S: Understanding our views by sharing our experiences

From Silvia, 2024.08. 

I believe we are all shaped by our experiences and the perceptions & stories we acquire because of these experiences. It guides our paths & the new experiences & information we seek & allow to bring in to our awareness. 

My experiences: 

• A daughter of immigrants who lost all possessions & life style to a dictator’s harmful & evil actions. Taught me about the impermanence of life, especially as it relates to culture & traditions.  Only reliance that matters, is the one based on God. 
  
  
• Growing up in Massachusetts which is steeped in the early history of this country gave me a love of this country & a deep appreciation for democracy and the ideals & intentions that our representative democracy is built upon. Taught me about courage and putting the well fare of others in the same place as my own & those I love own well fare as well.  We are all in this together whether we understand this or not. 
  
  
•  My Catholic faith, my path to the God of my understanding. My faith has taught me the golden rule & to give everything up to God always. To know that God is in the midst of all of it. To go deeper into that experience and to surrender all to God.  That the driving forth of evolution is to unite & relate to one another in a loving way that uplifts each other’s spirit as Jesus taught us.
  
  
• My work in a large government agency that was under attack during my tenure as Treasurer shaped my understanding of what government is and what government is supposed to do, as opposed to taking the current status quo as a given. That there is a natural pull between what we can do individually and what we can do collectively. To me government is just the way we decide to organize ourselves for a particular activity. Deciding to be in relationship with each other, to address  a particular need.  All societies have to organize themselves. We have examples of highly structured governments which demand by force fidelity to a leader and/or belief system. These are autocratic by design, they are the dictatorships, the communist, theocracies or fascist regimes. Examples are Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela.. There are highly disorganized regimes which fall into chaos led by smaller groups who only care about their own survival & dominance of others. Haiti is an example of this. In between there is most of the developed world of which the US is a part of this group. I will say these countries have a system of government that allows for change in a safe manner that doesn’t fall into chaos  or is dependent on autocratic ruler where violence is the only option for change. These provide for a peaceful transfer of power. 
  
  
•  Being alcoholic with other ism’s (food & workaholism) also has shaped my beliefs. Being broken by these has given me a particular sensitivity to the downtrodden. It’s given me an appreciation for the structure (way we organize ourselves) of AA. The tradition of AA states there is only 1 purpose for AA’s existence. It is to carry the message to alcoholics who still suffer. It states God is our ultimate authority and our leaders are but trusted servants they do not govern. Every group is autonomous except in matters affecting AA as a whole. Given that the groups are made up of drunks it makes for interesting situations, but it works. I believe a divinely inspired reason that it works is we all get to determine who our higher power is. It doesn’t matter the “who” or the dogma or the theology or lack there of. It matters that you connect and have a relationship with the God (power greater than you) of your understanding.
  
  
• Being brought up in our family with all our own traditions, peculiarities, strengths and weaknesses has shown me to honor what is true. Which is to love God above all else, and to love one another fiercely. To be careful of my own ego driven intentions & agendas. That I do not have the answers for anyone else. I don’t know what is best. I need to surrender to God will in everything. And to the extent I do this I can live in harmony.  When I fall off this beam suffering can ensue. 
  
  
• Living my life as a lesbian women with a lesbian daughter has provided a perspective of being marginalized. Something very different from the experience I found in our family, where I felt the privilege of coming from a successful & supportive family structure.  I prayed & set my intentions & actions to provide the same supportive family structure for my kids. Sometimes being successful & sometimes experiencing challenges mostly because of my ism’s. 
  
  
• Finally I have dabbled in a lot of different modalities and faith based experiences that have also shaped my beliefs. From the Tao te Ching, to the Presbyterian Church (the organizing structure the US government is based upon), & other Protestant faiths. The last of which, Unity has especially impacted my beliefs.  We are all one, coming from the same source & with the same divine spark within us. And finally my exploration of mindfulness and breathwork has opened me up to Buddhism philosophy.  Honoring what is as opposed to forcing what I believe the world should be. In terms of government or leaders I am reminded of a teaching in the Tao. I just open my book and it opened to the exact page. I’ll take it as a sign from God.

Instead of listing our opinions about a particular subject I would invite each one of us to note our own experiences in life and how they have formed our own beliefs & insights that our guiding our choices. 

Also think it may be interesting for the kids later on to read. We could model what it means to be in relationship through these eventful times..