Amongst other things, I’m a computer nerd (sometimes). I admit it. I just love to tinker and play with technology and to marvel at the latest toys. Windows 7 just came out and I have been joyfully (and some times not so joyfully) exploring the nuances of its creation and what this next evolution of computer operating system has to offer. Of course with it comes a few challenges to increase my understanding of how it works, and some things are just easier to accept that they do what they do.
Fortunately for me it became available as an incremental change to the XP operating system I had been using and not just a series of updates. (I refused to switch to Vista due to its reputation as problematic). That way, I was able to make the decision to switch to a new operating system and leave the other one behind. This is something we’ve all done before - how many of us still remember how to use Windows 3.1? (OK, all you Mac snobs out there have discarded old operating systems, too.)
Now let me pause for a moment, and tell you that I think there are some important correspondences between computers and the human experience. For example, I think there is a direct relationship between the Internet and that thing that the ancients referred to as “The Ethers.” All the information you could possibly want is in both places at your fingertips. You just have to know how to perform a search and to ask the right questions. There are many other correspondences, too, if you think about it.
OK, now back to operating systems. We’re evolving on this planet, and so too is the planet evolving. Many people already seem to be aware of this, they just don’t know what the result will be. You can see it in the children, too. They’re growing up faster and more sophisticated than we were, and the speed is increasing over what we experienced at their age. Though of course, some things are quite similar and familiar.
But I digress, maybe.
Maybe – just maybe, we could look at the shifts we’re going through as that series of updates to our own internal (and collective) operating systems. Since the next phase isn’t yet quite in focus enough for us to recognize with the training our senses have had since birth (our old operating system), it gets a little more challenging to know what to let go of and what to retain. In some ways that makes it both easier and more challenging. For some people it’s less challenging to simply abandon the old operating system to something totally new. For other folks, the gradual approach is less of a jolt. Still others would like a combination of both - as in, wake me up when the (r)evolution is over.
One thing about Life on Planet Earth we know is that there are so many different ways to experience it. And yes, we all chose these different experiences. Since our awareness is continually being updated we don’t always want to admit that what we now recognize as ourselves actually made those choices long ago that set us up in the life we have now. But we did. And we did choose to be here to witness, experience, and ground this energy of evolution into the planet.
Unfortunately (or not) this next evolution doesn’t come in a nice shrink-wrapped box with amazing graphics on the outside (although maybe it does, and we just can’t recognize it yet). One thing about change is that it sure looks different when you’re in the middle of it than it does either before or afterwards. But knowing that this evolution is occurring might make it easier to recognize that when the old apps aren’t working, that there are new apps to attend to. Not knowing for sure means that we can be open to the endless possibilities. I think it’s Nature’s way of keeping us from bargaining with our destinies, though we may try.
What we all want is to know what’s going to happen, and if we can accept it then we will let go and let it happen. Nature doesn’t work this way, however. The seed has no consciousness of the tree it will become. It only knows that it must grow. The plans for it to become a tree are already deeply encoded into it, such embedded core concepts that are enacted without question. The seed doesn’t argue that it would rather be a plant or a flower or a vegetable. It just unfolds naturally.
So back to the computer model. Perhaps it is that our new operating system is already in place, already deeply encoded and is just in the stages of automatically installing and initializing. Maybe we don’t have to wait for the “Welcome” screen to appear to know we have been updated. And we’ll likely continue to be in a process of updating.
At the end of the day we all come to grips with what we have accomplished that day. If it isn’t all congruent with our estimation of ourselves, we have to find a place to put it. Much of that we do automatically, according to our previous programming. Part of the work we do on the spiritual path is about re-coding our programming according to the amount of light we have been able to become aware of in ourselves and others. The more light you can embody, the more easily you can transform lower frequencies. Some of this is done consciously and through intent, and some of it just happens because that’s the way it was encoded, the same way a seed is planted in darkness and returns to the light. But the more consciously we can embody the light, the more powerful is the process.
This is what redemption is really about - moving toward the light with conscious intent. There is no judgment on where that started, stopped, or paused at the end of the day or the end of the next moment. It is a process of continual updating, of continual becoming.
And here we are in December. Known as the dark time of year because the hours of sunlight each day are decreasing until the Winter Solstice. At the solstice we celebrate the return to light in some form in most civilizations around the globe, and shortly thereafter those in the western world’s concept of time celebrate a new year.
We are rebooting.
