Power Up!

“That’s the price you pay for waking up in the morning. Everything is in free fall. We’re not wired to cope with that so we’ve all agreed to pretend it is not happening. But it is.” 

The Old Man VI

There’s no way around it.  We can no longer afford to pretend we’re okay. We’re not. Our planet is not. We are plagued by horrors reflected in every aspect of the world around us. We need Peace. We need Healing. We need Love. So, how do we acknowledge Truth and get on with Healing the Self, one another and our shared home in our current age of radical hatred, prejudice, depravity and fascist oppression?

Healing begins the moment you Choose to be your Self. With Power Up!, we aim to help you reduce stress and anxiety about who you have been, accept and appreciate who you are, and Learn to Choose who you become in spite of or because of the horrors imposed upon us. We Can Not Become Them To Survive Them! It doesn’t work. Like our ancestors, we maintain our dignity. We’re in Hell. All the monsters are here. We must keep moving forward. Cultivate Compassion, Gratitude, Forgiveness and Grace as you learn to embrace the Self and All Life with Honor, Respect and Unconditional Love. 

I grew up in Hostile environment. Bio-mother was a Denialista Tyrant. Superior, Entitled, Arrogant, Petty, Vindictive, and Hypocritical she believed her own lies and defended them to her death. She cursed me for seeing through the illusion.

Bio-father rejected truth, dismissed reality, and died in Denial of the alcoholism that killed him. Bio-brother committed proverbial murder (told me to ‘Rest In Peace’) rather than admit bio-mother was a manipulative, psychotic, pathological liar and child abuser with a rage-induced, alcoholic husband who made her daughter a scapegoat to avoid being accountable.  

It seems we are all now experiencing my childhood. How are we feeling?

Individually and Collectively, We Are In Lesson. As a species, we have categorically refused To Admit To and Learn from our mistakes. We are now living in the consequences of that Denial. We cannot keep damaging ourselves and others with and without awareness or regard while pretending it never happened. 

Our Lesson is See The Self, Know The Self, Heal The Self. We are being asked to dedicate ourselves to Learning what we are here in this life To Learn — the length and depth and breadth of our capacity for Love.

We’re all capable. Too many of us don’t seem to be willing. 

We’ve reached a tipping point in which we must Choose Who and What We Want To Be and How We Want To Live regardless of the chaos threatening our survival. Nothing less than everything is at stake, yet we continue to dig in and defend our Superiority, Entitlement, and Arrogance. Not a plan that speaks to forward motion, is it?

We Healers are hurting. The sensitive and aware are in torment. We understand. People who take pleasure in hurting others were tortured by people who took pleasure in hurting them. Someone enjoyed their pain. Laughed at their tears. Belittled, dismissed, and discounted them over and over again. We get it.

To The Afflicted, Power is the ability to damage with impunity. Abuse is normal. Pain is normal. Hate is normal. Warfare, Force and Coercive Control are Normal. They don’t know they are afflicted. They don’t know they are psychotic. They don’t know they are hypocrites. They don’t know they are miserable. They lead with Arrogance. That’s what makes them so dangerous. They are profoundly misguided and even more profoundly blind to themselves.

Being damaged is not an excuse. There is no excuse. We’re all damaged. We’re not all dictators, criminals and killers. 

How do we Heal Denial? We Learn To Love and Respect The Self. We admit our failures, embrace our regrets, experience remorse, and make amends. We question our thinking and motivation, and clear the decks of erroneous stories, beliefs, and judgments. We engage Gratitude, embrace Humility, and exercise curiosity about the self and others. We open our mind and find the clear path to our heart.

With the first judgment, we Separate from The Self. Then we protect, defend, and insulate ourselves with judgments, beliefs and stories that exclude and disallow remembrance. Egocentric, ethnocentric, and delusional, our stories about who we are, how the world works, who belongs and who does not collapses in the wake of our current reality. It’s time to write a new one. 

Are we here to witness the wonders of the Universe or to Become One of Them? Can our innate positivity and strength be greater than our innate tendencies toward Evil? Can we acknowledge and overcome our weaknesses and penchant for criminal impunity? What kind of world do we want to live in, and who will we be if we get what we want? Who will we be if we don’t?

We may not be able to save ourselves, but we can change for the better and set an example for future generations to follow. Choose Peace. Be Love. SS

The material realm is the last and most demanding of existential experiences. It is a negative demanding balance by a positive. A dark mirror in which to gaze to find, embrace and heal the darkness within ourselves.

The first and perhaps most difficult thing to accept is that we are creatures of light born into darkness. The material realm is dense, heavy and daunting. In our unhealed state we are fearful, separate, meticulously weaponized, negatively programmed, highly intelligent, fully automated predators. We are more naturally defensive, violent, tribal and competitive than we are respectful, peaceful, and cooperative. The same arrogance that let our ancestors survive is now engineering our dissolution and extinction. 

The second most difficult thing to accept is No Creature Is Immune From Its Karma. Like it or not, one way or another, this life or the next, regardless of belief, we are accountable. Damage to the Self and others earns negative consequences. Kindness, Spiritual Generosity, Caring and Compassion earn positive ones. Regardless of how we rationalize, justify, legalize, dismiss or excuse our negative thoughts and deeds, we are unequivocally and universally responsible for our damage. 

The third most difficult thing to accept is Healing is Hard Work, and we do most of it alone. Learning to be Accountable hurts and takes time. There’s no magic pill or panacea for healing human suffering. We cause it. Only we can it make it Stop! No one can do it for us. Healing is Hard work. Even when we are all focused on the same goal, Each Must Choose and Do for The Self. 

