To judge or not to judge? Is that even an appropriate question?

To judge connotes disregarding the flaws, the weakness, the humanity in others.

To not judge, may suggest, to those struggling to survive, allowing others to take advantage.

Is there a bright line rule?

Is it possible to live in the spirit of pure love, whose necessary components are a lack of judgment and forgiveness?

Precious, defined conventionally according to Urban Dictionary, in part, as follows:

Something that means more to you than anyone could understand. It’s value and worth can’t be defined and you’d do anything to keep it. Beautiful and delicate.

Now, I understand. Something, someone worth more than can be defined. And that is the courageous young woman protrayed in Sapphire’s novel, Push, and now converted for a major motion picture, “Precious”. Not sure I like the entire definition linked hereto, we here at surface earth don’t like the word “obese”, it seems like a silly definition for those that weigh more than some others.

Regardless, I read the N.Y. Times Magazine article, “The Audacity of Precious“. The article asked if America was ready to hear this story, why, because it is true in many different ways and a large percentage of us walk by with eyes closed? Also, to be noted, a play on President Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope“. (Don’t get us started, at least for the moment, when people, news organizations, refer to our President as “Mr”. Come on, bitter grapes? He holds the highest office, can’t be that hard to address the gentleman as President.).

Is America ready to wake up? That’s what I wonder. I also wonder at my own perpetual sleep. Where was I, when Precious (fictional, but please, so many like her), was battling such odds? Where am I today and where is she?

We can sit and blame, point fingers, watch Fox News and hear supposed intellectuals scream at each other, but what happens as a result? Not much.

Aren’t we all part of the same web, the same consciousness, the same universal heart?

Should not my heart have broken when Precious or a young lady like her character lived through these moments? Should I not have been unable to breath as I was otherwise engaged in my daily living? If so, that would be conscious living, an inability to ignore when others suffer.

I am rambling my friends, but what are we doing? As a society, we should be able to do better at the beginning levels, if we see a child on the outside, jump in. Doesn’t mean we have to have an overreaching arm, it means in our moments involved, we don’t let a child sit in the back, we don’t let other kids in “our group” dis another, we don’t subscribe to it, we don’t breath it, we don’t allow it. In doing so, can’t we weave a safety net and pick up more than we would if our eyes were closed and we sat on our hands?

I had a hard time reading this book, almost put it down several times, but you know what? I struggled with reading the truth, the truth, I was not the one that had to endure living it.

Don’t give me any gods, any religious institutions, any walls or parameters where I can sit and ignore this happens to children who become adults and are ignored by their fellow man. Well not by all, read the book, there are those that ultimately, were not asleep at the wheel, and continue to be awake and pull the load for the rest of us.

May God bless them, and my I someday evolve to have 1/100 of the heart and courage of the young lady portrayed.

I reflected today on that simple phrase: Do No Harm.

I realized it would be a lottery ticket for the human race.

If we were to all adopt that mantra, breath and live it, we could re-balance the world.

I had been driving home from a meeting and was thinking of the state of the world. Thinking about the fact that ‘griping’ does little more than add more negativity (believe me, I can ‘gripe’) and I thought of the pure wisdom in the phrase ‘Do No Harm’. Instant winnings.

I of course digressed, suppose we strove to do the right thing only it turned out to be the wrong thing? Where would we go to find a point of reference? Again my mind turned to the phrase: ‘Do No Harm’.

I’m not trying to be redundant, it is occurring naturally. It is so very, very simple. We don’t have to worry about right or wrong if we follow those three little words.

I sometimes am dragged down, beyond my own bent for believing in the positive, and become saddened at the horrendous things that occur against humans, against animals, against the planet. How naive we can be to think we know much of anything. This whole limitless; yet, maybe self-repeating universe beyond us, what is it that we think we know? Can we truly believe we know anything as we sit and breath and live and laugh and love as even one human being, let alone, one child, goes harmed in the same moment?

I’m not much about division. I think that as I lift the fork to my mouth in celebration of a good meal, there is someone, somewhere, that cannot do the same, and to me, it makes no sense.

I find my comfort today in the words: Do No Harm.

If we all believed and lived this, I think, a lot of the ‘bad’ would take care of itself.

Now there are so many ways we could distort this, I don’t think you have the time or the patience for me to go through the variations, so I leave us with the simple import.

Blessings.

Can you choose your color today, or must others still do that for you? Can anyone of us with mixed heritage be predominantly called by just one name? What does that say about the heritage you choose (or is chosen for you), and the heritage not chosen? It appears to me that regardless of your standing in society, regardless of your accomplishments or natural talents, you must choose a color – or one will be chosen for you.

I wonder at that. In some ways, our nation has come a long way since Patricia ‘Pinky’ Johnson, in its day a very controversial film about a young black woman who passes for white.
“Pinky” was a slang term for light-skinned black Americans. We trust the term as used here is not offensive to anyone today as we are using same only as historical reference. (more…)

Words…

What are words?

I used to believe words were comprised of language, letters, consonants, vowels, pronunciations.

Now I am not so sure.

Are not words pre-formed images, that sometime before adopting, we agree are to be transmitted?

Is not the unfinished painting above a compilation of words?

“Before she became ill, David’s mother would often tell him that stories were alive. They weren’t alive in the way that people were alive, or even dogs or cats. People were alive whether you chose to notice them or not, while dogs tended to make you notice them if they decided that you weren’t paying them enough attention. Cats, meanwhile, were very good at pretending people didn’t exist at all when it suited them, but that was another matter entirely.

Stories were different, though: they came alive in the telling. Without a human voice to read them aloud, or a pair of wide eyes following them by flashlight beneath a blanket, they had no read existence in our world. They were like seeds in the beak of a bird, waiting to fall to earth, or the notes of a song laid out on a sheet, yearning for an instrument to bring their music into being. They lay dormant, hoping for the chance to emerge. Once someone started to read them, they could begin to change. They could take root in the imagination, and transform the reader. Stories wanted to be read, David’s mother would whisper. They needed it. It was the reason they forced themselves from their world into ours. They wanted us to give them life.”

The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly, copyright 2006, p. 3.

$1200 a year.

It’s a lot for some of us.

Suppose some of us could come together and sponsor a child?

We owe it to each other and to the future, to help the young ones. $1200 a year is much too much for many of us, suppose we had a network where 12 of us could come together and give $100 a year? Is it possible?

Sponsor a child

Imagine how you, I, we, could feel waking up each day knowing we have helped a child that maybe believed they were beyond hope?

Please, leave your comments and thoughts to help the innocent.

Our blessings to you.

I call it Micro-Hope.

It’s my word, I guess.

What it encompasses is trying to find a way to buy what we need from each other.

I have asked Shelley Seale, the author, for links to foundations/groups that we can help. She has supplied me with a link to her site: See Shelley’s Resources.

I am also attempting to amass links to individuals, women, families, children, trying to make a living. I will start small but ask all of you to stop in, share some links, and we will update accordingly.

Blessings.

Start Small:

Women and Fair Trade

Etsy and Fair Trade

Global Girlfriend

NonProfit Shopping

CRS Voices

We are at the beginning of amassing sites/references/resources to help one another. Please help us.

Namaste.

In physics, the principle of relativity is the requirement that the laws of physics in the observable world have the same form in all admissible frames of reference.

Now observe this photo of two little girls standing on the balcony of their home in Rafah, Gaza Strip – their observable world.
(more…)

Update: Churches and the love of God without walls

In the news, at least for some of us that still troll negative publicity, is the story of a Florida priest, sharing love with a woman.

Not a problem right?

Except that he made a ‘promise’ to not engage in certain types of love.

I wish I could condemn him, or his partner, but I can’t. I can say, it is easier that if you can’t uphold a promise you previously made that you graciously excuse yourself from same and explain accordingly. But life as we know it is not conducive to forgiveness.

Let’s pretend for a moment that this young priest came out, went public and said I’m struggling here, I took a vow of celibacy but I have found myself grappling with a whole different dimension of God’s love that I never knew I would need to grapple with, despite same, I’m grappling with it and ask your forgiveness, your understanding, your assistance to learn in which way to progress.

No.

Not possible, because social media really doesn’t allow for this does it?

I could go on and on, but I won’t, I would rather hear from you and ask that you pray for the priest and his loved one to find their way.

Blessings,

S.E.

Today, like most days, I wonder at this matrix we casually refer to as the internet.

It is the “net”, no?

Nets contain, don’t they?

I search for news and find myself circling myself. Whether by the words I use to start the queries or by my inept attempts to hunt, I find myself circular.

The crazy thing about remaining circular is that you may not always realize you are hitting walls, because the walls are soft and bend and seemingly appear to give flexibility to movement.

With that said, I ask you, how often do you step out of the box, out of the circle?

Now I realize, I may not hit the right tags for this post, often I do not tag just to antagonize the Gods, but I may not hit the right ones to hear from a big enough cross-section of YOU.

I wonder how long we will remain as we are, willing participants in someone else’s mode of being?

There is nothing, nothing I can add to this………………enjoy, courtesies of The Wild Pomengrante

Grassroots economics.

What does that mean to you?

Suppose it was so simple, that we could help each other?

Suppose you had a necklace for sale, and your blogging community joined around you, to get it sold?

Suppose you had a business you wanted to start, a venture, and we all joined around you and passed the word on and so on and so on?

If I was the beggar on the street, and collected one dollar from 250,000 people in the space of three days, they would have saved me, no?

Why can’t we all be the beggars on the corner and the ones stopping to drop a dollar? It starts now.

Suppose we picked up our own strength and helped one another?

What then?

Could it be the dawning of a new age?

AcrossThe Universe – I Want To Hold Your Hand
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQfRdn8wqi4]

Across The Universe – Strawberry Fields Forever (Movie Ver)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziToC3371NE]

How many times do we wish to reinvent ourselves?

To start again?

To be the master, or would it be, the mistress, of the past?

How many times, do we long to stand atop the tallest point, and scream, from our hearts, I meant well?

The snow allows us to begin again,

in unexpected ways.

It blankets our paths,

daring us to set foot again,

and to watch also,

where we step.

Today, the snow has blessed us.

Many of you may have read Shelley Seale’s article, posted a few days ago here, The Weight of Silence….

Now maybe you may take a moment and watch her video on these utterly beautiful innocent souls, and if you do, maybe you will pass it on and on, and stop at her site and buy her book.

It starts now.

Shelly & her kids

Ms. Shelley Seale, a humanitarian and now guest blogger, shares with us a moving piece on the price and plight of innocence. It is a piece born from the heart. As you approach the end of Ms. Seale’s narrative, she also graciously shares with us general statistics on the day to day societal warfare waged knowingly against children. May peace be with you as you share your moments with Ms. Seale and pass on her moving piece, information and website to all that you know.

With no further introduction…

“The plane started its final descent, and my heart began to race. It was March of 2005, and I had been traveling halfway around the world for nearly two days to volunteer in an orphanage in northeast India, with the Austin-based nonprofit The Miracle Foundation. I had been sponsoring a child who lived there but had never visited the country before, and my stomach tightened as the plane touched down and I waited impatiently for the exit doors to open.

Home is a fragile concept – far more delicate than those of us who have always had one can imagine. When a person no longer has a home, when his family is taken from him and he is deprived of everything that was home, then after a while wherever he is becomes home. Slowly, the pieces of memory fade, until this strange new place is not strange anymore; it becomes harder to recall the past life, a long ago family, until one day he realizes he is home.

Post Script: Excerpts provided by Ms. Seal

What to know:
More than 25 million Indian children currently live without homes or families – in orphanages or on the streets, where they are extremely vulnerable to abuse, disease, and being trafficked into labor or the sex trade.
Another 4 million children join their ranks each year.
India is home to the most AIDS orphans of any country in the world – approaching 2 million, and expected to double over the next five years.
By some estimates, as many as 100 million child laborers work in India.
Hundreds of thousands of Indian children go missing each year, kidnapped or trafficked – and three out of four of those are never found.
A poor child in India is three times as likely to die before his fifth birthday as a rich child.
More than two million children themselves die every year from preventable infections for which education and medicine are lacking.
One of every three of the world’s malnourished children lives in India.
Fifty percent of childhood deaths there are attributable to malnutrition or starvation.

How you can help:
The first step is awareness – thank you for reading this article and for caring. You can sponsor a child at Miracle Foundation.
You can make a donation at UNICEF, the leading champion for children worldwide. Be a conscious shopper. Is it really worth getting something a few dollars cheaper if it is made by slave labor or children? Check out The Better World Shopping Guide. You can take action by signing petitions and/or financially supporting organizations that are working worldwide to end child labor. Some of them are: globalmarch.org | endchildlabor.org | earthaction.org

When do secrets stop being secrets?

Is it when we speak them out out loud?

Does it require a certain number to hear or see them to remove the status of secret?

Highlight: postsecrets

Fox News Reports: Ex-Porn Star Quits School Cafeteria Job After Uproar

Let me ask a question.

Actually, I am not asking permission.

I am here to say, what is wrong with us?

Let’s pretend for a moment, there is a lovely woman.

