I have read most of Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. Reading the book came out of a need through the Springtime.  Prior to that time, I thought that the life that I was creating was so satisfactory and that everything was ‘comfortable’ and relationships were ‘steadfast’.  Shortly thereafter, things came crashing down around me.  Out of that huge shift, I meditated/prayed/felt deeply and I decided that in order to move forward in a healthy way, I would need to have a huge commitment to awakening to a new way of BEING.  While I had already had a whole number of ‘stories’ of struggle and heartache in my life, I finally became CONNECTED in a negative way to this new story and felt a sense of hopelessness and could not see myself ever feeling whole again.

This book does not provide ‘the answer’, but it does provide a vehicle for my experience of personal growth.  I have decided, (since training a puppy interspersed with studio painting seems to be my summer-story), that intellectually/spiritually, I would explore my inner landscape and open to myself and whatever that landscape had to offer me.

My blog will be a place where I can explore the concepts that have been key along the way.  I will explore them in a general way here in this public forum, and will keep a personal journal of the specifics of how these concepts relate to my personal experience.  As I write, my puppy sleeps at my feet.  It is a wonderful respite!

This morning’s blog will hold just a couple of insights that I can apply from the reading of Chapter One. My individual fears, anger and doubts contribute to an overall collective in the world.  When I put out my fears, hurt and doubt into the world; my family, my circle of friends or even in a grocery line-up, I am contributing to a greater universal experience.  It is essential that I observe, that I DO have old stories in my head, but that I needn’t connect with those stories…but to observe them and accept them, without connection.  I will give these stories less energy if I consciously observe them…and what my mind is saying…but without identification.  Acceptance to the feelings is key, without thinking, analyzing and judging.