How to have a good life in the Age of Awakening? It’s like a new game for humanity. As with learning any excellent new game, it sure helps if we know the point of that game.
Photo by Maria Lin Kim on Unsplash
Good for you, Wisdom Seeker, if you know that the point of today’s game is Living in the Age of Awakening.
If not, don’t click away from this article. Here comes a link to bring you up to speed about this upgrade to human life. This era began quietly on Dec. 21, 2012. Nothing weird, nothing even obvious.
Very quietly, the former era ended. “The Age of Faith” on Earth? It lasted for many thousands of years. By contrast, humanity is now living in year 14 of The Age of Awakening. So far, most people aren’t struggling to adjust. They’re not even trying.
What does it mean, adjusting to this Second Consciousness Era for Humanity? One subtle change to life for us all is this: If you wish to have a good life, and you live now, the game of life can become more fun than ever.
It’s as if you grew up playing Monopoly, only now everybody gets together with friends to play Catan.
Having a good life matters more than any board game. That said, let’s pause briefly to do our due diligence for any article at this Energy Spirituality® Blog.
What’s My STANDING to Write about Having a Good Life?
When you read anybody’s article, it’s always wise to check the author’s standing. That way you’re more likely to read ideas that have High Truth Value. Today’s article is powered by:
Energy Spirituality® ENLIGHTENMENT COACHING
Spiritual Enlightenment simply means using your full potential in life. An Enlightenment Teacher–or Enlightenment Coach–helps you to do that. In theory.
Click on the next link to find spiritual consciousness research. Research on 36 well respected Enlightenment Teachers. Only ONLY 3–THREE– out of 36 were actually living in Enlightenment.
If you’re aiming to reach Spiritual Enlightenment any time soon, doesn’t it make sense to study with an Enlightenment Teacher who is living in Enlightenment, someone who has facilitated Enlightenment Validation for many students? I offer you that.
No AI from Rose Rosetree, I promise.
Always find human, practical perspectives from Energy Spirituality®.
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Wisdom Seekers, your questions and reactions enliven all the articles at this Energy Spirituality® Blog. As we explore together, you Wisdom Seekers are invited to share your point of view. Respond at any time!
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #1.
For Context, Let’s Compare 2 Different “Games”
CATAN is an entirely different game from MONOPOLY. Likewise, AGE OF AWAKENING values for a good life are completely different from old-time AGE OF FAITH values.
This is Article #3 of a 3-part series. In our Article #2, we looked at three Southern migrants from the Jim Crow South. Where the systemic racism was so intolerable that, like 6 million other Americans, they risked everything they had to move North or West. Risked everything so that they could be free.
- Underlying Wilkerson’s Epilogue in The Warmth of Other Suns, her Age of Faith values rang out loud and clear. Of course! This book was published two years before the Shift into the Age of Awakening.
- In our Article #3 of this 3-part series, our emphasis will be on how to have a good life. What does that mean in the Age of Awakening, compared to what it meant in the Age of Faith?
Thanks, folks, for daring to explore this topic along with me. Lacking an instant payoff, maybe, compared to most blog posts on Medium! Yet, if you read-and-think all the way through to the end of this article, you stand to gain important clarity. A practical kind of clarity that can help YOU to live better now, in this Age of Awakenining.
Wisdom Seekers, as we proceed, please do this. Let yourself think about people you know now, and elders in your family. Stories may come to mind, stories that illustrate the old values. Honorable values, but now obsolete. Please share your stories.
Here’s one example from me. I plan to share some stories about my beloved Grandma Gisela. If you’ve read my memoir of spiritual awakening, Bigger than All the Night Sky, you’ve met this grandmother. She grew up Jewish but not religious. She took a boat to America with her husband and two kids. That uncomfortable ride saved her family.
Talk about playing different games, Gisela was born and raised on a small farm in Germany. From what I understand, the culture was nearly medieval. After landing in New York, she spent the rest of her life living in a two-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side.
My Invitation to You
As you read, you may be reminded of your own family members and friends. For all (or most) of the time you’ve known them, their values were Age of Faith. They may have rock-solid belief in certain values that are now obsolete.
Coming up next, I’ll summarize those obsolete values–obsolete yet still absolutely essential to most Americans now. Values upheld by THE Enlightenment Establishment.
