CHAPTER 1

Developing a LifePerspective of Unity

I was strapped in my seatbelt as my car was cartwheeling throughthe air. Through the front windshield, the horizon line keptchanging, with the sky on top and then the ground on top. Withthe third and final cartwheel, my car landed with its wheels on theground. I had fallen asleep going down the interstate with the cruisecontrol set at seventy-five miles per hour.

A few minutes earlier, I had said to myself, "I am tired." I had goodReason to be tired. I was returning from delivering five family membersto the airport forty-five miles from the location of our just-completedfamily reunion. Seventeen of our children and grandchildren hadgathered at our South Dakota home for a week in August. I took itupon myself to help provide food, organize gatherings with extendedfamily and friends, help with transportation, and be an energetic,loving mother and grandmother. It was such a joy to be all together,but a great outflow of energy was required on my part.

Just before I was whirling in the air, I heard a voice say loudly,"Loretta, wake up." I was cruising in the median about fifty yardsfrom a drop-off onto the railroad tracks passing under the interstate.Immediately I turned the wheel in an attempt to return to theblacktop, hit a guard rail, and became airborne.

I said out loud, "Well, here goes!" I surrendered and relaxed mybody, observing my arms and hands flailing about. The windowsbroke out as the front end and then the rear end of my car met theground with each cartwheel. My seat broke loose on one of theseflips, but I stayed belted in the seat within the frame of the car. Iremained fully conscious in those moments, not considering livingor dying, or any outcome, for that matter. I was truly one with theexperience, not focusing on my thoughts and feelings.

The car landed on its wheels three feet from the drop-off to therailroad tracks. I assessed my physical situation. The distortion andrapid bruising of my left forearm led me to think it could be broken.People approached rapidly, and I asked to remain in place until theambulance arrived. I knew from past experience that I could notevaluate my injuries reliably, as shock often masks symptoms. Inmy work as a registered nurse in the emergency room, I had helpedseveral patients who had moved out of their vehicles or put off carefor several hours following an accident. We often don't feel the extentof our injuries due to the adrenaline rush of stress and perhaps theinnate protection of our physical and psychological selves from thefull impact of traumatic events.

I tell this story to illustrate the potency of the conscious presenceof grace in my life. There was no feeling of fear throughout the ordeal.That fact alone is a confirmation of the presence of grace. The secondlaw of grace is that love is interlaced with grace, and our role is tocooperate and surrender. Fear cannot reside where there is love.

The clarity of my thoughts and actions was a marvel to me. I neverquestioned my request of the ambulance driver to take me across thebridge over the tracks to the hospital that was a few miles fartherthan the hospital on the bridge side where my car rested. Only laterdid I recognize the symbolism of crossing that bridge as well as thecommand to "wake up" in my spiritual development. I do knoweverything happens for the highest good within the field of grace. Iset the intention that each day I am surrounded by the golden lightof grace.

After I was examined in the emergency room, I was declaredwhole and released to my relieved and loving husband and family.After midnight, a highway patrolman called our house, asked how Iwas, and said, "She was not alone."

Surprised, Ken said, "What do you mean?"

The patrolman said, "God had to have been with her!"

Another gift was bestowed on me that day with the drama ofTotaling my car. I went through the entire course of menopause in thosefew moments. In the following months, I had no irregular menstrualcycles. I experienced no hot flashes, moodiness, or diminishment ofsexual desire. There was immediate cessation. I simply moved onto what my Native American friends call the grandmother's lodge.I don't know the meaning behind instantaneous menopause, but atfifty years of age, I appreciated that outcome. I accepted it as part ofthe whole experience in which I was the recipient of the outpouringof pure love that is grace.

This experience and my reactions within it served tovalidate my life view that gives meaning and purpose to my dailyexistence. In general, my life view is one of unity, of oneness, and ofconnectedness.

At that moment of cartwheeling, I had no consciousness of past orfuture or thoughts of living or dying. There was only the experienceof my car and me hurtling through space. I was one within the orderof grace. At that precise time, the divine order called grace held thecoherence of love and action most meaningful for my spiritual growthand life path. I was totally present. I was one with the experience,outside thought.

Each of us can move toward a life experience of unity by comingto reside within the higher order or essence of grace. What stands inour way? One obstacle may be our tendency to view and describe ourexperiences with the attributes of duality. Some examples of dualityare judging life experiences as good or evil, helpful or hindering,right or wrong, strong or weak, and encouraging or discouraging. Ifwe continually view life through the lens of duality or, said anotherway, the extremes of polarity, we will have quite a different lifeexperience than if we imagine specific thoughts and feelings at thecenter or a neutral point along a continuum. We can examine ourperceptions along that continuum extended to the polarities at eachend of the continuum. A simple example is white at one polarity andblack at the other and all shades of gray in between.

