It is not the event that determines whether something is traumatic to someone, but the individual's experience of the event.
What is emotional or psychological trauma?
The ability to recognize emotional trauma has changed radically over the course of history. Until rather recently psychological trauma was noted only in men after catastrophic wars. The women's movement in the sixties broadened the definition of emotional trauma to include physically and sexually abused women and children. Now because of the discoveries made in the nineties, known as the decade of the brain, psychological trauma has further broadened its definition.
Recent research has revealed that emotional trauma can result from such common occurrences as an auto accident, the breakup of a significant relationship, a humiliating or deeply disappointing experience, the discovery of a life-threatening illness or disabling condition, or other similar situations. Traumatizing events can take a serious emotional toll on those involved, even if the event did not cause physical damage.
Regardless of its source, an emotional trauma contains three common elements:
1. it was unexpected
2. the person was unprepared
3. there was nothing the person could do to prevent it from happening
It is not the event that determines whether something is traumatic to someone, but the individual's experience of the event. And it is not predictable how a given person will react to a particular event. For someone who is used to being in control of emotions and events, it may be surprising – even embarrassing – to discover that something like an accident or job loss can be so debilitating.
What causes emotional or psychological trauma?
Our brains are structured into three main parts, long observed in autopsies:
the cortex (the outer surface, where higher thinking skills arise; includes the frontal cortex, the most recently evolved portion of the brain)
the limbic system (the center of the brain, where emotions evolve)
the brain stem (the reptilian brain that controls basic survival functions)
Because of the development of brain scan technology, scientists can now observe the brain in action, without waiting for an autopsy. These scans reveal that trauma actually changes the structure and function of the brain, at the point where the frontal cortex, the emotional brain and the survival brain converge. A significant finding is that brain scans of people with relationship or developmental problems, learning problems, and social problems related to emotional intelligence reveal similar structural and functional irregularities to those resulting from PTSD.
What is the difference between stress and emotional or psychological trauma?
One way to tell the difference between stress and emotional trauma is by looking at the outcome—how much residual effect an upsetting event is having on our lives, relationships, and overall functioning. Traumatic distress can be distinguished from routine stress by assessing the following:
1. how quickly upset is triggered
2. how frequently upset is triggered
3. how intensely threatening the source of upset is
4. how long upset lasts
5. how long it takes to calm down
If we can communicate our distress to people who care about us and can respond adequately, and if we return to a state of equilibrium following a stressful event, we are in the realm of stress. If we become frozen in a state of active emotional intensity, we are experiencing an emotional trauma—even though sometimes we may not be consciously aware of the level of distress we are experiencing.
Why can an event cause an emotionally traumatic response in one person and not in another?
There is no clear answer to this question, but it is likely that one or more of these factors are involved:
1. the severity of the event
2. the individual's personal history (which may not even be recalled)
3. the larger meaning the event represents for the individual (which may not be immediately evident)
4. coping skills, values and beliefs held by the individual (some of which may have never been identified)
5. the reactions and support from family, friends, and/or professionals
Anyone can become traumatized. Even professionals who work with trauma, or other people close to a traumatized person, can develop symptoms of "vicarious" or "secondary" traumatization. Developing symptoms is never a sign of weakness. Symptoms should be taken seriously and steps should be taken to heal, just as one would take action to heal from a physical ailment. And just as with a physical condition, the amount of time or assistance needed to recover from emotional trauma will vary from one person to another.
What are the symptoms of emotional trauma?
There are common effects or conditions that may occur following a traumatic event. Sometimes these responses can be delayed, for months or even years after the event. Often people do not initially associate their symptoms with the precipitating trauma. The following are symptoms that may result from a more commonplace, unresolved trauma, especially if there were earlier, overwhelming life experiences:
Physical
1. Eating disturbances (more or less than usual)
2. Sleep disturbances (more or less than usual)
3. Sexual dysfunction
4. Low energy
5. Chronic, unexplained pain
Emotional
1. Depression, spontaneous crying, despair and hopelessness
2. Anxiety
3. Panic attacks
4. Fearfulness
5. Compulsive and obsessive behaviors
6. Feeling out of control
7. Irritability, angry and resentment
8. Emotional numbness
9. Withdrawal from normal routine and relationships
Cognitive
1. Memory lapses, especially about the trauma
2. Difficulty making decisions
3. Decreased ability to concentrate
4. Feeling distracted
The following additional symptoms of emotional trauma are commonly associated with a severe precipitating event, such as a natural disaster, exposure to war, rape, assault, violent crime, major car or airplane crashes, or child abuse. Extreme symptoms can also occur as a delayed reaction to the traumatic event.
1. Re-experiencing the trauma
2. intrusive thoughts
3. flashbacks or nightmares
4. sudden floods of emotions or images related to the traumatic event
5. Emotional numbing and avoidance
6. amnesia
7. avoidance of situations that resemble the initial event
8. detachment
9. depression
10. guilt feelings
11. grief reactions
12. an altered sense of time
13. Increased arousal
14. hyper-vigilance, jumpiness, an extreme sense of being "on guard"
15. overreactions, including sudden unprovoked anger
16. general anxiety
17. insomnia
18. obsessions with death
What are the possible effects of emotional trauma?
Even when unrecognized, emotional trauma can create lasting difficulties in an individual's life. One way to determine whether an emotional or psychological trauma has occurred, perhaps even early in life before language or conscious awareness were in place, is to look at the kinds of recurring problems one might be experiencing. These can serve as clues to an earlier situation that caused a dysregulation in the structure or function of the brain.
Common personal and behavioral effects of emotional trauma:
1. substance abuse
2. compulsive behavior patterns
3. self-destructive and impulsive behavior
4. uncontrollable reactive thoughts
5. inability to make healthy professional or lifestyle choices
6. dissociative symptoms ("splitting off" parts of the self)
7. feelings of ineffectiveness, shame, despair, hopelessness
8. feeling permanently damaged
9. a loss of previously sustained beliefs
Common effects of emotional trauma on interpersonal relationships:
1. inability to maintain close relationships or choose appropriate friends and mates
2. sexual problems
3. hostility
4. arguments with family members, employers or co-workers
5. social withdrawal
6. feeling constantly threatened
What if symptoms don't go away, or appear at a later time?
Over time, even without professional treatment, symptoms of an emotional trauma generally subside, and normal daily functioning gradually returns. However, even after time has passed, sometimes the symptoms don't go away. Or they may appear to be gone, but surface again in another stressful situation. When a person's daily life functioning or life choices continue to be affected, a post-traumatic stress disorder may be the problem, requiring professional assistance.
How is emotional trauma treated?
Traditional approaches to treating emotional trauma include:
1. talk therapies (working out the feelings associated with the trauma)
2. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) involves changing one's thoughts and actions, and includes systematic desensitization to reduce reactivity to a traumatic stressor
3. relaxation/stress reduction techniques, such as biofeedback and breathwork
4. hypnosis to deal with reactions often below the level of conscious awareness
There are also several recent developments in the treatment of emotional trauma. Depending on the nature of the trauma and the age or state of development at which it occurred, these somatic (body) psychotherapies might even be more effective than traditional therapies. Some of the new therapies include:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming)
Somatic Experiencing
Hakomi
Integrative Body Psychotherapy
Monday, July 24, 2006
From Psychology Today
Anger, pain and depression are three negative experiences so closely bound together it can sometimes be hard to know where one ends and the other begins. Pain is a complex phenomenon that has emotional and physical components. The emotions play a huge role in the experience of pain, and pain is intimately associated with depression. It's long been known that the psychic pain of depression feeds anger. But just as often, anger fuels depression.
A powerful emotion physiologically and emotionally, anger often feels good—but only for the moment. It can be a motivating force that moves you to action. But there are good actions and bad ones; it's vital to distinguish between the two.
Many people confuse anger and hostility. Anger is a response to a situation that presents some threat. Hostility is a more enduring characteristic, a predisposition, a personality trait reflecting a readiness to express anger.
Anger is usually anything but subtle. It has potent physiological effects. You feel it in your chest. You feel it in your head. You feel it coursing through your body.
Nevertheless, anger can be insidious. Anger confers an immediate sense of purpose; it's a shortcut to motivation. And if there's something depressed people need, it's motivation. But anger creates a cycle of rage and defeatism.
When you feel anger, it provides the impulse to pass the pain along to others. The boss chews you out, you then snap at everyone in your path. Anger, however, can eventually lead you into self-pity, because you can't slough off the self-hurt.
Anger is classically a way of passing psychic pain on to others. The two-step: You feel hurt, "poor me," "I hate you." It's a way of making others pay for your emotional deficits. It is wise to change that tendency. Whether or not anger fuels depression, it isn't good for the enjoyment of life.
Here are ways to keep anger from feeding your depression.
- First, of course, is to identify anger and to acknowledge it. Anger is one of those emotions whose expression is sometimes subject to taboos so that people can grow up unable to recognize it; they feel its physical discomfort but can't label it.
- Build a lexicon for your internal states. If you have a word for your emotional state, then you can begin to deal with it. Feelings are fluid; you need to stop and capture them in a word, or else you lose them and don't know you have them. A label improves your ability to understand your feelings.
- View your anger as a signal. It is not something to be escaped. It is not something to be suppressed. It is something to be accepted as a sign that some deeper threat has occurred that needs your attention.
- Make yourself aware of the purpose your anger serves. Be sure to distinguish purpose from passion. Things that have a positive purpose seek betterment, growth, love, enhancement, fulfillment. Things that have a negative purpose are motivated by a sense of deficiency. Your boss yells at you, you feel diminished; the anger you express at others is driven by the blow you've just received. Are you enraged about an inequity or unfairness?
In order to identify your motivation, you need to look within. It's a matter of becoming psychological-minded and engaging in introspection. Tune into the inner dialogue that you customarily have with yourself.
- If your anger is deficiency-motivated, driven by a wish to rectify a wrong you believe done to you, work on acceptance. Give up your obsession about the wrong. See that the opposite of anger is not passivity but more functional assertiveness.
- Uproot mistaken beliefs that underlie your response. Very often anger is the result of beliefs that lead you to place unreasonable demands on circumstances, such as, that life must be fair. Unfairness exists. The belief that you are entitled to fairness results from the mistaken idea that you are special. If you feel that you are special, you will certainly find lots to be angry about, because the universe is indifferent to us.
Insisting that life must be fair is not only irrational, it will cause you to collect injustices done to your noble self. Even if you are experiencing nothing more than your fair share of unfairness, such a belief can still fuel rage and lead to depression.
Those who hold the deep belief that life should always be fair cannot abide when it is unfair. That leads directly to rage that is totally inert, because they believe there is nothing that they can do about the unfairness. They feel helpless and hopeless—in other words, depressed. Self-pity is another description of the same phenomenon.
- Notice your own complaining. Listen for both overt and covert complaining. Overt complaining hassles others. It's really a manipulative strategy. Know when it's becoming a downer and a barrier to a strategy of effectiveness—like complaining about a fly in your soup. Covert complaining hassles you; it drags you down into passivity and inertia. Once you notice it, determine to give it up.
- Once you can accept that life sometimes is unfair, then you can pursue positive purpose. You can work constructively against injustices you find, transforming your anger into passion. Or you can pursue fulfillment in spite of the unfairness that exists.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
I've been away....
I took an unexpected road trip on Monday of last week. I got a call from my daughter and she sounded like she could use a visit from her mom so I was packed and on the road within 30 minutes. Maggie Mae came too.
It was 118 in Phoenix and smack dab in the middle of the monsoon season. I just got back and it rained all the way home. In fact, it's raining right now, in my beach city, and there's plenty of thunder and lightening to add to the ambience. Strange weather for Southern California. I'm sure we've set some tempurature records this week. I'll have to check....
I checked....
EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM PDT THIS EVENING...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LOS ANGELES/OXNARD HAS ISSUED AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM PDT THIS EVENING.
VERY HIGH TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH HIGH HUMIDITY LEVELS WILL PRODUCE DANGEROUS HEAT INDEX VALUES BETWEEN 105 AND 115 DEGREES FROM LATE THIS MORNING THROUGH THIS EVENING. THE HIGHEST HEAT INDEX VALUES ARE EXPECTED IN THE HIGHER TERRAIN FROM BEVERLY HILLS THROUGH THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS.
AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF DANGEROUSLY HOT TEMPERATURES WILL OCCUR. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUS SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE LIKELY. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER...TRY TO STAY OUT OF THE SUN... PREFERABLY IN AN AIR- CONDITIONED ROOM. CHECK UP ON RELATIVES... NEIGHBORS...AND CHILDREN AT PLAY.
CHILDREN AND THE ELDERLY ARE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO HEAT STROKE. NO PERSON OR PET SHOULD EVER STAY IN AN ENCLOSED VEHICLE EVEN FOR THE SHORTEST AMOUNT OF TIME. TEMPERATURES QUICKLY RISE TO LIFE- THREATENING LEVELS...EVEN IF THE WINDOWS ARE PARTIALLY OPEN.
It was 118 in Phoenix and smack dab in the middle of the monsoon season. I just got back and it rained all the way home. In fact, it's raining right now, in my beach city, and there's plenty of thunder and lightening to add to the ambience. Strange weather for Southern California. I'm sure we've set some tempurature records this week. I'll have to check....
