Archive for the ‘Spirituality’ Category

>    Benazir Bhutto was buried today in Garhi Khuda Baksh, near her ancestral home in Pakistan. As I look at the photos of the simple wooden casket being carried and followed by throngs of mourners, I am reminded of the shared tradition of simple wooden caskets among so many of the devout world religions. Which reminds me of the ornate bronze and metal caskets and elaborate funerals one so often attends here in the West. Which causes me to think about what it is that we really amass in a lifetime and just what, exactly, is it that we can take with us when we die.
    I have, in this lifetime thus far, had both times of great affluence and times of financial hardship. I consider this a special blessing, as I have had the benefit of learning what life is like with money and “things” as well as what it is like without.
    As a child and young adult, my family was financially affluent and I truly wanted for nothing material that I desired. Yet, I was an unhappy child and young adult…lacking in self-confidence, self-love and feeling alienated from most people. This was one of the blessings I mentioned, for I learned at a very early age what most people take a lifetime to know. Money cannot buy the things that matter. However, despite my feelings and my profound realization, it was not until I lived financial hardship that I turned inward to discover what true wealth is.
    True wealth is trusting your inner guidance. It’s an awareness of the connectedness of all living beings.  It’s finding purpose that transcends the immediacy of your own needs and applying whatever gifts Creator has given you in pursuit of that purpose. It’s an appreciation for the finite period of time we are given a body in which to do the work that can only be done by us in this lifetime. It’s having the courage, through both words and deeds, to support what it is you believe to be true based upon your own unique experience of life.
    All of the material bounty acquired in the material world will be left here when the Spirit that is You completes this part of the journey, moving on in Spirit only. However, all of non-material wealth amassed through self-awareness and manifestation of purpose continue on, both here through the inspired works of those who remain, as well as in other realms where treasure is measured not by “how much?” but by “how True?” 
    I think beyond the simple wooden casket Benazir Bhutto was, and remains, a wealthy woman.

>     Some things cannot be silenced. Truth and the human quest for Freedom are two that come to mind. The assassination today of Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, will not change this fact of life, it will only re-direct the energies around those principles down an alternative path. I don’t want to idolize Bhutto for she was a politician and made her share of mistakes and questionable alliances. But she was also one of those “magnetic” beings who drew to her, particularly in recent days, those of her country who not only search for Truth and Freedom, but those who are willing to stand up and be counted in that search regardless of the price.
    Bhutto knew her time here was limited and the end of that time close at hand. Recent statements by her evidenced this fact. She knew the way Martin Luther King knew. One does not consciously march into Hell for a Heavenly cause without an awareness of the consequences. But throughout time immemorial the presence, or even likelihood, of such danger has never succeeded in deterring those whose life’s work is to speak not only their own Truth but also one that holds the possibility of liberating many. For true Freedom, and the liberation that is part of Freedom, can only be attained by recognizing, speaking and living Truth as we experience it for ourselves.
    Many would say that this is a dangerous philosophy to espouse for what may be Truth to me, and therefore how I choose to live, may simultaneously cause another harm. What better example of this do we have than the forces that assassinated Mrs. Bhutto? Islamist extremists say they know and represent the Truth as founded in the Koran. It is that Truth that necessitated the silencing of Benazir Bhutto and many others before her. The response is so simple as to almost be overlooked.
    We all have a core Truth from which everything else flows. That core is Love. Love never harms, inflicts suffering or pain on anyone or anything. So, when one’s thoughts, speech and actions are the impetus for harm, they are never coming from that origin of Love. When harm is the result, it is a self-serving truth, designed and manipulated to achieve a pre-determined end…and in such moments, neither Truth nor Freedom are honorably served.
    There is another glaring difference between Truth and the smaller, self-serving kind. Truth inspires individuals to greatness. It reaches in and tugs on both heart and mind with an irresistible lure and calls out “Follow your inner guidance and it will see you home” Alternatively, that smaller self-serving truth demands and bullies and threatens and oppresses until it achieves what it wants at the expense of the many. And in the end, all who have been frightened into submission find themselves abandoned and far from home. The differences are glaring.
    We are all perfectly imperfect and Benazir Bhutto was no exception. But she dared to move out in front holding the torch that will light the way for so many others to follow. Bhutto may be gone, but the torch is passed on to others now and it is a light that will not be extinguished.
    It is the Light of Truth.

