>     Much of what I write concerns a “higher ground” approach to living life. As a firm believer in an ever-expanding Consciousness that underlies reality as we know it, I am forever seeking the highest message we can take from each day’s events in order to elevate the quality of the world we co-create anew each day. And while I always find that message, and always promote that we follow it’s teaching, I think it’s worth a few moments to reflect upon what’s needed to transition from fear-based thinking to love-based action.
    It takes patience.
    We’re not long on it these days, mainly due to the rate of speed the technology has us “operating” at. We are all so rushed in trying to keep up with all the demands upon our time and attention that patience has pretty much become an historical concept to most people. And so, when I suggest changing the way your are in the habit of both thinking about and living your life, this can seem an insurmountable task for which you have neither the time nor the patience.
    However, if you devote your time anywhere, it should obviously be devoted to ways that improve your immediate world and the world in general. Because I’m certain you get that part of the process, I feel no need to belabor it. We know the truth when we hear it. Whether or not we choose to follow or act upon it is what Free Will is all about.
    The patience piece, however, deserves a little time and attention.
    I’m no harder on you than I am on myself. I strive each day to be better than I was the day before, and to actually apply and live these “higher principles” that I write about. One key piece of advice that I want to share from experience is the need to be patient with yourself as you change the way you see and respond to reality.
    Expanding your Consciousness is no different than developing your biceps. If you were to set out to build up your biceps, you’d approach it in the following way:

    1) Begin a regular program designed to do effect your goal.
    2) Regularly participate in that program.
    3) Anticipate some discomfort as the previously un-worked muscles are
strained in the toning process.
    4) Allow a reasonable amount of time to assess progress.
    5) Re-evaluate your progress and your goal.
    6) Set a new goal.
   
    Elevating your Consciousness fundamentally requires the same approach. However, when it comes to changing our thoughts and behavior, it’s Step #4 that can most easily cause us to abandon the mission.
    Not only are we impatient with ourselves and the process, but we have a tendency to think that because we are trying the results should be immediately recognizable. Worse yet, we don’t allow for “two steps forward and one step back.”
    We have a harder time focusing on our progress than our shortcomings.
    My personal experience with applying all of these expanded Consciousness principles is that one begins to live in two realities simultaneously…or at least alternatively. One reality is the one that you have been comfortably, albeit unsuccessfully and unconsciously, living in most of your life. You are familiar with it but it has brought neither peace nor profound joy to your existence. The other reality is the one that you now experience through your expanded awareness of the possibilities for synchronicity, harmony and congruence in relation to everyone and everything. And while this new reality is exhilarating and empowering, it also seems fleeting.
    The point at which you are unable to stay in that heightened state is when you need to draw on patience to allow for the fact that you are strengthening a new muscle as sure as if you were developing that bicep. When you not only lose your grasp on that higher reality, but also find yourself back in the former one behaving in ways that baffle you in light of your new awareness,…again, patience! in allowing yourself the human experience of how growth occurs. It’s not always a dramatic growth spurt. More often than not it’s a transition from one state of being to another, with a significant amount of overlap throughout the transition process. So throw a little patience into the mix and remember that 1) you have a goal and 2) you are determined to achieve it.
    If you’ll permit me, a little extra piece of advice.
    Forgive yourself for behavior that appears to be backsliding. It’s really just residual “stuff” on it’s way out as you ascend into a state of Being where there happens to be no room to carry the “stuff” you’re so perfectly leaving behind.
    Patience and Forgiveness on the road to Oneness.
    Sounds almost biblical.

P.S.   Remember to click here to download my FREE e-book “TOO MANY SECRETS”

