I wanted to share with you a delightful encounter I had this past weekend after an individual from the US left a comment on our viral dog video (currently more than 36 million views). After sharing the video with a friend, he voiced his thoughts about what he saw when watching the pack of dogs running joyously into their new four-acre enclosure: “4 acres of shit”.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen such a comment. Probably one in fifty (there are over forty thousand comments) people feel the need to make a remark like this. Sometimes I let it go. At other times, I am nudged to give them a response.
That was the case with this one, so my reply was: “What a nasty cynical view. Does it ever occur to you that it gets picked up? If this is all you can see when you look at the video, that’s a hater’s view of the world”.
His response began with “It’s a joke you lil bitch”. Then went on to call me a motherf****r, and other unpleasant things. But not content with the tirade, he decided to let me know that it was because of people (he didn’t say people – he used the plural of an unrepeatable four-letter word beginning with the letter c!) like me that the country was “going to shit”. Clearly, he felt strongly about it, because he repeated this accusation twice.
I had to laugh. I thought it was hilarious.
In my reply, I thanked him for his comments about me, then I observed that jokes are usually funny, before pointing out that I wasn’t actually in his country that was “going to shit”. I explained that I could nonetheless empathise with this view, and proffered my own version of why his homeland was in trouble. I suggested it was because it was being run by bullies who were intolerant of other people’s opinions; who saw nothing but negatives; who could not deal with contradictory opinions; who responded to everything with aggression; who gave knee jerk reactions to situations that faced them; who didn’t even attempt to understand the perspectives of others or the reasons behind their actions. Then I invited him to explore if he recognised himself in any of these criteria.
His response was a rather lame “LOL. You still talkin’?” which I guess he thought was witty (he missed out the apostrophe, but that’s just me being a punctuation Nazi). But then his friend joined in. His shared wisdom went as follows: “You are a little bitch and I hate your shitty little farm.”
So I thanked him (warmly) for his contribution and expressed my disappointment that he did not like my “shitty little farm”. Then I explained that the “shitty little farm” had brought a lot of pleasure to a lot of people (as evidenced by the thousands of comments) and that we were merely trying to make the world a better place. Then I concluded: “What contribution are you making?”.
Thus ended the contretemps.
I believe from the location, their appearance, their use of language and their general attitude, that these charming persons may well have been gangbangers (the common parlance for members of street gangs).
Now just in case you think my wry account omits some colourful retorts on my part, please be assured that I have stated them as close to verbatim as possible. I did not get cross, recriminate or stoop to abuse. But I did make my points clearly, with perhaps a touch of irony that was probably lost on my apparently none too sophisticated readers.
But why on earth did I bother at all?
Why did I willingly enter into a war of words and (perhaps) even provoke the abuse and unpleasantness that was levelled at me. Why didn’t I just walk away?
Good question!
Because it was an Archangel that nudged me to instigate the dialogue.
Does that seem strange to you?
Giving random and unrequested feedback to total strangers is a risky thing to do, especially when it’s confrontational. However, it gives us a clue to one of the purposes of all old souls, that may be a cause of discomfort for many. Read on…
There are two basic methods by which we can learn.
1. We find things out for ourselves.
Across the course of a lifetime, we explore many experiences from which we may draw conclusions that we use to inform our decisions. But mostly, we don’t. We continue through our lives blithely, not reflecting upon our encounters and the events of our lives, not seeking meaning and not even looking for learning.
When applied to learning that needs us to reflect upon ourselves, this ‘take it or leave it’ approach can be so haphazard in its effectiveness, that it’s almost the equivalent of trying to apply the laws of probability to a game of Blackjack. It’s totally relevant and can help us win, but only a very small number of people can actually do it whilst the cards are in play. Most of us are unaware of how the laws apply, not skilled enough to count cards, or simply too absorbed in others aspects of the game to care.
A lack of introspection is one of the main reasons why we have to live so many lifetimes in order to progress. We simply don’t ‘get it’ that easily.