>New Jersey today became the first state in more than three decades to abolish the death penalty. I live in New Jersey and have a 14-year-old daughter so this was not an easy subject for me to find my bearings on. If you recall, it was in 1994 that 7-year-old Meagan Kanka was abducted, raped and then strangled to death by 46-year-old Jesse Timmendequas. It was that horrific crime that led to the passage of “Meagan’s Law” and the federal “Sex Offender Act of 1994” both of which place post-incarceration restrictions and reporting duties upon persons convicted of sexual crimes against children.
    This is a tough subject and one not easily approached by someone who has never had a loved one harmed, violated or murdered. I cannot imagine how a parent feels who loses a child or (if lucky enough to have their child survive an attack) lives with a child who was subject to such inhumanity and abuse. It would be easy to understand why parents, under those conditions, might want to see “justice done” by knowing the perpetrator, if captured, was put to death.
    Yet I marvel when I see parents or loved ones of a murder victim on television, or in print interviews, express their “forgiveness” and advocate that no higher purpose would be served by executing the murderer. It’s a natural reaction if one wonders, “Where do those people get that kind of strength?”
    I think I know.
    It comes from a deep knowing that there are Universal Laws that provide us with the opportunity to heal not only ourselves but all of humankind as well. One of those laws is surely that killing another human being for any reason carries with it consequences and ramifications that go well beyond both the individuals and the moment. Violence begets violence. Even if you couch it in “humane” terms and conditions…lethal injections, blindfolds, whatever…the veil is transparent and serves only to hide the truth from those who are determined not to see it. Yes, violence begets violence.
    One of the 8 men who have been on death row in New Jersey is Jesse Timmendequas, Megan Kanka’s murderer. He will now spend the rest of his life in prison without possibility of parole. I have thought about the two alternatives, death vs. life imprisonment, in light of this particular case and here is how I see it.
    If we, as a people, put Jesse Timmendequas to death, we violate one of those Universal laws we know in our hearts to be true…and with some distinction (although not enough) we become somewhat more like him than not. If, however, he lives out his life in prison, there are two possibilities.
    The first is that unenlightened and without remorse, his freedom and quality of life are taken away and he remains like a caged animal for whatever time is his by design. If, on the other hand, he gains some enlightenment and feels some level of remorse, then he will live every waking moment and breath every life-sustaining breath with the knowledge and reality of the heinous and inhuman act he committed. Either way, imprisoned for life, his is a damned fate.
    Which leaves me with Megan’s family. How to justify the continued life of the man who took the one gifted to their daughter? I would not begin to try.
    What I would say to them is that another of those Universal Laws is that failing to forgive is a prison of it’s own making…one in which they would keep themselves bound for no reason at all. The murderer’s prison is real and necessary. Not so theirs. They are free not only to forgive him but to forgive Life as well for such seeming injustice.
    We are human and because of that limitation too often see only part of the picture, thereby missing what the whole canvas portrays. Megan Kanka gave her life so that countless other children might be spared suffering and harm. It was a life so very well spent.
    May her family live on, and move on, with both honor and forgiveness in their hearts.

