God

Leadership in times of crisis and uncertainty.

/ Holly C Barker / Leave a comment

A piece I wrote for Religica.com

Leadership is a tightrope to walk at this time in history. As a leader in any profession or industry, one must look out and look up to God as to the way forward given that the answers to many of the questions and decisions we are faced with are nebulous. No person on this planet has lived through a pandemic coupled with the political and religious upheaval we are facing, a situation that feels very Biblical in nature and worldwide in scope. With the internet, we can see and communicate with people all over the world in real-time. Nostradamus predicted this would be the age of the antichrist and from the inside of our quarantined lives looking out into the world at large from our television sets and smartphones, we can see that the world is going through massive change — on the precipice of both enlightenment and disaster.

Most do not recognize that we’re at such a critical tipping point because the changes we are experiencing have been spurred by grief over the loss of our lives as we knew them — and for many, the loss of loved ones. Normalcy is now non-existent. A New Normal is in the making, being molded and formed from each and every decision made, from the individual level all the way up to national and global levels. No person can claim to have not been affected by this monumental worldwide event. even if a person’s world has not changed much, the world around them has.

Grief is a life-altering, mind-blowing, game-changing experience; it hits and shakes a person at the very core of their being. I experienced this personally, and as I worked with a team to build out an international grief support organization, I saw how similar the circumstances and impact were for others going through the exact same experience. These series of individual experiences are now amplified out into the human experience and we are seeing from a societal perspective how grief affects humanity as a whole. Without knowing it, everyone is now awakened to the experience of grief even if they do not yet recognize it as so.

These times will make or break a person in a leadership position because true trailblazing is necessary to guide your family, community, organization, or business through the transition to the New Normal. Every human being is unique. We come to the table with different views and different values, and the striking differences in opinion are leading to complete breakdowns in relationships among families, co-workers, communities, and even nations. This was the reason I used the tight rope analogy earlier.

If you’re a leader in an organization, now is the time to define your organization’s culture and how you will keep the peace within the turbulence of stressful emotions and ensure the forward movement of your mission. In this time of strife, gas-lighting, and angst, a polarization is happening, and ideologies are becoming clear grounds for the breakdown of relationships both in a personal and public way. The very platforms that host humanity’s communications are taking sides and redefining their objectives, leaving millions of people disenfranchised and others believing in storyline narratives. Trust is truly broken in many ways.

How does a leader navigate through such circumstances — ones that threaten our very existence on this planet? You stake your claim. You decide what you believe, and you build around those principles, while still maintaining an openness to others. A new definition of life is upon us because collectively we are no longer naive. What you know and understand has changed. This is normal in the grief process. To deny this is the new reality is to get pulled down in the undertow in waters of grief and chaos. This is the time to Let Go and Let God or the Divine help you see the way forward because the path forward is a maze. Go back to the core principles and morals of your faith system and work from there, even if it seems impossible.

Life is about our connection to each other. Do you want to be surrounded by only those who think the same as you? Then make that declarative statement and do not hide your intentions. Do you want to be open to others with differing thoughts with compassion and understanding, then build out that concept within your network of connections and declare it so. Now more than ever, it is important to be transparent about your goals, mission, and actions so that others know your intentions. Trust has been broken from a macro-human standpoint as we stand mired in a time of misinformation when lies are often told as truth for the benefit of a few and the detriment of many.

Every human that comes into this world has their heart on display for God (or the Divine being of their faith) to see, so there is no hiding intent or deeds. Those that have sewn discord, chaos, and evil will be exposed to the Light. Those whose hearts are true and live a just life will be rewarded. Each of us must decide which path through this maze we will take. Those who hold positions of leadership need to be especially thoughtful in our decisions as many are relying on you to guide them forward into this new life.

I personally have returned to reading more in-depth about the teachings of Jesus. I am re-reading his stories and the parables he taught his disciples and followers during a time of great turmoil when the Romans had invaded the Holy Land, causing much strife and warring among differing cultures. To me, it seems we are living in the time of Jesus now, and just as before, it is up to us — using our faith and moral systems as a guide and Lighthouse — to navigate these waters and find our way to safer shores.

The following passage from Matthew 22:37-40 (KJV) has been a guiding force for me during this time of crisis:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the laws and the prophets.

This is the foundation and the rock that I am building my house on for all the rest of my days here on earth.

