The life we live comes with a construct. Each and every lifestyle choice comes with all the trappings, quite literally. What do I mean by lifestyle? I mean roles, occupations, and leisure activities including hobbies. Let me provide a few examples to illustrate what I mean. Say you decide to be a cyclist, this would require all the gear to go with this activity and the more serious you get the deeper down the rabbit hole you go… cycle clubs, contests, professional status, sponsorships, etc. Choose a career… Broker for instance, this leads to college, professional dress clothes, employment, and a certain expectation of behavior including circle of friends and associates, not to mention an aptitude for math and social skills. Maybe you simply chose to be a housewife or homemaker. This too comes with its own lifestyle trappings. If not children, then at least pets. If not cooking, then at least cleaning house. Even being homeless comes with a lifestyle!
I trust that by now you know what I am speaking of. Our lives are scripted by the choices we make along the path. While I cannot prove it, my understanding is we make many if not all the major choices of our life before we are born. Some call this fate. I really don’t care what it is called, it has been my experience. I have been steered to where I am now. Need some examples? I certainly did not choose to be Trans* unless I did … before I was born. Maybe sexual orientation and gender identity choose you like a magnet chooses its polarization for the purpose of balancing your energy? I have always felt like there is something going on below the surface which I cannot see. Like I was being watched or something. I choose to believe it is my Angels (Holy Spirit) guiding my path and leading me home.
Another example is my childhood dream of being a doctor like my father. I tried 3 times to pass college chemistry and never did, so what I did was find a medical career that did not require it. For some reason, Radiology came very easy to me. I seemed to understand all the physics involved quite easily and fortunately for me the chemistry involved was taken care of by others (film processing was all automated and now it is all digital so they don’t even use processing chemicals anymore). I remember early in my career dreaming of the day X-ray caught up to MRI and CT (cat scan). Eventually my love of Metaphysics lead me to my current life as a Spiritual Peacemaker. Passion eventually leads to your most fulfilling experiences.
Writing has been an interest of mine for over a decade now and for some reason I cannot get the idea of reinventing Story out of my head. We each have a story (our lives), though we are not our story. We are much larger than any story or lifetime. What is next for me has yet to be revealed, even to me. This is something which will percolate for a while longer, though it evolves every day as my understanding of story expands.
Poverty or Wealth are also lifestyles and we choose them without even realizing it. Time and again poverty has been proven to be a mindset and a violent one at that. Wealth is often something one is born into, because if wealth came from hard work their would be millions of millionaires. This is not to say with the right mind set, some hard work, and smarts anyone can be a millionaire. Though I will argue that if the invisible and intangibles are figured in we are all millionaires. Economic cast is built into the system, though it need not be. Like I mentioned before, we choose our path if not before birth, certainly along the way. So there is nothing wrong with Poverty at the surface. I have always admired Monks for their devout lifestyle and I have chosen to live my own version of a devout life. It is my choice to put my faith in the Great Spirit to provide and if that means this life is cut short then so be it. Faith by choice means this life journey will be fulfilled.
Perhaps you’ve read or watched the story, Cloud Atlas? In any regard, it is an intertwined story of six lifetimes for four main characters. One of the premises of the story and what the lifetimes demonstrate is, “Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” (David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas). Meaning everything you think, do, or say is connected with the great whole, with others in this lifetime, and with all other lifetimes. So with this knowledge what comes next? Perhaps you are more cognoscente of your choices and their path (consequences). Maybe you can lean into your life now, knowing all will play out just as it is intended. The only inevitability is the ego will die and maybe this is a good thing.
Sequoia Elisabeth
Oneness Ministry 