Spiritual Mystique

Soul Meets World

2011-09-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

For the latest engaging posts by Alexys Fairfield, please visit

Soul Meets World.

Soul Meets World

2009-04-17T19:20:00.000-07:00

For more late breaking engaging posts by Alexys Fairfield please visit

SoulMeetsWorld.com

New Blog

2008-02-08T17:47:00.000-08:00

Continue the journey of self-discovery.

Check out my new blog,
Soul Meets World
See you there.

Feel free to peruse the archives here.

Moving Day

2008-01-28T00:40:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not this was several months in the making.

After what has seemed like forever; several days, weeks, and months of reorganizing, juggling numerous tasks at once, multitasking in my sleep and waiting for the timing to be just right, I have finally moved blog sites.

Don’t worry, the contents haven’t changed, they will still contain glimpses of your Soul through everyday occurrences. And you know as hard as I have worked to make the move as easy, stress-free and palatable as possible, I think it was all worth it.

I will be importing the archives slowly because Blogger doesn’t have an importing tool to merge two blogs into one yet.

I am sure that when the painstaking task is over in a few months, Blogger will announce the debut of their new import tool. It always happens.

Anyway, without further ado, you are all cordially invited to celebrate with me at my new blog,

Soul Meets World.

Please change your links and subscriptions to reflect www.soulmeetsworld.com .

Thanks to all of you for making this place a lot of fun and giving me your undying support. It was really appeciated and it also gave me a great insight into who you are and what you care about.

I hope you will all come with me to my new home.

See you there.

Birth

2008-01-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

"Man's main task in life
is to give birth to himself."

~Erich Fromm

The Closed Door

2008-01-23T00:58:00.000-08:00

I live across the street from a small post office that’s off the beaten path.

Like most government buildings, it is closed on holidays and weekends. On such days, a ‘CLOSED’ sign is posted on the glass doors as big as day.

Sometimes, I’ll step out on the balcony just to get some fresh air or observe people in their natural habitat.

Like a classic film, I will always find something watchable. The life actors are already in their scenes with their lines and motivations memorized to perfection.

They don’t even know that they are performing on the stage of life.

Human beings never cease to amaze me. We are so intricately entwined in our thoughts sometimes that I don’t know how some of us get from point A to point B.

The other day the post office was closed for the Martin Luther King holiday. I saw a few people drive into the empty lot of the post office. They would get out of their car and saunter to the front door.

When it didn’t open, they would try to push the door open and then pull on the handle. Remember there is a huge sign that reads, ‘CLOSED.’

One man even started knocking on the door and yelling,

“Hello? Open the door. Hello, anybody there? I need stamps.”

He must have thought that he was giving his order at a drive-thru.

He banged on the door again and looked inside the door as if someone was hiding in there.

He reluctantly walked away ten minutes, totally bewildered and looking back every few seconds as if someone was going to open the door and say, “Surprise!”

Though the sign was in full view, he never saw it, not once. Often the signs are right in front of us and we still can’t see them. They can be as plain as day.

The signs are not relegated to pieces of paper on doors. They can be in a message; something someone says out of the blue that makes us stand back, something in a newspaper, advertisement, television, etc.

They are signs from the universe and they are tangible.

The message that we need to see or hear is often in front of us. Anyway we look at it, no matter how hard we push a closed door it won't open.

No matter how strong our desire is to open the door, it is closed. No matter how alluring the other side is, it is closed.

It is closed for a reason. We are not meant to go inside. Even if somehow we get the door open, it still may slam shut. That is a sign. There is nothing there for us anymore.

It is time for our next experience. Time to move on. Time to open another door. Another chapter. Don’t deny yourself your true destiny to walk through as many open doors as possible.

Think Or Sink

2008-01-18T00:21:00.000-08:00

When I graduated from school, I thought that learning was over. I thought that I would never have to read another text book, hear another lecture, do another essay, do another project, pass another test or do any more homework.

Boy was I wrong. I do more out of school than I did in school because now it really matters. In fact, my work load has tripled.

I have traded my text books for life experience. Many things that are written in text books are written for memorization.

There is no reason to know half the things except to give the brain a good workout and that’s not at all bad.

I am always learning something new everyday. Sometimes I think my head is going to explode, but I know that’s just my brain archiving information, storing my internal hard drive and making more room in my library of congress.

Did you know that the muscle of the brain can bench-press incredible weight? Theories. Emotions. Memories. Sensations. Pictures. Colors. Movement. Process senses. And still have power to move everything back and forth with proficiently like a well oiled machine.

Over 80% of the brain is water, and thus an incredible synchronized swimmer doing all kinds of feats if we let it. Though the brain is the captain of the body, we are the master of our fate. We have to think or sink.

The brain lets us know that we have a Soul. When the time is right, the brain hands over the keys to the Soul so the Soul can let us continue our journey.

So many people abuse their brains with inertia, drugs, misinformation, misinterpretation, and anything that kills brain cells.

Once we reach the age of 35, we start losing approximately 7,000 brain cells a day. Those cells will never be replaced, but we don’t have to add to that number by abusing our mind or not using it’s potential.

We need our brains in tact. If we want something in life, our brain will get us there. If we can’t get there, then our brain will work on another route and another and another until we get to where we are going.

We must think of our brain as a fire that we never want to go out. Learning something new everyday keeps logs in the fire. Learning doesn’t stop at reading, writing or stretching our brain to it’s maximum, it never stops.

Though it starts with our brain, it doesn’t end there. Learning how to experience life to it's fullest and leaving people with love is what its all about.

Our brain needs five basic foods to survive; oxygen, a balanced and nutritious diet, new and varied knowledge, affection and love.

When we feed our brain, our life will be full.

More Brain Trivia

People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain.

The human brain has about 100 billion neurons.

Unconsciousness will occur after 8-10 seconds after loss of blood supply to the brain.

There are 12 pairs of cranial nerves and 31 pairs of spinal nerves.

There are about 13,500,00 neurons in the human spinal cord.

A human brain generates more electrical impulses in a single day than all of the world's telephones put together.

Our bodies are recreating themselves constantly - we make a skeleton every 3 months, new skin every month.

We are capable of reversing the aging process. We have a a whole pharmacy within us. We can create any drug inside us.

The brain cannot process a negative command or statement? If you say to your child "be careful, don't spill your milk," as they carry the glass of milk across the kitchen, the child has to actually think of spilling the milk so that it can take the necessary action not to do it. We tend to get what we focus on, so by the child thinking of spilling milk that is what happens. So ask for what you want, not for what you don't want.

One of the biggest destroyers of memory is stress. When you are stressed you release high levels of cortisol into your bloodstream. One of the ways that cortisol affects you is that it destroys glucose - the brain's only source of food. So if your brain is not getting the nutrients it needs then it will not function as well.

All the literature that has ever been written in the modern English language consists of patterns of only 26 letters.

All the paintings ever made are patterns of only three primary colors.

All the music ever written consists of patterns of no more than 12 notes.

All the arithmetical expressions we know consists of only 10 symbols.

And for the vast computations of digital computers, everything is made up of patterns of only two components.

So whenever we speak of something as being "new," we are really talking about original patterns of already existing components.

On average we remember, 20% of what we read, 30% of what we hear, 40% of what we see, 50% of what we say, 60% of what we do, and 90% of what we see, hear, say and do.

The eyes can take in information in one five hundredth (1/500th) of a second. That means that if you read one word at a time you can read 500 in a second which gives you a reading speed of 30,000 words a minute! Now it is not quite as simple as that but whatever speed you are reading at now, you can do it much, much faster.

If you take a Cray Computer (one of the largest computers in the world) and measure its wiring, it has about 60,000 miles in total. If you take the brain and look at it in those terms, it has over 200,000 miles of wiring!

The brain is about the size of two clenched fists and weighs about 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms) and contains 1000 trillion trillion (yes trillion twice) protein molecules.

Baroque music (mainly composed 1700-1750) produces exactly the right frequency and sound to harmonize the functioning of the brain and produce a state of calm relaxed alertness. That is why accelerated learning techniques introduce music into the learning process.

When we create a memory, a pathway is created between our brain cells. It is like clearing a path through a dense forest. The first time that we do it, we have to fight our way through the undergrowth. If we don't travel that path again, very quickly it will become overgrown and we may not even realize that you have been down that path.

Successive journeys down that path mean that eventually our track will turn into a footpath, which will turn into a lane, which will turn into a road, and into a motor way and so on. It is the same with your memory: the more times that we repeat patterns of thought when learning new information, the more likely we will be able to recall that information. So repetition is a key part of learning.

It is only in the last 500 years or so that mankind has realized that the brain was located in the skull. Previously, it was thought that the brain was located in near the heart and stomach because that was where direct experience of the physical manifestation of mental activity was felt.

Usually there are no disparities in general intelligence between the sexes, a 2005 University of California, Irvine study has found significant differences in brain areas conducive to how men and women manifest their intelligence.

Different types of brain designs are capable of producing equivalent intellectual performances. The study shows that women possess more white matter, while men have more gray matter related to intellectual skill; revealing that no single neuroanatomical structure determines general intelligence.

Men have approximately 6.5 times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence than women, and women have nearly 10 times the amount of white matter related to intelligence than men. Gray matter represents information processing centers in the brain, and white matter represents the networking of – or connections between – these processing centers.

A 2005 University of Southern California study has found the first proof of structural brain abnormalities in people who habitually lie, cheat and manipulate others.

While previous research has shown that there is heightened activity in the prefrontal cortex – the area of the brain that enables most people to feel remorse or learn moral behavior – when normal people lie, this is the first study to provide evidence of structural differences in that area among pathological liars.

Pathological liars can't always tell truth from falsehood and contradict themselves. They are manipulative, brazen and admit that they prey on people.

Aside from having histories of conning others or using aliases, the habitual liars also admitted to malingering, or telling falsehoods to obtain sickness benefits.

Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging to explore structural brain differences, the liars had significantly more "white matter" and slightly less "gray matter" than those they were measured against. More white matter – the wiring in the brain – may provide liars with the tools necessary to master the complex art of deceit.

Pathological liars have have highly verbal skills and are able to understand the mindset of the other person, while suppressing their own emotions to pull it off manipulation.

Though we lose brain cells from aging, even the aging brain is capable of generating new cells (neurogenesis.) This capacity for neurogenesis, when combined with the brain's proven ability to change its structure and function in response to external stimuli, leads to the significant finding that cognitive function can be improved at virtually any stage in life.

Improving your cognitive function increases your ability to; process information; quickly; complete more decision cycles per fixed unit of time; perform multiple tasks simultaneously (multi-tasking); retrieve old information more rapidly; learn new information more easily; concentrate in the presence of distractions; faster physical reflexes and sharper visual discrimination (the messages sent from our eyes are interpreted and assembled by the region of the brain called the visual cortex.)

Cherish your cognitive abilities by having a good diet and exercise habits to reduce the likelihood that you'll develop high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease, all of which can decrease blood flow to your brain.

Using tobacco products generates free radicals that impair the message transfer process (neuron to neuron) within the brain. Abuse of alcohol not only impairs the message transfer process in the same manner as smoking, but also causes the destruction of brain cells.

Stress causes your body to pump out increased levels of the hormone cortisol. Excessive cortisol levels can lead to the destruction of neurons in the hippocampus (the learning and memory center of the brain.)

Recent studies have shown that there is a targeted and effective way to improve your brain processing speed - the use of highly interactive mental challenges called Elementary Cognitive Tasks (ECT.)

These ECTs, also known as Brain Speed Training Exercises, provide a vigorous brain workout by isolating the specific region of the brain that you are exercising.

By pushing yourself to respond as rapidly as you can to the random stimuli contained in the exercise, you increase the delivery of oxygen, blood flow, and various critical amino acids to that particular brain region. The end result is more neurons, more neural connections and increased brain processing speed.

Interesting suff isn't it? Have a braingasmic weekend everyone.

Learn something, do something great, make a memory that will last a lifetime.

Echo

2008-01-16T09:22:00.000-08:00

A man and his son were walking in the forest. Suddenly the boy trips and feeling a sharp pain he screams, “Ahhhhhhhhh!”

Surprised, he hears a voice coming from the mountain, screaming, “Ahhhhhhhhh!”

Filled with curiosity, he screams, “Who are you?,” but the only answer he receives is, “Who are you?”

This makes him angry, so he screams, “You are a coward,” and the voice answers, “You are a coward.”

He looks at his father and asks, “Dad, what is going on?”

“Son,” his father replies, “Pay attention.” The father then screams, “I admire you.”

The voice answers, “I admire you.”

The father shouts, “You are wonderful”, and the voice answers, “You are wonderful.”

Then the father explains, “People call this ECHO, but truly it is LIFE. Life always gives you back what you give out. Life is a mirror of your actions. If you want more love, give more love.

If you want understanding and respect, give understanding and respect. If you want people to be patient, give patience. This rule of nature applies to every aspect of our lives.

Life always gives you back what you give out. Your life is not a coincidence, but a mirror of your own doings.”

~Anonymous

What are you echoing in your life?

Free Yourself

2008-01-14T00:31:00.000-08:00

“A human being is a part of the whole
called by us universe,
a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself,
his thoughts and feeling as something
separated from the rest,
a kind of optical delusion of
his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us,
restricting us to our personal desires
and to affection for a few persons
nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves
from this prison by widening our
circle of compassion to embrace
all living creatures and the
whole of nature in its beauty.”

~Albert Einstein

Wonder

2008-01-11T11:57:00.000-08:00

“People travel to wonder
at the height of the mountains,
at the huge waves of the seas,
at the long course of the rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars,
and yet they pass by themselves
without wondering.”

~Saint Augustine

I Love Stories Like This

2008-01-09T13:02:00.000-08:00

My friend Alex sent me this story that is so sweet that I wanted to share it with you all. It makes me warm and fuzzy inside. Thanks Alex. This makes my day every time I read it and hopefully it will hit your heart in just the right place.

Alexys,

This is one of the kindest things I've ever experienced. I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a beautiful Soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey.

She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.

I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her. You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith.

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven.

We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven.

That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought God had gotten it.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, "To Meredith," in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, "When a Pet Dies."

Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven.

Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away.

Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog.

Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me.

What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.

By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love.

Love,
God

The Pursuit

2008-01-07T03:08:00.000-08:00

We are a week into the new year and some of us who have made new year's resolutions have already abandoned them, while others are carrying over the baggage from last year into this year.

Whether we have made resolutions or not, it is time to start anew.

There still may be old emotional sediment in our mind, heart, and consciousness from various situations that didn’t turn out in our favor.

Let’s burn those old feelings in effigy before they get etched into our Souls any deeper.

It’s time to do a few things we may have put off. I am not talking about resolutions, I am just referring to your ‘To Do’ list. That list that keeps getting longer, while our time is getting shorter.

There is a technique in the pursuit of happiness that makes it more palatable. If there is really something that we want to do, we can visualize it first.

We must see ourselves doing it. See ourselves experiencing it. Clock how we feel. Manifest the sensations. Imagine that we have already accomplished it.

The pursuit of the prize (anything that we want to accomplish), creates a space in our minds for receiving the prize. That is to say that it prepares us for the end result.

Do you know that before we accomplish anything, we have already accomplished it? It’s true. There’s a duality that exists between our mind and our Soul.

Our mind paints the picture provided by our Soul. These two entities are coworkers in our consciousness.

We tread the boards of our internal stage and dress rehearse in front of our conscious audience. We practice for hours until we make the goal, the shot, the home run, the touchdown, the finish line, match point - -we know the sensation of winning before we win. We don’t forget the feeling.

We have already had the moment of glory in our heads. When we accomplish it again in our waking life, it’s just the technicality of our Soul guiding us back to that moment.

We have already won. Knowing that IS the prize.

I want you all to win and accomplish what you want to do. There is even a little bonus that goes along with winning.

Sometimes when I wake up and think about all of the work that I have to do and whether I will be able to get through it all, I take a step back and say to myself,

'The only thing you have to do today is love.'

This simple mantra gives me more time to do everything with love. In doing so, I am not pressed for time in any way. In fact, I have more time to love the moment.

It is only through love that we will be able to accomplish anything.

From relationships, career, goals, to interacting with others; without love and without the purpose to give it away, our hearts would be left frozen over a lake of ice; in the cold, hard existence of life without any sun. Love guides the sun back into our hearts and breaks the ice.

There is no time to think about time. The time you take “thinking” about time is the time you could have spent "doing" something.

Adding love to your daily tasks will help them go a lot easier. Love should always be a natural pronouncement in your heart, spirit, action and pursuit of happiness.

When we close our eyes at night and they roll back into that time machine in the sky, we remember with tactile sensation, the roles we play in life are the reality of our consciousness.