What is your foundation?
Where are you leading from?

– Amen

You can find my article and many others at http://www.Religica.com

Holly C. Barker is the founder and president at Grief Resource Network, LLC and Grief Anonymous, an international online grief support organization and owner of the Launching Pad on Route 66 in Wilmington. http://www.Geminigiant.com

Grief Anonymous

/ Holly C Barker / 13 Comments

I am more than excited to launch this organization.  It has been several years in the making for sure and it will continue to evolve and transform over the days, weeks,and years to come.  I have so much to say about this organization that there just isn’t enough time here in this one post to describe it in its entirety.  So let me just start with a few words about the  beginnings of GA. In the days to follow I will continue to add it all to this blog with a book to follow shortly. GA’s roots began to form after I transferred my writings from Caringbridge from when my husband was first diagnosed into http://www.hollycbarker.com after my husband passed away from cancer as a means to cope and to share in hopes that maybe my journey might help someone to know they are not alone in their grief.  What came to pass was a growing membership of people from around the world and right here in the USA coming to the page to connect and read someone’s shared grief experience.  From this catalyst of losing my husband, the writing has also allowed me to continue to write about the connection we all have to humanity and to a Higher Power.  Through my husband’s diagnosis and into his passing and onward through my recovery that Source of Love and Light has never left my side.  During the summer of his original cancer diagnosis in 2006, I was shown a vision of a bright, loving, beautiful light.  It was shown to me during the lowest and saddest time of my life.  I was shown and was able to feel the love God has for me, and also the pure simple love we all have for one another.  It is from this experience that the circular gold light has been created from the vision  into what is now the GA symbol.  The small circles surrounding this Light are the Tenets of Recovery.  Ten actionable concepts to follow in order to recover from grief.  These Ten Tenets are the premise and bedrock for this organization.  This group is for all to attend, no matter what your religious beliefs are or not.   No matter your ethnic origin or race.  Male or female.  Young and old. Social situation.  Grief is a collective human experience that has been in the shadows for way too long.  Now is the time for cumulative action to be taken to link us all who are on this path.  We can then be there waiting for those who will join us.  Grief Anonymous will be the light where there is darkness and bring hope to those who are bereaved and in need of fellowship, understanding, and support.

The Ten Tenets of Grief Anonymous:

  1. Belief in a higher power or consciousness
  2. Find or create a sanctuary for healing
  3. Focus on the physical fundamentals of sleep, diet, and exercise
  4. Practice baby steps and leaps of faith
  5. Acceptance of your loss
  6. Facing your fears
  7. Learning to forgive and what forgiveness really means
  8. Finding a creative outlet for your grief
  9. Embracing your new authentic self
  10. Giving back

http://www.griefanonymous.com is under construction and will be ready soon!

Holly Final final small

The Death of a Light Worker

/ Holly C Barker / Leave a comment

I was shocked.  Utterly shocked.  It was out of the blue for all of us fans.  I had been listening to Prince lately.  I had played several of his memorable songs recently and was contemplating how to incorporate them into a journal because his words and talents, skills and abilities to dive deep into the human condition resonate with me so much~ not just the words of his songs~ but the music itself was a language of its own.

Prince was a Light Worker.  His gift was communication through music.  His goal was for all of us to LOVE one another.  Pay attention.  Bridge gaps.  Question and rise up against that which we know is not true and is unjust.  He changed his name.  It’s hard to download  his songs due to how corrupt the music industry is right now.  He wasn’t just standing up for himself. He was standing up for all people with gifts like his.

I so admire that in him.

He spoke of seeing Angels.  He believed in God.  He lived in gratitude.  Said his prayers.  And never asked for much.  He was a huge philanthropist. And did so anonymously.  His love and his passion came out in the form of music and he shared it with everyone.  He was a crowd swayer.  We vibed to his melody, his voice, and his instruments.  He was a part of  our younger days and remained a favorite for so many of us.

I feel a real loss though.  I think many of us do.   We danced 8th grade slow dances with our first crushes to Purple Rain.  We had posters of him. We went to his concerts and watched him turn a disastrous, rainy Super Bowl into a classic amazing show. How fitting for him to show us in the midst of discomfort and life’s uncertainties~ we can dance and sing our asses off!!  And he helped us understand how it was okay to be unique, fun, and different.

