Heartland Security

On Veteran's Day I am filled with reflections. I remember walking the cemetery when we buried Brigadier General Frederick Smith Strong, Jr., my grandfather, on what would have been his 99th birthday at West Point to a 21 gun solute. So many crosses... As 1 in every 2-3 Americans will receive a diagnosis of cancer at some point in their lifetimes, my mind also moves to thoughts of how we passionately seek "the cure" for cancers while dancing around, at best, any conversation related to digging into the messiness of what can be the causes. There is this other side, this darker side of so much... which we often distract, deny, justify looking away from. Now, today, on Veteran's Day, I reflect on the deeper causes of war and what may ultimately lead us all to embrace, heal, and transform ourselves, creating ripples, actions, insights, wisdom that will lead us away from war and toward creating genuine peace. Namaste... Molly

America Needs a Department of Heartland Security!

by Steve Bhaerman
(also known as Swami Beyondananda, the "Cosmic Comic.")

Heartland Security is the love-based counterpoint to the fear-based context of "Homeland Security."

Both ancient spiritual wisdom and modern "new edge" science point us toward humanity's next evolutionary understanding that we are all cells in the body of humanity.

In recognizing we are interconnected and ultimately all benefit from the same beneficial conditions, we understand that our true security is in the land of the heart.

By seeing we are all in this together, and living our collective and individual lives from this understanding, we can evolve human life on this planet towards greater health, wealth, happiness and functionality.

Far from being a pie-in-the-sky ideal, this is a feet-on-the-ground real deal -- provided we learn to use the three most underutilized human resources on the planet: love, imagination and cooperation.

The world is being transformed before our very eyes, and right under our feet. Just as surely as the caterpillar becomes the butterfly, humankind is morphing into a new species. The old caterpillar structure is falling apart, and the new butterfly is cohering, coalescing and emerging. We are the "imaginal cells" that will become the butterfly.

Heartland Security: Who, What and Why?

The practical purpose of Heartland Security is to empower a new "moral majority" reflecting the values at the foundation of every religion, spiritual path and ethical system -- some version of the Golden Rule. In doing so, we seek to reestablish the missing piece in government by the people -- the "heart core" values of we the people!

In this next evolutionary phase, we collectively recognize that self-interest and planetary interest are one and the same. We empower individuals to gain greater freedom and greater security by weaving their own aspirations, skills and desires with the larger story being written.

With no imposition from the top down, this coherent "central voice" of humanity can arise from the grassroots up so we can achieve the highest potential of humanity -- to institute the practice of love and cultivate the Garden we have been given.

To do this, we must collectively withdraw our energy from trying to "fix" the caterpillar, and instead gather our energy, attention and resources so that the butterfly emerges. Heartland Security is a new context for refocusing our focus:
Heart represents our universal spiritual foundation, the vast and untapped resource of love and connection.

Land represents a restorative, sustainable economy that empowers a mutually beneficial partnership between human and biosphere.

Security represents our evolution from the single cell "every-cell-for-itself" philosophy to the multi-cell "we're-all-in-this-together." In doing so, we move from survival of the fittest to thrival of the fittingest, from mutually-assured destruction to mutually-assured survival.

More: http://wakeuplaughing.com/heartland-security.php

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War and peace start in the human heart - and whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications. ~ Pema Chodron