Why bother? Because, as a member of TODAY’S Enlightenment Establishment, my job includes helping Wisdom Seekers to understand which values can support you far better. Improving your quality of life, simply because you and I happen to be founding members of the Age of Awakening. Summing up from our Part 2 article, then….
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #2.
What Truly Mattered If, During the Age of Faith, You Aimed to
Have a Good Life in the Age of Faith?
- Family Comes First. Your Must Look out for Your Own.
- Personal Growth Doesn’t Matter. What Matters Is Fitting in Socially.
- A Good Person Supports the Church Community. And Has Faith in the Old-Time Religion.
Look familiar, Wisdom Seekers?
About: Family Comes First
So Age of Faith, valuing togetherness. Folks defining who they are in terms of family.
Regarding my Grandma Gisela and Grandpa Hugo, once they migrated to America, they were closest to their own family members. Plus cousins and other relatives from nearby parts of Germany, people who also escaped Hitler and moved to New York. These people became their family in America, remaining “best friends” for as long as they lived.
Your turn. Please share Family First tales of your relatives who stayed loyal to family, no matter what.
About: What Matters Is Fitting in Socially
Do you have any stories of the price paid by your family members who didn’t fit in socially? Were any members of your family different from the rest?
In my family, my Dad stood out in that way. He didn’t like the very conventional family culture. Born “Ernest Rosenbaum,” early on he changed his first name to “Ernie.” He lived as a free spirit, close only to his immediate family, and freely gathering quality friendships that had nothing to do with the Rosenbaum culture.
He became an entrepreneur, inventing composites for fashion models. The jazz club Birdland became my father’s second home. For his small business, he employed immigrants from Puerto Rico and Africa. Gay men. (My father was straight but lived as a huge appreciator of people, and a deep-down liberal.)
The rest of my Dad’s family ostracized him, my mother, my sister, and me. Ostracism has continued to this day. (Except that I’m the only one of the four who is still alive.)
Your turn. Please share Fitting in Socially tales of your relatives who avoided taking risks. Or else, if they did take risks, within their family, did they pay a steep price?
About: The Sanctity of Religious Community
Wisdom Seekers, your family stories will likely be different from mine. Regarding my ancestors who migrated to America, faith was not involved.
Ask me, if you like, why I cringe whenever I hear people refer to the Jewish “faith.”
In Judaism, if your mother is Jewish, you’re Jewish. That simple. No baptism, no credo. According to a reputable survey, 52 % of Jews do not believe in God.
You see, my ancestors came to America from Germany and Lithuania because they were persecuted as Jews. Not because they were religious as Jews.
Finally, did you know this? Judaism does not have missionaries. Period.
How about you? Any missionaries in your bloodline? In so many ways, your experience of family may be quite different from mine. What have you noticed about the importance of organized religion for your family members in the Age of Faith?
Thanks so much to you readers who, like me, find today’s topic important. And relevant to your personal story. Having laid down this foundation, we’re ready to explore….
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #3.
What Truly Matters If You Aim to
Have a Good Life NOW, in the Age of Awakening?
- Meaningful Social Relationships
- Work in the World to Help Others
- Integrity, Living Your Values
- Personal Growth
- Spirituality, Direct Experience of God
Hey, I won’t define these. Instead, I’ll start applying them to George, Robert, and Ida Mae. Immediately!
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #4.
Rose Rosetree’s Age of Awakening Perspective on
The Life of George Starling
After he moved up North, George didn’t make a lot of friends. But guess what? He developed meaningful social relationships. And, for 35 years, he did work in the world to help others.
In the bigoted North of that time, the best job he could get was to work as a Pullman Porter. He fit in well enough. (Score a point for Age of Faith values.)
Beyond that, George made his menial service job glorious. The job involved heavy lifting, literally. Well, he did it, he just did it. George also overcame obstacles that were not in the Pullman Porter job description, like one particularly bigoted, cruel, train conductor who attacked him.
At work and, otherwise, George showed integrity, living his values in an exemplary way.
Seemingly, His Talent for Community Organizing Was Thwarted
As I wrote in Part 1 of this series:
George showed major talent for political organizing. Courageously and shrewdly, he helped some of his fellow sharecroppers to negotiate for higher wages. On a fair playing field, he might have become a brilliant community organizer and more, like a certain Black man who later became president, Barack Obama.