I feel I took his presence in music for granted.  Its an odd feeling.  I never really felt like this about a famous musician.  We didn’t see the sum total of what he was doing; how he was living his life, how he was helping humanity on a large and small scale.  His good actions and deeds, his purpose and life should have been more in the forefront of what gets attention these days.  He was a model human being.  I wish he would have known the magnitude of love we all had for him.  Maybe he would still be with us mesmerizing us with his guitar and his eccentric ways.

Rest in Peace, Prince.  You were a kind, soft-spoken, generous, genius, amazingly talented gift to humanity.  You deserve to be remembered wearing the highest color of divinity.

 

 

 

 

 

An Open Letter to the Human Race: Please Love One Another, by Holly C Barker

/ Holly C Barker / 2 Comments

Our children are simply not going to be prepared for the world we are handing them if we keep heading in the direction we are in. It’s a two-fold reason.
1.We shelter them from so much. Remember our childhoods where we disappeared into the woods for hours only to emerge at dinner time? Wasn’t that an awesome experience?? But because of the state of our minds these days we collectively shield them from all the negativity out there in the world. And even with our most intimate family relationship struggles we don’t tell them what’s happening and the authentic reasons why. We want to protect and preserve their innocence of not knowing what we know. This does not serve them for their own growth and understanding of how the family dynamic can work with positive outcomes (whatever they may be) so they understand and use the knowledge gained as a means to build their future relationships they form.
2.We are creating that world that we want to shelter our kids from. We are the cause and effect of what we don’t want for our children. This starts at the level of individuals and how they treat each other all the way to global communities.
For this simplistic reason alone we must learn to love and trust each other again. We need to put focus of the positives in this world through our own eyes and thoughts all the way to what the media wants to show us. If we want positive and ask for it- they will show it. If we as people gravitate towards the positive, the “powers to produce” will create opportunities in the media to show us that which we ask and yearn for. It’s both our responsibilities. We look for the negative because we want to be informed by what’s possible out there so that we may protect our children and our own well-beings. Which is a just cause. But only to a point. Somehow the energy and focus of negativity of the hardest-core, farthest end of the spectrum took over as a 1% occurrence or less and became all encompassing in our minds as shown through our media and the actions and reactions of all of us. The 1% horrible, negative took over our fears, and then took over the media, which then feed our minds that we were correct in our assumptions about that which we fear the most. But it was only an illusion of our worst fears that began to then manifest. Folks- this is dangerous and we are headed in this direction. This is where our momentum and focus began to shift and the manifestation of our fears came true. We need to pull the reigns of the horse of life and turn her back to galloping into the sunrise of a new direction and perspective of our futures and the human race itself and what we want to hand to our children.

Seek out the positive. It takes less energy. It makes you feel good. It makes you feel safe. It makes you feel love and compassion for the people around you. And it makes you happy. When we collectively turn our focus towards positive types of energy and actually want and ask for it???? Our families, the media, governments both local and national, the governing world bodies and organizations will have to take notice.
We will save ourselves by starting with how we treat the person next to us with loving, respectful, compassionate intent.

Amen.

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2015 in review

/ Holly C Barker / 5 Comments

I wanted to send out the Year In Review for my blog to those that follow me. Viewer from 137 countries and approximately 5,500 people a month came to read.  Thank you for continuing to stay with me on this journey and know above all else- LOVE CONQUERS ALL and we must do our best and utmost to LOVE ONE ANOTHER!  I am truly hopeful for 2016 to be the year of at least 2 published books!  Gotta have goals, y’all!

Love and Light to Us All,

Holly

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 54,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 20 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

All Equals One and One Equals All

/ Holly C Barker / 2 Comments

How to use the Ripple Effect to Change the World:

Its so simple.  So easy. There is no complicated mathematical equation.  Just a basic principle of All equals One and One equals All.

When we do a good deed towards one person, that effect is just as powerful as if we did it to all of humanity.  That is how to solve the problems of this world.  When we recognize the power that lies within one good deed towards the other, we realize we have the ability to change the world for the better.  One man can help one child.  And at the end of his life he wonders if he was good enough during his time on earth because he only helped one child.  And Spirit answers back.  That one child was Ghandi.  Or Jesus.  Or Mother Teresa.  Or Malala. Or any noble peace prize winner.  Or that child grew up to be a great parent, teacher, minister, or astronaut. See??  That one man, by helping one child, helped the world to be a better place. It is the Ripple Effect.