We are only reflecting light that bounces off of the waves of God in a performance of a lifetime.

We are quick to criticize time for not warning us that it is going too fast and that we would miss it as soon as it passed, but time is a master artist that sketches our faces, shades and contours our lives in magnificent ways that illustrate amazing landscapes across the horizon of our Soul.

We can’t wait for time to do something. We have to do it now. Now IS the time.

Your Soul Mission

2008-01-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

“Your soul mission is your
reason for being,
your life purpose.
It's your calling in life -
who you feel called to be,
what you feel called to do.
Mission is an energy that
flows through you -
a drive, voice, or passion that
you cannot ignore.
It's what you know in your heart
that you must live if
you are to experience
inner peace and harmony.”

~Alan Seale

Keepsake

2008-01-04T02:10:00.000-08:00

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.

Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors.

Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits.

Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.

Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”

~Gandhi

That Auld Scottish Song

2008-01-01T00:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the New Year. How do you like it so far? It’s a brand new day. You get to start fresh again. Leave the baggage in the past.

Just for you, I have gathered some New years trivia to get your brain firing once again and to get you ready for the changes that will take place this year.

Are you ready?

I know many people had champagne last night to ring in the New Year, but did you know that a raisin dropped into a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top?

The irregular surfaces on the raisins hold some of the carbon dioxide bubbles. When enough bubbles accumulate to lift the weight of the raisin, it rises to the surface. Some of the air bubbles escape into the atmosphere, and the raisin, which is denser than the champagne, sinks to the bottom to start the cycle over again.

The celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible crescent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring.)

Because of the division of the globe into time zones, the new year moves progressively around the globe into the New Year. The first time zone to usher in the New Year is just west of the International Date Line. That's when the time zone to the east of the Date Line is 23 hours behind, still in the previous day. The residents on the central Pacific Ocean island of Kiritimati (Christmas Island), the eastern-most island in the island nation of Kiribati claim to be the first to usher in the New Year.

The Line Islands that are part of the Republic of Kiribati are in a time zone with the earliest time in the world: UTC + 14. The time of day is the same as in Hawaii, but one day ahead. It is even a full 26 hours ahead of some other islands in the Pacific.

The island nation of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean is only UTC+13, putting it one hour behind the Line Islands of Kiribati. Tonga is literally the place where time begins - as the first country west of the International Dateline in the Pacific. The country's nickname is, "The Land Where Time Begins."

The Scotch tune, Auld Lang Syne literally means "old long ago," or simply, "the good old days." It is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the New Year. At least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700's, it was first published in 1796 after Burns' death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition.

The birthplace of Auld Lang Syne is also the home of Hogmanay (hog-mah-NAY), the rousing Scottish New Year's celebration. One of the traditions is "first-footing." Shortly after midnight on New Year's eve, neighbors pay visits to each other and impart New Year's wishes. Traditionally, First foots used to bring along a gift of coal for the fire, or shortbread. It is considered especially lucky if a tall, dark, and handsome man is the first to enter your house after the New Year is rung in. The Edinburgh Hogmanay celebration is the largest in the country and consists of an all-night street party.

In Scotland, Auld Lang Syne is often sung at the end of a céilidh or a dance. Everyone joins hands with the person next to them to form a circle around the dance floor. When the last verse starts, everyone crosses their arms across their breast so that the right hand reaches out to the neighbor on the left and vice versa. During the last chorus people might start jumping up and down. When the tune ends everyone rushes to the middle while still holding hands. When the circle is reestablished, everyone turns under the arms to end up facing outwards with hands still joined.

The New Year is the most important holiday in Japan and is a symbol of renewal. In December, various Bonenkai or "forget-the-year parties" are held to bid farewell to the problems and concerns of the past year and prepare for a new beginning. Misunderstandings and grudges are forgiven and houses are scrubbed. At midnight on Dec. 31, Buddhist temples strike their gongs 108 times, in a effort to expel 108 types of human weakness. New Year's day itself is a day of joy and no work is to be done. Children receive otoshidamas, small gifts with money inside. Sending New Year's cards is a popular tradition if postmarked by a certain date, the Japanese post office guarantees delivery of all New Year's cards on Jan. 1.

The Spanish ritual on New Year's eve is to eat twelve grapes at midnight. The tradition is meant to secure twelve happy months in the coming year.

The Dutch burn bonfires of Christmas trees on the street and launch fireworks. The fires are meant to purge the old and welcome the new.

In Greece, New Year's day is also the Festival of St. Basil, one of the founders of the Greek Orthodox Church. One of the traditional foods served is Vassilopitta or St. Basil's cake. A silver or gold coin is baked inside the cake. Whoever finds the coin in their piece of cake will be especially lucky during the coming year.

The tradition of using a baby to signify the New Year was started in Greece around 600 BC. It was their tradition at that time to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket, representing the annual rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility. Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.

Probably the most famous tradition in the United States is the dropping of the New Year ball in Times Square, New York City, at 11:59 P.M. Thousands gather to watch the ball make its one-minute descent, arriving exactly at midnight. The tradition first began in 1907. The original ball was made of iron and wood; the current ball is made of Waterford Crystal, weighs 1,070 pounds, and is six feet in diameter.

Another American tradition is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Tournament of Roses parade that precedes the football game on New Year's day is made up of elaborate and inventive floats. The first parade was staged in 1890.

It is believed that the Babylonians were the first to make New Year's resolutions, and people all over the world have been breaking them ever since. The early Christians believed the first day of the New Year should be spent reflecting on past mistakes and resolving to improve oneself in the New Year.

Noisemaking and fireworks on New Year's eve is believed to have originated in ancient times, when noise and fire were thought to dispel evil spirits and bring good luck. The Chinese are credited with inventing fireworks and use them to spectacular effect in their New Year's celebrations.

The 1st of January was a highly significant day in medieval superstitions regarding prosperity, or lack of it, in the year ahead. A flat cake was put on one of the horns of a cow in every farmyard. The farmer and his workers would then sing a song and dance around the cow until the cake was thrown to the ground. If it fell in front of the cow that signified good luck; to fall behind indicated the opposite.

Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the luck they would have throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends.

Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes "coming full circle," completing a year's cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year's Day will bring good fortune.

Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the New Year by consuming black-eyed peas. These legumes are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity.

Cabbage is another "good luck" vegetable that is consumed on New Year's Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency. In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year's Day.

My Deepest Gratitude

2007-12-30T14:25:00.000-08:00

Here we are at the close of another year. Where did the time go? There have been tears, cheers, disappointment, laughter, loss, and gain.

Though there were times when we thought we would die, we didn’t. Through it all we survived. Our Souls are still intact.

What could have been a stressful year for me has been an interesting year to say the least.

From moving into a new house, only to have it flooded and a barrage of construction workers making more damage for new workers to fix; hotel hopping while the damage was repaired; and all in the middle of writing a screenplay, blogging and spending time with my Soul counterpart who I am not supposed to mention here, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

If I knew what the year would consist of at the beginning of the year, I may have backed out before I started, but then I would have missed the lessons, not to mention the experience of going through them.

Through it all, I never once got sick, or harmed in any way, or was really put in dire straits. I didn’t come across anything I couldn’t handle.

Want to know why? Because I never lost gratitude for living. If we have gratitude for the pleasant and unpleasant situations, then we can handle anything. Anything.

Gratitude protects us from unnecessary fallout. It opens our heart to accept our fate.

So how was your year? Are you exhausted? What did you learn? What would you do differently? Any regrets? Anything you wish you could have done, but the opportunity didn’t arrive?

Isn’t it funny how we can look back on the year and say,”Did I really do that?” or “I can’t believe I made it through.”

While the desire to fulfill resolutions rarely pan out, they still make us want to refine our lives, to perfect them as much as possible, to perfect the way we feel about them, to perfect the fleeting moment.

Speaking of perfecting the moment, I want to thank you all for sharing a part of your lives with me in 2007. You have offered tremendous feedback, great conversation streams - a genuine part of your Soul that holds your deepest feelings.

I feel that we have shared things with each other that we don’t share with our closest friends, relatives, or priests.

I am privileged and grateful to know each and every one of you and to know your inner workings. You are all outstanding bloggers who can certainly spin a provocative post out of an idea - and make it so moving that it stands out.

Blogging is phenomenal. A catalyst for human consumption. We consume it by the page loads and it reaches us on a very profound level. It stays with us, it mutates our feelings, perception, outlook and insight.

Here’s to a healthy and happy New Year of dreams being fulfilled, rejuvenation of spirit, a renewal of vibrancy, peaceful blessings and most important, love.

Feel love, give love, be love, live love, spread love, love, love.

May your ‘To Do’ list being shortened and your ‘I Did’ list being so long that it’s never ending.

Happy 2008!

May it be terrifically memorable and awe-inspiring.

Like my favorite line from the musical Rent.

“Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?
How about love? Measure in love...”

The Mysterious

2007-12-29T00:44:00.000-08:00

“The most beautiful thing
we can experience
is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art
and all science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger,
who can no longer pause to wonder
and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead:
his eyes are closed.”

~Albert Einstein

Seeking Alive

2007-12-28T00:39:00.000-08:00

“People say that what we're all seeking
is a meaning for life.
I don't think that's what we're really seeking.
I think that what we're seeking
is an experience of being alive.”

~Joseph Campbell

Season Of Life

2007-12-26T15:38:00.000-08:00

Just like that, it’s over. Can you believe it? For the last two weeks, people were pleasant, giving good wishes and cheer, smiling, being kind, helpful and generally happy.

It was all so wonderful.

Then it happened.

The pendulum from the big grandfather clock struck midnight
and it was shuddering - like a big Mac truck through the Soul of goodness.

Suddenly everyone reverted back to Cinderella’s evil stepsisters.

Two women were fighting over a parking spot. Another woman was arguing at the return counter. One man cut another man off in traffic and a high speed chase ensued endangering other drivers. One couple was complaining about the gifts they received.

Cinderella’s gown turned back into rags, her coach turned back into a pumpkin, the horses turned back into mice, the coachman turned back into a rat, the footmen turned back into lizards and the fairy Godmother of the season left for good.

Christmas is not just for a day. It’s every minute of everyday. All day. All week. All month. All season. All year. It is the celebration of everyone to better ourselves. To be our true selves and tap into our goodness.

If we can’t be good to ourselves then we can’t be good to anyone else.

It’s not about who can spend the most on gifts or he who gets the most toys wins. It’s about something on a far grander scale.

A gift doesn’t come in a box wrapped in fancy paper with a pretty ribbon and bow on top of it.

A gift is what you give the world. A gift is your heart. Your passion. Your loyalty. Your word. Your integrity.

A gift is knowing how to treat another person. Making their darkest hour their brightest realization. Giving love even when you feel you need it.

A gift is closing your eyes and being able to open someone else’s eyes - and open their heart.

We can’t forget our virtues. When speaking of the Five Virtues, Confucius said,

“To be able under all circumstances to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.

If you are grave, you will not be treated with disrespect. If you are generous, you will win all. If you are sincere, people will repose trust in you. If you are earnest, you will accomplish much. If you are kind, this will enable you to employ the services of others."

When we are in good spirits, it behooves us to stay in that mindset for as long as possible. By practicing the Five Virtues, we are more than likely be able to maintain an upper consciousness.

It’s okay to keep the spirit going. Just because the calendar date changes doesn’t mean that we have to leave our spirit behind.

Remember, we don’t have to be at the ball to dance.

We can keep the feeling of being alive and being together.

Enjoy the season of life.

Enjoy it.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T01:27:00.000-08:00

“What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.”

~Agnes M. Pharo

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”

~Norman Vincent Peale

“I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.”

~Taylor Caldwell

“What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic.”

~Unknown

A Little Christmas History

2007-12-24T00:40:00.000-08:00

Ah, Christmas is here once again. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, take time to celebrate the holiday season and the joy of your day.

While you do that, sip a little egg nog, apple cider, wine or drink of your choice and enjoy a little Christory (Christmas history/trivia.)

Drink to the season of togetherness, warmth and love. Remember if you feel you are alone, take my hand, I am with you. You are a blessing. You are never alone.

Christmas History/Trivia

The word Christmas is Old English, a contraction of Christ's Mass.

The first Christmas was celebrated on December 25, AD 336 in Rome.

The "Twelve Days of Christmas" was originally written to help Catholic children, in England, remember different articles of faith during the persecution by Protestant Monarchs.

The "true love" represented God, and the gifts all different ideas:

The "Partridge in a pear tree" was Christ.
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity--the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which relays the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of Creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit,
the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed.

Candy canes began as straight white sticks of sugar candy used to decorated the Christmas trees. A choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral decided to have the ends bent to depict a shepherd's crook and he would pass them out to the children to keep them quiet during the services. It wasn't until the 20th century that candy canes acquired their red stripes.

During the Christmas season, more than 1.76 billion candy canes will be made.

It's A Wonderful Life appears on TV more often than any other holiday movie.

Christmas Day in the Ukraine can be celebrated on either December 25, in faithful alliance with the Roman Catholic Gregorian calendar, or on January 7, which is the Orthodox or Eastern Rite (Julian calendar), the church holy day.

In 1752, 11 days were dropped from the year when the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar was made. The December 25, date was effectively moved 11 days backwards. Some Christian church sects, called old calendarists, still celebrate Christmas on January 7 (previously December 25 of the Julian calendar.)

Christmas was once a moveable feast celebrated at many different times during the year. The choice of December 25, was made by Pope Julius I, in the 4th century A.D., because this coincided with the pagan rituals of Winter Solstice, or Return of the Sun. The intent was to replace the pagan celebration with the Christian one.

Christmas trees are edible. Many parts of pines, spruces, and firs can be eaten. The needles are a good source of vitamin C. Pine nuts, or pine cones, are also a good source of nutrition.

Christmas trees are known to have been popular in Germany as far back as the sixteenth century. In England, they became popular after Queen Victoria's husband Albert, who came from Germany, made a tree part of the celebrations at Windsor Castle.

In the United States, the earliest known mention of a Christmas tree is in the diary of a German who settled in Pennsylvania.

Greeks do not use Christmas trees or give presents at Christmas. A priest may throw a little cross into the village water to drive the kallikantzari (gremlin-like spirits) away. To keep them from hiding in dark, dusty corners, he goes from house to house sprinkling holy water.

Historians have traced some of the current traditions surrounding Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, back to ancient Celtic roots. Father Christmas's elves are the modernization of the "Nature folk" of the Pagan religions; his reindeer are associated with the "Horned God," which was one of the Pagan deities.

In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that made Christmas illegal. Festivities were banned by Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell, who considered feasting and revelry, on what was supposed to be a holy day, to be immoral. The ban was lifted only when the Puritans lost power in 1660.

In an effort to solicit cash to pay for a charity Christmas dinner in 1891, a large crab pot was set down on a San Francisco street, becoming the first Salvation Army collection kettle.

In America, the weeks leading up to Christmas are the biggest shopping weeks of the year. Many retailers make up to 70% of their annual revenue in the month preceding Christmas. Although many believe the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year, it is not. The Friday and Saturday before Christmas are the two busiest shopping days of the year.

During the Christmas buying season, Visa cards alone are used an average of 5,340 times every minute in the United States.

In Britain, eating mince pies at Christmas dates back to the 16th century. It is still believed that to eat a mince pie on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas will bring 12 happy months in the year to follow.

In Finland and Sweden, an old tradition prevails, where the twelve days of Christmas are declared to be time of civil peace by law. It used to be that a person committing crimes during this time would be liable to a stiffer sentence than normal.

In Norway on Christmas Eve, visitors should know that after the family's big dinner and the opening of presents, all the brooms in the house are hidden. The Norwegians long ago believed that witches and mischievous spirits came out on Christmas Eve and would steal their brooms for riding.

In southern France, some people burn a log in their homes from Christmas Eve until New Year's Day. This stems from an ancient tradition in which farmers would use part of the log to ensure a plentiful harvest the following year.

It is a British Christmas tradition that a wish made while mixing the Christmas pudding will come true only if the ingredients are stirred in a clockwise direction.

Mistletoe has been considered to have magic powers by Celtic and Teutonic peoples. It was said to have the ability to heal wounds and increase fertility. Celts hung mistletoe in their homes in order to bring themselves good luck and ward off evil spirits.

More than three billion Christmas cards are sent annually in the United States.

One notable medieval English Christmas celebration featured a giant 165-pound pie. The giant pie was nine feet in diameter. Its ingredients included 2 bushels of flour, 20 pounds of butter, 4 geese, 2 rabbits, 4 wild ducks, 2 woodcocks, 6 snipes, 4 partridges, 2 newt's tongues, 2 curlews, 6 pigeons, and 7 blackbirds.