2. We learn as a result of getting input from others.
People who we are due to encounter in our lifetimes, through their actions, words, or general impact upon us, will actively or passively deliver messages that cut through the complexities that self-acquisition of knowledge may be fraught with.
Some learnings will be welcome, obvious and easy to absorb. Others will be unpalatable, contentious and not sit comfortably with us. As such, those who offer us teachings are as likely to be reviled as they are embraced.
Even then, taking to heart the messages we receive is a matter of freewill and choice. It isn’t necessarily any more effective than self-guided learning, but if we are open to it, and prepared to reflect upon what we hear, such input can offer a major ‘leg up’.
Part of the problem with the learning that we struggle with is that it is not school book stuff. It relates to us at a very personal level. It might require us to understand the implications of our behaviours, extrapolate outcomes of our poor choices, modify damaging attitudes, challenge negative beliefs, or most frequently, to examine our actual effect upon all that is around us vs. what we intended, or what we believe that impact to be.
A great deal of what we hear will go against the deceptions our egos would have us believe about ourselves. As such, it’s almost guaranteed that this type of feedback is inflammatory and hard to stomach. Nonetheless, it is vital.
Precisely who should deliver this potentially life altering wisdom is a challenge. We may agree any number of contracts with those whom we are due to pass through a lifetime with, that they will intervene at an appropriate moment. But such specific contracts are all too easily forgotten or ignored.
It’s far easier to taker a scattergun approach, and what this looks like is all old souls having a built-in mandate to pass on the wisdoms that have allowed them to progress to their current point on the ascension pathway. This is not necessarily in reference to spiritual knowledge (although that might be a part of it), but the dissemination of their views of the ways in which we must learn to deal with our 3D experiences.
Does this mean that old souls are walking fonts of wisdom who should constantly be searching for pearls to cast before the swine? Absolutely not!
However, to have arrived at the point that they have, old souls have lived dozens of lifetimes and do possess an accumulated wealth of understanding, albeit buried at a soul DNA level. Consequently, they have the ability to perceive the world and events quite differently from the perspective of younger souls. They have a lot to offer those who have not advanced as far, without even being aware of it.
Perhaps hearing this, you assume that it means you have to be clever, or insightful, or incisive? This is not the case. It simply means that when you have an opinion about something that contradicts the views of others, you should not be afraid to share it. Never mind concerns about upsetting apple carts, or getting people’s backs up, or even damaging relationships. If something strikes you as needing to be said, SAY IT!
Not every piece of wisdom that passes your lips will be earthshattering. Not everything that you say will make a world of difference. But amongst the chaff there will be wheat, and it’s not your responsibility to sort it, it’s the responsibility of those who hear what you say.
Uptake on your ideas may not be automatically forthcoming. You should not expect to see immediate changes in anyone you give information to. What feedback does is plant a seed that the recipients may or may not allow to grow. But that’s their choice, not yours. Your mission, should you decide to accept it (and believe me, you should!), is simply to cast the seed upon the ground and let nature take its course. It may take years for a piece of input to filter into an individual’s consciousness; or it may never see the light of day again.
Yet all too often, old souls hold back. They bite their tongues because it seems the decent thing to do. Many prefer to avoid confrontation, or not get involved with other people’s issues, even if their mindset affects us personally. They don’t realise that this is not just a purpose, it’s a mandate. It may not extend to these outside of your family, or social circle, but failure to respond to the imperative you have been born with deprives others of input that may be of immeasurable value. They may not thank you for it, they may hate you for it, they may curse and disparage you, but you may actually save them whole lifetimes of learning requirement and in the process, help to change the world.
And you’re also endangering yourself by creating the throat chakra issues that can result from an old soul NOT speaking their mind.
People need to be challenged. The world is in short supply of wisdom right now. It needs old souls to not sit on the fence or take a back seat. The voices of reason, of kindness, of tolerance, of caring, of compassion, of positivity, of love – they all need to be heard right now, even if they get shouted down.
So will the seeds I sowed with the two gang-bangers fall upon barren ground? Will they, respectively, reflect upon whether or not they are part of the problems of their country, or what their contribution is to making the world a better place? Who knows. That’s not my issue.