When we see this is possible…  And we realize that individually we all matter to the world?  Then we will truly understand the concept of All Equals One and One Equals All.

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Seek Out the Positive: Message to the Media

/ Holly C Barker / Leave a comment

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We see what we look for. We hear what we want to hear. We believe what we want to believe.

We are all now glued to the news shows. The reports are on the terrorist events of recent, politics and campaigning, and how the world is responding. Are we stopping to think that there is a whole world out there where positive things are happening in response to these atrocities along side of this violence, hate, misery, and grief?  What is making us a society that wants to focus only on the bad? When did evil and hate and violence become the dominant topic of choice and not love, compassion, helpful acts, peace and sharing?  When did our good elemental human aspects fall out of favor in the media and our need to see the negative be allowed to overwhelm our senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing? Here is my humble perspective for what it’s worth….

I have turned on the TV very few times since Jordon died. Both times were to check the weather forecast or to watch a movie or two. Last week I was glued to the TV watching the violence unfold around the globe. Wow! What a different feeling I have now as I watch what is going on in the world. I feel like I just returned from a space journey to land in a new time. I’ve had enough to deal with on my own little planet with losing my husband to cancer last year and because of that other issues haven’t made my priority list lately. The murder and protests, the refugee crisis, and the state of the world economy that are being portrayed in the media are giving slant and focus to this negativity.  This is so telling of where we all are from a mental perspective nowadays. The media is so perpetually negative.  It’s not all their fault, as we seek to see what we must protect ourselves from, yet we create a skewed image that builds with time.  We are tuning in and plugging emotional energy into the negative and breathing quantum physical life into it all. We see negative images on TV or other media, feel it, and absorb it and some of that energy manifests into our beliefs and value systems. It grows there. We become acclimated to it and accept it as truth.

Well~ it isn’t Truth. We can change what we want to see and believe. We can turn our own minds away from this darkness we feel around us that is omnipresent in the media and into the light if we collectively want to. Negativity has manifested over the years in the media and there are those out there that want to maximize this fear and dread.  We have to stand up and stop this energy by the use of love and the need to see the good in the world.  We need to seek out examples of the positive. Focus on what we can do to be a more loving, tolerant planet for the greater good.   We can do this in a positive fashion with even greater possibilities of transformative manifestation. With personal intent we can refocus that which ultimately serves us better as people, friends, co-workers, families, neighbors, and the larger society.  We can change our worldly perspective.  Focusing on the positive, the giving, the support, the servitude even in the midst of hellish situations helps the roots of our mind grow to know that love will overcome these past two weeks.  Darkness and evil will not win, but they are trying like they never have before.  We must be aware of this and respect this energy as a reality.  BUT~ We, the Collective Human Race, will win this battle through positive acts and our core understanding that a benevolent God and the universe created us all.  We win through knowing that we are all good souls on this earth.  Together we will learn who we are, living together in peace and harmony and accepting and enjoying each others unique differences as has and always will be the intention of why we are here to begin with.  The media has the power to do this too.

Try to seek out positive examples and let its ripple effect flow into our minds and hearts.  Be that person this week that does something good for humanity whether it be big or small.  It all matters.  It all makes a difference.

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Ask and Ye Shall Receive on Heaven’s Watch, Not Ours…

/ Holly C Barker / Leave a comment

Last week was my son’s last football game for the season. It was an emotional day for many, many reasons. One being my son had done so well during his first season of football ever. I was so proud of him for making the team and for playing a starting position his first season of the sport in his life. See, I pulled him from hockey after 7 years of him playing it to move him back home to the south. He was ready for the change because hockey represented a heavy void in his life because his father passed away from cancer last year. He couldn’t think of hockey without feeling a terrible pain of sadness for the loss of his father. So instinctively we both knew it was time for a change to something positive without the intense, sad, emotional ties to the past. Some people did not respect my decision and did not ask for my son’s feelings about this decision that we both made. It was painful for us to not feel that support that was needed; they did not choose to ask or to understand why we would change our direction.

