Last Tuesday, after finishing up the radio show with Debra Moffitt, I sat there for a moment, thinking about the monumental shift that had just taken place, the heavy weight of it sinking in.  Adrenaline and nervous energy had been building up for the past 36 hours, as I mentally prepared for the show and scrambled to get my website and blog up and running. Now, the show was over…there was nothing to do but wait for the fall out. Wait for the opinions and reactions of my friends and family…perhaps even strangers. What dawned on me in that moment was that, for the next few hours…days…even weeks, I was about to be judged – it might be for the content, it might be for the delivery, but I had just laid bare my soul. I had “come out,” big and bold, with my Truth. There was nowhere to hide and no turning back. The whole story behind how that radio interview even came to be was, to me, Divinely Inspired (which is – coincidentally or not – the title of Debra’s radio show). So, I knew that this was my path – to step out of my comfort zone, verbalize my Truth – the purpose of which was to encourage others to do the same. Nonetheless, the human side of me still had to face the music.

This process has given me a new appreciation and compassion for those who actually DO step outside of their comfort zone to honor their inner voice. How easy it is to judge others when we, ourselves, would never dare to take risks that big! It puts this issue of judgment in a whole new light, now. I have always known that this was a topic I was meant to tackle during this lifetime. One of the first rebellious things I did after my Reiki 1 training was to purchase a set of oracle cards created by James Van Praagh (they were actually called The Soul’s Journey Lesson Cards, which seemed a little less scary at the time). As I stood there, scanning this huge bookshelf at Barnes and Noble, I had two thoughts 1) I can not BELIEVE how many card decks there are, and 2) I sure hope I don’t run into someone I know from school. When I got them home, I did a 3-card spread, meant to provide an overview of my life. The first card is supposed to represent a major life lesson, one that has already presented itself, and that I must overcome. Guess which card that was… Yup, JUDGEMENT!

Judgment is a human issue. As Esther Hicks says (via Abraham), everything we take in through our senses allows us to discriminate between what we want and what we don’t want in our world, so that we can manifest the things that we DO want. Where we go wrong, I think, is when we take it one step further…we deem those things that we don’t want as bad or less than. Last year as my son prepared to ship off to boot camp, he was given a timely and valuable message from his great grandfather through a medium friend: “Things are never “good” or “bad,” they simply ARE.” It is simply our human reaction to want to organize the multitude of incoming stimuli into categories, like right or wrong/beautiful or ugly. Life is a smorgasbord of options! What is tasty to me might not be tasty to someone else.

In reality, the only reason for us to discriminate between what we want and what we don’t want is so that we can enjoy the fullness of life and tailor our world to include those things that make us happy, joyful, stimulated…in other words, what we want to continue to experience. And, what I want to experience is not the same thing that Jack or Jill or Bob or Tom came here to experience. The lessons that I need to learn are not the same lessons that those folks came here to learn. So, comparing myself to them, either to make myself feel better or to chastise myself for not being good enough, makes no sense.

Perhaps some of the topics I touched on in my interview resonated with you. Perhaps not. Either way, I was compelled by a force much stronger than my Ego to share them and to continue to share them through this blog. I honor and respect all of you who take similar risks in life. Stepping out of our comfort zone, in faith, is scary…but it is also EXHILARATING! Let’s do our best to support one another in this very personal journey by living a life of love rather than fear – of acceptance rather than judgement.

Thanks for reading! Until next week….