The woman has made her living for some years as an “adult entertainer”. Whatever that means. If she is over 18 and TRULY exercises free will, economy, or pimps or whatever, have not forced her in the role, then………

So let’s pretend, one of the three:

a) she did so with free will; or
b) she did so without choice; or
c) she was forced into same.

Ok.

Now, we meet a woman, a woman, wanting to be who she is in this moment, someone who wants to work at a school, for, forgive me, less than $5,800.00 a year, and now, parents want her out?

Did I miss something?

Is she accused, convicted beyond a reasonable doubt of doing something to innocent children? (btw: all children are innocent).

Is there anyone out here that has spent a moment in Suburbia? How it is always others and not the inhabitants, that have skeletons?

I fear a projection of misconceived issues may be afoot.

I don’t know this woman portrayed in this Fox News article and now being publicly lambasted, but what I don’t see is any allegations as to how this woman treated children.

Really people, can we grow up and give our children a better model for the future?

This is a witch hunt, Salem circa 2008.

Don’t be a part of it.

Well hello NJ.

Looks like we aren’t sitting quiet with the peace offering of civil unions.

Check it out, there may be movement afoot, allowing others to love as others love.

(yes, I meant to say it that way.  why are only alleged heterosexuals “us” and a-hem, “gays”, “homosexuals” or “those that love others of the same ’sex’”, others?)

Can we just evolve?

Check it out:  Reuters………………

EXCERPT………………..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Full marriage is the only way to meet a state constitutional requirement for equality, said the 13-member panel of public officials, clergy, lawyers and same-sex marriage advocates.”

THE EXTORTION OF US TAX PAYERS (a.k.a., the Detroit Bailout)

Let’s do the math and perhaps put it out to a poll. I’ll focus on GM, you can do the same for Ford and Chrysler. GM employs about 252,000 people globally. The company website totals its US work force at 97,624 across some 87 US zip codes.

The pitch made by the Big Three last week puts the GM term loan “request” at least $12 billion they said was needed to bridge a funding gap in their global operations through just 2009. Unless you think that by the end of 2009 mobs of Americans will be buying enough GM cars to make a difference, by this time next year these same three will be asking for more tax payer money. They will site then, as they do now, a vast US unemployment amongst a plethora of other dire consequences should they be “allowed” to fail.

Now here is the math: if we consider only the US based employees of GM, that “term loan” works out to over $122,920 per current employee – including the over two dozen lucky top earners at the company that make well over $1 million per year. If we were to poll those same US employees of GM, asking simply, should GM management be handed $12 Billion IN CASH or instead should each US based employee given a severance package that includes nearly $123,000 IN CASH and then seek employment at the several other US based (but foreign) car manufacturers who for some reason are NOT asking for a bailout. By the way, these other car companies will most assuredly be delighted to increase their own US car production output to make up for the void should the “big three” go under. Now back to the math, what would those tax paying US based employees choose? Would they trust $12 Billion in the hands of a few pigeon headed multi-millionaires that drove their company, an icon of American manufacturing competence and power the world over, into total obsolescence or would they take a chance on themselves with that $122,920?

Now that $122,920 may seem like a paltry amount for some, and certainly that is so for the GM CEO who earns over $10 MILLION IN ADDITION TO his annual salary of $1.5 million (source WSJ) that he is now willing to “sacrifice”, for one year, for the sake of getting this bailout…presumingly because its good for the nation. What a patriot. Take note however, he is offering to giving up just over one tenth of his total compensation and this “sacrifice” does not include his use of the company’s air force (yes, we talking about a car company), fleet of chauffeured cars, personnel/family allowances and that all important multi-million dollar corporate expense account amongst the plethora of other perks.

Do we really need to debate this?

See also:

CNN:  auto plea passes the House

The trees began to curl into themselves

but first

color themselves in the light

of Fall colors.

The edges began to creep,

creep,

and creep further in,

and every time they did,

the Faeries,

would curl up their toes,

closer to their immortal legs,

and hide.

The ledges of time

became smaller,

the space

to hide,

smaller yet,

and the Faeries knew,

there were not too many daylight hours

left to hide.

They unfurled in the night,

becoming themselves,

unbent from the leaves,

from human eyes.

Oh,

how they thanked the darkness for the need

of most,

humans,

to sleep.

They slipped from the leaves,

stretching their limbs,

nimbly alighting hundreds of feet to the ground,

to start the next day’s work

on the century’s task.

they had agreed to.

(more later) (copyright, The Faeries, S.E.)

Are we ever just this one thing?

I think not.

Unless we only evaluate in the space of frozen time.

My girl, my prior header on my previous design blog, she shines; yet, I changed her time and time again. I have photos of her change, all of which I have not posted.  it was an expose of moments and I dared to paint and repaint the canvas.

The point is, none of us are ever just one thing, and when we judge others, we freeze them in time.  We see an encapsulated moment, while still, perhaps, allowing ourselves evolution.

Ah, so now what, my friends, now what?  Shall we move on?

Today

the Earth fell from beneath my feet

but it was not

an unusual occurrence

because yesterday

the same occurred.

I woke,

I stood,

I put my feet upon the ground,

I lifted my arms,

stretched,

and looked to the windows,

where recently,

i hung scraps of cloth,

to obscure the view.

of them,

or me?

It does not matter.

I know there are times,

we belong to no one

but ourselves and God in our heart,

and those moments are

simple

pure

real.

they are the moments,

God willing,

when the rest of the world

stands back

and does

not come through our door uninvited

and we have moments

just for thanks and gratitude

that we are

in those moments ok.

It will be the harrowing moments after

of self realization

CNN or Fox News

where we may doubt our own

definition.

So long as we hold

strong

in the moments in between

we can gather courage

like beans

or seeds

kernals

in a pocket

promising a different now.

Peace to you. We send such loving thoughts your way.

Surface Earth

Why must people be cruel?

Silly,

innocent question,

but it begs an answer.

CNN reports on the attacks on innocents in India.  What would Ghandi say now?  I am not making light, I am serious, very, very serious, how can this be true?

It starts, I believe, with the ability to see others as less than ourselves and it morphs to such grand proportions that it becomes something that hits the news and strikes us again and again, in headlines.

None of this should be true, but I have always been one to not spend a lot of time on should, or at least try not to, because should connotes lost time in the past.

I ask tonight for the only thing I can think of:  prayer.  Ask everyone you know to pray and pray and pray………at least until we can figure out something more swift.

I am probably not unlike you, I see this and say, where is God?  where is love?

I could struggle with an intellectual debate on the issues, but that is not helping all of those hurting, shocked, damaged people.

Recently, many issues have come to light with the rights of our fellow human beings.

Rights, I want to say, trampled, but how can they be trampled when such rights have not yet arisen?

There is a lot of coverage as to “equal” marriage or “gay” marriage.  I’m not sure the word matters, I know as a lover of words it should, but I find the essence of the issue is one more pure, it is the right to love, so I don’t know what to call the right to love and marry, regardless of sexual orientation.

On a related note, from Vannessa’s corner of the world, she brought up the issue of the right to adopt and how it is curtailed due to sexual orientation.

Dear Ronnie, from Work Coach Cafe, just left an inspiring comment in regard to same and the illustrious words of at least one judge in Florida!  See Ronnie’s comment and prior thread.

Onward!

When you live on the edge of the rainbow,

hanging on to the hue,

of purple,

or blue,

the gradation,

may not matter.

When you live on the edge of the rainbow,

it is moments,

seconds,

that define,

you,

your life.

When you live on the edge of the rainbow,

you hold on,

by nail,

by a thread,

by a handful,

if you like the color,

you have grasped.

When you live on the edge of the rainbow,

yours,

hang with you.

In my hand

I hold

the promise of today

which was the breath,

the blink,

of yesterday,

unrealized.

In my hand,

I hold,

the courage,

of a moment,

fingers curled,

ready,

palms warm.

In my hands,

I hold,

the tempo,

of a new tomorrow,

watch my fingers spread,

reaching to the horizon,

refusing to meet,

a dividing line.

In my hands,

I hold,

the spark of hope,

so tiny,

I dare not look,

to see,

if it exists,

but close my eyes,

against the

sand of time,

willing granules

to become affixed,

within my eyelashes,

so short these days.

I will,

the space of time,

to exist,

as I hold it,

in my heart,

and send to you.

Peace.

Surface Earth

Amber Moon writes of how we can make the world a better place. She illustrates how we are graced enough to be able to grasp a moment, or what we might conceive as a small thought or gesture, which can have ripple effects.  I imagine the ideas she gives us to help are fibers which eventually weave together with enough action to create a blanket to cover the world in kindness.  I am inspired by what she has written.

It just so happens that after reading Amber’s post, I stopped in at the land of Gyspsy Heart, and found a piece on tactile art that she had done and the photos of the children that were blessed by her art.  Absolutely amazing.  If that is not kindness, than I don’t know how to define the word.

I feel blessed today to have read these posts, to turn around my direction of thinking.  Often, as Amber said, the sheer enormity of the things to fix in the world could make us feel there is nothing we can do….ah, how misdirected that is and how empowering to hold on to the belief, that change can be made with each small moment.

Peace & blessings.

I’m Alive,

and I know this,

because I think, I breath, I feel.

I feel.

What is feeling?

What is it to walk through life,

wondering if anyone else knows what you and yours are going through?

Does it matter to daily existence?

I think not, because if it did, there could never be human unkindness.

Peace.

The Resolution, Jack’s Mannequin

There are times,

most times,

between the spaces,

when we have,

I believe,

moments of gratitude,

singing,

in the open spaces

of amphitheaters

designed and built

both long before and after our time.

There are times,

I think,

perhaps,

within the moments,

yes, not in the spaces in between,

when our hearts swell,

and we know,

if we could only bag up and box,

the love before us,

there would not be one more thing we need to accomplish.

Have I shared with you,

the smile,

on a child’s face,

when they turn at you,

unexpectedly?

Have I shared with you,

the millions of times,

within my home,

we say,

I love you?

not to get something back,

but because it is.

Have I shared with you,

my mortal fears?

the understanding,

that our rights to love,

as humans

are fragile.

They are…..

parceled,

not by our decree, but by,

the whims,

ambitions,

egos of others.

I do not blame them.

Because to do so,

is to blame them,

for not having been loved,

this way,

the way that is beyond denial,

for those within its circle of warmth.

I wish for you today,

a better moment,

a better today, to build,

an even better tomorrow.

I wish that we,

as humanity,

would not let,

our brothers and sisters fail,

not now,

not ever,

but lift them up,

within our arms of collective consciousness.

Every child gone wrong,

every adult,

with a finger pointed at him or her,

is still the child,

no I don’t mean,

we excuse behavior that hurts one another,

i mean,

we raise a village,

we stop it before it begins,

Ubuntu.

Peace to you today.

let us know what we can do,

if you don’t,

well,

we will wish you had.

How to begin?

Sanity Found gave us a remarkable tribute, and within same, Amber Moon, made reference to the guide written on her blog, simple thoughts on Ubuntu.

Perhaps the only fair way to begin is to show you, our introduction to the word Ubuntu did not begin that  long ago.  In June of 2007, Surface Earth posted a piece on Ubuntu. It was an introduction, a recognition, that this word was new to us.

Back to the present, we were asked to share our vision, our experience of Ubuntu:

We would like to extend our congratulations to Surface Earth.  Thank you for your beautiful words and spirit.  You will be a fine addition to our Ubuntu team.  With this nomination you can choose or not to post our Ubuntu badge on your blog, but we do ask that you post a blog post article about what Ubuntu means to you in return.

First, Ubuntu to us means an all encompassing love.  It means love which has no division, no boundaries, it is the recognition that as the water feeds through the channels of the land, it is not divided, but of the same whole.

Stop.

Ubuntu means exactly what what was given and shared today, an expression of humanity, a lack of being afraid to stand on Humanity’s Team, to recognize ourselves in another or others.  And that is what occurred today.  I stand now, in the distant light, rays, of pure love that have come from people I don’t know, people that have no agenda other than to raise up their fellow man or woman or human or whatever we want to call ourselves.  This purity of spirit reached into my day, humbling me, asking, what more, what more, what more can be done?  Done, I mean, to keep this up, to keep up this compassionate web of caring, for all of you to feel as I do right now, full of belief in the love and goodness of my fellow people.

This is first draft gang, i’m sure I’ll be back to write some more, but I can only write from the heart, the editing skills come from my very loud ego, and I’m ok with silencing that loud partner.

Namaste.  May you be good to others.

Bizzare, right?

How could they possibly be related?

Well, maybe falling through the Rabbit Hole.

For now, I say, because I saw Flash of Genius today and cried.  I cried for so many reasons.  I cried because I am an attorney and I know I have advocated to settle because litigation costs would be insurmountable for my client.  I cry because i witnessed how a good man, watched his marriage and family get destroyed, because others refused to acknowledge truth.