         >There appears to be some controversy brewing over Oprah Winfrey’s support of Barack Obama. Reaction to her speeches on his behalf appear to be circling around the idea that she is injecting race into the election by her references to Dr. Martin Luther King and Obama’s candidacy being a seminal moment in African American history. I’d like to weigh in on this matter but I am not an African-American.
    Which is exactly the point.
    It’s too cheap and easy to accuse her of playing the race card.” I’d say that’s a pretty superficial rendering of what’s likely going on for her. You see, while I am not an African American, I am a Jew. This fact allows me 1) to partially understand her feelings as a minority within a majority culture and 2)know what it’s like to have someone from your heritage ascend, for the first time, to a position of such magnitude.
    Allow me to take those two points in reverse order.
    I can still recall the excitement I felt when Senator Joe Lieberman was selected as Al Gore’s Vice Presidential running mate in 2000. To live in a time and place when a practicing (or even had he been a non-practicing) Jew was able to be recognized and acknowledged for his talents and contributions and considered for the second highest political office in the country was a moment of extreme pride. When I spoke of it to others, Jew and non-Jew alike, I wasn’t “playing the religion card”…I was simply basking in the reality of having arrived at a place certain after a long and arduous journey. For me, as a Jew, not to have seen it in the context of all that came before it, would have been to somehow rob the moment of it’s meaning.
    So too, for Oprah. I doubt her references to Dr. King and the potential importance of this moment have anything to do with “playing the race card.” To the contrary, Dr. King was not about separation and segregation. He was about unity and a colorblind nation. Anyone who missed that would obviously misread Oprah’s references and mistake her pride for something insidious.
    My other point is more delicate. It is not possible for someone who is not a member of a minority to truly feel the experience of being one. I can only come so close to the African American experience as a result of my religious heritage. 
    I can still vicerally recall the first time I visited Israel. On Friday afternoon, all of the stores began to close for the Sabbath. People were rushing about buying groceries and men were buying the traditional Shabbat bouquet of flowers to take home for the Sabbath meal. Most people I passed on the street smiled and exchanged “Shabbat Shalom” (Sabbath of peace) greetings. I was overwhelmed with the sense of what it felt like to be in the majority. And the feeling was stunning. I have never forgotten it.
    This is, however, as close as I can come to the experience of African Americans. The reason for that is that when I walk into a room or a public place, I do not visibly project my minority status. I can be a Jew and no one might know. But an African American will be seen as such and reacted to as such without question. Those reactions will depend upon the level of enlightenment of others. I can only assume that more often than one would hope those reactions are unkind and the source of great pain.
    So, please, let us not decide how Oprah Winfrey should feel or speak about the candidacy of Barack Obama. We have not walked in her shoes and we do not know what is in her heart.
    I prefer to believe that Oprah’s references to Dr. King, and her support of Obama’s candidacy, are the joyful manifestation of a long awaited dream come true…in a country where we pride ourselves on dreams coming true.

>Today, I listened to a nationally acclaimed radio talk show
host asking why the “liberal” media wasn’t placing responsibility on
Rosie O’Donnell, Al Franken and other “Christian-bashing liberals” for
the shooter in Colorado who entered a Christian place of worship and Christian Mission and
randomly killed several people before being shot himself. It seems the
talk show host assumed that the shooter was driven to his act by the
rantings of the “Left” against the Conservative “Right.”  The host also
wanted “equal time” (and I can only assume equal blame attributed) for what he
sees as the liberal media propensity for characteristically charging Conservatives and Christians with “hate-mongering” against
gays, feminists, immigrants and African-Americans.
    It turns out the shooter was actually a former employee (or volunteer) for Youth With A Mission, the site of the first attack and shooting. He had apparently had a falling out with the organization several years prior and had been writing threatening letters ever since. So it appears to have been a “Christian” against “Christian” crime. So much for the desire, or need, to implicate the liberal media.
    The second point the talk show host made is more troubling…because it is more likely founded in fact. There is a general consensus among certain segments of the population, and media, that Conservative implies a certain narrowness and exclusivity of thinking that condescends to others who are not mainstream and white. This, of course, is absurd.
    As is all stereotyping.
    But here’s the heart of the matter…or the lack of heart, as it were.
    Why are we still not evolved enough to stop blaming anyone, and anything other than ourselves, rather than take responsibility for the state of our lives and the state of our nation?  It neither serves us personally, nor collectively, to try and pass on to others the effects of the choices we make or fail to make.
    Violence and hatred in our society are not the result of Liberal Democrats, Conservative Republicans, Libertarians, Rosicrucians, Wiccans or any other single political or religious organization or movement. They are the result of each of us refusing to make the difficult ethical and spiritual choices around what is good versus what is convenient.
    When we stop holding hatred and violence in our hearts and minds we will stop creating them in our reality. When we stop creating them in our reality we will stop having to suffer the consequences of our own thoughts and actions.
    It will be easy to dismiss this as not pertaining to you since you don’t “hate” anyone and you aren’t “violent.” But before you dismiss it completely and let yourself off this hook, ask yourself if you truly accept and allow others their differences of thought and belief without harboring either disdain or condescension towards them. Ask yourself if when in your car someone cuts you off you either think or react in a way that is retaliatory or anger based. Because while a yes to either of these examples (or similar examples) does not not make you a murderer, they are all none-the-less the seeds of hated and violence.
    In order to truly eradicate from our world that which we find reprehensible we must start with our own choices of thought and action and be vigilant around them.
    While there’s more than enough “blame” to go around…blame is a dead-end circle leading nowhere. The path to a loving, peaceful, non-violent world is down a road populated with loving, peaceful, non-violent people.
    I’d like us to meet on that road. How about you?

