Our friend Nicky just launched his own website and Divine Truth forum.
If you would like to check out these sites the links are now listed in the side bar of this blog and will soon appear on our website.
Nicky has taken a great deal of care in planning and creating this new project.
He has laid out the forum in a way that invites meaningful discussion and the topics are awesome. Both Jesus and I agree that if we were ever going to create a forum ourselves these are topics we would include and we would organize it in a very similar way.
We feel that in creating these sites Nicky is offering a beautiful gift to others.
I believe that many people are hungry for a place where they can go and actually know that the principles of Divine Truth will be upheld there.
We know Nicky personally and he is very sincere about his own progression towards God and is serious about running these online spaces in harmony with God’s Laws. Because of this I feel that there is a great deal of positive potential for people to engage and learn via his forum and website.
I also feel hopeful that his initiative might inspire others to create their own personal projects that champion Divine Truth principles and offer gifts to the world.
**Sidenote: I regularly update the sidebar on this blog to include blogs and sites from other people who I feel are genuinely attempting to engage Divine Truth principles in their lives and sharing their experiences from a humble place.
Our friends the Lytton-Hitchins family really inspire me.
After many years as sheep and cattle farmers, they now want to transition their 15,000 acre property into an environment supporting all of God’s Creations.
Their farm is already becoming a sanctuary for all kinds of wildlife just through the changes they have made in their souls and the flow on effect this has had on their actions and aspirations. In the long-term I know their desires are to provide a place to demonstrate how farmers can transition from practices that are harsher on the environment to ones that are more in harmony with how God cares for things.
I love that this family recognizes that they are in transition. They can see that some of the things they have done with livestock and the land in the past haven’t been perfect or loving, but instead of just dropping everything and starting again somewhere else, they are acting to change from where they are at. I see this as a demonstration of their desire to take responsibility for what they have created and to move from the point of view of ‘owners’ to become good ‘stewards’ of the earth.
Some exciting things they have been working on this past year have been:
– Breeding intelligence back into their sheep, and breeding sheep back so that they no longer need their tails cut-off
– Investigating (with Jesus’ help) ways to regenerate earth that has been damaged by grazing and by chemicals.
To me this family’s journey with the land could be a metaphor for the work we all must do on our own souls. Humbly, we must start where we are at, imperfect and damaged, and take responsibility for what we have done, all the while moving towards the people we hope to become.
Another one of the many things I love about these guys is their passion for giving to others and all of Gods Creations, including plants and animals. Last October they gave us all the opportunity to spend a week planting native trees and shrubs on land that had been grazed for the past 160 years. They took part of what supported their livelihood and gave it back to nature.
Our aim at ‘Octoberfest’ was to form a corridor of native habitation so that birds and animals had safe passage across the property and access food, shelter and water. So much care and planning went into this effort. Jesus and Peter spent a long time in the months beforehand preparing to ensure the trees were well fed and watered through the use of swales and ‘swaling systems’. They also spent time during that week feeling what the land in each area needed and what trees would go together in certain locations in order to form particular and cohesive habitats for certain birds and animals.
Some of my favourite things from the week last year were seeing so many of you (around 100) work together so peacefully and with care and regard for giving to the land and the trees.
I loved that after all that hard work and despite aching backs and arms, everyone still seemed to have energy for singing or dancing in the evening. I loved yoga in the early morning with Cecily.
I loved the spectacular thunder storm that descending after our last day of planting.
This year the Lytton-Hitchins family are offering us all another opportunity to learn and to give to the land and its systems.
‘Summerfest’ will be held from the 27th of November till the 4thof December (more details at the end of this post).
This year the focus will be on understanding, supporting and creating eco-systems with special emphasis on the importance of bacteria, fungus, insects and creatures that live in the soil. We will also look at ways to create self-supporting systems i.e. planting and creating habitats that don’t need ongoing care and maintenance.
While we will still plant some trees, the week will broken up between different activities that will give you opportunities to learn as well as give to the land.
In the evenings we are hoping to have some fun with Karaoke, dancing and possibly more mediumship. There might also be ‘Finding Your True Voice’ workshops, face painting and various other escapades according to the desire and passion-following of individuals.
Last weekend we got together to plan and have some fun in preparation for ‘Summerfest’!