But before I cried watching Flash of Genius i cried because I saw previews for The Changeling.  Am I confused?  Because I posted some time ago about a book, The Stolen Child, and because of my love for Irish history, my love of the lore of the Faeries, I felt The Stolen Child was important.  But the book itself humbled me to believe I knew what was important and what was not.

So I sat, waiting for Flash of Genius to begin, and had a preview to The Changeling which, if you have read, the Stolen Child, or perhaps other works, it would not be a bizarre topic for you.  If you have lived untruths forced upon you by what you believed to be law abiding, good people of society, and have been harmed because of it, then you also know what i mean.

What it means is the disillusion of truth.  Those in power preying over the good that live in truth.  And it bothers me on deeper levels because my Grandfather was an executive of Ford.  But i can only pray, he would not have done this to that man and his family. He is passed now, so I may have to wait to ask.  On another level it bothered me deeply because I am an attorney and was disgusted by what I saw in regard to the attorneys on behalf of Ford.  I spoke to Mary during that film and said please, please don’t let me be them.  But I’m judging now, aren’t I?  Ugh.

I cried. Just in the previews, I cried.  And they also had to slam us with The Soloist, let’s save that discussion for another day.

All I can say is, truth resides within, if you cannot follow your own good heart, there is no sense looking to others.

Man is distorted, I don’t know why, it makes no sense to me individually, I’d rather let the guy who cuts me of pass safely than curse him out.  But, I’m going to suffer myself, and watch The Changeling, knowing it is true and it exists today, knowing that to speak out, is often to condemn ourselves and those we love.

But, what, I ask you, because I no longer know, is,what is the point of silence?

May God and your heart guide you.  May God not be what institutions teach you, rather, may God only be what resonates when the soul and heart meet.

I pray for you.

Surface Earth

CNN reports this morning on a widow with a teenage son who skips meals to give her son more food and has no resource to buy him clothes.

I looked in this article for a contact to reach out and could not find one.  Perhaps one of you will see what I could not.  Maybe it’s as simple as writing to the reporter who covered the story.

Another thought came to me, she reportedly lives in Vista, California.  There must be a family near there that can donate clothes an older boy has grown out of or a group that can share meals.  There must be ways we can still reach out and help one another, even when most of us no longer have enough money, let alone “extra” money.

***UPDATE:  AS OF 10/4/08, WE ARE TRYING TO OBTAIN THE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR THE CNN REPORTER, WE CALLED A FEW DIFFERENT NUMBERS TO TRACK HIM, WE HOPE DURING REGULAR OPERATING HOURS BEGINNING MONDAY, WE CAN TRACK HIM DOWN AND HE CAN HELP US FACILITATE WAYS TO DONATE TO THE FAMILY HE HIGHLIGHTED IN NEED.

STAY TUNED.  WE WILL APPRISE AS SOON AS WE KNOW.  PEACE TO YOU.

There is nothing I can add to what Sorrow has said in her post:  It matters.

I invite you to go back and read her post again and then spread the word of her Labryinth shop, the shop is selling love and generosity to help others.  Go take a peek.

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

–Edmund Burke

Dear Ones:

We are not in a point of life where we can give money to those in need.  What we can do is invite you here, place your needs or petitions, if you want by location, in case of local help, but that is your choice entirely.

We will try to turn your email or comment requests into posts and some day a workable map-type web where people within localities can help each other and we can truly live a human community.

Pass this around.  All are welcome.  Evidently, we cannot vouch for the requests we will receive, we just ask you be guided by your heart.

I need to believe for a moment,

that I,

you,

we,

are in the future.

We are looking back,

reading a textbook,

when humans

actually employed the use of tanks, planes and guns,

to deal with “civilians”.

I need to believe,

in the future,

as I read the text book,

that I am compelled to look up the word:

civilian.

I need to understand,

the fine line,

between,

expendable humans

and non-expendable humans.

I apologize.

I cannot find a 2008 defintion of same.

I need to understand,

how it can be anyone’s solution,

to put children in harm.

I digress.

Yet, I don’t,

it is all interconnected.

I ask,

perhaps,

what is your view,

do you not feel we should be beyond the “need” for violence

to resolve our

human dilemna?

Peace.

May we all take five minutes today to pray for same.

Sometime ago, Enreal tagged me here for a “tag”, “link”, I am never quite sure of the “nomenclature”, for a series of shared favorite quotes.

I thought, and I thought and I thought.  And I realized, the quotes I like best are the ones that happen spontanouesly in the day, the ones, most often born of innocence, out of the mouths of babes they say.  I continued to think.  Then, the other night, I received an email from a group I read and there they were, three beautiful, pristine quotes and I knew those are the ones I wanted to share.

Enreal, thank you for keeping me thinking.  Without further ado………..

“When the doors of perception are cleansed, man will see things as they truly are, infinitie.”

-William Blake

“We count our miseries carefully, and accept our blessings without much thought.”

-Chinese Proverb

“When we settle into the present moment, we can see beauties and wonders right before our eyes…”.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

—-Blessings

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQNpEET9WqQ&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=0]

Well, there are a lot of things we can all do.

We can donate money, if we have it.

We can collect outgrown clothes and toys and donate.

When we only have time, if we are so lucky, then we can donate that and it is invaluable.

I’m just on the learning curve with “Make It Right”: bringing people back to their homes in New Orleans.

I’m thinking it’s worth a look, they say you can pledge to buy a solar panel, a home, perhaps a door? For some of us, maybe we can only donate the price of a lock or a bit of sunshine.

At any rate, take a look, let’s make someone’s day……………MakeItRight Nola.Org

Join me, start a song, type unbidden, let’s see where we are, the SurfaceEarth exchange

……

Across the sky

I stand

breath

silence

looking up

two birds come across

they wink at me

it no longer matters

I don’t need the sign

they were simply waking me up all of these months and years

rolling

across the top of the ocean

collective consciousness

I roll

Does it matter

that I now walk through walls

taught

does it matter

did not achieve it on my own

Did I pick the right song

or the wrong one

did it pick me?

It’s slow beyond the triggers of my mind

I think the pauses between the words

between the melody

may be having me travel where I wouldn’t otherwise

“Oh God if you’re round there won’t you hear me…”

Maybe not such a bad choice

maybe not

I pat the head

of the girl I was

I smile at her

the thirty animals that circled her bed at night

the bag beneath her bed

in case

in case

there was a fire

I circle and embrace her

is this the worst that comes out of this two minute song?

How do we find where we have begun?

Song #2: Couldn’t resist, may be short……………

How do you describe

a smile

that starts from within?

How do you describe hope

that stands

despite

the day?

How do you

How do you

How do you live the moment

when the past and the future

want to choke you?

How do you

How do you

How do you rise up

and glide

across the pond

iced

of the moment?

How do you stand

a child

across a frozen ink of glass

against the stark

forgotten trees

of a town

removed

a place within the town

even more forgotten

how do you carve yourself against the sky

to make yourself matter?

You glide

you breath

you put your arms out in front of you

whether you can

see

or not see

you put your fingers

your nerves

the warmth

of you against the sky and dare it

to

not

see you

****both background songs compliments of Sarah McLauchlan, her cd I bought playing in my home

Peace my brothers and sisters.

Try it.

Typing or drawing to music is freeing and brings us back to our origins.

May God bless you.

I know not what to say.

Young women, victims of dominance, punished?

Saudi Arabia, Female Victim

There is no true distinction in the flow of humanity. It is only perceived illusion. Division is only what we have determined as Society, as Society, we have the power to un-determine.

Are you kidding me? In an unrelated male’s car? Is that the same as the American version that her skirt was too short, she “asked for it”?

Ok, ok, I’m not even close to being done here.

Look inside brothers and sisters, we must treat each other better.

Dignity.

Respect.

Love.

There are no better words.

The lawyer was allegedly stripped of his license to practice law as a result of filing an appeal on the woman’s, (YOUNG woman’s behalf).

You’re kidding me right, a lawyer doing the right thing gets censured and has no recourse to earn a living, to obtain food and housing?

I’m steaming.  (I am not sure whether that is good or bad that I am steaming over this.   I’m not sure that throwing more anger out into the universal energy field is smart, that maybe it simply accelerates negativity and abusive behavior and it would be better to channel the anger into healing prayers.  Alas, I have brought this anger onto the pages here.  I may now try the prayer route.)

Update:  CNN

Take a moment, just a click, video on children. I received an email:

Autism Speaks, a sponsoring organization for the Autism Awareness campaign created a music video of the Five for Fighting song, “World”, which features images of autistic children and their families. It is a truly moving video and was the work of their Creative Director, Bill Shea.

The band is generously donating $0.49 to Autism Speaks for each time the video is viewed. When you have a moment, please visit the link below to watch the video and pass it along to your friends and family. They are aiming for 10,000 hits, but hopefully we can help them to surpass this goal.

What Kind of World Do You Want?

Pass it on please.

A day of jubilation turned to trauma:  BBC reports.

I call this evening to pray for those in Pakistan.

There is no need to do this to each other as fellow human beings, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, friends, in-laws…………

there is no need.

Join me, take a moment, ask whatever divinity you believe in to remind us of love.

I received an e-mail just now from across the sea from me….I took the time to read it and now share it with you…

“Subject: FW: Two choices

What would you do?….you make the choice. Don’t look for a punch line, there isn’t one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:

“When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do Where is the natural order of things in my son?”

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. “I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.”

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, “Do you think they’ll let me play?” Shay’s father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay’s father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, “We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.”

Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father’s joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again.

Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat.

Everyone
knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.

Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first base man’s head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, “Shay , run to first! Run to first!”

Never
in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, “Run to second, run to second!” Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball … the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitchers intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-base man’s head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, “Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay”

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, “Run to third! Shay, run to third!”

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, “Shay, run home! Run home!”

Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

“That day”, said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, “the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world”.

Shay didn’t make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

AND NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyber space, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.

If you’re thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you’re probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren’t the “appropriate” ones to receive this type of message. Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference.

We
all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the “natural order of things.” So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it’s least fortunate amongst them.

You now have two choices:
1. Delete
2. Forward

May your day, be a Shay Day.”

May God, the Universe or whatsoever you believe in, bless you on this journey we call life.

Namaste.

I have been thinking about blogging against abuse since this goal was brought up by RubyShooz.

I was thinking of the importance of not participating in self-abuse.  In honoring ourselves despite or because of everything and thereby making us less susceptible to the abuse of others.

I was also thinking that when we don’t participate in self-abuse against ourselves, we are less likely to emotionally abuse and manipulate others.  Sometimes our internal negative thoughts become our blueprint and then we manifest or create a perception of what others do to us that is wrong, then we justify our response, and so on and so on.  It becomes circular and we erode not only the love within us, but the love within others.

So simply, don’t abuse yourself.  Look upon yourself as the gift you are, unique, one of a kind, and smile that you are you.

Come along the RubyShooz train.

RubyShooz has enlightened me, and now you, as to our opportunity to join together and blog on September 27, 2007 to STOP ABUSE.

We all know abuse is insidious and comes in so many forms, I dare anyone to put it in a box, except to say:

if it looks like…

smells like…

sounds like…

Abuse,

chances are it is.

So come along, join together, how can we use our minds, our hearts and our words to STOP ABUSE?

Exuberance.

How many times in our life are we within these moments?

Sheer joy?

Glee?

Unfounded, unlimited happiness? Moments within which we feel neither the finality of morality, nor the limit of our beginnings?

I read today, or was it yesterday, on The Naked Soul: To Whose Beat Are You Marching To…, about stripping ourselves bare of the expectations of others that we carry, the expectations that have become our own.

I see a lost girl in a train station, too many bags too carry alone, no idea as to what is packed within them, but all stamped “necessary”.

Now I wish I could give you the visual of this, that I had the acumen of some of my fellow bloggers to insert the proper pictures within the proper space of the words, and someday I will, but for now, believe, that there is a space between the words where only visuals can be captured and then there is yet a larger space, although often undetectable, where only the emotion without words or pictures exists. In that space, only faith of heart exists.

Serendipity.

Serendipity lead me down a garden path.

Sunday evening I wrote about books and the unwillingness or the inability to part with favorites. I composed a list. I added a link to the BBC news regarding mules carrying books to remote regions of Venezuela, a four-legged mobile library they called it. I was spurred to write about the books I could not do without by the mere thought of what it would be like, to be someone else, to have to have mules bring me my books.

You see, I am a spoiled reader. I have the unfortunate habit of forgetting titles and yes, authors, but remembering the feel of the words within stories so it makes it difficult to read many books again; however, I need to be able to touch those books, to have the feeling come through their spines to mine.

So I was humbled to see the mules carrying the books, the gratitude, the inspiration, offered and received, how many times would they read the same books again, but do so with gratitude.

“Venezuela’s four-legged mobile libraries

A university in Venezuela is using a novel method to take books into remote communities and encourage people to read. As James Ingham reports, the scheme is proving a great success.

The village children love reading the books that the mules bring Enlarge Image

“Chiquito and Cenizo greet me with a bit of a snort and a flick of the tail.

Mules are too tough to bother being sweet. They do a hard job which no other animal or human invention can do as well.

But these mules are rather special.”

