Archive for the ‘Spirituality’ Category

> Suzanne Lafrankie is a talk-radio host on “The Big Talker” 1210AM out of Philadelphia. In full disclosure, I need to say right up front that I wanted her job. Actually, I contacted the producer of the show before 1210 had a woman on the air and suggested the line-up (Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Shaun Hannity, etc) could use one. The producer, a woman herself, was dismissive and condescending, telling me I needed more experience and besides, they didn’t need a woman host. Shortly thereafter, Lafrankie was hired.
    I’ve listened to her on a few occasions but, honestly, our view of the world is so different that it’s of little benefit for me to do so regularly. This morning, while listening to another talk-radio program, Lafrankie had a one-minute promo for her show that spoke to the celebration of Thanksgiving.
    I can’t let this one go unnoticed.
    Ms. Lafrankie’s point was that we don’t “owe” the Native Americans any thanks for the holiday, we owe thanks to God. She was explicit in making the point that she did not care that she was being “politically incorrect” by either dismissing the Native Americans or overtly mentioning gratitude to God.
    It’s not the God part that I find misguided…its her dismissal of Native Americans and all they tried to gift us.
    I understand that it was the colonist governor William Bradford who said we should give thanks to God for our bounty and George Washington who made it a national holiday. But to focus on the legalities while ignoring the intent is to miss the point altogether.
    Before we, the descendants of Anglo-Saxon Europeans, arrived in the New World and for some time thereafter, Native Americans were planting and harvesting crops with consciousness while educated European adventurers were sailing the globe…pillaging and destroying the cultures and lands they “discovered.” Each of the Native American tribes had a cultural understanding of and profound respect for all of Nature and Her creatures. It was with gratitude that they planted, with gratitude that they reaped, with gratitude that they hunted, and with gratitude that they consumed. They had an inherent knowing about the connectedness of all things…as well as an appreciation for the part each plays in the overall balance and harmony of our world.
    Beginning with those first explorers and settlers, right through to today’s advanced technological society, we have failed to accept the gift Native Americans tried to pass on and, instead, banished them to a footnote in our minds as well as in our history books.
    Life is a continuum on the way to eternity and, sooner or later, all things come ’round again. So here we are.
    Having raped the land, squandered natural resources, devalued animal life and desecrated the environment all in the name of progress, enlightenment and a more civilized culture, we none-the-less continue to question how this imbalance came to be.
    If I had gotten the job I suggested, instead of Suzanne Lafrankie, the promo for my show this morning would have conveyed a different message, for sure.
    I would have said that Thanksgiving is one day, of a possible 365 days, when we can literally stop the “needing” and the “getting” to express our sincere gratitude for all of the wisdom gifts we have been blessed with and to reflect upon all of the ones we ignored in the name of progress.
    My hope for a Thanksgiving message is that we learn to recognize what matters in the moment, rather than in hindsight. However, because it really is “better late than never”…my heartfelt gratitude to the Native Americans who endured great hardship for shining a light upon the path we were too blind to follow.  
    History cannot be re-written but the Now is full of possibility.