I checked....
EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM PDT THIS EVENING...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LOS ANGELES/OXNARD HAS ISSUED AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM PDT THIS EVENING.
VERY HIGH TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH HIGH HUMIDITY LEVELS WILL PRODUCE DANGEROUS HEAT INDEX VALUES BETWEEN 105 AND 115 DEGREES FROM LATE THIS MORNING THROUGH THIS EVENING. THE HIGHEST HEAT INDEX VALUES ARE EXPECTED IN THE HIGHER TERRAIN FROM BEVERLY HILLS THROUGH THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS.
AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF DANGEROUSLY HOT TEMPERATURES WILL OCCUR. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUS SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE LIKELY. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER...TRY TO STAY OUT OF THE SUN... PREFERABLY IN AN AIR- CONDITIONED ROOM. CHECK UP ON RELATIVES... NEIGHBORS...AND CHILDREN AT PLAY.
CHILDREN AND THE ELDERLY ARE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO HEAT STROKE. NO PERSON OR PET SHOULD EVER STAY IN AN ENCLOSED VEHICLE EVEN FOR THE SHORTEST AMOUNT OF TIME. TEMPERATURES QUICKLY RISE TO LIFE- THREATENING LEVELS...EVEN IF THE WINDOWS ARE PARTIALLY OPEN.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Damn! It's HOT!
Huminidity in Southern California is usually pretty low, afterall, it's a desert. But, last night at midnight , it was 71 degrees in my beach town, with 90% humidity. It's crazy. We had a freak thunderstorm in the early am hours and it looks like we're going to have more of the same today. It's awful. I know it's much worse east of here and in the northern valleys it's unbearable, but the beach dwellers are suffering too. We usually have a cool breeze coming in from the ocean but there's been no such thing. It's nasty out, plain and simple. From what I've read, the whole country is sweltering. I'm going to move to a house with a pool.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Minestrone
My baby girl is now a wife and mother. Her baby is three years old and she's expecting one more in December, a Christmas baby. She's feeling kind of funky, what with the heat and morning sickness. Whenever I go to Phoenix to visit, I make a big pot of her favorite soup, Minestrone. It seems to be the only thing she wants to eat right now. So, here is the recipe, Honey.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 med. leek
1 small onion
6 cloves garlic
1 can kidney beans rinsed well
3 boxes of organic veggie broth
6 or 7 cups veggies, brocolli, green beans, zucchini, yellow neck squash, carrots, celery
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup elbow macaroni
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 head shredded cabbage
grated parmesean cheese
crusty sourdough bread
In large pot, heat oil on med heat. Slice leek down the center and remove tough outer layer. Rinse well and thinly slice up to green part. Chop onion. Add both to pot and saute for 2 or 3 minutes, or until tender. Add pressed or finely chopped garlic, salt and pepper and cook another minute. Add chopped and sliced veggies and stir till coated with oil, onions and garlic. Add can of kidney beans, rinsed. Add broth and herbs. Bring to a low boil and turn down heat to simmer. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir until incorporated. Add macaroni and frozen peas and corn and cook 10 minutes, covered. Add shredded cabbage cover again and turn off heat, allowing cabbage to wilt. (5 minutes.) Serve with a sprinkle of parmesean cheese and warm crusty sourdough bread....Yum!
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 med. leek
1 small onion
6 cloves garlic
1 can kidney beans rinsed well
3 boxes of organic veggie broth
6 or 7 cups veggies, brocolli, green beans, zucchini, yellow neck squash, carrots, celery
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup elbow macaroni
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 head shredded cabbage
grated parmesean cheese
crusty sourdough bread
In large pot, heat oil on med heat. Slice leek down the center and remove tough outer layer. Rinse well and thinly slice up to green part. Chop onion. Add both to pot and saute for 2 or 3 minutes, or until tender. Add pressed or finely chopped garlic, salt and pepper and cook another minute. Add chopped and sliced veggies and stir till coated with oil, onions and garlic. Add can of kidney beans, rinsed. Add broth and herbs. Bring to a low boil and turn down heat to simmer. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir until incorporated. Add macaroni and frozen peas and corn and cook 10 minutes, covered. Add shredded cabbage cover again and turn off heat, allowing cabbage to wilt. (5 minutes.) Serve with a sprinkle of parmesean cheese and warm crusty sourdough bread....Yum!
Exercise your belly laugh!
The Hermosa Beach Magic and Comedy Club is celebrating their birthday all month with 20 comedians a night. Tickets are only $20 and there's a 2 drink minimum, well worth the amount of exercise your face and sides will get. I laughed to so hard I almost popped a blood vessel.
Thank you, Linda
If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
millions who won't survive the week.
If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.
If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.
If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back,
a roof overyour head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still married and alive,
you are very rare,
especially in the United States..
If you hold up your head with a smile
on your face and are truly thankful,
you are blessed because the majority can,but most do not.
If you can hold someone's hand, hug them
or even touch them on the shoulder,
you are blessed because you can
offer God's healing touch.
If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
who cannot read anything at all.
You are blessed in ways
you may never even know.
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
millions who won't survive the week.
If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.
If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.
If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back,
a roof overyour head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still married and alive,
you are very rare,
especially in the United States..
If you hold up your head with a smile
on your face and are truly thankful,
you are blessed because the majority can,but most do not.
If you can hold someone's hand, hug them
or even touch them on the shoulder,
you are blessed because you can
offer God's healing touch.
If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
who cannot read anything at all.
You are blessed in ways
you may never even know.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Miss Maggie Mae
Well, last week I was ready to ship this 75 pound pup to Neptune or worse but after a few more days of working with her I think she may have just bought herself another week. I've learned to put all my shoes, leather cases, cell phones and assessories, and bits of edibles behind the closet door. I've learned that if she has long morning walks and time to run at the dog park she's much happier to behave as I ask, and I've learned that dog people, the ones I've met so far in the dog park....are wonderful people. They've all been so helpful with ideas and advice for my training. Miss Maggie Mae is going to go camping with me next week. I've ordered a crate for her, as the dog owners at the park have all agreed is the best way to keep your dog contained and easier to train. I may have to buy another collar or two, a prong collar and a halter for around her snout. She's still pulling a bit which means my mother will not be able to walk her at all until that is stopped. She doesn't jump on people, she doesn't bark, she doesn't beg, she's really well behaved. This may be just what my Angels had in mind for me. I'm up early to walk her, I'm out late to walk her again and she sleeps on the floor at the foot of my bed, just in case I have a need for wet kisses. LOL Dogs have a way of crawling into your heart even when you're resistant. I highly recommend them.
http://www.thesecret.tv/
http://www.thesecret.tv/
Thursday, July 13, 2006
I ordered the DVD at www.thesecret.tv
If you haven't watched this online movie you are cheating yourself out of some very useful information.
I'll be showing it at my house in a couple of weeks. Another film for our "Enlighten-UP" meeting.
If you haven't watched this online movie you are cheating yourself out of some very useful information.
I'll be showing it at my house in a couple of weeks. Another film for our "Enlighten-UP" meeting.
Dr. Bruce Lipton
http://www.brucelipton.com/ Ya gotta love this guy. He's such a wonderful speaker. There's a video on his site that explains hindbrain reflexes...check it out.
Thank you Beverly
The Daffodil Principle:
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over."
I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. "I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.
"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother."
"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.
"I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car."
"How far will we have to drive?"
"Oh...just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "But I'll drive. I'm used to this."
After several minutes, I had to ask, "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!"
"We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of the daffodils."
"Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn around."
"It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."
After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, " Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and it's surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.
"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.
"Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home."
Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.
On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."
For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.
"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.
She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?"
Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting.....
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die...
There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money, Love like you've never been hurt, and, Dance like no one's watching.
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over."
I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. "I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.
"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother."
"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.
"I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car."
"How far will we have to drive?"
"Oh...just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "But I'll drive. I'm used to this."
After several minutes, I had to ask, "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!"
"We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of the daffodils."
"Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn around."
"It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."
After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, " Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and it's surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.
"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.
"Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home."
Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.
On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."
For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.
"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.
She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?"
Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting.....
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die...
There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money, Love like you've never been hurt, and, Dance like no one's watching.
How Quickly Can A Healing Take Place?
As quickly as you believe it can.
Many years ago, when I was working in a day spa in Manhattan Beach, I felt a stabbing pain in my wrist. I was afraid of its message...arthritis?......over-work?..........fracture?.........My mind began to jump around. "I can't miss work." "This isn't good." "I hope I'm not getting arthritis." Uh-oh...my other hand began to hurt....Holy Crap! "What's going on?" "I can't afford to miss work!" I jumped into a mode of healing that I was used to, as a massage therapist. I massaged my hands and wrists, I cancelled appointments to give them rest, I iced them, I bought a bottle of Advil, I wrapped them in ace bandages and left the office, worried I wouldn't be able to finish out the week...or worse, my career could be over.
Then, while walking to my car, head down, worried mind, shoulders slumped, the perfect image of a victim....my other training kicked in..
"What belief do I have that is creating this?" I started laughing at how I managed to go from one little bit of pain to total victim, in record time. How funny we humans are. Before I made it all the way across the parking lot I turned it around, I went from victim to creator. I owned my creation and then changed my mind. The pain was dis-created along with the belief. It was gone in an instant. The whole experience, Gone!
A healing can take place in an instant when you own its creation. If you created it, and you did, then you can dis-create it. Turn off the energy to it and allow it to cease. Then create the belief you prefer to experience. "I'm always healthy and strong." "I am radiantly healthy."
In relationships, we are co-creating. Any and all relationships are a co-creation. What he or she does or says, has as much to do with your beliefs, as they have to do with his or hers. Once you know this, it's very hard to play the blame game for very long.
You'll know what your beliefs are when you look at your life and your relationships and your experiences. They are a direct reflection of what you believe about yourself.
Again...what I judge in you, I judge in me.
What I love in you, I love in me.
What I resist in you, I resist in me.
So, the question to ask is, "What do I want to create next?"
Many years ago, when I was working in a day spa in Manhattan Beach, I felt a stabbing pain in my wrist. I was afraid of its message...arthritis?......over-work?..........fracture?.........My mind began to jump around. "I can't miss work." "This isn't good." "I hope I'm not getting arthritis." Uh-oh...my other hand began to hurt....Holy Crap! "What's going on?" "I can't afford to miss work!" I jumped into a mode of healing that I was used to, as a massage therapist. I massaged my hands and wrists, I cancelled appointments to give them rest, I iced them, I bought a bottle of Advil, I wrapped them in ace bandages and left the office, worried I wouldn't be able to finish out the week...or worse, my career could be over.
Then, while walking to my car, head down, worried mind, shoulders slumped, the perfect image of a victim....my other training kicked in..
"What belief do I have that is creating this?" I started laughing at how I managed to go from one little bit of pain to total victim, in record time. How funny we humans are. Before I made it all the way across the parking lot I turned it around, I went from victim to creator. I owned my creation and then changed my mind. The pain was dis-created along with the belief. It was gone in an instant. The whole experience, Gone!
A healing can take place in an instant when you own its creation. If you created it, and you did, then you can dis-create it. Turn off the energy to it and allow it to cease. Then create the belief you prefer to experience. "I'm always healthy and strong." "I am radiantly healthy."
In relationships, we are co-creating. Any and all relationships are a co-creation. What he or she does or says, has as much to do with your beliefs, as they have to do with his or hers. Once you know this, it's very hard to play the blame game for very long.
You'll know what your beliefs are when you look at your life and your relationships and your experiences. They are a direct reflection of what you believe about yourself.
Again...what I judge in you, I judge in me.
What I love in you, I love in me.
What I resist in you, I resist in me.
So, the question to ask is, "What do I want to create next?"
Harry Palmer
"Honesty with yourself leads to compassion for others. It's easier to defend your actions than to honestly examine them. We are quicker to attack than admit. Admissions require courage. Becoming more honest with ourselves means introducing more honesty into the collective consciousness of the world and this lays the foundation upon which an enlightened planetary civilization can be built."
Avatar Plan For A Better World
I can learn to be alert to my own self-deception. I can learn to recognize the signals that tell me I am losing my integrity.
1. When I am quick to find the error in others, I have failed to correct myself.
2. When my acts are designed to persuade another, I doubt myself
3. When I experience struggle with the world, I have denied responsibility for my own creations.
4. When I feel separate and alone, I have failed to forgive.
5. When events repeat themselves in my life, there is a lesson I need to learn.
1. When I am quick to find the error in others, I have failed to correct myself.
2. When my acts are designed to persuade another, I doubt myself
3. When I experience struggle with the world, I have denied responsibility for my own creations.
4. When I feel separate and alone, I have failed to forgive.
5. When events repeat themselves in my life, there is a lesson I need to learn.
One never knows where healing will come from. You may expect it, or seek it out from one direction yet find that it comes from another. The end result is what is important. The Universe will see to it that it is accomplished if if is your heartfelt intention. Your intention is what is primary to succeed in any healing. It may not look the way you think it should, it may not turn out exactly as you invisioned, but it will be accomplished.
If your belief is that you are a healer, then you will be moved to actions that provide you the experience. It never fails. Believe it and you'll be living it.