When I want to experience anything more fully, to be moreconscious and to evolve spiritually, I engage my divine core byfocusing on and breathing into my heart center. I present a questionor a concept I am inspired to learn more about. I mentally pull outfrom the core feelings, words, or images, extending them as a rayof energy. I label the extremes of each end of the ray with wordsdescribing those feelings and images. That process allows me tobring forth from the potential of my core—the energy flowing alonga continuum that is tangible and available for my knowing and use.

I once counseled with a friend who viewed life from an extremepolarity, giving daily attention to one traumatic aspect of her life.El was distraught over a circumstance she had experienced earlierwhen her four-month-old son died in his crib. The authorities calledit sudden infant death syndrome. Feelings of self-hate seemed toconsume her every thought. El was totally identifying with only oneaspect of who she was; she saw herself as a negligent mother. As Elrealized she was narrowing her identity and thinking and actingonly from that perspective, she opened her focus to include other rolesin which she engaged daily. El identified her roles of wife, mother,attorney, friend, and community member. El then began embracingall the roles with which she identified, and she lightened the impactof her role as a perceived negligent mother or even murderer.

El took another discovery step and extended a continuum as anegligent mother. At one polarity the label "murderer" defined herperception. At the opposite pole, "wise woman" described her actionas she chose to move forward with acceptance to preserve life qualityfor her surviving family.

Much of the confusion and pain we experience comes frombecoming stuck or obsessed with only one portion of an extendedray of energy we extract from the whole. My friend El had onlyidentified with the negligent role and the murderer polarity, andthus she felt separated from her center and the vastness of potentialthat was her.

How can we move between a duality perspective and one ofunity in a conscious, meaningful way? To delve even deeper into alife view of unity, we come to realize that even the roles we assumeare reflections and aspects of duality emanating from our divine core.Planet earth is our school ground for learning of these potentialsand reflections. We are able to draw forth, witness, identify, andco-create with our divine core a life of meaning within the flow ofgrace. Our core, now in form, is our essential self, containing ourpurpose and potential, and is also of the unified essence describedas the creator-of-all.

The organization or higher order of grace facilitates the realizationof our potential and highest life purpose. This higher order of graceis a gift to all life aspects within the world of form. Carolyn Myss, inher CDs Channeling Grace, describes grace as "the breath of God." Themore we know of grace and live within its order, the more we breathelife in fully with contentment and peace.

The higher order of grace helps make possible the movementfrom the core of potential into manifesting recognizable events andmeaning. The perspective of unity assures us we are all one, onlyreflecting various qualities extended out from that core of onenessto provide clarity and growth.

Those rays of knowing that reflect duality are greatly affected byour individual and cultural beliefs. Established beliefs and ways ofbeing are defined to serve a specific purpose, but these ways of beingare seldom discarded when that purpose is no longer valid.

An example of a norm held within the United States public schoolsystems is currently being challenged. This norm involves attention.How often have we heard, "Pay attention, stay focused, time on taskis paramount"? In reality, we are demanding in our classrooms thedevelopment of one extreme of the energy ray of attention. Attentioncan slide along the continuum from a pinpoint of focused attentionto an all-inclusive sense of connectedness with no particular objectof focus.

Years ago I learned the technique of "Open Focus," which allowsme to slide along the continuum of attention, stopping where itbest suits the immediate situation and what is best for me. Simplyknowing of this attention continuum or any other continuum givesus freedom and permission to acknowledge the extremes of polarityand all the choices in between those extremes. Schools that promoterest or daydream time, play, yoga, and meditation are now extendingthat narrow focus of attention toward a more open focus.

As we return to our core and the perspective of unity, we invokeand accept the freedom offered by the gift of grace. Each applicationor invocation of grace aids in the resolution of karmic consequences.A simple explanation of karma as it is used in this context implies anindividual has acted outside the higher order of grace where the purelove of the creator-of-all is reflected. Karma draws out the extremes,helping to identify the cause and effect resulting from choices ofactions taken. I am proposing that grace offers us an opportunityto expand our belief beyond the "cause and effect" belief associatedwith karma to include a belief of unity with a lively connection toour divine core and an insight into how all is interconnected.

Experiencing Grace involves the expansion of consciousnessof self to all of one's surroundings as an unbroken whole, aconsciousness of awe from which negative mind states areabsent, from which healing and groundedness result. Forthese reasons Grace has long been deemed "amazing."

