a message from Neale Donald Walsch Sunday, 7 December, 2008   We are swinging full tilt into the holiday season now...and the news for the worldwide economy could hardly be more startling or, to some, upsetting and depressing. And now many people in the so-called New Age Community are asking themselves..."If the Law of Attraction works, how is it that we are creating this financial meltdown in every corner of the globe, when not a single person is wanting to attract that?" Fair question. So perhaps it's a good time to look at the fifth of the Great Principles of Life (see Happier than God, chapter 22.) That principle explains that the Energy of Attraction is part of a larger system of cause-and-effect in the Universe. Talking about "attraction" as if it were a law unto itself is a little like talking about the gravity without discussing the physics explaining what gravity does, and why. Okay, so a thing drops. So what...? Let us look, then, at the great principles of life. Life expresses itself through: 1. The Energy of Attraction, which gives you power. 2. The Law of Opposites, which gives you opportunity. 3. The Gift of Wisdom, which gives you discernment. 4. The Joy of Wonder, which gives you imagination. and, 5. The Presence of Cycles, which gives you eternity. This larger system regulates the Process of Personal Creation. You might even call this system, and this process, "God." This fifth great Principle of Life states: "All of life moves in cycles. There is no straight line in the universe. Everything ultimately curves in on itself. The line may be trillions of miles long-or unfathomably longer-but everything ultimately meets itself. The movement of energy and mass around this oval creates the experience of what you would call Infinity. This means you have ‘forever' to experience that which you wish to experience of Who You Are, individually and collectively." Everything in life moves in a swirl. Life itself is a cycle, with no start and no finish. Everything exists "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end." The Presence of Cycles gives you the gift of eternity. Does that mean there is no reason to do anything about conditions here and now? Yes and no. There is no reason at all if you are satisfied with the way you are experiencing your life and life around you, if life accurately re-presents you and the highest idea you have about yourself. If, on the other hand, you are not satisfied, and if you wish to use this present lifetime for the purpose for which it was intended, then you may choose to alter individual and collective conditions presenting themselves in your life. It's up to you. You are doing something very sacred here, something very daring, during your life upon the earth. You are defining yourself, and then recreating yourself anew, in each golden moment of Now. Every act is an act of self-definition. Right now on the earth humanity as a collective is re-defining itself. We are choosing our priorities over again. It is clear to me that we have made a collective decision - as a species, I mean - that money, power, influence, and all the material "stuff" is not what life is about. We have seen ourselves, as a group, come to the brink of self-destruction through the living of a warped set of priorities. I have made this comment before in the past few weeks and I will make it again: I think that the so-called "financial meltdown" is simply a rearranging of our lives in a way that more closely reflects what is really important in the business of being human. The important thing to remember now is that all thing move in Cycles. Or, as my wonderful Mom used to say, "This, too, shall pass." So don't go around asking, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? Wherewithal shall we clothe ourselves?" Each day has problems enough of its own. Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all else shall be added unto you. That is the choice here. That is the invitation. That is the extraordinary opportunity of this time of economic distress. A report out yesterday from the Labor Department says U.S. businesses eliminated 533,000 jobs last month and that unemployment rose to 6.7% in October. Yet we've been through these kinds of cycles before. We will go through them again after this one. There's nothing new here. And we'll get through this. The question is not whether we'll get through it, but how? How will it be with us? What will we come to experience ourselves? Both collectively and individually, what part of our Self will we call forth? That is the question of the day. Neale. Copyright © Neale Donald Walsch. All rights reserved.