Peoples and Possibilities AB Fall 1999
The Illusion of Now

We are now entering this new Millennium, the place of the North on the Spiral Medicine wheel. The time of winter, which we have experienced in the last few years as being as unpredictable as the Millennium itself. It is a most paradoxical time, a time of dormancy yet a time of phenomenal changes. It is a time of assessing accomplishments and a time when we come to an understanding of our own life. It is a time of both ending and beginning, of life and death. To make way for the new we must give death to the old. With this Millennium it is also a time of letting go of the old paradigm of duality and enter into the new paradigm of oneness or what I call the paradigm of "it is". A paradigm of non-judgment in its truest form, allowing each being on this planet their own journey, regardless of the outcome. Are we ready to step into this new way of thinking, being and doing in the real now?

Now - what is it really? Now is this exact moment. Now is being passionate about what we are doing in this moment regardless of what it is. Now is being fully alive in this moment. Now is being fully conscious about what it is we are doing, whether it is dealing with a situation from our past or our future. Now is being in touch with ourselves, allowing our light to shine through. We are always in the now, everything else is an illusion. Often it is our unconsciousness about our moment to moment living, which results in our unhappiness and the illusion. Living in this moment we may cry due to sadness, and in the next moment we may laugh at a joke. One expression does not negate another expression if we allow ourselves to be truly with ourselves in this moment. What happens often is that we get caught up in what is expected of us rather than allowing our authentic or real self to be present. Often we think we are being in the moment when in reality it is about acquiring something we want, like control, attention, or sympathy. Being our authentic self is about being in the moment, with no hidden agendas and having no illusion of the situation at hand. Now is about bringing the sacred into everything we do. Bringing love to the pain, bringing love to the hate, bringing love to the sorrow and loving the parts of ourselves we never thought possible. Now is letting our light shine through whatever we are experiencing. Now nurtures our soul, all of who we are.

This winter season, on the spiral medicine wheel is a natural cycle of letting go of what no longer serves our highest good. It is a time that we can let go of the cellular patterns that are held in our cellular structure preventing us from living fully in the now. Often we will experience doing something and than express that we are tired of responding in the same way to that particular situation. Often our response comes from an old program at the cellular level that is not serving us in our lives at this time. Now we have the opportunity to stop generation after generation of programming that we all carry on the cellular level. In this new paradigm we have the opportunity to write a new script of what we want in our life NOW and live it. We no longer have to wait until we have accomplished enlightenment, or have a clear understanding of our spirituality etc. We can create our life from our own free will in a very conscious way! Now is the time to celebrate our very being on this planet, to celebrate in light and love. How often have we heard ourselves say, "when I do…I will be able to incorporate this into my spirituality and into my lifestyle." There is no more waiting when we live in the now. We are, we are doing and creating our life NOW!

Barbara Whyte P.H., Founder, Director Pacha Institute®