If your belief is that you are a healer, then you will be moved to actions that provide you the experience. It never fails. Believe it and you'll be living it.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Here is The Secret
www.thesecret.tv
For a few dollars you can watch a 90 minute movie or order a dvd that will tell you The Secret....
This is what I teach in a nutshell....
For a few dollars you can watch a 90 minute movie or order a dvd that will tell you The Secret....
This is what I teach in a nutshell....
"When life becomes difficult, we ask 'why.' It's the wrong question. We need to ask 'what.' What am I supposed to learn from this? If we don't 'get it' the first time around, life presents the opportunity to learn the lesson time and time again, until we understand and change. Then, when we look back, we often wonder why it took us so long."
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
As it turns out....I have lost my mind.
Maggie Mae is going back to Phoenix, or to new owners, or to another planet. Puppy mentality in a 75 pound dog is a dangerous mixture. She's sweet and smart but man-o-man she can do some serious damage when you aren't looking. Damage to expensive items.
After our morning walk today I had to go to Cingular in Manhattan Beach to get my phone checked out. It was telling me to install the battery which was already in there. It turns out sticking your cell phone inside your bra when you workout isn't the wisest thing. Moisture and cell phones don't do well together and I was forced to buy a new one and me without insurance. I decided to get one with a new headset and all the fancy whooohaaas so I could take my long walks with Maggie Mae and not miss business calls. I brought it all home and laid it out on my dresser to charge up. After a my massage therapist left (yes, I get massages regularly) I came into my room and Miss Maggie Mae had gotten up on my dresser, gouging her sharp nails into the wood and pulling down my brand new headset. She chewed it up into itty bitty pieces. My candles are destroyed, a piece of jewelry and all the packaging was strewn all over the floor. I can't do this. I can't afford to do this. I've spent $300 on her in less than a week and she hasn't even seen the vet yet. Couple that with the loss today and I'm going to go live in the poor house, if not the home for the mentally impaired. She's cute...but not that cute.
After our morning walk today I had to go to Cingular in Manhattan Beach to get my phone checked out. It was telling me to install the battery which was already in there. It turns out sticking your cell phone inside your bra when you workout isn't the wisest thing. Moisture and cell phones don't do well together and I was forced to buy a new one and me without insurance. I decided to get one with a new headset and all the fancy whooohaaas so I could take my long walks with Maggie Mae and not miss business calls. I brought it all home and laid it out on my dresser to charge up. After a my massage therapist left (yes, I get massages regularly) I came into my room and Miss Maggie Mae had gotten up on my dresser, gouging her sharp nails into the wood and pulling down my brand new headset. She chewed it up into itty bitty pieces. My candles are destroyed, a piece of jewelry and all the packaging was strewn all over the floor. I can't do this. I can't afford to do this. I've spent $300 on her in less than a week and she hasn't even seen the vet yet. Couple that with the loss today and I'm going to go live in the poor house, if not the home for the mentally impaired. She's cute...but not that cute.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Harry Palmer, 1987
It's difficult to describe the experience I call Avatar; how does one describe a not thing that is void of aspects?
Sometimes I think enlightenment takes only a moment to achieve, and the rest of existence is spent trying to describe it.
As long as you realize that my word descriptions are merely sights and sounds to entertain the mind, here's something to play with:
Aware: Watchful; vigilant; knowing
Will: The power to decide;to direct; to decree
Feel what it feels like to be only..................................
effortlessly................
AWARE WILL.
Sometimes I think enlightenment takes only a moment to achieve, and the rest of existence is spent trying to describe it.
As long as you realize that my word descriptions are merely sights and sounds to entertain the mind, here's something to play with:
Aware: Watchful; vigilant; knowing
Will: The power to decide;to direct; to decree
Feel what it feels like to be only..................................
effortlessly................
AWARE WILL.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
The Goddess Persephone
A brief psychological overview of Persephone
Persephone - possessing an introverted temperament (polar opposite to Hera) with issues of inner world control/ power--she represents the goddess of the underworld--concerned with the world of spirit, the occult, matters associated with death. She is mystical, visionary and often possesses spirit guides. Her awareness is diffuse. Persephone belongs to the relationship-oriented 'vulnerable' goddess category having a very close relationship with her mother, Demeter. Another aspect of her vulnerability, Persephone was abducted, taken to the Underworld and raped by Hades. Her mother, Demeter mourned, sorrowfully, in the face of her abduction.
Persephone is said to have a younger counterpart to herself--Kore--another name for the young Persephone. Psychologically, this may be a representation of two or three levels of this archetype: Kore, the Maiden, Persephone (or Demeter), the mature Woman, and Hecate, the Wise Crone.
Persephone type woman is more attracted to the spiritual nature rather than the physicality of her partner. She may unconsciously attract destructive relationships or potentially controlling partners. As an unconscious protective measure, she may choose a safe alternative in a younger, non-threatening partner whom she can mother.
Persephone - possessing an introverted temperament (polar opposite to Hera) with issues of inner world control/ power--she represents the goddess of the underworld--concerned with the world of spirit, the occult, matters associated with death. She is mystical, visionary and often possesses spirit guides. Her awareness is diffuse. Persephone belongs to the relationship-oriented 'vulnerable' goddess category having a very close relationship with her mother, Demeter. Another aspect of her vulnerability, Persephone was abducted, taken to the Underworld and raped by Hades. Her mother, Demeter mourned, sorrowfully, in the face of her abduction.
Persephone is said to have a younger counterpart to herself--Kore--another name for the young Persephone. Psychologically, this may be a representation of two or three levels of this archetype: Kore, the Maiden, Persephone (or Demeter), the mature Woman, and Hecate, the Wise Crone.
Persephone type woman is more attracted to the spiritual nature rather than the physicality of her partner. She may unconsciously attract destructive relationships or potentially controlling partners. As an unconscious protective measure, she may choose a safe alternative in a younger, non-threatening partner whom she can mother.
From The Teaching of Jesus
Self-Condemnation
The prodigal said, "I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants."
This represents a theological state of mind which is quite common to all of us; one of self-condemnation and personal distrust; it is morbid and detrimental to our welfare; a theological state of introspective morbidity, which might be classed as one of our worst mental diseases. Self-condemnation is always destructive and should never be indulged in by anyone, it is always a mistake. There is no question but that all of us have done that which is not for the best. From this viewpoint, all have been sinners, because all have fallen short of the Divine Calling. If we have sinned, it is because we have been ignorant of our true nature and because experience was necessary to bring us to ourselves.
And the Father Saw Him Afar Off
"And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."
This is the most perfect lesson ever taught by the Great Teacher. "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." This means that God turns to us as we turn to Him. A more beautiful thought could not be given than this! There is always a reciprocal action between the Universal and the individual mind. As we look at God, God looks at us. Is it not true that when we look at God, God is looking through us at Himself? God comes to us as we come to Him. "It is done unto us as we believe." "Act as though I am and I will be."
God Does Not Condemn
"And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son."
"But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fated calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry; For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry."
The great lesson to learn here is that God never reproaches and never condemns. God did not say to the returning son, "You miserable sinner, you are no more worthy to be called my son." He did not say, "I will see what I can do about saving our lost soul. I will spill the blood of my most precious son in hopes that by this atonement your life may be made eternal." He did not say, "You are a worm of dust and I will grind you under my feet in order that you may know that I am God and the supreme power of the universe." No, GOD DID NOT SAY ANY OF THESE ATROCIOUS THINGS! What the Father did say was, "Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him: and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet." Here Jesus is showing that God is Love and knows nothing about hate.
The Science of Mind
Ernest Holmes
The prodigal said, "I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants."
This represents a theological state of mind which is quite common to all of us; one of self-condemnation and personal distrust; it is morbid and detrimental to our welfare; a theological state of introspective morbidity, which might be classed as one of our worst mental diseases. Self-condemnation is always destructive and should never be indulged in by anyone, it is always a mistake. There is no question but that all of us have done that which is not for the best. From this viewpoint, all have been sinners, because all have fallen short of the Divine Calling. If we have sinned, it is because we have been ignorant of our true nature and because experience was necessary to bring us to ourselves.
And the Father Saw Him Afar Off
"And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."
This is the most perfect lesson ever taught by the Great Teacher. "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." This means that God turns to us as we turn to Him. A more beautiful thought could not be given than this! There is always a reciprocal action between the Universal and the individual mind. As we look at God, God looks at us. Is it not true that when we look at God, God is looking through us at Himself? God comes to us as we come to Him. "It is done unto us as we believe." "Act as though I am and I will be."
God Does Not Condemn
"And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son."
"But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fated calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry; For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry."
The great lesson to learn here is that God never reproaches and never condemns. God did not say to the returning son, "You miserable sinner, you are no more worthy to be called my son." He did not say, "I will see what I can do about saving our lost soul. I will spill the blood of my most precious son in hopes that by this atonement your life may be made eternal." He did not say, "You are a worm of dust and I will grind you under my feet in order that you may know that I am God and the supreme power of the universe." No, GOD DID NOT SAY ANY OF THESE ATROCIOUS THINGS! What the Father did say was, "Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him: and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet." Here Jesus is showing that God is Love and knows nothing about hate.
The Science of Mind
Ernest Holmes
No One Gives to Us but Ourselves
"And he fain would have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him."
How true this is; no one can give unto us but ourselves and no one can rob us but ourselves. "There are no gods to say us nay, for we are the life we live." In our greatest extremity, in the moment of great need and dire distress, who can help or serve us? All of our troubles come from an isolated sense of being; we alone can return to the "Father's House."
The question might be asked, "Where was God and why did He not come to the rescue of His beloved son? Did He not care............was He heedless about His son's welfare? Why did God allow such a thing to happen?" There is only one answer to all questions of this nature: God is always god, and man can always do as he pleases. He would not be an induvidual unless this were possible. The Father is never conscious of incompletion. the Father's House is always open, the latch string ever hanging out, the door always ajar, but man must enter, if he wishes to abide within.
Harmony can never become discord. the truth can never produce a lie. God can never be less than God. Could God enter into a field of strife, then He would not be God. God cannot enter the pig pen. We cannot contract the Infinite, but we can expand the finite. "And no man gave unto him." It is always thus.
The Science of Mind,
A Philosophy, A Faith, A Way of Life
by Ernest Holmes
How true this is; no one can give unto us but ourselves and no one can rob us but ourselves. "There are no gods to say us nay, for we are the life we live." In our greatest extremity, in the moment of great need and dire distress, who can help or serve us? All of our troubles come from an isolated sense of being; we alone can return to the "Father's House."
The question might be asked, "Where was God and why did He not come to the rescue of His beloved son? Did He not care............was He heedless about His son's welfare? Why did God allow such a thing to happen?" There is only one answer to all questions of this nature: God is always god, and man can always do as he pleases. He would not be an induvidual unless this were possible. The Father is never conscious of incompletion. the Father's House is always open, the latch string ever hanging out, the door always ajar, but man must enter, if he wishes to abide within.
Harmony can never become discord. the truth can never produce a lie. God can never be less than God. Could God enter into a field of strife, then He would not be God. God cannot enter the pig pen. We cannot contract the Infinite, but we can expand the finite. "And no man gave unto him." It is always thus.
The Science of Mind,
A Philosophy, A Faith, A Way of Life
by Ernest Holmes
Friday, July 07, 2006
Oh My God! What have I done?
Last Saturday I drove to Phoenix to celebrate Independence Day with my babies. Michael is three now and so much fun. We had a wonderful visit, however, I came home with more than I left with.....72.5 pounds of dog. Her name is Maggie Mae, she's almost 11 months old, and she promptly barfed up her dinner on my bedroom carpet last night. Have I lost my mind?
Friday, June 30, 2006
Transcendence
This is still my favorite painting of all time.....I may have to buy it. Yes, I think I must.You can see all of Susan Seddon Boulet's magical art here.... http://gallery.arcobaleno.tv/index2.php?41
Knowing the Goddesses
Knowing which Goddess energy you pull from or resist can be very enlightening.
A brief psychological overview of Aphrodite
Aphrodite - possesses an extroverted temperament and focuses on relationship/love--she represents goddess of love (boundless eros) --her primary concerns/interests are mature, adult relationships, romance, sexuality, beauty and the arts. One account of Aphrodite's birth states that she rose up from the foam on the ocean as a naked and fully developed beautiful woman; and she rode on a scallop shell.
Aphrodite's origins, in fact, pre-date the ancient Greeks. She is said to be older than Time. An even more ancient deity exhibiting more aspects than love and beauty, she can also be recognized as Astarte or Ishtar. Her origins were Babylonian/Sumerian. Her domain embraced all of nature: vegetable, animal as well as human. Among her powers were associated with fertility and growth/harvesting of crops, war, descent to the underworld, birth/life/love/death and fate. She was also worshiped as sacred 'prostitute'.
Aphrodite represents the uniting of feminine and masculine energies--through sexual union.
This goddess includes autonomy similar to 'virgin' goddesses yet also includes aspects of the 'vulnerable' goddess such as relationship-oriented. Her consciousness is both focused--directed, goal-oriented and diffuse--receptive, taking in the relationship between things. Aphrodite does not suffer, however, as did the 'vulnerable' goddesses. Although she is known for her numerous sexual liaisons, she is not bound by any man. However, unlike Athena, Artemis and Hestia--'virgin' goddesses--Aphrodite did give birth to children. Unlike the 'vulnerable' goddesses--Demeter, Persephone and Hera--Aphrodite was never a victim of a man's unwanted passion for her; the desires were mutual. Unlike her 'virgin' sisters, she values emotional experiences with others more than she desires more solitary goals. Although an independent figure in her own right, this independence does not preclude emotional involvement with others. On the other hand, she is not attracted to permanent relational bonds like her 'vulnerable' sisters.
