Chuck, in one word "beautiful"
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----- Original Message -----
From: Charles E Murray <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 8:31 AM
Subject: One Choice


> I'm back from a 5 day camping trip and back on the list.
>
> I was with 150 men who are in one or another stage of recovery from what
> one source calls a "hopeless state of mind and body."
>
> I was asked to give a talk to this group, plus a couple dozen local
> residents of Mamoth Lakes, last Saturday night.
>
> Not many years ago the anxiety over getting up and talking to such a
> group would have been overwhelming, and even more so if my PD were at the
> stage it has reached.  I didn't hesitate for a moment, however, and the
> talk went well.  Here is the crux of what I shared.
>
> In each moment we have a choice and it is a simple one.  We can choose
> Love, or we can choose fear.  There is nothing sinful or "wrong" about
> the choice for fear, it merely brings with it the consequences of itself.
>  Choosing fear usually results in isolation, anger, resentment, guilt,
> pride, greed, depression and other such unhappy sensations.   The
> judgments of and demands upon others which we make from fear cause
> hostility and separation.
>
> Choosing Love brings peace, connection, a sense of oneness with all
> things, kindness, compassion, and service for free and for fun which
> perpetuates the connection with others and makes joy a constant
> experience.
>
> When I choose to judge any person, place, thing or situation as
> unacceptable to me (unworthy of being loved), that is a choice for fear,
> and as such it robs me of the serenity and joy which the choice for Love
> brings as a natural consequence of Itself.  The most depressed folks I
> know share a common trait of withholding love from themselves (and here I
> am not speaking of the chemical based CD common to us, which, when it
> responds to drug therapy, goes away).
>
> I know how nauseating the next comment will be to many, but Love requires
> that I share my gratitude to Parkinson's disease for teaching me more
> about living in the now that all the meditation, reading and desire of my
> past could accomplish, and for broadening the opportunities to choose
> Love on a daily basis.  Parkinson's has taken me from a place where the
> winner between Love and fear was an issue too close to call, to where I
> feel comfortable in saying that Love is the odds on favorite to carry me
> to the finish line of this Earth experience.  In a word, I accept my PD
> as an invaluable teacher.
>
> There was a time not long ago when fear would have frozen my finger over
> the send key (fretting about being perceived as prideful, arrogant,
> etc.), but not this morning.  This morning Love tells me that those in
> touch for a moment with the Love within will respond with love, and those
> too in touch with fear in the moment will have a fear based reaction and
> move on; but perhaps with a little seed planted.
>
> The one thing I have come to know for sure, we are all children of Love,
> so my choice today is really no choice at all, but to ask, in each
> situation I encounter, "What does Love wish me to do?"
>
> Love
> Chuck