“People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.” ~ Thomas Stephen Szasz
A couple of weeks ago, as HHP’s Movie of the Month, we watched Conversations with God, the 2006 movie based on the best-selling books written (or channeled) by Neal Donald Walsh.
For the record, I don’t recommend the movie for those who haven’t read the books. Those in our audience who were coming to the story with no background, found the movie both saccharine and aggrandizing of the author. And personally, from an artistic perspective, while I appreciated being reminded of Walsh’s message, I just didn’t think the movie was so hot…
However, it did inspire me to go back and read Book I again.
I first read Conversations with God almost ten years ago. While I had read lots of books about alternative spirituality, this was the first book that brought me, a self-proclaimed atheist at the time, face to face with the concept of an all-knowing, all-powerful God that made me think “Yes! Now THAT’S a God I can get behind!”
Like every other book I’ve ever re read, there were things that jumped out at me this time that had no impact the first time ‘round. Like this passage:
“… God gave you free choice, to do with life as you will. … This is the grand illusion in which you have engaged: that God cares one way or another what you do. … Do you care what your children do when you send them out to play? Is it a matter of consequence to you whether they play tag, or hide & seek, or pretend? No, it is not, because you know they are perfectly safe. …
Of course, you will always hope that they do not hurt themselves. And if they do, you will be right there to help them, heal them, allow them to feel safe again, to be happy again, to go and play another day.”
OOH, one of my favorite words, “Choice”!
What I love most about this description is the comparison of this plane of existence to a playground. If we take this at face value, then everything we do here is… essentially… a very elaborate game of… House.
Did you play House as a kid?
I did, endlessly.
Today, I’m the President of the United States; yesterday, I was Princesss Leia; tomorrow, we’re going to be pirates – and I’m the captain! Whatever the circumstances, whoever I chose to be, I climbed into their skin and their life and played it to the hilt. And, if anything came up that I didn’t like (like when my mother’s best friend pointed out that being President and a single mother would be an awful lot of work) I changed the rules to suit my needs.
SO… if we’re living on the Universal Playground, and we get to pick and choose at will what games and what people we’ll play, and we have the option to change the rules as we go, and tomorrow, if we decide we don’t like who we are today, we can choose to be someone different, without repercussions from any angry parent…
WHY DON’T WE???
Why don’t we choose what we want to be today, and be that with all our being? Isn’t this what the experts tell us is the key to manifesting our perfect lives? Choose what we want and then act as if it already is… in other words, play House with our desires!
We have the option to approach our lives playfully, joyfully, fearlessly, to welcome the exploration of our Selves, to embrace or reject experiences without doubting our inherent worthiness, to co-create our most fulfilling existence…
Why would we choose otherwise?
Now…. who wants to PLAY??!! 🙂
“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” ~ Golda Meir
Wonderful!