Pacifiers and Blankies

We often forget that not everyone progresses or evolves at the same rate.

Some people hang onto their blankies and pacifiers long after others have grown up and stopped needing such comforts. They forget why they needed pacifiers and blankies, or a favorite toy, until they have children of their own, finding the toys and tools in the attic packed away or on a garage sale or secondhand store table. The memories flood their minds and good feelings flood their hearts -- or they don't. There are also some people who don't remember their childhood with fond memories or don't care about childhood. They rushed to become adults and put the past behind them without a second thought.

Everyone learns and grows at their own pace, even putting the past behind them and looking on people who cling to the fond memories with disdain or regret.  There are people who cannot put up with such ignorance or fantasies and stomp all over other peoples' comfort zones, dragging them into the harsh and cruel light without a second thought.  Such people have no tolerance for malingering and those who cling fiercely to their past or to a newly won present because the past was, to their minds, ignorant and self indulgent.

It takes all kinds to make a world and there is room for all -- as long as there is room for dissent and growth.

There is no shame if people lag behind or cling to their comfort zones. Everyone takes their own time to get to the same point -- unless there is violence forcing the issue.

Whenever I hear or see people clinging to their man-made gods and leaders I am anxious for them to catch up. It's like visiting a familiar spot and the companions are dawdling along taking their good old-fashioned time when the leader, the one who has been there before and wants to share it all NOW and not later when they get to it, resists the urge to grab them by the hand or arm or lapel and drag them forward. In my zeal, I forget what it was like when I visited the first time, overwhelmed by everything and wanting to soak in every view and moment, wallowing in the experience.

In essence, it is like being so anxious to drag a child by the arm across the space between us and not kneeling at the proposed finish line, arms out, hands held out so the child can grab hold if s/he stumbles or falls. Children, when they take their first steps, are uncertain of how to walk and grab onto everything and anything to get from one place to another. Even adults and older children who have walked before and are faced with walking after long convalescence or immobility, take time to get up to speed. Patience is required to get them through the first tentative steps, and the care and love you feel for them make you more patient and less anxious for the rough patch to be over. The look on their faces when they take their first sure steps makes it all worthwhile and that makes the frustration and waiting worth the effort.

It took me more than half a century to get to the point where I cast off the shackles of religion and dared to say I no longer believed. I hedged my bets, saying prayers from my childhood and believing it was all right to whisper thanks to gods I had not believed in for a long time our of respect for what I had been taught as a child. I thought, "It couldn't hurt."

What if? My token prayers were going thru the motions and I didn't believe they would make a difference, but what if I was wrong. Couldn't a token prayer make the difference if I was wrong?

We all hedge our bets. It seems safe.

When I asked questions all through my life, I was always told, "Because God said so" and "that's the way it has always been." God knows all and we are not gods came up frequently while I answered, "If God is all powerful and knows all, why would he give me a mind that questions if he didn't want me to use it?" All I got was condemnation and recriminations. Many times, I folded under the pressure to fit in and follow the leaders even when I knew they were wrong.

I often keep my mouth shut and my questions and thoughts to myself so as not to offend or stir up trouble. I am less careful about that as I get older. I am reconciled that I have moved beyond their limited understanding and cannot force them to see and know what I do.

In many cases, it would be like taking a child's favorite toy or blanky from them or snatching the pacifier from their mouths because I think they should give them up. Patience is still needed, although time is running out. The Big Moment is nearly upon us and they will miss it.

Yes, they might miss it as they have missed such moments in centuries past. We all will not arrive at the final destination at the same time. Some will be left behind just as they are in the "Left Behind" series of books based on the Christian belief of The Rapture.

Some people got it right, but so much of the End Times has been obscured by imagination, fear, and misunderstanding, just as people who have deified Jesus Christ, Mohammed, and Buddha. These prophets and ascended masters were not meant to be deified because they were not gods or demigods. They were people who saw the narrow road and tried to teach others to see and walk the same road. The followers didn't have the same level of understanding and were unable to follow or to travel the narrow road. They will understand when they died and ascend or when they are reincarnated in future lives and finally get it.

Not everyone grows and matures at the same rate. Some will be left behind. In fact, many will be left behind because they were distracted or focused on the wrong lesson or message. What remains will deify the teachers and ascended masters, build religions around their half-understood or barely understood teachings or, more often, use what is left to enslave others who don't get it yet, and the cycle continues like the Wheel of Life or Fortune turning over and over until the wheel turns and you catch it. If not this lifetime, then the next or the one after that. We evolve at our own rate just as children learn to talk and walk at their own rate. We learn or we wait according to our understanding and our abilities.

As marvelous as the path that Jesus Christ, Mohammed, and Buddha walked, they tried to teach others, and their lessons are still being taught, but all the diversions, bells, and whistles are hurdles to be climbed over or walked around until the road lies clear before us. We choose whether we focus on the road or the hurdles. It is up to us. We will follow the narrow road or we will get caught up in the hurdles and the misunderstandings. Whichever way we travel, eventually we will get there. I wish you all good traveling and clear vision and, if you need to cling to your pacifiers and blankies, we will all wait for you at the end of the path.

That is all. Disperse.