Synchronicity & Conflict

Weird things happening of late...
My read is that they're spiritual in origin. But it can be difficult to decide if a string of events is mere coincidence or something more...

Synchronicity is up there in the the title of this post and, for those of you that don't use that word everyday, here's Wikipedia's link to it. And, here's a brief quote from that article:

"It differs from mere coincidence in that synchronicity implies not just a happenstance, but an underlying pattern or dynamic that is being expressed through meaningful relationships or events."

If you've read the last 4 or 5 posts here, you'll see what may be synchronicity in action. This post will focus on just one instance of this train of Related Events:

Yesterday I wrote about Conflict. Right after I posted, my friend walked in the room and asked me to go to an event with him. I was particularly exhausted but felt the event would be interesting so I said, "Yes!".

We arrived and others arrived and the group finally consisted of:
*Two white males in their 60's
*Two black males in their 70's
*Two black females, one in her 70's and one in her 20's
*Two white females, 90's and 60-70s

I was a visitor but all the others were there to talk about Unity--specifically, action to end racism and bigotry in the city.

After a lot of agenda checking and goal and vision talk, one of the men (black) started a rant about the police and fire department's totally lack of racial integration. Everyone else sat there in, what seemed to me, placid acceptance (found out after the event that he was prone to do this).

Suddenly, the other black man challenged him to put up or shut up (his words, however, were mild as milk) and dared him to go the next day to those civil services and do, at least, some investigation of the problem.

Everything calmed down and the man who'd been ranting praised the other guy for being extremely positive! [ Hey, I mean, these were people seeking unity, right? ]

So what happened? Was this mere coincidence--writing about conflict then experiencing it so Dramatically?

Has there been some deeper Spiritual Reason for my week of apparent synchronicity?

My jury's still out on this issue:
but...
please, submit some "evidence" or give some "testimony" in the Comments...
Or, take your concerns over to our BackYard...

So Who's Right ?

Here's my Supremely Obvious comment for the day:
"There sure is a lot of conflict in the world !"
From disagreements between friends to bloody sectarian war, it's all around us. Something else that may be obvious to you is that there are a lot of ways being touted to "manage" or "reduce" or "eliminate" conflict.

Image Credit

I'm reading a book now, The Anvil of the Spirit by Morris Taylor, and I came across a fascinating comment about understanding conflict (seems to make sense that we must understand where it's coming from before we can manage, reduce, or eliminate it...) This quote may seem as Supremely Obvious as that other one up there but if you slow down and think about it (try feeling your way into it, too...) I think you'll find it as helpful as I did:

"Every individual is following a sensible strategy for getting along in the kind of world he thinks he lives in."

This blog really isn't about offering solutions, though I will point to quite a few as time rolls on. It's a place to give spiritual perspective to what we all are living through. Still, I want to offer these results for "conflict" from the B.I.D.E. Custom Spiritual Search Tool.

Many folk will tell you that conflict is inevitable. What matters is how we "deal" with it.

Just to indicate how inevitable it is (and, indirectly, how important it is to learn how to deal with it...) here's a closing quote from a Supremely Spiritual man:

"The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions."

What do You have to say about conflict?

We Are All One?

Saw this widget on a blog I scan and tried it out. Not really sure the technology is working too well but one or two of those faces "might" resemble mine...{I'm the guy in the middle}

Guess it just goes to show that our True Similarities lie beyond sight--in the Spiritual Realm...

Oneness of Humanity

Yesterday I posted about a good friend's comment merging with current events and my past history and politics and a few other things...

Today that friend sent a link to their blog (image over there on the left) that had a link to a poem they'd written about Oneness, plus a link to my post of yesterday.
Right after I'd set myself up to write this post, I quickly checked my e-mail and found the prayer, We Are One, from BeliefNet.
As if that weren't enough to weave the web of synchronicity ever tighter, right after I wrote about that BeliefNet prayer, I checked my e-mail again and found another post from the same friend saying they'd gotten a response to a Google alert which they really didn't want; but, then, they said: "Weird, so I figure its "for" you?"