-BBC News

As a result of this, I went to where I keep some of my books, I looked through and began a list as to what books I could not do without. I have a busy household and mistyped in my list. Instead of writing “The Sunflower”, I wrote, “The Sunflower Houses”, and received a response from someone on behalf of the author, Sharon Lovejoy, as to the difference between the titles. Me, a lover of words, should certainly appreciate that…and because of that, I have found a vast and rich new resource for parents and children, teaching the respect and love needed between all of us.

Without further ado, I introduce…. the webpage for: Sharon Lovejoy, author of The Sunflower Houses…  

All The VISIBLE Children
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5U8fRHJ9yQ]

Global Angels….See our Humanitarian News Update Page

We are all writers here, we all sit before our screens and compose words onto these pages, not knowing who may come across the pages.

I have met and encountered fellow bloggers here who take great care in how their words will be received.

I can almost see them there, fingers hovering above the keyboard, the pause filtering the mind, wondering, how will this be received?  How will it impact?

I bow my head to all of you who put such words on this virtual paper, caring what those words will do to us.

Tobeme a/k/a The Naked Soul today wrote a piece on The Magic of Life.

Now granted, I am a fan of his blog and often come away with something that makes me continue to chew, in other words, I rarely fully digest the words and spin them over, wondering as to the many paths, the many intuitions, the abundance of wisdom.

Today, I found myself again on the Naked Soul blog because I enjoy it.  Now days before, maybe just 1.5 or two, but I’m thinking less than two, I was challenging myself, asking myself:  What, what?  what is it you are seeking? What do you want?  What do you hope to achieve?

It came to me:  Magic.

I wanted to live within and know magic.

Not sorcery, no dark arts, but just plain and simple, knowing the undercurrent which causes all other things.

It could be termed so many different ways:  spirituality, Deeksha, Kaballah, Mysticism, Christian or otherwise, Paganism, Celtic Mythology,  etc.

What stopped me in my tracks as I thought down this road, is….were the alleged witches in Salem County doing anything differently?  Searching and wishing for something different?  Perhaps even for some possessing the inner knowledge?  And I thought, no, no and no.  And then I felt what only a shade of what it must have felt to be so accused, so damned, for simply searching for knowledge.  And know, it can happen yet again and does happen, day after day.

Now, I feel like the voice behind the cloak, the heavy hood, perhaps a signboard around my neck and a bell tolling in my hand, crying along the streets:  The End is Near.

It’s not what I intend, not what I want, certainly if I believe in manifestation, not what I should think about for even a moment….yet…I do.

Ok, ok, I have awhile yet to go to clear out the ego, to detach myself before I am free from such limiting thoughts…in the meantime…I am here, still questioning on this level.

I still want the answers, the bare bones, stripped to the core, pure beyond purity solution to what we all live and breath:  life and faith, humanity, how to get to the next level.

If I was playing a video game, I could consult a manual, a blog with tips, whatever, because we could get to the source of design of that one game, but, if we get to the source of design of this game, our game, will we get our answers?  will we be empowered or will we still be operating on blind faith?

How do I meet you, where you want to be met?

How do I speak to you as you want to be spoken to?

How do I hear you as you want to be heard?

Do I need to anticipate your words and thoughts, before I put my own on the page?

I am struck, today as many days, by who will be our next statistics.

Reading the news, I realize, you are removed from me. Are you the heart, the soul, the courage I call to with these words?

Are you who I write to without knowing as I read stories or hear stories in and on the news, more “numbers”, more “statistics”, God forgive me, you are removed from me.

Because today I am ok.

Today I am here, in a country I love, in a place where I am adored, in a world where the best of all dreams have manifested. To me the best of all dreams is what I inhabit, the love of a select few, so pure; yet, not without its moments of impatience. Within and around this world, I have food, a roof, electricity, I have the ability to pay bills. I have feet, legs that carry me to my car to start my day, I have a career, esteemed some would say, but that is not the pivotal signifigance, the pivotal signifigance is that I have and embody, at least to this day, the wherewithal to carry on.

Who would I be without it?

Where would I be?

And despite this awareness of fortune and luck, I read the news, devour the news, surf for different versions of the same story, wanting, panting over the search, the journey for the truth to figure out how it is any of us could treat each other as if we were not part of the “us”.

Can I see a mother in the news grieving, struggling despite the news to carry on, because really, what else is there to do?

I wonder at the ones we mark as misfits as this global world closes into itself, where will they go? Trapped where they are not wanted and don’t belong; yet, marked from exit? And suppose, just suppose, we are wrong in our adjustment of perception, so much so, that we brand the innocent guilty? Can we live with that?

I know, statistics can meter out that the price of a few innocent lives are worth it to capture the maybe guilty ones…but something deep within my heart cries out, screams and says, suppose, just suppose, it was you or I? or a beloved child that we knew, as well as we can know anything, who was and is good, what then?

I have never spent much time on the depth of literature or biblical studies, not that I don’t have degrees, learning or education, it is simply that my mind seemed to discard that which did not ring true with the collective human heart.

I don’t care. I simply don’t care what the Bible has to say, I think the truth for humanity lives within us and resonates so true and so pure from the most beautiful part of our hearts and souls, that truth of that nature is hard to disavow.

I think our society has succumbed, has bowed itself to the inevitability to evolution on an industrial and technological level. Really, I have no better choice, no better solution, I know not what a better world would be for us, I do know this, we are culpable, day after day, in the moment exiting sleep and upon awakening, that is the breath within which we embrace the best version of who we are and we shrug it off, most of us, and don a suit of clothes, to play charades for the better part of our days.

I do not have the one answer, the one path, the signs or the miracles that point the way.

Sometimes though, what doesn’t work, can point the way.

We spend so much time afraid of each other, who has what, who will do what, that we cannot live.

What would happen if 98 percent of the world chose differently? Chose to have a voice and use that voice and live in whatever best version of the Divine we could embody?

Is it really so far fetched?

Isn’t that truly part of what we search for, this life cycle of questions and answers?

Can’t we just accept there are many things we do not know, but despite that, acknowledge there are things we can agree upon to honor each other?

“I can only be my own present vision of myself.”

It is a simple proposition to recognize that many of us spend time, either in the past or in anticipating the future, striving to be who we are not.

If we gave ourselves one task today, it could be to repeat to ourselves: I am my own present vision.

We can then avoid wasting our moments of today on issues of the past, as far as I know, there is no easy way to recover or change the past.

As for the future, contemplating it too deeply and with anxiety only wastes the gift of the moment, which is the only true time we can live within.

I was gratified to come across a lovely post on Sibbia’s blog this evening.

My posts have been simple this week, rather quiet, reflecting the depth of silence in me and what I wait for it to tell me.

Sibbia said in such a moving way, how we can easily allow in a better part of ourselves, for those readers that believe in God, she has written concisely and simply of the easy steps to allow God in to lead you closer to yourself. At least that is what I have come away with….simple, refreshing, pleasing, just right. Indulge youself, take a peek, I doubt you will be sorry you spent a moment in such a lovely flow of thought.

Tonight, I read slowly, something that those who know me well, know happens too infrequently.

I read the voice of a young woman, and am struck by something she felt worthy to be placed among the pages. I have not referenced and cross-referenced, I simply put this here for a note of familiarity, The Girls of Riyadh, by Rajaa Alsanea, pp. 73-74):

Rid yourself of woe and tears

Instead of crying years and years

Oh You who’ve wept the traitor man

Weep on today, if you well can.

But watch that no one sees tears fall

For such will please the traitors all.

-CNN

I was feeling dull today. I listened to the news, watched the news, surfed the news, and tonight I saw a tagline: What Would Happen If Everyone Cared?

I felt something shift inside. After all, isn’t that the secret I most cherish, the one I most chase? What would be the impact if everyone cared?

CNN, yes, again CNN, has provided me with something that aligns myself with hope. The quest: What would happen if everyone cared?

I clicked on the link and found Resources on how we, the little people, can help others.

I don’t know about you, but I do wonder about what happens thousands of miles from my home. I also wonder if there is someone I could be helping within a few blocks. That is the aim of Surface Earth. To eventually launch an easy way to help each other within towns and then let the strength of towns spill over. In the meantime, we search to see how others are helping each other, day after day, and today, we were struck by the CNN tagline: Impact Your World.

I’m wondering if God has a monogamous relationship with each and every one of us.

I don’t care much for religious thought, Biblical teachings, it’s not done much for humanity all of these years to enlighten us to prevent crimes against humanity or the lack of daily kindness.

I care instead about what I believe is the one and only true religion, the religion of the heart:  open, loving kindess.

Is it possible for God indeed to have a monogamous relationship with each of us?

I read the news and hear the news and I shake my head.  How is it possible?  Prayers of thanks are given by those physically saved in the midst of numbers mounting day after day of those that are unable to thank God for saving them, either because they are no longer on planet Earth or because they have suffered such circumstances that thanks are no longer in their vocabularly.

If it is true that God only responds to some prayers, some religions, some chosen people, then obviously God is not having a monogamous loving relationship with each and every one of us and is favoring some over others.

See, I can’t believe that, I truly cannot get that notion through my thick head.

The only other alternative for me then is:  God gave us the tools we need and some of us fail to use them….That’s what I want to believe, because then there means there is hope and something to look forward to, a greater, better human race that wants to improve.

Imagine the past as an Octopus.

-Wikepedia

The arms.

The tendrils.

Extending, reaching into your mouth, your eyes, ears, nose.

Slithering and grabbing hold of your mind.

You stand there,

watching,

allowing it to occur,

not caring enough

or

not knowing how to defend yourself.

Imagine then,

removing the tendrils,

taking them from your eyes, your ears, your mouth.

Remove the Octopus.

I’m trying to understand the hot news today, both involving three kids, 12, 11 and 10.

The first is two young girls who allegedly decided to kidnap their neighbor’s child. This time CNN is apparently looking inward to America and our depraved society. (This remark stems from a comment on my post: We Do This To Ourselves: India: Mistreating the Elderly and the Young in the name of custom. The comment did get me thinking more about media coverage, but like I said in my reply comment, that would require a host of other posts and I will leave that to other capable bloggers out in virtual earth).

CNN reports: Girl, 11, allegedly driving 100 mph with .02 blood alcohol, says, on way to pick up sister from a concert

I have to admit, when I saw a flash of this on the television this morning, I assumed it was a boy. As I read the article, I kick myself for making any gender assumption. Part of the article reads:

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama (AP) — Police who chased a car for miles along a highway at speeds up to 100 mph said the driver was drunk, hardly a rarity in this resort town. But there was more: When they looked inside the flipped vehicle with guns drawn, they found an 11-year-old girl at the wheel.

“You go up there thinking it’s a felon you’re dealing with,” assistant police Chief Greg Duck said.

The girl, who was slightly injured in the crash, is now charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding, reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident. Duck said she sideswiped another vehicle during the roughly 8-mile chase.

I just don’t get it. I’m not sitting here ready to blame the parents or anyone else. How do I know if the parents or guardian went to sleep at a normal hour and the kid pretended to be asleep, etc.? I just don’t know. I know we don’t hide the keys to the car in our house. The point is, what makes a child get behind the wheel of a car and proceed to incite an 8 mile chase?

As if that didn’t stump me enough, I had to see two other children, a girl aged 12 and one aged 10, who allegedly kidnapped their next door neighbor, a toddler boy. Again, the news came compliments of CNN.

I on some level have a need to understand how two kids came up with the idea and carried through on the idea to kidnap the little boy. On the other hand, I am just so grateful to see no one was hurt.

What’s going on? Sometime ago, we posted about the crowd that beat up the passenger in Texas, even though the driver who accidentally hit a young girl, stopped his vehicle to get out and check. The crowd beat up the passenger?

Maybe I don’t need to look any further than what happens with the adults in our country to understand why the kids’ seemingly outlandish behavior barely causes anyone to gasp any longer.

There are a lot of theories out there, calls to prayer, calls to enlightenment, I have got to be frank with you, I wish to heck one of these New Age techniques could work on this world instantaneously.

I read a lot about spirituality, powers untapped of the universe, etc.

Tonight, I enjoy a piece that Ronnie at Out of my Head wrote about how to take simple steps to make it happen.

Maybe some of you are like me, you need a picture drawn, not The Last Supper, but a small and well defined cartoon, few brush strokes to get to the heart of the matter.

Well, Ronnie did that for me, and yes, I guess I spurred her on a bit, but so what? I wanted the answer.

I am a proponent of collective consciousness thinking. I believe that we are all webbed together and our blinders prevent us from seeing or knowing this on a day to day basis.

I can rarely find an instant, where one action has not somehow affected another. There are simple examples:

I leave work in a rush, angry over some detail. I am striving to get errands done and arrive home timely. I am in traffic and become angry watching cars ahead of me race through the yield sign and shove their way into the traffic, further delaying my journey because of a lack of courtesy. Miles down the road, I sense a car patiently waiting could use a break, needs some considerate motorist to let them into the traffic so they don’t remain in place for the next hour. Do I notice, do I see, do I allow this person in or do I carry over my anger from my earlier frustrations? Do I in turn now punish this motorist for the ones earlier who almost ran people off the road without care? Do I stop and realize, at times, I may have inadvertantly been the one not slowing at the yield sign, perhaps not out of a lack of deliberate inconsideration, but because I was so in my own world, my own perspective, I simply thought it was “my turn”?