>     As a former lawyer (recovering lawyer as I like to say) I’ve heard my share of lawyer jokes and references to Shakespeare’s famous predisposition to “first kill all the lawyers.” Having known the profession from the “inside out” I understand the basis for such sentiments…although murder seems an extreme remedy. Part of the problem is certainly too many lawyers and too much self-oversight…the chicken guarding the hen house syndrome.
    Today, it appears that if Shakespeare could arise and view our current health care situation, he might just suggest killing all the doctors…or at least the excessive number of specialists.
    In the December 2007 issue of The Atlantic magazine, Shannon Brownlee writes that “over the next eight years medical schools will be aiming to increase enrollment by 30%” yet what they are producing is more and more specialists and fewer and fewer primary care physicians. In fact, “between 1997 and 2005 the number of U.S. medical school graduates entering family-practice residencies fell by 50%.”
    In practical terms more doctors means worse care, a fact Brownlee documents. Why? Because, according to the author, 1) more and duplicative tests and procedures entail more risk and, 2) multiple specialists for a single patient multiplies the potential for miscommunication and confusion. Duplicate tests, drugs that interact poorly with existing medications, and the assumption that one of the other physicians will attend to a critical aspect of the patient’s care are all undesirable and dangerous outcomes of this highly specialized approach. Brownlee poses some possible solutions, one of which is to simply “turn the spigot off” and stop soliciting and graduating more doctors.
    Then there is the more spiritually-based “personal responsibility” solution.
    Let’s put our energies into wellness instead of sickness.
    It all begins with each of us and how we choose to live our lives. No matter which way you cut it, you cannot eat preservative-infused, high sodium, high fat fast food (or even slow food) and expect to remain healthy. You cannot create a life that is so stress-laden in the quest to acquire more and more “things” and expect to remain healthy. You cannot use and abuse and pollute the Earth with total disregard for the real impact of such behavior and expect to live in a nourishing environment.
    A refusal to see the connection between how we live and how healthy we live is the source of our dis-ease. After all, it’s called dis-ease. If I or anyone else has to explain the component parts of that word to you then the challenge is bigger than I anticipate.
    Generally we go to doctor after-the-fact…meaning that we’ve ignored the warning signs (overt and covert) and have pushed our psyches, our bodies and, yes, our Souls past the break point. As the pace of life escalates exponentially with the runaway technological boom, perhaps it make perfect sense that we need more doctors…or so we’re led to believe.
    I think not.
    More dis-ease and more ill-ness ought to be indicators that WE are somehow out of alignment with Nature and all things life affirming. It is up to each of us to turn inward and examine the quality of our thoughts, our actions, and the life we choose to live.
    Government hasn’t solved much. Lawyers even less. And now the doctors aren’t all that much help either, it turns out. Seems to me we are inclined to look anywhere other than where help is readily available.
    In case you somehow missed where that is, it’s in your hands.
    I guess that’s why they say, “Physician, heal thyself.”
 
