Open Wings

omg! I just got home from this wonderful experience of seeing a praying mantis with it's (very large green) wings spread!! I had no idea they had wings!

I was walking my dog Jersey, and she must have disrupted it's safe space. I'm not sure how my eye caught it in the weedy raw open-space area, she blended in so well, but also she was so BIG I couldn't believe it. It was startling! She must have been standing 5 inches tall! The wings were HUGE, and bright bright green all the way. (I just finsihed reading that they can also and often be bright colors, though none of the pics I could find even resembled the size of the wings I saw.) It looked like an angel, not kidding!



I immediately searched in my hiking-pack for my cell-camera, but by the time I had gotten it out... she was gone! I couldn't find her anywhere. Must have gotten away from there fast and I can't say I blame her, but oh, how disappointed to not get the shot. I have NEVER seen anything like it! Pure magic. And so grateful she stood that way for so long if even for my eyes only. I saw her every detail and got an up-close long look at her winged-self and inquisitive, exquisite face.





And I'm sure it was a female. She had a large bulb underneathe the very sheer but surprisingly large wings. This is the closest photo I could find on google as to how she looked underneathe her wings. But the wings, her open wings jet out from her back blanketing the ground like a gown. They were full like a butterfly's wings only pointed, and the wings came up too above her head. She was standing upright in the standing position twisting and turning her lovely face.

I also just got finished reading that in this position, she was probably ready to fly. Which I'm sure she did after I stepped away to retrieve my camera. And how she totally vanished so quickly, as I turned only for a quick moment to get the camera. Praying mantis do fly, but just a bit here and there, and only for short spurts to get away from predators.

What a gift.

Sharing the Gift of Bodhichitta

Practicing compassion - for yourself or another - may be the key to keeping your peace when life's petty tyrants cross our paths.

The world is full of petty tyrants. And some of them, are not so petty at all!

When others don't behave, in either big or small ways, the way we want them to (and this applies to all kinds of "tyrants", from an insensitive relative to the executives of a large oil company) - remember that connecting to the still divine place inside may help move you swiftly back to higher inner ground.

The world is full of petty tyrants. You know, those people who can make your day or even life on earth miserable, if even for a moment?

They can appear anytime, anywhere during the day -- as the gossiping neighbor, the politician who doesn't care about making the 'right' choice, or my personal favorite, the medical 'doctor' who doesn't have a clue about the care in health care and doesn't want to.

I asked myself, if I can't change these people that will sometimes cross my path, how can I begin to change myself so that these (sometimes not-so petty) petty tyrants become my teachers and not my agitators? The answer for me came in calling upon the tender practice of bodhichitta.

In the simplest of terms, bodhichitta is simply a word that describes the enlightened heart and mind. It represents both the most tender and the most wise part of ourselves; and it is a consciousness space of the heart that transcends normal human perspective and re-connects us to the enlightenment of our higher Selves. A tall order when we are dealing with an onslaught of very real and challenging human hurtful behaviors and emotion.

Often our emotions are valid. Sometimes they are simply old patterns that need healing and self-realigning. In either case, remembering and bringing bodhichitta into our awareness while dealing with challenging human situations can help us begin to re-wire and re-align ourselves into a new and expanded state of peace within the human condition.

Looking for the soft spot of compassion - for either another person or ourselves - can help us regain connection and inner peace when petty tyrants cross our paths.

I have even chosen to see it as a gift we can share with other petty tyrants on the path of life.



Here is how master teacher Pema Chodron describes and discusses the idea of Bodhichitta.


The Excellence of Bodhichitta by Pema Chodron

When I was about six years old I received the essential bodhichitta teaching from an old woman sitting in the sun. I was walking by her house one day feeling lonely, unloved, and mad, kicking anything I could find. Laughing, she said to me, "Little girl, don't you go letting life harden your heart." Right there, I received this pith instruction: we can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.

Sometimes the completely open heart and mind of "bodhichitta" is called the soft spot, a place as vulnerable and tender as an open wound. It is equated in part with our ability to love. Even the cruelest people have this soft spot. Even the most vicious animals love their offspring. As Trungpa Rinpoche put it, "Everybody loves something, even if it's only tortillas."

Chitta means "mind" and also "heart" or "attitude." Bodhi means "awake," "enlightened," or "completely open." If we were to ask the Buddha, "what is bodhichitta?" he might tell us that this word is easier to understand than to translate. He might encourage us to find its meaning in our own lives. He might tantalize us by adding that it is only bodhichitta that heals, that is capable of transforming the hardest of hearts and the most prejudiced and fearful of minds.