Now, this is just a loose description, the point being is that when you become aware, it is hard to divorce any moment, any action, any word from another.

Today, there are two striking news articles that made me again think: We do this to ourselves. The first is the treatment of “elderly” Hindu woman, the second the treatment of female brides and the price of dowrys.

I saw a picture of a young woman standing in traffic. BBC news entitled its piece: Indian Woman Strips in Dowry Row

This young woman, standing with just underclothes on in traffic and what appears to be a baseball bat in her hand. The picture sounds like a scream to me, I feel that I can hear her soul screaming.

The second article that I keep thinking of was posted on CNN, entitled: Shunned from society, widows flock to city to die:

“VRINDAVAN, India (CNN) — Ostracized by society, India’s widows flock to the holy city of Vrindavan waiting to die. They are found on side streets, hunched over with walking canes, their heads shaved and their pain etched by hundreds of deep wrinkles in their faces.

A widow makes her way in Vrindavan, India, where an estimated 15,000 widows live on the streets.

1 of 3

more photos »

These Hindu widows, the poorest of the poor, are shunned from society when their husbands die, not for religious reasons, but because of tradition — and because they’re seen as a financial drain on their families.

They cannot remarry. They must not wear jewelry. They are forced to shave their heads and typically wear white. Even their shadows are considered bad luck.

Hindus have long believed that death in Vrindavan will free them from the cycle of life and death. For widows, they hope death will save them from being condemned to such a life again. Watch how some widows are rebelling »

“Does it feel good?” says 70-year-old Rada Rani Biswas. “Now I have to loiter just for a bite to eat.”

Biswas speaks with a strong voice, but her spirit is broken. When her husband of 50 years died, she was instantly ostracized by all those she thought loved her, including her son.

“My son tells me: ‘You have grown old. Now who is going to feed you? Go away,’ ” she says, her eyes filling with tears. “What do I do? My pain had no limit.”

As she speaks, she squats in front of one of Vrindavan’s temples, her life reduced to begging for scraps of food.

There are an estimated 40 million widows in India, the least fortunate of them shunned and stripped of the life they lived when they were married.

It’s believed that 15,000 widows live on the streets of Vrindavan, a city of about 55,000 in northern India.

“Widows don’t have many social rights within the family,” says Ranjana Kumari with the Center for Social Research, a group that works to empower women.

The situation is much more extreme within India’s rural community. “There, it is much more tradition-bound; in urban areas, there are more chances and possibilities to live a normal life.”

But the majority of India’s 1.1 billion population is rural. “The government recognizes the problem,” Kumari says. “It can do a lot, but it’s not doing enough.”

Don’t miss

• Guild of Service
• Widows’ Rights International
• Impact your world

One woman, a widow herself, is working for change. Dr. Mohini Giri has formed an organization called the Guild of Service, which helps destitute women and children.

Giri’s mother was widowed when Giri was 9 years old, and she saw what a struggle it was. Then, Giri lost her husband when she was 50, enduring the social humiliation that comes with being a widow. At times, she was asked not to attend weddings because her presence was considered bad luck.

“Generally all widows are ostracized,” she says. “An educated woman may have money and independence, but even that is snatched away when she becomes a widow. We live in a patriarchal society. Men say that culturally as a widow you cannot do anything: You cannot grow your hair, you should not look beautiful.”

She adds, “It’s the mind-set of society we need to change — not the women.”

Seven years ago, Giri’s organization set up a refuge called Amar Bari, or “My Home,” in Vrindavan. It has become a refuge for about 120 of India’s widows. Giri’s organization is set to open a second home, one that will house another 500 widows.

But as she says, “Mine is but a drop in the bucket.”

At Amar Bari, most widows reject traditional white outfits and grow out their hair. Along the open air corridors that link the house’s courtyard are green wooden doors, leading to dark tiny rooms, home for each widow. See the widows of Vrindavan »

Bent over by osteoporosis, 85-year-old Promita Das meticulously and slowly sweeps the floor just outside her door and then carefully cleans her dishes.

“I came here when I couldn’t work anymore. I used to clean houses,” she says. “Nobody looked after me, nobody loved me. I survived on my own.”

She married at 12 and was widowed at 15. Seventy years later, she finds herself at Amar Bari. “I used to live in front of a temple, but then I came here,” she says….”.

On one end of the spectrum of life, there is mistreatment for not bringing enough into the marriage and the family. On the other end, there is banishment for not having enough left to give after already have given it to everyone else.

I have posted before about the eternal question: why? And yes, as I read these and other stories, my first impulse is to still ask why, but I no longer am convinced that figuring out the “why” will fix these problems. Whose “why” would I begin with? Through whose eyes would I look through first and with whose eyes would I end in trying to figure out the origin?

Other Sources/Viewpoints:

Shubho introduces another view & different statistics:  Atmaav Blogspot

Uprising Radio: Review of Deepa Mehta’s film: Water

India Together: Land Titles & Widows

Widows Rights Organization

WomensENews: 2004 article

America: Debate on caring for elderly patients: family or professionals?

We are almost all certainly aware, paraphrased, that faith can move mountains.

It occurs to me that perhaps the greatest mountain is the one within ourselves. If we can live and embody faith, and no, I don’t care what you call that faith, let it flood us, it could change everything. First, it could change our own internal topography and then, what lies beyond us.

I walked by our garden, I saw a long stemmed original daisy. You know the kind, long, straight, proud, daring, stark white petals against the sky, you love me, you love me not.

Yellow center.

I stopped. Momentarily amazed that any flowers grew in the fluctuating temperatures, but that this one stood alone.

I looked closer. It stood tall and proud, yet slightly withered against the sky. I understood, it had been left to stand alone. The stems surrounding it had been chewed. Was it the mother, the deer, I whispered to, telling her, it’s ok, you are safe here? Your babies are safe here? We’ll even go back inside when we see you so they don’t become too afraid too soon.

The deer left this moment for me.

I would love to take credit for this beautiful, articulate line of thought, but I can’t.  I can say that I have been thinking on and off about the creation of quiet spaces, taking time from work, noise, electronic devices, etc.  What I haven’t truly thought of, at least not comprehensively, is why is it that we can more easily keep promises to others, as opposed to ourself?

Well, thankfully, tobeme did just that today, caused me to stop while reading his post, to ask myself, hey, come on, why do you find it easier to make promises to others, rather than yourself?  I encourage you to jump over and read the post, entitled:  Independence Day Thinking. It is the kind of post, with the type of expression, that creeps up on you and it is easy for you to recognize the universal message to be decent to yourself and honor yourself, and actually, within a few paragraphs, tells you how to do just that.  Amazing.

What I do for myself is to carve out spaces.  In an otherwise hectic day, in a day filled with people looking for resolution while triggered by a desire for conflict, sometimes the best I can do is to carve out a space in my head, to carve an area around myself that is filled with space.  (ok skeptics, maybe it is dark matter).  But I at least allow myself a bumper zone most of the time, and within that zone I have a chance to breath, think, or let thoughts pass by without grading the thoughts with life or death ratings….and just be.  Even if it is for a moment, it allows me to be closer to who I am.

I find myself in awe of so many things. I would love to write them all down, but some of them fly by me before I can properly apply gratitude and others stop me in my tracks, ground me, that I don’t know how to add any “new” words to the events.

Yesterday, Ronnie at Workcoach and OutofmyHead got me thinking, oh, I said that didn’t I? But forgive me, I’m no cook, and I have another pot of vegetable soup simmering and a drum set in my kitchen and Princess Di’s Memorial Concert pouring out with Sir Elton John humbling us, and maybe I may be repeating myself as I do this…..

So Ronnie dared to talk about the different types of energy and how they balance and I said: girl, you are talking to me. Her post read: Energy, Fortune Cookies and Life (yes, I left out Ronnie’s comma, more on that sometime later, maybe).

I said, Amen, Amen, Amen: how true is her post, how much it resonates with life. The balancing and the acknowledgment of the balancing and the presumed freedom to do just that.

We are waiting for Ronnie to post the next piece on the steps of courage to implement the levels of energy…wait with us…I promise…it will be worth the wait.

Funny how Ronnie’s piece led me to Romancing the Crone’s newest piece. And before I tell you how to get there, I must say, the people in Barnes & Noble today thought I was wacked out of my head when I wasn’t sure of the author or the title of some books of the Hawaii method of englightment, balancing and readjustment of justice that she so kindly posted for any of us that tripped over her site.

Ok, ok: here it is: Romancing the Crone on “You need to know about Ho’oponopono”.

Well, imagine me trying to pronounce or describe that in Barnes and Noble–believe me, neither me nor the man at Barnes & Noble with a striped, polo, golf-t were impressed…so here I am, and I will order the books off of Amazon.

Romancing caused me to start surfing to find out more and I came across a blog: Today is that Day with some great resources.

In the meantime, I came across a story in People Magazine, yup, at page 46 of the printed version: entitled: Raising My Sister’s Boys.

A story about a young, young man, 20 when this began, who visited his twin sister’s children in foster care and couldn’t live with the sounds of their tears or his own as he left and he convinced the system that he would be the best parent for them, that despite being a young man.

What I wonder, and I ask anyone out there, don’t we know of any way to help this young man get ahead, who in his young 20s, took on responsibility for 3 children?

Read the story yourself please & hey, namaste, no lie, I can’t yet find an internet link, but if any of you are standing in line at the store, it begins at page 86 of the July 9, 2007 edition.

Open Letter to God (original)

Hi God.

It’s me, again.

I know that you hear me everyday, chatting, begging, pleading, reasoning-asking for faith. You would think the mere fact I turn to you is faith itself, wouldn’t You?

But I know me, and You know me, and I am wrestling with my ego, unwilling to give it up, unwilling, because I think I will lose me, and my faith in You in the process.

Is that what they call, a paradox?

My “second” letter to You I started in a small, discounted, bound leather brown book, gold edged pages, a piece of fabric to mark where I left off. Small enough to go with me wherever I choose, anywhere but in my pocket. I will get back to that, that the book I choose to speak to You within could not fit within the smallest spaces. But not yet God, not yet.

I started my book, the first page, like this:

“To any who may enter here, turning the pages – remember – this is my journey – my perception of the world. Without collective consciousness, you may find yourself lost and without understanding as to my wording, my intent, my context and that will be as it is.

Namaste.”

But I continued God, I turned the page.

Another day I said to You:

I am unsure whether it is truly a grand awakening or as we stumble step by step, we find ourselves in a new place of thought.

I desire in these pages to embrace my voice, my connection with God, to truly hear the voice of God and live with that knowledge.

We know so little, barely skimming the surface of this Earth. What can I say as to how much I know of ultimate Truth or knowledge?

I long to amass, piece by piece, a web, a ladder, a matrix of higher learning. Why is there so much unknown? It came to me that with a shift in the energy fields, a rebalancing, we could accomplish anything. We could form energy barriers to prevent destruction of humanity along shorelines. Energy bumper fields to prevent cars, trains and planes form impact and consequent calamity.

On some level, answers are known. At the point it becomes realized, we will have most likely also have abolished the need for mechanical transport.

The hardest part is breaking out of the self created barriers. The nine to five of the imposed Society.

I no longer have any aspiration to remain a lawyer. None. I find it distasteful and I resent people’s refusal to move toward resolution.

I want to cry. Big, tearing gulping sobs. It is my own own inaction that keeps me stuck in place.

Hi God. Yup, me.

Here I sit. In a “County”, a seat of justice. I drove down the highway, a torrential rain pour. I was lucky I even brought myself to drive 50 mph and the other people, flying by, driving so fast, do they wonder what would happen if they hydroplaned?

Same day, later than who I was this morning. So much later that I must try three times to flip the pages of this journal, so thick the leaf edge, I don’t dare believe I bought this for myself to speak to God. I throw down my old glasses, they fall from my nose anyway, so stretched the arms have become. I don’t need them to read these pages.

So, anything new?

There is so very much I write in my head, between the moments – now and before – it never gets on the page. For now, I will put aside this journal, this memorable me, put it aside and read the book I bought on Gandi. I so passionately want to continue reading and I will slip inside the realm of semi-consciousness sleep state, when I dream in guarded dreams of tomorrow.

*If they ever obliterate tactile writing and reading, I will elect to ascend, immediately.

Siting outside today, another day without a blackberry. How much more peaceful. Sitting outside, a small diner, with tables set out on brick pavers. Small sign says: ’sorry, we do not accept credit cards’.

Quickly I ask, how much for a cup of coffee and a toasted english muffin? $2.25, plus tax. I check. I have a five and some change, fair enough for a decent tip, I order.

I sit across from the courthouse, another case where settlement negotiations will change and the mood of the equity judge, King of all Kings, or as Alice said, the King of nothing, all at once, is less predictable than a storm at Sea.

