Checking Your Levels of Participation

It's time to level up!

In my Sunday afternoon class at the center we talked about attachment and your level of participation. We put it on axis and discussed quadrants … I always love a good graph. I love things I can measure and analyze.

“Level of Participation” kept ringing through my head … where have I heard that before. Once I got home I started googling and then when that didn’t work I went so far as to search the history on my internet browser. Long story short I found it. It’s a quote by LLewelyn Vaugh Lee.

“The work of connecting our light to the world does not need to be done through a mass movement or by millions of people. The real work is always done by a small number of individuals. What matters is the level of participation. Whether we dare to make a real commitment to the work of the soul.”

It’s a privilege to be here on the material plane. Sometimes we take things for granted. Our lives can feel mundane, uncomfortable and sometimes even painful. My new awareness that I am exercising is to imagine a button, a button labeled “mundane” and it’s on a dial and at one end it says profane and at the other end it says sacred.

It’s up to us to dial our everyday experiences to either the profane or to the sacred and with that choice we choose our level of participation.

If there is one quality I really admire and am drawn to in other is their capacity be “ all in.” To be present, to be bold, to be truthful, to be loving and to live. That’s what we are here for, to play all out.

Opportunities for Involvement Are Everywhere - When You Look

My family did not attend the recent Blessing of the Animals hosted by our Animal Ministry. It will come no surprise to hear that we had water polo games that day. When you have three children who play and/or coach water polo, there is usually a water polo game or practice going on.

When I read Lisa McClure’s blog post about the ceremony, I was truly sorry that I didn’t make arrangements to bring our three cats. It sounds like it was a wonderful event, and our feline family members are very special to us (despite an annoying compulsion to sit on homework). My children appreciate that their kitties are always ready to snuggle up and watch a movie after a grueling workout. The Blessing would have been a great event for our family to attend, if we could have made it work with our schedule.

It occurred to me as I read Lisa’s post, that I didn’t know a whole lot about the Animal Ministry. How many other wonderful programs, I wondered, did we have at the Center that I really hadn’t paid attention to? Even though I’d listened to the Sunday announcements, I just hadn’t processed the information, for whatever reason.

 I decided to pay a visit to our website: www.cslcv.org

The programs I’d already been participating in jumped right out at me. (Isn’t that always how it works?) I clicked on the “Events & News” tab and decided to look around…

We have a Women’s Group – and they are going to a sweat lodge! There is a group known as Shifting Sands that meets every Thursday morning - that sounds intriguing… There is also a Men’s Group (I don’t think I’ll be checking that out.) For those who sing (also not me), we offer Choir on Thursday evenings! One of my favorite programs is happening this morning at 11:30 AM: the Parent Forum. It is typically held on the first Thursday of each month. There are several other programs that I simply didn’t list – there is truly something for everyone.

This month we are doing the Commitment Experiment. I hope you are participating. It is going to be exciting to see how this manifests in each of our lives. When you commit to something, you can’t help but get results – whether it’s a diet, a savings plan, a exercise regime, or a new spiritual practice. Consider choosing one or more of our programs and making a commitment to it this month. You’ll be glad you did.