The Buddah said that we are never separated from Enlightenment. Even at the times we fill most stuck, we are never alienated from the awakened state. This is a revolutionary assertion. Even ordinary people like us with hang-ups and confusion have this mind of enlightenment called bodhichitta. The openess and warmth of bodhichitta is in fact our true nature and condition. Even when our neurosis feels far more basic than our wisdom, even when we're feeling most confused and hopeless, bodhichitta -- like the open sky -- is always here, undiminished by the clouds that temporarily cover it.

Pema Chodron

Today's Meditation: A New Beginning

Slow it down. Relax. Be cool. Look at how beautiful life is & just keep looking until you see it. -Rama

Why do we practice yoga?

an excerpt from "Eat Pray Love"

"Why do we practice Yoga?" (my teacher) asked again. "Is it so we can become a little bendier than our neighbors? Or is there perhaps some higher purpose?"


Yoga, in Sanskrit, can be translated as "union." It originally comes from the root word yuji, which means "to yoke," to attach yourself to a task at hand with ox-like discipline. And the task at hand in Yoga is to find union -- between mind and body, between the individual and her God, between our thoughts and the source of our thoughts, between teacher and student, or even between us and our sometimes hard-to-bend neighbors.

In the West, we've mainly come to know Yoga through its now famous pretzel-like exercises for the body. But this is only Hatha Yoga, one limb of the philosophy. The ancients developed these physical stretches not for personal fitness, but to loosen up their muscles and minds in order to prepare for meditation. It is difficult to sit in stillness for many hours, after all, if your hip is aching.

But yoga can also mean trying to find God through meditation, through scholarly study, through the practice of silence, through devoltional service or through mantra -- the repetition of sacred words in Sanskrit. While some of these practices tend to look rather Hindu in their derivation, Yoga is not synonymous with HInduism, nor are all Hindus Yogis. True Yoga neither competes with nor precludes any other religion. You may use your Yoga -- your disciplined practice of sacred union -- to get closer to Krishna, Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha or Yahweh.

During my time in the Ashram, I met devotees who identified themselves as practicing Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and even Muslims. I have met others who would rather not talk about their religios affiliation at all, for which, in this contentious world, you can hardly blame them.


The Yogic path is about disentangling the built-in glitches of the human condition, which I'm going to define here as the heartbreaking inability to sustain contentment. Different schools of thought over the centuries have found different explanations for man's apparently inherently flawed state. Taoists call it imbalance, Buddism calls it ignorance, Islam blames our misery on rebellion against God, and the Judeo-Christian tradition attributes all of our suffering to original sin. Freudians say that unhappiness is the inevitable result of the clash between our natural drives and civilation's needs.

The Yogis, however, say that human discontentment is a simple case of mistaken identity. We're miserable because we think that we are mere individuals, alone with our fears and flaws and resentments and mortality. We wrongly believe that our limited little egos constitute our whole entire nature. We have failed to recognize our deeper divine character. We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme Self who is eternally at Peace. Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in dispair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line by Epictetus: "You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not."


Yoga is the effort to experience one's divinity personally and then to hold on to that experience forever. Yoga is about self-mastery and the dedicated effort to haul your attention away from your endless brooding over the past and your nonstop worrying about the future so that you can seek, instead, a place of eternal presence from which you may regard yourself and your surroundings with poise.Only from that point of even-mindedness will the true nature of the world (and yourself) be revealed to you.

Yogis see all this world as an equal manifestation of God's creative energy - men, women, children, turnips, bedbugs, coral: it's all God in disguise. But the Yogis believe that the human life is very special because only in a human form and mind can God-realization ever occur. The turnips, bedbugs and coral never get the chance to find out who they are. But we do have that chance.

"Our whole business therefore in this life," wrote Saint Augustine, rather Yogically, "is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen."

Elizabeth Gilbert ~ Eat Pray Love

Song for the Ocean

A beautiful Song for the Ocean. She needs us now.




http://www.songfortheocean.com/
We are all connected by the ocean. Our everyday actions affect the world in which we live, and all creatures sharing our planet. I wrote "Song for the Ocean" so that, through singing and watching, we can all raise our awareness and get involved in creating positive environmental change.
Sing Brave. Sing Strong. Sing Together. Sing Now...
Song for the Ocean: written, produced and performed by Kristin Hoffmann
Videography and images: Colin Garland and Global Classroom

Time for One Party - the Human Party

More republican women siding with what's good instead of what's politically platformed. Good to see more people choosing human rights and what's best for the planet over political dogma. The Bush women prime examples.

