If everything is filled with some energy, then each simple bit of food you put into your body, each simple act, each breath you take could have an effect on you; your health, your thoughts, your life. Everything around you can be filled with energy, with positive or negative effect.
When you have a bit of a hamburger from Wendy’s, what energies are soaked into that burger, like the juices into the bun? Let’s suppose, for instance, the worst case scenario: The cow, crushed among other cows in a factory feed lot, lead a simple, stupid life eating processed Genetically Modified corn without ever knowing the excitement of running across the plain, or even the simple pleasures of cow sex. A man who has killed so many cows that he is bored with the process, killed your cow quickly and brutally with a pneumatic hammer. The cow’s warm body was thrown into a disassembly process that was performed by bored, unhappy people, quickly sliced and packed and thrown into a grinding operation, mixing the remains of hundreds of sad cows and assorted other parts. A packer who hates his job packs it. It is trucked by an angry trucker among hundreds of other cars and trucks, each living in a sort of hate and fear of the road. It is cooked by a bored assembly line of cooks who, like a machine, try not to think too much, but work automatically. Finally it is served to you by a chubby, resentful teenager who has fantasies of spitting into every burger that leaves her window, but is too fearful to actually do it (most of the time).
By the time you eat that burger, it may well be a powerful ‘pill’ of boredom, resentment and hate. It may include not just the energy of all the lonely and unhappy hands that touched it, but also the energy of the corporations behind those hands…. Corporations who have left thoughts of good food long ago, and now focus on profits, profits, profits. Corporations who would gladly cut corners, gladly use cheaper components, gladly add chemicals, if they thought that they could get away with it, and it would increase sales, or decrease costs, or make them more prestigious.
So you take that ‘pill’ of meat & bun (and don’t get me going on genetically modified wheat), cheese food, wilted lettuce & factory tomato, smeared over with the chemical goo that is formulated scientifically to make it all taste so good… and bite into it. And you may be consuming, taking within you, all the combined negative energies of thousands of people. Wow, that tasted good. I’m not even talking about the lack of nutritional value.
If you think about it that way, if you think about where everything comes from, who touches it, how it is created from both a physical and psychic standpoint, then the whole world takes on a new layer of meaning. Where did your house come from? Handmade by a craftsman pouring his energy of love for his craft into each board? Or was it slapped together by a bored, angry crew of underpaid workers with minimal effort, cutting corners with materials, shirking every step?
Did people who love their work pour themselves into making your car? Your furniture? Your mattress? Your clothes? Your jewelry? What sort of magic, what sort of energies are you surrounding yourself with?
I’m not saying that you can’t eventually wear away the energies that imbue an object or a place with focused effort, with intention, with prayer, or with something like Feng Shui. I’m just suggesting that you think about that ‘pill’ of energy you may be swallowing with each thing that surrounds you.
But now we get down to the crux of my minor epiphany: YOU have the decision, the right, the “magical power” to decide that you will imbue the world around you with good energies, with positive things, or with negative energies. Each action you take, each breath that leaves your body, every glance, everything you touch, everything you think about can be filled with the positive energy of your soul, or NO energy, or negative energy. When you cook your own food, or the food of friends, or food of loved ones, do you fill that food with love and the laughter of your soul? Do you pour your heart, and your mind, and your spirit into each simple omelet? Do you take each egg and thank the chicken, thank the spirits of the earth that cared for that farmyard, and the farmer who plucked the egg from the nest? Then crack the egg, mixing it with it’s brothers & sisters who made the sacrifice to become part of your spirit, letting positive energies of the universe pour down your spatula into the scramble that is before you? Stir in onions that contain the deep power of the earth drawn up, and the power of the air and sun drawn down, peppers that are soaked in the energies of you or our spouse who planted, tended them, and plucked them when they were ripe… Do you do that? IF you did, think of the wonderful energy that would fill each meal.
After you discipline your children, which every child needs on occasion, do you go to them and say that you love them, and tell them that you are so lucky to have the worlds greatest children, and kiss them gently while pouring your love into them through a simple touch, and the energy of your eyes?
Do you wake up, and despite needing coffee, reach over and touch your spouse, flooding him or her with all the energies of your love even if you aren’t so lucky as to get frisky in the morning?
Do you do these things?
I call a life like this ‘Intentional Living”. The condition of seeing, and creating the positive effects you have on everything with your energy. You choose, you intend to live positively with every action and thought. You choose to fill your life with the positive rather than the negative. Now this way of living is not all goodie-two-shoes. Not everyone can be A Dahlai Llama or a Mother Theresa. With practice, though, each day becomes better and better.
It’s hard to find food, meat, bread, vegetables, that come from places with positive spirits, but perhaps its worth the search. In our world of cheap goods that come from slave labor in China, it is hard to find the objects we use every day that are filled with love and old fashioned craftsmanship. Do you choose entertainment that fills you with inspiration, or do you watch the network news every evening? When we all need cars to travel to work, how do we choose a vehicle that has a better spirit? How do we find work with people that allow the positive energies to flow? How do we surround ourselves with friends like that? Or even relatives? Well, I didn’t say it would be easy, nor even perfect. Sometimes you just have to deal with a negative mother-in-law… but hopefully not often (and maybe you can arm yourself before you are subjected to that blast of negativity, as well as plan a recovery period).
Yet, even if you manage to become positive yourself, your work is just begun. Because it requires that you take action when things threaten you, your neighbors, or the earth with negative energies. It means that you will have to go to the meetings where local politics are discussed, politics that effect the earth, your neighborhood, or your property. These meetings may be filled with all sorts of negative energies, hurting you, if you and your friends can’t do something about it. Intentional Living also means that you need to defend yourself and your family against the bullies of the world, the negative people who prey on others for their own physical or emotional gain. Because all the good intentions in the world are meaningless without the good actions that follow.
Intentional Living means that you fill the world around you with your positive energy intelligently, deeply, and thoughtfully. It does not mean that you give all of your money away to the poor, but it may mean that you help a friend out through some hard times, pouring your love into each action without expecting repayment. It does not mean that you bring that bum home who may eventually rape and steal from you, a grown man packed with enough negative energy to blanket a stadium. But it may mean that you support local self-help programs, ones that can have a positive energetic effect on your community.
So you see there may be a way to a wholesome, meaningful and powerful life, but it’s not easy. In my view, Intentional Living starts out pretty small but can reach across the world. There are no real boundaries to the effects of your positive energies. But the beginnings are very small, very simple, very loving. Perhaps you can start with an omelet.
© AlasdairCelt 2008