Copyright © 2007 Margaret Carrero- All Rights Reserved
INTRODUCTION It has been two years since I typed the first words of this book and I now know why it has taken this long to present it to you. God was making perfectly sure that I was living every ounce of wisdom I put down on paper, so that I may share these words with you with utmost integrity. In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus tells the story of a man planting seeds that fall upon different ground with different results. Afterwards, Jesus explained to his disciples the spiritual message hidden within the parables; the sower is Christ, the seed is the word of God and the ground is the heart, mind and Spirit of the man/woman receiving the word. The first three scenarios depict those who are unable to bear fruit from the seed for they do not understand its meaning; the seed that falls along the wayward path is misunderstood by its recipient and quickly devoured by evil; the seed that falls upon rocky ground is swiftly taken in by its recipient but fails to take root due to an unstable foundation; the seed that falls upon thorny ground is taken in by its recipient only to be choked up and withered by the worries, fears and concerns of this physical life. In the final scenario, the seed falls upon good soil which is taken in and understood and therefore, nurtured by its recipient until it produces a bountiful crop. It is my belief that the vast fields of human consciousness are ripe and ready to accept the seed of God’s word and in turn, yield an abundant harvest. WAKE UP- A Seed of Thought is the seed I have been blessed with and guided to share with you. This is the story of my spiritual journey towards inner peace and the direct result of choosing to create something positive out of a tragic life experience. Nearly five years ago my baby brother Larry was diagnosed as terminally ill. My faith in God clearly dissipated as I witnessed Larry’s suffering. Silently, he endured the pain of a cancerous brain tumor for nine months before his Spirit was taken home in November 2002. On February 20, 2003, on what would have been his 23rd birthday, my family laid his ashes to rest. The finality struck me in such a way that I became plagued with nightmarish replays of the pain I watched Larry go through. In an attempt to release my mind, heart and Spirit from the binds of such visuals, my mother invited me to a meditation led by a pastor of the Unity faith that ultimately changed my life. Quite literally, I was touched by God. I was blessed with an overwhelming and liberating experience of absolute peace, love, and healing that led me to pen WAKE UP. When I finally surrendered myself to Spirit, the words began to flow from inside of me directly onto the page. Every day before I began writing, I made a conscious effort to sit in peaceful stillness to commune with God. The moment I chose to be consciously aware of every thought, word and action that I put into the universe, I began to see changes in myself and the world around me. It became very clear to me that I am meant to share this divinely inspired story with as many people as possible. WAKE UP is meant to serve as a reminder that we have a choice to either dwell in the darkness or seek out the light. Chapter One EXPERIENCING SPIRIT My boss walked in this morning and placed a book, The Call by Os Guinness, on the desk before me. The title alone was enough for me to think Divine Order. As I ventured further, through the introduction and first chapter, I felt the flame of my Spirit burst forth with a beautiful intensity; a certain truth. I knew that this was God’s Divine Order at work. It was as though my Spirit had been transcended to Biblical times when the people of this Earth actually believed with their whole heart that the presence of God existed. In a modern world filled with races up social and economic ladders, our pockets have swelled and the supply of material goods for us to purchase has increased greatly, but the value of our Spirit has diminished. Our Spirits are priceless gems that need to be rediscovered, regardless of whether or not we can see them with the naked eye. Oddly enough, the one thing that truly makes us unique as individuals, our Spirit, is the same thing that bonds us all together as ONE. How foolish we have been! All it takes is one look into the eyes of someone you love or better yet, a look into the eyes of a baby. Their innocence shines with an effortless light, the same light that lives on in all of us no matter our age. That light is our Spirit, our Christ Spirit or the essence of God flowing through each and every one of us. Look into your own eyes now and tell me what you see. Do you not see your light? Sometimes it feels like we have forgotten how to connect with each other because we spend too much time chasing “things” that will mean nothing to us when we leave here; “things” that can not share or generate the loving, healing, and renewing energy like the Christ Spirit in another human being. Jesus was brought here thousands of years ago to teach us that by remembering our Spirit we become one with the flow of God’s Divine Energy. I believe we are all akin to Jesus, the only human being to be completely baptized in unwavering faith and belief. It was Jesus’ purpose to practice the creative powers of God by trusting and believing, absolutely, that all thoughts held in heart, mind and Spirit would be made real. Jesus also made it known that every single one of us has that same ability, to manifest our dreams into reality, but first, we have to learn how to be fully conscious. We have to learn a new way of thinking about life and how we choose to live it. It is time we become conscious enough to know how to hold our greatest desires in heart, mind, and Spirit with the same amount of faith and belief as Jesus. He repeatedly told his disciples that in Christ the possibilities are endless. All they had to do was hold their