   
    
    
    

>    I’ve written about my love of animals before. Those who know me well are aware that it borders on the irrational at times. I don’t know why I have such a sensitivity to their plight, particularly their suffering, but I do know that because of it I have always panicked somewhat in the face of an injured animal and, because of that panic, been of little practical value in bringing relief. So, it was with shock that last week I saw a cat hit by a car and stopped to assist the animal.
    It was Thanksgiving Day and I was off to the store to pick up a forgotten cooking ingredient when I passed a cat laying in the middle of the opposite oncoming lane. It had just been hit by a passing car.
    Without giving it any thought, I made a U-turn, pulled over to the side of the road, put my emergency flashers on, and got out of my car. As I approached the cat I bent down and tried to determine if it had any signs of life, but it didn’t. A passerby slowed and asked if I was all right and I said I was so he continued on. I gently cradled the cat in my arms and looked around.
    There were many houses lining the roadway. I approached the one closest to where I was standing and a teenage girl answered the door. When I asked her if she knew whose cat this might be, she replied “I think it’s mine.” Her look was one of disbelief and confusion, so I asked her if her parents were home and she said her mother was inside. I asked her to please get her mother to come to the door. When the mother arrived at the door she confirmed, also with disbelief and a look of confusion, that it was their cat. With the cat still in my arms, the mother said, “I can’t take it. My husband died two weeks ago. Forty-four years old. He just died and we don’t know why. And now this. How can it be? He isn’t even an outdoor cat. He was just in my bedroom. How can this be?”
    Of course, I instantly understood the looks of disbelief and confusion on their faces as they had each come to answer the door.   Sometimes Life seems to pile on just a bit too much at once.
    Inside I was grieving for this beautiful, young cat…but I was also asking myself what could I possibly say to alleviate the suffering of this family. I began to speak to the mother about my beliefs around death and how we never lose anyone and the ever-present Soul…all the while continuing to cradle this sweet animal in my arms.
    After sharing my beliefs, I asked the mother if she wanted me to help her bury him. She said no, that she just wanted to hold him for awhile then they would bury him. As I passed his body over to her arms, we both wept. Then the mother looked at me with a puzzled look and said, “Who are you? What’s your name?” I told her my name and through her tears she lovingly replied, “Thank you. Thank you so much. You did the right thing.”
    We embraced each other, the cat in her arms and warm against both our bodies. She continued to weep so I whispered into her ear, “You will be fine. You are strong. You have a daughter who needs you now.”
    I got back in my car and went home.  
    I could not continue on to the store that Thanksgiving Day after what happened. I returned home and sat outside with the trees and the birds in my backyard for awhile and fully allowed myself to feel the sadness and suffering I had just passed through. I thought about whether or not my efforts of consolation were of any value at all, or just my egoic need to see myself as helpful. Then I remembered the mother’s words. “Thank you. Thank you so much. You did the right thing.”
     What
changed in my life that allowed me to stop instead of panicking that day are three important
realizations. First, living in the present is all there is. Secondly,
an understanding of how we are all connected as One. Thirdly, handling
what shows up, without judgment, is what Life is about and what gives it depth of meaning.
    This morning someone said that as a practicing Christian he “rarely gives charity to individuals but instead gives it to organizations because as a Christian he believes in the order and perfection of things and organizations are in a better position to help in a methodical and meaningful way.” I could not disagree more.
    Every day we are each presented with opportunities to be of assistance to another, other life forms, or the planet in general. Those opportunities are ours alone for a purpose. We are each Creator
experiencing Itself repeatedly in ways that are uniquely you and uniquely me. I don’t believe we are to turn over or abdicate our personal responsibilities, or opportunities, as they show up.
  My view on all of this may be right for me but not for you. You may choose to agree with the Christian who expressed the views he did.
    But I can tell you this.
    How I now see Life allowed me to stay present and focused in the face of what would have previously been my panic…and to figurative as well as literally embrace and become One with two people during a time of suffering.
    I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
       