It's time to put away our politics and get it together.

More republican women have been speaking out for what's good for the country instead of what has been platformed by their political party. This goes for women of many platforms in general.

I read recently that the Bush women, for example, have been speaking out for what they believe in regardless of the family's political affiliation. Most recently, Laura Bush was noted as saying on her recent book tour that she is clearly for abortion rights/the right to choose and supports gay marriage (it's a basic civil right). "Why should people who are in love be refused the right to be together?", she says. She also says that anything other than equality for all people is "just old fashioned" and a "generational thing." The time has come for a generational change.

In another recent interview on Fox TV no less, the younger Barbara Bush, Laura's 28-year old daughter, was quoted as saying this in response to a question regarding the recent health care reform bill:

(from Yahoo news.com)
When "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace asked her whether she supports President Obama's health care reform plan, she responded: "I guess I'm glad the bill was passed."

"Why do, basically, people with money have good health care and why do people who live on lower salaries not have good health care?" she said.

"Health should be a right for everyone."

She is president of the Global Health Corps, an organization that champions global health equity.

Barbara Bush's comments come just weeks after her mother, former First Lady Laura Bush, was also asked to comment on the dem party's nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

"I think it's great," she responded. "I'm really glad that there will be three [women] if she's confirmed. I like to have women on the Supreme Court."


We must get past our "partisan" thinking if we are to heal this world. Figures we'd see women doing it first (no offense guys, heh!).

And whomever comes up with the Gulf clean-up... just support it! dems, reps, non-parties, let's just DO IT!!! Who cares who gets credit for stuff already. We have a planet to care for and a world to heal. It begins with us. Kudos to Laura Bush and her daughter. I have always liked her.

addendum -

And forget corporate political relationships (isn't it also time for a ban on corporate financing of political careers?), etc. BP needs to be held fully accountable for the Gulf tragedy - including fines (for destruction of the planet), total clean-up and recovery costs (billions of dollars, yes), and frankly, imprisonment for withholding/falsifying info and other clearly criminal activity. If you do the crime, you do the time. We must set the model now that it is not ok to destroy the planet... for money! (If it's not a crime to destroy the planet, we are even further behind the times - and the evolution of humanity - than we thought.)

The time has clearly come for strong local and global legislation (and strict accountability) for the permanent banning of off-shore drilling and other earth-destructive politics and practices. Greed is no longer an option. The destruction of the planet is no longer an option. Off-shore drilling is no longer an option (indeed it should not have been an option after the exxon or any of the other 20 off-shore oil spills). It is wrecking the eco-system, innocent life, and has global destruction potential that will be felt for generations. And... it serves no purpose other than feeding corporate greed. Let's stop this spill (over 50 days and counting) and focus upon this -- there are so many new and innovative and exciting "clean" energy sources to develop and create. Let's put our focus there - on new and innovative "21st century" technologies. and become the dream we can be.

My Zen Dog, pt. deux

My zen dog Jersey was at it again. Sitting still in the grass, content for moments and moments, watching the breeze move branches against a clear blue sky. Taking it all in. Happy. Easy. Peaceful. Chasing butterflies and catching bees. Life is easy when you are naturally zen.

Earth Keepers

hubby and I were playing earth stewards at the dog park yesterday. we were picking up the garbage we found along the way. eric often does this actually. yesterday we even carried a garbage bag with us. it was fun. here are some of the marshes at our beautiful dog (and horse) park.

Buddah Basics Pt. I - Facing Yourself: Awakening to the Warrior within

You are a warrior when you have the bravery to face who you are, without fear, embarassment, or denial.


"Meditation is key to seeing yourself as well as to seeing beyond yourself. Seeing yourself is the first aspect, discovering all sorts of terrible things going on in you. Facing the possibilities and the realities of that is not all that bad. If you begin to do that, you are being an honest person. Then, beyond that, you have to have further vision. Your honesty allows you to realize your goodness. You do possess Buddha in your heart."
~ Chogyam Trungpa






"Many people try to find a spiritual path where they do not have to face themselves, but where they can still liberate themselves. In truth, that is impossible. We have to see our gut, our real shit, our most undesirable parts."

Facing Youself

Our subject matter is warriorship. Anyone who is interested in hearing the truth, anyone who is interested in finding out about him or herself, and anyone who is interested in practicing meditation is basically a warrior.