I’d say, George didn’t have the Karma that would have allow him to use this talent. Likewise, he lacked the Karma to get a full college education. Yet, in terms of service, what a life George Starling made for himself anyway! Think about this:
For decades, he served all the train passengers who came his way, whether Black or White. From reading Wilkerson’s account, I gather that George treated his passengers with courtesy and kindness. He turned his low-status, blue collar, employment into a first-rate opportunity for spiritual service.
Reading about him, I was astounded by his personal growth. Even if he didn’t, personally, own a concept like “personal growth.”
Spiritually, Did George Starling Have Much Experience of God?
Seems to me, for a man living in the Age of Faith, he sure did. One indication is how George showed courage, doing what was right, seeking no external reward.
Courage! For instance, when George Starling worked as a porter on a north-south rail line, management ordered him to direct black passengers to certain cars when their train passed into the South. Even though, by then, Jim Crow was technically illegal! George chose to subtly inform these passengers of their right to say no. At the risk of losing his job!
Have you ever noticed this, Wisdom Seekers? Those of us who have some direct experience of God tend to honor our spiritual light. Find our courage. Find a way to do the best we can.
This inner inspiration matters greatly in the Age of Awakening. Reminiscent of one of my favorite spirituals, “This Little Light of Mine, I’m Going to Let it Shine.”
- To some, this hymn might be all about recruiting. Doing missionary work.
- Yet I believe that, if you have had some direct experience of God, this hymn means something quite different: When God is in your heart or you mind (however clearly), how can you not choose to help people? Care about people? Do what you can to make life better for people?
Your thoughts on this, Wisdom Seeker?
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #5.
Before Moving on to Our 2nd Person in Today’s Tutorial
On Age of Awakening Values: A Few Odds And Ends
George’s marriage was loveless. Although, like most who participated in The Great Migration, he didn’t get a divorce. (Seemed to me from reading Wilkerson’s book, George’s wife was a pill.) Yet his life was vivid:
- George managed to support his household, despite bigotry that limited his employment options.
- He did have one love affair, which resulted in a son. George never repeated that experiment. He did choose to tell his wife and family what he’d done. Honorably, he paid child support. (Look, I’m all for marital fidelity. Personally, though, I put this experiment under the category of personal growth.)
- Although he didn’t have much Karma for successful political activism, George volunteered for the rest of his life to write letters and sign petitions. He did as much as he could, given what he had available.
- So what if Starling wasn’t a churchgoer? At the request of a friend, and despite George’s personal loathing of the South, he went “home” to attend that friend’s funeral. During that service, before the congregation, George sang that friend’s favorite hymn. He opened up and wept along with others who had known and loved that friend.
In today’s language, George Starling was very spiritual. He just wasn’t religious.
Please share your thoughts on this, Wisdom Seeker.
My Grandmother Gisela wasn’t outwardly religious. But she and my Grandfather Hugo took brave action, helping their entire extended family to avoid Hitler’s concentration camps. 100% successful. (Some day I’ll tell you that story, Wisdom Seekers, but not here at this blog.)
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #6.
Rose Rosetree’s Age of Awakening Perspective on
The Life of Dr. Robert Pershing Foster
From Isabel Wilkerson’s Age of Faith perspective, Foster’s life wasn’t especially successful. Ooh, he gambled. Ooh, he wasn’t a regular churchgoer.
Ha! My opinion is quite different.
First of all, Dr. Robert’s success was extraordinary, given the extent of American racism when he lived. Gaining his wealth, his high social status, counted as a personal triumph. More than that, in my view, Foster’s success helped to alter Collective Consciousness.
- What could a Black man from the South manage to accomplish?
- How could a migrant from the Jim Crow South become a top physician in Los Angeles?
- How could he become something of a celebrity as a doctor?
Now, let’s consider one Age of Awakening value at a time.
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #7.
Did Robert Forge Meaningful Social Relationships?
How admired did Robert become as a doctor? Even when they had appointments, his patients would wait for hours to be seen. Because Robert would stay with his patients as long as was needed.
Robert Pershing Foster showed uncommon perseverance and initiative in building his own client base. According to what I read, he showed even more uncommon caring as a doctor.