>    This week the International Tracing Service, administered by the International Committee of the Red Cross, unsealed 50 million pages of documents collected by the Allies near the end of WWII chronicling the atrocities committed during the Nazi era. The documents are housed in the German city of Bad Arolsen where it’s index references 17.5 million people in 16 linear miles of file space.
    This is not a good day for Holocaust deniers (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be sure)…although that’s not the focus of this entry.
    The more difficult topic to address is the Nazi within each of us. Just writing that sentence causes me to wince.
    It’s not easy, or pleasant, to think that it might be true…that each of us is capable of doing what the Nazis and the German people did. And while I do believe that under the “right” circumstances each of us is capable of morally reprehensible acts, I do not mean to say that each of us is capable of committing the same acts committed by the Nazis. Rather, that we each have a propensity to rationalize and justify hurtful behavior…even morally reprehensible behavior…in the misguided belief that such behavior is key to our own survival and, therefore, somehow excusable and acceptable.
    It’s often said that Hitler’s psychological strategy played upon the disgrace and humiliation suffered by the German people following WWI. He gave them hope and, what’s key here for our purposes, he also gave them an excuse for their unhappiness. That excuse led to the oftentimes brutal deaths of 13 million people. No matter, it was justifiable (not to mention vengeful).
    We all do it, you know. I can tell you I do.
    I have a disagreement with my husband and while it remains  unresolved from my perspective, it’s seemingly resolved for him. Rather than accept the non-resolution, I harbor ill feelings around it and him. At some later time, that harbored ill feeling turns to anger. When an opportunity arises (related or un-reacted to the original disagreement) to express that built-up anger…I let it rip. Of course, my justification is that he hurt me by ignoring or refusing to see what was of significance to me
    And so the beast is fed.
    You may be thinking that my personal anger at my husband hardly rises to the level of Nazi genocide. But be careful, for what exists within the microcosm of our personal lives is but a fraction of what we project, and therefore create, within the macrocosm of our culture.
    I read an eye-opening quote yesterday in “Writing Spirit” by Lynn V. Andrews.
         “Your Einstein searched and searched for truth,
         and finally, it came to him. If he would have
         misused that wisdom he could not have conceived
         of it. All great scientists agree on that. What
         lesser people do with that knowledge is some-
         thing else. No one who has abilities and has
         grasped higher laws could ever hurt anyone.“

    So, whether it’s genocide or a marital spat, the intentional infliction of pain (mental, emotional, physical or spiritual) upon another is the shortcoming of the one causing it. It is our own limited understanding of the highest laws of the Universe that not only causes us to behave in such ways but also to justify our behavior in the name of self-survival.
    The reality, and the irony, is that with each hurtful act perpetrated upon another person or thing, we eat away at our own flesh and assure that the path to enlightenment and God remains obstructed with the refuse of our own misguided actions.
    Next time you have the opportunity to be angry or disappointed with someone else, go deep within yourself instead…drop the story you are telling yourself about their behavior, and ask yourself what you can do to break the chain of pain.
    I can assure you from personal experience that you will garner much more progress with that approach than with any other.
    You can ask my husband and me.
    