Many approaches to spirituality and to life in general are influenced by cowardice. If you are afraid of seeing yourself, you may use spirituality or religion as a way of looking at yourself without seeing anything about yourself at all. When people are embarassed by themselves, there is no fearlessness involved. However, if someone is willing to look at himself or herself, to explore and practice wakefulness on the spot, he or she is a warrior.

The general goal of warriorship is to have no fear. But the ground of warriorship is fear itself.

We could get into further details, but first we should discuss he fundamental understanding of fear and fearlessness. One of the main obstacles to fearlessness is the habitual patterns that allow us to decieve ourselves. People may use tranquilizers or yoga to suppress their fear. They may go to Starbucks or the mall. We have all sorts of gimmicks and gadgets that we use in the hope that we might experience fearlessness simply by taking our mind off of our fear.

Ordinarily, we don't let ourselves experience ourselves fully. That is to say, we have a fear of facing ourselves. Experiencing the innermost core of their existence is embarassing to alot of people. Many people try to find a spiritual path where they do not have to face themselves but where they can still liberate themselves, in fact. In truth, that is impossible. We cannot do that. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to see our gut, our real shit, our most undesirable parts. We have to see that. That is the foundation of warriorship and the basis of conquering fear. We have to face our fear; we have to look at it, study it, work with it, and practice (meditation) with it.

We must decide to look at ourselves and experience ourselves honestly. We need to find ourselves, face ourselves, and beyond that, give up our inhibition. You remain true to yourself if you give up inhibition. You just give up your privacy, your sense of shyness, and the longing to have a personal "trip." It doesn't mean you become an exhibitionist; but you could be a real person.

Then you begin to realize that you have something in yourself that is basically good. It transcends the notion of good or bad. Something that is worthwhile, wholesome, and healthy exists in us all. For the first time, you are seeing the Great Eastern Sun.

But you can't jump the gun. First, let us look at ourselves. If you put one hundred percent of your heart into facing yourself, then you connect with this unconditional goodness.

The heart of the matter, the technique that seems to be the way to realize this, is the sitting practice of meditation. Meditation is key to seeing yourself as well as to seeing beyond yourself. Seeing yourself is the first aspect, discovering all sorts of terrible things going on in you. Facing the possibilities and the realities of that is not all that bad. If you begin to do that, you are being an honest person. Then, beyond that, you have to have further vision. Your honesty allows you to realize your goodness. You do possess Buddha in your heart.

from "Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery" by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Visualize Whirrled Peas...

... and World Peace too! :)

and Bless our animals caught up in the oil spill - our fellow beings on the planet. Blessings to the beautiful species and may they somehow be protected and this mess cleaned up SOON. and may it never, never happen again. may humanity learn from this and stop the maddness once and for all, and those who are still sleeping ...finally wake up. eyesight and love to those that know not what they do. for they are truly the lost souls. peace.

25 Ways to Clean with Vinegar

Green & Clean: Spring Cleaning
for Body Mind Spirit Home


I am starting a Green & Clean Series (also known as Spring Cleaning for the Body, Self and Home) and I am so excited!

It's an overcast Tuesday in Colorado and I am feeling the perfect sense of peace and inspiration (dare I say excitement?) to begin my Spring Cleaning (yes, I am feeling excited over this - it's true!) I have already begun my morning with a wonderful 10-minute detox QiGong practice for the body... but I am getting ahead of myself.

Today I want to focus on green cleaning the home. Like many of us, I have been using green non-toxic products in my home for several years now, and my favorites include the Seventh Generation brand. The name reflects the company's belief that "what we do to the earth will be felt by the next 7 generations," and I especially love their lemongrass all-purpose cleaner that kills 99.9% of germs and bacterias naturally. (do I sound like a commercial?) My husband Eric hates the smell, but I love the strength and confidence of this natural product, espcially when I use it to clean the tubs and kitchen (areas where germs can thrive).

I do wonder sometimes however whether it's completely true that these and the other non-toxics are totally free to breathe (I like the Method brand also) because when cleaning with them I do still get a wiff of stickiness in my throat. But I guess that's "natural," and I do also love to work with other natural cleansers like baking soda and, well, vinegar!

My mother taught me years ago that vinegar is a wonderful - and according to her the "only" -way to clean tile floors. (I think all floors can take the vinegar except for hardwood... don't use vinegar there.) Mix a bucket of 3 parts water with 1 part vinegar and your floors will shine! Well, my mothers always have, 24/7 in fact. Mine never seem to look quite as meticulous, even directly after I clean, but I do have 2 whiley dogs and I do do my best. (One of my mother's homemaking gifts is surely a sparkling clean home. I did not inherit this talent. But I'm on a new roll today...)