Aphrodite type woman admires potently masculine men and their capacity for success and combativeness. Her arena of interaction is in the boudoir or the salon. She feels comfortable with multiple relationships or extramarital affairs. She is attracted to creative men and engages with them as their inspirer. She is said to be attracted to the Son/Lover, as her romantic interests were a generation younger than she--those of the sons of her godly peers.
A brief psychological overview of Aphrodite
Aphrodite - possesses an extroverted temperament and focuses on relationship/love--she represents goddess of love (boundless eros) --her primary concerns/interests are mature, adult relationships, romance, sexuality, beauty and the arts. One account of Aphrodite's birth states that she rose up from the foam on the ocean as a naked and fully developed beautiful woman; and she rode on a scallop shell.
Aphrodite's origins, in fact, pre-date the ancient Greeks. She is said to be older than Time. An even more ancient deity exhibiting more aspects than love and beauty, she can also be recognized as Astarte or Ishtar. Her origins were Babylonian/Sumerian. Her domain embraced all of nature: vegetable, animal as well as human. Among her powers were associated with fertility and growth/harvesting of crops, war, descent to the underworld, birth/life/love/death and fate. She was also worshiped as sacred 'prostitute'.
Aphrodite represents the uniting of feminine and masculine energies--through sexual union.
This goddess includes autonomy similar to 'virgin' goddesses yet also includes aspects of the 'vulnerable' goddess such as relationship-oriented. Her consciousness is both focused--directed, goal-oriented and diffuse--receptive, taking in the relationship between things. Aphrodite does not suffer, however, as did the 'vulnerable' goddesses. Although she is known for her numerous sexual liaisons, she is not bound by any man. However, unlike Athena, Artemis and Hestia--'virgin' goddesses--Aphrodite did give birth to children. Unlike the 'vulnerable' goddesses--Demeter, Persephone and Hera--Aphrodite was never a victim of a man's unwanted passion for her; the desires were mutual. Unlike her 'virgin' sisters, she values emotional experiences with others more than she desires more solitary goals. Although an independent figure in her own right, this independence does not preclude emotional involvement with others. On the other hand, she is not attracted to permanent relational bonds like her 'vulnerable' sisters.
Aphrodite type woman admires potently masculine men and their capacity for success and combativeness. Her arena of interaction is in the boudoir or the salon. She feels comfortable with multiple relationships or extramarital affairs. She is attracted to creative men and engages with them as their inspirer. She is said to be attracted to the Son/Lover, as her romantic interests were a generation younger than she--those of the sons of her godly peers.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
A Simple Prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, let me sow pardon.
Where there is doubt, let me sow faith.
Where there is despair, let me sow hope.
Where there is sadness, let me sow joy.
O Divine Master, grant that
I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, let me sow pardon.
Where there is doubt, let me sow faith.
Where there is despair, let me sow hope.
Where there is sadness, let me sow joy.
O Divine Master, grant that
I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Goddess Archetypes...which one are you? Hestia 16
A brief psychological overview of Hestia
Hestia - possesses an introverted temperament and is focused on her inner, spiritual world. Hestia is an archetype of inner centeredness. She was known to be mild mannered, upstanding, charitable, as well as a protector. She is the least known of the Olympian goddesses primarily because she never takes part in any disputes or wars. She minds her own business amidst a family of goddesses and gods who engage in 'high drama'. Similarly to Athena and Artemis she resists the amorous advances of men, therefore, placing her in the 'virgin' goddess category. Her energy is impersonal and detached. Her awareness is focused. Different than Persephone who seeks to please others, Hestia's focus is for herself. She is grounded and her life has meaning. Unlike Athena & Artemis, Hestia did not venture out to explore the world or wilderness; she remained inside, contained within the hearth. The goddess, Hestia did not take a partner. A Hestia-type woman, today, may prefer to live a more solitary life or live within a community of like-minded, spiritual 'sisters'.
Hestia - possesses an introverted temperament and is focused on her inner, spiritual world. Hestia is an archetype of inner centeredness. She was known to be mild mannered, upstanding, charitable, as well as a protector. She is the least known of the Olympian goddesses primarily because she never takes part in any disputes or wars. She minds her own business amidst a family of goddesses and gods who engage in 'high drama'. Similarly to Athena and Artemis she resists the amorous advances of men, therefore, placing her in the 'virgin' goddess category. Her energy is impersonal and detached. Her awareness is focused. Different than Persephone who seeks to please others, Hestia's focus is for herself. She is grounded and her life has meaning. Unlike Athena & Artemis, Hestia did not venture out to explore the world or wilderness; she remained inside, contained within the hearth. The goddess, Hestia did not take a partner. A Hestia-type woman, today, may prefer to live a more solitary life or live within a community of like-minded, spiritual 'sisters'.
Debra Sievers
I met Debra at Steven's party this weekend. This is a sample of her art. She's amazingly talented. http://www.visionsfineart.com/sievers/aa_index.html She told me the story of this particular piece. She saw it in her dreams night after night and decided it needed to be put on canvas. She searched for a model with long hair, one who looked like the young man in her dreams. Months went by and then....one day, in a restaurant, she spotted him sitting at the counter. She asked the waitress who he was and as luck would have it, he was the woman's son. He was happy to pose for her. He is beautiful, isn't he?
Another email.....
Published on Wednesday, April 3, 2002 by Common Dreams
What the American Flag Stands For
by Charlotte Aldebron
The American flag stands for the fact that cloth can be very important. It is against the law to let the flag touch the ground or to leave the flag flying when the weather is bad. The flag has to be treated with respect. You can tell just how important this cloth is because when you compare it to people, it gets much better treatment. Nobody cares if a homeless person touches the ground. A homeless person can lie all over the ground all night long without anyone picking him up, folding him neatly and sheltering him from the rain.
School children have to pledge loyalty to this piece of cloth every morning. No one has to pledge loyalty to justice and equality and human decency. No one has to promise that people will get a fair wage, or enough food to eat, or affordable medicine, or clean water, or air free of harmful chemicals. But we all have to promise to love a rectangle of red, white, and blue cloth.
Betsy Ross would be quite surprised to see how successful her creation has become. But Thomas Jefferson would be disappointed to see how little of the flag's real meaning remains.
Charlotte Aldebron, 12, wrote this essay for a competition in her 6th grade English class. She attends Cunningham Middle School in Presque Isle, Maine. Comments may be sent to her mom, Jillian Aldebron: aldebron@ainop.com
What the American Flag Stands For
by Charlotte Aldebron
The American flag stands for the fact that cloth can be very important. It is against the law to let the flag touch the ground or to leave the flag flying when the weather is bad. The flag has to be treated with respect. You can tell just how important this cloth is because when you compare it to people, it gets much better treatment. Nobody cares if a homeless person touches the ground. A homeless person can lie all over the ground all night long without anyone picking him up, folding him neatly and sheltering him from the rain.
School children have to pledge loyalty to this piece of cloth every morning. No one has to pledge loyalty to justice and equality and human decency. No one has to promise that people will get a fair wage, or enough food to eat, or affordable medicine, or clean water, or air free of harmful chemicals. But we all have to promise to love a rectangle of red, white, and blue cloth.
Betsy Ross would be quite surprised to see how successful her creation has become. But Thomas Jefferson would be disappointed to see how little of the flag's real meaning remains.
Charlotte Aldebron, 12, wrote this essay for a competition in her 6th grade English class. She attends Cunningham Middle School in Presque Isle, Maine. Comments may be sent to her mom, Jillian Aldebron: aldebron@ainop.com
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Glorious weekend...
Los Angeles has been blanketed with a thick marine layer of grayness for two months now with an occasional day of blue skies. This weekend was no different. I had hoped that driving up to the local mountains (6,000 Ft.) would take me above it all but that wasn't the case. Stevens party was Saturday, a party I was looking forward to. I always look forward to Stevens parties. He is a most thoughtful and generous host and Saturdays party was no exception. The clouds, however, did not cooperate. But, Anna, the caterer was a delight and her organic cooking is superb. She owns a little restaurant in Idyllwild but caters on weekends. Her treats just kept coming throughout the day and evening. How she managed to do that with such a tiny kitchen I have no idea. Hats off to her, for sure. The cute little bartender was gracious, as well. The open bar was on one end of the deck and the musicians on the other. I had my first cranberry margarita, and my second and third. Yikes! After that it was water and more water for the rest of the night. The musicians, (two of them) played a standing bass and guitar and sang in sweet harmony. At one point, in the middle of a sentence, they began a song I had never heard before, and I was taken away....I literally felt a shiver move through my body. They are very talented, but then, knowing Steven as I do, all I can say is, "Of course they were."....
One hundred of Stevens friends, from all the stages of his life, made the trip. People I have met over the years at his other parties or get togethers, artists, musicians, attorneys, engineers, software geniuses, therapists, and Intuitive healers. It was a perfect mix of personalities. Everyone stayed at the local cabins and inns. I chose to pitch my tent under the trees but got offers from almost everybody to share their homes or cabins, but I preferred sleeping near my campfire.
Living at sea level all my life, as I have, it takes some getting used to the altitude when hiking and climbing the mountains. I was out of breath too much of the time and have decided to kick up my workout routine by doing more hills. I have several trips planned for this summer and I don't want to miss out on the outdoor adventures.
One of Stevens new neighbors is an artist. She was leaving the next day for a two month stay is Idaho with her boyfriend. She asked me to give her a reading before she left, so we met Sunday morning at 10:30. After the reading, she told me that I could have her house for the summer. Can you imagine? Knowing someone so briefly and then just letting them live in your house anytime they want for as long as they want? Steven seems to attract the most generous, talented and loving people which says everything about who he is. I stayed in her home for the rest of the day. The view from her mountain top home is breathtaking, but when it came time to turn in....I went back to my tent and my campfire. All in all....it was a wonderful weekend, even with the gray skies and moist heat everywhere.
One hundred of Stevens friends, from all the stages of his life, made the trip. People I have met over the years at his other parties or get togethers, artists, musicians, attorneys, engineers, software geniuses, therapists, and Intuitive healers. It was a perfect mix of personalities. Everyone stayed at the local cabins and inns. I chose to pitch my tent under the trees but got offers from almost everybody to share their homes or cabins, but I preferred sleeping near my campfire.
Living at sea level all my life, as I have, it takes some getting used to the altitude when hiking and climbing the mountains. I was out of breath too much of the time and have decided to kick up my workout routine by doing more hills. I have several trips planned for this summer and I don't want to miss out on the outdoor adventures.
One of Stevens new neighbors is an artist. She was leaving the next day for a two month stay is Idaho with her boyfriend. She asked me to give her a reading before she left, so we met Sunday morning at 10:30. After the reading, she told me that I could have her house for the summer. Can you imagine? Knowing someone so briefly and then just letting them live in your house anytime they want for as long as they want? Steven seems to attract the most generous, talented and loving people which says everything about who he is. I stayed in her home for the rest of the day. The view from her mountain top home is breathtaking, but when it came time to turn in....I went back to my tent and my campfire. All in all....it was a wonderful weekend, even with the gray skies and moist heat everywhere.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
..........and yet another email....
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh's nationally syndicated radio show has an estimated audience of nearly 15 million weekly listeners. It is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications. Limbaugh also authored two books in collaborations with conservative writers: The Way Things Ought to Be (1992) with Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund and See, I Told You So (1993) with WorldNetDaily.com editor Joseph Farah.
Limbaugh regularly feeds his audience a diet of falsehoods, misstatements, distortions, invective, and childish put-downs in service of the conservative movement. During his long reign over the airwaves, Limbaugh has called abortion rights activists "feminazis", told an African-American caller to "take that bone out of your nose," referred to prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib as "blow[ing] some steam off, " and declared that "what's good for Al Qaeda is good for the Democratic Party." He touts his close connections to Republicans, claiming that he "[g]ot a big hug" from President George W. Bush during a 2004 White House visit.
In August 2005, Limbaugh asserted that Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who staged an anti-war protest outside President Bush's ranch in Texas, "is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents." Burkett is a retired Texas Air National Guard officer who provided CBS' 60 Minutes with unauthenticated documents regarding President Bush's National Guard record. After Media Matters for America documented this, he claimed that he was taken "out of context" by "little pimple-faced kids that are working at wannabe websites" -- even as the audio and text published by Media Matters proved otherwise. Limbaugh also claimed that Sheehan was "exploiting death."
Limbaugh has also spread numerous rumors and conspiracy theories about the Clinton family, alleging that Hillary Rodham Clinton was involved in the 1993 suicide of deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster and peddling gay-baiting sexual innuendo about Clinton based on Edward Klein's error- and innuendo-filled book, The Truth About Hillary.
Limbaugh was forced to resign from his position as a football analyst on ESPN in 2003 after he claimed that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because "[t]he media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well." The following season, McNabb led his team to the Super Bowl.