I had a dream last night, I’m sure of not many things, but this I recall…a bird coming to land on my shoulder, momentarily frightened as I am not sure if it will claw me; then my fear becomes less and I began to worry of the bird relieving itself on my back. It begins to sing with me. I ran around to show people the miracle, but another bird, a small sparrow, flew into my mouth.

I’m tired now God. I will go, there is never a moment You don’t hear me anyway.

***Hey God, as an afterthought, I sound like I’m just stamping my feet.

***Upon further thought God, I need to say, although You know this already, I was in fact stamping my feet.  I complain about the justice system, about being a lawyer, and the simple fact is, I simply wish we lived in a world where we needed neither a justice system nor lawyers.  My acts of complaining about it, poking at different sectors of the system, does nothing to change the whole and only adds negativity.  So thanks for listening.

I spend a lot of time figuring out the “why”.

It occurred to me tonight, if I spent half as much time doing that I spend on the why, perhaps, maybe, in time, I could alter my perception of the why, or the framework of the why would change, from one more positive action.

The article I read in Body & Soul Magazine on the Nest got me thinking, suppose this young woman who has begun a foundation of micro credit, was still sitting around figuring out the why?

See also: Humanitarian News Update

Today, I checked a blog I enjoy:

Romancing the Crone.

She writes a lovely and moving piece about when it is not ok to be a people pleaser and simple authority to grant yourself to stop the destructive cycle of sacrificing self for a less than worthy audience.

“That’s not ok.”

Three simple words to empower dignity.

I am so untethered in this world. I often have to ask what day of the week yesterday was and find myself laughing that the very next day I had already forgotten.

I am often lost in thought, but find now, recently, thoughts fly through me more readily and I am supremely grateful for this change, that no longer makes me need, want, struggle to hold onto thoughts.

I recently posted about seeing birds, and then yesterday, none swooped before my car. I had been sick the night before and I think I did not awake with an open heart and the birds were not drawn to me. Today, I awoke differently and within several hundred yards, I had to duck as I drove, so close the first bird came, and I had to smile because it hit me, I had opened my heart.

I am reading a book: What is the What, by Dave Eggers, a fictionalized account of one man’s life, a Sudanese Refugee. The Preface, in part, set forth:

“Even when my hours were darkest, I believed that some day I could share my experiences with readers, so as to prevent the same horrors from repeating themselves. This book is a form of struggle, and it keeps my spirit alive to struggle. To struggle is to strengthen my faith, my hope, and my belief in humanity. Thank you for reading this book, and I wish you a blessed day.”

-Valentino Achak Deng

I read the last seven words over and over again…”and I wish you a blessed day”.

I was stunned, astounded and touched, that this person, the voice of the book, What is the What, wished me, a reader a blessed day.

In turn, I wish you, “a blessed day”.

Namaste.

See Anderson Cooper’s 360 show tonight

Today’s date: Wednesday, 20 June 2007

	UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie sits beside an Afghan boy in the refugee camp of Katcha Ghari on the edge of the Pakistan city of Peshawar. © UNHCR/J.Redden

“

“Top Story: World Refugee Day: Challenges of the 21st Century UNHCR focuses attention today on the plight of millions of refugees and displaced people around the world. The future is likely to see more people on the move and the international community must face the challenge of understanding the new displacement environment.”

Suppose, you recognized that in the moments when you first awake from sleep, you have no name?

Suppose you recognized that in those few spare moments in the day there was no list, no bills, no anger, no complaints, no one outside of the limitless mind that you awoke to?

Limitless of course implying that you woke to some collective whole. As if whole could be separated from collective.

Switch………….

I recently read something…what a laugh as I am always reading…but I read something, I believe it was on The Spiritual Oracle…and I was questioning something, suprise, repeating number sightings I think, and someone replied that they had learned to accept what is and was…hmmm.

I think I get it now.

I have this odd occurrence daily, birds sweep and hover in front of my car, my windshield, it used to freak me out and I would duck…recently I shrug it off, knowing it means something, but also knowing I do not know the language of birds and I just better let it go. Now I am talking as if I have really mastered sitting back and nothing could be further from the truth, but I swear, I haven’t ducked so much in the last few days.

What helped me was thinking of children. Children don’t to our knowledge recognize the written language and it takes most years of integration to get them to conform and see it “our” way. Yet, a part of them recognizes the power of the written word, the mystical aspect, the magic, and will hold a book, a piece of paper, a dollar bill…and “pretend” to read. I recently saw this and thought: that is me on a spiritual search, I pretend to know the language.

I was reminded today about the “Little Arrow in the Upper Right Corner”, by Ronnie over at Out of My Head.

For kicks, I started clicking and clicking. I saw some lovely blogs, but it was a blog focused on saving children and stopping child slavery, that caused me to stop and read and then start clicking on the resources/links listed.

I began to read articles written by Shelly Seale.

The information focused upon the plight of children in India. I of course had read many things about the plight of children in India before, but today, it hit me differently and I was overwhelmed by the enormity of how many children live not only without parents or other family, but live under despicable conditions at the behest of people that mistakenly call themselves human.

I came across information on The Miracle Foundation and news articles talking about the founder Caroline Boudreaux. The grace of one open heart with the humble goal to simply help children is beyond inspiring.

I found myself today at crossroads. Literally and figuratively. You didn’t need me to point that out, did you?

Regardless, I sat in a meeting, an effort to resolve outstanding and conflicting issues and sides and found myself “emotional”. I was so upset over the lack of morality, lack of humanity presented by the opposing side that I didn’t even know what to do, how to conduct myself.

It was the big man, the wealthy, trumping the poor, or the middle class poor, simply because they knew it was their best bargaining chip. I wanted to scream, of course I didn’t, but I gladly would have, I wanted to ask them, do you look in the mirror? And you, over there, in the fresh pressed suit, fighting the flu, head in your hands, do you ever wonder that your immune system is depressed because your soul is fighting to get out?

Never mind, as always I digress in this long battle not to judge, but boy oh boy…..

So I wonder, what would happen if at the end of each day we had to score ourselves on the level of humanity we each expressed each day and we did this believing the scorecard was just as important as a winning lottery ticket?

13 Graces

posted a piece, entitled “One More Time” and wrote about a process of enlightenment called Deeksah.

I gravitated toward this immediately and 13 Graces was kind enough to guide us in our beginning path.

It is said that upon reaching a number of 64,000 enlightened human beings, our world will not only stand a chance, but will step into the prophesied Golden Age.

I am at a loss to fully understand the process of Deeksha, but here is what I know so far…

1. You can be who you are

2. Your only goal need be enlightenment of yourself and others

3. You need not give up yourself or your proscribed religious path

4. There is a chance for humanity.

Now, I am on the learning curve here, being a spiritual seeker, I will continue to find out more…in the meantime, go check out 13 Graces’ post…she has some good resources to get you started.

Namaste.

Ubuntu.

Monteray, Chapter One has been moved to a new page, entitled:  Monteray, The Book.

Excerpts of Monteray have been transferred to a new page:  Monteray, The Book

Ok.

I pretend for a moment that religion in its genesis had a sense of humor…I may be horribly wrong.

I don’t seek to offend those that have severe religious affiliations, but I have to say, what is the cost of religion in a world where we count how many die of poverty moment by moment?

Can religion possibly be of much greater import than death and hunger?

Mind you, at essence, I do believe we are spiritual beings here for an earthly experience, but while here for our “earthly experience”, I also believe our sight is so limited that we can only, most of the time, see ourselves as earthlings. Consequently, I find we must turn our sight inward, within the dimensions of Earth, and see what it is we allow, day after day.

The most simple example is hunger. We allow, yes, I do use the word allow, allow, children to die of hunger around the world, day after day.

We allow religion to condemn rather than raise up humanity.

We allow, we allow, we allow, myself included………….

I wonder, if religion had not lost its sense of humor, pretending for a moment that religion and its disciples ever had a sense of humor to begin with….where would we be today?

We know at least as of this moment, there is a basic way in and out of this world, yet, we forget it with every breath we draw…..

There is a Creation Museum, which we touched upon, every so briefly, in our piece: Bible, the Museum and the Shark.

To be frank, we may have poked fun at it, simply because we have not and cannot ever understand an all powerful God that can believe a woman is inferior only because she is female. We cited to female sharks that evidently (testing still to be performed) that can bring new sharks into the world without the necessity of male sharks. Our dimwitted conclusion was if God intended to make women a lesser human, why would sharks be able to procreate without the assistance of males?

Anyway, we notice today a New York Times headline: Cool Reception for Bible Park in Bible Belt and I wasn’t sure what to think. Ok, if people want to spend their time in a fake recreation of what might be the truth, so what? Don’t push it on me. That’s my only rule. Next Saturday I will attend a party where a pig, a whole pig, will be roasted. Now, family has tried to convince me as to why that is ok, I don’t need to be convinced, it is simply not true for me. I was raised on Charlotte’s Web and happen to believe pigs are intrinsically intelligent and I prefer not to see evolved humans sitting around with flags surrounding the entire body, including the head/brain of a pig. Ok, so I won’t boycott the party, but to be sure, I’m not eating it, I’m not going near it and if I see it, I will throw up without apology.

So, I ask, what do I care if people want to recreate what they believe to be the story of the world, of humans, evolution? I don’t.

I just don’t want them forcing their beliefs on me.

Adam and Eve? Maybe they existed, maybe they didn’t. I really don’t care. I find the view of them too very limited to give it serious thought.

See, I don’t believe in a God that would sacrifice its children so readily because I am a parent and it would take….it would take….it would take….well….something I can’t even comprehend to make me sacrifice and damn my children the way some religions say God has damned us.

I simply can’t sign up. I can’t believe.

I continued reading the New York Times, A week in review, “The Guidebook for Taking a Life“.

Whose God I ask you?

Groucho Marx: “I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.”

Enough said?

Maybe not:

As Groucho Marx reportedly stated: “Outside of a dog, a man’s best friend is a book. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

Well, that sums up religion to me.

Excerpts of Monteray have been moved to a new page, entitled:  Monteray, The Book

A picture speaks…

how many words?

Surge in Adoptions Raises Concern in Ethiopia

Ben Garvin for The New York Times

See also:  our Humanitarian Page

“Ubuntu is an African word meaning ‘Humanity to others’, or ‘I am what I am because of who we all are.’”

To be updated at a later date, for now, it speaks for itself.

Namaste….Ubuntu

Ubuntu

I don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

Truly.

I believe there may be very real enlightened persons, mystics, etc. that may have a clue about tomorrow, but I don’t.

I am like an ant, burrowing, carrying, following, content in my habitat, believing it will happen again and again.

But really, I have no clue if I will even be on Earth tomorrow.

Because of that I wonder, should I take more risks or less?

If I believe in Heaven, and a very mean, ogre or troll like God under the bridge, will it keep me on the straight and narrow?

Or is it enough for me to know who I want to be and who I don’t? Without the fear of an all powerful, vengeful God?

I have to admit, I have always thought God is all good, and in being all good, he could not be vengeful or judgmental. He could not issue empty threats. Only man does that for his own means. No gender discrimination intended, I am of a certain age and background where I learned God is “he”; consequently, my language patterns naturally fall back on this preconceived notion. I now believe God can be anything.

So, where am I going? What stones do I intend to step on in this meandering path of life with few markers or sign posts?

I talk about not knowing if I will be here tomorrow. When does tomorrow begin? Is it after midnight? Is it the next moment which transcends the moment of this thought?

I heard today of two children, thirteen year olds, fit, athletic kids, loving families, diagnosed with leukemia. It broke my heart.

I thought again, hours later, of how I believe negative energy and a lack of cleansing creates physical disintegration and I realized, I cannot believe that is true for our children.

To believe that negative energy leads to sickness connotes that there is a responsibility to think positively, to clear out and unburden the negative….how does this apply to the young?

Are there theories of Soul DNA or Soul Karma, something carried over? If so, why should it be that the young of this Earth should be so burdened to undo what many of us adults cannot?

I struggle looking for the book of Truth. The one book. I amass uncontroverted facts, ones tested and true, time and again, which remain true despite the tests, to compile what someday may be my personal book of Universal Truth. The pages are more empty than full.

Is that because I am pessimistic? Maybe. It is also though because I have not been able to amass enough signposts on this road of life and continue to wonder, after so many centuries, why have we not handed down to each other the true “Bible”, the Bible of Humanity, well being, love and life?

Disjointed lines of thought?

Is that what you are thinking?

Isn’t life one disjointed line of thought?

Welcome to Kentucky’s new museum:

New York Times: “Adam and Eve in the Land of Dinosaurs”, by Edward Rothstein

“For here at the $27 million Creation Museum, which opens on May 28 (just a short drive from the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport), this pastoral scene is a glimpse of the world just after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, in which dinosaurs are still apparently as herbivorous as humans, and all are enjoying a little calm in the days after the fall.