The actual gift bearers are different in various countries:
England: Father Christmas
France: Pere Noel (Father Christmas)
Germany: Christkind (angelic messenger from Jesus) She is a beautiful fair haired girl with a shining crown of candles.
Holland: St. Nicholas.
Italy: La Befana (a kindly old witch)
Spain and South America: The Three Kings
Russia: In some parts - Babushka (a grandmotherly figure) in other parts it is Grandfather Frost.
Scandinavia: a variety of Christmas gnomes. One is called Julenisse.

The best selling Christmas trees are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine, Balsam fir and white pine.

Artificial Christmas trees have outsold real ones since 1991.

The Christmas season begins at sundown on 24th December and lasts through sundown on 5th January. For that reason, this season is also known as the Twelve Days of Christmas.

The modern Christmas custom of displaying a wreath on the front door of one's house, is borrowed from ancient Rome's New Year's celebrations. Romans wished each other "good health" by exchanging branches of evergreens. They called these gifts strenae after Strenia, the goddess of health. It became the custom to bend these branches into a ring and display them on doorways.

Center Of Gravity

2007-12-21T12:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas shopping makes me feel like I am walking on a high wire. I have to know what I want and the best way to get it in the shortest amount of time.

Ideally, I like to get all of my shopping done in just under 30 minutes. Okay, 60 minutes max.

Time becomes a balancing act. Have you ever looked at people’s faces when they are shopping? It’s a combination of delirium, exhaustion and tension. High tension.

We may as well be walking on high-wires. High-wire's roots are as old as ancient Egypt and first century China, where the art of "rope dancing" was performed over knives.

Sometime during the 1850s, Jean Francois Gravelet received world acclaim for cooking and eating an omelette (complete with stove and neatly set table) on a high-wire stretched over Niagara Falls. Talk about tension.

So how do we enjoy life without tension? How do we get everything that has to be done yesterday done today without falling off of our high-wire?

Acrobats train for years and use mechanics to safely develop routines. Instead of developing a routine of rushing, we can develop a routine of balance.

We have to balance. Don’t let tasks pile up to the point of them being overwhelming. Don’t wait until the last minute to shop. Do it a little at a time - before December.

Try online shopping. No parking. No lines. No pushing. No shoving. No bad attitudes. No fighting against time.

Although a high-wire performance may seem like a combination of courage and magic, there's a lot of work and physics thrown into the balance as well.

If the center of mass is not directly above the wire, gravity will cause the performer to begin to rotate about the wire. If this is not corrected, the performer will fall.

The artist often carries a balancing pole that may be as long as 12 meters (39 feet) and weighs up to 14 kilograms (31 pounds). This pole increases the rotational inertia of the artist, which allows more time to move his or her center of mass back to the desired position directly over the wire.

The key is that we have to allow more time to balance. More time to prepare. More time to breathe. More time to move our bodies. Since we don’t have the luxury of physically carrying a pole with us, we have to do it mentally - spiritually.

The pole helps balance by lowering the center of gravity. That’s what we have to do when we feel rushed - lower our center of gravity, thus our tension.

Shopping shouldn’t be a nightmare, when it could be a joy and joy is something you should never fight.

Happy shopping and a joyous weekend everybody.

Spilled Milk

2007-12-19T00:33:00.000-08:00

I saw this quote on Surjit’s invigorating blog last week and he graciously gave me permission to reproduce it here.

“We make them cry who care for us.
We cry for those who never care for us.
And we care for those who
will never cry for us.
This is the truth of life.
It is strange, but true.
Once you realise this, it is never
too late to change.”

I really think this speaks volumes. How much time and energy do we put into dead relationships or in the pursuit of a relationship that is not meant to be?

If it is meant to be, nothing will stop it. If it is not meant to be, nothing will bring it together.

Why cry over spilled milk? The origin of this saying most likely sprang from fairy lore. In order to attract fairies to a house, or appease the resident sprites, laying out food and cold creamy milk was common.

Whenever milk was spilled, it was considered an offering to the fairies. Because of the difficulty in feeding a family, normally wasting food was frowned upon, but the wastage of milk was always overlooked as an offering.

If the person spilling the milk was reprimanded, the scolder was seen as unwilling to give this gift, and let it be given only grudgingly. This was thought to anger the fairies and bring bad luck upon the house.

Today, the saying is updated to when you spill milk, no amount of tears will bring it back into the glass, so why waste time thinking about the loss?

The time we put into thinking about the milk that was spilled could be time we spend cultivating how to hold the glass and keep the milk in it, which really represents us, our ideals, goals and purpose.

Putting time into yourself and others who appreciate your gifts is far more important than crying over the past.

Move on gracefully, the glass you save may be your own.

Should I Tell Her?

2007-12-17T01:43:00.000-08:00

My brother and sister-in-law-to-be, Leah are excitedly planning their wedding . There is just so much to do. She wants a wedding planner, he wants them to do it themselves.

There are the invitations and ‘Thank You’ notes, the venue, the food, the flowers, the photographer, the videographer, the wedding party, not to forget the tux and dress.

There is a lot of planning involved, lots of organization, lots of nerves on edge and besides that Leah has to be merged into the family gently.

There may be things about the family that she doesn’t understand. There may be things that she doesn’t want to know. Things that may unsettle her. Things that may scare her. Things. Things. Things.

Though none of the things will hurt her, she still has to be prepared.

For instance, I don’t know if I should tell her that my father doesn’t really like to talk much and she shouldn’t take it personally or that my mother thinks she is psychic and scares people off by saying things they are not ready to hear.

I don’t want to tell Leah that she will be subjected to a string of birthday and holiday parties, lots of cake, lots of birthday card readings, lots of candles blown out where she will inhale secondhand smoke, lots of pictures that will turn out wrong, lots of noise and lots of potluck gatherings where she will be served experimental food; new recipes made by my mother from her Psychic Cookbook.

The book doesn’t really have recipes, my mother just cooks what she thinks people will like based on her “feelings” about them. (See what I had to put up with as a young genius - and have the memory to prove it.)

Should I tell my sister-in-law-to-be that no one ever eats what my mother cooks from the Psychic Cookbook, but some kind of way it mysteriously disappears from the table and winds up in the garbage disposal where there won’t be any evidence.

Should I tell her that she will hear the same old stories over and over again until she's blue in the face and then she’ll end up playing the game, Scattergories until she has memorized all of the possible answers.

Should I tell her that before she gets too comfortable in the family that my mother will initiate her by beckoning her into the den, dimly illuminated by candle light.

The smell of Sandalwood incense will fill her nostrils. The digital sound of the ocean will tickle her eardrums.

My mother will be sitting at a table with a colorful scarf wrapped around her head. I have dubbed her, “Madam Ant.” (She quit drinking and smoking and it’s a reference to Adam Ant’s song, “Goody Two Shoes.”)

She will motion for Leah to sit down across from her. A deck of Tarot cards will be on the table, she will say, “Cut the cards with your left hand.” Nervously Leah will cut. Madam Ant will then proceed to tell the future of her new daughter-in-law-to-be.

This will usually scare the life out of the new in-law-to-be. All four of my brothers have lost girlfriends this way.

When Leah emerges from Madam Ant’s den, she will have a sick look on her face, like she has seen a ghost. She will want to go home. She will want to lay down. She will reexamine if she wants to marry my brother at all.

Then those in on it will reveal that it was just a joke. Madam Ant is not a real psychic. This is just a humorous test to see if she would be able to withstand the pressure of this quirky family.

I can’t tell her that I have opened up a character file on her and now she is fair game. I will be recording what she does, says, thinks, her gestures, fears and emotions and then I will transfer them to one of my fictional characters.

Although she won’t know it, my mind will take notes of everything - - what she says, what she doesn’t say and what that says about her.

If I tell her, she would probably call off the engagement. A spiritual rule of thumb whether to tell a person what you think they should know is to ask yourself: Is it kind, necessary and true?

If it is not all of those, some things are left better unsaid.

On second thought, I should tell her something. Run Leah. Run fast. Run far. Run as fast as your little legs can carry you. Just get away before it’s too late. Go now. Go.

I hear that the weather is good in Bermuda. Brilliant blue skies, pink sand beaches. The natives are friendly. They speak English and some Portuguese, but you’ve always wanted to learn a new language.

They have some hurricanes, but nothing for you to worry about. Besides, none of us will find you in that mysterious triangle, but you will certainly find yourself.

In fact, Bermuda consists of about 150 islands, but only 20 have people living on them. You could live on one. Make it your own.

And all that stuff about Bermuda being haunted, people vanishing without a trace; don’t even think about that.

Authenticity

2007-12-15T00:35:00.000-08:00

The authentic self
is the soul made visible.

~Sarah Ban Breathnach

Roses Of Life

2007-12-14T01:01:00.000-08:00

Today’s post compliments of the amazing Anonymous. Have a stupendous weekend everyone. Be good to each other.

I've dreamed many dreams
that never came true,
I've seen them vanish at dawn.
But I've realized enough of my dreams,
thank God,
To make me want to dream on.

I've prayed many prayers,
when no answers came,
Though I waited so patient and long,
But answers came to enough of my prayers
To make me keep praying on.

I've trusted many a friend who failed
And left me to weak alone,
But I've found enough of my friends to be true
To make me keep trusting on.

I've sown many seeds that fell by the way
For the birds to feed upon,
But I've held enough
golden sheaves in my hands
To make me keep sowing on.

I've drained the cup of
disappointment and pain
And gone many days without song,
But I've sipped enough nectar
from the roses of life
To make me want to live on.

The Atom Of Soul

2007-12-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered how you came into being? How you think what you think? How you act like you act? Why you love who you love? Why you walk the path you walk?

We are all walking mysteries at various stages of development. Human beings are astounding. We can do so many things, more than we think are imaginable.

We can be ground down to almost nothing, get up and regenerate. When we have completed a learning cycle, we get to start another one. Our Soul knows where to go and knows what to do. It has built-in knowledge of our inner workings.

At each cycle, a part of our mystery is resolved, but sometimes we miss the answers and we have to go through the lessons again. When we get to those defining instances, we have to know how to stay there and that’s when life gets tough.

It’s a balancing act to end all balancing acts and definitely not for the acrobatically challenged. The tightrope is only 1/2 inch wide and 20 meters (66 feet) above ground on a platform.

So how do we learn to balance ourselves? In ancient times, people attended Mystery schools. A Mystery school is a university of the Soul; a school for the study of the mysteries of the inner nature of man and of surrounding nature.

By understanding these mysteries, the student perceives his intimate relationship with divinity, and strives through self-discipline and devotion to become at one with his/her inner god.

Mystery schools are a mystery because no one knows where they are located. Sort of like a rave party of today. You know one’s going to happen, you just don’t know where it will happen until it happens.

Historians of the Greek mystery centers marvel at how well the rule of secrecy was kept. This does not pertain to the public aspect, such as the fourteen mile procession along the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis in which men, women, and children participated.

The pageantry of the Mystery schools made any student proud to explore and practice ancient wisdom. Some of the best know Greek philosophers where once students of the same Mystery schools, they later oversaw.

What was taught in Mystery schools could be likened to our knowledge of the atom. Who has ever seen the real atom? What microscope has penetrated the secret of its existence?

Today we know more about the atom with its electrons than has been revealed for centuries. Unless we have bionic vision, the atom is invisible to both eye and lens.

Scientists have detected the flash of its track; its "way of light,” through painstaking labor. They have studied this way of light through inference and evidence and it appears that the atom and its components is almost of spiritual origin because no one can put their finger on it.

As with Mystery schools, no one can find the schools themselves, but they know they existed. Through study and devotion, we may glimpse the flash of their track, their way of light.

We can trace the pageantry of the light-bearers from spiritual testimony as they have transmutated the imposing religions and philosophies of the human race.

A physicist can’t touch the physical atom, yet he knows it exists as the foundation of all matter and the student of theosophy can’t show us a Mystery school, yet they knows it exists as the heart or atomic center of the spiritual and intellectual life of the planet.

Today the equivalent of Mystery schools are anywhere you can find knowledge. Real knowledge is no longer a mystery.

While life is a mystery, knowledge has come out of hiding and taken its place on center stage. We are really fortunate to have years of knowledge at our fingertips. We no longer have to tiptoe in the dark to find light.

Knowledge is here in front of us, all around us. We can simply tap a few computer keys and find out anything - and I mean anything. We can improve our lives, our scope of understanding, push the wide screen and reveal our reason for being through technology, especially Google.

Yes, Google, that six-letter word with the funny sound is the new Mystery school. Google's mission statement is, "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

Everything we want to know is in our hands. We have more easily accessible information today than we have ever had and the largess just keeps growing.

We are an information society, pumping information into our mental hard drives desperately looking for more memory.

When megabytes are not enough, we crave gigabytes. When gigabytes are not enough and crave terabytes. When terabytes are not enough, we crave infinabytes (my own word for infinite bytes.)

Some of us can have knowledge without knowingness; pumping words meanings, facts and figures like blood into a lifeless corpse with no Soul. And that’s just it, if we have knowledge but no knowledge of Soul, we have no knowledge.

The ethos of Mystery schools was to demystify life. In order to gain knowledge of Soul, we have to seek it. We have to peel the atom to find its contents. First we have to behold the atom. Grasp it in our hands by reaching for the real knowledge.

Though we have access to knowledge, very few of us are accessing it. We still don’t seem advanced as a human race. We still can’t shake our animal nature. We prey on people and devour them in an instant. We fight each other. Kill others in cold blood.

I think the reason we kill others is because we feel dead inside. First we fight ourselves and kill our own Souls, then strangle any life that anyone else shows because we can’t get our own life back.

Such practice has caused a chasm in our development as spiritual beings. It’s never too late to find knowledge. It’s never too late to find your Soul.

If our physical bodies are rooted in invisible fiery lives, why shouldn’t our human, spiritual, intellectual, and moral bodies have their origin in the spiritual and intellectual fire-mist of the planet?

Seek the atom of your Soul today - - Google it!

Attention Deficient

2007-12-10T01:07:00.000-08:00

I am becoming an expert at multitasking and it’s scary. I used to do one thing at a time, but now I can do several.

I just watched three films while downloading music, paying bills, writing notes, researching, blogging, uploading photos from my camera, and holding a conversation with the person sitting next to me.

What’s scary is that I can do them all at once with equal proficiency, but something about being able to do it still doesn’t seem right.

The one thing I won’t do is multitask when I read blogs. I give you all my undivided attention.

There used to be a time when I did one thing at a time, I even blogged about it last year and bet my friend Tristan that I would never become a multitasker.

The definition of the word ‘never,’ means from the time you say it until the time you do it. So I try never to say never.

Multitasking has taken on a life of its own. Even when I do one thing, there is always something in the back of my head that begs to be done. I multitask in algorithm.

Algorithm is a finite sequence of well-defined steps for solving a problem. Named after al Khwarizmi, a nickname of the 9th century Persian astronomer and mathematician Abu Jafar Muhammand ibn Musa, who authored many texts on arithmetic and algebra.

What worries me is that I’m not the only multitasker. There are thousands of mulitaskers, in fact, millions. Millions of us trimming the fat of the moment, trying to stuff so much life into a millisecond. It’s a vicious cycle, the more we do, the more we lose.

Multitasking is making us pay less attention to the things we should pay attention to more. It is splitting our attention so much that we’re making ourselves attention deficient?

We are not giving enough attention to detail. The quality of time is becoming scarce. There is nothing wrong with doing your best, focusing your attention on the task at hand, taking your time and doing a magnificent job instead of just getting by. God is in the details.

What if our accountant, dentist, or doctor split their attention while they attended our affairs? We wouldn’t like it would we? Multitasking is fine for certain situations, but not when we are doing more and spending less time with the people we love.

Some drivers really have the multitasking bug. I see drivers talking on cellphones, emailing, shaving, reading the newspaper, watching TV, applying make-up, cooking a meal in the glove compartment microwave and stuffing food in their mouth. Accidents waiting to happen.

Instead of making multitasking a priority, make paying attention to your life your main priority. Pay attention to each other. Unravel each other. Talk to each other. Break ground. Go deep. Listen to each other. Have a conversation without the TV, radio, or any other distraction.

Listen to what takes place between you and the person in which you are speaking. Their is a spark in their eye. A knowingness. An appreciation. A smile in their heart. They feel you focusing on them and it makes them feel loved.

You will find that when you are not distracted, you are giving your best to the moment, to the other person, to yourself - - and that in itself is peaceful. You then translate that peace and genuine interest in everything you do.

At times, I hate being a mulitasker. At other times, I love it. Being a multitasker is not who I am or who I want to be. It causes more harm than good, more distraction than attention, more mediocrity than perfection.

Multitasking is not really me, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. Those times when I do slip into it, I wind up wondering if I could have done something, more, better or different. It causes me to think about quality.