I hadn't yet told them I was crafting a blog post around their blog post (about my previous blog post...) so the topic of the alert link was astonishing--the exact opposite of Our Human Oneness: Persecution !

Sometimes the rhythm of events seems to underlie the music of the Spheres...

Chaos of a Mighty Wind

We are all One...

Nice sentiment or actual fact?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Made a phone call yesterday to my friend and, rather than answering with "Hello.", they said, "A Mighty Wind...".

>>>This set all kinds of things swirling in my mind and heart:

***I'd just become aware of the big European wind storm with headlines like, "European storm leaves 47 people dead", and:
***because of my previous post about the Doomsday Clock and its hands getting closer to midnight attributed, in part, to global warming, and
***news channels talking about the wind storm in the context of global warming, and
***politicians starting to dance around that Issue, and
***other news channels pointing to the storm of 1999 and claiming this storm had nothing to do with global warming, and
***a concurrent virus attack called Storm Worm that used the European storm to lure people into opening infected e-mails, and,
***finally (Whew!), remembering the 2003 movie, A Mighty Wind, which was funny and made all the other connections in this swirling mind/heart assume their proper perspective,

>>>I pondered the Butterfly Effect: small changes here making big changes there (usually refered to as Chaos Theory) and...
the whole swirling mass of thought and emotion made extremely clear the interconnection of weather, news, history, hackers, comedy, danger, social action, and the comments of friends...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are all One...

Nice sentiment or actual fact?

My God, Your God, Our God

Yesterday's post about the Doomsday Clock ended with these words:

"What does Your God say about the End of the World?"

First I have to disclaim with:
I was born in the U.S.A. and haven't learned other languages beyond a mere smattering, so I use the word "God". Lest anyone think that I think there are multiple Gods, please, take a look at some of the names we humans have given to the Un-Nameable One:

Tao, Aten, Mithras, Ahura Mazda, Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim, Theos, Bog, Jumala, Kami,
Deus , Allah, The Light, El-Shaddai, Adonai, Jah, Tangri, Gud, Shang Ti, Shen, Tian Zhu, Brahman, Anami Purush, Ekam, Raam, Paarbrahm, Krishan, Akal Purakh

And, there are more, I'm sure...

So, my Disclaimer is that "Your God" = "your perception, experience, walk with God", and I hope you'll leave some Comments about Your God...

Doomsday !

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists sets the hands of the Doomsday Clock and that setting has changed many times since 1947.

Does it scare you to know that a group of supposedly educated individuals thinks we're closer to annihilating ourselves?

Does your Faith have anything to say about the End of the World?

Why have all the Major Faiths in recorded history included in their Scriptures a reference to the end of things as we know them? They've even predicted (symbolically) a time when the "End" will arrive. Even, in some cases, given hints that certain individuals have interpreted as definite dates for human, earthly annihilation...

If you don't have first hand info on what various Faiths have claimed, the Doomsday Guide is an interesting place to begin an investigation.

What does Your God say about the End of the World?

Just a Moment of Peace

Just as a spaceship slowly lifts from its launch pad before it roars blazingly toward the heavens, this blog is barely at the beginning of its travels.
"Spiritual Commentary on Current Events" covers a lot of territory and we need some grounding experiences before we can fly free...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* I've made an Opening statement and presented another site that I'm working to integrate into the experience here.
* I'm lining up a number of "Email Reporters" who will contribute material for the main posts.
* And, with the rush of launching this craft into the blogosphere, I seek just a moment of peace, on a regular basis, so I can deal with current events with a spiritual attitude.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Check It Out:
Go to Peaceful Earth and explore the resources.
And, for this moment, pause to feel a bit of peace...

Youth & Spirituality

It's very heartening when you start a blog and a friend comes bopping by and makes an early comment that steers you toward a rich web resource that you must bring right back to the blog.

I'll be working to incorporate this site's information into
this blog from time to time because I honestly can't think of a more central issue in the quest for spirituality in our world or a better way of assuring continual spiritual growth for our civilization than Spiritualizing the Future:
our Children and Youth !

Comments?