>    It’s a good day for justice. Mark Jensen, the Wisconsin husband convicted of poisoning his wife with anti-freeze then suffocating her to death was sentenced to life in prison without parole, and Bobby Cutts, Jr. the 30-year-old former Illinois police officer who killed his pregnant girlfriend was sentenced to life, as well, with the possibility of parole to be considered at age 60.
    The “lucky run” era of O.J. Simpson-like escapes from justice appears to be over. Which supports two of my basic beliefs: 1) there are no secrets and 2) the winds of profound change are in the air.
    Let’s look at these two beliefs a little more closely.
    There’s another story out today claiming that a report to the Pentagon by Marine technology expert Franz Gayl states that “casualties could have been reduced by half among Marines in Iraq if
specially armored vehicles had been deployed more quickly in some
cases.” Gayl found that if the mass procurement and fielding of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles had begun in 2005 in
response to the known and acknowledged threats at that time, as the
United States Marine Corp (USMC) is doing today, hundreds of deaths and injuries could have been
prevented.” What’s this got to do with “no secrets?” Well, apparently Gayl had previously made some pretty damning allegations around this very matter so the USMC gave him the opportunity, on government time, to prove his allegations. And apparently, that’s just what he’s done.
    Now combine this with the fact that David Walker, head of the Government Accounting Office since 1998 has resigned to become the head of a new $1 billion dollar private research firm. What is stunning about Walker’s resignation has been his very recent public appearances and statements regarding the “three sets of books” the U.S. government is keeping as well as his warnings that without radical changes to “business as usual” the U.S. economy is a train wreck in the making. Note that Walker was appointed and confirmed by George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George Bush. Walker has no political ax to grind.
    These are two of many recent examples that support my belief that we
are moving into a phase of consciousness evolution where deception will be unmasked every time it’s tried.
    There is no longer time or place for behavior that will not support the highest good for all concerned. Even esoteric writings that have been the purview of a select few throughout history have begun to surface, becoming available for all who wish to know their content.
    All of these events, and more, are why I say “There are no secrets.”
    As for my second belief around the winds of change, what could be more obvious than the rapid ascent of Barack Obama (literally predicated upon the word “change” itself) and the simultaneous repudiation of the type of politics practiced by Hilary Clinton?
    While this phenomenon is intriguing, it’s critical that we look beyond the surface and see what it is that people are actually seeking.
    Yesterday, I was being interviewed by Carolyn Firestone of WBZ radio in Boston. Carolyn Hosts “Women’s Watch” and she asked me what I thought about all the despair that appears to be so widespread. My reply was that I am actually encouraged because I do not see despair any longer. What I now see is dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction is a vast improvement over despair because despair is immobilizing. It is where we have been. But dissatisfaction has an active component that moves people to action. The very vocal clamoring for “change” that is in the air is, in fact, that active component.
    What we must stay conscious around, and present with, are the types of changes we seek and the means by which we intend to effect those choices. Change for change sake, without a conscious awareness of where we are, and where it is we wish to go, opens the door to a usurpation of our inherent power as individuals by those who wish to power over us. This has been our history. It will not be our future.
    Each of us needs to get our thoughts and our actions in alignment with our intentions and then commit to the tough work ahead that is necessary to manifest those goals.
    So, having looked at the news today I am heartened. We are on the right track. No more secrets and the winds of meaningful change.
    It’s a great day in America.

P.S.   Remember to click here to download my FREE e-book “TOO MANY SECRETS”
    