We all deserve to cultivate quality, there is a quality of giving yourself, a quality of living, a quality of being - - a quality of now.

What’s going to happen if we keep throwing quality away? We will wind up a bunch of over stressed, over stretched, over tired, nostril-flaring, fist-pounding, teeth-grinding, half dead robot workaholics with one foot in an early grave, who have done a million things at once and still have a million things left to do.

What are you giving up to multitask? Is it really worth it?

Abundantly Rich

2007-12-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

“Living is not this tawdry,
mediocre, disciplined thing
which we call our existence.
Living is something
entirely different;
it is abundantly rich,
timelessly changing,
and as long as we don't
understand that eternal
movement,
our lives are bound
to have very little meaning.”

~Jiddu Krishnamurti

Goodness Of The Whole

2007-12-08T01:09:00.000-08:00

“Each person comes into this world
with a specific destiny--
he has something to fulfill,
some message has to be delivered,
some work has to be completed.
You are not here accidentally--
you are here meaningfully.
There is a purpose behind you.
The whole intends to
do something through you.”

~Osho

Where There's Smoke

2007-12-07T01:53:00.000-08:00

Another story written by the infamous Anonymous. Enjoy your weekend everyone.

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island.

He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

Then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky.

The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stunned with grief and anger.

"God, how could you do this to me!" he cried.

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him.

"How did you know I was here?," asked the weary man of his rescuers.

"We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

It is easy to get discouraged when things are going bad. But we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain and suffering.

Remember, next time your little hut is burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.

The Bat Lady's Light

2007-12-05T00:48:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe it. Yesterday after my walk, I witnessed a miracle. The kind of miracle not many people witness.

Angels sang, lightning flashed, the earth may have even moved.

A light was shining in the darkness. A light that I had never seen before. A light that had never shone before.

A light that had awakened blackness out of a deep sleep. A light from the the bat lady’s window.

After seven months of living in the dark, she actually turned her lights on. Seven months of pitch blackness.

Seven months of fumbling in the dark through scotopia. Seven months of stagnation had finally come to an end.

I don’t know what event took place to cause her to turn the lights on, but it was a miracle.

After last week’s post on how she lived in the dark,
a metamorphosis must have taken place.

She must have somehow heard my thoughts through the ethers or heard about the post through her incredible hearing facility.

I am still in shock. The reason she has turned on the lights is because she got curtains. Well sort of.

She got curtains that oddly enough only block the middle of her windows.

So if people look in, they will see her with the middle part of her body pixled out, like it is censored. In other words, you can see her head and her legs as strange as that sounds.

Maybe the second phase of her epiphany will be to get full length curtains. The wise and wonderful Max thought that perhaps my neighbor (the bat lady) was depressed.

I hadn’t thought of that. She could have very well been depressed, although she didn’t display any outward signs.

Max’s thought had me intrigued so I waited for the opportunity to “run into” the bat lady.

I saw her car pulling in the driveway and I “pretended” to get something from the car when I just “happened” to see her.

“Hello neighbor,” I say. “Hi Alexys,” she smiles. Before I could get another word out, she enthuses, “Did you see my new curtains?”

“You finally got curtains,” I say, acting surprised. She points to her window and says, “Look.” She was so excited that she couldn’t contain herself.

Then out of the blue she says, “I don’t have any motivation. I just don’t like to do anything I don’t have to do. My mother is coming to help me decorate my house."

I thought to myself, how sad it is not to have any motivation or reason to get up in the morning. We need motivation to make us move.

Motivation helps us face the day with a positive attitude. It keeps our head upright. Elevates our consciousness.

Then I remembered some prior conversations with her. She broke up with her boyfriend a year ago and she is having a hard time getting over it.

He told her that she had no motivation. When he moved back to Germany, it really hit her hard.

She is already a nurse, but now she want to become a nurse practitioner (almost like a doctor.) All she talks about is how she would like to move to Germany one day and show him how she’s changed. They say, “Success is the best revenge.”

In essence he did her a favor by telling her what seemed to be negative at the time, but was really positive.

I guess the lesson here is not to judge a bat by its cover. What I saw as being a bat was really an adjustment period. She had shut her heart down and left all the lights off.

When I spoke to her, I saw how the light shone in her eyes when she spoke of the imminent arrival of her mother.

I saw how living alone probably caused her loneliness. I sensed how she must have felt in the dark. How she must have craved light. How her own internal light was flickering, almost going out. I wanted to help her realize her light and to re-light it.

I told her that ironically her curtains made her place look brighter. They reflected her internal light. She smiles and says, “I never thought of it like that.”

She went on to say, “When my mother gets here, we’re going to paint, get paintings, and just have fun decorating together.”

Your house reflects who you are. It reflects your light. I believe that if we ignite the light in someone else, they in turn will ignite it in someone else. Maybe we really can make a difference?

I think she (or her ex) may have misdiagnosed herself as having no motivation, when all she had was temporary motivation; which just has to be re-channeled into motivation.

Motivation comes from being happy, feeling good about your life and having hope for your future.

It doesn’t hurt us to be good neighbors, good friends, companions, coworkers, good people.

Each year millions of people die of loneliness. When we feel lonely, we inadvertently shut down own body, which in turn shuts down our immune system and makes us susceptible to diseases.

We have to watch out for each other, talk to each other, touch each other, be the light for each other; especially during the holiday season.

Light gets through the smallest openings; through doors, blinds, fog, darkness, and hearts.

Thanks Max for helping me see another dimension to the story. Thanks for being the eyes in the dark. And thank you all for being my light.

Tying The Knot

2007-12-03T02:35:00.000-08:00

My brother just got engaged. He has been dating his fiancée for about six years and decided that it was time throw bachelorhood to the wind and do it.

I can hear the male readers thinking, “Why,” and the female readers thinking, “Good for him.”

Some men and women are still far apart on the issue of marriage. It’s just our wiring and the way we look at things.

Women see it as Cinderella finally going to the ball and men see it as finally settling down and trading their freedom for the woman he loves. (Okay maybe that’s what I think men see.)

While tying the “not,” we say “I do.” One thing is for sure, it’s better not to be forced into a marriage than to do it for the wrong reasons.

Ideally we marry the person who reflects our Soul, but it doesn’t always happen like that. Sometimes that has nothing to do with it.

Some marry for companionship, to start a family, because marriage is an integral part of their cultural or religious beliefs and an essential part of their core value system, to share their lives together and travail through the good and bad times, or to fulfill each other as a couple.

According to statistics, married people live longer, have more stability and a greater sense of themselves. When a couple forms a partnership in marriage, each half combines to create a much stronger whole and they experience the shifting and changing experience of love within the bounds of commitment over time.

I always thought that if every man treated his wife like his girlfriend there would be more happy marriages. If women treated their husbands like their boyfriends, their husbands wouldn’t need girlfriends.

Men don’t usually show that they are happy to tie the knot, but my brother seems really happy about it. Maybe he’s just in a daze because there is so much to do for planning for a life together.

I wonder if men fantasize about the wedding or just the stag party? After all, tying the knot is a big commitment. Though it may vary, it is believed that “Tying the knot,” first started as a long standing Celtic tradition called hand fasting.

After the vows, the bride and groom's wrists are bound together with five colored ribbons, each symbolizing an aspect of marriage and their shared commitment.

It is also believed that illiterate sailors and soldiers of the past would send a piece of rope to their sweethearts when they wanted to get married.

If the rope came back with a knot in it, that meant the woman said, "yes" to the marriage proposal. He demonstrated this by tying two ornate knots in a length of rope. When the ends were pulled, the knots came together in the middle.

So what’s your view on marriage? Do you think it works or is it an antiquated institution?

I once heard that, “Marriage is not a word, it’s a sentence.” He seems really happy about it and I am happy for them both. As their engagement progresses, I will be covering different aspects of it.

Even if people choose not to get married, we always have the ability to work on the union of our Soul with the greater life force - - now that’s a match made in heaven.

Hilltop

2007-12-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

"The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse."

~Helen Keller

The Bat Lady Next Door

2007-11-30T12:05:00.000-08:00

I live next door to a bat. Really. A bat who goes to work everyday, pays taxes, drives a car, flies on airplanes and leads a relatively normal human life.

She works as a nurse by day, but at night she is a certifiable bat. I doubt her coworkers even know she is a bat, but I do - and now you do too.

Maybe she’s a vampire bat? Hence the reason she works in a hospital for those nightly “feedings,” except vampire bats live in the warm tropical countries of central and South America, not Los Angeles.

A vampire bat needs to drink about half of its body weight every night which is about a tablespoon of blood. Hmmm, I wonder if the hospital where she works ever has blood shortages?

She lives in darkness - literally! Though she moved in several months ago, she still has boxes stacked on the floor that haven’t been unpacked yet.

She doesn’t have any furniture, not even curtains on her windows, so anyone can see inside her house.

When I return from my nightly walk, I see the light of her refrigerator illuminating her face, but she won’t turn on any lights.

She reads in the dark, eats in the dark, and talks on the phone in the dark, all at the kitchen table.

I told you, she’s a bat. She flies with her hands, (bats are the only true flying mammals in the world) and sees with her ears (echolocation helps them navigate in total darkness by sending a high frequency that bounces off objects. They hear these echoes and locate, identify, and capture moving prey while flying through the dark.)

There is a large clothing rack in the window upstairs which I think she probably sleeps on while hanging upside down.

My bat neighbor is part of a world population of more than ten billion. They have been around for at least 50 million years. Despite this incredible length of time they still look much like their fossil ancestors.

Bats are one of the most misunderstood animals. They are gentle, intelligent animals that are quite timid when it comes to interacting with humans. (Come to think of it, I have never seen her “interacting” with humans, certainly not in her home.)

A bat is a trogloxene; from the Greek words "troglos" (cave) and "xenos" (guest.) They are temporary cave residents which freely move in and out of the cave. Bats are of the order Chiroptera, Latin for "hand-wing."

I do find it strange that she doesn’t have any lights on, not even candle light. All she has to do is get curtains so she can turn the lights on, or even put paper on the windows so she won’t be seen, but she would rather stay in the dark - and that’s the sad thing.

Though Helen Keller was deaf and blind, her life was totally illuminated. She even said, “If I, deaf, blind, find life rich and interesting, how much more can you gain by the use of your five senses!”

Our lives are only dark because we can’t see the light. Often times, it’s only a switch on the wall, or a switch in our consciousness to help brighten our living space - the space our Soul calls home.

For some reason my neighbor doesn’t want to take simple steps to illuminate herself and thus illuminate her life.

She would rather wear a veil of darkness. Some people don’t necessarily like living in darkness, but they don’t know how to hit the switch.

I can’t force her eyes to see. I can't force them toward the light. She must be ready to accept light in order to see.

I can only offer her love and compassion and sometimes that’s all it takes to remove the veil of darkness.

Once that veil is detached, there is such a light and lightness in our world. Darkness is a heavy burden. A bough that weighs us down and when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall along with our will and willingness to get up.

We have to partake in the art of seeing. We can’t let darkness obstruct our vision. If we can’t see where we’re going, we wind up going in circles, staying in one place or bouncing off the walls (like a bat.)

Like Helen Keller would say, “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”

Don’t let darkness prevail. Move towards the light. Bask in the brightest heaven of invention. Let the light of your love illuminate the path in your heart.

Happy bright weekend everybody.

Interview With God

2007-11-28T01:15:00.000-08:00

Today since I am still in the midst of eradicating my errands, I have invited a guest blogger to do the post. The blogger’s name is Anonymous. You may have heard of Anonymous.

You may have even seen work by Anonymous all over the internet and it’s pretty good, I might add. Anonymous is also very talented and usually doesn’t take any credit for any work.

When I asked Anonymous to do this post, I was pleased when Anonymous didn’t put up any resistance to do this post for me.

Isn’t it marvelous when things go smoothly. It’s like making all of the green lights and getting to your destination that much faster.

When we remove resistance from our path, we add a passing lane where we can travel around the obstacle.

And now without further ado, I present a post by Anonymous. Enjoy.

Hello everyone. Alexys, thank you for allowing me to write the post for today. I know you work very hard and I am honored that you gave me this wonderful opportunity to share my story.

It’s about a dream I had. A dream that made me think about the world, life and my relationships with others and myself as well as the universe.

I dreamed that I had an interview with God. I was sitting at a big conference table and the light that illuminated from the other side was blinding.

A soft voice said, “So you would like to interview me?,”
God asked.

“If you have the time,” I said.

God smiled and said, “My time is eternity. What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?,” I asked.

God replied, “That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.

That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.

That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future.

That they live as if they will never die, and die as though they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine and we were silent for a while.

And then I asked, “As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons that you want your children to learn?”

God squeezed my hand and said, “To learn they cannot make anyone love them. All they can do is let themselves be loved.

To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.

To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in those they love, and it can take many years to heal them.

To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.

To learn that there are people who love them dearly, but simply have not yet learned how to express or show their feelings.

To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently.

To learn that it is not enough that they forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.”

"Thank you for your time," I said humbly.
"Is there anything else you would like your children to know?"

God smiled and said, “Just know that I am here... always.”

I would like to give special thanks to Anonymous for sharing this very heartfelt dream. I will hang on to each word and hold them in my heart.

You don’t have to interview God to know God. All you need to know is that you ARE loved.

Stringing Pieces

2007-11-26T12:59:00.000-08:00

Today I am off doing a few errands. Errands, I usually put off because I prefer writing. Errands that were small in the beginning, but somehow grew since I didn’t do them.

Today has to be the day that they disappear.

Hopefully people are already exhausted from their weekend shopping sprees and are back at work so the traffic will be light.

I love when I can drive with no one else on the road. It's a great way to focus on things ahead.

Another form of meditation is focus. You don’t have to sit in the lotus position, close your eyes and chant, “OM.”

This is like a motion meditation, you are physically moving as your spirit is regenerating.

We are in constant motion. Our undulating spirit gives us the strength to go forward, string the pieces together and find peace within our Soul.

Peace is something you can't buy. It has to be manufactured from within. Get it? "Man"-ufactured?

Let today be a peaceful day and may it find you in peace, but not in pieces.

My friend shared this joke with me this morning. I hope it offers as much enjoyment for you as it did for me.

I will be thinking of it as I go about my day of stringing the pieces together.

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.
The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal it’s throat was very small.

The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.

The little girl said, “When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah.”
The teacher asked, “What if Jonah went to hell?”

The little girl replied, “Then you ask him.”

Being Alive

2007-11-24T14:51:00.000-08:00

“We can only be said
to be alive in
those moments
when our hearts
are conscious of our
treasures.”

~Thornton Wilder

Black Friday

2007-11-23T00:17:00.000-08:00

They call it Black Friday. It’s crazy. It’s hectic. Lots of people purposely spending the night on the street, camping out in front of department stores, electronic stores, and any other stores that offer what they want for a deep discount.

Some stores open as early as 4 AM, but people are known to line up days earlier to secure the bargain goods.

There is even a cute commercial where a dog wakes up to an alarm clock. He quickly makes coffee, opens the drapes and wakes his owner by grabbing the covers off of her while she is still sleeping. When she sleepily gets up, the dog goes back to bed.

In order to save money, people push, fight, and stomp on people. Is it worth it? Last year people got beaten up, a woman was almost stomped to death, people got robbed in line (queue) - worse than being a victim of a pit bull attack or worst yet - - a football hooligan.

How can you enjoy shopping with a black eye, fat lip, or ripped ear?

Though that’s one way to make it a Black Friday, retailers have given it that appellation. Black Friday was originally so named because of the heavy traffic on that day, although most contemporary uses of the term refer instead to it as the beginning of the period in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit.)

It is always the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season and also proceeds Cyber Monday, (the beginning of online Christmas shopping.)

If you don’t want to be a part of the frenzy, keep your car safely parked in your garage, not break the bank or max out your credit card, there is an alternative.

There are ten gifts you can easily afford and are just as easily attainable. Gifts that won’t be advertised in any sales flyer, or television; but they are still coveted and you can have them right now. Although you can keep them for yourself, you can also give them away.

THE GIFT OF LISTENING

Listen to someone who is talking to you. Listen with your heart, but you must REALLY listen. No interrupting, no daydreaming, no planning your response. Just listening. While they are talking, quietly bless them.

THE GIFT OF AFFECTION

Be generous with appropriate hugs, kisses, pats on the back and handholds. Let these small actions demonstrate the love you have for family and friends.

THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER

Tell a joke that you find funny. Laughing is contagious. Clip cartoons. Share articles and funny stories. Your gift will say, "I love to laugh with you."

THE GIFT OF A WRITTEN NOTE

It can be a simple, "Thanks for the help," note or a full sonnet. A brief, handwritten note may be remembered for a lifetime, and may even change a life. Make it original and from your heart.

