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A Modest Proposal Uncommon thinking
about common experiences inspired September 11, 2003 The end time The end time – we all have them you know. No, I am not referencing the death of the body. I am saying that there are many other end times in our lives. I have them, you have them, families have them, nations have them, and humanity has them. Recognizing and celebrating those times is most supportive of spiritual evolution. What are they, how do I know them, and how do I have them serve me? These are three, good questions, and they will be answered in due course. First, about the title, “the end time” is not an extension of Lee Carroll’s wonderful and illuminating first book of Kryon channels called The End Times (plural “times”). His book launched me on my spiritual journey over a dozen years ago, and nothing has been the same for me since then. I look back to who I was then and who I am now, and the difference is marked. I could not, would not return to the person I was then. Not because I was a scared jerk a lot of the time (that was a role that enabled a lot of lessons that kept necking down to one lesson) but because now much of my life is lived in harmony, and I am beginning to understand and pursue my passion, my purpose here, and as such experience fulfillment. Second, that primary “one lesson” that my secondary lessons keep pointing to is the underlying theme of almost everything that I write nowadays. Find the way to unconditionally love and accept myself as much of the time as I can. For me there is really not anything else to accomplish. Unconditional self-love is the key to everything else. When I am in that state, I hold the key ring to the Universe. When I am not, the key ring might as well be hung on the far side of the moon. I do know that I can bring the key ring to my outstretched hand in a heartbeat. Allowing my end time to support me makes it easier and easier to hold onto the key ring before it again flies off to the far side of the moon. There’s a bit more and then the mysteries of the end time will be revealed… Third, the date of this letter, September 11, 2003, marks the second anniversary of an event that is now known to most everyone on the Earth who is old enough to grasp that it happened. It inspired a piece I wrote for PlanetLightworker, and with the support of Steve Rother and Sandie Sedgbeer, became foundation of the Modest Proposals. Some of you know that story, but there is something that you don’t know. Choosing to start the Modest Proposals newsletter was an end time for me. I will use that personal end time to clarify all occurrences of an end time. “At last,” you say, “he is finally getting around to the subject.” Your patience is appreciated and hopefully rewarded in the following. How do I know that this event, publishing the Modest Proposals, was an end time? An end time is a demarcation between an old association and a new one. An association is anything to which I have an energetic attraction. When I am present to the association, mentally, emotionally, physically, or spiritually, there is an exchange, a flow of energy that keeps the association alive. Sometimes that association is called a reward by psychologists. I choose to think of it as an energy exchange. What is the fabric of these exchanges? The nature of the energy exchange is that it is comfortable even though it may be challenging and painful. It is comfortable because it is predictable; then “something happens” that creates the opportunity to dissolve the association and create a new one. Do I or don’t I? That is an end time opportunity that I may or may not take. Let me explain more in the context of Modest Proposals. Before writing the first Modest Proposal, I remained in the shadow of other people with respect to expressing myself spiritually. Oh sure, I wrote articles, a series or two, and “editorials” that I later called commentaries, but they were all in the context of PlanetLightworker which has its own identity and following. I was but a cog in the greater wheel of the magazine. It was safe there, familiar, and comfortable. To have my own newsletter was full of unknowns. How would I get in front of an audience (you), could I write a commentary each month that the subscribers would value, where would the topics come from, would anyone actually subscribe? I would not be part of an organization – no Sandie or Steve or anyone else at my back – alone in cyber space. “Big deal,” someone might say. Maybe yes, but to me this was an expansion of my passion and taking total responsibility for what I wrote. It was a big deal to me, this end time. An end time is a demarcation between an old association and a new one. Let’s look at the word “end.” It means finished, complete, closed, dead. It is a “trapeze” event: the trapeze artist releases one bar and is unsupported flying through space before the next bar is within reach. For a period of time, there is no support, only the “knowing” that the next bar will be there. To transit through an end time, I must have courage and faith. If I dare to completely let go of the old association, feeling exhilaration and freedom as I move through time and space, then I am able to grab the new bar swinging toward me at just the right moment; I make the transition to the new and unknown, excited at the possibilities. As my favorite poet, David Whyte wrote, “Leave everything you know behind…” On the other hand, if I approach my end time as a “monkey bars” event, the transition though empty time and space will elude me. On the monkey bars, I hold onto one bar while swinging my free hand to the next bar. I don’t let go of the last bar until I have grasped the next one – safety, security – I know that I still have the safety of the old association before I reach the next one. In that instance of hanging onto both bars, I transfer the energy