Based on Limbaugh's trivialization and enthusiasm for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Media Matters requested that he be removed from taxpayer-funded American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS), while Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) offered amendments to defense authorization bills in both the 108th and 109th Congress requiring political balance on AFRTS. The Senate unanimously passed a Sense of the Senate resolution calling for balance on AFRTS.
Rush Limbaugh's nationally syndicated radio show has an estimated audience of nearly 15 million weekly listeners. It is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications. Limbaugh also authored two books in collaborations with conservative writers: The Way Things Ought to Be (1992) with Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund and See, I Told You So (1993) with WorldNetDaily.com editor Joseph Farah.
Limbaugh regularly feeds his audience a diet of falsehoods, misstatements, distortions, invective, and childish put-downs in service of the conservative movement. During his long reign over the airwaves, Limbaugh has called abortion rights activists "feminazis", told an African-American caller to "take that bone out of your nose," referred to prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib as "blow[ing] some steam off, " and declared that "what's good for Al Qaeda is good for the Democratic Party." He touts his close connections to Republicans, claiming that he "[g]ot a big hug" from President George W. Bush during a 2004 White House visit.
In August 2005, Limbaugh asserted that Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who staged an anti-war protest outside President Bush's ranch in Texas, "is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents." Burkett is a retired Texas Air National Guard officer who provided CBS' 60 Minutes with unauthenticated documents regarding President Bush's National Guard record. After Media Matters for America documented this, he claimed that he was taken "out of context" by "little pimple-faced kids that are working at wannabe websites" -- even as the audio and text published by Media Matters proved otherwise. Limbaugh also claimed that Sheehan was "exploiting death."
Limbaugh has also spread numerous rumors and conspiracy theories about the Clinton family, alleging that Hillary Rodham Clinton was involved in the 1993 suicide of deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster and peddling gay-baiting sexual innuendo about Clinton based on Edward Klein's error- and innuendo-filled book, The Truth About Hillary.
Limbaugh was forced to resign from his position as a football analyst on ESPN in 2003 after he claimed that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because "[t]he media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well." The following season, McNabb led his team to the Super Bowl.
Based on Limbaugh's trivialization and enthusiasm for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Media Matters requested that he be removed from taxpayer-funded American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS), while Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) offered amendments to defense authorization bills in both the 108th and 109th Congress requiring political balance on AFRTS. The Senate unanimously passed a Sense of the Senate resolution calling for balance on AFRTS.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Churches today...
My mother took me to Sunday School with my sisters every week. We sang "Jesus Loves Me" and "Let There Be Peace On Earth". We drew pictures and listened to stories but my favorite time was when my mother allowed me to join her in the sanctuary. In those days the sanctuary was very quiet. Nobody spoke. It was a place of quiet meditation and prayer and everybody respected that. Women wore dresses and hats and sometimes gloves. The men were all in suits. When I visited my friends Catholic church we always wore something on our heads. We were silent and respectful. The sermons were serious and solemn with the occasional inside joke. But nobody was dancing and we only sang at the end of the service.
I've visited many churches over the years. I went to several Catholic churches, Agape, and a Seventh Day, a Baptist, Trinity and while in Denver, The Mile High Church. It seems that the reverence of the religious experience has changed. Churches have bands and singers and everybody is chatting. People come in wearing flip-flops and shorts, I half expect them to light up a cigarette. The entertainment is great, don't get me wrong. The jazz group in Denver was amazing and the band at Agape really rocks...but that's not why I go to church. I want the holy reverence the old experience gave me. I want to walk in and FEEL it. Hearing the conversations behind me or in front of me....."Jack couldn't come...he's playing golf with his father.".......... "Really? Where are they playing? Tom's playing today too." No, I'm sorry...you should respect the sanctuary as I was taught. Silent prayer and meditation ....communion with God isn't done with chit chat. I guess this is a sign that I am old. I'm old and old fashioned. I want to pray and meditate with God in a silent holy space. I want our voices to be one when we sing the praises of Holiness. I want the chills and shivers of physical resonance when the LOVE is present. I may have to start my own church...lol The church of shut the hell up.
I've visited many churches over the years. I went to several Catholic churches, Agape, and a Seventh Day, a Baptist, Trinity and while in Denver, The Mile High Church. It seems that the reverence of the religious experience has changed. Churches have bands and singers and everybody is chatting. People come in wearing flip-flops and shorts, I half expect them to light up a cigarette. The entertainment is great, don't get me wrong. The jazz group in Denver was amazing and the band at Agape really rocks...but that's not why I go to church. I want the holy reverence the old experience gave me. I want to walk in and FEEL it. Hearing the conversations behind me or in front of me....."Jack couldn't come...he's playing golf with his father.".......... "Really? Where are they playing? Tom's playing today too." No, I'm sorry...you should respect the sanctuary as I was taught. Silent prayer and meditation ....communion with God isn't done with chit chat. I guess this is a sign that I am old. I'm old and old fashioned. I want to pray and meditate with God in a silent holy space. I want our voices to be one when we sing the praises of Holiness. I want the chills and shivers of physical resonance when the LOVE is present. I may have to start my own church...lol The church of shut the hell up.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
This email arrived today....
When Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva (enlightened one) of compassion and protection, shed tears that formed a lake, a lotus flower rose to the top of the water. When the flower opened, a beautiful goddess stepped out of the middle, and her name was Tara. She’s the female counterpart and consort of Avalokitesvara. Tara has many different sides and personalities to her, represented by different-colored Taras (Green Tara, White Tara, Red Tara, Blue Tara, and Yellow Tara). In her Yellow, Blue, and Red personas, Tara is temperamental, but as White and Green Tara, she’s loving and very helpful.
Tara’s name means “star,” and like stars that provide navigation for our sailors and travelers, Tara helps us travel smoothly and safely and find our way — whether on a trip, on our spiritual path, or just during daily life.
Green Tara is known as a “speedy” goddess who rapidly induces insight and who quickly comes to your aid. If you need emergency help physically or spiritually, call upon Green Tara.
White Tara helps increase life expectancy, and if you call upon her, she will bring you longevity. She also is a bringer of Enlightenment.
Green Tara is very intense, yet she’s a very loving warrior spirit. Green Tara is a no-nonsense divinity who conducts rapid energy exchanges to help and assist those who call upon her. She says, “I get matters settled quickly and go right to work using wisdom and action. I set my sight on an intended outcome, and bring those preferences into experience.” She attains her goals, in other words.In contrast, White Tara is gentle, peaceful, patient, doting, nurturing, and maternal. She is the essence of purity. She approaches problems with prayer and by holding a steady focus on the beauty of Divine love. Her eyes overflow with gratitude, joy, and love. She feels and sees only love, so that’s what comes forth in her presence. She says,
“I am here to shift people’s hearts away from an inclination of worry. I love and I am happy, and this has a settling effect on people whose lives I touch. It is my pleasure to spread joy far and wide.”
Both Green Tara and White Tara help with:
Compassion
Protection
Removing and avoiding obstacles
Green Tara helps with:
Emergency aid
Overcoming fear
Understanding and insight
White Tara helps with:
Longevity
Enlightenment
Tara’s name means “star,” and like stars that provide navigation for our sailors and travelers, Tara helps us travel smoothly and safely and find our way — whether on a trip, on our spiritual path, or just during daily life.
Green Tara is known as a “speedy” goddess who rapidly induces insight and who quickly comes to your aid. If you need emergency help physically or spiritually, call upon Green Tara.
White Tara helps increase life expectancy, and if you call upon her, she will bring you longevity. She also is a bringer of Enlightenment.
Green Tara is very intense, yet she’s a very loving warrior spirit. Green Tara is a no-nonsense divinity who conducts rapid energy exchanges to help and assist those who call upon her. She says, “I get matters settled quickly and go right to work using wisdom and action. I set my sight on an intended outcome, and bring those preferences into experience.” She attains her goals, in other words.In contrast, White Tara is gentle, peaceful, patient, doting, nurturing, and maternal. She is the essence of purity. She approaches problems with prayer and by holding a steady focus on the beauty of Divine love. Her eyes overflow with gratitude, joy, and love. She feels and sees only love, so that’s what comes forth in her presence. She says,
“I am here to shift people’s hearts away from an inclination of worry. I love and I am happy, and this has a settling effect on people whose lives I touch. It is my pleasure to spread joy far and wide.”
Both Green Tara and White Tara help with:
Compassion
Protection
Removing and avoiding obstacles
Green Tara helps with:
Emergency aid
Overcoming fear
Understanding and insight
White Tara helps with:
Longevity
Enlightenment
Emails
You know the emails you get that tell you to make a wish, or say a prayer, or think of someone you love, then forward the email to ten friends in ten seconds and your wish or prayer or friend will appear or the phone will ring? Or the ones that ask you 25 personal questions, like "What was the last thing you ate?" and "What are you wearing?" and "What is your favorite color?" then put your name on the top of the list and mail it back to the sender and on to ten others? If you are my friend, my client, my sister, my ex.....please, please, please stop the insanity. What I am wearing or eating or reading today doesn't give you any real knowledge of who I am or what I think. Prayers are answered, not because we forward emails or make wishes, they are answered according to Universal Laws. And if I want a friend to appear or call, I'll send them a telepathic message!
The emails I love to receive are ones that are personal. If you have a question for me or just want to say 'hi' then say it. Write it. Send it. Emails that make me laugh or ponder new ideas, or open new ideas for discussion are what float my boat. Send them on or forward them and I will promise to read them through and respond. But, I will not now, nor will I ever, forward to ten of my friends a bunch of answers to questions they never asked. That's just not me.
The emails I love to receive are ones that are personal. If you have a question for me or just want to say 'hi' then say it. Write it. Send it. Emails that make me laugh or ponder new ideas, or open new ideas for discussion are what float my boat. Send them on or forward them and I will promise to read them through and respond. But, I will not now, nor will I ever, forward to ten of my friends a bunch of answers to questions they never asked. That's just not me.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Animal Medicine
The power that Butterfly brings to us is akin to the air. It is the mind, and the ability to know the mind or to change it. It is the art of self-transformation.
To use Butterfly medicine, you must astutely observe your position in the cycle of self-transformation. Like Butterfly, you are always at a certain station in your life activities. You may be at the egg stage, which is the beginning of all things. This is the stage at which an idea is born, but has not yet become a reality. The larva stage is the point at which you decide to create the idea in the physical world. The cocoon stage involves "going within": doing or developing your project, idea, or aspect of personality. the final stage of transformation is the leaving of the chrysalis and birth. This last step involves sharing the colors and joy of your creation with the world.
If you look closely at what Butterfly is trying to teach, you will realize that it is the never-ending cycle of self-transformation. The way to discern where you are in this cycle is to ask yourself:
1) Is this the egg stage: Is it just a thought or idea?
2) Is this the larva stage: Do I need to make a decision?
3) Is this the cocoon stage: Am I developing and doing something to make my idea a reality?
4) Is the the birth stage: Am I sharing my completed idea?
By asking yourself these questions, you will discover how Butterfly is relating to you at this moment. When you understand where you are, the symbol can teach you what to do next to continue in the cycle of self-transformation. If you have found the position through which you are cycling, you will see the creativity of Butterfly.
Using the air, or mental powers, of this medicine is done with ease. As an example, if you have been feeling exhausted and have asked how to heal your fatigue, take notice of the colors you hve been drawn to recently. Does your body feel better in green? Could this mean that you need to eat more green vegetables? This type of thinking is an inspiration from Butterfly medicine.
Butterfly can give clarity to your mental process, help you organize the project you are undertaking, and assist you in finding the next step for your personal life or career. The main message to be obtained from drawing this symbol is that you are ready to undergo some type of transformation.
As there are the many stages of development for the Butterfly to emerge, so are there many stages for your spirit to experience change and transformation. It may appear that you are struggling, crawling, surviving the many predators who want to gobble up your energy. Or perhaps you are feeling like wrapping yourself up in a blanket to hide and rest while you heal or regenerate and clarify the answer to: "Who am I?" or "What do I want?" Be assured that as the Butterfly shows us, you will emerge and fly.
Some people think that the Butterfly is a fragile and weak totem. However, know that the Monarch Butterfly has enormous strength, endurance and determination, flying thousands of miles, migrating from as far north as Canada to Central Mexico.
Monday, June 19, 2006
My Father...
My father loved music. I was so fortunate to have been given that gift from him. He had an eclectic taste in music too. It ranged from Mexican Ranchero ballads, Mariachi sounds, opera, classical symphony recordings, even Joan Baez and The Kingston Trio.
I found some Cuco Sanchez recordings on Music Match. Nothing brings back the memory of my father more profoundly than the sound of the Spanish Guitar. Guitarras, lloren guitarras!
Today, I listen to the sounds of my father's favorites. >sniff, sniff<
Sunday, June 18, 2006
I drove the long way today....
My house call was in Thousand Oaks today, an hours drive north of here on the famous 405 Fwy to the 101. I got there at noon and left at 4. Since the weather was so postcard perfect I decided to open the sun roof and drive through Malibu Canyon to Pacific Coast Hwy and then all the way from Zuma, through Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Playa Del Rey, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and all the way to my little condo in Redondo. With the sun on my face and wind in my hair...it was spectacular! I listened to some good old rock and roll, Buffalo Springfield, Janis Joplin, The Doors. It was the most perfect day today....Happy Father's Day!