faith and belief in knowing that they were capable of doing just as Jesus did. That being said, I have chosen to make a conscious effort in my daily life to hold faith and belief that we, the human race, will overcome our perceptions of worldly possessions as something of worth and remember that the true essence of wealth flows from the wellspring of Spirit within. Spirit beholds the well of never ending love energy that is our birthright and we must become conscious in our sharing of it with all other forms of life energy, including, our glorious mother Earth. We must show love to our mother Earth and stop smothering her!!! I am amazed at how rapidly we move to break ground for another strip mall, suffocating the face of our mother Earth with asphalt and concrete like it’s a good thing. The time is now for us to join, in unity, to save what little green remains and grow more conscious of how to reverse the damage we seem to have already done. Perhaps the rehabilitation of our mother is similar to a smoker quitting, seemingly impossible, but even more impossible to return to such destructive old habits after truly setting yourself free. We must share energy with mother Earth and allow her to breathe. I truly believe we have the ability to produce a peaceful world by changing our collective consciousness to one of conscious awareness. The more we awaken, the more we become aware of how our actions and/or reactions affect every being around. Every thought, word and action we possess is the pebble thrown into the pond, whose ripple effects, though not always visible to the naked eye, are felt for miles. Imagine the possibilities if every single being awakens to the truth that we can choose to be an expression of love and change the course of this world or by our choice and free will we can simply allow things to continue spiraling out of control. If every one of us around the globe truly came together in one conscious effort to be peaceful and loving, we would be headed in the right direction for peace to become our new reality. That peace we've all been seeking for thousands of years has been inside us all along. Our consciousness is our Spirit in action. It’s as simple as making the conscious effort to come from love - in all that we think, in all that we say, and in all that we do. Os Guinness speaks in The Call about the way of life Jesus taught to all those who had ears and would listen to Him. I feel strongly that my call in this life is to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. I feel like I am here to be a witness and testament to the truth Jesus was teaching. I am here to walk the way with Jesus’ teachings as my guide. He said, “Follow me”. I received my call two weeks after what would have been my baby brother, Larry’s 23rd birthday. Larry died from a cancerous tumor in 2002 and a few months later, in remembrance and celebration of his life, we laid his ashes to rest. I never knew the true depth of weeping until he died; it felt like I could cry myself inside out. The depth of pain in losing a loved one seems unbearable at the time because the experience of permanent loss that goes along with death hits so hard, we forget how beautiful the transition really is. We forget that we leave this life to begin a new life in the realm of Spirit. We forget that when we leave this Earthly plane, we are returning home. Over the past three years I have been taught to stop, take a deep breath, and focus on the essence of God or what I call, love energy, flowing through my being by way of my Spirit. That belief and understanding is what beholds each one of us in our greatest times of need, if we allow it to do so. Spirit sustains me from the inside out and enables peace to settle nicely amidst silence once the physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion has passed. For me, true spiritual peace came about two weeks after we laid Larry’s ashes to rest. As I turned the corner onto our street, the reality of his physical death slapped me across the face. I was never going to be able to come home to just sit around and hang out in his room. No more, “Hey sis, how was work?” He always called me sis, how I loved that! I began to have nightmares about the horrible pain I sat and watched him go through. The nightmares on top of the guilt I carried for not having been conscious enough in faith back then nearly smothered me. Instead of holding my faith in the vision of Larry being healed completely, I gave in to the fear of the doctor’s diagnosis. Listen to the sound at the beginning of that word Diagnosis - Die. Why do we allow others to create our reality? Larry’s death taught me that every day should be lived with gratitude in heart for all that has already been given to us. If you wake in the morning and have the ability and strength to breathe air into your lungs, be grateful. If you have ears and hear the birds chirping earlier than your alarm clock, be grateful. If you awaken with the awareness that you, in your own spiritual essence, are love, be grateful and rejoice! In waking and sleeping, be grateful for all that you have and in turn, give of yourself by sharing that sense of gratitude with every being you encounter. Remember that Spirit is what moves this vehicle known as the human body. It is what drives us down one path or the other. We either choose to run full throttle with no regard for those around us or we choose to drive consciously aware that our speeding about has the potential to cause injury. We have the ability to change the world in which we live by truly grasping the understanding that change begins within each one of us, individually, at our own pace. It is a matter of our conscious mind and Spirit evolving to a true understanding of itself and its ability to send out a different ripple of energy. Each choice either has a positive or negative effect. Take Larry’s life for instance. He had an impact on a lot of people, those who