Let's get metaphysical today, and look at how reality plays out in our lives and outer world.

We don't need to belabor the point about all the things we don't like in the world. If you're not sure what they are, just turn on the news and wait for the stories that make you shake your head, yell at the TV, or think, "It's another fine mess we've gotten ourselves into this time!"

With that in mind, just consider an unnerving possibility -- you created it all. Or more accurately, added your piece to the collective consciousness that set this reality in motion.

Since we've all contributed to the problems, it's not a matter of blaming anyone for them. Rather, our best course is probably to simply accept that it all was created for a reason, and set off to find it.

Now, why in the world might we as omnipotent beings (at least at our core) come into this world and create situations like these that demonstrate all our bad points and weaknesses?

"At the precipice, we change," said Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Those wanting a better world might see the current climate is ripe for change -- that reality has set the stage, so to speak, for us to act in ways aligned with what we really want for ourselves. It offers us the choice of whether we'll answer the call to do so.

From one perspective, that's right. But in another, the cart's before the horse.

Reality responds to the conditions within us. It brings situations that will not only test our ability to reflect our evolving consciousness, but also trigger additional changes within as we allow love and light to work their magic in us. Then new situations are created so we can apply those inner changes to how we go about our lives and interact with the world around us.

The outer inequities and abuses, struggles and conflicts are simply reflections of similar inner conditions within our collective consciousness. And to one extent or another, that consciousness is part of us, as we are part of it.

This is why I talk so much about looking at the inner conflicts and hidden conditions in you that make you the way you are -- for these all filter out to that collective consciousness to help create the outer reality that you find so distasteful.

However, when you learn to accept such imperfections as part of how you created yourself to live in this world and get the experiences you came for, then you have a choice whether to allow them to rule you, or to find a way to use your love and light to move beyond them and interact with the outer world in new ways.

This is how consciousness works. It allows you to see reality for what it is -- an incubator in which you can see new things about you and demonstrate them by how you go about your affairs.

This process is, in essence, how we travel the spiritual path -- learning who we are through how we see and interact with reality. In short, we are re-creating ourselves in every moment, and the situations life serves up allow us to show it. And if we can't, then it will keep serving up more of the same until we do.

So if you don't like your life, or how things are unfolding in our world, you have a simple choice. You can jump into the fray and participate in all the conflict and chaos the collective consciousness is creating, showing you like it the way that it is.

Or you can recognize that the unsettled feeling they're triggering is offering you the chance to find the conflict and chaos IN YOU, and find ways to love a little more.

Remember, everything you see and experience is an opportunity to let more light and love in your life. If you don't know how to love, or how to find the light, just pray for guidance.

I'm here to help, too, should you need it.

Go with love. I am

- john

PS If you don't believe in God or guidance within (and even if you do), simply sit quietly and ask yourself, "What does this situation allow me to see about myself that I do not already know or want to acknowledge?" Then, "How can I use this knowledge to love myself AND still love others, too?"

You'll know what to do.