THE GIFT OF A COMPLIMENT

A simple and sincere, "You look great in that dress or suit," "You did a good job," “I really l love your smile,” can make someone's day and stay with them for a long time.

THE GIFT OF A GOOD DEED

Random actors of kindness. Do something for someone else everyday. It can be a friend or a complete stranger. Do it and don’t ask for anything in return (it will come back to you anyway.)

THE GIFT OF SOLITUDE

There are times when we want nothing better than to be left alone. Be sensitive to those times and give the gift of solitude to others.

THE GIFT OF A CHEERFUL DISPOSITION

The easiest way to feel good is to make others feel good. A happy positive attitude creates a positive environment. Having a smile on your face will put a smile in the air. If you want to make someone happy, be happy.

THE GIFT OF COOKING

Nothing says lovin’ like something from the oven. That used to be the slogan for the Pillsbury Doughboy. When you make something from scratch, it tastes so much better than mass produced food. So if you love someone, cook for them. Even if you think you can’t cook, you can follow a recipe. One year I made chocolate chip cookies and I wrapped them in individual baskets and hand delivered them to friends. It was an instant hit. Be creative.

THE GIFT OF LOVE

Love and be loved.

Many Thanksgiving Blessings

2007-11-22T23:58:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving. Today celebrate the blesssings that abound and share the bounty with all in which you come in contact.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

~Melody Beattie

(Note: If you haven't read yesterday's post, it's a wonderful one, especially for today.)

Photo by Claudia Meyer

Love's Resolve

2007-11-21T01:13:00.000-08:00

Since we are on the subject of love - - and when are we not on that subject, I wanted to pass on this marvelous little story. I didn’t write it, but someone else had the heart and Soul to create it for all of us to savor.

Please enjoy and remember, whatever we do, it’s ALL about love, so be gentle and generous with it. Treat it kindly and it will treat you the same.

Once upon a time there was an island where all the feelings lived; Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge and all the others, including Love.

One day it was announced to all of the feelings that the island was going to sink to the bottom of the ocean. So all the feelings prepared their boats to leave. Love was the only one that stayed.

She wanted to preserve the island paradise until the very last possible moment. When the island was almost totally under water, Love decided it was time to leave. She began looking for someone to ask for help.

Just then Richness was passing by in a grand boat. Love asked, Richness, “Can I come with you on your boat?” Richness answered, “I am sorry, but there is a lot of silver and gold on my boat and there would be no room for you anywhere.”

Love decided to ask Vanity, who was passing in a beautiful vessel, for help. Love cried out, “Vanity, help me please!” “I cant help you,” Vanity said, “You are all wet and will damage my beautiful boat.”

Next Love saw Sadness passing by. Love said, “Sadness please let me go with you.” Sadness answered, “Love, Im sorry, but I just need to be alone now.”

Then, Love saw Happiness and cried out, “Happiness, please take me with you.” But Happiness was so overjoyed that he didn't hear Love calling him.

Love began to cry, then she heard a voice say, “Come love, I will take you with me.” It was an elder. Love felt so blessed and overjoyed that she forgot to ask the elder his name. When they arrived on land the elder went on his way.

Love realized how much she owed the elder and when she met Knowledge she asked, “Who was it who helped me.”

“It was Time,” Knowledge answered. “But why did Time help me when no one else would?,” Love asked. Knowledge smiled and with deep wisdom and sincerity, answered, “Because only Time is capable of understanding how great Love is.”

Something For Everyone

2007-11-19T10:58:00.000-08:00

There are many ways to say, ‘I love You.’ It’s in a sign, a symbol, a sound, a gesture or an expression that sparks the ignition in another heart.

The language of love makes all parts of speech stand and take a bow. It puts life in motion. It makes us smile.

Love gregariously speaks to everyone on every level in every town, every village, every country in every stage of development, permeating to every fiber in every being.

It really is life’s greatest gift. You have the gift and what you do with it determines your life.

Will you keep it to yourself or give it away freely? Will you attach strings to it, wrap it in fancy dressing, misuse it, abuse it, or lose it?

What do you do with it? Let the language dictate. Let it speak to your heart. Let it give you wings. Let it fly into your Soul and take you on a journey.

Let it wrap its arms around you. By speaking the language of love, you are allowing the flow of life to breathe through you.

Watch how you speak to people. Are you gentle? Loving? Careful? Angry? Critical? Insulting?

Speak to everyone as if you are speaking to a cherished Soul. Watch their reaction.

Watch their eyes. Watch their expression soften. Watch their body language. You have just given them wings to fly.

Let the language of love speak and watch as everybody listens.

Light Of Man

2007-11-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

“There is no beautifier of complexion,
or form, or behavior,
like the wish to scatter joy
and not pain around us.
'Tis good to give a stranger a meal.
'Tis better to be hospitable
to his good meaning
and thought
and give courage
to a companion.
We must be as courteous
to a man as we are
to a picture,
which we are willing to
give the advantage
of a good light.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Amazing Space

2007-11-17T01:06:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen a meteor shower? When people see them, they are so excited to witness the stars dancing across the sky. It gives them such a sense of wonder and awe. It is truly amazing.

Because meteor shower particles all travel in parallel paths at the same velocity, they all appear to radiate away from a single point among the constellations. This is caused by the effect of perspective.

This "fixed point" slowly moves across the sky during the night due to the Earth turning on its axis, the same reason the stars appear to slowly march across the sky. The radiant drift also moves slightly from night to night against the background stars due to the Earth moving in its orbit around the sun.

A meteor shower is the result of an interaction between a planet and a comet. Comets are comprised of ice and rock, orbiting the Sun. Each time a comet swings by the Sun in its orbit, some of its ice melts and it sheds debris. As the debris streams from the comet, it forms the comet's visible tail. The rest is a feast for your eyes.

Today make someone turn on their axis. Be their orbit, their moon, their stars, their meteor. Make their day. Be awe-inspiring. Be amazing.

Think Of Happiness

2007-11-16T00:20:00.000-08:00

This was co-opted from another website. The author is unknown, but the message is clear.

A 92-year-old well-poised lady who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.

The death of her husband of 70 years made the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.

As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, a nurse gave her a visual description of her tiny room.

"I love it," she enthused.

"Mrs. Jones, you haven't even seen the room."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied.

"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged - - it's how I arrange my mind.

I already decided to love it. It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away - - just for this time in my life."

Enjoy your weekend. Make it a good one. Enjoy your happiness. Make those memories the ones you hang onto and let go of the bad ones and always - - in all ways hang onto happiness.

Chinese Fire Drill

2007-11-14T00:35:00.000-08:00

Thank God I’m back. That was scary. I’m lucky to be alive. Seriously. I was in the back of the car as it sped through traffic, weaving in and out of cars, finally coming to a stop, only to burn rubber when it took off again.

You would think that it was a bank job, but it wasn’t. The funny thing is that it was MY car - - but I wasn’t driving.

Let me back up (pun intended.) I decided to sell my car a couple of weeks ago. I’ve had a cavalcade of characters who were interested, some which never showed up and some which wanted it for free.

The most captivating potential buyer(s) were a Chinese family. That’s where we left our story with me in the back of the car holding onto the ceiling handle with my face pressed to the glass mouthing the word, “Help,” while it was being test driven by a Chinese family, though not all at once.

The Chinese family in question was comprised of a mother, father, teenage son and young daughter. We were all in the car together - - and they were driving me crazy!

The parents didn’t speak English, the teenage son was glued to his iPod so the 10 year old daughter translated. To top it off, the father was hard of hearing so he would speak at higher decibel than most people. Have you ever noticed that people who are hard of hearing make YOU hard of hearing?

Chinese is an absorbingly tonal language to hear. It sounds a little like the tongue running off of a diving board and that guttural sound when your body hits the water.

There is a long string of words and then the last word just lingers like a whole note in music. (A whole note is one that you hold to the count of four.)

As one person would drive a few miles, they would then switch drivers. The parents would say something in their native tongue that took what felt like hours to say and when the daughter told me what they said, she only said it in a couple of words. I wonder if she left anything out?

There’s a certain paranoia that comes over you when you are in a situation where you don’t speak the lingo and someone interprets for you. I was trying to keep the paranoia at bay.

In Chinese, the meaning of a word changes according to its tone. There are 4 tones in Mandarin Chinese: flat, rising, falling then rising and falling. Other dialects feature up to 9 different tones. There are so many dialects, including Mandarin, Wu, and Cantonese.

Most Chinese-speaking people in the United States speak Cantonese.

So we finally get back to my house - - and not a moment too soon. The little girl was very engaging, the teenage son slept through the whole ordeal and I lived to write about it.

While her parents examined the outside of the car with a jeweler’s eye, looking for scratches, dents and dirt, they bounced one of those mellifluous phrases off of their daughter. She looked at me and said, They want to discuss it.”

All of us went inside and sat around the table. They spoke to the daughter and she told me that they liked the car and they wanted to know what my bottom price was.

I, being the clever business woman said, “What are you offering?”

They went back and forth between them and the little girl took out a piece of paper and wrote a figure down. I thought I only saw that in films, but apparently it happens.

I countered the offer and the couple spoke to their daughter. Her expression looked like she didn’t want to say what they said. She wrote another figure on a piece of paper and slid it to my side of the table.

It was like we were playing tic-tac-toe. She was “O” and I was “X.” Every time she gave me a figure, I would X it out. I didn’t feel comfortable negotiating with a child, so I told her to tell her parents that I wasn’t willing to take anything less than my price.

She said, “They like it, but they want an air conditioner.”

I said, “Tell them they that that should look for another car with air conditioning, mine was no longer for sale.”

If looks could kill, I may be dead. I heard a lot more Chinese words spew from their mouth, but the little girl didn’t translate.

The whole episode reminded me at how we are all being test driven daily by everyone around us. There are times when we feel that we are at our wits end, when we are vulnerable and other people can sense it. That’s when they will come in for the kill.

Those are the times when we have to put up our shield. We have to protect ourselves because there is always someone waiting to tear us down if we let them.

There's always someone willing to take advantage. We have to know when to put on the brakes and stop the behavior. We have to know when to walk way.

We have to know when enough is enough. And the way we gauge that is to know that when we don’t feel good about a situation, then it’s probably not good for us. Don’t be afraid to say, “Stop.”

Remember Them

2007-11-12T01:20:00.000-08:00

In honor of Veteran’s Day. Let’s remember the soldiers who have fought and who are still fighting a battle only known to them. A battle that stretches beyond our imagination and into the unknown.

They are on the front lines, in the trenches, seeing images we would never understand and embedding them into their memories. Images they never forget. Images that haunt them and destroy their lives.

Today in America we celebrate them. A token of our appreciation, but it could never really bring back the thousands who have lost their lives at the hands of underhanded deal makers who sell their Souls to the devil.

Remember the soldiers today. Remember them everyday.

“Heroism is latent in every human soul -
However humble or unknown,
they (the veterans) have renounced
what are accounted pleasures
and cheerfully undertaken
all the self-denials - privations,
toils, dangers, sufferings,
sicknesses, mutilations, life.”

~Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Unhappy Endings

2007-11-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

“Love never dies a natural death.
It dies because we don't
know how to replenish its source.
It dies of blindness
and errors and betrayals.
It dies of illness and wounds;
it dies of weariness,
of withering,
of tarnishing.”

~Anais Nin

Please Note: This does not reflect the state of the blog author.

Use It Or Lose It

2007-11-09T00:17:00.000-08:00

This was co-opted from Spiritual.com.au written by an anonymous donor. Enjoy and have a great weekend. Use your time wisely.

Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day.

What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course! Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.

It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow."

You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.

To realize the value of
ONE YEAR,
ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of
ONE MONTH,
ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of
ONE WEEK,
ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of
ONE HOUR,
ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of
ONE MINUTE,
ask a person who missed the train.

To realize the value of
ONE-SECOND,
ask a person who just avoided an accident.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.

Remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present!

Men In Tights

2007-11-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

I am not a huge sports fan, but I have always been drawn to archery. The bow, the arrow, the target, the whole Robin Hood thing. (Maybe it’s my fondness for men in tights.)

In fact, a secret escape tunnel discovered under Nottingham Church dating back to the 12th Century is said to be the same tunnel used by Robin Hood and his men to escape the Sheriff of Nottingham.

A medieval document confirms Robin and his men being surrounded by the Sheriff's soldiers at the church, but when the soldiers broke down the church doors, Robin and his men were nowhere to be found.

Archery is a sport of the gods with quite a wealthy bloodline. In 50,000 BC, the first stone arrowheads were discovered in Africa which indicates that the bow and arrow were invented there.

Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Mongols and others were toxophilites (experts) and used master archery skills to conquer and/or ward off enemies.

In 1479 BC, the King of Egypt, Thutmose III, was a showman of archery prowess, often giving public displays of his skill.

In 1260 BC, Philoctetes was bequeathed the bow and arrows of Hercules in return for lighting his funeral pyre, and thus became a notable archer. On the way to the siege of Troy, he was sidelined by a vicious snakebite and was left behind.

When a seer revealed that Troy could be taken only with the aid of Hercules' bow and arrows, Greek warriors Odysseus and Diomedes went to Philoctetes and persuaded him to accompany them to Troy.

There he was healed just in time to kill Paris, son of the King of Troy, by which action he paved the way for the city's fall through using the Trojan Horse.

In 250 BC, Parthians were topnotch horsemen and archers. They were famous for feigning retreat then, while at a full gallop, turn their bodies back to shoot at the pursuing enemy. The maneuver required superb equestrian skills, since the rider's hands were occupied by his bow, leaving only pressure from his legs to guide his horse.

This disrupted the enemy, hence the term, "A Parthian Shot,” which later became known as, "A Parting Shot." (a hostile remark made while departing.)

In 1208 AD, Temujin became Great Khan of the Mongols, better known as Genghis Khan. Mongols were expert mounted archers that used high stirrups which allowed them to shoot in any direction.

The unarmored soldiers wore silk undershirts to minimize the injury from arrows. The loose silk shirt would wrap around the arrow head without being cut and allow a clean removal of the arrow by slowly pulling on the shirt, thus stopping cuts from barbed arrow heads and reduce the risk of infection.

In 1307 AD, William Tell refused to bow towards a hat placed on a pole as a sign of imperial power and was ordered to shoot an apple off his son's head. He succeeded.

He also had a second crossbow bolt hidden behind his belt in case he failed and killed his son; he would have quickly reloaded and killed the official who ordered him to shoot the apple off his son's head.

1492 AD, Leonardo da Vinci sketched a design of siege crossbow, done when he was employed as a siege engineer in the court of Francis I of France.

English engineers recently built a replica and managed to fire a canon ball about 60 meters before one of the limbs broke from the strain. Thus proving that the design could work.

So you see, life is like archery. The same principles apply. We have to have a target. We have to have aim. We have to shoot for the target. We have to hit the target.

Even if we don’t hit the target right away, life teaches us our stance, our aim, how to conduct ourselves, when to raise our bow, when to draw and when to retreat.

We have to focus, steady and aim. To go through life without knowing where we’re going is like a bowless archer unable to hit the target. We have to have goals.

We must set our sight on the target, aim and let go. We must follow the arrow as it passes from our mind to the goal, our hand to the target, our heart to our Soul.

If we can shoot only one arrow a day with all of our might, it’s better than shooting 100 arrows in any direction. The goal is to develop the feel, mentally and physically, of a perfect shot, to build the subconscious controls and recognition points.

Research has shown that you can increase your accuracy dramatically by using imagery and visualization. It gets both hemispheres involved. There are three types of visualization.

1. In vivo (in life) -- when you are shooting your bow, visualize the path of the arrow to your target, just before release.
2. Quasi (near) -- take natural surroundings and visualize shooting.
3. True -- close your eyes and create the target and the arrow's trajectory. See the arrow already on the target.

First, practice holding the bow and learn the correct positions. Don’t worry about not hitting the target. Focus on the correct form and the follow through. Then, slowly develop positive mental habits.

Like a spiritualist, the experienced archer knows that a certain amount of practice, focus relaxation and surrender is the key to success.

Releasing the arrow properly is the most important fundamental in shooting. To follow through simply means to hold the release position until the arrow is safely launched onto the target.

I knew there was a reason that I liked archery. Hitting the target is just another part of life, and you know what? You don’t have to wear tights.

The important thing is to have a target, know where we want to go - - and go.

When Was The Last Time?

2007-11-05T13:33:00.000-08:00

When was the last time you...
held someone close

When was the last time you said...
I forgive you
I love you
I cherish you
I hear you
I honor you

When was the last time you...
danced
laughed
cried
thanked God you’re alive
opened your eyes
refreshened

When was the last time you offered...
your hand
your heart
your hope
your smile
your love

Let me hold all of you close and give you the love you deserve. I cherish you.