>     There are two stories headlining CNN’s homepage this afternoon that relate to drugs and depression. I am quite familiar with one of the stories and not surprised by the other. The first is a report by Michael Chernoff about Jordan Burnham, a seemingly well-rounded and high- performing high school senior in Pennsylvania who jumped nine stories from his family’s apartment in an attempted suicide. The other story is a report about recent findings by Harvard University that in 47 clinical trials, anti-depressants were no more effective than placebos, although those results were deliberately misreported by the drug companies performing them to physicians dispensing them to highlight the benefits of prescribing anti-depressants.
    I’m familiar with Jordan Burnham’s story because I live nearby and not too long ago spoke with the Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, Michael Vitez, who wrote extensively on Jordan’s story and who interviewed Jordan and his family as he was released from the hospital after 80 days of care and moved to a physical rehabilitation facility.
    These topics of depression, anti-depressants and attempted suicide are ones for which I have a particular sensitivity. I have personally experienced all of them in my lifetime.
    The Harvard report comes as no surprise to me. I have written before and expressed my feelings about the over-prescribed, and resulting, over-medicated Western world. What the Harvard report does is to give credibility to a fundamental truth which is that in most cases, the drugs are not needed.
    What is needed is not profitable to the pharmaceutical industry and others who have made trillions of dollars off of masking the root causes of so much of our illness and disease…both psychological as well as physiological.
    A truth is that we insist upon defying Nature, no to mention our own good sense, by trying to live at an impossible pace. We have thrown personal relationships and quality of life upon the sacrificial altar to paying homage to acquisition and, oftentimes, meaningless accomplishment.
    Having for the sake of having.
    Doing for the sake of doing.
    Trading inner guidance for other-based direction.
    Whether a flower, a fish, centipede or a human, it cannot be lacking in the fundamental and necessary conditions for growth without distorting and, ultimately,mutating the end product.
    In our case, humans are not designed to live at the rapid rate of speed at which advanced technology performs. But heaven knows, we keep trying. And what we sacrifice in our efforts is all that makes us uniquely and magnificently human.
    Such a sacrifice is painful.
    Hence, the dis-ease and the drugs.
    Dis-ease is the result of mis-alignment. It’s from being out of balance with our true nature. The easy way is to sedate or mask the symptoms, rather than deal with the root cause. Make no mistake about it, even medications that appear to cure dis-ease do not reach to the core of where that dis-ease first manifested. The “seed level” is in our thought forms which then move into our physical body. The real cure is the opposite path from medicating and sedating. The real cure is to get at those thoughts and patterns of thought that are in direct opposition to creating harmony within oneself and in relation to others.
    It’s a daunting task, I’ll give you that. And we’re far from fully understanding how it all works and even farther from mastering this approach so I’m not saying that if your child needs a transfusion you should help her or him change their thought forms and skip the transfusion.
    I am saying that the road to both understanding and mastering alternative ways to intentionally create illness, as opposed to creating dis-ease by default, necessarily leads us inward to an honest examination of our thoughts, our intentions and our priorities.
    Jordan Burnham survived the nine-story jump. Hopefully, as his body heals so will his trust and faith in himself. Hopefully, he will come to realize that all the accomplishments and all the accolades are not only meaningless but also detrimental if we are dong them for someone else’s vision of how life should be lived…rather than our own.
    As for the drug companies, they’re unlikely to voluntarily change as they are driven by greed. So, this change is up to us. We must turn down the quick and easy pills for the slower and more challenging route to self-awareness, integrity and congruence by living lives that truly reflect our inner selves rather than the conforming to the outer demands of others.
    I know we are on the cusp of making this change. I know it because dissatisfaction is everywhere. Not despair. Dissatisfaction. This is a very good sign.
    We have been asleep…a culturally drug-induced sleep. In the darkness of that sleep we have been co-opted. I see and hear more and more people awakening each day. Out of that darkness and into the light.
    If the awakened ones need a motto, might I suggest “Rise and Shine.”

P.S.   Remember to click here to download my FREE e-book “TOO MANY SECRETS”

>    The last question posed and answered last night in Austin, Texas by the Democratic contenders was for them to share how they had handled the most significant “crisis” of their lives. Hilary Clinton seemed to strike a cord when she explained that while she had clearly experienced many crises in her life, some quite public, these paled in comparison with the “suffering” that ordinary Americans routinely experience in their lives. As example, she cited a Veteran’s rehabilitation center in California. There, she said, she witnessed the filing in of single and double amputees, wheelchair bound and even gurney bound soldiers who were determined to hear she and Senator John McCain speak at a dedication.
    I think the cord Senator Clinton’s answer struck was that, in Life, there are no exceptions from suffering. Neither the rich nor the famous nor the powerful are able to escape the most fundamental characteristic of growth.
    Pain.
    Nor should we.
    I have a friend who likes to say,”No pain. No gain.” However, she always follows that up with,”To heal you have to feel.” She’s right. It’s the feeling part that we so often try to circumvent on our way to inner peace and it’s the absolutely unavoidable reality of Life.
    There is a difference between acknowledging suffering and wallowing in it. Each of us has a unique set of challenges in our lives and in order to move beyond them it is vital that we allow ourselves to feel the feelings that will necessarily accompany them. Acknowledging and experiencing the pain of growth can be a temporary challenge or it can be a state of mind we never move beyond. Like everything else in life, the choice is ours.
    I have often said that everyone’s suffering is the greatest because it’s theirs. And because that’s so, in a sense we are all equally challenged to learn this lesson.
    I do not speak in a vacuum or without empathy.
    I married at age 41 and, as a former divorce lawyer, thought it was a wise choice that would last this lifetime. Now, with a 14-year-old daughter, we are divorcing. I believe myself to be a mystic forever on the road to spiritual growth. Divorce certainly challenges that belief. Some days I am more gracious and spiritual than others to my soon-to-be ex-husband as we continue to live in the same house through this wrenching time. The challenge is to simultaneously feel the suffering associated with this loss while at the same time see the beauty of his Soul and what we have gifted each other on our individual journeys toward growth. Anyone who has ever been through a divorce knows the pain of which I speak and the magnitude of what I propose.
    Each day affords me the opportunity to either wallow in the suffering or transcend it by feeling the pain and then allowing myself to move beyond it. Every time I do just that, feel and allow movement, I experience a kind of peace and feel a kind of love that is new and wonderful.
    This new feeling holds the promise of healing.
    We are living through difficult times in almost every sector of our lives. It is a time of transition. There seems to be little relief from the pressures that accompany our transit. There was a time when I would have said,”I wish I knew the answer to relieve your suffering.” 
    What I will say today is that while I empathize with your suffering I would not want to relieve it but rather hope that you learn how to move through it, fully conscious.
    “To heal you have to feel.”
    I’m lucky to have such a wise friend.

