Golden Gate 5 – Follow Up

As Bernard says in Lesson 5, “Who would have thought that life could be transformed because a person could make a special kind of fudge?” The example of the “fudge lady” was just wonderful. If you recall the story a lady could not find any special gift that she had, but then remembered her fondness for making fudge – and ended up finding a livelihood and a life partner out of that. I love that example because is shows the way wonderful things can happen when we allow ourselves to express what is within us – no matter how simple or mundane it may seem.

We do not have to come out with something earth shattering or world changing, we just need to simply enjoy being ourselves and explore our gifts and talents and see where they lead us.

As other commentators have said the real fear of some is not that they will fail; their real fear is that they will succeed. Some insist in living a small life (in the sense of not living up to their own potential – whatever it is) rather than risking change. If everything new seems threatening it means that we have become stuck. Staying stuck is more likely to bring us more suffering than exploring the potential within us.

Everyone has to start somewhere. The first instrument that the great electric guitarist Jimi Hendrix played was the ukelele! The way he sounded when he started out was not likely to be anything like as impressive as he was in later years. A young man living in the Philippines, who grew up as a street kid, used to sing cover versions of the songs from the well known rock band Journey. He was “discovered” by them and was invited to joint the band. He now tours with Journey as their lead singer.

As inspiring as such things are, expressing our talents is not about a search for fame. We need to express our talents because that brings us closer to who we really are. It also brings us closer to our Heavenly Father. “Why is that?”, you may wonder. The more we express our creativity, even by simply finding useful solutions to the mundane challenges of daily life, the more we raise ourselves up. The more we raise ourselves up the more clearly we can sense the presence of the Divine within us and the Divine within all. In other words the more creative we become the more we put ourselves in harmony with the Divine and the more that presence can be a real and practical part of our life.

Coming back to the story about the “fudge lady”. Her life changed completely because she remembered that she liked to make fudge and started doing it again. She might have had many doubts and worries along the way. “Maybe nobody else will like my fudge”, “Maybe nobody else will buy it”, “This is silly! I am just wasting my time here.” and so on.

If she did have those kind of thoughts then her commitment to doing thought bricks gave her enough momentum to keep going. Perhaps she felt some nervousness or hesitancy about talking to the cafe owner about her fudge, or maybe she was not sure how to package it so that it would sell and so on. It is easy to find many reasons not to go ahead with something, but whatever came up for her that way – if there was anything like that – she obviously did not let that stop her.

There is a very good overriding reason to go ahead and try out new things – life is for living! It is your own life you need to live, not the life of another. If you have inherited a pattern of doubt, fear and uncertainty from others then take your attention off that and put your attention on the talents and abilities that you inherited instead.

I times of doubt or uncertainty, remember the “fudge lady”, re-commit to you thought building and see what wonders life brings.

Golden Gate Exercise 4

In Lesson 5 Bernard says, “That person becomes transformed and goes soaring up to the heights and finds the fulfilment of their dreams”. He says this in regard to the person who allows themselves to release “the hidden beauty and wisdom, the gifts and the power” that is theirs.

Fulfilment is a combination of tapping into your inner powers and allowing those powers to be expressed in the world. It is not the form of the expression which matters (as it may be something very minor and not even noticeable by others). It is the willingness to look for and connect with you inner capacities and begin to express them which matters. It is the time and attention you give to finding what you have to offer and offering it where you can – in your current circumstances – which leads to opportunities to express you gifts in wider, bigger and grander circumstances (if appropriate).

It takes spiritual courage to do this. It takes spiritual courage to put aside, self doubts, feeling of unworthiness, self judgement, self blame, feeling of failure and so on and begin to go deeper into your inwardness to find and express your talents. It also takes spiritual courage keep your attention on your budding abilities and keep on with encouraging their growth when they seem small or inadequate or when the circumstances for expressing them seems too limited or mundane. Perhaps most of all it takes spiritual courage not to compare yourself and your efforts with others and what they are doing, but to keep on regardless.

The final word in the Golden Gate exercise is “fulfilment”. What does “fulfilment” mean to you?
Please get out your note book.
1. Write down everything which comes to your mind in relation to the word “fulfilment”. What others words can you think of which are relevant to this idea?
2. Imagine, by picturing in your mind or feeling it, how you will be as a happy and fulfiled person. What will you look like? Where will you be? Who is around you?

Using this exercise and the ones in the previous follow up emails will help make your use of the Golden Gate affirmation more powerful: Obstacles melt from my path as I walk through the Golden Gate to Good Fortune and Fulfilment.

William

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