It also serves as a vivid introduction to the sheer weirdness and daring of this museum created by the Answers in Genesis ministry that combines displays of extraordinary nautilus shell fossils and biblical tableaus, celebrations of natural wonders and allusions to human sin. Evolution gets its continual comeuppance, while biblical revelations are treated as gospel.

Outside the museum scientists may assert that the universe is billions of years old, that fossils are the remains of animals living hundreds of millions of years ago, and that life’s diversity is the result of evolution by natural selection. But inside the museum the Earth is barely 6,000 years old, dinosaurs were created on the sixth day, and Jesus is the savior who will one day repair the trauma of man’s fall.

It is a measure of the museum’s daring that dinosaurs and fossils — once considered major challenges to belief in the Bible’s creation story — are here so central, appearing not as tests of faith, as one religious authority once surmised, but as creatures no different from the giraffes and cats that still walk the earth. Fossils, the museum teaches, are no older than Noah’s flood; in fact dinosaurs were on the ark.”

So God enters the Museum and dinosaurs and man live in peace…is it such a far stretch to believe God did not eternally condemn females?

If you believe otherwise, how is it God granted a female shark the ability to reproduce without a male?

Welcome to the Earth, where we do things our way.

Trouble is…many of us don’t know why we do most of the things we do at all.

Today, on Ronnie’s Out of My Head Blog she asks what should be a simple question: what would happen, if for a day, we stopped our normal behaviors and instead turned toward loving kindness and healing?

I’m still pondering her thoughts…here, take a peek of just a few of her thoughts on this matter and let us know what you think………….

“Why Vote for the Worst Bugs Me So Much

May 19th, 2007 by Ronnie Ann

I just wrote about this in a comment and wanted to share it with all of you. This is about something far more important than just television. It’s about where we put our energy.

Do we use it to build wonderful things that help heal and provide joy or do we use it in a negative way, tearing down the efforts of others? Although clearly acting as the spoiler for American Idol has been entertaining to the creators and friends of Vote for the Worst, it’s still working on negative energy since it spoils the fun for so many others.

I always wonder what kind of world we’d have if everyone – for just one day – put their energy toward loving each other – loving all mankind – and healing the planet. I know that’s corny, but damn it…just imagine! As John Lennon said:

“Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.”

Do we always have to be doing things that take away from others? Can’t we stop being so self-absorbed and short-sighted and instead think about how our actions affect others – and even how aiming our actions toward the negative affects who we are as people?”

Perplexing isn’t it? And that is just a part of her longer post. Why should a thought so forthright and so “right” take so much thought to figure out how to kick it into existence?

I posted earlier this evening on a tragic event.

I cited to CNN video, and my first comment received on this blog let me know the link was not working.

The original link I provided was on CNN.  I provided it because I was horrified and in some ways felt it was yet another tragic screaming cry to wake up as women.  It appeared the link was removed or moved, but we then found it again with the help of a blogger who posted a comment to our piece.

I went back and forth as to whether to delete the link.  Deleting it would not erase that it happened and people stood by and watched.  But the thought of viewing the atrocity, the mere fact that it could be recorded, that it does occur became overwhelming.  I don’t know what’s right, I don’t know if the link should remain or not, for now, it is off of the post.  Below is the original post. You can read an updated link to the story on News Yahoo.

A link to the story on Care to Connect is listed below at the end of this post.

Original Post

I can’t stand it, I can’t stand it, I can’t stand it……………..as kids have been brave enough to do in front of their peers, Stand Up & Speak Out, we must do. There must be a way.

This young girl’s crime was to “love”. Do you get it? To love, the basis of every damn religion proscribed, ok, maybe there are some I don’t know of that espouse hate, but she loved.

Did you see her, this beautiful human being?

And to think when I was on the way home from work all I could think was if we could just leave the “children” alone, if we could simply let their innocence and pure wisdom blossom, there would be a chance for humanity. If we could just not brainwash them into the dictates of society.

And now?

Now this?

Are you kidding me?

How evil can we get? To kill because someone, a child, a child, dared to love.

I can’t even stand to be in my own skin, living in this world where we encourage it…and yes, we do…we do when women can’t even be elected to the highest office in the “most free” country, and I love this country, I love America and as much as I struggle with suppressing ego, my ego does reign when I truly and freely say: I love being an American. I won the lottery of birth.

Yet, as a woman, that was once a girl, and now plays in a man’s world, I see the limitations, but I also see the possibilities. But what possibilities can there be in a country that kills its young for loving?

I like to close my eyes to violence. I won’t watch “scary” movies, I think they are incredibly stupid to put out that negative message, that imagery, to people that can’t help themselves because they are that damaged by this world and will think it is the right thing to do, to hurt others.

Have I made myself clear?

I find it unacceptable to hurt others. Period.

Watch the video.  A 17 year old girl in Iraq, ignored “local custom”. Security forces looked on, she was dragged from her home, they STONED her, people stood by and watched. Did you see how beautiful she is? People sat with cell phones and took pictures.

An honor killing.

What God does anyone believe in that thinks God would want a child killed?

That is RELIGION.

Not GOD.

She was a baby in this world, dragged from her home, adults, ADULTS, standing by watching.

What will it take for any of us to wake up?

See previous post

See also: Care2Connect

Hi. I’m just one voice like yours.

Slightly different with similarities.

I’m wondering something very basic.

Why do we all stand still and allow the world to be what it is?

I don’t do anything, mind you, I don’t picket, send letters to Congress, yell at the Pope.

I sit and think.

How about you?

What do you do?

Anything the rest of us might join in on?

Having spent some recent time on the New Jersey Turnpike and Parkway….I pause…and wonder if there is something we can do for each other.

No, this is not a joke on Corzine apologizing for not wearing a seat belt, but….maybe not apologizing for the excessive speed.

Rather, it is a reflection on everyday human norms.

Why, if I am driving slow in the rain because I have a fussy toddler in the backseat on my way to work do you feel the need to tag my tail end rather than waiting for the appropriate time to go around?

I do my best to keep up the “minimum” speed, which in N.J., is the maximum speed.

As I drive…and I watch you come around my tail end and then back to almost clip the front…is it because you are one of the few that have fell outside of the parameters of Six Degrees of Separation?

Suppose, I drove, yes, and gave up driving with my knees to type a blackberry message, and realized that you, like I, could be my mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin, son, daughter………..what then?

Would I be more aware?

Would I realize that everytime I paid attention to the elecontronic device rather than you, I was taking a chance on your life, and thereby, on the ones that depended on you to exist to help them through this earthly experience?

If I did that, would you stop driving at 80 mph, wanting me to exit to the nearest back road and park my car and fall to my knees in search of any God that would listen?

My favorite topic, finding ways to help children.

This morning I came across an article on People Magazine Online regarding Angelina Jolie’s “call to Washington”.

The part that grabbed my attention was as follows:

“The actress, 31, appeared at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to announce the launch of Global Action for Children, a group that raises money for orphans in developing countries.”

I jumped over to the site, and my eye was immediately grabbed by a well designed tagline: “Take Action: Advocate for Children.”

I realize there is a lot of back and forth as to who Angelina Jolie is or isn’t; yet, I find that is not the point. I find the endeavor to use whatever one can to help children is what matters in the end.

In taking my first look at this site, I noted the organization appeared to have been established in 1993. Maybe I heard of it, maybe I didn’t. I know that today it caught my eye because normally headlines with Angelina Jolie have something to do with children and I know on some level I will be interested. So, not only did I read about one more person not required to help others who is doing so anyway, I also discovered a website where it appears that ordinary mortals can reach out and help the children of the world.

Yes. How simply put on the website: “Advocate for Children”.

I for one am going to read more on this site and understand the goal a bit better and how I can help. I wanted to share it with all of you because I think we can agree, there is no reason in the world not to help children.

I often wonder at the one class of human beings that are simply too young to ascribe fault to or cast judgment upon that suffer because we either simply don’t know what to do or we don’t care.

Class and race and gender distinctions to name a few, are they our reasons for not helping children without family? It reminds me of the old television programs where an astronaut would be disconnected from a spaceship, floating presumably for eternity, and I wanted to scream because I couldn’t get in the t.v. to reconnect him to the Mothership. Yes, perhaps I was disturbed as a child. No matter. I do now know as an adult that the young are discriminated against and somehow seen as less than a whole human being.

The title of the website makes me pause to think: “Global”. Going beyond borders or not seeing borders to begin with? Many of us have been raised, right, wrong or indifferently, into naturally seeing borders. I don’t believe such short-sightedness exists from birth. I think of two of my children whose sitter for a period of time, actually more than one sitter over a period of time, was of another nationality, another culture, and yes, had different color skin than my family.

My kids never commented on it. It was only years later that they asked where the sitters were from due to a different language pattern or accent than we have and yes, because at some point, around Kindergarten, my children began to notice or take note of, different skin color.

I use that as a reference point to emphasize that I don’t believe children are born and naturally grow to see differences. The differences we think are important, justified or ones that have been allowed to have arisen, are false teachings and not the natural route of the heart. These teachings are impositions upon our natural state.

So when I consider, again, the name: “Global Action for Children”, as an adult, I first see breaking through the self-imposed barriers, and then I pause, and in my mind, spin around and see no barriers at all, simply beautiful children who deserve anyone and everyone to help them.

Does that mean we ignore “our own”? The ones within our nation, our states, our counties, our towns, our school district, our socio-economic or faith based divisions?

No.

But we don’t cease helping “others” because we falsely believe there should be distinction between children. And we pray for a day when the phrases “our own” and “others” do not exist.

Can there be a concern that we will help so many abroad that children beneath our feet or located within a one mile radius will be neglected?

Absolutely!

But,

why must we choose?

Haven’t we grown up just enough to find a way to help all children?

The children are our keepers’ of tomorrow, what do we choose to teach them now?

Namaste.

We hold on so tightly to this earthly existence. After all, why shouldn’t we?

Yet, as I read and continue to read about different religions, spirituality, ancient thought, the existence of angels among us, etc.; I question, if we are spirits here for an earthly experience, why do we hold so tightly and fear what is beyond and for some us, fear that this is a one time only performance?

Helping to heal, a global humble effort to bring all of us together, some call it the sixth dimension, some collective consciousness, others, simple human kindness.

Humanity’s Team is scheduled for a U.S. event. In light of the unspeakable tragedy in Virginia, Anne Alba and other volunteers, have committed to offering students free housing and admission to this weekend’s Humanity’s Team “We are all One”, with Neale Donald Walsh in attendance.

Obviously, this leap of faith to make this gesture for the students can only come from one place, contributions from those that care and want to see this Society advance.

Any interested: go to Humanity’s Team helping the students in Virginia

Bless you all.

Updated: April 25th

Are you kidding me?

Go give a dollar. I dare you to click below.

Say what you want.

Politics.

Media.

Tonight watch it for one reason.

For the children of the world.

They are all ours.

We owe it to them to make this world better.

Please:

For the Children

Our Get out of the Box page, as well as Humanitarian Efforts and poetry and writing page are periodically updated. The Open Letter to God page, is a static page, remaining that way to allow for and welcome new comments. It is anticipated that we will update as time goes on to provide more letters to God.
Last night, we received a comment on our most recent post on Get Out of the Box, which we wanted to highlight and share with you today.

We look forward to more comments!

“In the book `Conversations with God’ the author asks why God allows such things as these to occur. God replies by saying, `Why don’t you?’ ( A collective ‘you’ as well as individual). In the course of reading from Mr. Walsch’s and God’s Conversations I begin to see that, while God could do anything, what ‘She’ will do is another thing. We can’t condition The Unconditioned by saying ‘It’ will or won’t do such and such, but it is clear enough, that while we are here, God would like to see US, WE, proceed to do the kinds of things you are aspiring to. WE, with God, can do anything, but it’s like we are be asked to make up our minds about what is important to us, and to behave accordingly. Our eternal lives do not begin at death. If they did, they would not have been Eternal! We are now, even with bodies, amidst our eternal lives- all
of us!

A program called Humanities Team is very much involved in helping the planet awaken. It declares `We are One’. You + I + God = ONE. It also declares” Ours is not a better way. Ours it but another way.”

( This name and address ‘cell’ is getting in the way of writing!)

Best to you, me,
Dave”

dave
April 23rd, 2007

We normally ask for others to share thoughts and ideas existing where people are trying to join together. This week Dave has highlighted a collective consciousness program which declares “We are One”.

For further information, go to the following websites:

Neal Donald Walsch, author of Conversation with God Series or go directly to Humanity’s Team Website.

Many months ago I read an article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

The article addressed how some schools were starting a program where students could speak out. They could apologize for having made the unfortunate choice of picking on others, they could stand up and say many of you don’t know, but I am the sister of the autistic girl, the one you make fun of, who is more beautiful than you know and on and on.

It was about creating a voluntary forum for students to recognize the impact of their words on the lives of others.

I know I cried by the end of this article, reading of these children, so brave when having to face a quiet, silent peer pressure, stepping out to ask forgiveness or to ask for human identity.

Why this should be a new concept is beyond me. I don’t know.

