We are everything.” –Debbie Ford

We bought our first home over twenty years ago, a tiny semi-detached, two-story house in the east end of Toronto. After a while a very large extended family moved into the twin side of our house. They left overflowing trash cans by their front door in the heat of the summer, parked their vehicles on the lawn, sometimes got drunk and shouted at each other, and so on. I had many judgments about this family and felt that no good would come of the situation.

After a few months of this we went to my mother’s cottage up north for a long weekend, and I had a dream. I dreamed about my neighbors next door, and in my dream I received the message “You are just like them…you have had a life like theirs in the past.” In the dream I realized that I could not judge them because we were actually very much alike.

At the end of the weekend we returned home to Toronto to find that our neighbours had cleaned up the garbage, removed their van from the lawn and planted flowers out front in a large tire planter. There was no rational explanation for this event that many would call coincidence, but I knew that something out of the ordinary had taken place. Somehow my dream had allowed me access to important information, knowledge I didn’t have during my waking hours. It had given me a window into a place where we are all connected.

At her Shadow Process Workshop in early November, Debbie Ford told us: “We are everything…all the light and all the dark.” The idea that each of us has parts of ourselves - both positive and negative - that are hidden in our daily interactions wasn’t new to me, I’ve been interested in Jungian shadow theory for many years. Grasping that we all embody every light and dark quality takes it a step further. Debbie’s wisdom, along with the careful design and flow of the workshop brought the message home to me in a profound way.

If we believe we are everything, we by definition include all the good qualities available as well as all the ‘negative’ ones we try to hide from the world. We’re the same as the wealthy woman, or the woman on the downtown east side of Vancouver, or anytown USA or Canada.

What better time of year than the holiday season to embrace this idea of oneness? If we do a personal inventory we may recognize that when we judge others we’re really showing distain for parts of ourselves. This simple action will be reflected in everything we do and say this holiday season.

Announcements:

The Caregiver in MidLife, my new e-book for women caring for aging parents can be pre-ordered now through my website.

I take it back, this week American politics are not way more interesting than Canadian ones! Our federal election 7 weeks ago was pretty dull, especially with the fascinating goings on south of the border. The Conservatives, led by Steven Harper, who were already in power with a minority government, won again. Still only a minority, but a larger one this time.

Now, only 7 weeks into the term, the government may be brought down by a non-confidence vote. Hard to believe isn’t it? Two things have set the other parties against Harper and his right-wing crew: Firstly, no significant plan for spending to stimulate the recessed economy (yes they finally admitted we’re also in a recession). Admittedly it is controversial whether to spend, how much to spend, and most importantly, what to spend it on, that’s true.

But what really p–ed off the opposition parties was that the Harper government reversed a law that gave each party $1+ for every vote they received. It doesn’t sound like much money, but when you add it up it is. It actually makes up about 2/3 of the revenue of the opposition parties, but much less for the ruling Conservative party.

So the 3 opposition parties are out for blood, and have made an agreement to form a coalition group, and to ask the Governor General to dissolve the Conservative government and appoint this very disparate coalition group as the governement of Canada.

Pretty cool huh? Maybe good things will actually get done for a change if this happens, because they’ll all be compelled to co-operate, rather than act as from an adversarial position as they usually do.

Kara Hoisington, senior project manager at Mom Central has contacted me about a very inspiring contest. It ties in very nicely with our goals and the interests of our readers of integrating spirituality into everyday life

Mom Central is launching a campaign for TrueNorth and are inviting people to submit a story describing how they (or someone they know) are pursuing their life’s passion. One story will be aired during the 81st Annual Academy Awards® as a 60-second commercial broadcast on February 22, 2009! Helen Hunt, one of my favourite actresses, will direct the spot, and the winner will receive $25,000 to help them pursue their passion.

Check out the links and get on board with this uplifting and inspiring project.

I was guided to Debbie Ford. First I heard about her and her work through another person’s newsletter, I got on her Shadow Blog mailing list, and heard about her Shadow Process workshop through her website. Then I was a participant in her Easter Sunday guided visualization…the most powerful I’d ever experienced. Then I walked into my tiny public library and there was her latest book and her previous book on the front shelf by the checkout, so I read them. Finally I heard about the Shadow Process again in James Twyman’s Moses Code (he’s a friend of hers and found the workshop helpful).

Finally I said to myself, “Something’s going on here…I’m going to take this Shadow Process workshop!”. So I enrolled in August for the November process. I felt ripe for doing it in the summer, but it was well worth the wait. The workshop is a deep, deep process that skillfully takes us down inside ourselves and draws out all the junk - the hurt, the anger, the guilt - the old baggage that we’ve held down for so long. We’re not the same when we come out as when we go in.

Debbie and her team have been presenting the Shadow Process for 14 years, and have taken many North Americans and other folks in 15 countries through it. There’s likely nothing like it anywhere. Debbie told us that she didn’t design it, it was ‘given’ to her.

I had quite a few awarenesses while I was there…some expected and some not…and released a lot of energy that I was holding in. I realized at a deeper level that I am indeed okay and I ‘got’ that because someone very important in my life didn’t take me seriously, I haven’t been able to extend that courtesy to myself in many ways. I released old anger from my body, and severed a negative energetic connection between myself and a person who has been ‘in spirit’ for over 30 years.

The Process workshop is definitely not for the faint of heart. We must be ready to open ourselves, to not judge, and to let go and let the pain come up to really benenefit from it. It was a very demanding, but extremely worthwhile experience for me.

With all the personal healing work I’ve been doing lately, along with the infusion of the wonderful new energies surrounding us, I am beginning to feel very renewed. In fact part of me feels the newness and excitement I felt when I was in the honeymoon phase of my time on the Sunshine Coast.

When I first moved to Gibsons, BC, on the peninsula called the Sunshine Coast, a 40-minute ferry ride from West Vancouver, I knew I’d arrived in a very special place. It was very different from southern Ontario where I spent my first 40 plus years. I felt a sense of awe at the physical beauty, never knowing what each new day would bring.

Today when I walked downtown around 4:30 just as the light was fading, to meet my friend Diane at our favourite haunt, Grandma’s Pub, I felt the specialness of this place all over again. I took the path by the water soaking in the beauty of the ocean with its backdrop of enormous coniferous trees, changing colours and mountains in the distance. I feel so very blessed to have this place as my home base.

We had our federal election recently, and our very conservative Conservative party took power again, still in a minority, but with a larger number of seats than last time. Our Liberal leader, although very qualified, lacks charisma, and was unable to explain the complexities of his proposed revenue neutral carbon tax on every business and individual that uses technology that produces carbon, i.e. everything from cars to the Alberta oil sands.

My partner, who understands the political and economic nuances more than I ever realized, pointed out to me recently that even though the Liberals messed up so badly, the Conservatives still didn’t win a majority government. As someone who took the unusual step of voting strategically in this election in an attempt to deny the Conservative party a seat in my riding, that does make me feel a little better!

I feel very hopeful that Obama will be elected on Tuesday in the United States. As much as I respect Hilary Clinton and her high level of skill and experience, I believe that Obama represents the new world…a world where we truly help each other and share the wealth so that no one starves.

There was a wonderful article in the Vancouver Sun last Saturday, October 25th, by Pete McMartin. It explained some of the differences between Canadian and US political parties, and was called: Dear America: Things you need to know about socialism. I learned a lot from it about the differences between our countries. I cannot do justice to it in the space  available and I really don’t understand the differences well enough. So I encourage you to read it in its entirety yourselves so that we will understand each other better.

The world we live in is becoming more hopeful in many ways now. One turtle step at a time, we can make a difference in our world.