Take time to acknowledge your success, your accomplishments, everything in your life worth celebrating - - the passion, the pleasure, the pain, the drain, everything.

Just know that whatever you’re going through, the greatest spiritual masters have gone through it too. This too shall pass.

You made it through the night. Now, let’s make it through another day.

Hold on to the golden twilight in your eyes and the red swirls of passion in your hearts.

Remember that you are loved and I honor each and every one of you.

Black And Gold

2007-11-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

A boy had two boxes in his hand which God gave him to hold. God told him, to put all of his sorrows into the black box, and all his joys into the gold.

The boy heeded God’s words and in the two boxes, both joys and sorrows were stored. The gold became heavier each day and the black was as light as before.

With curiosity, he opened the black box to find out why. He saw that in the base of the box was a hole which sorrows had fallen out.

Alarmed, he showed the hole to God, and mused, "I wonder where my sorrows could be?" God smiled gently smile and said, "My child, they're all here with me."

The boy said, “Why the gold and the black with the hole?” God replied, "My child, the gold is for you to count your blessings, and the black is for you to let go."

I join you in counting your blessings and letting go. Happy weekend everybody.

That's Scary

2007-10-31T12:46:00.000-07:00

Today as millions of people celebrate Halloween, get loads of candy, dress in costumes and indulge in other tricks and treats, a lot of attention is focused on being scared.

It got me to thinking, do people really want to be scared or are they scared of being scared? Many people live with fear, yet we love being scared. That’s why horror films do so well at the box office.

We like the thrill of the kill, the whack of the ax, the ting of the scream. In fact, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that scream.

When we are startled, we get a pounding sensation in our chests. When we are afraid, our body changes, our heart beats faster and our senses are heightened.

Emotions such as fear, anger, frustration, and anxiety cause the body to produce an automatic "flight or flight" response.

This involves nerve and chemical signals that fire instant messages from the amygdala, (a peanut-sized structure deep within the brain), to the heart, lungs, and other organs of the body.

Additional nerve groups, called the sympathetic system, originate within the brain stem's medulla region and use adrenaline-like chemicals to stimulate the heart and accelerate its rhythm.

Neighboring nerve fibers of the parasymphathetic system provide inhibitory signals to the heart and other organs to calm things down again, so we don't stay in a constant state of heightened alert.

The balance between these two systems provides the right mix of up and down responses that keeps us aware of pending danger or stress and calm after the stressful situation subsides.

Life is about living, not fearing. It’s about facing each fear courageously and releasing them from our body, mind and spirit.

What is the scariest thing you’ve ever done? Whatever it is, it probably started out as scary and once you did it, it no longer held any fear.

Following is a list of scary facts to make you cringe, get your heart pumping and your imagination active.

Jeremy Bentham, a British philosopher who died in 1832, left his entire estate to the London Hospital provided that his body be allowed to preside over its board meetings. His skeleton was clothed and fitted with a wax mask of his face. It was present at the meeting for 92 years.
Every Halloween millions of bags of chocolate are devoured. Cacao, the main ingredient of chocolate is the most pest-ridden tree in the jungle.
Hair and nails do not continue to grow after death. The skin recedes, making it appear to grow.
Fishermen in Australia caught a five-and-a-half foot long cod and found a human head in its gut.
In 1970, a group of people were arrested at Highgate cemetery for intent to harm a vampire, who is rumored to still be around today.
In 1982, a Chicago women burst into flames for no apparent reason as she walked down the street.
Mourners at the funeral of a young Belgian girl were shocked to hear screams from the coffin. She had woken from a coma and was nearly buried alive.
In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined.
100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.
The Australian bird-eating Spider is over 6cm wide and 16cm long- almost the size of a human hand.
People fear spiders more than they do death.
One million Americans, about 3,000 each day, take up smoking each year. Most of them are children.
Forty-one percent of English women have punched or kicked their partners, according to a study.
The total combined weight of the worlds ant population is heavier than the weight of the human population.
The average American consumes enough caffeine in one year to kill a horse.
In 1221 the daughter of Genghis Khan ordered the killing of the entire population of the city of Nishapur (about 60,000) in one hour. The order came after her husband killing. (Moguls claim that 1.7 million were killed)
Coca-Cola was originally green.
The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
The bagpipe was originally made from the whole skin of a dead sheep.
It is possible to drown and not die. Technically the term, “drowning” refers to the process of taking water into the lungs, not to death caused by that process.
More than 2500 left handed people are killed every year from using right handed products.
The average person will spend two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change.
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.
Tokyo has 24 recorded instances of people either killed or receiving serious skull fractures while bowing to each other with the traditional Japanese greeting.
Samhainophobia refers to an abnormal and persistent fear of Halloween.

The Home Depot Patient

2007-10-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

I am writing a new screenplay based on The English Patient, called The Home Depot Patient. Why, you ask? Because I just spent the last two hours there looking for light bulbs and all I got was sawdust in my eyes, mouth, lungs, teeth, nose, ears.

It’s no wonder I hate going to there. My friend Tristan loves it - - must be a testosterone thing. He can be there for hours, look at power tools and think nothing of it. Me, I would rather face a firing squad.

As I felt my way down the narrow aisles littered with abandoned carts, blind from all the wood debris, I began to feel like a rat. Because of their poor eyesight, rats have to stick to the side of the walls or other stationary items. That’s why most of them wind up in traps. They don’t see them unless they are in an open area away from the wall.

I couldn’t even find my way to the door without knocking into something. Then I made a deal with he universe. We’re like this (crossing middle finger over index finger.) I said, ‘If there is anything you can do to make this trip pleasurable, please do it.’

Suddenly I hear the song, “Kiss Me,” by Sixpence None The Richer. It’s such a sweet song, how can you not enjoy it?

“Kiss me out of the bearded barley
Nightly, beside the green, green grass
Swing, swing, swing the spinning step
You wear those shoes and I will wear that dress.

Oh, kiss me beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out on the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance
Silver moon's sparkling
So kiss me...”

Immediately my mind shifted and I was running through a grassy lily filed with the sun dancing on my face. It was so peaceful - - until the crosstalk started from the inconsiderate employees - - crosstalk that sent my mind back to where I was.

“Bill, a customer is waiting in lumber - - Chris, extension 233 - - Mike, clean up the paint spill in aisle 47 - - Robert, can you pick up lunch - - Did anyone see the game last night - - George, exterminator on line 2 - - Fred, extension 385 - - Bill, do we carry hunting rifles?”

Couldn’t they save the crosstalk until after I was gone? They spoke over the entire song and I still hadn’t found my way to the right aisle.

When I got close to the light bulb aisle, a forklift comes barreling down the main aisle with a guy barely out of high school driving it, almost running over me. He blows the horn and another guy waving an orange flag quickly closes the aisle.

To make the delay even longer, the forklift driver has trouble getting the pallet off the shelf, which causes more agitation to people who are waiting to go into that aisle.

In December of 2005, a 24 year old former employee drove through The Home Depot in Chandler, Arizona, then attempted to burn it down in an apparent fit of anger. (I wonder what brought that on?)

I love what the coworker said, "He always seemed pretty low key, but who knows?"

I couldn’t wait any longer, my vision had returned, so I decided to try to find my way out. I went through the lumber aisle, which is by the door and a gust of wind blew in, kicking up more dirt and dust.

I was back at square one. Choking, wiping dirt out of my eyes, and covering my face from further assault.

Remember in The English Patient when Ralph Fiennes’ character, Almasy and Kristin Scott Thomas’ character, Katherine were in the middle of a sandstorm? They were stuck in a jeep and he pours a little water so that they can wash out their eyes and noses and mouths. She takes her silk scarf, wets it, presses it to her face.

The sand is piling up against the two cars, the tent is swept from its moorings, the water cans are hurled up too, and then plunge ominously into sand drifts as if going under an ocean.

Almasy tells Katherine about the winds. “There is a whirlwind from Southern Morocco, the Aajej, against which the fellahin defend themselves with knives. And there is the Ghibli from Tunis which rolls and rolls and rolls and produces a rather strange nervous condition. Then there is the Harmatton, a red wind which mariners call the sea of darkness. Red sand from this wind has flown as far as the south coast of England apparently producing showers so dense they were mistaken for blood.”

I felt like I was in that scene, in that sandstorm. It felt so real that I could taste it. My cornea was plastered with tiny grains of reddish brown quartz and I was lightly floured with soot.

As I headed down the last aisle to freedom, I happened to walk next to some welcome mats. They had the usual ones that read, “WELCOME,” but the one that really caught my eye, (ha ha) was the one that read, “LEAVE.”

It was definitely a sign from the universe. I had to get out, get out and never return. I never got the light bulbs, I couldn’t see the point. (Get it?) Couldn’t “see” the point.

I did overhear a male employee tell a female employee that there were rats in the stock room. The shriek that came from her mouth almost deafened me. Now all of my senses were offended. It was absolutely time to go.

Imagination can take you anywhere. It is the cornerstone of creativity. A universal right of way to transforming your day, feelings, experiences. It is also a great stress reliever. Today, let your imagination play. Let it take you to places you never thought you would go.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.”

~Albert Einstein

The 'L' Factor

2007-10-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

How many times do we get angry at ourselves, at others or at God for our lives? How many times do we find negativity and doubt dripping from our acid tongues?

We curse the heavens and the universe for bringing us here in these conditions. We blame everyone except ourselves for the tangled web we have woven.

It’s time to clear your throat, clean your tongue and have a little gratitude for being here in the first place.

You are a lottery winner. You have won life. You have won the people in your life. You have won your lifestyle, your job, your intellect, your everything.

Though sometimes, it’s not pleasurable, as soon as we deal with it, the reality gets better.

Have you ever wondered where you begin and where you end? Is it one in the same? Do you feel that you are part of the circle of life? Do you think of what kind of strings that were pulled to bring you here from where you were? Your existence goes though many transitions before you end up here.

Their is a hierarchy of spiritual powers that be that must place you in the right environment, country, climate, circumstances, parents, that will give you everything that is predetermined for your particular life that maps out the course to get to your destiny.

You are connected to a massive network of inner knowledge and a spiritual corporation that backs you on your decisions. You are never alone. That’s the key. You are never by yourself.

It’s all about love. The degree in which your heart radiates towards the universe. We are galaxies - - suns - - moons - - stars.

We are a system of swirling emotions held together by mutual gravitation. We gravitate towards the center of existence in a series of events that ground us or give us lift off.

We beam love, we dream love, we breathe love, we are love. How can be anything else, but love? We must remember what we are and act accordingly.

Love is the story we are told before we come here. Even before we understood the words, we had the knowledge of love. Even before we could consciously give it, we felt it. And we like how it feels. We love how it empowers us.

Even if we don’t feel love, we still have a reserve that we can tap into at anytime. It’s the ‘L’ factor.

Have you ever felt that your heart was skidding and waiting for the crash? That whatever you do, you can’t do it right? You don’t have to feel that way.

That’s the time when you have to remember that you are loved and that you are love itself. Remember the joy.

Offer Compassion

2007-10-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

A man distraught by all the pain and suffering he saw around him broke down and banged his fists into the dirt. As the dirt flies into his face and stings his eyes, he looks up and yells at God.

"Look at this mess. Look at all this pain and suffering. Look at all this killing and hate. God. Oh God! How could you let this happen? WHY DON'T YOU DO SOMETHING?"

The dirt swirls, the wind roars and he hears a voice from beyond the clouds. “My son, I sent you."

Often times we feel frustrated and helpless in certain situations. We feel that there is nothing we can do to alleviate our suffering and the suffering of our fellow man.

Life is full of suffering, but it’s also full of love. For everything that can cause heartache, there is something that can cause joy. For everything that can cause hate, there is something that causes love. Love can become the stronger component if we make a point to channel it daily in everything we do.

We can tip the balance by taking the attention off of ourselves and putting it on compassion. We are all in this ocean together, trying to stay afloat.

We swim against tides, fight off the sharks and other predators. Sometimes our arms get tired and we feel ourselves being dragged under the current.

That’s the time when we stretch our arms out to the side and help our fellow man. It’s enough to keep our heads up and to keep us alive. Just by reaching out, our attention has shifted. Just by reaching out.

By being the life jacket to one another, life isn’t so strenuous. There is strength in numbers. Have you ever tried to push your car off the road when it was broken down?

You would struggle by yourself to move such a heavy vehicle, but with two or three others, the car moves effortlessly. (And if you’re like me, you hop in while others push. ;D)

I think there are a lot of generous people out there who give their time, money and heart to charity. Frankly, without them charities would be in dire straits. I am not saying to go on a peace mission in a third world country, unless that is something you feel you should do.

Other people suffer in direct proportion to how our heart suffers. If we are loving we are not suffering. By that I mean, if we concentrate on offering compassion, we don’t suffer.

When the opportunity to be compassionate arises, have a heart, lend a hand, make the effort, offer love. There is something in the act of kindness that fills us like nothing else.

Tips For Living Well

2007-10-22T00:23:00.000-07:00

I used to have a friend who was often frustrated with her life. At these times she would complain and say, “People should come with instructions.”

I always thought that this was a colorful statement and wondered what those human instructions would say if we did come with them.

Thinking about this, I happened upon some tips that I think would work well as our instructions for better living.

They are simple and very doable tips that we should keep in our head and heart.

Hey, if we remember half of them we will be doing well. Learn them well and spread them throughout your life.

Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
When you say, “I love you,” mean it.
Believe in love at first sight.
Never laugh at anyone's dreams.
Love deeply and passionately. Even if you get hurt, it's the only way to live life completely.
Don't judge people by their relatives.
Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
Say, “Bless you” when you hear someone sneeze.
When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; Responsibilities for all your actions.
Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
When you realize you've made a mistake take immediate steps to correct it.
Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
Spend some time alone. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Read more books and watch less TV.
Live a good honorable life. When you get older and think back, you'll get to enjoy it a second time.
Trust in God but lock your car.
A loving atmosphere in your home is important. Do all you can to create a tranquil home.
In disagreements with loved ones, deal with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
Share your knowledge.
Never interrupt when you are being flattered.
Mind your own business.
Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
If you make a lot of money, put it to use helping others while you are living. That is wealth's greatest satisfaction.
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a stroke of luck.

The Paradox

2007-10-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

“I have found the paradox,
that if you love until it hurts,
there can be no more hurt,
only more love.”

~Mother Teresa

Live Your Best

2007-10-19T00:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend, may you find the love you have always been looking for inside of you. Be good to yourself. Be good to those in your life. Be good period. If you give your best everyday, then you will be living your best day.

Cry Happy

2007-10-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

It’s too much sometimes. The world crashes down on us and crushes our heart. We are pinned under a wheel of hurt; a Catherine Wheel of sorts, laying in excruciating pain with squashed limbs while our living remains are threaded through spokes and pole hoisted into the air for vultures and crows to feast.

According to a seventeenth-century chronicler, a Catherine Wheel victim looked like, "A sort of huge screaming puppet writhing in rivulets of blood, a puppet with four tentacles, like a sea monster, of raw, slimy and shapeless flesh mixed up with splinters of smashed bones."

Looks gruesome - - sounds gruesome - - feels gruesome - - IS gruesome. Knowing and feeling that our hearts have just been murdered, good old fashion tear therapy is in order.

We have to cry. It’s therapeutic, cathartic, a release of emotional density, chemicals and hormones that have built up in our brain over time. The chemicals and hormones disappear from our body through the form of tears, soothing our sadness or distress by withdrawing these chemical agents. Crying is a stoppage of emotional erosion that can spill over into spiritual inadequacy.

Charles Darwin called crying "a special expression of man." It is a rare human universal that we share with no other creature, but more so tears smooth out the irregularities of the eye surface making our vision possible. Without this watery layer, we would see weird diffractions, absences and would lose our eyes to infection.

There are three types of tears. Basal tears keep our eyes lubricated constantly. Reflex tears are produced when our eyes get irritated, like with onions or when something gets into our eyes. A psychic tear is produced when the body reacts emotionally to something.

When emotions affect us, the nervous system stimulates the cranial nerve, in the brain and this sends signals to the neurotransmitters to the tear glands and we cry. Many believe that the body, in times of emotional stress, depends on the lacrimal gland to release excess amounts of chemicals and hormones, and thus returning it to a stable state.

Women have been allowed to cry more than men traditionally, but the benefits of crying suggest that men need to cry more. A study of more than 300 men and women was conducted in the 1980’s at the University of Minnesota which concluded that women cry five times a month and men about once every four weeks.

In Tom Lutz’s book, Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears, he states that, “Cultures around the world have crying out of obligation, for show, and for grief and pain. Each culture defines where and when it is acceptable to cry.