knew him and those who had only heard about him. When the nightmare of what Larry went through began to torment me over and over again, I dissolved into a pool of emotion. I had to leave my work place many times just for a moment to cry out loud in the bathroom. Anyone who has dealt with losing a loved one understands the depth of the pain that accompanies mourning. My mother and father were worried many days and nights about me because visibly I was a wreck. One night my mother just hugged me and said, “I’m taking you to meditation.” She said I needed to know that Larry was okay. I needed him to visit me so that I could put my heart, mind, and Spirit to rest. Visit me? I almost didn’t believe what she was saying but because she is my mother I chose to trust her. Tuesday night rolled around and immediately after work I drove home, picked up my mother and drove to meditation. It was a small group of eight or so including the minister, who had been teaching all of us the way of unity through Christ. Having indulged in yoga for several years at that point, I was more than able to allow myself to fall completely into a deep meditation. My conscious awareness of Spirit grew more deeply profound with each resonant prayer and affirmation. Each inhalation brought me to a higher level of consciousness to the point that I felt myself completely free of any doubt. I knew instinctively that I was connecting to God’s ever presence. I knew without doubt, I was communing with God. I remember the light behind my eyes growing fuzzy and white and then, I heard myself speak. My voice sounded muffled. I asked Larry, “Is this what it’s like?” In that moment, the light grew a brilliant, warm white. I felt as though I had been wrapped in an embrace of pure love and peace. It lasted for little more than what felt like a few seconds and then it was gone. All I could do was weep silently. I wept with great joy for being blessed with such an extraordinary experience. In that moment, I had experienced Heaven. In that moment, I knew Larry was in Heaven communing with all the amazing souls that have transitioned before him. I believe that feeling of pure love and peace I felt in meditation is the same feeling that fills up every one of our Spirits if and when we allow it to. The more consciously aware we become of the love we have to share through Spirit and the more we share it with love in our hearts, the sooner we will see peace manifest from mere thought into absolute reality. When the day comes that true peace reigns, it will resonate in a feeling of lightness from within every being as though a mighty weight had been miraculously lifted. From that moment of peace onward, I have felt like my purpose in this life is to share my experiences and to tell you that it is all up to us. We can all have more than we could ever want or need in this life, if only we could step outside of our “ego” selves long enough to open up to our Spirit consciousness. We must accept the fact that we make things bad or good for ourselves and therefore, make the conscious effort not to allow the petty little things to trigger a knee-jerk reaction. The term “jerk” is there for a reason. It is absolutely unnecessary and takes less energy to not get upset, jealous or angry. Any time I’ve experienced those feelings they’ve done nothing but raise my heart rate and form knots in my stomach. I am here to share with you my experience of Heaven. Heaven is that which we allow ourselves to experience. Of course, you have to believe it for it to truly be. I believe Heaven on Earth exists, if we allow it to. How absolutely marvelous is that?! Have you ever thought to yourself, this must be what Heaven is like? Did you or did you not see Heaven when you looked into your son or daughter, niece, nephew or grandchildren’s eyes for the first time? Many masters of great faith and belief throughout the ages have aided God in spreading the words Jesus taught all those thousands of years ago. Having been blessed with that meditative experience of true love and peace, it is my belief that I am one of many more messengers to come. My call was confirmed by what most these days would consider a coincidence. My boss handing me that book was no coincidence. It was a significant moment in God’s Divine Plan for my lifes journey. That book spoke to my Spirit in gentle whispers that spawned beautiful inspirations and I believe that to be God at work, in and through me, by way of my Spirit. I have been on my journey for thirty one years and the earliest inner nudging I recall came when I was only five years old. I didn’t realize it then but, I was on my way towards walking a path with God. I remember a few of the girls’ mothers from school (Catholic School, no less) were having babies and all I knew was I wanted a brother or sister too. When I asked my mother if I could have one, she told me to pray for my friend’s mother because she was too old. Ha! I went ahead in my untainted faith and belief and prayed and sure enough, my prayers were answered. The first miracle I had the privilege of bearing witness to was lying in my arms, a beautiful baby boy and the angel that graced our lives, Larry Nathan. When he was at his weakest, Larry needed to be lifted because he couldn’t stand up on his own. I was the only one home strong enough to pick up his six-foot-two-inch frame at the time so, I did. I believe that in order to let me know he was free of pain, Larry lifted my Spirit far enough out of the physical and into the spiritual, so that I could know the peace he was experiencing. Larry, in his beautiful Spirit form, lifted my Spirit into Heaven for a glimpse at the one space where all Spirits reside as pure, radiant, energy and light. It was the most amazing experience I have ever had and it absolutely changed everything about my life. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” - - John 1: 17-18
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