P.S. Remember to click here to download my FREE e-book “TOO MANY SECRETS”

>     It’s difficult not to continue
to follow and comment upon Barack Obama’s remarkable rise to the top of
the Democratic Presidential nomination process. As I watched his speech
last night in Houston, Texas following his victory in Wisconsin, making
it 9 in a row, I was simultaneously captivated by both his delivery and
the crowd’s response.
    It goes without saying that Obama has
what it takes in the charisma department. He has presence, passion and
is gifted in the art of delivery. He is speaking the language of the
present to the hearts of the many. He uses the words “change” and
“hope” in ways that are credible.
    But we must stay alert,
because he is using those words, and others, in a way that also
satisfies a deep hunger within us, and hunger can run so deep and be so
pervasive as to consume good judgment.
    It’s not my intention to
say that he is disingenuous or manipulative when, by his words, he
rallies us to believe in the best of ourselves and our country. Words
are powerful fuel and fuel is needed to drive the engine of change. My
caution is not around his words but rather around our hunger. Because
if I hear him correctly, his is not just a condemnation of the way
things have been, nor a panacea that he alone possesses that will
change the present, but a call to ongoing commitment by each of us to
change the future by changing the way we prioritize, and the thereby
live, our lives.
    It is incumbent upon Obama to fully mean the
words he speaks and equally incumbent upon us to fully listen to all of
those words, not just the one’s that temporarily alleviate our hunger.
For the hunger runs deep and a snack will not cure it. The long-term
solution requires dedication, hard work and perseverance in remembering
that we are each responsible for self-nourishment. And while, in times
of lesser abundance, a helping hand can make the difference between
survival and extinction, it is but a temporary bridge to the place
where our reality is the product of how successfully we live our truth
and how fully we take on the responsibility to nourish and care first
for ourselves and then for those who for whatever reason, are truly
unable to care for themselves.
    Barack Obama cannot save us. He
can, if he is authentic, leads us in the path of righteousness as some
before him have done…although rarely have they been politicians. But
there is nothing wrong with rarity and a fisherman or a shepherd were
no more likely candidates.
    My job, and yours, is the more important one. We must listen to our hearts and not our stomachs. We must discern for ourselves,
without being swept up in the crowd’s momentum, whether this man…who
aspires to be the bearer of a profound and transformative
message…understands the gravity of his task and whether we,over time,
are willing to carry the majority of the weight of it for it is surely
too heavy for any one man.
    Coming from a place of truth with an
intention to prevail through both word and deed, there is nothing we
cannot do together.