He's out of the hospital....
.....thank you for your prayers, Reiki and well wishes. All the tests were negative. I guess it's still a mystery as to what his body was fighting....at least it's a mystery to the doctors and to him. He's not inclined to think in spiritual terms or unconscious awareness principles....he's a meat and potatoes thinker, and a man with nine lives.
Cooking....
I love, love, love to cook, especially in my new kitchen. I remodeled my 80s kitchen, into a Better Homes and Gardens Kitchen of the the new millennium. I have beautiful golden granite countertops and bar. I have custom Alder cabinets with glass doors and lighting. I have the most excellent KitchenAid stove, convection oven, and microwave/convection oven with bread warmer, and a side by side frig...even my barbecue is brand new, fancy-dancy, hooohaaa, stainless, smokin-ass, grill. Well, let me tell you, I took all of out for a test drive tonight with recipe's I've never tried before and I am so stoked! I barbecued pork tenderloin marinated in a fresh soy/ginger and shallot marinade and I cooked up some granny smith apples into a very scrumptious sauce. I served brown rice in a beef bouillon and served it all up after the most delicious appetizer of steamed artichoke with a garlic/dill sauce, and fresh steamed asparagus/baby broccoli/baby zucchini and carrot appetizer. All of it was put together while sipping fresh raspberry martinis. Man-o-man....Thank you Food Network! I got the pork recipe online and the rest I just threw together. For dessert we had fresh strawberries dipped in a gourmet dark chocolate sauce and freshly ground Vanilla Nut coffee beans, brewed in my new Grind and Brew coffee maker (a Christmas gift from Mother). I swear to all that is holy.....I've made some fine dinners in my life but tonight!....I freakin' out did myself. I know that those of you in Denver, the ones I served my "Slap Yo Mama Nachos" to, or you lucky recipients of my Emeril Banana Cream Pie with caramel and choc sauce will not believe it...but really....this was it. I didn't think I could top the smoked St Louis Ribs with the homemade sweet and spicy sauce but, tonight, I did. Yum, yum, yum. I am a Goddess!
It's midnight and the dishes will have to wait 'till morning. I have a house call tomorrow. A 50 year old woman who suddenly, very suddenly, became dizzy...really dizzy. She hasn't been able to drive for two weeks and spent several days in the hospital having tests. Her brain in fine, her chems are normal, everything checks out....except,....her stress level. Divorce, a child going away to college, a mother going blind.....and on and on. If you read this blog often or know me in real time...you know this is right up my alley. By the end of the day she'll be good as new. Easy speazy.
Good Night....... Sorry, no proof reading or spell checking.. live with it.
It's midnight and the dishes will have to wait 'till morning. I have a house call tomorrow. A 50 year old woman who suddenly, very suddenly, became dizzy...really dizzy. She hasn't been able to drive for two weeks and spent several days in the hospital having tests. Her brain in fine, her chems are normal, everything checks out....except,....her stress level. Divorce, a child going away to college, a mother going blind.....and on and on. If you read this blog often or know me in real time...you know this is right up my alley. By the end of the day she'll be good as new. Easy speazy.
Good Night....... Sorry, no proof reading or spell checking.. live with it.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Idiots
I received an email this morning, "...Al Gore is an idiot." This was in response to an email I sent out to just about everyone I know urging people to go see "An Inconvenient Truth". Whatever your opinion of Al Gore is, as a man, as a government representative or as a human being, put that aside. This isn't a movie about him. He's just the messenger. If I stopped watching movies that have idiots in them, well, I would have missed "Mission Impossible", "The Matrix" and "Pretty Woman".
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
These Plates and Bowls Serve the Environment
Clear Creek Compostables sells products made from sugar-cane pulp or corn resin. The market is small but growing.
By Evelyn Iritani, Times Staff WriterJune 9, 2006
Richard Feldman is trying to put himself out of the plastic business. For years, Feldman, an importer of plastic containers, gave little thought to the nation's overflowing landfills. But that changed when he realized that many of his customers, including Whole Foods Market Inc., were going green.
"I will lose the business someday," said Feldman, the founder of Los Angeles-based Clear Creek Compostables. "I just want to lose it to myself."It's already happening. Last year, Feldman began importing biodegradable plates and bowls from China that are composed of 90% sugar-cane pulp and 10% paper.He also is making clear containers from a corn-based resin developed by NatureWorks, a subsidiary of food supplier Cargill Inc."I've spent a career filling landfills. Now, it's time to reverse that," said Feldman, who calls himself a "born-again environmentalist."Compostable products are a tiny fraction of America's $8-billion-to-$12-billion-a-year container and packaging industry, according to the Foodservice & Packaging Institute Inc. in Falls Church, Va. But demand is growing as companies migrate to more environmentally friendly operations in such areas as energy and water consumption as well as in the products they sell and use.Compostable products biologically decompose in an oxygen-rich process used by industrial facilities.In addition to being biodegradable, Feldman's products are made from a renewable resource that is a byproduct of sugar production. The plates and bowls — which can be used in the microwave and will hold boiling water — are sold at Whole Foods, Sam's Club and a number of independent natural food stores.The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that each year, Americans discard about 14.4 million tons of plastic— 8% of total waste. Much of the container and packaging waste ends up in landfills, which produce methane, a greenhouse gas that is blamed for contributing significantly to global warming. Rising oil prices also have pushed up the cost of petroleum-based products such as plastic.The plastics industry has fought back by promoting the reusability of its products and encouraging recycling.Steve Mojo, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute in New York, said environmentally savvy consumers such as college students were putting pressure on their food service providers to reduce waste and move away from natural resources in danger of depletion."This market is beginning to accelerate because all these drivers are coming together," said Mojo, who compared composting to the recycling movement a decade ago.The institute tests products to make sure they meet the biodegradable standards set by ASTM International, formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials. Nearly two dozen producers of biodegradable bags and food service items carry the "Compostable Logo," more than double the number two years ago.At Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods, using and selling compostable products is a natural extension of the company's "Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet" philosophy, said Patrick Lewis, the retailer's regional buyer in Emeryville, Calif."We're trying to put our money where our mouth is," he said.In addition to selling Feldman's bowls and plates under its Green Mission brand, Whole Foods has begun testing the sugar cane products in its deli and bakery operations and food sampling programs. The retailer also is considering substituting corn resin-based containers for the millions of plastic products it uses each year.Although those biodegradable products are more expensive, the prices should go down if other companies join in and the market expands, Lewis said."We're a very small fish in the pond when it comes to packaging," he said.The whale in that pond is Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has promised to step up its recycling and energy efficiency programs and offer its customers more healthful and environmentally friendly products.But the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer has discovered that it isn't easy going green without undermining its drive to deliver the lowest possible price to its customers.Sam's Club began carrying Clear Creek's plates this year in 18 stores in Southern California, the first time it's offering such a program. At $11.88 for 100 plates, the compostable products cost about 20% more than a comparable paper product. Sales have been slow and Feldman was told that the product might be dropped. But he won a reprieve after arguing that customers needed to be educated about the benefits of recycling and composting.Matt Kistler, vice president of products and packaging innovation for Sam's Club, agreed that the retailer should "step up the effort" to market Clear Creek's plates because they are a novel product. But in the end, he said, the customers rule."We want to see what the opportunity is," he said. "Ultimately, our members will decide whether or not we carry the product."Feldman, who has spent three decades in the food service business, is working to keep his costs low. He has outsourced his back-office work, and just three employees work in a small, crowded office in West Los Angeles. He gets his products through Jervey Ho, a Hong Kong entrepreneur who has produced plastic action figures and Halloween costumes in China for decades.Producing the biodegradable products is similar to making waffles. The basic material is sugar-cane pulp, or bagasse, which comes to the factories in flat sheets and is mixed with water and some chemicals before going into a molding machine. Using a combination of heat and steam, the machine presses the pulp into the final shape.It wasn't easy locating Chinese companies that could produce a high-quality product and meet the strict environmental and labor standards demanded by U.S. companies. Ho is working with three factories in southern China, but production is limited because the process is so time-consuming. One $70,000 machine can produce only six plates at a time and a factory's daily output is about 175,000 pieces."We cannot invest too much unless there's greater demand from the buyers," said Ho, owner of Palco International and an associate director at Clear Creek.To meet Clear Creek's green mandate, Ho has asked his sugar-pulp suppliers to stop using bleach, which means the products are light brown. He also is looking for a more environmentally friendly replacement for a petroleum-based additive that is mixed into the pulp to make the products water- and oil-resistant."It will not be 100% biodegradable, but maybe 98%," Ho said. "It will certainly be better than 100% Styrofoam."
Clear Creek Compostables sells products made from sugar-cane pulp or corn resin. The market is small but growing.
By Evelyn Iritani, Times Staff WriterJune 9, 2006
Richard Feldman is trying to put himself out of the plastic business. For years, Feldman, an importer of plastic containers, gave little thought to the nation's overflowing landfills. But that changed when he realized that many of his customers, including Whole Foods Market Inc., were going green.
"I will lose the business someday," said Feldman, the founder of Los Angeles-based Clear Creek Compostables. "I just want to lose it to myself."It's already happening. Last year, Feldman began importing biodegradable plates and bowls from China that are composed of 90% sugar-cane pulp and 10% paper.He also is making clear containers from a corn-based resin developed by NatureWorks, a subsidiary of food supplier Cargill Inc."I've spent a career filling landfills. Now, it's time to reverse that," said Feldman, who calls himself a "born-again environmentalist."Compostable products are a tiny fraction of America's $8-billion-to-$12-billion-a-year container and packaging industry, according to the Foodservice & Packaging Institute Inc. in Falls Church, Va. But demand is growing as companies migrate to more environmentally friendly operations in such areas as energy and water consumption as well as in the products they sell and use.Compostable products biologically decompose in an oxygen-rich process used by industrial facilities.In addition to being biodegradable, Feldman's products are made from a renewable resource that is a byproduct of sugar production. The plates and bowls — which can be used in the microwave and will hold boiling water — are sold at Whole Foods, Sam's Club and a number of independent natural food stores.The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that each year, Americans discard about 14.4 million tons of plastic— 8% of total waste. Much of the container and packaging waste ends up in landfills, which produce methane, a greenhouse gas that is blamed for contributing significantly to global warming. Rising oil prices also have pushed up the cost of petroleum-based products such as plastic.The plastics industry has fought back by promoting the reusability of its products and encouraging recycling.Steve Mojo, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute in New York, said environmentally savvy consumers such as college students were putting pressure on their food service providers to reduce waste and move away from natural resources in danger of depletion."This market is beginning to accelerate because all these drivers are coming together," said Mojo, who compared composting to the recycling movement a decade ago.The institute tests products to make sure they meet the biodegradable standards set by ASTM International, formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials. Nearly two dozen producers of biodegradable bags and food service items carry the "Compostable Logo," more than double the number two years ago.At Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods, using and selling compostable products is a natural extension of the company's "Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet" philosophy, said Patrick Lewis, the retailer's regional buyer in Emeryville, Calif."We're trying to put our money where our mouth is," he said.In addition to selling Feldman's bowls and plates under its Green Mission brand, Whole Foods has begun testing the sugar cane products in its deli and bakery operations and food sampling programs. The retailer also is considering substituting corn resin-based containers for the millions of plastic products it uses each year.Although those biodegradable products are more expensive, the prices should go down if other companies join in and the market expands, Lewis said."We're a very small fish in the pond when it comes to packaging," he said.The whale in that pond is Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has promised to step up its recycling and energy efficiency programs and offer its customers more healthful and environmentally friendly products.But the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer has discovered that it isn't easy going green without undermining its drive to deliver the lowest possible price to its customers.Sam's Club began carrying Clear Creek's plates this year in 18 stores in Southern California, the first time it's offering such a program. At $11.88 for 100 plates, the compostable products cost about 20% more than a comparable paper product. Sales have been slow and Feldman was told that the product might be dropped. But he won a reprieve after arguing that customers needed to be educated about the benefits of recycling and composting.Matt Kistler, vice president of products and packaging innovation for Sam's Club, agreed that the retailer should "step up the effort" to market Clear Creek's plates because they are a novel product. But in the end, he said, the customers rule."We want to see what the opportunity is," he said. "Ultimately, our members will decide whether or not we carry the product."Feldman, who has spent three decades in the food service business, is working to keep his costs low. He has outsourced his back-office work, and just three employees work in a small, crowded office in West Los Angeles. He gets his products through Jervey Ho, a Hong Kong entrepreneur who has produced plastic action figures and Halloween costumes in China for decades.Producing the biodegradable products is similar to making waffles. The basic material is sugar-cane pulp, or bagasse, which comes to the factories in flat sheets and is mixed with water and some chemicals before going into a molding machine. Using a combination of heat and steam, the machine presses the pulp into the final shape.It wasn't easy locating Chinese companies that could produce a high-quality product and meet the strict environmental and labor standards demanded by U.S. companies. Ho is working with three factories in southern China, but production is limited because the process is so time-consuming. One $70,000 machine can produce only six plates at a time and a factory's daily output is about 175,000 pieces."We cannot invest too much unless there's greater demand from the buyers," said Ho, owner of Palco International and an associate director at Clear Creek.To meet Clear Creek's green mandate, Ho has asked his sugar-pulp suppliers to stop using bleach, which means the products are light brown. He also is looking for a more environmentally friendly replacement for a petroleum-based additive that is mixed into the pulp to make the products water- and oil-resistant."It will not be 100% biodegradable, but maybe 98%," Ho said. "It will certainly be better than 100% Styrofoam."