OK. Back to the vinegar. I came across this article today in Yahoo-Shine on the wire on the many uses of vinegar to clean the home. I am actually looking forward to trying this in my sink drain/disposal and my toilets overnight (hey, why not). I have set an intention this year, also in accordance to my cleaning up my environmental sensitivity issues, to Spring clean and keep a clear and flowing home. (OK, I am in my mid-40s now, it does happen. In fact, an astologer told me in my 20s that as I got older, keeping my home would be more and more important to me, in a good way, and he was right. He said this was a Leo-thing.)

I am also experiencing a wonderful shift in my spiritual life and inner state which for me is including a transformation within the home as a reflection of mindful honor that I am developing with myself. Now I'm all for being human too. And I don't expect myself to be "perfect," but I am truly enjoying the shift that is happening within and it's hard for me to put it into words.

In any case, here goes: 25 Ways to Clean with Vinegar. I feel so passionately good about living green, and all things natural and pure for our Earth and World. And this one is super affordable too!


25 ways to clean with vinegar
by Emily Hsieh, Shine staff

The cleaning aisle at just about any grocery store is stocked with a dizzying array of options—and when it comes down to it, there are a lot of expensive, toxic, superfluous products crowding the market. Chances are, you already have one of the best, all-purpose cleaning agents in your pantry: white vinegar. As noted earlier, vinegar actually works as a great laundry booster, stripping away the chemical build-up that detergent leaves behind (and gets rid of clingy odors in the process). And beyond that, there are tons of other applications for the stuff around your home. Here, from vinegartips.com and frugalfun.com, 25 ideas for making the most of vinegar:

1. Deodorize the sink: Pour 1 cup baking soda, followed by 1 cup hot vinegar, down the drain. Let sit for at least 5 minutes, then rinse with hot water.

2. Deodorize the garbage disposal: Make ice cubes out of vinegar. Run the disposal with a few vinegar ice cubes and cold water.

3. Clean countertops: Wipe down surfaces with a rag dipped in vinegar.

4. Clean the fridge: Use a mixture of half water, half vinegar to wipe down the interior shelves and walls.

5. Remove soap build-up and odors from the dishwasher: Once a month, pour 1 cup of vinegar into an empty dishwasher and run the machine through its entire cycle.

6. Bust oven grease: If you’ve got grease spots on the oven door, pour some vinegar directly on the stains, let it sit for 15 minutes, and wipe away with a sponge.

7. To make old glassware sparkle: To get rid of the cloudy effect, wrap a vinegar-soaked towel around the glass and let it sit. Remove and rinse with hot water.

8. Get rid of lime deposits on your tea kettle: Fill the kettle with vinegar and let it boil. Allow it to cool, and rinse with water.

9. Remove stains in coffee cups: Create a paste using of equal parts vinegar and salt (or in lieu of salt, baking soda) and scrub gently before rinsing.

10. Treat Tupperware stains (and stinkiness): Wipe the containers with a vinegar-saturated cloth.

11. Remove stains on aluminum pots: Boil 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup water.

12. Deter ant infestations: Spray outside doorways and windowsills, and anywhere you see a trail of critters.

13. Clean can openers: Scrub the wheel of your can opener with vinegar using an old toothbrush.

14. Remove stickers or labels: Cover the sticker with a vinegar-soaked cloth. Let it sit overnight—it should slide right off by morning.

15. Shine porcelain sinks: A bit of vinegar and a good scrub should leave them sparkling.

16. Clean grout: Pour on some vinegar, let it hang out for a few minutes, and buff with an old toothbrush.

17. Clean the shower door: Spray them down with vinegar pre-shower, or post (after you’ve squeegeed the glass) to remove hard water deposits.

18. Clean a grimy showerhead: To get rid of scum, fill a Ziploc with ½ a cup of baking soda and 1 cup vinegar and tie it around the showerhead. Let it sit for an hour, until the bubbling has stopped. Remove the bag and run the shower.

19. Make a toilet sparkle: Pour in a cup or two of vinegar and let it sit there overnight before scrubbing with a toilet brush.

20. Polish linoleum floors: Add 1 cup of vinegar for every gallon of water you use to wash the floor.

21. Clean paintbrushes: Soak paintbrushes for an hour before simmering them on the stove to remove hardened paint. Drain and rinse.