But I did play my part, and so should you. Fearlessly!
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen such a comment. Probably one in fifty (there are over forty thousand comments) people feel the need to make a remark like this. Sometimes I let it go. At other times, I am nudged to give them a response.
That was the case with this one, so my reply was: “What a nasty cynical view. Does it ever occur to you that it gets picked up? If this is all you can see when you look at the video, that’s a hater’s view of the world”.
His response began with “It’s a joke you lil bitch”. Then went on to call me a motherf****r, and other unpleasant things. But not content with the tirade, he decided to let me know that it was because of people (he didn’t say people – he used the plural of an unrepeatable four-letter word beginning with the letter c!) like me that the country was “going to shit”. Clearly, he felt strongly about it, because he repeated this accusation twice.
I had to laugh. I thought it was hilarious.
In my reply, I thanked him for his comments about me, then I observed that jokes are usually funny, before pointing out that I wasn’t actually in his country that was “going to shit”. I explained that I could nonetheless empathise with this view, and proffered my own version of why his homeland was in trouble. I suggested it was because it was being run by bullies who were intolerant of other people’s opinions; who saw nothing but negatives; who could not deal with contradictory opinions; who responded to everything with aggression; who gave knee jerk reactions to situations that faced them; who didn’t even attempt to understand the perspectives of others or the reasons behind their actions. Then I invited him to explore if he recognised himself in any of these criteria.
His response was a rather lame “LOL. You still talkin’?” which I guess he thought was witty (he missed out the apostrophe, but that’s just me being a punctuation Nazi). But then his friend joined in. His shared wisdom went as follows: “You are a little bitch and I hate your shitty little farm.”
So I thanked him (warmly) for his contribution and expressed my disappointment that he did not like my “shitty little farm”. Then I explained that the “shitty little farm” had brought a lot of pleasure to a lot of people (as evidenced by the thousands of comments) and that we were merely trying to make the world a better place. Then I concluded: “What contribution are you making?”.
Thus ended the contretemps.
I believe from the location, their appearance, their use of language and their general attitude, that these charming persons may well have been gangbangers (the common parlance for members of street gangs).
Now just in case you think my wry account omits some colourful retorts on my part, please be assured that I have stated them as close to verbatim as possible. I did not get cross, recriminate or stoop to abuse. But I did make my points clearly, with perhaps a touch of irony that was probably lost on my apparently none too sophisticated readers.
But why on earth did I bother at all?
Why did I willingly enter into a war of words and (perhaps) even provoke the abuse and unpleasantness that was levelled at me. Why didn’t I just walk away?
Good question!
Because it was an Archangel that nudged me to instigate the dialogue.
Does that seem strange to you?
Giving random and unrequested feedback to total strangers is a risky thing to do, especially when it’s confrontational. However, it gives us a clue to one of the purposes of all old souls, that may be a cause of discomfort for many. Read on…
There are two basic methods by which we can learn.
1. We find things out for ourselves.
Across the course of a lifetime, we explore many experiences from which we may draw conclusions that we use to inform our decisions. But mostly, we don’t. We continue through our lives blithely, not reflecting upon our encounters and the events of our lives, not seeking meaning and not even looking for learning.
When applied to learning that needs us to reflect upon ourselves, this ‘take it or leave it’ approach can be so haphazard in its effectiveness, that it’s almost the equivalent of trying to apply the laws of probability to a game of Blackjack. It’s totally relevant and can help us win, but only a very small number of people can actually do it whilst the cards are in play. Most of us are unaware of how the laws apply, not skilled enough to count cards, or simply too absorbed in others aspects of the game to care.
A lack of introspection is one of the main reasons why we have to live so many lifetimes in order to progress. We simply don’t ‘get it’ that easily.
2. We learn as a result of getting input from others.
People who we are due to encounter in our lifetimes, through their actions, words, or general impact upon us, will actively or passively deliver messages that cut through the complexities that self-acquisition of knowledge may be fraught with.