         >In Bangladesh, 1100 people have died from a cyclone with 600,000 people fleeing from their homes with the possibility of more flooding on the way. Last week extreme weather off the coast of Russia was the cause of 10 ships being sunk, one an oil tanker that spilled 1.5 million gallons of oil. The Southeast United States is in the middle of an historic drought with no end in sight.
    Do we really think that the greatest threat to our continued existence is Al Qaeda or the Taliban?
    While there is no doubt that radical militant groups pose a threat to world peace, there is a less obvious but more important issue that we need to address. It’s the imbalance within Nature and its effect upon the planet.
    I am not saying that humankind’s behavior and seemingly endless appetite for and consumption of natural resources are the direct causes of this imbalance, although a pretty good argument can likely be made for the case that they are. Personally, I think that what we are witnessing is more the natural environment’s reflection of where we’ve allowed ourselves to drift.By drift, I mean the way in which we so willingly abdicated responsibility for our thoughts, words and actions for the past several thousand years. You simply cannot act with disregard for your own integrity while living in denial regarding the connection between that kind of behavior and outcomes.
    Just as I believe we get the leaders we deserve, so too do I believe we get the reality we deserve, or perhaps, the reality we support.
    Among spiritualists, and mystics of all religions, meditation is the practice of going inside yourself to focus upon breath or God or Oneness to reach a higher or broader view. But what happens when the meditation that is practiced daily is constantly putting thoughts upon achieving more…acquiring more…winning at at all cost…having the newest car or the biggest house? This too is practicing a form of meditation. If where you put your thoughts and words and actions for most of your waking hours is upon such things, then this is your meditation and the reality you’re supporting.
    So much of our time and energies in both the West and the East are devoted to acquisition and consumption, or control and conquest, that we have created a “view”…a reality…that is out of balance. Where are the thoughts, words and deeds that bring us together, foster peace, create harmony and teach respect for all forms of life? Where is the balance?
    We are the determining factor in the world in which we live for we have been gifted both the ability to reason as well as free will. When we use these gifts unwisely and create a reality that is out of balance, that mis-creation can be seen in reflection by peering into the natural world.
    Earth is also a living thing and it too requires harmony and balance. Lacking both, it responds by upheaval and with extreme acts such as cyclones, drought and wildly brewing seas.
    Can we learn, now and finally, that we and Nature are partners, arm in arm? That while we may subdue Nature, we may not destroy it…for in the face of its own destruction, it will gather its own forces and by so doing, make Al Qaeda and the Taliban look like child’s play.

>    The cholla cactus, indigenous to Southern Arizona, has a bud that when ingested slows the absorption rate of glucose into the bloodstream. One
tablespoon of buds from the cholla cactus has as much calcium as eight ounces of
milk. The buds are rich in soluble fiber that help regulate blood sugar. >The Native American Pima and
Tohono O’odham tribes, also indigenous to the region, suffer from disproportionately high rates of obesity and diabetes due to externally imposed lifestyle changes that occurred around 1940. Now, members of the two tribes are returning to their roots, so to speak, and beginning to use the cactus, Mother Earth’s gift, to treat their health challenges.
    The Native tribes of Southern Arizona are not alone, although they may be an extreme example of what we do to our bodies and our health when we stray too far from Nature. Obesity, for example, is not confined to the Native tribes of Southern Arizona. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has found that between 16-33% of adolescents are obese and, all told, there are an estimated 40 million obese Americans.
    The causes of diabetes and obesity in the general population are not much different than those experienced by the Pima and O’odham. A diet of rich, refined foods high in fat and low in fiber plus a sedentary lifestyle brought on by technological advances are, literally, a deadly combination. To date, our response to this has been to medicate the symptoms with even sometimes deadlier prescription drugs rather than address the “root causes.”
    One could hypothesize, with a little humor, that the best treatment for root causes is roots! That is, after all, the wisdom that the Native Americans of Southern Arizona are about to access. It’s a wise approach that should be acknowledged worldwide.
    Nature, in the form of Earth and all Her bounty, likely provides us gratuitously with cures for what ails us. The only condition seems to be that we live in harmony with Earth…recognizing our interdependence with all things Natural. Given our abysmal record in this regard, it’s no wonder we have strayed so far, become so stressed, and, oh yes, gotten obese, diabetic and cancer riddled along the way.
    The Earth’s rain forest, with only 250,000 of it’s plant life cataloged and an estimated 1,000,000 yet to be completed, has provided us with 1 in 4 of the medicines used worldwide. Tropical forest regions alone have provided over 2000 plants with anti-cancer properties.
    What I find so amazing, and compassionate, is that Earth continues to hold and relinquish to us the cure for what ails us, despite the fact that we have created the dis-eases…and continue, daily, to heap pollutants upon Her surface and contaminate Her air and water with abandon.
    The Native Americans of Southern Arizona are now embarking upon remembering what was once common knowledge and common practice to their culture. Earth is our ally and benefactor. If we treat her with the respect She deserves, She will in turn sustain us in a healthy and life-supporting manner.
    I’d say a good step in that direction might be to forgo the Big Mac and episode of “24” and instead…fry up a little cholla, olive oil and garlic then go outside for a walk…and if you see someone desecrating the Earth, offer to share your cholla.