Along with this closing game of the season came a clarity and realization of the final weaving together of this book of mine that I feel is so long over due. What I did not realize was that it was this week that was supposed to happen as it did with perfect timing. Here’s how the day played out on Heaven’s Watch:

The morning of the gameday was special. There was a special gameday breakfast and I was anticipating the day and feeling hopeful for many things that are starting to come to fruition in my life. I got a call from my grief coach who is also a writer and a widow. I made the commitment to finish the book, was very fired up about it, and I gave myself a lofty goal date of the next week to finish the book. When I got off the phone with her I went onto my blog. I was going to hit 50,000 views that day!!! Pretty significant milestone in my book, so I posted a prayer request on my Facebook page telling my friends what was happening and asking them to pray for help from above and for support from family and friends. Well, I am here to say I got it. And in a big, BIG way later that afternoon!!

I went to my son’s game and after I got settled into my chair I looked up and saw an amazing cloud formation. The clouds looked like they were forming a tunnel. I saw the Light coming through. But all I saw was the tunnel. I felt very strongly I was supposed to take a picture because I could not take my eyes off the tunnel. I quickly snapped the photo with my camera phone and turned it around to look at it. This was the image I saw (look at the Angel standing on the cloud at the bottom of the tunnel):
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I was Dumbfounded. Speechless. Shocked. And Amazed. My Angel was there in all his regal beauty. He was there the day I asked for him, requested help from him in a public domain- Facebook that morning. He was watching over my son’s last game of the season. He was showing me that Divine Timing is on Heaven’s Watch, not mine. And this day was the day for me to write the purpose of this book. To reach out to all of you to let you know we really are loved. We have an inclusive, all-encompassing, benevolent, loving God for us all. All for one, and one for all. He does answer our prayers. But we must also be open and believe when we do ask. And we must understand that answer will come to us. It might be what we want to hear and know and experience. It might not. Sometimes our prayers are answered in ways we don’t see in the apparent. But we must have faith to know we are always heard and cared about. We need to be receptive to our intuition that God gave us. Our intuition is the gateway, the doorway, and the window to our connection with him. Don’t second-guess yourself. What you see, feel, and hear, and understand is his communication with you.

So, Heaven also has a sense of humor and loves to lovingly respond back when their communications with us are accepted and shared. So… I saw you Angel. I know you are a Messenger from God. And thank you for choosing me that day to be your conduit. I will share YOU with the world today and share your message with as many people as I can. And when I told him that, he smiled back at me.
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The Feast

/ Holly C Barker / Leave a comment

Sugar and Spice – that should be everything nice. Let’s talk about why it’s not and how we all can change that. We are all beautiful in our unique way and the best combination is of the two. We need to mix it up more and enjoy what combining us all feels like. Spice represents the dark-skinned ones who walk this earth~ beautiful and sparkling and deep in their rich color. The pale opalescent-skinned ones are beautiful too. But some how over the course of human history we have quit looking at each other’s beauty and we began looking at each others differences through fear of what we do not know instead and the chasm began to widen to the point where we can no longer see the up close beauty in us all. We must through quantum physical means bring us all back together so that we might see the beauty of our uniqueness once again. That means opening the doors to our hearts and asking our neighbors to come in. Ask them like Jesus did to come to dinner and dine with us.

The ancient concept of a feast was designed with human interaction at its core purpose. We all desire to be near the core where the heart of the greatest love we will ever know resides. Think of our most sacred days and the fact that the table where we come together to eat is the focal point. Christmas, Easter, Ramadan, Passover, and many many other traditions in all cultures have this in common~ with all these great celebrations The Feast is at the heart of it all. We as a human race must collectively come back to this table.

At God’s table, in his Kingdom, we are all special guests and we are equally sitting around his Great Chair, none more close to the head than the other. We have forgotten that we were meant to dine together. Become nourished, satiated, and healthy together. Above the fun and festivities and gaiety, its purpose is to come to the Great Table and communicate love and harmony with each other. Share our stories and experiences so that we may grow to know and love each other. Here at this table we can truly see the beauty in each other and begin to understand each others differences. It is an up close and personal opportunity for us to bond and connect. Let us stop declining the invitation to come together and to find our seats at God’s Table. Pray together for peace and harmony. And above all~ Love One Another.

In the Name of He who Loves Us, Wrapped with love from Spirit and all the Spiritual Teachers and Masters,

Amen