Beloved students and dear friends, as Earth embraces the month of August, I extend greetings and blessings to all of you. May each of you take joy in Earth’s beauty and hold respect for the many aspects of nature that humanity does not control. May you find new learning in each new day as your deep appreciation for life on planet Earth continues to grow. Live each day with focused intentionality, and greet every precious moment with awakened presence. Be fully aware of the tentative and even fragile nature of life so that you may grasp its utter dearness. The present moment is very precious not because it is special or different from every other moment. It is precious because it is temporary. Once gone, it can never be reclaimed.

By being fully present, one can summon the penetrating focus so needed at this time. Rather than seeing only the struggles inherent in a planetary paradigm shift, try to see the precious beauty of a tiny blue orb suspended in the velvety blackness of unbounded space. Recall those incredible photographs of Earth taken by astronauts in the early 1980s. When you see the planet from an outside perspective, it is remarkably easy to feel genuine love for Earth. However, when viewing the planetary process through the lens of human activity, it may not be so easy to love Earth unconditionally. Indeed, viewing the world at large with awakened eyes can be a bit shocking, since you must take in the massive levels of struggle and suffering that plague so much of humanity.

Clearly, the tumultuous chaos of 2017 continues to cut its swath through 2018. While this may not be particularly surprising at the surface, what is below the surface probably needs attention. There is a collective unconscious fatigue permeating the human experience, and it seems somewhat insidious as it lulls the unsuspecting into hypnotic trance states. Of course, entering a collective stupor at this time may impede the progress of a dawning New Age.