      >  Today’s the day we move our clocks back one hour for the change from Daylight Savings Time to Eastern Standard Time. Well, this year it’s the day. In previous years, it was traditionally the last weekend of October. However, in an effort to conserve energy, the federal government made the decision a year or two ago to move the setback to the first weekend in November.
    Which makes me ask two questions: “What is time” and “How important is it anyway?”
    Time and I have always had a somewhat different relationship. Because my intuitive sense was highly developed as early as childhood, I often “knew” or dreamed events “before” they seemingly happened. When asked how I was able to do that, my intuitive answer was “I get the information from a place in which there is no Time.” I don’t know where or how I came up with that response, but it seemed logical enough to me. If I had prior knowledge of an event that had not yet occurred, that information must exist somewhere outside of Time as we understand it.
    We all have a tendency to live either in our memories or in our projections for the future. Few of us master the art of living in the Present…the Now. The beauty of the Now is that when you are in it, there is no Time. Actually, it’s more accurate to say there is no need for Time in the Now. Living in the Now requires only that you be fully engaged in the moment. When that moment is complete, you simply move on to being fully engaged in the next moment, which then becomes the Now…and so on.
    It is interesting that we use the phrase “spend time” as if it were currency possessing an inherent value. What we are really saying is that we comprehend the preciousness of the time we spend in our bodies here on Earth. Yet, tacitly acknowledging that preciousness, we pretty much devalue or ignore the greatest power that we have, which is how we choose to be and what we choose to do in the Present.
    Last night, as I was spending the extra hour of the clock setback to watch a DVD of the former “Friends” sitcom, I noticed a photo of our daughter next to the TV. Today she is 14, but in that photo she was 4 years old. When I got into bed I remarked to my husband that I could hardly believe the tiny little toddler was now this blossoming young woman. His reply was “Yes, it really does go by in the blink of an eye.”
    Well, it does. So knowing that, it makes infinitely more sense to spend it wisely than squander it recklessly.
    I watch virtually no television and I’m on the computer almost exclusively for business. But when I think about the value of living in the Now, I wonder how many of us would take the opportunity, if offered, on the last day of our lives to exchange all the Time we spent watching TV or at the computer for the chance to live that much more time in our bodies? To have all those “Nows” back to spend more wisely.
    In Judaism, the observance of the Sabbath is a key component to spiritual life. If you’ve ever done it, it’s rather remarkable. The premise is that the Sabbath is a piece of Eternity…a stepping out of Time, and therefore a removal of oneself, away from all things material. To gloriously dwell for “24 hours” in the Now. It’s an indescribable feeling. Colors are brighter, sound is clearer, everything is more alive. Rather than the deadening of our senses that we experience when interacting with technology, to the contrary, our senses are heightened…as is an appreciation for what is inherently priceless in the moment of Now.
    Today, Daylight Savings Time begins. Perhaps it’s wise to think not about saving Time but instead investing it more wisely by releasing both past and future, and fully engaging the power of Now.