22. Clean grills: Spray vinegar on a ball of tin foil, then use it to give the grate a firm scrub.

23. Disinfect wood cutting boards: Wipe down wood boards with a wash of vinegar.

24. Clean the microwave: Fill a microwave-safe bowl with 2 cups water and ½ cup vinegar. Heat it on full power for 3-4 minutes until it comes to a boil. Keep the door closed for a few minutes longer to let the steam fill the microwave, loosening the grime. Remove the bowl (carefully!) and wipe down interior walls with a sponge.

25. Polish patent leather accessories: Give them a rub with a vinegar-soaked cloth. Buff with a dry cloth.

Art of Surrender Series Pt. IV - Conclusion & Celebration

I have to report that since I began this series a mere 18 days ago - and did the practice myself - my husband found his dream job, I got a responsive email from my mother (a rare but welcomed occurrence), AND ... we just sold our old house in New Mexico (signed the contract today)!! We are feeling truly excited and blessed. and we are Celebrating!!

I am feeling humbly grateful for these great events. Thank you Spirit for your love and your magic :)

I have also learned and deepened my own surrender practice, what works for me, and re-kindled a feeling of being Divinely connected to our benevolent Source.

Thank you god/goddess - All That Is

love joy and namaste... and thank you also to our wonderful realtor, Richard.

Feeling many waves of gratitude :)

addendum:

and really, I am feeling so humbled and in awe in writing this. truely. I only set out to learn and practice surrender, not "wanting" nor expecting anything other than peace.

Are these happenings coincidence? divine timing that came through all at once? I cannot say. But I can say this,practicing surrender to me means "turning it over to God." period. and without expectations. Just turning over the worry, the guilt, the shame, the "whatever it is." The feelings we don't want to have but do.

I found myself singing the surrender song, my own version of it, like a shaman singing into a golden lake of light. and you know what, it brings me peace. and connection. and back again to Source.

I have not felt this connected to Source in a very very long time. And you know what, it is hard to speak of because it is so deep and dear. But I wanted to share. Because that is part of the journey too.

Art of Surrender Pt III - Power of Prayer

"When was the last time you let go of the notion that you're in control of your life and prayed? Even if you only have the slightest sense that a higher power is at work in the world, that little leap of faith just might give you the perspective you've been searching for."

- Elizabeth Lesser

Yesterday I was contemplating taking that leap of faith. I didn't realzie then that what I meant, and surely, what my inner guide was prompting, was taking a leap into Faith.

Today I came across this quote which was follwed by the following article on prayer. This is something I am paying attention to today. The first part of the article focused on some background about the author. But what I saw hidden there was a brief message on seeing the gifts in our early-life circumstances. Hidden in a rather lengthy narrative about the author, this is what stood out to me:

"I grew up in an atheist family. While my parents were raised in religious homes—my father in a kosher Jewish house, my mother in a devout Christian Science one—as adults they renounced their adherence to organized religion. They raised their daughters in a religion-free zone.

But I was born spiritual. I longed to belong to some sort of tradition. I used to sneak away from home on Sundays and go to Catholic Mass with my best friend's family. While I had no education in prayer, I prayed all the time. I prayed over dead birds in our suburban neighborhood; I bought gospel music records; I hung a photo of JFK in my bedroom after he was assassinated and prayed to him. My sisters thought I was nuts.

I once heard an Irish writer say that "an essential element in the life of a writer is to have been an outsider in childhood, to have been given the gift of not belonging." This man's gift had been a father whose job kept the family moving from one town to another. This made him an acute observer of people, and, he said, a better writer."

It reminded me that we have chosen our challenges to bring out something in our souls and soul path.

What followed then was a wonderful discourse on the meaning of prayer as seen by author Elizabeth Lesser. Sometimes when I work to take resonsibility for my path I lose the ability to Trust in a Higher Power. But knowing too that that Higher Power is within me helps me to re-connect again to the greater knowing that can come from within.Prayer will be a part of my surrender practice this week. Or as I like to call it, my practice of letting go, and of experiencing a freer emotional perspective as I work on my deeper issues. Here is the body of the article I mentioned from Elizabeth Lesser.

What It Really Means to Pray

One of my favorite forms of prayer is singing. Sister Alice Martin teaches gospel singing at Omega Institute, the conference and retreat center I co-founded. I have taken her workshops because, for me, singing Christian gospel music is like diving into an ocean of bliss. Sister Alice is an electrifying singer, songwriter and gospel choir leader. When she walks into a room, you sit up a little straighter. When she directs a group of people singing, you never take your eyes off of her. During her workshops, in between leading the group in song, Sister Alice talks about prayer. "Prayer is about being hopeful," she says. "It is not a phone call to God's hotline. It's not about waiting around for an answer you like, especially since sometimes the answer you're going to get is no!"

