My mind has always done “word association” leading me from one thought to another. The past week, it’s led me from thinking about how much many of us talk about our consciousness, becoming awake and aware, to the fact there are few, if any, discussions about our conscience and why so many people seem to be deaf to theirs or even the possibility that some people have none.

Walt Disney introduced many a child to Pinocchio and through that story we got to know Jiminy Cricket who served as the conscience to the wooden puppet who wished to be a real boy. In a polite, fun way he taught Pinocchio the difference between right and wrong. For me, as a child, this was inspiring. Even after all these years, I can look at Jiminy Cricket and think of the positive correlation to the One Law of my spiritual path, “And ye harm none, do as ye will.”

The truth is, like so many other fairy tales and fables, Disney took a rather gruesome story and made it pleasant to both teach and entertain children. In the real story, The Adventures of Pinocchio, written in 1881 and 1882 by Carlo Collodi, Jiminy just appears as a talking cricket and doesn’t play a major role in the story. You see, in chapter 4 of that story, when the talking cricket tells Pinocchio to go back home, Pinocchio jumps up in a fury and throws a hammer at the cricket, hitting him in the head and killing him. He feels no remorse for this, even telling Gepetto it was the cricket’s own fault. Later, he does seem to regret not taking the cricket’s advice because he gets himself into more and more trouble until karma finally catches up to him and he gets his feet burned off. A very different tale from the one told by Disney.

So where am I going with all this? Well, it began with thinking about the devastation Mankind is wreaking on Planet Earth and how this could possibly be happening. After all, aren’t many of us becoming more awake and aware – more conscious? Then it hit me…somehow, someway at some point in recent history we, as a people, began to ignore or even “kill” our conscience – that faculty, according to the dictionary, “by which distinctions are made between moral right and wrong, especially in regard to one’s own conduct to the prescribed moral standard.”

One could even say that the moral standard has been perverted. Because we have yet to reach that tipping point where there is a majority of people who have become more spiritually conscious, the majority that still exists seems to have a different standard for their morals. As I have looked at it, the motivation for that moral standard seems to be greed. Money and power are the goals of those who continue to rape and destroy this planet. It appears, like the Pinocchio in the original story, they’ve taken a hammer to their talking crickets (consciences) and killed them, all in the name of greed. To me, this is both sad and scary because it reflects in their treatment of the planet as they kill specie after specie of animals and plants, disregarding the ultimate consequence – our own destruction – for the glory of the all-mighty dollar.

We’re living in a time of cataclysmic change on so very many levels. An energetic shift is happening and those who would have things continue in this destructive manner are hanging on with a death-grip, trying to prevent any kind of progress or change from happening. The resultant chaos that we’re experiencing comes from these shifting energies sorting themselves out as they struggle to settle into their new patterns. The ultimate truth is, that change will happen with or without us, no matter how hard anyone tries to stop it.

So what are we to do? Sit on our hands and wait it out? Well, that is an option, but not a very good one. The answer is as individualistic as each of us. That’s why we need to be conscious of our conscience. Each of our Jiminy Crickets will help us to know what part we play in all this – whether great or small. It could be as simple as becoming more aware of our existence, feelings and thoughts – the very definition of being conscious. It could be to find more reasons to be grateful or kind. It could even mean to become an activist in a cause you feel passionate about. It all ripples out and causes an energetic change, attracting similar energies to come together to cause that change we are all waiting and hoping will happen soon.

It is in these moments, we each have choices. Not just in what we want to do, but also in how to feel about all this. It is here that I believe how we feel is about where we place our focus. If we focus on the devastation and those creating it, there will be anger, fear, or possibly even hatred. These are exhausting energies that serve no real purpose and create no positive change. Instead, it would benefit each of us, our fellow beings, and our planet to focus on solutions, visualizing the end results and the feelings that are created by the manifestation of a flourishing world. These are exhilarating, uplifting energies that create goodness and make us feel energized.

Although we may have a way to go to reach these goals, to remember that there are many of us on this wavelength should be a comfort. Even though we may never physically meet, we can, individually, work for a common cause and thus join our positive energies together for the healing of ourselves and our planet. Jiminy Cricket would be proud!

Love and Blessed Be