P.S.   Remember to click here to get my FREE e-book download “TOO MANY SECRETS”

>     I grew up in suburban Philadelphia. There was, and still is, a restaurant in the historic section of the the city named “Bookbinders.” It is one of those places that tourists go to eat, but also a place my family and I frequented as well as I was growing up. Although both the food and the service were good, I dreaded dining there because as you were seated you had to pass by a large lobster tank filled with fresh lobsters. It was from that tank that you chose the specific lobster you wanted boiled alive as your entrée. A friend who knew me well back then said, “Carole, you’re the only person I know who can walk past a tank of lobsters and feel for their confinement.”
    My friend was right then and it’s still true today. It’s why I am a vegetarian and also why I cannot read the details of this past Sunday’s recall of 143 million pounds of beef processed and distributed nationally by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company. When I got to the part of the article that began to outline the unashamed cruelty inflicted on the animals I couldn’t go on. It’s also why, today, driving in Center City Philadelphia and seeing a horse and buggy pulling smiling tourists around Constitution Center by a crippled and obviously pained horse, I cried.
    I don’t know what it is that makes humankind think it has been given heartless dominion over all other forms of life, but obviously something has. Whether it’s whaling to extinction, slaughtering elephants for their ivory tusks, or effectively torturing laboratory animals in the name of science, we have become arrogant about our relationship with, and responsibility to, all other living aspects of the planet.
    We make “progress” at the expense of our own capacity to empathize and sympathize. By so doing, we have over time hardened our hearts and set the stage for an ever descending spiral of indifference to pain and suffering that, perhaps, is not so unrelated to the proliferation of   violence we are now experiencing throughout the society at large. Which may, in fact, be the best proof going that what we do to others we ultimately assure we do to ourselves…for there is only One of Us.
    Nature is a gift as is Life itself. What we do with each is not only a statement about who we are, but also the way in which Source gets to experience Itself through Us. Do we really want to be the reason that the Beauty which created All That Is comes to know the intentional infliction of pain by one of It’s creations upon another? Is this who we really are?
    Coincidentally, I watched a wonderful movie tonight, Kate and Leopold. It’s a romantic comedy with Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman that spans two centuries by finding a portal in time. Leopold is royalty from the 1800’s who accidentally lands in present-day Manhattan. Kate works for an ad agency and enlists Leopold, due to his charm and sincere delivery, to film a commercial for diet margarine. He does so until, on a break from filming, he tastes the product. Repulsed by it’s taste, he refuses to continue filming. Kate, panicked by the potential harm his refusal could do to her career, tries to convince him to just finish what he started. Leopold refuses on the grounds that he finds himself “peddling pond scum to an unsuspecting public.” Kate sees no conflict and Leopold is incredulous that she, knowing the product is awful, would still proceed with trying to convince people to buy it. He is a man who follows his heart regardless of what it costs him. In the end, it is what makes him so irresistible.
    Just as Leopold, each of us in our hearts knows that wanton disregard for the feelings and general welfare of living beings, regardless of their positioning on the evolutionary ladder, is wrong. Yet, each day we,just like Kate, ignore the shameful behavior all around us and by so doing, condone it.
    I don’t know the particulars of what Hallmark/Westland participated in and I do not need to. I hope they are put out of business, if not by criminal prosecution, then by the refusal of consumers to do business with them.
    After all, it is up to each One of Us to stand up for All of Us…and most notably for those who cannot stand for themselves.

P.S.   Remember to click here to download my FREE e-book “Too Many Secrets.”
    