Summerfest Date details are as follows:
27th November Arrival @ Kyabra in the afternoon to set-up camp Evening welcome and orientation with Jesus and Mary
28th Nov – 3rd Dec Activity Days in Teams
Activities will include: Creating a Systems to Support Small Animals Creating a Loving Home Garden Working with Swales, Living Systems and Contour Planting Tree Planting Tending to Last Years Plantings Three Considerations for Supporting Wildlife and Planning Where to Position Nesting Boxes
(full programme details will appear later so that you may plan which days you would like to attend, not every activity will be happening on every day of Summerfest)
4th December Pack up camp and go home.
Notes:
This event is open to anyone wishing to participate, not just those who are interested in the teachings of Divine Truth.
If a week is too long, it will be possible to attend and participate for only part of the week.
Because of the need to organize teams and events it will be necessary to register your intention to attend. Details on how to register will appear in the Divine Truth Events tab soon. When you register please provide details of which days you plan to attend and if you will be camping.
Camping is available on Kentucky
If you plan to camp please:
1. Advise when you register your desire to camp and the length of time you plan to attend.
2. Observe the Lytton-Hitchen’s guidelines for camping including no alcohol, cigarettes, meat or drugs on the property. More details will appear on Pete and Eloisa’s blog.
Live From The Heart (LFTH) posts are all about things or people who share their hearts with passion and courage. They inspire me to be real, to live out loud and follow my own heart.
So far this year I’ve been focusing a lot on developing God Reliance. To me, we can never really realize a state of God Reliance unless we are first willing to act on our passions and desires in harmony with what we know is loving. This requires trust and faith in the Goodness of God and the reliability of His Laws. I’ve struggled with it for a long while.
I’ve been shaking things up lately, taking some action, but I still know that there is a ways to go. There are fears that will only be proven unreal once I challenge them with actions that bear out their falsehood. I know it will take dissolving some more fear before I truly begin to live from the heart myself.
The people in the articles below inspired me. They are/ were young people who didn’t allow fear, ‘what-ifs’ or ‘not-good-enoughs’ to mar their desire. They took action towards their dreams without money, resources or external help. They got busy creating – something I believe God designed each of us to do.
They also reminded me that when we are truly in our desire and passion we don’t wait for others to join us, to be involved with what we dream, to make it right or to help us. We do it because it fascinates us, it excites us. When we are truly in our passion, our love for the thing we do is all we need to make it worthwhile.
But usually – and it may take some time – that pure passion we display ends up attracting the hearts and attention of others. I just love that about passion.
I firmly believe that God created each of us as unique individuals with unique personalities and passions, and when we discover and embody those things in harmony with love, whatever they may be – we end up serving the world – sometimes without even trying.
The story of Jadav “Molai” Payeng (click on the name to view – thanks to Mon for sharing this one with us) and of Caine’s Arcarde (below).
Wow! AJ & I just arrived home after a full day of absolutely awesome auditions for our first God’s Way of Love concert to be held tomorrow.
I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge all of you who auditioned. It was so amazing sitting in that hot, dusty and very ordinary hall, feeling the buzz build throughout the day and watching something extraordinary unfold. Thank-you for following and sharing your passions. You inspire me.
I loved the little rush of ‘invincibility’ I observed in many of you realizing that you were bigger than your fears.
It reminded me of an important Truth, that positive possibility can only grow and creativity is free to come out and stretch her legs whenever fear ceases to rule our lives.
As AJ said tonight “Today was a good day. Its always a good day when people challenge their fears”
You are all so brave and so talented to boot. Look out world!
For anyone interested in attending:
Gods Way of Love Concert – Sunday 8th January 2 -4 pm at the Murgon hall – open to all.
Free admission with a free supper provided by the Hospitality Team to follow.
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, passed away this year. At the time Brene Brown shared a link to a speech Steve had given at a Stanford Graduation ceremony.
Steve is eloquent in his message. He needs no paraphrase. But his words caused me to reflect on so many things!
Steve dropped out of college but he hung around to learn.
I find this so inspiring since most of my life my sense of duty has stifled my joy in learning. I’ve mostly been too concerned about doing what I perceived was ‘good’, passing the exam and making people proud to truly embrace the joy of expanding my mind and my horizons.
I landed at university, with one of the highest OP scores possible and an absolute bundle of emotional hang-ups. I immediately felt so intimidated by an environment seemingly full of incredibly smart, together and worldly people that I forgot that I actually seemed to do quite well with my own brain before then. I was so overwhelmed that I coped out and rebelled.
My allegiance to the call of ‘doing what I think is expected of me’ remained intact enough to keep me passing my courses but I skipped lectures, partied (far too hard) and tried desperately to avoid my extreme sense of insecurity about my brain and my worth by delaying all study to the very last minute.