>    As a writer, I am taken with words. Always have been. As a mystic, I never miss an opportunity to find meaning in the many synchronicities of life. So it’s no wonder that when I passed a storefront on my way home last evening and the neon sign had some of it’s lights out, I had all at once my wordplay, my mystical occurrence, and my blog for today.
    The store I passed sells products and furniture for people with back aliments. It’s called “Healthy Back”…but the last three letters of the first word had the lights blown out so it read Heal *** Back. As I stared at it, what I realized immediately was how the word “healthy” is really two words…”heal” and “thy” so with just a little spacing and punctuation it would read “Heal Thy Back” store.
    There it was. Healthy is all about heal(ing) thy(self)…or yourself. But you get the point, whichever way you read it. Now this makes perfect sense in light of everything else I believe in and write about routinely in my blog.
    We are all responsible for our thoughts. Our thoughts are the foundation we lay for the things we create both within our minds and by our actions. As sentient beings, we feel everything we think whether or not we are aware that we do. So, when we have thoughts that are negative about ourselves, others or the world…those thoughts generate feelings within our physical bodies. Both the thoughts, and the feelings they generate, vibrate at a certain frequency. When the thoughts are negative, they vibrate at a frequency that is incompatible with the basic life force frequency, which is positive energy that fosters wellness and growth. An incompatible vibratory rate interferes with and has a negative impact upon the optimal functioning of the physical body that houses and transmits that energy. The physical body, unable to integrate the incompatible energy, manifests a less than optimal state of being…commonly known as illness or dis-ease.
    Want to feel better? Think better thoughts.
    In most cases, what ALL disease needs at it’s inception is a quick dose of positive thought with a little joy and gratitude thrown in to ward off the harmful effects of negative thinking (which is usually followed by, and reinforced with, negative acts).
    Most of the drugs that are touted by the pharmaceutical companies making obscene amounts of money off of our fears and our refusal to take responsibility for our own states of health are unnecessary. At best, they address only the symptom, not the root cause.  Without changing the pattern inherent in the root cause, the symptom may be relieved but the negativity, the illness, the dis-ease cannot be affected. To treat the root cause, it is necessary to understand and have faith in the connection of our minds to our physical, emotional and spiritual bodies. (I’d throw in etheric bodies as well, but I’d likely lose all of the readers I haven’t lost up until now so I’ll save that one for another day).
    We humans are so much more than what we see and are capable of so much more than we are given credit for by either the marketers of all those things and products we “have to have”in order to be happy and healthy…or by ourselves.
    I told you at the outset how much I love words. I can always find a hidden meaning in them to widen the vista of what life is about.  If you take the word humans (as in “we humans” in the above paragraph) and move the letters around…humans becomes “shuman.” Now shuman is not a word that has meaning…but if YOU take out the letter “U” and double the “A” you get “shaman.” 
    Now there’s a word with a whole lot of meaning.
    A shaman was (and is) the healer, the medicine man or woman found within many cultures past and present, who healed through innate knowledge, using the gifts of nature.
    So, it’s just a matter of “U” getting out of your own way…putting the ego and the logical mind aside…to access the deeper knowledge of how disease originates and what we as individual shamans can do about it. We are all physicians of the highest order and more than capable of healing ourselves.
    Sorry, Merck.
    
        