Finally, the sun is shining on Los Angeles
We've had a few days of sunshine now and I think it's safe to say we are past the June Gloom. Hurray! I know now I could not survive in Alaska or Washington or even Oregon for very long without falling into a bit of a gloom myself. I just laid out on the patio for fifteen minutes and I already feel more energized than I've felt all year.
Last year I went to a lecture on Solar Healing. It was fascinating. The sun temples were built, it seems, for more than worship. I have forgotten now what prompted this man to experiment with staring into the sun....something about his father and ancient texts....anyway, he started by looking into the sun at sunrise for ten seconds the first day. He added ten seconds everyday until he made it to forty-five minutes. He says the suns energy is all a person needs to be healthy, well, that and water. He hasn't eaten a morsel in nine years. He drinks water and walks barefooted on the sand to absorb the energy from the sand crystals. Doctors and scientists have studied him for months at a time, twenty-four hours a day and confirm he doesn't eat food.
http://www.solarhealing.com/
Last year I went to a lecture on Solar Healing. It was fascinating. The sun temples were built, it seems, for more than worship. I have forgotten now what prompted this man to experiment with staring into the sun....something about his father and ancient texts....anyway, he started by looking into the sun at sunrise for ten seconds the first day. He added ten seconds everyday until he made it to forty-five minutes. He says the suns energy is all a person needs to be healthy, well, that and water. He hasn't eaten a morsel in nine years. He drinks water and walks barefooted on the sand to absorb the energy from the sand crystals. Doctors and scientists have studied him for months at a time, twenty-four hours a day and confirm he doesn't eat food.
http://www.solarhealing.com/
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Water Fuel Experimenter and Team Threatened
Ken Rasmussen's research team has been working on a process that turns out to have similarities to the super-efficient electrolysis process being developed by Professor Kanarev. Rasmussen's work ceased after a member of the team was threatened at gunpoint.
by Sterling D. AllanPure Energy Systems NewsCopyright © 2006
VENTURA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, USA -- On May 16, a technician who was one of a team of garage experimenters investigating a hydrogen-on-demand technology was run off the road near a rural intersection and accosted by four white, middle-aged males in black suits, carrying Glocks and Mac tens. The assailants were driving a late model, black Lincoln Town Car.This comes just one month after Bill Williams was similarly threatened because of his alleged experimentation with running a vehicle on a Joe cell.The victim in this latest incident is an associate of New Energy Congress member, Ken Rasmussen, who had been working together with him on the project. Rasmussen also runs an alternative energy news service at http://www.commutefaster.com/Energy.html A week before the incident, Rasmussen learned of the work being done by Professor Kanarev in Russia. Both use a pulsed signal, and both were seeing similar performance rates. Kanarev holds multiple patents, and is widely published. A day before the incident, a person who was interested in funding the project of Rasmussen et al., and who had been trying to reach him since November, had finally made contact.Rasmussen reported the incident for the first time publicly in his news today. He said, "As editor of this page, my life has now been threatened by 2 loaded guns pointed in the face of a good friend.""Using information which could only have been obtained by monitoring digital cell phones and e-mail, the assailants portrayed to the victim that they had total control over his personal life, and was told to remain silent and to not talk to government authorities." He was told that if he did not comply, a family member would be killed. The assailants produced extensive details about this target family member. The threat also included himself, his family and all associates if he did not stop work on the process immediately. The threats made actually applied broadly to anyone working on overunity."I'm breaking the story to warn others who might be involved in similar technologies," said Rasmussen.Obeying the threats made to him, the person threatened has stopped all work on the project. "When happy people start acting silent and paranoid, friends get suspicious," said Rasmussen, who waited to publish this account until the necessary measures had been taken to protect the lives of those directly threatened in the incident.At the time of the assault, Rasmussen had been in discussion with several pre-screened, suitable investors, who were waiting on Rasmussen's team to fix a final detail before attending a live demonstration.Rasmussen addressed them publicly in today's report, saying: "For any of my previous business contacts reading this, please excuse the delay. Our lives have been directly threatened if we were to complete the item we were intending to demonstrate for you. All progress is stopped" . . . for now."Enormous amounts of personal information thrown in our face behind the guns proved to me NONE of the prospective investors had anything to do with the violence we experienced. These thugs knew things I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW. Their boss has digital cell phone tapping technology at the very least. Other details were probably obtained by wire tapping neighbors and friend's phones too."In closing, Rasmussen said, "We have this kind warning to fellow experimenters who try to challenge the conventional physics being taught to students around the world. Challenge the system, the system that says oil is god, and there are paid mafia goons all over the world who will stop you for a few measly dollars. We know, because we met their guns face to face. Please continue your noble research, but PLEASE PLEASE watch your backside."Rasmussen's words to the assailants were that if anyone were harmed, the plans for this technology would be plastered all over the Internet. He believes that cowering to bullies is not good policy.
Ken Rasmussen's research team has been working on a process that turns out to have similarities to the super-efficient electrolysis process being developed by Professor Kanarev. Rasmussen's work ceased after a member of the team was threatened at gunpoint.
by Sterling D. AllanPure Energy Systems NewsCopyright © 2006
VENTURA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, USA -- On May 16, a technician who was one of a team of garage experimenters investigating a hydrogen-on-demand technology was run off the road near a rural intersection and accosted by four white, middle-aged males in black suits, carrying Glocks and Mac tens. The assailants were driving a late model, black Lincoln Town Car.This comes just one month after Bill Williams was similarly threatened because of his alleged experimentation with running a vehicle on a Joe cell.The victim in this latest incident is an associate of New Energy Congress member, Ken Rasmussen, who had been working together with him on the project. Rasmussen also runs an alternative energy news service at http://www.commutefaster.com/Energy.html A week before the incident, Rasmussen learned of the work being done by Professor Kanarev in Russia. Both use a pulsed signal, and both were seeing similar performance rates. Kanarev holds multiple patents, and is widely published. A day before the incident, a person who was interested in funding the project of Rasmussen et al., and who had been trying to reach him since November, had finally made contact.Rasmussen reported the incident for the first time publicly in his news today. He said, "As editor of this page, my life has now been threatened by 2 loaded guns pointed in the face of a good friend.""Using information which could only have been obtained by monitoring digital cell phones and e-mail, the assailants portrayed to the victim that they had total control over his personal life, and was told to remain silent and to not talk to government authorities." He was told that if he did not comply, a family member would be killed. The assailants produced extensive details about this target family member. The threat also included himself, his family and all associates if he did not stop work on the process immediately. The threats made actually applied broadly to anyone working on overunity."I'm breaking the story to warn others who might be involved in similar technologies," said Rasmussen.Obeying the threats made to him, the person threatened has stopped all work on the project. "When happy people start acting silent and paranoid, friends get suspicious," said Rasmussen, who waited to publish this account until the necessary measures had been taken to protect the lives of those directly threatened in the incident.At the time of the assault, Rasmussen had been in discussion with several pre-screened, suitable investors, who were waiting on Rasmussen's team to fix a final detail before attending a live demonstration.Rasmussen addressed them publicly in today's report, saying: "For any of my previous business contacts reading this, please excuse the delay. Our lives have been directly threatened if we were to complete the item we were intending to demonstrate for you. All progress is stopped" . . . for now."Enormous amounts of personal information thrown in our face behind the guns proved to me NONE of the prospective investors had anything to do with the violence we experienced. These thugs knew things I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW. Their boss has digital cell phone tapping technology at the very least. Other details were probably obtained by wire tapping neighbors and friend's phones too."In closing, Rasmussen said, "We have this kind warning to fellow experimenters who try to challenge the conventional physics being taught to students around the world. Challenge the system, the system that says oil is god, and there are paid mafia goons all over the world who will stop you for a few measly dollars. We know, because we met their guns face to face. Please continue your noble research, but PLEASE PLEASE watch your backside."Rasmussen's words to the assailants were that if anyone were harmed, the plans for this technology would be plastered all over the Internet. He believes that cowering to bullies is not good policy.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Faux Pas
In my eagerness to post a story, about how our thoughts, ideas, beliefs and patterns in our unconscious mind are manifested in our physical condition, I gave little thought to the fact that this blog is a public blog. It is viewed, by some, daily. Others drop by from time to time. I also, in my thoughtlessness, neglected to filter my emotions. The subject matter was very close to me. I was quite emotional about it. I'm afraid that is part of who I am. I say what comes to my mind and act on it rather than letting the emotions settle down. Consequently, I have caused someone, maybe more than one someone, pain. It was not my intention and I have apologized. An apology will not erase the situation as a simple tap on a delete button erases a post. However, I do, again, apologize.
The truth is, we all create our reality. We are the only ones who can change the situations, patterns and the beliefs that support our pain and suffering. The process of change requires one to WANT to change. There was my mistake. I wanted the change in what I saw as a diseased and toxic relationship and the relationship is not mine to change. Silly me. I, of all people, should know that change can only occur when we are finished with the lesson. Can't hurry people through it, can't teach that which is not ready to be learned.
The truth is, we all create our reality. We are the only ones who can change the situations, patterns and the beliefs that support our pain and suffering. The process of change requires one to WANT to change. There was my mistake. I wanted the change in what I saw as a diseased and toxic relationship and the relationship is not mine to change. Silly me. I, of all people, should know that change can only occur when we are finished with the lesson. Can't hurry people through it, can't teach that which is not ready to be learned.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
White Tara
My Aunt Nancy used to have a fat, happy Budda in her living room and when we were kids we rubbed his belly for good luck. I remember thinking that was very cool and some day I would get a Budda of my own. I still don't have one, not a fat happy one, anyway. But while I was in Castle Rock a couple of weeks ago, Carm took me to one of her favorite shops. They sold many figurines of Budda and others. They burned incense and played beautiful music. I don't know how long we spent there, browsing the shelves but it was delightful. There was one figurine that kept calling me back. I didn't know who she was or what she represented but she touched me in some way. I bought her and brought her home. She is White Tara.
White Tara is an emanation of Tara who is connected with longevity. One calls on her for health, strength, and longevity. Her white colour indicates purity, but also indicates that she is Truth complete and undifferentiated. She wears the Bodhisattva ornaments. She has seven eyes: the two usual eyes, plus an eye in the centre of her forehead and eyes in her hands and feet. These indicate that she sees all suffering and all cries for help, even in the human world, even in the worlds of pain, using both ordinary and psychic or extraordinary means of perception. She carries day lotuses.
This Tara is also known as Samaya Tara, meaning Vow Tara. This refers to Tara's vow to save all beings and also to our vow, which is a Bodhisattva vow like Tara's. Whereas the Green Tara is a young girl and has a mischievous or playful nature, the White Tara is represented as a mature woman, full-breasted and wise. Some practitioners comment that the energy of the two Taras feels a little different. Green tara is very immediate and quick. One calls to her for immediate assistance, and also often for help with worldly things like lover, wealth and so on, as well as spiritual things. She feels very close. White Tara seems to help more with longer-term problems, particularly problems of physical or mental health. It sometimes seems as if she is more distant, harder to contact at first. Then it is as if she sends us healing energies and mystical power and understandings.
How appropriate.... >grins<
Closing my eyes, I visualize the healing of Mother Earth and Father Sky. Heavenly rays of sun stream through my body cleansing away all toxins and nourishing all weaknesses. The earth replenishes my lost energy with her own and draws out anxiety and other heaviness through the soles of my feet.
by Rita Loyd
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Jay Aleccia
My dear friend, Jay. He and I made a beautiful daughter some 31 years ago, a lifetime ago....
He's laying in a hospital bed tonight. He's very seriously ill. The doctors don't know yet what is causing it and many tests have been ordered. His temperature yesterday was 103.8 degrees. His blood pressure was 97/38....his body was shutting down. He felt sick last Saturday but didn't get to his doctor until yesterday, stubborn man. The doctor immediately called the paramedics and he was rushed to Torrance Memorial Medical Center. They put him on oxygen and an IV of antibiotics but, still, they have no idea why his white blood cell count is in the 21,000's. He was on deaths door. The doctors have managed to get his temperature down to 102 and his blood pressure up to 100/63. He shivers and shudders uncontrollably and barely has the energy to move a muscle on his own, without getting out of breath....
When I met Jay he was wearing his uniform. He was a radio man in Vietnam and had only been home one day when he came into the Proud Bird Restaurant,where I was working at the time. We hit it off right away. He was lean, dark and muscular under that uniform. Hmph. Years of memories we have shared, some beautiful....some very dark. I love that man. I will be praying and sending Reiki for the rest of the evening......Please see him well.
He's laying in a hospital bed tonight. He's very seriously ill. The doctors don't know yet what is causing it and many tests have been ordered. His temperature yesterday was 103.8 degrees. His blood pressure was 97/38....his body was shutting down. He felt sick last Saturday but didn't get to his doctor until yesterday, stubborn man. The doctor immediately called the paramedics and he was rushed to Torrance Memorial Medical Center. They put him on oxygen and an IV of antibiotics but, still, they have no idea why his white blood cell count is in the 21,000's. He was on deaths door. The doctors have managed to get his temperature down to 102 and his blood pressure up to 100/63. He shivers and shudders uncontrollably and barely has the energy to move a muscle on his own, without getting out of breath....
