◄ by Jonathan MacIntyre – North Adelaide, South Australia ►
We have different sorts of “energy” storms about us, near and far right now, don’t we?! Whether they manifest as large scale, like the weather the east side of the U.S. is experiencing. Or the more micro kind, like what is happening directly inside or around us. And, these energies can have us thrashing about for a time, and in some cases being a stable point among the “flying debris” of those close to us, or in other people’s dramas. It certainly has been the case for me the last week or so, and doesn’t it have differing impacts upon us, directly and indirectly?!
My choice right now is a moment of thankfulness for coming through my own turbulence, and then some!
Last night brought more of this home to me in an upfront way. It was my first shift as a Lifeline Telephone Counselor (TC) on the 9pm to midnight slot in the Adelaide CBD. As I was walking from North Adelaide into the city (about a 30 minute walk), to the Lifeline offices, I had a clear feeling to be careful and alert this full moon night.
So, BIG THANKFULNESS ENERGY goes to the couple who came off the railway station terrace steps to warn me to go another way, as a man with a gun had seconds ago just tried to rob them – they had nothing of value on them, so were let go. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your helping me not to be a mugged statistic – what Grace there is in taking time to listen inwardly and outwardly!!
The radio news reported this morning that the gunman did rob a second couple of cash and phones before police eventually caught him….how close these things are coming!
The Lifeline Telephone Crisis Support shift was a full moon energy thunder storm for me too. Thankfully no “in progress” cyclones of suicide, heavy domestic violence, or child abuse crisis, for me to weigh into this first time round. According to my supervisor’s report, the callers I did receive, I supported well. I was thankful for my last caller appreciating at the end of the call that someone was simply present and available for them. Thank you all who have trained and supported me in this new frontline experience so far. I’m also thankful for the amazingly unpretentious work the Lifeline Supervisors, the TC’s, and the “online chat room” staff do in their roles as “frontline storm responders” (many of whom are volunteers who’ve been through this themselves). There is an ocean of stormy crisis pain being heartfully yet pragmatically handled through what is offered. I noted while on my shift that over 1,700 calls around Australia were handled by the national Lifeline team in yesterday’s 24 hours alone (that’s an average of just over a call a minute).
Multiply that statistic by the other “caring agencies” providing such services, and there is a gigantic amount of storm energy there that can use our calming, thankful, and conscious participation, however it fits for each of us to do. And perhaps, like wind or solar energy, we can find loving ways to harvest such energy for creative use in the times to come.
Love & Blessings to all!! ♥
Jonathan
Thank you Barbra – I’m finding there’s something about connecting our core energetic knowings and experience with others on similar waves as it builds my/our wider core network vibration of listening, safety building, right momentary action, and clarity that sometimes my mind wonders about (doubts at times), yet Spirit calls me through.
Thank you Bonnie Jo – I love your perspective in this and it adds to fortifying my sense of being on the right track, staying with the deeper current that is thankful in all things & situations (even though the external circumstance can prompt quite some initial fear or knee-jerk reaction in me); taking moments to mind-marvel at the web of growing connections that are drawn to me or I intuit connection into that energetically support me, and me them; and then more accurately using that energy to empower situations with presence and, at fitting times, creative action. May more of our deeper connectedness/love build collective energetic bodies to bring the new, waiting in “Eden”, and add to my/our resilience that lets what needs to pass away in true blessing.
What a beautiful reminder of the importance of Gratitude, even when it may be in a climate of deep challenge. More and more, the idea of expressing Gratitude echoes from unlikely moments and situations, as if it is a Very Special Invitation issuing from the highest energies in the Universe, as we are held, protected, directed, and utilized in recognizing the balancing aspects of Gratitude.
Most recently, this past weekend, in an Attunement Practitioners Class with Andrew Shier, the reminder of Gratitude’s importance was a thread that wove itself into the fabric of our time together. Fairly regularly, from several mail-serves to which I subscribe, there are also reminders of this as well. Now, here is your entry, Jonathan, outlining your experience and providing a beautiful example – one which sits in the IAAP field and further moves out into the world from there even as it radiates out from your own personal “broadcast mechanism” of You.
Your post further cements in me that whatever we do, in all things there is great importance in finding the “Thank You”, allowing that energetic to be broadcast through whatever mechanisms are available – be it through vocal expression to another – words offered upwards and outwards – ceremony – or other action that infuse our Universe further with Grateful molecules to which others may Attune – through which sun may shine – further magnifying this beautiful energetic. Your post for me, as I am thinking ahead to the celebration of Thanksgiving here in the U.S., poses a beautiful thought concerning how to BE WITH that holiday in a deeper, more thankful way.
Thank you for sharing your words and experience in this space and beyond and helping to surface the notion that Thanksgiving can exist in each moment with nothing more than our awareness. Many Blessings, Bonnie Jo
Jonathan, thank you for sharing your story of being aware when you “had a clear feeling to be careful and alert.” Your new position of being present for people in crisis is of great service….
Blessings,
Barbra