My favorite advice about prayer from Sister Alice is this: "If you are going to pray, then don't worry. And if you are going to worry, then don't bother praying. You can't be doing both." When I stop and listen closely to what's going on inside my head, I often hear the buzz of worry, like the drone of bees in a wall. That's when I remember Sister Alice's words of wisdom. What would I rather being doing, I ask myself, worrying or praying? I usually choose praying. It's a lot more fun than worrying.

To pray is to let go of your belief that you are in control of your life and to give it over to something more inclusive than your own point of view. It requires a leap of faith. Even if you have only the slightest sense that a higher power is at work in the world, you can still pray. You can name that gossamer belief "God" or not. You can pray to God, or you can pray to your own larger perspective—the part of you that trusts in the meaningfulness of life. I sometimes use Einstein's idea about solving problems when I pray. He said, "No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it." My favorite prayer these days is, "Please show me a bigger perspective, a new consciousness."

Sometimes I pray using other peoples' words. Sometimes I pray in silence. Sometimes prayer feels to me like the last resort, an act of throwing up my hands and saying, "You take over now!" Sometimes it feels like a cry of hunger or thirst. Rumi says: "Don't look for water. Be thirsty." Prayer is allowing oneself to be thirsty; it is a longing for something we just cannot seem to find. The Sufis say that our longing for God is God's longing for us. In this way, prayer is like a conversation between friends separated across time and space.

One of the reasons I love prayer is because it is an antidote to guilt and blame. If we are unhappy with the way we have acted or have been treated, instead of stewing in self-recrimination on the one hand, or harboring ill will toward someone else on the other, prayer gives us a way out of the circle of guilt and blame. We bring our painful feelings out into the open and say, "I have done wrong" or "I have been wronged." And then we ask for a vaster view—one that contains within it all the forgiveness we need in order to move forward.

The power of prayer to overcome guilt

Sister Wendy, a marvelous Catholic nun best known to the world from her books and television shows on art criticism, says this about prayer: "I don't think being human has any place for guilt. Contrition, yes. Guilt, no. Contrition means you tell God you are sorry and you're not going to do it again and you start off afresh. All the damage you've done to yourself, put right. Guilt means you go on and on belaboring and having emotions and beating your breast and being ego-fixated. Guilt is a trap. People love guilt because they feel if they suffer enough guilt, they'll make up for what they've done. Whereas, in fact, they're just sitting in a puddle and splashing. Contrition, you move forward. It's over. You are willing to forgo the pleasures of guilt."

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross is best known as the medical doctor who brought death and dying out of the closet in American culture. She created a curriculum for medical students and sat with hundreds of dying people. Her faith in prayer is legendary. She says, "You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses, and if you do not put your head in the sand, but take the pain as a gift to you with a very, very specific purpose." The only thing we can really ask for when we pray is the ability to trust in that greater purpose. We pray to have our hearts opened and our purpose revealed. We pray for gratitude when our life is good and for faith when it is not so good. We pray to trust that our pain is a gift with "a very, very specific purpose."

Vaclev Havel, the former Czech president said something that expresses for me the true meaning of prayer. "It is not the conviction that something will turn out well," Havel says, "but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out." We will know if our prayers are working when we are blessed with that kind of certainty. The fruit of prayer is a growing faith that life is an eternal adventure and that we are explorers, always changing, always learning, always open to what we will find beyond the horizon.

I love this: - from Sister Alice: "If you are going to pray, then don't worry. And if you are going to worry, then don't bother praying. You can't be doing both." Wishing you bundles of blessings and lots of love.

Art of Surrender Series - Part I

I am beginning a series on the Art of Surrender. And I'm so excited!

This practice has become a focus in my warrior training and it is an exciting, sometimes nerve-wracking, always potential-filled roller-coaster experience. And in those moments when "It" happens, ahhh... there are no words to describe it.

Today's article comes from a wonderful writer named Robert Adams.

"The Art of Surrender" according to R. Adams

Surrender. And you are amazed by what you have heard. You begin to do just that. While you are at work. While you are washing the dishes, while you are watching TV, you always remember to surrender. And one day the inner teacher pulls your mind inward to the Source and you Awaken. You become liberated. You become your Self. Then you are Free.

There is nothing in this world or anywhere else that can affect you or cause harm to come to you unless you believe it. The growth of the world is made up of mental beliefs. Everything that you behold is a projection of your mind, and because it keeps changing constantly, you cannot say, "This is reality." For instance, your body is not the same as it was 10 years ago, or 20 years ago or when you were first conceived. How can you therefore say that your body is real?