- Yet, from an Age Faith perspective, none of this matters. His patients were not “family.”
- Well, from my Age of Awakening perspective, that caring counts.
Wisdom Seeker, do you think that caring only matters when it’s parceled out to blood relatives? Or to members of one’s church?
Some of you readers may practically see steam coming out of that last paragraph from me. Church-church-church! Trump as “America’s most godly president!”
Bah, humbug! I couldn’t care about this topic more strongly. How about you?
Back to Meaningful Social Relationships
True, Robert’s Marriage Was Pretty Limited
His in-laws cared more about their high status than their daughter’s choice of husband. They never cared for their son-in-law, never respected him. You know what? Pretty much the same could be said for Robert’s wife. She chose to live with her parents for longer than she needed to, in my view. From what I read about her in The Warmth of Distant Suns, the woman was a status snob. Why live with her husband, Robert, until he became well established?
Why bother to help and support him during the years when he struggled to establish his practice? For years, this “wife” kept their first two daughters away from him, preferring to stay with the ritzy grandparents. IMO, she poisoned Robert’s elder children against him.
Even after Robert’s wife and children eventually moved in with him, that marriage was limited. If family had to come first, Robert might have seemed like a failure. To me, he was anything but.
Dr. Foster’s enormous “family” became the patients whose lives he saved. Patients he treated with exemplary kindness, heartfelt compassion, superb skill.
Wisdom Seekers, do you believe that having a happy, churchgoing family is the only way to develop social relationships that matter? What has your experience been? What do you believe about that Age of Faith acid test for a good life?
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #8.
What Else Did Robert Pershing Foster Accomplish?
He excelled at work in the world to help others. No matter how successful he became, Robert’s integrity was impeccable. He lived his values.
Proof of that, to me, were his many friendships outside of family. Including that long, long friendship with Ray Charles.
For evidence of personal growth, look at all that Robert overcame. Including his cold wife, his unkind in-laws, two of his children who were spoiled rotten before he got to know them, and all the racism Robert encountered before migrating far-far away from the Jim Crow South.
Had his family treated him better, maybe he wouldn’t have turned to gambling. My view! Absent support from his family, he had to seek emotional intensity somewhere. Besides, Robert never gambled more than he could afford to lose.
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #9
Regarding Spirituality, Direct Experience of God
Let me tell you my favorite story about Robert from The Warmth of Other Suns. As you can guess, he wasn’t a churchgoing man. So what?
Have you ever heard this saying, Wisdom Seekers?
Spirituality is caught, not taught.
Now, here’s the story I promised you.
Dr. Pershing was called in to help one of his patients. Here, I’ll call her “Gladys.”
In her hospital room, Gladys wasn’t doing well. The doctor did what he could to solve her immediate problem. Unless that problem was solved, she would have died in the night.
Dr. Pershing did absolutely everything he could think of. Nothing seemed to help. But he couldn’t leave Gladys there to die. He sat on a chair near her hospital bed. He didn’t know what else to do, so Robert prayed for God to help Gladys.
Robert sat. He prayed. Hours passed.
In the morning, an early shift at the hospital came in to do their usual morning routine. A worker was astonished to find Robert there, still praying. Usually dressed with fastidious care, Robert’s suit was rumpled. As though he had slept in it.
However he hadn’t slept. He had prayed all night.
The hospital worker startled Robert. [Hey, I’m putting the story together as best I remember it. Stories in this immense book were not indexed.]
Robert opened his eyes. Then he saw that Gladys was still alive. She was doing better. In fact, she later was discharged from the hospital. And not in a coffin.
This, to me, is a very revealing story about Robert Pershing Foster’s spiritual life. So what if he wasn’t a big deal at his local big deal church! Seems like, he never, ever gave up on a patient. (Far as I can tell, he never gave up on God, either.)
I wonder how many righteous church members can, in reality, set miraculous healings in motion.
Your thoughts, Wisdom Seekers?
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #10.
Rose Rosetree’s Age of Awakening Perspective on
The Life of Ida Mae Gladney
Fitting in mattered. It mattered greatly–to Ida Mae Gladney. Although she adapted to her life in Chicago, adapting is not the same as growing, is it?
