is even remotely coherent. So I ask that you excuse my missed November post and accept this very short piece in its place.

The shock and sadness in response to the attack was compounded by the bombardment of alarmist media coverage. In response the mental, emotional and psychological barrage, I began to re-evaluation what is really important and what is indeed ‘real’ in life. Yet, believing that information, people, opportunities come to us when we need them most, there are three people whose words touched my heart and revived my spirits during this very difficult and confusing time.

With my thought moving toward the meaning of life, I stumbled on Leon C. Megginson’s presentation of his idiosyncratic interpretation of the central idea outlined in Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

At the 1963 convention of the Southwestern Social Science Association, the Louisiana State University Professor Megginson said,

It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself. Applying this theoretical concept to us as individuals, we can state that the civilization that is able to survive is the one that is able to adapt to the changing physical, social, political, moral, and spiritual environment in which it finds itself.

What jumps out for me is the idea that the evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of as human being, even our spiritual selves. This spiritual evolution supports the philosophical, theological, esoteric or even scientific idea that nature and human beings and/or human culture change, grow and advance over time. His presentation didn’t answer all of the questions swirling in my head, but it did focus my attention on the notion that we are evolving spiritually.

Shortly after finding Megginson’s presentation I saw a post on Facebook by Neale Donald Walsch. As if attempting to clarify what Megginson alluded to, Walsch response was as follows,

When I heard the news about the events in Paris on Nov. 13 I felt exactly the way I felt on Sept. 11, 2001. Sad. Determined. Re-committed. I knew that people all over the world who have read Conversations with God would ask: How does this fit into the ideas in your books, Mr. Walsch? How does this fit into “see the perfection,” and “there are no victims and no villains in the world,” and “there is no such thing as Right and Wrong,” and all the other messages of CWG?

Those are fair questions. Very fair questions. I ask them myself when things such as this occur. And they are occurring now with more frequency than ever before, around the world. So I have updated a small booklet that I wrote a while ago addressing these questions, and I have added to that document a word-for-word copy of the statement I issued the day after the 9-11 attacks on the United States.

It is my desire that as many people as possible have an opportunity to read this material, so I have made it possible for you to access the document in full, downloading it at no cost here:

Walsh called the current social and geopolitical moment as a part of the ‘Larger Process’. He says, “It is a process by which humanity is being invited to re-define itself.” And he goes on to say that what we are seeing is the birthing of our species into the cosmic community of sentient beings.

The idea of our spiritual response came full circle in the words of Aimée Lyndon-Adams who also responded to that violence in the monthly newsletter from What Truly Matters and brought it all home to the here and now, acknowledging that “we are human beings and our bodies respond to energy coming at us whether it’s positive or negative.” She provides 4 tips on how to stay on our spiritual path and remain a part of the solution during

1. So the first thing we can do is to feel our feelings, to allow our natural response: shiver and shake, rage and cry.
2. When you have released your feelings, fill back up with high frequency energy from the Earth and from Source. Keep your frequency high; don’t allow yourself to be distracted off your path by low frequency invitations (like gossip, drama, whining and complaining).
3. Focus on what you do want, not on what you don’t want. For many of us, this means envisioning our world at peace, respect for all life, sharing the wealth.
4. Commit to a path of non-violence in your own life by discovering your own inner terrorist who terrorizes you with negative, fear-based thoughts, and terrorizes others by demanding that they live up to your expectations of them.

The above guidance, explanations and tips along with the idea that we are all cooperative components on the leading-dead of expansion reassured me and refortified my belief that not matter how bad things may seem, everything happens for a reason. If everything happens for a reason then Henry David Thoreau sums it up best when he’s says said, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

Now looking at these events I don’t equate them with the end of days as some doomsday predictors’s claim. I do, however, recognise today as the ending of an age—an age dominated by war, oppression, competition— and the emergence of a new age governed by partnership, cooperation, compassion and acceptance. The string of tragedies we are witnessing, therefore, are the last gasps of an ancient way of being as its replacement moves into place. We see that new age in social media, in the internet and the purpose economy, for example.

With such a huge shift in consciousness it only makes sense that there would and will continue to be huge contrast between the old and new. I believe that this evolutionary shift will ultimately result in the ‘physical, social, political, moral environments’ Megginson’s alluded to in his speech about humanities overall evolution.

Positive forward movement is indeed what I have found to be at the core of what really matters. Hoping to be a part of the solutions, I’m re-focusing on my small doable contribution, this post. With that I hope the wisdom of Professor Megginson, Neale Donald Walsch and Aimée Lyndon-Adams provide you with as much encouragement as it provided me.