Learning is Work. Healing is Hard and It Hurts, but it’s worth it. Every scream, every tear, every acknowledgment gets you one step closer to freedom. Once The Lesson is Learned, it’s done. The Pain Releases, the wound heals, and it’s gone. Where Lessons Repeat in increasing intensity ad infinitum until learning is achieved, once The Lesson has been Learned, healing is exponential.

With the choice to Learn, we accept who we were, embrace who we are, and choose who we become. With healing we are Honoring, Respectful, Aware, Peaceful, Wise and Kind. We are spiritual beings in a material realm learning To Be Love and making it so one conscious choice a time. 

Choose Peace. Be Your Self. Be Love. SS

As we begin Harvest Season, I am moved to share with you a recognition that I hope will help you to feel less alone, less confused, and less afraid.

First and foremost, everything you are feeling is relevant. We have good reason to be concerned. The facts are brutal and terrifying. Our reality and our survival become more difficult by the day. We do not do well under unrelenting pressure. AOC calls it ‘barbarism’ — constant chaos, fear, threats, attacks and real life horror, the likes of which we’d hoped never again to realize.

If you are irritated, angry, impatient, anxious or afraid it is with good reason. It often seems the world at large has removed itself from the need to be accountable, thus eroding trust in the systems we’ve come to depend upon.

For example, after 5 years of steady, reliable service, my utility bill notifications and USPS paper copy stopped coming. It took three months, ten emails, six calls and a demand to get the company responsible for sending the electronic notification of my utility bill to 1. Admit it was their problem, 2. Fix the problem and 3. actually send the email. I won’t know about that last bit until mid-month.  There are still log in issues. So four months of my time and only half done. Grrr!

The point is, it seems to be happening with everything, everywhere, and everyone. When the big things like free and fair elections, internet, phone, car and health insurance don’t work, it makes the little things — surprise traffic, an extra chore, a time-consuming technical issue — that much more difficult to manage. We feel piled upon, angry, disenfranchised and disenchanted, and rightly so. Our world, our hopes and dreams seem to be going to hell in a hand basket with us in it.

Of course, we are irritable. It would be insane not to be! Do you understand? Our responses to being lied to, attacked, assaulted, robbed, and predated upon are all real, reasonable, logical and sane. Unlike coal, we do not become diamonds under pressure. We become dust. Therefore, it is up to each of us to find ways to Honor and Respect The Self and All Others At All Times, even when it is out of fashion.

How we move forward from here depends on who and how we choose to be. Are we soulless monsters or humane humans? 

We have a dark mirror before us. It extends millennia into the past. We have made these mistakes hundreds of thousands of times before. We can clearly see who we are when unhealed and deeply afflicted  — psychotic, pathological, hateful, cruel, superior, entitled, arrogant, judgmental, dishonest, avaricious, self-loathing, selfish, narcissistic and self-serving, for a start.

In Truth, we have no control over anything but ourselves. The only way to Heal and move forward is to Accept and Learn the Lessons. We have the Lesson Plan - Denial. We have the Syllabus - Honor. Respect. Humility. Grace and Gratitude. We have an abundance of source material to work with. Everything needed has been provided. All we need to harvest is our Willingness to See The Self, Admit The Truth, Choose To Learn and Make It So. 

As John Lennon sang, it is a long a winding road, but we are capable of more than we know, if only we choose to know ourselves. 

Enjoy our new Gallery - Between Us https://silversagespiritualcounseling.com/power-up-1 and here’s a link to our new interview in Voyage Denver. https://voyagedenver.com/interview/meet-dd-lerner-of-silver-sage-spiritual-counseling Choose Peace. Be Love. SS

I am under no pressure to perform or pretend to be someone I’m not. 

There are No hidden contracts or expectations to fulfill.

There’s no need to Judge, Compare, Compete, or do anything other than Appreciate, Love and Enjoy Being My Self. 

I chose rebellion, resistance, and freedom from the tyranny, judgment, and homogenized conformity demanded from bio-family and of all females in general long before it was in fashion. Needless to say, I never fit.

Commitment to Personal Freedom and Empowerment was costly. More than once, I was judged, found lacking, labeled, vilified, disavowed and discarded like yesterday’s trash for my defiance. It does not Stop! me from Embracing, Accepting, and Learning To Be, Heal, and Love My Self.

Today I acknowledge and Celebrate the Journey.

Dear Me,

Thank you for Showing Up! Speaking Up! Standing Up!

Thank you for choosing to see, know and accept me as I Am.

Thank you for helping me To Learn, Choose, Heal, and Grow.

Thank you for Learning To Receive and Trust Love.

Thank you for embracing Humility and Gratitude.

Thank you for being courageous in spite of impossible odds.

Thank you for being purposeful, willing and intentional.

Thank you for reading many wonderful books and educating the self.

Thank you for Being Open to The Magic of The Ordinary, allowing your True Nature To Flourish.

Thank you for Learning To Be Patient and Honoring your Process.

Thank you for the strength, resilience, tenacity and Will To Live with Reason, Meaning, and Purpose; to create a life I am proud of; to be someone I like, respect, and enjoy; and by virtue of my work, to be of service to others.

I love you. I am proud of you. I Am Here.

Love, Me.

Here’s what I’ve Learned; It is better to be alone with someone I Love than to be lonely with anyone else.  Choose Peace. Be Love. SS