2013 – What’s Changed This Year?
Posted by Stephen Cook on December 28, 2013
By Stephen Cook – December 28, 2013
With just three days to go until 2013 has transitioned to 2014, I wonder what great and amazing things await us all?
Each and every day lately, I awake with the sense that something ‘big’ is about to happen. That feeling of anticipation has continually increased, especially in this last month.
On my final Lift Your Spirit radio program for the year last Saturday, titled December 21 – One Year On…What Now?, Linda Dillon and I talked at length about some of the big changes that we each have witnessed this year. To hear what we talked about in detail, click on the show link at the end of this article.
But in the meantime, at Steve’s suggestion – and while my comments are not in any way conclusive – I share an excerpt from the show where I talk about the really big changes in the wider world that I believe we can look back on even now and say: “Yes, that was significant move towards a world that works for everyone.”
Stephen Cook: To me, I think the world has changed a lot. One of the things I try to do, even on the blog, is look for those stories. Some people have said “Oh, we have too many mainstream stories,” but my philosophy on the blog is to find and show people the tangible changes.
So, if you want to, you can go: “Oh my God, there could have been a war in Syria, a war in Iran… oh, there’s fighting here.”
Yes, there is, and we all expand our love and our compassion to those countries. But when I look at the year that’s been, the NSA – I don’t think anyone realizes how deep that really is. They’re seeing it and it comes out every week. Yesterday there were more revelations. I don’t think we’ve seen even 20% yet of what that actually means. I think there are secrets and secret and secrets yet to come out with that. To me, that is a BIG change.
The way that Edward Snowden was embraced by many – OK, some people said he was a traitor; but many were “Yes, we need to know this”. The whole conversation that’s started around security; I mean I’m now putting a little piece of paper over the camera on my laptop because I know that people can tap in and start watching what I’m doing in my home; apparently you should also do that on your phone now if you’ve got a camera on your phone.
So those sort of things have made us realize that what we thought was private is not necessarily public, but it’s become something that it shouldn’t be.
And OK, 99 per cent of us are not doing anything wrong, or we should have nothing to fear, but it’s the fact that it’s being done without our consent, without our knowledge. Way back even for me six, seven years ago, I had a huge fight with Google Earth when they came to Australia and they started going up and down the streets taking photos of everybody’s houses from the street. They didn’t ask anyone’s permission, they just suddenly decided what they were going to do. They just went off. There were no laws place, there was no process.
Now, yes, we all love going to Google Earth and we all love going there before we go traveling or we can go see our friend’s house in Switzerland…. All that. I love all that. But no one asked me. And that’s important. So, maybe the discussion about the NSA will be that we’re asked if we want that to happen.
The other thing is also all those demonstrations. I don’t even think we’ve listed half of them. There are massive demonstrations; the Ukraine last week; Bulgaria, Romania, places that we just take by the by, as they are all standing up and saying:]“We will not tolerate this”.
Now for many of us in so-called first-world countries – which to me are actually behind the third-world countries, because the third-world countries have had to literally find a way of living and creating community without necessarily the money, without necessarily the food, without the necessarily the housing. And I’m getting teary just talking about it.
But when you go to those ‘third-world’ countries; the love they have for each other is great. It’s humungous. And that is the unity consciousness.
It’s us, in the so-called first-world or developed world, that are actually slightly behind them.
Because we’re only now just realizing that, as you say, it is about your neighborhood; it is about your community; it is about coming together at that level.
Because as each little community builds, that energy – you say we’ve got our energy field, well that’s what’s being given out in third-world countries every day. Extended families and all that sort of stuff. They’re the things that I see are changing.
Here, the things that have changed…. Negotiation. Negotiation… that Suzy Ward talked about two weeks ago. About Syria. About Iran. ‘Let’s talk about it instead of going in guns blazing’. Those are really big changes for me.