What would happen if children learned in the home, in the media, in the school from an impressionable young age, that when you make fun of and gossip about others, the harm is to themselves, they lose their own dignity? What would happen if children were taught that “character is what happens when no one is watching”?

I watched on CNN this morning a story about a brilliant young woman, who was labelled autistic. She was able to use a computer, and/or keyboard with a voice simulator to speak in “our” language.

She said on the program what I have always believed since I was young: it’s a two way street. I believe I found the direct link to her blog, if I’m wrong, feel free to drop a note: Amanda’s Blog.

The link to this fascinating and eye and soul opening blog was found on Andy Carvin’s blog.

We the non-autistic people may believe there is something “broken” in the ones with autism. As she said, if you can’t understand us, we’re broken, and if we can’t understand you, we’re broken.

In other words, the view and focus for so long has been on what is “wrong” with the autistic mind, not what is wrong with us that we have constrained ourselves into such a limited channel of intelligence and communication that we are the ones that cannot communicate on the level of “autism”.

It’s not just in the schools when even teachers ridicule children or fail to see for many school should be a safe haven, a place of growth, and a misplaced word can do such severe damage it can only be undone by disastrous consequences.

Yes, yes, we must teach our children a foundation within themselves that cannot be shaken by mere careless or hurtful words, but in the meantime, we need to check our words, our faces, our “looks” at others, until we can build the foundation within ourselves.

Watching groups of young children, I sometimes wonder, do they already have that center, that open heart, that lack of malice in judgment and in effect do we teach them to unlearn that natural love?

We can create peace daily. It can be as if a wave that washes over every moment and interaction and we can build a stronger more loving society. Forget statistics, forget whether evil is in born and who is to blame for this vs. that. If we took responsibility each moment for the thoughts we project and the consequent actions they produce, if we stopped negativity before it began…..it is anyone’s guess what enormous gains humanity would reap.

Most people have probably heard the news, the words that Alec Baldwin allegedly left on the answering tape which was leaked from confidential documents and evidence in the custody, presumably, of the Court.

Yes, one of the first questions is why should this even be our business? Because stars put themselve out there, wanting us to pay attention to increase their movie returns? Yes, no, I don’t know.

The issue though again, is the weight of words and who we are in any given moment.

At what points should we be judged and frozen in time, never to have a chance to live differently?

I see those words and understand the damage. Not sure what causes a parent to stop acting as the parent and to verbally abuse their child in such a way.

Is the media now telling that child she is damaged? Her parents, or at least one of them, are psychotic?

I know nothing of this child. I don’t know if she is old beyond her years and has realized the deficiencies of ill timed and inappropriate and abusive anger.

I simply don’t know.

What I do know is that recording and the family’s grief wasn’t meant for us, but know it is ours.

What will we do about it? Do we take the log from our eye?

See: CNN Updates

I tried to write this post twice before, but started off with “hey”.

Not your choice of greetings?

God, I have to be honest, because whether I am or not, I have a feeling you will know.

I went into spiritual depletion.

I toured and trolled this virtual earth for the right answer to you.

I checked out raw diets and it was only days later, I noted there was little reference to you. Don’t eat sugars because they rot your teeth.

Ok. I’m old enough now to see the wisdom in that.

Yet, you intended for us to have this free food, no?

I don’t eat meat God. Just can’t get the hang of it. Don’t know how to divorce the picture of an animal that has family tendencies from what lands on the plate. Yet I will cook it, for anyone that visits, that needs meat.

I eat seafood. And yes, I stuggle, because there is a huge contradiction in what I believe and what I do. But I have to admit, there were moments in my life where I stuggled eating vegetables because I thought I heard them scream.

I read in one of Sylvia Brown’s books that we don’t have to eat when we pass on, and I resisted that. Now, I’m not so sure why I did as I was afraid that eating vegetables I could hear them while I chewed.

Mark it down to mental deficiency.

Fine by me.

God, I spiraled.

So convinced I was anti-religion that I began to actually seek comfort in what I grew with, Catholic doctrine.

I did something new this week though. I spiraled and crashed and then gave it to you.

I lost a case in Court and I was baffled that no one in the room cared that what occurred was improper and I got in my car, developed a migraine and then stopped…..I had promised to give it to you, no matter what, to guide me. Once I realized that and handed it over again, I smiled and I remembered to thank you for my smile.

So God, I don’t know what to follow. I’m not even good at being faithful to my belief in you. But I’m telling you what you already know, aren’t I?

I need you.

I know that much.

Thought for the day:

Some artists leave us no room to create in between their spaces, the spaces between the notes are so full.

We must just sit and listen and if God or the Universe graces us, we must put up our feet and listen, yes, listen and hear.

There are other artists that leave us room to fill in the spaces, words are never divorced. Do you know what that is, to tilt your head to hear the music of words before they hit the page, a waterfall flowing? How can words ever be separated?

To edit or not to edit?

Stream of consciousness writing is an integation of emotion and energy without ego……

Here we go.

Here we go.

Here we go again.

Trolling Virtual Earth.

This time, we have to admit, we had to depart the Matrix and enter the physical world. Actually had to park a car, walk, heavy footed on concrete ground and enter—-gasp—an independent bookstore. Yes that’s right. An independent beautiful world affirming bookstore. Shucks, to think we aren’t even gonna tell you where this gem is….ok….we might…but not today.

“Confessions of a Rogue Novelist“….

back cover sent to you via virtual earth compliments of surface earth, the liason of virtuality meeting physicality……..

“A Word

Confessions of a Rogue Novelist takes a hard look at the world of Commercial Book Publishing-a world of shock, shlock, and celebrity.

The catchword of this depraved New World is: ‘quality is taboo’. Claiming that good books don’t sell, [let's not forget, Harry Potter's unfortunate trips through slush piles], too many agents, editors, and publishers have driven quality away from the marketplace.

Dedicated to the Unpublished Novelist and The Unhappily Published Writer, Confessions of a Rogue Novelist suggest an alterantive route to breaking into print. This route is not without peril and is definitely not for the timid. But if the ourtcast is to win his own world–if quality is to find its long-deprived audience–it is a path worth taking.

A.J. Liebling once remarked, “There is Freedom of the Press if you’re rich enough to own one.” And so you won’t find anything like Confessions of a Rogue Novelist in what passes for New Grub Street today.

But Confessions, having been published away from the marketplace,away form the rubbish heap of the big commercial houses, raises some disturbing, even revolutionary questuions about the current book scene. And it does this with style and penetrating insight.”

The author of “Confessions of a Rogue Novelist” is identified as I. Yevish.

Once upon a time

A long, long time ago

(I think)

there was a peach tree

and a village

which grew

around it.

Many

Many

Many Grandmothers

and

Grandfathers

grew up around the peach tree.

The peach tree watched

the children’s birthdays.

Watched them grow.

Marry.

Have babies.

Who

would

have

babies.

Birthdays

around

the peach tree.

The peach tree

watched

friends grow

who did not know they

were friends.

The candles lit

in the homes.

It sighed.

The candles flickered

through the night.

One night,

a cold wind blew.

And blew,

and blew.

The peach tree

shook

in its roots.

It shivered.

He remembered,

seeding.

Little seed.

Placed in the ground.

Furrow.

drawn into

and apart

from

the earth.

dry

arid

dirt.

red

against the sky.

brown limbed fingers

dropping

uprepared

alone

yet

joined

fingers

dropping

me

into the ground.

The darkness

sitting

time

lost

no meaning

finding how to breath

within the dirt,

time passed.

I would call out,

a voice,

remembering,

my mother.

growing inside of her.

celebration.

of.

light.

the Sun.

Worship.

harshness,

the hands,

plucking to be fed,

the teeth.

Searing into

my skin.

“Momma?”

“Momma?”

not even the gift of silence.

pure.

remorseless.

drenched into me,

not yet born.

greed.

Yachts,

slapping at me.

I must stop this now.

this torture.

I was taught,

to reach,

toward light.

I call out.

Again.

Cry.

Sing.

Murmer,

last breath,

against,

the red sky.

I grew,

without breath,

taller.

I hold on,

for Mother.

I stood beneath

the ground

waiting.

I can see.

Light.

Mother?

I look around

trees

cut upon

thatched

adorning “homes”.

flattened

against the sky.

Mother?

Anyone who has stopped by our site more than once knows we like to read and explore different ways of thinking.

I often do random searches on a word or phrase or event to see how many different interpretations exist and what the point of commality is among those thoughts. Today, we wanted to share some of our favorite sites and resources as to the power of Water.

Recently, we narrowed it down to a few thoughts to consider involving expansive thinking a/k/a collective consciousness evolution and matters of health.

Now, I know there are pros and cons to most things, supporters and critics, but should that stop us from exploring theories that apparently would not cost us anything? Below is an excerpt from the The Water Cure.

“F. Batmanghelidj, M.D.

Dear Friend:

At Last: We Can Now Cure Pain and Prevent Disease — Naturally — At No Cost:

My ground-breaking medical discovery reveals the missing natural element that prevents — even cures — the body’s painful degenerative diseases — naturally and at no cost!

I am honored and proud to inform you that my research over 18 years — in addition to my medical training and subsequent 33 years as a doctor — has exposed the simplest natural cure to a vast number of health problems.

I invite you to read this report in its entirety. Read about my discovery, and in the light of the new information, learn how to become your own healer and cure your own health problems naturally — I repeat, at no cost! Become your own diagnostician and doctor during these health care crisis times — when you need to take charge of your own health and well-being. Also, you will discover:

• Why we in medicine were not able to permanently cure any of the painful degenerative diseases — until now. And why we have frequently made deadly mistakes that add more pain, suffering, and irreversible complications in the process!
• Why we constantly had to experiment using different chemicals in the futile hope of finding something that would work — and nothing has worked until now! Look at the spiraling health care costs every year.
• Why the drug companies have had to produce so many chemicals that are now proven to make 2,000,000 sicker and have killed over 100,000 annually — even when used according to their manufacturers’ recommendations! Judge for yourself how vulnerable we have become! The Washington Post of Wednesday, April 15, 1998 quotes the Journal of the American Medical Association:”One in 15 hospital patients in the United States can expect to suffer from a prescription or over-the-counter medicine, and about 5 percent of these will die as a result!” You should know that 1 in every 4 hospital admissions are said to be due to the side effects of routinely used prescription drugs.
• Why all of this is about to change, and with what mind-boggling simplicity!

What you are going to find out may at first sound too good to be true! This newly uncovered “ultimate cure” is so simple you will wonder why it has not been discovered until now! But I will prove every word you are about to read. I will also tell you why I think the drug industry has concealed this information when asking trusting physicians to prescribe its medications.

What you will discover in this letter is that we in medicine are trained to use chemicals to treat pain and disease when all the body needs is water — a simple and abundantly available natural element.

Yes! Only water!

This is the reason why we in medicine have made so many deadly mistakes! We are routinely treating symptoms, signs and complications of drought in the body with toxic chemicals that kill more rapidly than the dehydration itself!

Who in his/her right mind would want to take toxic chemicals when all that their body needs is water — free water — natural water, the ultimate medication of choice to cure pain and prevent disease?”

The “water cure” is not something I know a lot about and something which I have just recently found, but it has intrigued me to delve further into thought and to read more on the water cure and share it here with you.

It’s not the first time I wondered about the power of water. A few years or so ago, I learned of Whatthebleep.

In the process of watching the movie I came across different theories and resources which I then started to read up on. One of which involved studies done as to the powers of thought and emotion on the properties of water which I found to be incredible.

“Dr. Emoto

Masaru Emoto was born in Yokohama in July 1943. He is a graduate of the Yokohama Municipal University’s department of humanities and sciences with a focus on International Relations. In 1986 he established the IHM Corporation in Tokyo. In October of 1992 he received certification from the Open International University as a Doctor of Alternative Medicine. Subsequently he was introduced to the concept of micro cluster water in the US and Magnetic Resonance Analysis technology. The quest thus began to discover the mystery of water.

He undertook extensive research of water around the planet not so much as a scientific researcher but more from the perspective of an original thinker. At length he realized that it was in the frozen crystal form that water showed us its true nature through. He has gained worldwide acclaim through his groundbreaking research and discovery that water is deeply connected to our individual and collective consciousness

He is the author of the best-selling books Messages from Water, The Hidden Messages in Water, and The True Power of Water. He is a long-time advocate for peace in relation to water. He is currently the head of the I.H.M.General Research Institute and President Emeritus of the International Water for Life Foundation, a Not for Profit Organization.”

Dr. Emoto’s site is replete with photographs and documentation showing the power of thought and prayers on water molecules and consequently on the state of ourselves.

Other Sources:

News Target online

Criticism:

Quack Watch

I’m naive.

I have not yet coordinated the right tag words to the consequent tag surfing.

So be it.

Yet, I recognize certain principles to be true. And yes, perhaps it is very Toltec of me, I belive we have each our own version of truth.

In the meantime, rules for blogging:

1. See it

2. Read it

3. Feel it

4. Hear it

Then,

ask yourself,

if the curtain were drawn back,

would you be tall enough,

to withstand your post or comment?

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Namaste