of the old association to the new one. I “stamp” the new association with the energy of the old one. I deny myself the possibility of the new association. I have traded growth and moving forward for apparent safety. Beginning the Modest Proposals was not my only end time. There have been many end time opportunities; some of them were trapeze events; many more were played out on the monkey bars and not realized. They have been about relationships, marriages, friendships, jobs, education of all kinds, living different places, and simply confronting something new. Seizing the opportunity afforded by an end time requires that I indeed “leave everything… behind” about the old association, and embrace the brave, new world of the new association. To further underscore the nature of the end time with my own experience, consider this. For many years, moving from one intimate relationship to another was a “monkey bars” event. I did not “let go” of my current relationship (association) until I had lined up the next one. Only then did I release my current relationship and slide into the next one that was already secured. The consequence was that I did not have the freedom of floating unattached between the two associations (relationships) for I brought my old energy of the last one into the new one. I learned nothing as a consequence and merely changed faces, denying myself the opportunity to learn and move forward in the domain of relationships. How do I know that an end time is imminent? There are three characteristics, stages really, of an end time. They are: 1. DOUBT - I begin to think that there is more to be gained from a current association than I am experiencing. It may first appear as a nagging premonition of stagnation. It is when the association seems like a clever commercial that runs over and over until its cleverness is simply predictable. Consider the J-O-B. I have the same job for years. I could do it in my sleep. It has become a means to make money (and not much of that). There is no excitement left it; no discoveries to be made. It is like the old Peggy Lee refrain of, “Is that all there is?” 2. FRUSTRATION – My acclimation, my comfort with the current association simply breaks down. I can no longer grin and bear it. Maintaining the association is drudgery. I begin to criticize the job, my boss, my co-workers, and organization. Suddenly I am surrounded by idiots although they are the same people I’ve known for years. “I am as mad as hell, and I am not going to take it anymore.” (The line is from a marvelous movie, The Network, released in 1976. It has a very definite end time in it that strikes close to home for millions of people.) 3. FUTILITY – I try to “fix” the association, and my efforts to do so are futile. Nothing changes. The cycle of energy remains static. I am suspended in the association. My anger over my stale job motivates me to change it, but the energy is not there to change it. The “system” locks me in. Stuck is stuck. I have reached an end time, and how shall I have it serve me? I have three options (funny how that number keeps coming up, oh well). 1. I can live with it: a life of resigned desperation. I can keep the job. Hey, it’s a paycheck, and I still have my evenings and weekends. “Giving up” forty hours a week of my time is not that big of a price to pay for security. Is it? 2. I can look for another similar job with a different organization “hoping” that it will be different. I choose to play on the monkey bars with my feet a few inches off the ground and transfer the energy of the old job to the next. It seems OK for a while, and then I realize I traded one for another that is the same. Duh! 3. I can look up at the tall pole on whose top is a small platform and a trapeze bar. I feel sweat wetting my hands and underarms. Shrugging off the fear, I steadily climb the pole reaching the top. I untie the bar from its tether and look across the seemingly impossible chasm separating me from the safety of the platform on the far pole. I see someone standing there holding another bar ready to release it when I leap into space. I cannot quite see who it is. Can I trust this person to do the “right” thing? I don’t know – there is risk here. The other person stands still holding the bar awaiting my action. I reach the critical moment where I either leap into space or climb back down the ladder and find the monkey bars. I choose. I leap! I swing through space and see the other bar launched expertly in my direction. Now is the time to let go of my fear and the old bar. I do it! Now I am hurtling through space – it seems forever - just as I think I will plunge to the floor of the arena, the new bar comes within reach, and I grab it with a solid grip. My momentum carries me to the welcoming platform and the person who threw me the bar. I am startled to see my Higher Self. Maybe I quit my job and take time to discern what I really want to do: discover a passion that will allow me to joyfully anticipate working every day. I go after it with great energy and create something wonderful for myself. The last of the three questions posed at the beginning was: How do I have an end time serve me? The answer is simple (isn’t it always?). An end time is an opportunity to move forward on the path of spiritual evolution by releasing the fear that shackles me to an association that no longer serves me, taking a leap of faith and knowing, and grasping a new association sent my way by spirit. I have now experienced many end times and know firsthand the wonderful results that occur from taking the leap. What does this require: intention, faith, and action. Each end time I successfully traverse to a new association invariably enables me to experience unconditional love for me and everything else. That’s what it’s all about – right? May
you discern with compassion
Ron McCray
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