When I met Jay he was wearing his uniform. He was a radio man in Vietnam and had only been home one day when he came into the Proud Bird Restaurant,where I was working at the time. We hit it off right away. He was lean, dark and muscular under that uniform. Hmph. Years of memories we have shared, some beautiful....some very dark. I love that man. I will be praying and sending Reiki for the rest of the evening......Please see him well.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
I received another gift!
I'm so blessed to have such thoughtful friends. Carm and Karl sent me a gift for my new office in the spirit of blessings and feng shui. It's a wonderful chime that hangs inside of a wooden stand. A small fan is in the base of the unit and it turns off and on to simulate a breeze. I love it. I have it on my desk as I type but when Carm comes out here in July she may intuit a more apporpriate place for it. Right now, it is peaceful. Thank you Lotus Lady.
Monday, June 05, 2006
"An Inconvenient Truth"
www.climatecrisis.net
Go see this movie. Tell everyone to see this movie. Al Gore has been an environmentalist since his college days in the 70s. He knows more and has seen more about the changes to our planet than probably any man alive. Are we ready to change? Are we ready to face the truth? If not now, when? This movie moved me tonight and I for one am ready. I want my grandchildren to be saved from what will surely be a catastrophe if we do nothing.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Remember Who You Are.....
I received this in a newletter from another Reiki practitioner who works nearby. I thought I would share it.
5 Steps to Intuitive Healing
Intuition is a form of inner wisdom not mediated by the rational mind---and it's accessible to all! It's that still, small voice inside—an unflinching truth-teller committed to your well-being. Sometimes I experience it as a snap-shot-like flash, a gut feeling, a hunch, a physical sensation, a dream. Whatever the form it keeps a steady eye on our bodies and spirits, letting us know if something is out of sync.
Intuition is not something that is taught, it's an innate inner wisdom that insists you live in the moment with no expectations. Intuition is our birthright! To access it, here are five steps that can be applied to any issue you'll ever confront from healing your body, to deciding what to do next, to saving your life! Everyone can develop their intuition and utilize it as a powerful tool for living.
Step 1: Notice Your Beliefs
Your beliefs set the stage for healing. Positive attitudes stimulate growth and negative attitudes impede it. It's important to rid yourself of counterproductive attitudes that you may not even realize you have. If you examine your beliefs, choose life-enhancing ones and you'll create optimal wellness since your beliefs program your neurochemicals. Be completely true to yourself and this will free you from unconscious negative beliefs that can sabotage your healing.
Step 2: Be In Your Body
Your body is a complex and sensitive intuitive receptor. Make a commitment to be in it completely to heal. Most people in Western society are conditioned to live from the neck up, ignoring the rest of their body. This is counter-intuitive. Shift that perspective and enjoy your intellect but revel in your physicality as well. Being aware of the sensuousness of your body opens intuition. Then you'll become more aware of early warning signs your body sends. This gives you a head-start on preventing illness, choosing healthy relationships, and avoiding detrimental situations.
Step 3: Sense the Body's Subtle Energy
We are composed of flesh and blood, but also of subtle energy called "chi or ki or prana," a vital substance which penetrates the body and extends many feet beyond it. From an intuitive npoint of view, these vibrantly colored energy fields (or chakras) have a significant effect on our health so it's important that we learn to sense this energy within us, recognize when its off, and learn to correct the imbalance. Learn to tap into your body's energy.
Step 4: Ask for Inner Guidance
We each possess an intuitive voice that contains answers about our healing. Because our intellect is often so loud, this voice often gets drowned out. It's essential that we learn to access the stillness within—through meditation, quiet contemplation, connecting with nature, prayer—in order to gain answers about our health. Spend a few minutes each day devoted to listening to this voice. It may appear as a gut feeling, a hunch, an image, a sound, a memory, an instant knowing—as if a light bulb suddenly switched on. Learn to trust the signals your inner wisdom sends.
Step 5: Listen To Your Dreams
Intuition is the language of dreams. Dreams provide answers about health, relationships, career choices, any new direction. The secret is to remember them. I suggest keeping a dream journal by your bed. Before you go to sleep, ask a dream question. For instance, "Is this relationship healthy for me or should I move on?" The next morning, write down any dreams immediately before getting out of bed. Try repeating the question, every night for the next week until your answer comes. As you develop the habit of remembering dreams, you'll be able to benefit from this form of healing. ...........
5 Steps to Intuitive Healing
Intuition is a form of inner wisdom not mediated by the rational mind---and it's accessible to all! It's that still, small voice inside—an unflinching truth-teller committed to your well-being. Sometimes I experience it as a snap-shot-like flash, a gut feeling, a hunch, a physical sensation, a dream. Whatever the form it keeps a steady eye on our bodies and spirits, letting us know if something is out of sync.
Intuition is not something that is taught, it's an innate inner wisdom that insists you live in the moment with no expectations. Intuition is our birthright! To access it, here are five steps that can be applied to any issue you'll ever confront from healing your body, to deciding what to do next, to saving your life! Everyone can develop their intuition and utilize it as a powerful tool for living.
Step 1: Notice Your Beliefs
Your beliefs set the stage for healing. Positive attitudes stimulate growth and negative attitudes impede it. It's important to rid yourself of counterproductive attitudes that you may not even realize you have. If you examine your beliefs, choose life-enhancing ones and you'll create optimal wellness since your beliefs program your neurochemicals. Be completely true to yourself and this will free you from unconscious negative beliefs that can sabotage your healing.
Step 2: Be In Your Body
Your body is a complex and sensitive intuitive receptor. Make a commitment to be in it completely to heal. Most people in Western society are conditioned to live from the neck up, ignoring the rest of their body. This is counter-intuitive. Shift that perspective and enjoy your intellect but revel in your physicality as well. Being aware of the sensuousness of your body opens intuition. Then you'll become more aware of early warning signs your body sends. This gives you a head-start on preventing illness, choosing healthy relationships, and avoiding detrimental situations.
Step 3: Sense the Body's Subtle Energy
We are composed of flesh and blood, but also of subtle energy called "chi or ki or prana," a vital substance which penetrates the body and extends many feet beyond it. From an intuitive npoint of view, these vibrantly colored energy fields (or chakras) have a significant effect on our health so it's important that we learn to sense this energy within us, recognize when its off, and learn to correct the imbalance. Learn to tap into your body's energy.
Step 4: Ask for Inner Guidance
We each possess an intuitive voice that contains answers about our healing. Because our intellect is often so loud, this voice often gets drowned out. It's essential that we learn to access the stillness within—through meditation, quiet contemplation, connecting with nature, prayer—in order to gain answers about our health. Spend a few minutes each day devoted to listening to this voice. It may appear as a gut feeling, a hunch, an image, a sound, a memory, an instant knowing—as if a light bulb suddenly switched on. Learn to trust the signals your inner wisdom sends.
Step 5: Listen To Your Dreams
Intuition is the language of dreams. Dreams provide answers about health, relationships, career choices, any new direction. The secret is to remember them. I suggest keeping a dream journal by your bed. Before you go to sleep, ask a dream question. For instance, "Is this relationship healthy for me or should I move on?" The next morning, write down any dreams immediately before getting out of bed. Try repeating the question, every night for the next week until your answer comes. As you develop the habit of remembering dreams, you'll be able to benefit from this form of healing. ...........
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Pisces
Susan Seddon Boulet is one of my favorite artists.
I received a gift tonight. It's not my birthday today but it is a birthday present that's been waiting patiently to be delivered. It was all wrapped up in paper and ribbon with a lovely card from my friends Bonnie and Wayne. We haven't been able to get together since before Christmas because she's been working a lot of hours building a pond for Kelsey Grammer and I've been .....well, you know what I've been doing. Anyway, my gift is fantastic! I love it, love it, love it! It's note cards and gift cards and Goddess cards of Susan Seddon Boulet's beautiful work. You guys are the best! And interestingly, I was just thinking I needed more Goddess information for an upcoming retreat I'm giving. Yous guys must be psychic! LOL And the new Dixie Chicks album...Woo Hoo! I so love that they are number 1 on the charts. Happy birthday to me....happy birthday to me....happy birthday to meeeeeee eeeeeee. Happy birthday to me.
In one minute, Michael will be three years old. It's almost midnight. Happy birthday my Angel.
Friday, June 02, 2006
First day back...
Yesterday, my first day back in town I had a mixed up schedule. My eleven o'clock client was a Deep Meditation Massage, my one o'clock was an Avatar session, my three o'clock was a Manual Lymph Drainage, my six o'clock was a phone session from Chicago, an 'Introduction to Avatar', my eight o'clock was an emergency Couples Repair Session....
The door closed at 11:45. Whew! It was the perfect blend of protocols to keep me interested and focused. To be honest, when I have a day of five, ninety minute sessions of pure massage, I'm exhausted, but when it's mixed up like it was yesterday, I feel like I could work forever. I almost did.
I saw a sign while in Denver. "Stewardship is a fancy word for Karma"
The door closed at 11:45. Whew! It was the perfect blend of protocols to keep me interested and focused. To be honest, when I have a day of five, ninety minute sessions of pure massage, I'm exhausted, but when it's mixed up like it was yesterday, I feel like I could work forever. I almost did.
I saw a sign while in Denver. "Stewardship is a fancy word for Karma"
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Women, Power and Wisdom
I'm home from Denver and unpacking bags. I found the beautiful plastic bracelet Miss. Leah gave me as a parting memento. I received a rock and a crystal from Miss. Andra (one for Uncle Steven and one for me) and two sponge animals from Miss Jessie. I also opened a bag of a variety of incense from Carmelita from one of our shopping excursions. Ten days is a long time to be away from my garden but I thank Jay for coming by to give them water. Some survived, one or two didn't.
I spent a couple of hours in the airport yesterday clarifying the notes for the retreat coming up in September, "Women, Power and Wisdom". As is my usual process, as soon as I start thinking, I get into a planning mode. I'm happy to report that I caught myself before I started obsessing and instead I turned to my Runes. They are tools for centering, in the present.
The Blank Rune
The Unknowable
The God Odin
Blank is the end, blank the beginning. This is the Rune of total trust and should be taken as exciting evidence of your most immediate contact with your own true destiny which, time and again, rises like the phoenix from the ashes of what we call fate.
The Blank Rune can portend a death. But that death is usually symbolic, and may relate to any part of your life as you are living it now. Relinquishing control is the ultimate challenge for the Spiritual Warrior.
Here the Unknowable informs you that it is in motion in your life. In that blankness is held undiluted potential. At the same time both pregnant and empty, it comprehends the totality of being, all that is to be actualized. And if, indeed, there are "matters hidden by the gods,' you need only remember: What beckons is the creative power of the unknown.
Drawing the Blank Rune brings to the surface your deepest fears: Will I fail? Will I be abandoned? Will it all be taken away? And yet your highest good, your truest possibilities and all your fertile dreams are held within that blankness.
Willingness and permitting are what this Rune requires, for how can you exercise control over what is not yet in form? the Blank Rune often calls for no less an act of courage than the empty-handed leap into the void. Drawing it is a direct test of Faith.
The Blank Rune represents the path of Karma--the sum total of your actions and of their consequences. At the same time, this Rune teaches that the very debts of old karma shift and evolve as you shift and evolve. Nothing is predestined: the obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.
Whenever you draw the Blank Rune, take heart: Know that the work of self-change is progressing in your life.
I spent a couple of hours in the airport yesterday clarifying the notes for the retreat coming up in September, "Women, Power and Wisdom". As is my usual process, as soon as I start thinking, I get into a planning mode. I'm happy to report that I caught myself before I started obsessing and instead I turned to my Runes. They are tools for centering, in the present.
The Blank Rune
The Unknowable
The God Odin
Blank is the end, blank the beginning. This is the Rune of total trust and should be taken as exciting evidence of your most immediate contact with your own true destiny which, time and again, rises like the phoenix from the ashes of what we call fate.
The Blank Rune can portend a death. But that death is usually symbolic, and may relate to any part of your life as you are living it now. Relinquishing control is the ultimate challenge for the Spiritual Warrior.
Here the Unknowable informs you that it is in motion in your life. In that blankness is held undiluted potential. At the same time both pregnant and empty, it comprehends the totality of being, all that is to be actualized. And if, indeed, there are "matters hidden by the gods,' you need only remember: What beckons is the creative power of the unknown.
Drawing the Blank Rune brings to the surface your deepest fears: Will I fail? Will I be abandoned? Will it all be taken away? And yet your highest good, your truest possibilities and all your fertile dreams are held within that blankness.
Willingness and permitting are what this Rune requires, for how can you exercise control over what is not yet in form? the Blank Rune often calls for no less an act of courage than the empty-handed leap into the void. Drawing it is a direct test of Faith.
The Blank Rune represents the path of Karma--the sum total of your actions and of their consequences. At the same time, this Rune teaches that the very debts of old karma shift and evolve as you shift and evolve. Nothing is predestined: the obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.
Whenever you draw the Blank Rune, take heart: Know that the work of self-change is progressing in your life.
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