    

>While there are probably as many advantages as there are disadvantages to the internet and related technologies, I think the one that causes the greatest stress, and does the most damage, is the one least talked about. The media, through technology, constantly brings into our personal lives events and news that are not actually occurring in our lives in real time. The damage that results from this onslaught is not only constant, it’s repetitive.
  Take, for example, the daily events in Iraq.  While it’s true that we are at war, and equally true that the ravages of war occur on a daily basis, they are none-the-less not occurring daily in our personal lives. Yet through the internet and television our own lives, which are already overloaded by stressors much closer to home, have the added burden of needing to process tragic events not immediately relevant to the tasks we have at hand.
    I’m not saying we shouldn’t care about events and suffering occurring outside the perimeter of our immediate lives and environments. Compassion is the hallmark of an enlightened Being. What I am saying is that all we can handle at any given moment is what is immediately in front of us in that given moment. And while the internet and TV are a great example of how we get distracted and seduced and manipulated by fear, they are both just external manifestations of what we do to ourselves internally within our own minds.
    When we linger in negative thoughts of the past or long for imagined futures, we too are distracting ourselves from the only thing that matters…the moment at hand…by living in realities that are no longer a part of our immediate and present experience. There is so much value in the adage that “the past is gone and the future is not yet here.” Unable to change the past or participate in the future before it’s time, what a waste to miss the infinite potential of this moment mired in one or the other.
    Our tendency to be past or future oriented has to do with discomfort. The past is known and the future can be anything we imagine…but this moment is the true unknown. It’s the unknown that makes us so uncomfortable. Just look at how we respond to differences in race, culture, gender, or the whole subject of death. We react with our defenses up and our denials fully turned on precisely because what we do not know makes us uncomfortable. Yet, we all have one thing in common. We all run from the very thing we want most, for it’s only in the unknown potential of the moment that connection, unity and a sense of oneness can be fully experienced.
    So, whether it’s too much time on the internet, or too much TV, or longing for days gone by, or wishing for days to come…all are escapes from and avoidance of the sense of purpose that can only be had by fully living in the moment.
    Funny thing about the moment. It’s followed by another moment and then another and another. So, once you can perfect living fully engaged in each moment as it is occurring, you will find yourself alive in the way you were created to be…in the image and likeness of a power and source that endlessly recreates and experiences itself and all we are… moment by moment.

        >With Thanksgiving just a day away, I’m thinking about how the holiday provides a time for us to STOP and give thanks. What a wonderful change of pace this is to the endless “make and consume more” mode most of us find ourselves mired in. Now, if we take this thought just a little further we arrive at a less obvious and more insidious mode.
    Every minute of our lives is an opportunity to STOP the endless mental chatter that goes on in our minds as we worry over, plan or anticipate past and future events that are either long gone or likely never to occur. What captivates us, and hold us captive to the mental chatter, are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and our lives. It’s in these stories that we get caught up and lose sight of the fact that we are not our stories…but rather the consciousness or awareness behind them. Once you remove yourself from the story…with all it’s drama…you also remove the stress and pressures that accompanies your stories and are more able to be grateful and joyful in the moment.
    Just for a moment, think about what causes you emotional pain or  suffering. Now, take away the story you thought about to generate the pain or suffering and just experience the emotion itself. What soon becomes apparent is that without the story the emotion quickly loses energy until it’s gone! So while it is, at times, important and necessary to deeply “be” in the negative emotions you are feeling…it is never important or necessary to replay the story around those emotions and thereby perpetuate your pain and suffering.
    When you STOP telling yourself and others your stories, what you create is an opening in the present to fully experience whatever is available in the moment instead of living in the story of your past or as yet to be future.
    STOPing is not supported in our society. We live in a world where doing and getting and advancing are exalted…where motion is the prized activity. But motion is too often our escape from emotion. It’s in fully being present in our emotions as they are occurring that makes us capable of truly knowing ourselves and others.
    The trick is to STOP when you are having an emotional experience and, without either reacting to it or running from it, fully experience the depth and breadth of what you are feeling. Trust that whatever that emotion is, and however powerful it’s intensity, the pure experience of it is the very thing you are likely both looking for in your life…and running from, as well.
    So, not just on Thanksgiving, but on every day of your life, STOP and express gratitude for your ability to deeply feel…for it is through your feeling self that you have the most direct path to knowing the Oneness of It All.
    Gobble. Gobble.