So far I haven’t become a huge fan of Facebook, although I can see what a powerful networking tool it can be. I may still be persuaded to invest my time there. I’m immensely grateful we have so many amazing technological tools at our disposal, providing limitless opportunities for linking up around the world in creative space, completely free from the brainwashing of the mass media. Whilst the WorldWideWeb reflects all levels of consciousness and there are plenty of energy vampires out there, it has also made a global people’s consciousness movement possible.
While I was living in the States, I was developing my internet based business, A Whole New World, experimenting with a range of transformational ways of connecting with people far and wide. This meant I was sitting for long hours at my computer and after a while I realized my life had become unbalanced. I cherished my virtual communities and the new friends I had made yet I longed for more face to face contact and physical presence. I was excited by all the things I was learning, yet my body was complaining of neglect. The Hopi Indians have a word for life out of balance: KOYAANISQATSI. Me and six and a half billion others!
This was an important part of my decision to return to New Zealand, where I knew my soul would be fed by access to wild nature and local spiritual community. For the first three months I was back here, I spent large chunks of time in my soul home in Golden Bay, submerged in deep presence with wild nature all around me and the inspirational flow of writing coming from within. What bliss! During these times I had no access to the internet or telephone, no distractions and nothing to pull me away from my own centre, no temptations to look for what I needed outside myself. Everything I needed was right there in that simple space, in solitude and deep soul connection. I felt utterly fulfilled. And the world kept turning without me!
However, nothing lasts forever, and after a while I began to hanker for my global connections again. I had friends, commitments, responsibilities, and projects on hold, and I was eager to get back to them. I wanted to bring all the parts of myself together. Surely the lover of silence and solitude and the global citizen could find a place to be at one?
However, as John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” I have had to learn to be patient. Long story short, I found what appeared to be a perfect place to live over the New Zealand summer, a little eco-cabin, surrounded by trees and looking out to sea, but getting the internet connected there turned out to be a saga, stretching over weeks, and finally global connection won and I decided to move on.
I will write more about what I learned about living simply in the eco-cabin but right now, here are some reflections on being without internet:
We are always connected.
Each of us is a cell in the body of humanity/nature/spirit/consciousness/cosmos/God.
We are always connected to our soul family whether we can speak to them and see them, or not.
When we are attuned to our inner being we know what is happening in the world without listening to the “news”, we may not always know the details but we can feel it inside.
Whenever we take “time out” to focus on our spiritual development and to clear limiting patterns from the bodymind, we do this for everyone. As each of us frees ourselves, we free the whole.
I love this inhalation, breathing in to the self, breathing out to connect with community. I wonder if connecting through the internet actually helps us to remember and develop these intuitive ways of knowledge, or whether the busy-ness and information overload drown out the whispers of this subtle knowing? Probably both are true. Which brings me back where I started: the ongoing, everyday need for balance.
Oh, and just as I was finishing this article, a wise man and a gardener passed by my cabin and told me that the internet service farms used by Yahoo alone use more power than all the tvs on the planet. Not to mention the electromagnetic energy they release into the environment – poor birds and bees! There are costs to our convenience which we rarely reckon. Bring on the next stage of our evolution when our intuitive powers are more highly developed and we cast no shadows on our companions.
Namaste
Rose Diamond