>  Lately I’ve been very stressed out. It’s been one of those times when Life just hands you a bit more than you’d prefer to deal with…which is where the expression comes from “It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you deal with it.”
    I’ve been dealing with it poorly. Which is what has me thinking about joy. It’s been sorely missing from my life during all this stress, which is where that other expression comes from, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
    So, this is my Ode to Joy.
    A long time ago I dated a man who laughed so infrequently I can still recall, after 30 years, the few times he really laughed. I mean that kind of deep from the belly laugh that goes on so long you think you’ll run out of breath. I was always trying to get him to be more playful, but to no avail. I think that’s why I left him.
    It’s no fun living without joy so lately, if you ask my family, they’d probably tell you it’s been no fun living with me. They’d be right. It’s been no fun living with me, either…and I’m Me.
    We live in challenging times…but Life is challenging no matter what “time” you live in. No one has ever been born that wasn’t forced to face difficulties and challenges they’d have preferred to skip. But that’s why we’re born to begin with, isn’t it? We’re born to overcome the darkness and become the Light.
    The dark is dense, hard to maneuver around in and easy to get lost in as well. It’s just plain heavy.
    Light is…well…light! It’s airy and weightless and easy to see through and clears the way for exactly where it is you want to go.
    I’ve noticed that when I’m sad or angry or depressed (yes, I get depressed) Life takes on a heaviness and time seems to slow to a near crawl. This leads me to conclude that those emotions…and the energy, or frequency, that sustains them…is heavy…like darkness.
    To the contrary, when I’m happy or joyful or excited (yes, I get excited) Life is open and filled with wonder and time flies.
    So, then, it’s really about choice.
    We live in a “free-will zone” where we get to choose our thoughts and where we want to place our attention. It’s like the radio in your car. If the station you’re listening to isn’t playing music you like…or talking about something you want to hear…you change the station.  Well, if you’re mind is repeatedly telling you all that’s wrong with your life, change “the station.”
    Change frequencies.
    Literally…lighten up.
    Tune out that which isn’t uplifting or joyful and tune in that which is. It’s done by changing the frequency of your thought waves from those that are dense to those that are light. It’s done by thinking about all that is good or possible or joyful in your life, instead of what’s wrong.
    This is really good advice. I think I’ll take it.
    Knock,Knock.
    Who’s there?
    Orange.
    Orange who?
    Orange you even gonna try it?
              
    

>     Turkey is mobilizing to invade northern Iraq to attack the Kurds. The United States House of Representatives, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is about to pass a formerly introduced resolution condemning the ethnic cleansing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire (read as “former Turks”) that occurred hundreds of years ago. Several former U.S. Secretaries of State see the resolution’s passage as untimely, antagonistic to Turkey, the probable reason for the mobilization of Turkish troops on Iraq’s northern border, and an ill portent for the likelihood that the U.S. military will be able to continue to use Turkish air space and passageways to move troops into Iraq.
    On it’s face, and at first glance, I’d have to agree. But we live in challenging times that demand we think beyond the surface of things as well as for ourselves. So, upon further glance, I see a different reality.
    Ethnic cleansing is reprehensible whenever and wherever it occurs. As a Jew, I am gratified that the world, albeit late in coming, acknowledged Hitler’s and the German peoples’ efforts to exterminate certain ethnic and religious groups, mine included. To this day, Holocaust deniers and those who give them a platform, raise my ire. I can imagine that Armenians, who were the object of just such an effort by the ancestors of today’s Turks, have waited long and painfully for acknowledgment of the horror their ancestors experienced.
    I am proud to be part of the nation that is willing to step up and publicly make such an acknowledgment and condemnation. We must never be silent about an attempt to exterminate a people because they are different from us…primarily because they are us. We, the people of the world, are simply variations of a common theme called Humanity. To deny or injure one part of us is to inflict, inevitably, pain upon all parts of us.
    As for the fear-based propaganda being touted that such a resolution will “anger Turkey” and thereby cause it to retaliate against both us and the Kurds…a step they obviously took today by passage of a resolution to invade Northern Iraq…well, let me digress to something I heard today on the radio.  
    Rush Limbaugh was speaking about Hilary Clinton’s recent statement that she thinks a woman in politics needs to have “skin as tough as a rhinoceros” then likened herself to Eleanor Roosevelt in terms of criticism endured. Mr. Limbaugh, in an attempt to mock both Hilary Clinton and Eleanor Roosevelt by reference to the rhino comment, said that “there were likely no two First Ladies in history more frequently cheated on by their husbands” than the two of them. Somehow, Mr. Limbaugh blames the moral failures of Bill Clinton and Franklin Roosevelt on the women they were married to rather than on the egocentric, immature and misguided choices made by the men themselves.
    Which leads me to Turkey and it’s reaction to the pending U.S. resolution. If Turkey chooses to respond with military aggression against the Kurds and closure of it’s air and ground space to U.S. troops, that will be the responsibility of the Turkish government and it’s people, not the fault of the U.S. resolution.
    Remember the old saying, “It’s not what happens to you it’s how you handle it?” Well, that’s it. That’s how it works.
    I think the U.S. Resolution is a good thing but only halfway to being a great thing. It needs to condemn the action against the Armenians and it needs to also forgive the Ottomans for having behaved poorly at the time.
    Acknowledgment + forgiveness. It’s the motto of the State of Israel and the Jewish people towards the Holocaust. “Forgive but never forget.”
    There are a few lessons to be gleaned form this most current dilemma.