As sad as it is to say, the US has been in war for 12 years now and longer. Every major war that has happened for quite some time now has come from America and I’m sorry to say this to Americans – it’s not you, it is the Cabal; it’s those people pulling the strings behind – they are no longer in power. Because if they were, that war in Syria would have taken place on a global scale. Yes, in Syria it’s horrific, but on a global scale. With Iran, that would have kind of evolved into something way more than it was if brains and unity consciousness weren’t in place. So those changes are happening.
I’ve seen changes in banks, they way they’re dealing with their customers. You’ve seen it in all those really big banks all around the world – They’ve been fined in Europe; fined in America; fined in the UK. And they’ve been in big trouble. Where they get their money from to pay for their fines I don’t know – yes, they’ve been ripping us all off with interest for ages, but those fines have come to fulfillment. Those stories have been in the mainstream papers.
The one thing that I have noticed, though, and I was talking with Sheldan Nidle about this last week, is that somehow the mainstream media is able to contain stories. So something that can be a really big societal change – and by that, it is the banks, it is the things that are happening – they’re contained within that country.
So, the mainstream media is not doing its job by making sure that those big, big stories are seen in the wider world.
For many of us, we don’t speak ninety-five different languages, so we can’t see what’s going on in all those other countries as well. And when you go to sites that are in other languages to see what’s happening, the world is waking up. They really, really are. And that has changed.
So, while we can look at all the disappointing things and go: “Oh, goodness what can we do about that,” on the other level, a lot of other stuff has happened.
I think this year has been pretty phenomenal when I look back on it. Not only individually, because I have to be honest, I just don’t have fear. I don’t. I don’t know where it’s gone; yeah I have a little bit of worry, but I don’t have fear. And I thought I didn’t have fear last year, but this year I know I don’t have fear.
Linda Dillon: And there’s a world of difference between fear and concern.
Stephen Cook: Yes. A world of difference. So, practicality is still there, within the reality that we live in, but fear of what could be the worst case scenario – when you deal with the worst case scenario and you face it you say: “Oh yes. Right. Fine.” and I think that’s been a big change for me.
The other thing that I think is really important is that – and I’ve noticed this; over the last few years, a lot of governments have gone into an election scenario and there’s been a hung parliament: the people couldn’t make up their minds who was right, who was wrong, who was the best party.
So there’s been a lot of that happening…where coalitions have been formed. Look at Greece, look at England, even Australia – the government that came in was already a coalition from several years ago. But what’s happening now sometimes, and I’ll use Australia, sometimes a government that made a lot of social change, but didn’t do necessarily what everybody wanted, was chucked out. Another new government comes in.
But, in Australia, we’ve seen this more than ever. The government that’s in place now, came into power on September 7. The polls said that if an election was held last weekend, that government would have been thrown out of power. And I use “power” not being the word, but out of doing what they’re meant to be doing
That is an enormous change in a small timeframe because the politicians are not doing what we want them to do. They’re not serving us. They’re not doing the right thing; and people are standing up and saying” “We’re not going to put up with this anymore”. So those are the big changes that I have noticed.
You talk about the microcosm label, you know, the neighborhood; the things to do. I actually think that change has taken place there for quite some time. I think that people do look out for one another. I think that people are trying to be considerate of their neighbors, do what they need to do. I feel that’s one really big change.
But the other big change is that I am becoming more and more attuned to what other people are thinking. Anthony and I have it all the time; where something he’s thinking, I’m thinking. We look at each other, no speaking, we just look at each other and say: “Did you have that thought first, or did I.” That’s really interesting.
I said to Wes on last week’s show, I went to the shopping center the other week before Christmas and I could read other people’s minds. And I could feel their stress. As Wes said, he goes around the shopping center blessing people.
So in the next few days if everybody that goes to a shopping center can not take on everyone else’s stress and literally share your energy of love, share your blessings to all those people struggling to find those last minute Christmas presents, then that’s another big change.
So, yes, I think I’ve covered a bit of ground there…
With much gratitude to Janie for transcribing.
Lift Your Spirit: December 21 – One Year On…What Now? with Stephen Cook and Linda Dillon. Listen today or at any time:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/inlight_radio/2013/12/21/lift-your-spirit-december-21–one-year-onwhat-now