Some learnings will be welcome, obvious and easy to absorb. Others will be unpalatable, contentious and not sit comfortably with us. As such, those who offer us teachings are as likely to be reviled as they are embraced.
Even then, taking to heart the messages we receive is a matter of freewill and choice. It isn’t necessarily any more effective than self-guided learning, but if we are open to it, and prepared to reflect upon what we hear, such input can offer a major ‘leg up’.
Part of the problem with the learning that we struggle with is that it is not school book stuff. It relates to us at a very personal level. It might require us to understand the implications of our behaviours, extrapolate outcomes of our poor choices, modify damaging attitudes, challenge negative beliefs, or most frequently, to examine our actual effect upon all that is around us vs. what we intended, or what we believe that impact to be.
A great deal of what we hear will go against the deceptions our egos would have us believe about ourselves. As such, it’s almost guaranteed that this type of feedback is inflammatory and hard to stomach. Nonetheless, it is vital.
Precisely who should deliver this potentially life altering wisdom is a challenge. We may agree any number of contracts with those whom we are due to pass through a lifetime with, that they will intervene at an appropriate moment. But such specific contracts are all too easily forgotten or ignored.
It’s far easier to taker a scattergun approach, and what this looks like is all old souls having a built-in mandate to pass on the wisdoms that have allowed them to progress to their current point on the ascension pathway. This is not necessarily in reference to spiritual knowledge (although that might be a part of it), but the dissemination of their views of the ways in which we must learn to deal with our 3D experiences.
Does this mean that old souls are walking fonts of wisdom who should constantly be searching for pearls to cast before the swine? Absolutely not!
However, to have arrived at the point that they have, old souls have lived dozens of lifetimes and do possess an accumulated wealth of understanding, albeit buried at a soul DNA level. Consequently, they have the ability to perceive the world and events quite differently from the perspective of younger souls. They have a lot to offer those who have not advanced as far, without even being aware of it.
Perhaps hearing this, you assume that it means you have to be clever, or insightful, or incisive? This is not the case. It simply means that when you have an opinion about something that contradicts the views of others, you should not be afraid to share it. Never mind concerns about upsetting apple carts, or getting people’s backs up, or even damaging relationships. If something strikes you as needing to be said, SAY IT!
Not every piece of wisdom that passes your lips will be earthshattering. Not everything that you say will make a world of difference. But amongst the chaff there will be wheat, and it’s not your responsibility to sort it, it’s the responsibility of those who hear what you say.
Uptake on your ideas may not be automatically forthcoming. You should not expect to see immediate changes in anyone you give information to. What feedback does is plant a seed that the recipients may or may not allow to grow. But that’s their choice, not yours. Your mission, should you decide to accept it (and believe me, you should!), is simply to cast the seed upon the ground and let nature take its course. It may take years for a piece of input to filter into an individual’s consciousness; or it may never see the light of day again.
Yet all too often, old souls hold back. They bite their tongues because it seems the decent thing to do. Many prefer to avoid confrontation, or not get involved with other people’s issues, even if their mindset affects us personally. They don’t realise that this is not just a purpose, it’s a mandate. It may not extend to these outside of your family, or social circle, but failure to respond to the imperative you have been born with deprives others of input that may be of immeasurable value. They may not thank you for it, they may hate you for it, they may curse and disparage you, but you may actually save them whole lifetimes of learning requirement and in the process, help to change the world.
And you’re also endangering yourself by creating the throat chakra issues that can result from an old soul NOT speaking their mind.
People need to be challenged. The world is in short supply of wisdom right now. It needs old souls to not sit on the fence or take a back seat. The voices of reason, of kindness, of tolerance, of caring, of compassion, of positivity, of love – they all need to be heard right now, even if they get shouted down.
So will the seeds I sowed with the two gang-bangers fall upon barren ground? Will they, respectively, reflect upon whether or not they are part of the problems of their country, or what their contribution is to making the world a better place? Who knows. That’s not my issue.
But I did play my part, and so should you. Fearlessly!