>     As I write this entry there is news of yet another shooting spree at a University that has killed 5 and injured 17 others, with the gunman finally shooting himself. This time it’s Northern Illinois University. The murderer had two hand guns and a shot gun. Whenever I write following one of these tragic sprees I am tempted to pursue a line of thought that speaks to the issue of gun control. I never-the-less try and resist that urge as I think there are other issues of greater importance that underlie the degree of violence we are experiencing.
    Today I resist the urge yet again.
    What is of greater urgency is how we foster and enable violent behavior by the continued proliferation of violent media presentations combined with a lack of parental responsibility for monitoring our children’s exposure to it.
    Just this week there was a report on the results of studies done by the National Institute of Health (NIH), Kansas State University and Iowa State University finding that children who watch violent video games are more likely to exhibit violent behavior that children who do not. Repeated exposure to the violence normalizes the behavior. Well, I don’t know why any thinking person needs a study to get on that bandwagon but apparently, to many of us do.
    It shouldn’t take a scientist or sociologist to figure this one out. Watch an uplifting movie with a happy ending and you feel good. Watch a tragic movie with a sad ending and you feel bad. It isn’t a quantum leap to conclude that watching violence, repeatedly, is bad for the psyche leaving the viewer predisposed to violent behavior.
    And it’s not just the video games. It’s music, too. And TV. The Pittsburgh Gazette reported that one-third of popular songs condone or glamorize drug use. Rap, sure. But Country/Western came in second. Surprised?  Then you’re not listening because it’s out there for the children to hear and they do…everyday.
    This is not a Congressional issue. Nor a State’s Rights one, either. Nor is it for the schools to fix. This one is Ours. Yours and Mine. Each One of us needs to de-normalize violence as a socially acceptable way to respond. We need to be pro-active with our children…what they listen to and watch. We need to have the courage of our convictions and risk them not being happy with the limitations We impose. We need to model non-violent behavior and be vocal about our opposition to it as a viable way to resolve anything. We need to not purchase the products or patronize the vendors who distribute and promote products with violent, sexual and drug related content.
     Over time, we have abdicated this responsibility for expediency’s sake. When you give up power, there is always someone waiting nearby more than willing to assume it for you. Usually, what they have in mind is a far cry from what you intended. And before you know it, they have set the standard you find yourself living by, no matter how low.
     The good news is that I’ve made it easy for you to fix.
     See all the words in bold?  They’re the key to moving away from the present state of things and toward higher ground…where the air is cleaner. If you’re not up for the climb, know that the future holds more of the same. When that happens, you won’t be able to deny that you knew and turned a blind eye and a deaf ear. Although time is short, and the moment is now, you and I can still make a difference.
    Let’s.

P.S.   Remember to click here to download my FREE e-book
         “Too Many Secrets.”
    
    

>     Last night I listened and
watched both Barack Obama and John McCain give “victory” speeches
following the primary votes in Maryland, Virginia and the District of
Columbia. The contrast was stunning. And while I
continue to have my hesitations about Barack Obama, mostly around his
lack of experience and relationship to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jr.,
there is no denying that the content and delivery of Obama’s speech was
stirring. He has a gift for using language and passion in a way that
inspires and uplifts. These are qualities for which Americans are
hungry and this, I believe, is the core of his appeal.
    Last
night he spoke about “hope.” I find it fascinating that former
President Bill Clinton, husband of Obama’s rival for the nomination,
also rode to the Presidency on the same word. It was Bill Clinton’s
“The Man From Hope” carefully produced video retrospective of his life
(referring to Hope, Arkansas where he was born) that moved and inspired
many. But the hope that Bill Clinton held out was a Hollywood
orchestrated production lacking in a core truth that ultimately gave us
a national scandal and deep disillusionment of character.
    The hope
that Barack Obama spoke to last night was the real thing. It wasn’t a
play on words or a political web he was weaving to obscure the truth of
the matter. The hope he spoke of reaches into the heart and uplifts the
Soul. It is the hope that enlivens people and makes them want to be the
best they can be. He isn’t promising anything other than that each of
us will have to be fully engaged and part of the solution.
   
Obama is laying out the recipe for change, although there are many who
are missing what is being set before them. I hear them in the media every day,
talking about his lack of policy or, worse, his disastrous policies. We
have had leaders with great policies in theory who could neither
inspire nor lead. In the end, I do not think these criticisms will be
enough to obstruct his path to the White House. At the moment, he is a
man on a mission who appears to have a destiny.
    There are two common theories about leadership. The first is that great men (and hopefully someday women) lead
the governed where they  see a nation wanting to go. The second is that
people get the leader they deserve…one that reflects the times. Under
either theory, Barack Obama’s rise is encouraging. If nominated and
elected, the challenge for him will be to keep nourishing the seeds of
hope that he now speaks to and engenders. Faced with the realities of
the world and the temptations of power, this itself is a daunting task.
    I am heartened by Obama’s presence and the vision he paints. We as
a nation have, in many way, misplaced hope. It is important to be inspired and reminded of all that is possible when one puts their heart and soul
into creating something good.
    What Obama is reminding us is that each one of us is an aspect of a greater One. He bears the message that when we as individuals are joined by both heart and purpose we can, together, co-create something greater than the sum of our parts.
    This has always been this nation’s message.
    Now, let us hope.