x2 Step 250 - I will not hold myself apart today. – Journal – Step 249

Today:  Step 250 - I will not hold myself apart today. (MP3)

I will not hold myself apart today. Step 250

YOU CAN ONLY BE ALONE IN FANTASY and fantasy will yield you nothing of value, permanence or meaning. Do not betray your Knowledge today by holding yourself apart. Do not punish yourself for errors which have no substance and which are in fact only an expression of confusion. There is no justification for error, and there is no justification for holding yourself apart. You are a part of life and you will need to rely upon your relationships with others and with life as a whole to accomplish anything, even to survive.

AS YOU THINK ABOUT THIS, gratitude will naturally arise within you, and you will realize that the ground upon which you walk and everything that you see and touch that is useful and beneficial is the result of giving and cooperation. Then, your gratitude will bring forth love naturally, and from your love you will begin to understand how all things are accomplished in the universe. This will give you strength and the assurance of what you yourself must learn to do.

UPON THE HOUR REMEMBER THIS, and in your deeper meditations allow yourself to receive. Do not hold yourself apart from Knowledge, which waits to bless you in your meditation practices. This is when you come to the altar of God to present yourself, and here God presents God to you who are learning to receive Knowledge.

PRACTICE 250: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Yesterday:  Step 249 - Alone I can do nothing.

It really doesn’t take too much thought to understand that we can do nothing alone, but if you live in a competitive culture, it seems that it is everyone for him or herself. Even in team activities, there is competition to be the leader and stay the leader. Leading from the middle is difficult, that is, making things happen with little power. That is much of the problem I faced in the work I was doing promoting regional cooperation. I’m on the way to recognizing that “community precedes cooperation.” Though this has been articulated, I really do not understand the thought that has been given to me. Is this Knowledge or my Inner Teachers or guides enabling me to see how community works in the world? It will go on for many years.

It was the phrase “Greater Community Spirituality” on the Society display at the Denver Metaphysical Fair, August 31, 1997, that was a trigger phrase for me. It summed up everything I was trying to do in life.

So, what does this look like in the world? In 2014, the first year I posted from my journals about Steps, I used these pictures from the internet.

“Even if you were alone on a mountaintop without another soul in sight, you would not be alone, 

Photo source not recorded.

 

for your Teachers would be with you, and everything that you would accomplish there would be a joint effort, as everything that you accomplish with other people is a joint effort.”

Garth Fagan Dance – Photo by Greg Barrett

University of Delaware Marching Band

Rockymountainrescuegroup.org

This is a simple Step to understand, but we know, simple is not easy. Rugged individualism and/or the sense of being different and perhaps socially challenged, affects perception of being alone. Steps explores this further.

From the journal:  Step 249 - Alone I can do nothing.

April 25, 2001

9:38 a.m. Regional Community Builder – I’m free to do this. Web is the way.

9:50 p.m. Practice #2 "Alone I can do nothing". The 5 p.m. presentation by Joe Callahan's class to Housing Action – NSV was truly amazing. It was covered by the Star – and proves the value of working in community. Hidden as I am, I can continue to build community. The core of the idea comes from Bob Foeller’s goal that the agencies in the region use the same numbers.

Busy day; little recorded. Not a bad day; not an “alone feeling” day. Let us continue.

NNC

Note: If you’ve some interest due to this or other Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge and can begin it on the day that makes sense; then progress as needed. You can use the posts on this blog as a companion if it helps. They will remain in order in the archives - one post per Step.

Often it takes 18 months to get through the Steps once. For this blog, the pace is one-a-day, but it really makes no difference how fast you do it, only that you begin, persist and repeat. Posts here provide a trail that may let you have a virtual companion when and if you want one. One may have to study alone, as I did in the beginning. There are other Steps students blogging their experience and you might find a person more like you as a companion, or use a number of such Steps journeys. There are options as well through the Free School of the New Message.