• 102nd International Peace Meditation “Preparing to Go Home”

    “Preparing to Go Home”

    June 5, 2005-All of life is preparation. All preparation is for the next life step. All life steps are preparation to return home. Home is that from which we have come, and to which we will return.

    When I was a child, I learned a lot about a place called heaven. Actually, what I learned was that it was a desirable place to go to when my life on earth was over. While my perception was that I had learned a lot about heaven, in reality I had learned that I was to live my life according to what was defined as good within the scope of my religion, and that I was to avoid the alternative. The descriptions of the two options for my final repose were of a peaceful, joyful place, or a fiery, horrible place. It was a very motivating lesson.

    Throughout life we have many motivating lessons. As children, we learn what our parents want us to do through a series of events and their consequences. We sometimes learn by experience what too hot, too cold, too deep, too late, too dangerous means in a variety of situations. We learn by experience what our parents consider acceptable, what society considers acceptable, and what is considered appropriate within our religion or spiritual path. As we meet more people of a variety of lifestyles and spiritual persuasions, we learn that what we learned may be different from what they learned. Generally, we also learn that there are some overriding values that connect us all: to love rather than to hate; to lift up rather than to tear down; to be faithful to our loved ones, honest in our dealings with others, and just in our decisions about the fate of others. Individual circumstances differ, but these are generalizations based upon the idea that love joins us, and that hate divides us. We spend our lifetime attempting to learn tolerance and acceptance of differences. We work to improve the quality of life not only for ourselves and our loved ones, but also for those whom we will never meet. We evolve in consciousness in our human perspective as we prepare to return home.

    Each step is preparation for the next. We live in linear time. We learn to crawl before we learn to walk. We learn to make sounds before we can talk. We learn the language within our home before we learn other languages. We learn to care about a few people before we learn to care about others who are similar on the way to learning to care about others who are different. Life offers us many opportunities for these lessons. When we face adversity, we can ask what we are to learn from this painful experience. The answer may take us to another important life step.

    Consider people you know who appear to have found their spiritual purpose. Have you noticed that often those who feel peaceful, assured, and determined are those who have experienced adversity, and then turned that experience into a life work? Consider those who work for the abused who were themselves abused; those who work for changes in the legal or justice systems after the death of a family member; those who have dedicated their lives to a specific profession because one teacher cared. Consider those who gave their lives for freedom but never had the chance to enjoy freedom themselves. Consider those who gave up lucrative careers to spend time with their families after being neglected as children. Consider those who teach children about avoiding gangs because they were hurt through their gang experience. Consider those who help others with addiction because of triumphing over its control. Consider those who educate about the holocaust in hopes that it will never happen again.

    I once told a friend that I knew that my work was in empowerment because I felt that I had always been without power. I grew up in a part of the country, and during a time, that women had few choices. I accepted roles for my gender that did not fit my personality or life work. I felt like a powerless victim in many relationships filled with power. I had to learn to negotiate many systems: family, employment, education, government, medicine, and religion that still tend to operate in “top down” fashion. We all negotiate these systems daily. Whether we are successful, or whether we are victimized by these systems, depends on how we use our personal power to work within them.

    Moving from positions of powerlessness to power is another life lesson for each of us. Power emanates from many sources. We may have been taught that power comes from financial resources, knowledge, and life position. It comes from many more sources including belief in something greater than oneself, belief in oneself, and belief in the goodness of others. The latter also comes with lessons in whom to trust, and those lessons are sometimes our most difficult and best teachers.

    Life preparation is much more than “receiving” an education. In fact, the best education is realized only after much work to attain it. It is more than being born into easy life positions, or having many financial resources. Life preparation is learning from each lesson as it is experienced, and using the lesson learned to help others. It is giving the last drop of life energy toward a purpose greater than ourselves. It is looking back and seeing that the lessons learned had a reason for being. It is seeing how we used each lesson within the choices we made. And, finally, it is leaving behind a great measure of devotion that inspires others to give to that cause. That is preparation for going Home, perhaps in preparation for our next lesson.

    ‘All life is preparation for going Home to that from which we have come, and to which we will return.’ Viewed from that perspective, it is a perfect Plan with a loving Author. This Meditation is dedicated to all who devoted their lives to something greater than themselves, and thus made life better for all. May you have the necessary freedom to choose to follow your life Purpose. And may we each use our life as an opportunity to improve the quality of life for those who follow.

    We hope you will visit our web site at www.humanempowerment.org and participate in this important mission to bring empowering messages and beliefs to everyone.

    The Institute relies on the support of those who believe in our mission of changing lives. Please contribute so that our work may continue to expand. Thank you.

    Sue Kidd Shipe
    Executive Director

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    The International Institute For Human Empowerment, Inc. is a
    501 ( C )( 3 ) tax-exempt organization recognized by the United States Government. Your contribution within the USA is tax-exempt.
    Sue Kidd Shipe, Executive Director
    International Institute For Human Empowerment, Inc.
    P. O. Box 3920
    Albany, New York  12203   USA
    (518) 393-9491
    sueshipe@www.humanempowerment.org
    www.humanempowerment.org

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