My joy at learning often popped up during that final week of cramming when I would discover course content for the first time. My fascination for physiology, child development and the miraculous powers of healing and repair inherent in the human body had only minutes to be savoured before they were overshadowed by my intense panic at the lack of time to memorise these wonders and the terror of failure, which would cement in me the belief I was so desperately trying to avoid – ‘That I’m just not good enough to acheive anything in life.’
Steve did it so differently and his story opens my heart a little to my grief at how much my own hang-ups have prevented my child-like interest in discovering new things.
By staying open to learning for its sheer enjoyment Steve stayed connected to his soul and his story highlights the benefits of trusting the wisdom of your soul’s passions (even if you don’t quite know where they will lead you!)
When he dropped-in on a calligraphy course Steve had no idea how his fascination for the art would fit into his future life or career. He just did it because he loved it. Later his knowledge of calligraphy would prove to be extremely helpful in his lucrative career. But when he attended the course he neither knew this nor cared. He simply followed his passion.
I find that God is teaching us this lesson constantly. He can reach us when we live in our souls – that passionate, creative, desirous part of our selves.
When we live in our soulful place He can Love us, Inspire us, and also Correct our errors far more rapidly. But when we hang back, always trying to get it right, to be perfect to figure it out before we begin, we lock up possibility, change and growth.
Trusting our passions and following them towards a destination we can’t see right now can feel risky, and sometimes crazy, but Steve’s example demonstrates how beautiful the process can really be.
Steve simplysuggests “Find what you love and do it”
As I’ve mentioned my own life has most often lacked this kind of simplicity. Instead its looked something like this:
Find what I love -> Try to get everyone else to love it or at least approve of it before I’ll really go for ‘it’ -> Worry that I’m not good enough to succeed at ‘it’ anyway -> Try to find a small achievable version of ‘it’ so I’ll be ‘safe’ while I try to live a happy life -> Worry (some more) that no-one will get me or ‘it’ and I’ll end up all alone -> Agonize that I really want to do ‘it’ but I’m just not capable or good enough and so on and on… you get the picture..
I see now that there is so much power in simply doing ‘it’. Yes, sometimes my fears will be realized, it may not go perfectly, but I will be engaged in a thing I love.
And besides, there is nothing like facing a few fears to change our perspective and help us grow!
All of my anxiety, self doubt and need for approval has limited my life so much. I have wanted to be perfect before I began (mainly so I could hold onto the false idea that that way everyone would still ‘love’ me).
Now it feels like such a waste!
So as this new year approaches, I’m trying a new tack. I’m finding what I love and charging towards it, full of the knowledge that this way God is going to reveal to me both my errors and strengths. So far its hair-raising but also, in sweet moments, breath-taking in its beauty.
As Steve suggests “You are already naked”
This past year I’ve focussed much prayer on a desire to become more real. But honestly I’ve still been grappling with the ‘good girl’ facade I’ve worn (with varying degrees of success) for most of my life. Its been tough to let go and see how much of ‘me’ I’ve generated in order to feel safe and ‘loved’.
What I’ve learned is that the biggest thing I’ve lost through investing in how I’m viewed, in trying hard to be liked, is my connection to myself.
What I have perceived as the worst thing there is to loose, i.e. the approval of others, has caused me to loose my own perspective, my knowledge of myself and what I love and want. My life has been crowded with the desires of others and none of my own.
I’ve come to see that living emotionally ‘naked’ takes courage (at least for me) but that it is so, so worth it. There is rest to be found once we step off the fast-paced treadmill of always trying to maintain a facade.
To me living ‘naked’ means no longer denying my desires and dreams in an attempt to avoid shame, fear or rejection. It means honouring my feelings and my self in my relationships with others, not suppressing them in order to make everyone happy or to avoid my own fears and embarrassment.
In a naked life I am unapologetic in living in a way that I believe in. I don’t shy away from my hopes or disappointments. I don’t hide my light under a bushel, nor do I make out I’m prettier/ more accomplished/ more together/ wiser than I really am.
The truth is that we are already naked in the eyes of the One Who Made us. There is no point in hiding who we are or what we really want. Entering a relationship with Him requires our humility, our willingness to be ‘naked’. For only when we see ourselves as we truly are, in our truth and error, can we be Shown a way to grow towards Him once again.
Bless you Steve, may your adventures in the spirit world (where we are indeed naked) be rewarding and full of new invention!
Notes Along The Way 