—Charlene Spretnak

CHAPTER 2

Defining the Laws of Grace

The three laws of grace are at once both simple and profound. Aswe acknowledge and live by these laws, our life is blessed.We experience a life vision of unity.

• First law—grace expresses divinity and is all pervasive.

• Second law—grace interlaces with love, and our role is tosurrender.

• Third law—grace channels power, and one result of thatpower is manifestation.

The order of grace makes tangible our knowing the ultimate love thatis the creator-of-all. Through the yearning to know the pure love andunity that is the creator-of-all, we bring forth or "will" the presenceof grace. Grace is the organizing force within and beyond form wecall forth from source, the creator-of-all.

As human forms, we touch, see, hear, smell, taste, and intuitthe dynamic qualities of other humans, nature, and ourselves.Within the order of grace, we recognize that we are connected.We are divine expressing the power of love. We are powerful inrecognizing or manifesting what is needed for the highest good.One way to recognize the order of grace is to reflect upon and holdin consciousness the laws of grace.

Grace is a powerful tool for knowing oneself, for recognizing ourconnection to the universe and beyond, and for personal growth andtransformation. The presence of grace is tangible or intangible andwithin or outside our level of awareness. It is our choice to bring thisomnipresent divine order into awareness, making it tangible and ofgreater use. Bringing this natural organization of life into awarenessis a necessary first step to recognize and activate grace in our dailylives.

The First Law

Grace expresses divinity and is all-pervasive. Know it is so.

Recognizing Grace often begins with faith; accepting and believingcertain precepts. As youngsters, we live within family and culture.We are asked to consider and maybe even adopt a spiritual path andcultural norms that direct our thoughts and actions. We are asked toabsorb and trust these teaching as truth. As a young person, my parentstook me to the Roman Catholic Church. The Ten Commandmentsdirected my behavior. The idea of sin and its consequences set theboundaries of what I chose to do. Also, respecting my parents andtheir rules figured into my decision making.

Around the age of ten, I stole a pack of Kool cigarettes from myparents' store and proceeded to smoke in the outhouse behind thestore. Later my father used the outhouse and sought me out, askingif I had smoked in there. I quickly said no. He accepted that answer.I felt guilty and ashamed of myself. (I definitely realized not to counton my actions ever being a secret!) Further, I learned it felt lousy tosteal and then to lie, dishonoring my father. I credit living withinthe order of grace for giving me the ability to discern those qualitiesof truth and respect that felt right and made me feel good as a ten-year-old.

Not only did these Christian beliefs help connect me with theorganization of grace within my young life, but the Native Americanpath of my friends augmented that sense of order and harmony I knowas grace. The Native spirituality instilled in me the connectednessof all of life.

In the fall following the first freeze, I would walk the creek bedswith friends searching for wild turnips, timsula in Lakota, to add tostew made with beef or buffalo. We would shake the bushes to releasethe buffalo berries we used to cook buffalo berry syrup and jelly.The act of using the nourishing gifts of the prairies was consideredceremony within the Lakota community and was approached withreverence and gratitude. During each ceremony we continuallyuttered "Mitakuye oyasin," translated as, "All my relations."

I also came to know, in the Lakota tradition, that the needs andaccomplishments of an individual should never take precedence overthe collective group or tribal needs and recognition. This fact ofnot standing out as an individual came to the forefront during oneChristmas when we were living and working at Takini School onthe Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in the center of SouthDakota. An eight-year-old student, Wanbli, was the topic of a booktitled A Boy Becomes a Man at Wounded Knee, by Ted Wood with WanbliNumpa Afraid of Hawk. This book chronicled the grueling 150-milehorseback ride retracing the trail taken by the Lakota people in1890 that ended in their massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.The narration and photos of the journey were poignant. They toldof the mending of the sacred hoop and the healing of the spirit ofthe people. The direct descendants of the Lakota people who weremassacred were students, parents, and staff present at the school. Ahardback copy of this book was given as a gift to all three hundred-plus students, but only with the permission of the elders after theydeemed it was more about the tribe than the one boy.

These two spiritual traditions, Christian beliefs and NativeAmerican spirituality, were not at odds within my early development.In fact, I know from hearing early childhood stories from manyfriends that I had a broader and less literal interpretation of rulesand expectations. Even as a preteenager, I questioned authoritativeproclamations of what was right or wrong. Living connected withnature, I recognized the goodness and the interplay that supportedmy young life. I intuitively recognized what was of value to me. I wasnot outwardly rebellious but simply discounted quietly what didn'tfit my knowing.