At 13 Thomas was living with a new foster family - a couple in their 70's. Monday through Friday, He was awakened at 6 to do an hour of chores before going to school.  Even on Saturdays he was up at 6 to eat breakfast and then head outside to chop wood until 8:00 that evening, with only lunch to break up his day.

 

For those two years, Thomas said that he hated his foster family for being so hard on him. After completing the 8 to Great program his freshman year, he saw things in a different light. "Now I know that they were keeping us so busy and tired all the time because they couldn't have kept up with us any other way. They just wanted to keep us out of trouble. Next time we go back there to visit, I want to spend an hour with them. I just want to say thanks..."  

 

 Everything is perfect in this moment, when we see it with the eyes of acceptance.

 

A NEW EARTH

I'm dedicating this Key-Mail to all my heroes, and to releasing the thought that when things seem "wrong," it is not because we are doing something "wrong." I am learning that when I label situations or experiences negatively is when I am missing the truth in that moment. Let's start our discussion of how this works with the book Oprah and two million+ readers are enjoying this month, Eckhart Tolle's, A New Earth.

 

When I first studied with Eckhart over a decade ago, I saw that he was not hurried by the chatter in his mind or the clock on the wall. He was truly at peace. His secret? Acceptance. In the book, he refers to it as "unconditional surrender." He reminds us that, rather than a sign of weakness, acceptance is a sign of the greatest inner strength.

 

A recent challenge for me personally was around my 8 to Great curriculum. Having piloted it for the past five years in high schools, I was ready at last for it to be tested. The three tests were the public school system in my home town, and national education conferences on both the East Coast and West Coast.

 

THE "YES" IN "NO"

I made the proposal to the administrators of a large local school system in my state. After a month of waiting, the answer was "No." I was stunned. My resources, energy and patience at an new low, I wrote my closest friends: "We've given our best but schools don't seem interested. Perhaps it's time to change focus and find other audiences for my work." 

 

The next weeks at the two national conferences, the word we kept hearing was "Yes!" We now have programs starting on both coasts as well as in nine Midwestern states, with more requests from schools coming in almost daily. The surrender realeased the flow. 

 

What is surrender? Releasing the struggle. Getting back into the flow of acceptance. What is amazing is that often, once we accept the things we used to want to change, things do change. 

 

I recently came across an email from one of the finest 8 to Great teachers in the country. In her first month of teaching it to students, she had written, "I can't teach this class anymore. ...Students won't take it seriously." Her honesty and surrender allowed the flow and classes became fun. Today she has throngs of students who thank her for changing their lives through the High-Ways.   

 

IT ALL STARTS AT THE STOPLIGHT

Surrender (acceptance) is a spiritual key that opens floodgates to the rivers of plenty. "What is is," writes Eckhart." So what does this mean for you and I in our everyday lives?

 

It means making friends with/being fully in the present moment. No matter who we are, we will get to practice accepting and allowing 

- our loved ones to die 

- our alcoholic son or daughter to drink

- our rude uncle or mother-in-law to be who they are

- our children to get less than stellar report cards

- a friendship to fade or change

- the aging process to slow us down from doing and going

- a snow fall in April to surprise us

- the stoplight to change colors

 

Yes, that's where it starts, at the stoplights of life. We can either tap our foot impatiently or relax into the Sacred Now of the moment. It is not about giving up our dreams, but rather trusting in our dreams while "idling" and allowing the perfection of this moment to unfold. The stoplight will change when we do.

 

Yesterday I watched a teenager take an irate phone call from her mother. When she got off the phone, she took a huge deep breath. "YES!" I yelped, making her jump. "That is the secret, young woman! You cannot change her, but you can change how you let her affect you. Allow her to be who she is and keep breathing!" She smiled and started to laugh.

 

I recommend Eckhart's A New Earth to everyone. It has certainly been a wonderful reminder for me that I am right where I need to be, today, this moment. I am grateful for his words that take us back - back home to the Here and Now, which is always new and always true.       

 

Blissings,

MK