Cultures, in some parts of the world, sometimes determine the length of crying and mourning. For example, in the Zuni culture, a chief allows the mourners of the dead to cry for four days after which the chief says that the death occurred four years ago, and now the mourning may end.”

It is not the howling itself that makes our crying unusual; it is the tears that go along with it. Other animals may whimper, moan and wail, but none sheds tears of emotion - - not even our closest primate cousins.

Apes do have tear ducts, as do other animals, but their job extends only to ocular house cleaning, to bathe and heal the eyes. But in our case, at some point long ago, one of our ancestors evolved a neuronal connection between the gland that generates tears and the parts of the brain that feel, sense and express deep emotion.

Lutz also broaches judgment of tears. “If a young woman were to fall on the ground weeping in a restaurant, and wash her father's feet with her tears while begging for his forgiveness, few people would find it as appropriate or heartwarming a sight as a group at an eighteenth-century British inn might have. And the same is true for the other judgments we make about tears, as when we deem them to be normal or excessive, sincere or manipulative, expressive or histrionic.”

Lutz has a point. Who says a little girl crying because she can’t have a lollipop is in less distress than a woman who is crying because her husband is cheating on her? Both have the same pain when what they want doesn’t coincide with what they have.

No matter how many versions of Cry Me A River that we hear - - from Ella Fitzgerald to Justin Timberlake, it’s all the same. The pain of our existence is equal to the joy of our happiness. In other words, if we have to be in pain, it’s better to process it rather that leave it unprocessed where it will surely wreak havoc in our Soul and affect our happiness.

It’s good to cry. It’s good to heal. It’s good to reset ourselves. Let it out. Rid the liquid from your eyes, your heart, your life. Shedding tears is both beneficial to your physical health as well as spiritual health.

It’s good to mourn and then celebrate making through another day because let’s face it, making it through any day is a cause for celebration.

The Possible Dream

2007-10-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

My friend Oceanshaman has tagged me with the following.

'Write five things you want to be when you grow up. Big dreams that seem like folly, but in your heart of hearts are very real and dear to you. Things that maybe you have forgotten about in the ebb and flow and toil of the everyday, but that never really leave your soul. What you would do if anything was possible?

Spend some time day dreaming…and then post them on your blog, passing the idea along to 5 others...because sometimes we need to pause and remember our dreams. Maybe just saying them out loud will help you discover little ways you can make them happen. You can write about that, too.'

When you ask me to name five things I want to be when I grow up, I have to pause because I will never grow up. Growing up means that life is over in a sense, that I can’t do things that I find enjoyable because of time or commitment constraints. So I will rephrase it to five things I am doing or will do in the future to enhance my life and those around me.

Dreams are important and the key to my existence. I am living my dreams. I am living them in my head, my heart, my consciousness and my Soul. In fact, my name for a dream is a “dreamality.” Partly because people think dreams are unattainable and the other part is because if we think dreams are possible, we can dream them into reality.

1. I have always had a dream to be a screenwriter, to tell the stories of my heart and Soul. I trained vigorously for it, learned the ins and out of structure, characterization, plot, story, etc. I had a great script that hadn’t been told before. A producer loved the idea and wanted to make it into a film. He took the script, I never got paid and I heard he made it in Japan. I regrouped and continued writing and eventually sold another script to another company. To make a long story short, I am still writing scripts after a rocky start because I never gave up. Currently a production company is developing several of my scripts and I couldn’t be happier.

2. Many people want to travel to see the world, I want to travel to experience other cultures and to see what is in their hearts. I know we are all connected and I want to see how I can connect with all.

3. I like cars (not in a way that men ogle over them, but design wise) and would like to own a vintage Mercedes; a 1955 300 SL Gullwing will do nicely. I think this is a classy car with great lines, style and loads of panache. It’s beautiful. I love the doors so much that I just want to drive it with the doors open so I can fly into the stars.

When I want to be driven, my dream car is the 1928 Isotta Fraschini Coupe 8ASS from Sunset Boulevard. I will be Norma Desmond wearing those black elbow gloves, hat and glasses, being driven to Paramount Studios.

4. I can’t stress enough how important it is to love and open our heart. It is hard for some people say, but it’s never hard to hear. Believe me when I say, if we do nothing else, we can love. Everybody needs it. Everybody wants it. Everybody breathes it. It doesn’t cost us anything, but what we gain from it is a sense of spiritual freedom, confidence and wings. (Probably why I like the Gullwing.)

5. My endless dream (dreamality) is to lift and leave people with love. It is important for everyone to feel that they matter. All of you matter. Put your differences aside, leave the hate behind. Don’t give it energy. Turn that negative energy into love.

*Bonus* This is for all the undiscovered dreams in the heart of all dreamers. We are all born to dream. We live to dream. We dream to live. Make your life, your dream and love with every fiber of your being. Every fiber of your dreaming.

Love's Magic

2007-10-14T00:12:00.000-07:00

"Love is the only bow on life's dark cloud.
It is the Morning and the Evening Star.
It shines upon the cradle of the babe,
and sheds its radiance
upon the quiet tomb.
It is the mother of Art,
inspirer of poet, patriot,
and philosopher.
It is the air and light of every heart,
builder of every home,
kindler of every fire on every hearth.
It was the first to dream of immortality.
It fills the world with melody,
for Music is the voice of Love.
Love is the magician,
the enchanter,
that changes worthless things to joy,
and makes right royal kings and queens
of common clay.
It is the perfume of the wondrous flower --
the heart and without that sacred passion,
that divine swoon,
we are less than beasts;
but with it,
earth is heaven and
we are gods."

~Robert G. Ingersoll

Silence Of The Ostrich

2007-10-12T12:04:00.000-07:00

My neighbor is knocking on the door. I don’t want to open it. Last night she caught be coming home and she just didn’t stop talking.

I don’t like to cut people off, so I waited and waited and waited, but she never stopped. I kept smiling just to generate enough juice for my eyes not to slam shut.

After two weeks of hotel hopping, I just want to rest. So I have to type quietly so she won’t hear that I am home. If I look out of the peep hole, I’m sure she will see my eye peering out. You know people can tell when you are looking out of the peep hole because you blink your eye.

I have great neighbors and she is no exception. She is very nice, but sometimes I like the peace and quiet of my own thoughts. There are so many thoughts that travel through my head that I have to stop and make sure they get to their right destination.

I know why ostriches obstruct themselves - - because of neighbors like mine.

Ostriches are huge, flightless birds of the open African savanna. They are the world's largest birds, standing 8 feet high and weighing more than 300 pounds.

Ostriches are also the world's fastest running bird. They can reach speeds of 45 mph, putting them in the same league as the cheetah, the antelope and my neighbor's Rottweiler that won't let me cut through his yard.

Ostriches only have two toes. One toe is small and mostly used for balance. The other toe is huge, more like a foot, with a 2-inch long claw on the end of it. With their massive legs and deadly claws, ostriches are capable of delivering kicks that can smash the skull of a would-be predator.

Since ostriches live on the open savanna where there are few places to hide. When an ostrich wants to go undetected, it drops its head and long neck to the ground in hopes of fooling an enemy that it is a distant bush.

The idea of sticking their heads in the sand is definitely an old wives tale. Speaking of old wives tales, you also don't get warts from toads, you don't have to wait an hour after you eat before swimming, and dogs mouths are not clean. And I mean any dog's mouth, especially my neighbor's foul-mouth Rottweiler.

Oh no, my neighbor is still knocking. Don’t tell her that I am home. Keep it on the down low. I have to hide, she’s looking in my window.

Oh and remember, it’s okay to have quiet time where you can just be alone. A great time for meditation or hearing yourself think or embracing the silence in your Soul, otherwise you’ll just run yourself into the ground.

Oh, she’s finally leaving. She’s carrying something. I think it’s cake. I can see that is says, ‘Welcome Home Alexys.’ How sweet. (pun intended.) Oh no come, back neighbor. Come back. I’m sure she will be back shortly. Now I can’t stop thinking about the cake.

Happy peace weekend!

Elevator Etiquette

2007-10-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

What is about elevators that make people nervous, uncommunicative and uncomfortable? Every time that I get on an elevator, I smile and wait to make contact, but other elevator riders do everything to avoid contact.

They look up in the air, look through their purses, look straight ahead, at the floor numbers, at their watches or pretend to peruse their papers.

One person even clung to the side of the elevator like Spiderman as if he was praying to God. I didn't know if he was praying that he would make it out alive or that he wouldn't have to talk to anyone. People just don’t have elevator etiquette.

One of my hotel experiments was to see how many people I could get to talk during our elevator time. When someone stepped onto the elevator and I saw that they were uncomfortable, I did what they least expected; I said, “Hello.”

Some responded in kind and most of them barely mumbled “Hello,” under their miserable breath while they continued to look down.

When you think about it, we don’t spend that much time at once in an elevator, unless we are stuck. That still doesn’t mean anything to those who don’t partake in the art of elevator etiquette.

Most of them would rather have root canal or a needle stuck in their eye. Don’t you think that once everyone gets on the elevator that it should stop right before it gets to the designated floor and give people a chance to chat?

I think a voice should come through the shaft and say, “You’re not going anywhere until you all speak to one another. It’s not going to kill you.”

I think in a way, elevators are designed to make us feel closer to each other, not further apart. A sense of togetherness, not loneliness. Elevators shouldn’t make us want to press the “Close Door” button when we see someone running straight for it.

As my experiment was coming to an end, I was a bit disappointed by the results. I didn’t think it was going to be a success, but knowing that thoughts are actions, I changed my thinking and decided to give it a go again.

I was determined to have a successful experiment. One man got on in an elegant blue pinstripe suit. (I am a sucker for men in suits.) I said, “How are you?” He said, “Very well thank you and you?”

Something happened in that moment. Bells went off, lights blinked, life stood on it's hind legs. We actually made a connection. One of those genuine moments that you never forget. He made eye contact, smiled and was very open and responsive to my greeting.

I was so excited, (I think it was the pinstripe.) As we spoke further, I found out that he was from Texas and was in town for a seminar. He certainly had the Southern charm and the smile to light all of darkness.

As we walked together in the lobby, we kept the connection going. Sparks were flying off the flint stones. We were volleying words back and forth and scoring points right and left. As he exited the lobby to his waiting car, I felt my experiment was a success.

Anytime I make a connection with a Soul, it’s a success. Anytime we stop and acknowledge another person, it’s spreading the love and letting everything good in us merge with everything good in someone else.

I think we have modules of merit, kindness, compassion and humility inside of us to corroborate our spiritual bounty, but they are often short-circuited by desire for wealth, corporeality, greed and extravagance - - and we’ll do anything to get them, including cutting the throat of our fellow man to gain dominion over him.

See, we really can change the our outcome if we put the right thoughts into action. I did find that more men speak as opposed to women and I don’t think it is because I am a woman, I believe men are more open to speak.

Men don’t seem to have any pretenses. They just take the situation for what it is and respond accordingly. Women are more cagey and preoccupied with life.

One thing I did learn, elevators and elevator people seek their own level. Some continue going up while others are on a downward spiral.

People are like elevators, we all have our ups and downs, people enter and exit our lives all the time and people push our buttons. We just have to be aware of the doors closing and opening.

Of course this experiment wouldn’t be complete without fascinating facts about elevators.

The most widely used form of mass transportation in the U.S. is the elevator. The average trip takes less than a minute.
Over 340,000 elevators in the U.S. travel more than 1.5 billion miles a year and make more than 500 billion trips.
One elevator manufacturer boasts that its elevators alone carry the equivalent of the world's population every nine days.
The Roman architect Vitruvius first described elevator-like lifts in the 1st century B.C., and there is reason to believe that his description came two centuries after the first "elevator."
The first known elevator was invented by Archimedes. He made a vertical box that moved up and down by a set of ropes and pulleys being pulled by horses or men. Primitive elevators of this kind can be documented to have been used throughout the Middle Ages to move cargo or other heavy loads vertically.
The first elevator specifically designed to move people was installed at Versailles for Louis XIV. The King could enter a lift chair from an outside balcony, and men inside the walls could use ropes and pulleys attached to counterweights to lift or lower his royal personage, but the first device truly resembling what we now call an elevator and designed to carry passengers was built by Elisha Graves Otis.
Up until 1853, elevators were deemed unsafe for passengers until Elisha Graves Otis invented a spring safety device for his elevator which sprang into action if a cable broke and its tension slackened.
At the Crystal Palace Exposition in New York City in 1853, Otis rode his elevator above the heads of the spectators. Then he called for the cables to be cut and the Otis elevator was in service.
The first passenger elevator began operating at the Haughwout Department Store in New York City in 1857. It took less than a minute to climb five stories, but it would take over 20 minutes to reach the top of most skyscrapers.
The smoothest elevators were the "direct plunger" elevators. A large plunger was built beneath the cab and fit into an underground cylinder. When the cylinder was filled with water, the elevator was pushed upward. When the water was let out, the long plunger moved down the cylinder and the elevator descended.
The oldest operating elevators in the U.S. are direct plunger elevators. They are located at 34 Gramercy Park, in New York City's earliest cooperative apartment house. The elevators were installed by Otis Elevator back in 1883 and still retain most of the original equipment first used in the nine-story building.
The fastest and longest ride in the U.S. is to the top of the Sears Tower in Chicago. The speeds reach about 1,800 ft. per minute, or about 20 mph. It takes less than a minute to reach the 103rd floor.
In Japan elevators offer a smoother ride than those in the U.S. One industry spokesman says, "Japanese elevators are very smooth because the Japanese are very sensuous people, whereas the people in the Western world are more in a hurry and a smooth ride isn't considered as important."

Breast Cancer Awareness

2007-10-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

It may affect the life of a stranger or someone closest to you, but the facts are staggering.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, except for skin cancers.
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer.
The chance of developing invasive breast cancer at some time in a woman's life is about 1 in 8 (12%).
It is estimated that in 2007 about 178,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women in the United States.
Women living in North America have the highest rate of breast cancer in the world.
The chance that breast cancer will be responsible for a woman's death is about 1 in 35 (about 3%).
In 2007, about 40,460 women will die from breast cancer in the United States.
Death rates from breast cancer have been declining since about 1990, with larger decreases in women younger than 50. These decreases are believed to be the result of earlier detection through screening and increased awareness, as well as improved treatment.
At this time there are about 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.

October is the Breast Cancer Awareness month, Max has asked me to pass the penguin and I am asking my readers to do the same thing.

How can you help?

1. Spread the word. Announce the event on your blog. You could write a blog post (like this), or a little note about it. Whatever you choose to do, just go ahead and tell your readers about it.

2. Go pink. Modify your theme if you know how to, or get yourself a pretty pink theme. If you run a website, turn your website pink. But if you don’t like pink, you could still participate by putting up a badge on your sidebar.

3. Design badges and banners. Design a couple of “Pink for October” badges or banners for other participants to use (for free) and to publicize the event. Some of the existing badges and banners can be downloaded from the Official Pink for October Site.

4. Design blog themes. There are a lot of bloggers who can’t do a simple design, so if you are good at it, perhaps you could design and release a few pink themes? I am hoping that whoever happens to read my post, please do something to spread the awareness. It only takes a moment of our time.

Please spread the penguin and awareness, by spreading the word. Max has tagged the amazing women on her blogroll, which is a great idea, but why stop there?

Breast Cancer also affects men, so everyone, (men and women) consider yourself tagged.

Thank you for participating!

Hold On

2007-10-07T01:34:00.000-07:00

“For nothing is fixed, forever;
the earth is always shifting,
the light is always changing,
the sea does not cease
to grind down rock.
Generations do not cease
to be born,
and we are responsible
to them because we are
the only witnesses they have.
The sea rises,
the light fails,
lovers cling to each other,
and children cling to us.
The moment we cease
to hold each other,
the sea engulfs us
and the light goes
out.”

~James Baldwin

Sunny Side Up

2007-10-05T00:50:00.000-07:00

This is the last day of my mini excursion into the hotel world. It was very interesting. The dust is settling at home and I will finally return tomorrow (knock on wood.)

That is, if the workers don’t find any other way to delay my return. They seem to have a knack for doing that. I am remaining positive, but I still won’t unpack right away.

As I gaze out of the window into the brilliant sunset, I am grateful for all that has happened. I am just a few repairs away from sleeping in my own bed. Everything will be new again and I will archive this as a memory.

Speaking of sunsets. I have never met one that I didn't like. There is a majesty, tenderness and strength to every sunset. If you look at a sunset everyday, your day would always end in beauty.

If you can, try to see as many sunsets as possible. They always leave me with a sense of accomplishment. They radiate such a warmth. Feel the glow of the sunset. Let it's power bring you love. Let it take you to your star.