    1.  Harm done to one is harm done to all.
    2.  Behavior is personal and responsibility for choice remains with the one doing the choosing.
    3.  Official acknowledgment of reprehensible behavior by a government is a reasonable act.
    4.  Without forgiveness, pain and hatred fester.
    5.  With forgiveness, all parties are liberated to move past the moment.

     Infighting within the U.S. over the resolution, U.S. condemnation of Turkey absent forgiveness, a reactive, aggressive response by the Turks, a cycle of blame, anger and aggression…these are all part of an old paradigm that has repeatedly failed to create a better world, or a better way.
    Let us take this opportunity to take responsibility for how and why we act, and react, as we do and step into the light of a new paradigm where compassion for our diversity and forgiveness for our humanity are the principles that guides us and the foundation upon which we build a better future.
    Oh yes, and one further lesson, Mr. Limbaugh.
    Men who blame women for the poor choices they themselves make need to grow up.

> President Bush is meeting this week with the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.  The meeting will take place not in the West Wing where the President usually meets with heads of state and dignitaries, but rather in the residence quarters. The “downgrade” appears to be an attempt to placate the Chinese who are enraged at the meeting. China has claimed Tibet as a part of China for years, while Tibetans claim sovereignty during much of the same time period and seek it still.
    This morning, Conservative radio talk show host Glenn Beck was mocking the Dalai Lama’s well known smile and joyous demeanor by saying, “Well, that’s really working for him, isn’t it? Tibet still isn’t free.” Mr. Beck, it should be stated, is generally a hawk on military matters as he believes we are living in the “End Times” and Armageddon is just a Mullah away. He further believes that the only acceptable Presidential candidate in 2008 will be one willing and able to “pull the trigger” so to speak to take out the bad guys when they come for us.
    So, it’s no surprise that he misses the meaning behind the smile.
    I have never been in the presence of the Dalai Lama, nor do I know if Mr. Beck has. But I have been in the presence of a Buddhist master. His very presence and countenance so affected me that for days following that meeting I not only felt calmer, more centered and closer to the concept of world unity, but those around me visibly noticed and commented on my own changed behavior.
    I have also been in the presence of countless politicians, local and national. I have never felt calmer, more centered or more united with humanity as a result nor have those meetings ever had any lasting positive effect upon me.
    Mr. Beck’s implication is that a smile and joyous inner sense of peace will not help the world situation in any significant way. But aggression and war, the modus operandi of the politicians and people in power, have never helped the world in any significant way either and they’ve had their crack at it for at least 2000+ years now. So, before we are so quick to write off the smiling monk, perhaps we should give joyfulness and love of humanity a try.
    It’s often said that we in the West do not understand that the “bad guys” have a long range plan fostered with patience because they believe their “mission” is ordained by God.  
    Now I don’t know for sure, and this is only a guess, but I believe that observation is also applicable to how the Dalai Lama must feel about his “mission.” He too has a long range plan that is fostered by patience and ordained by a higher power.  
    If I were a betting woman, I’d place my money on the Dalai Lama and others like him. There are more and more of us re-awakening from a long, delusional sleep to the power of positive thoughts, good deeds, right speech and a joyous countenance.
   Personally, I believe in a Creator. And if truth be known, I’d place yet another bet. I bet the intention in creating All That Is, if in fact we could see that intention, would look exactly like the smile on the Dalai Lama’s face.
    I think I just heard a voice say, “Pay the woman.”