Did she grow much? Maybe Ida Mae didn’t grow as much as she survived. For sure, she triumphed at living her faith-based values. Religiously, her life was a great success. Spiritually, though? Maybe not so much.
Isabel Wilkerson wrote repeatedly (as I recall) that “everybody loved her.” Most notably, to me–in the Epilogue to The Warmth of Other Suns–Wilkerson opined that Ida Mae was the most spiritual of the three.
And why?
- Because she was happy? And beautiful!!!
- Because she outlived George and Robert?
- Maybe because she never had an affair out of wedlock, like George?
- And she never gambled, like Robert?
- Of course, she was very devoted to her church. Also, Ida Mae stayed very connected to her church back “home.”
Hmm, let’s take another look, okay? An Age of Awakening Look.
How to Have a Good Life in the Age of Awakening #11.
Rose Rosetree’s Age of Awakening Perspective on Ida Mae Gladney
Can You Find a Theme Here?
Regarding: Meaningful Social Relationships
Sure, Ida Mae had them. Particularly with people from the South.
You see, Ida Mae never changed, not if she could help it. For example, she kept her heavy Southern drawl, even if that meant many people couldn’t understand a word she said.
Regarding: Work in the World to Help Others
Ida Mae wound up working at a hospital, a job that she kept for a long while. That does represent some personal growth. Like many in the South, she grew up mistrusting doctors and hospitals. Eventually, though, she held a long-time job working at one hospital.
Clearly she helped other people.
However, it seems pretty clear that Ida Mae had a way of helping people that mattered much more to her. She would remind the people she knew to accept the will of God, etc. Preaching to the choir, as it were. Ida Mae was a true believer who loved to cheer up other true believers.
It took a lot before Ida Mae dared to vote in elections–which had been impossible for a Black person in the Jim Crow South. After she found that she could safely vote, while living up North, Ida Mae wound up volunteering to help other new arrivals from the South to learn to vote. Beautiful!
Did Any of This Make Ida Mae Exceptionally “Spiritual”?
Regarding: Integrity, Living Your Values, here’s a revealing example of Ida Mae’s very Age of Faith loyalty. That name, Ida Mae, came straight from the South. Friends recommended that she change it.
Why? I’m guessing her friends encouraged this migrant to meet more people where she lived now. Even people who didn’t share her background! Maybe a different name might have helped her to find a bigger world with good people who didn’t grow up sharing Ida Mae’s exact same values.
I can’t resist asking this. Have any of you readers ever experienced Energy Spirituality Name Alignment®? I’m impressed by how much faster my clients grow when they upgrade their names to something in harmony with their souls in this lifetime. Do any of you Wisdom Seekers have a story about that to share?
Back at Ida Mae, she never considered changing her name. For her, if she though at all about Personal Growth, I suppose she would have equated that with being faithful to her old-time religion and everything from the South.
Wisdom Seekers, is fidelity to the past what it means to you, insisting upon personal growth? I grew up in a respectable, blue collar neighborhood in Flushing, Queens. A parochial school and convent were across the street from my block.
Had I never moved past those childhood influences, how could I have grown up to become the founder of Energy Spirituality®?
Finally, Regarding: Ida Mae’s Spirituality,
How about Her Direct Experience of God
Look, Wisdom Seekers, I have no way of knowing. All the chapters I read about this good Christian woman… persuaded me of one thing. To her, God meant Faith. Demonstrating a fidelity that inspired many others, Mrs. Gladney may never have budged one inch.
- In the Age of Faith–when she lived–a good thing.
- In the Age of Awakening–when I live–a bad thing.
Your thoughts about budging or not, Wisdom Seekers?
Aha! We’re just about done.
10. In Conclusion
Your Overview of This Three Part Series
What did you gain from today’s article, Wisdom Seekers?
Thanks for persevering through this uncommonly long article. To me, it was also uncommonly personal. That’s because I aim to help humanity to “budge.” The longer people take before they adjust to the Age of Awakening, the greater humanity’s suffering will be.
In my view, anyway.
Inspired by The Warmth of Other Suns
- Part 1 introduced you to Isabel Wilkerson’s depth study of three main characters, who were part of The Great Migration in America.
- In Part 2, I brought you perspective on letting go of Age of Faith values.
- While, in our Part 3, I’ve just brought you perspective on living well in the Age of Awakening.
