Greetings All –
DO NOT NEGLECT THE SMALL THINGS TODAY that are
necessary for you to do. Doing small things does not mean in any way that you
are small. If you do not identify with your behavior and activities, you can
allow your greatness to exist as you undertake them. Someone who is great can
do small things without complaint. Someone who is with Knowledge can undertake
mundane activities without any sense of disgrace. Activities are only
activities. They do not constitute your true nature or being. Your true nature
or being is the source of your life, which will express itself through your
small activities as you learn to receive it and to see it in proper
perspective.
DO NOT NEGLECT SMALL THINGS. Care for small things
so that your life in the world may be stable and may progress properly. Today,
in your deeper practices, again enter the greatness and the depth of Knowledge.
Because you have attended to small things, you can now spend this time of
devotion and giving. In this way, your outer life is managed properly, and your
inner life is attended to as well, for you are an intermediary between the life
of greatness and life in the world. Thus, you attend to the small and you
receive the great. This is your true function, for you are here to give Knowledge
to the world.
AS BEFORE, REPEAT YOUR PRACTICE UPON THE HOUR. Take
it with you. Do not forget.
PRACTICE 192: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
Remembering the hourly
is difficult for all students. If you are in the world working, time can be
very hard to keep track of. Simply a reminder that cell phones and computers
can be set up with hourly chimes. There is a skill to finding a tone that is
not too long, but which you will hear or a vibration you will feel. As
beginning students we must do the best we can. There is no failure.
From the Journal:
8:10
AM Monday, January 24, 2000 where am I? At the beginning of a busy week. To
Texas on Friday – just to be with my kids – generators of teaching/learning
situations.
What
does the region do? Lots of little things.
3:58
PM A funky day
5:33
PM Still funky. What do I know? I know that a regional grid is useful in
managing from the top down. What people don't see is that being local is to be
divided and separated. From the bottom up the grid can be used to empower and
to differentiate.
The
mid-view seat at the grid level networks and communicates among the
communities. When on a national or global scale, this is done by traditional
media. Below the state level there are few communications that are regional.
The web/email could do that if there was structure and content.
7:02
PM still here – sent out Virginia link info – that is the most important.
9:51
PM Decision-making. Should I continue to live. What I think is that I'm lost.
Indolence has overtaken me. I have no goals. I'm in a job with no control over
the outcomes. I am burned out and have no place to go. My dream of promoting
regions has no market; no customers.
It
works – even when I don't. I've not, however, been able to find people that see
the same way. Benton MacKaye
could see it 70 years ago.
What
I want is some like-minded people and administrative support so I don't have to
do all the work myself. Then I could work on the regional structure.
I
know I am in the wrong place to do what I wish to do. I don't know where my ideas
would be supported? In 2 years I could retire and draw ICMA and build what I
need. There just isn't enough time.
The
Step today "My knowledge is greater than my humanity." My humanity is
nothing – nada – it is mostly just eating, eating, eating. It is my humanity
which is depressing me.
It
says "Life has depth. You must penetrate it. You must enter into it. You
must receive it and inquire within it. Then, you will become reengaged in your
natural relationships with life."
I am
not well engaged with life today.
How
depressing is it that Sarah is on drugs and needs to go to treatment and be
taken away from Lloyd. Only 2 kids – but I get a wide range of dysfunction.
1:21
AM Tuesday, January 25 – My mind is sabotaging my Spirit. Knowledge must assert
direct action and control. I just experienced this and wrote the answer in the
message book. I was thinking of getting some help – talking to a shrink. What
would I tell him or her? – I heard voices in my head. The voices were telling
me to work. Such are not insane thoughts. They are practical, rational. It is
my mind that wants to escape work and does not have the stamina. It is weak,
afraid – even though I know the work is needed.
Lesson
191 – "My knowledge is greater than my humanity," has been received.
There is no doubt, more depth… But in time I'll have that. For now – more K
focus – bring it on – let's strengthen the bridge
That last graphic, the hierarchy: B – body serves M
– mind and mind serves K – Knowledge/Holy Spirit, at the top.
Now, a few thoughts about this
journal day over 14 years ago: journaling is a self-talk therapy of sorts.
There might be another term today. Steps require honesty and there are many
things the average human may have to sort out going through life. Depression is
normal, but can be chronic. An older term was to be feeling “down-hearted.” My entries
demonstrate the ups and downs and frustrations of life. These are the things
which put us on the search for understanding which turns spiritual at some
point for most.
The practice and reflection on Step 191 goes on to
the next day. This has happened before, but I need to note that the Steps day
isn’t necessarily midnight to midnight or any strict 24 hour period. My goal,
as has been mentioned before, is to get to the end – so I’m on a forced march
because of personal necessity. Your pace will be situational as well. That is
allowed.
Yesterday’s journal entry made reference to the cluetrain manifesto.
This was an internet production of the mid-1990’s. I got the link today and
added it to the page. The manifesto had
95 theses which you can quickly scan. It was written with great optimism that
the emerging networks enabled by internet communication would bring power to
the people. It hasn’t worked out that way. Looking at that twenty years later
demonstrates the limits of techno-optimism, which is also a warning of the
Greater Community teachings.
NNC
P.S. At Step 192, we are into Part Two of Steps, so
if you’ve found this and find some appeal in this or other Steps, you should
really go to the beginning blog post. From here you learn about Steps to Knowledge and
can begin it on the day that makes sense and then progress as needed. You can
use the posts on this blog as a companion if it helps. They will remain in
order in the archives - one per Step.
Often it takes 18 months to get through the Steps
once. For this blog, the pace is one-a-day, but it really makes no difference
how fast you do it, only that you begin, persist and repeat. Posts here provide
a trail that may let you have a virtual companion when and if you want one. One
may have to study alone, as I did in the beginning. There are other Steps
students blogging their experience and you might find a person more like you as
a companion, or use a number of such Steps journeys. There are options as well
through the Free School of the New Message.