Thanks to everyone for sharing this experience/experiment with me and I want you all to have a magnificent weekend full of the sunsets of your Soul.

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”

~Pablo Picasso

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

~Jack London

Blunder Construction

2007-10-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

Oh my God, the workers are still not done. I made a surprise visit yesterday and walked into a dust cloud. They were plastering a wall - - covering up a hole they made by mistake.

They forgot to cover my new furniture that came two days before the flood. It didn’t get flood damage but ironically “worker” damage from the dust that has formed on it.

All the while, they were singing Spanish love songs (not bad either.) Maybe they were practicing for Spanish Idol. I would vote for the singing, but not the workmanship.

In fact, if I had a hammer, there would be no more construction workers.

Next time I will have to bring a gas mask and a hazardous material suit just to keep clean and to be able to breathe. You may be wondering why I don’t just fire them. They are under contract to do the job until they do it right.

Every time the builder brings in a new crew, they are usually worse than the previous one. It’s not like there are no builders around, but like anything, the good ones are always harder to find.

As I was surveying the repairs, I ran into my neighbor who told me a horror story about his worker.

The worker was supposed to repair a wall and he couldn’t get it straight so he kept going over his work with plaster and inadvertently built the wall out three feet causing my neighbor to lose square footage in his home.

After he was fired, my neighbor discovered that the workers had drank his rare bottle of 30 year old Balvenie Scotch that he got from Scotland.

In this country, people say it’s always good to hire workers who are licensed, but it really doesn’t make a difference.

I have hired both and the only difference between the licensed ones and non licensed ones are that the licensed ones can put a lien on your property if you don’t pay them but you can’t put a lien on their license if they do a shoddy job.

So for now, I am still a gypsy traveling the highways of love. I have found a hotel that has a lot of character so I will stay put until I am ejected.

We are often under construction at various times in our lives, building and rebuilding our stamina, patience, faith, strength, courage and will.

Whatever God has in store for us is always better than we can imagine, but sometimes we have to get out of the way, clear our head, get out of the dust, and let it settle into a new structure - - something to withstand hell and high water.

When the dust settles, we will be transformed and we will embrace the change that has taken place. Change is good. Change is necessary. Change is vital to our growth.

Still Hopping

2007-10-01T00:21:00.000-07:00

This hotel hopping is fun, but exhausting. I have done four so far and have gone back to one. Surprisingly many hotels are sold out. I don't know if it's the time of the year or just timing, any how, I am certainly having an adventure to say the least.

It's amazing what you can find in your own backyard. As soon as I get home and get my notes together, I will be sharing my adventures with all of you.

Until then, don't let life keep you in a rut. Break the chains, do something new, make everyday a new day. Let life guide you to your greatness.

See you all soon.

Hotel Hopping

2007-09-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Suddenly I got a wild idea. Since I can’t go home right away, I will act like I really am on vacation. I decided to hotel hop. Thus far, I have stayed in three hotels and counting.

Each of them have a different feel; the lobby, rooms, staff, restaurants, swimming pool, business center, even thread count on the sheets. In doing my unofficial hotel research, I will assign a country location in my imagination and let the experience enlighten me.

For instance if I choose France, I will eat something from that country to make me feel like I am in the actual country. For me France conjures up french bread, pastries, etc. If I were in Brussels, I would eat a Belgian waffle. Italy would conjure up pasta, pizza, etc.

A little imagination goes a long way. I will see how many countries I can visit in three days. I may even go around the world in 24 hours. I’ll send you a post card.

Stop, Breathe, Begin Again

2007-09-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

It looks like I will have to stay at the hotel until next week. The guys doing the repairs won’t be finished until then. Why am I not surprised? After all, workers usually finish when they say right?

Apart from the minor disruption, I’ll just tread water until I can return to my abode. You meet some interesting people in hotels coming and going, at different stages of their lives. It’s an intermediary step.

Hotels are rest points in between change.

People bring baggage from their lives and pack them into small rooms usually no bigger that 400 square feet, condensing their whereabouts and expanding their experiences.

The rooms are so impersonal, yet they carry many secrets from past visitors. If these walls could talk they would have some stories to tell. I think in theory hotels sound like fun, but in practice it’s more like you’re spinning in the air, waiting to land on the next stop.

I don’t feel productive enough sitting at the pool watching swimmers dive and splash water on my laptop, or ordering room service while lounging around the TV wondering who else has been in the same bed? It’s just not me.

I like to work first, rest later. That way, I get more done and have more fun knowing I have gotten things done.

But things happen for a reason and hotels exist for many of those reasons in between reasons. It can be a refuge to regroup or it can be a place for best kept secrets behind closed doors.

For now, I will let it serve its purpose and prepare for the lessons ahead. When the universe is preparing the meal, all we have to do is eat.

I have found some interesting facts about hotels to keep me busy. Maybe you will find them interesting too?

During the World War II years, women with black eyes were all the rage at the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, Calif. The Del was the Hollywood hangout for actresses recovering from facelifts.
President Bill Clinton stayed at The Driskill in Austin, Texas, in May 1999. The hotel was in the midst of a renovation and had just restored the lobby -- including a custom-made marble floor. The Secret Service requested that the presidential limo be pulled through the main doors and into the lobby. The hotel declined fearing damage to the marble floor but offered to tent the main entry portico.
Stephen King is said to have found inspiration for The Shining from The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo.
Concord's Colonial Inn in Concord, Mass., was the residence of author Henry David Thoreau.
The Hotel Monaco in Washington, D.C., is housed in the original General Post Office Building and was the site of the first telegraph transmission and where the concepts of zip codes, home delivery and the Pony Express were conceived.
The Fairmount in San Antonio entered in the "Guinness World Records" book in 1985 when the 3.2 million pound hotel was moved intact to its current location.
When the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., opened in 1925, it was one of the country's largest hotels with 1,000 guest rooms. At its opening, The Mayflower contained more gold leaf in its trimmings and decorations than any building in the country except for the Library of Congress.
The exterior of The Henley Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., has more than 120 gargoyles. Two of the gargoyles have the faces of the hotel's architect and his wife.
Known today as the Ashland Springs Hotel in Ashland, Ore., the nine-story hotel was the tallest building between Portland and San Francisco when it was built in 1925.
The Mission Inn in Riverside, Calif., was built between 1876 and 1931 by voracious collector Frank A. Miller. Following numerous tours abroad, Miller incorporated his extensive acquisitions into the inn's decor and its structure. Over 6,000 pieces, valued at more than $5 million, are featured throughout the hotel. One of the hotel's masterpieces is the St. Francis of Assisi Chapel, which houses the magnificent 17th century, 10-karat gold-leaf Rayas Alter. Enhanced with Tiffany-designed stained glass windows and ornately carved woodwork, the chapel is a favorite spot for weddings.

When It Rains It Floods

2007-09-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, the rain. It brings life, growth, rebirth, not to mention slick roads, fallen trees and flooding.

We don’t get much rain here in Southern California, in fact it has been about 100 days since the last downpour sent everybody here into a tizzy.

The surfers and the mailmen/women are the only ones who are not deterred by the rain. The surfers do it to ride the perfect wave and release the stars, the postal employees do it because it’s their job.

I am with the surfers, I think the rain brings the stars closer to us in the perfect moment of bliss.

However, the rain had other ideas and decided to flood my new house. The construction company didn’t install the right weather seal on the door and now I live in a swimming pool.

Aside from the fact that I don’t swim, I have to vacate the premises. I have been forced to take a sort of vacation at a hotel off of the beach.

I know, things could be worse. The unfortunate thing is that my blogging may be temporarily effected.

I haven’t deserted you, I just have to move to higher ground while those wonderfully competent workers repair the flood damage.

Maybe I will seek out the internet in the hotel or maybe I will order room service, lounge around the pool and do nothing, which is hard for me.

We are always placed in positions that cause us to sink of swim. If we keep moving, we will get to the center of earth -- the center of our being and that’s why we exist.

In any case, I will be back to blogging as soon as I possibly can. As one of the hotel reservationists said as I hung up the phone,

"It always gets dark
before it gets
miraculous."

Stand To Sit

2007-09-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

We often hear about how we should fight for our rights, fight for what we believe in, fight for our opinions, ideals, love.

People often say that if we remain resolute we will win. That’s not always the case.

While it is great to have strength, there is also a time to surrender.

Surrendering doesn’t mean you are giving up, it means that you’ve done all that you can and you are letting a higher authority take over.

The main focus becomes seeing how your higher self fights for you.

The reason we fight is to learn to stand up. The reason we surrender to learn to sit down.

So in essence, life is a series of standing and sitting like in a church revival. We get the workout our soul bodies need without paying a ransom to a gym and the benefits last longer.

The Story Of Chaos

2007-09-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

At bedtime we listen. We listen to the silence as our Soul is fed to the night. We dream, we become stars, we circulate in the ethers like particles of dust.

We don’t have any pretense, no lies, no judgments, no hidden agendas, no worries, no make up covering our faces and scars from the past, no words covering our wounds.

There is no boss looking over our shoulder telling us to do it over, while piling more work on our shoulders. We just are who we are - - pure beings before God without fancy dressings of clothing, degrees or superficial earthly knowledge.

We are in a complete state of surrender. Nothing comes between the connection of us and our inner master and nothing can sever the ties between us and our inner selves. It’s peaceful in as much as nothing can disturb the balance or relationship.

Yet, when we wake up we head back to chaos. An alarm wakes us, shaking our equanimity. We quickly throw on our dress rags, rehearse our lines, arm ourselves with malevolence,
showcase our emotions and resume our roles as actors in the play of discord.

We love our roles in chaos. We play them well. It feels good to be a part of something big. We get to be right all the time. We win arguments by intimidation, our ego feasts on putting others down and serving our lust for power. But chaos is a bad role model.

It consumes us. It burns our bridges, destroying everything we hold dear. It becomes bigger than us. It grinds us down to nothing, tosses our remains aside and salivates over our ashes. It’s no good.

Living a life of chaos is not what we are here for. Chaos is a tsunami, a destructive energy that harms everything in its path. When we go through the same scenes over and over and still can’t get them right, then we have to change scenes.

Chaos doesn’t like change and it will fight tooth and nail all they way, but you have to overcome its grips by overcoming your ego, your will and your desire to be right. You can’t be right all the time and you can’t be wrong all the time. Surrendering balances the scales and spit shines your purpose.

Ask yourself why are you here? Are you here for chaos, or for something more?

Don’t wait until bedtime to surrender. Don’t wait to become a star circulating into the ethers. Uncover your star now, show it off, wear it proudly.

Be free of hate, negativity, wrath, hurt, everything unsettled in your heart. Don't let chaos win. It is not bigger than you. Chaos is big, but God is bigger. Just say no to chaos. Live and let live and put chaos out of its misery. Live in love. Live in peace.

Feel The Love

2007-09-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

Has anyone told you that you are loved today? Has anyone showed they care? Have you felt the vibration that the universe is sending out?

Well if you haven’t, I want you to take a moment and look at this marvelous film created by Kate Nowak, the same creator of the You Have Been Blessed Movie.

It’s a heartfelt postcard that goes to the center of your being and uplifts your Soul. We all need upliftment from time to time and it’s nice knowing someone cares about us. We spend most of our lives contracting stress and not enough time alleviating it.

On another note, I have been awarded the Totally Fabulous Award by Max (thanks Max) who has a terrific blog, elegantly written in Portuguese and English and will surely make you put on your thinking cap by cranking up your philosophical grey matter.

The rule is that I am supposed to pass it on to five other bloggers who are also fabulous and link back to the creators of the award, Christy and Ann.

The truth is that we are all fabulous. Even though we may not feel like it, chances are that we have done something fabulous for someone in our lives and maybe even a stranger.

Though we don’t do it to get rewards, it is still nice to be acknowledged. By doing good deeds, we are fabulous. By having good character, we are fabulous. By being selfless, we are fabulous. By being virtuous, we are fabulous. By giving love, we are fabulous.

The list goes on. We are all fabulous and I want you to know that you do make a difference in the world. Stay fabulous.

Program Happiness

2007-09-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

My friend Josh is bad with directions. He’s gets lost going a couple of blocks and perhaps the only man I know who can get lost on a roundabout. (traffic circle)

His mind is a well oiled machine; industrious, calculating, brilliant. He is always pumping information into his head, thinking, rethinking, deducing theories and creating theories, yet he can’t comprehend North, South, East, or West, it’s too confusing for him.

He has to write down directions for everything, even back to his own house. He decided that enough was enough and that he would get a hand-held GPS. (Global Positioning System) He chose the hand-held type so he could use it when driving any car or walking. (Good move)

I wanted to see how old Joshie was handling his new toy, so we took a local trip to do some errands. He programed the address and a woman’s voice spoke. It was a sweet British voice that sounded real and not like a robot. I don’t know why some Americans automatically assume that just because it is a British voice, it is intelligent.

Some companies will only hire British receptionists to make their company sound legitimate. In their minds, marketing at it’s finest no doubt.

As we headed for our first stop, Josh was distracted by my engagingly profound conversation on why O.J. Simpson and Britney Spears should elope just to get them out of the media spotlight. After all, he’s into blondes and her career is already dead, it seemed to be the perfect combination. Maybe they could even do a duet together and ride off into the sunset.

In the midst of that riveting conversation, Josh missed his turn. The GPS woman was not happy. She gave him an alternate route, but this time her voice was a little sterner. We both thought it was our imagination that her voice became more authoritative and louder.

It was like a real person’s reaction or what men call, “The nagging wife syndrome.”

As we continued, Josh was again distracted by another driver who cut him off and he missed his turn - - again. His first inclination was to follow the driver, but I quickly reminded him that it behooved him to drive like a saint.

Well, the GPS lady wasn't having it. She was more than stern this time, she was angry. Hell hath no fury like a GPS woman scorned. She said,

"You missed your turn again. Turn back, turn back now. Reprogram. reprogram now #&^@%#!”

We both looked at each other in disbelief and just cracked up laughing. Whoever programed this must have known that drivers who get lost are often distracted. Granted, we did wind up miles away from our destination.

This episode is a indication that we can program our own road to awareness. How many times do we find ourselves in a situation rife with negativity? Just because negativity is programed, we don’t have to listen to it. Turn it off and tune it out.

We can program happiness, well being, imagination, wonder, inner peace, anything into our consciousness. We have the power and we can harness that power in our daily lives.

Whatever we program is what we are and whatever we are is what we have programed.

We can chart our course to where we want to go. The road is in front of us if we have the drive.

Later that day, Josh returned the scarlet GPS woman to the store. He said if he wanted to be scolded while he drove, he would drive with his wife.

Earthquakes

2007-09-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

"Embrace the
earthquakes
in your life.
If you don't move
with the
earth,
you'll fall into
the cracks."

~Alexys Fairfield

CinemaScope

2007-09-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

I can see a lot from my window. My eyes are a tattletale to my surroundings. I live off of a fairly busy road. Last week they were shooting a film. Two motorcycle cops. One rides in front of the film crew, the other rides behind to stop and/or reroute traffic.

The film crew is riding on a camera truck, (a vehicle with the cameras mounted on what looks like a modified tow truck.) They are followed by a flatbed vehicle with a mounted car on top of it and another camera mounted on the side.

Actors are in that car. The male actor behind the wheel is pretending to drive, while the female passenger looks straight ahead. They do this same scene six or seven times. It’s like watching a parade.

The cars that pass this contraption are rubbernecking the whole time. They are always filming something in L.A.

On any given day, you can see several productions just by going about your business. Sometimes it’s interesting seeing how many takes they do to get one shot. But if you watch the process from the beginning, it becomes quite tedious. I’ve been on enough film sets to attest to this.

It’s funny because when you see a film where someone is driving, they’re not really driving, they’re in a car that is mounted on a trailer. If it is a car chase scene, the director will do some close-ups of the actors, then cut away to the vehicle being driven by a stuntman. It’s all the world of make believe.

My perspective gave me overhead view of it all. I saw how the film crew and actors were positioned to make and end result palpable. It’s sort of like life.

We are in a position to make our lives better. When we are in conflict and we can’t see our way out, we can widen our view by seeing it through the other person’s eyes. By doing so we rise above it and look at it through a different lens.

When our view is narrow, we have tunnel vision and we don’t see the light around us. Our views may conflict with our will or purpose until we widen them and see the whole picture in CinemaScope.

CinemaScope was a wide screen movie format used from 1953 to 1967 where anamorphic lenses allowed the process to project film twice as wide as the conventional format.

No matter how hard we try to convince someone that we are right, only one thing rings true, - - even if people are looking at the same thing, they see things differently.

We each experience our own perspective through our lens. Until we widen our view, we won’t see everything life has to offer. The colors, the nuances, the close-up of the very details that make us who we are. Expand your view and see what you've been missing.