Come – take a short journey with me. I have to let you know, though, that I don’t know where I’m going. I have no idea what this will end up being, but I’m wanting to write something different – mix it up – one step, one word at a time and get a little serious. Are you ready? Can you stretch those thoughts, preconceived ideas, and walk along with me? 

We’re living in chaotic times right now. None of us needs to be told how severe things are. Everyone sees it, feels it, like you can’t get away from it. What can you do, now, if you’re not right in the middle of an emergency and have to respond? What if – we stepped back, took a different approach, and attempted to see things differently like what’s suggested in this Ram Dass video below, “What If Everyone Woke Up Tomorrow Thinking Differently”.  It would change the world. 

It’s part of a lecture he gave February 27, 1992, titled, “The Web of Human Caring” in St. Louis, Missouri and an interview he had with John Seed, an Ecologist from Australia, talking about rainforests. If things were as disturbing and chaotic back then, how do they measure up now, and how can we realize the urgency of it. It’s like the same old problems exist, even though many years have passed since his lecture. I wonder why and what it’s all about? 

The only thing that has changed is time, and that won’t change either when we no longer have a choice, or we decide to do something about it. It doesn’t have to be that way, and we don’t have to let it get that far? But what keeps us from hearing such urgent messages? Maybe, like Ram Dass says here, it’s because we’re comfortable, attached to what we have, and think we have to give up what we want to hold onto. 

I have to say, as I’m writing this, my hands are shaking. I’ve felt that before and know it’s the energy stirring inside. So, there’s something going on within me that’s trying to get out – express itself, and I’m out of my comfort zone in an unknown place. I have to work through it and hope I do it justice because it has to come through me before it can get there. 

This is not something I usually write about, but it’s been compelling, keeps presenting itself and won’t let me drop it. I don’t want to deliver a post on doom and gloom because I know there are possibilities, What If’s, and there’s still something we can do, and I believe in miracles. But it takes a shift and an open mind to dare to explore the What If’s. We are not alone in this and when we’re ready to take the leap, get serious and move to take the first step forward, we are met with an invisible energetic force, something like Patanjali talked about centuries ago:

We came into this world as a vibrational little being equipped with everything we need, only we haven’t tapped into our biggest resource, our inner guidance system – our sonar, so to speak. We stumble across it sometimes and think, “Oh, that went great!” But it doesn’t seem like we truly, consciously recognize it or know how to use it.

The world, as I see it, is what we have created down through the centuries. It’s the compiled products of our collective minds, discoveries, wants, dreams, desires – good and bad. And, when it turns dark and ugly, we always try to correct it by changing the products instead of looking internally and working on that. What If, we decided to do that and look inside for the problem and change it by thinking differently, like Seed suggests. 

That is where walking down a different path, thinking differently, or choosing to consider a different way, is critical, especially in the times we are living today. (Note: Here is a popular Rumi quote that is a loose, contemporary, interpretation and reconstruction by translator Coleman Barks rather than a literal translation a Persian text):

No, doesn’t make any sense at all, like Rumi says, but I want to go to the place he talks about that’s beyond what we see and what’s going on in the world. We keep going around in circles, generations after generations and getting nowhere. It’s the definition of insanity: where you keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But I think to break out and go beyond, we have to be willing to look past the world and take another path. 

I know I’m bouncing all around here and not making much sense. But stick with me. It’ll begin to get clearer. There are miracles yet to be revealed beyond our wildest imaginations, if we would change our focus and not listen to what’s in the world (products), but instead hook up with our inner sonar. Move forward exploring and discovering with a vibrational inner guide, one that prompts, nudges to look here, check this out. It’s what’s been happening to me lately. Maybe I’m beginning to think differently. 

Look at this post. I have no idea what I’m doing but the words keep coming. What is that all about? I just had a thought for a subject, “What If?”, and nothing else. Even in the featured photo, I had no idea. What can you use as a photo for “what if”?  Then, I was nudged to look in Google photos and saw a photo that grabbed my attention, but not exactly, then thought maybe I could create something in Gemini AI (new to me too), now that I have an idea for what I’m looking for and can give a description of what to create. And voilà, that’s the photo above. 

I know these small examples don’t compare to the seriousness of what’s needed in the world today, but it’s a start in a new direction and even, in some cases, they’re supernatural. It shows up in different forms: maybe words come through and you put them to paper, maybe it’s an intuitive voice, or something visual drawn to your attention because you’re attracting it from the energy within you. I don’t know, but it’s not a fluke. It’s real. We have to learn how to get quiet and tune in in spite of all the noise and chatter going on around us. Just by asking yourself a simple, “What If?”, can get you started. Consider the possibilities? 

Something like this in a short poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), English poet and essayist:

Can you imagine that? Do you think it’s possible? I do, but it doesn’t happen in the traditional way of thinking. Stay with me, please. 

Years ago, one summer evening, everyone was in bed and I was up late, meditating, and there was a full moon in the sky. I was sitting on the floor in the dark looking outside the open, sliding screen door at how pretty the white puffy clouds were in the sky, illuminated by the bright, full moon.  

There was one particular white, puffy round cloud that I paid close attention to. And, as I kept watching, it moved closer to me and dropped lower in the sky ever so subtly and gently. It seemed just above the treetops, and it was getting closer and closer to me. It seemed bigger and bigger, as it moved and looked like it was coming right at me, as if I was attracting it. It scared me and was eerie and mesmerizing all at the same time. 

It kept coming, as if it would float just above the house. I had never seen anything like that before and I can still remember the awesome feeling of it to this day. That’s how powerful and miraculous possibilities are, What If’s, and yes being open to looking at something different can make things happen—even change—just like that.  

There is a quote I treasure and used as a mission statement for a talking stick circle I was a moderator for over 25 years ago. It’s by Ram Dass in his book, “Still Here” and it says:

“When there is true surrender and service between people, the roles of helper and helped, and the boundaries between those in power and those who are powerless, begin to dissolve.”  

Ram dass – “Still here”

I’ve tried over the years to really learn what true surrender is. That seems to be the key word (true), and surrender is not something you submit to or forfeit. It’s internal in this context, and I’m learning it’s when you decide not to be in charge and work in harmony with the inner force within you, and that is true surrender. When that happens and you get out of the way, you bring it out into the world, then all the rest of this quote follows – service, roles, boundaries – and they start dissolving and you witness it. 

Some shifts and changes started happening to me in January of the New Year 2026 and before. I haven’t mentioned it because it’s still a work in progress. Here we are more than halfway through this year and through my own personal experiences of inner guidance, I’ve witnessed some gradual, and pretty powerful miraculous events in my life.  

That’s how I can tell you that this is real. I’ve been living it. Some highs and some lows, but that’s how you learn and grow. I’ve been working on a 40-day/40-night journaling project that I was prompted to start back in December 2025. It’s in the editing stages now of some 107+ typed pages of those daily journaling notes of 40 days. I don’t know where it’s going or what I will do with it when I’m finished. I’m just following the inner lead to do this project. 

I believe there are still things we can do in the crises we’re living in today, and there’s something unique in you that’s just waiting to come forth: gifts and talents maybe you never thought you had that you could use and apply in a different way. And, if we ask, get quiet and be still, the message will come, that vibrational inner guidance. You may not see it right away and may take a while before it shows up, as it has its own timing. But, when it does it’s up to you and me to see what we can do with it.  

I hope this post will stir something in you, even if it’s to wonder and consider the possibilities – What If’s. 

Pat from the ‘ol kitchen table