On Impermanence

The world isn't the same as it was twenty years ago, everything has changed. Then how can you possibly say the world is real? Most of us are afraid to get into that subject...for we begin to feel that nothing is permanent, and this brings fear. If nothing is permanent, then who am I really? What am I? Where did I come from? What is the source of myself? These questions can only be answered by you.Something Beautiful

There is something more beautiful, more grand, more wonderful, than you could ever imagine, that exists within you, which is the substratum of all existence. Yet in order to feel this joy, this bliss, in order to find total freedom from life's so-called burdens, you have to dig for yourself. You have to give up something. You can't stay the way you are, with the same disposition. the same values, the same preconceived ideas, the same concepts and be free. You cannot do this. You have to do an about face and totally give up all your ideas about what life is, totally surrender your ego, your mind, your body.

Just Being is enough. Not being this, not being that. Just Being. The Secret to Peace of mind is to not identify with anything other than your True Self.

To whom do you surrender this? To your Self .... the only burden you have ever had is your mind. There is no other burden. See if you can stop your mind for a few seconds and see how peaceful you are. When there are no thoughts there are no fears, no worries. There's no anxieties, no desires, no wants, no greed, no hurt, no enemies. It is the mind, the thoughts that cause these things to come to us. We actually create these conditions. We create our own reality. Think of the kind of life you are living today, your possessions, your friends. your loved ones, your employment. Do these things come to you through luck or chance? Of course not. You have created all things yourself, for you have believed in the false self, you have imagined you are a human being who has to go through experiences. You have been brainwashed since you were little to believe the things you believe today.

(Note: Transcript 32: " The love you share with others in this life is eternal." )

Go Within

So, if you really want freedom, liberation, you do not go searching for this. It is nowhere to be found. For it already exists within yourself. You are already That. So where can you go searching for it? Who can give it to you? If you want water, you turn on the tap. You do not look at the tap and scream and cry, "I want water." You turn on the tap and you have water. Yet when you were a little kid, you did not how to turn on the tap.Therefore, if you wanted a drink, you would cry and make a fuss, and your mom or dad would open the tap and give you a drink. So, can you drink from the spring of eternal life which is your reality? You have to turn on the tap. You have to turn yourself inside out. Can you imagine how you would look turned inside out? It wouldn't be a pretty sight.

The Choice

Most of us believe that if you hear the right word, that if you awaken through the Grace of a Sage, you will be free. This is true in some cases. But these people that you have read about in the holy books who were touched by the Grace of a Sage, these people have done their homework, prior to his happening. You have to want it yourself, and when you want it badly enough, something will happen to you. When you desire liberation more than anything else in life, you have begun to give up your stuff.

credits:
Visit The Robert Adams Infinity Institute of Compassionate Living.
Link to entry on Current Teacher's page
The previous article by The Robert Adams Infinity Institute of Compassionate Living.

Freedom Eagle

Hubby & I were at the colorado "beach" yesterday w/our dogs. We were having a pretty awesome discussion about the new cycle coming in 2012 and we saw a bald eagle flying overhead! It was the 1st time I have seen an eagle soaring freely! He had a beautiful stark white head & tail and everything. :) It was amazing. It took both our breaths away.

The Joy of Living in the Moment - Where the ordinary is extraordinary

It seems the older I get the more I appreciate the extraordinary in the ordinary. Not that I didn't appreciate it before. But there is something deeper and simpler happening with my day-to-day joys. I think it is also in accordance with the earth changes and shifts, and returning to all things simpler and appreciated.

Yesterday my hubby and I were eating veggie burgers (well, I was, he had a regular - but with some very yummy toppings, cranberries, brie and carrot slivers. Mine, a homemade veggie delite of rice, beans and whatever else (delicious) made into a fab-burger, and stacked with julliened roast red peppers (tons), sprouts, onions (I love being married, you can eat onions anytime) and divine balsamic dressing. We shared a side of sweet potato fries that was served with some crazy good roast-veggie-alioli. It was veggie heaven!) We were at a local (wonderful) eatery when news came on the tube of a Tsunami watch in Hawaii and the earthquakes happening off the coast of Chile.

First, and of course, I wanted to cry. As I always do when humanity shares an event like this. I also felt simultaneously glad to be in a public and social space when the news came, b/c it felt like being connected to our human family, and being a-part-of instead of apart-from, as we all sat in concern and focus together. You could feel the love and common bond in the room. Secondly, I also felt a warm need to get home to our doggie-dogs, to cuddle and feel so grateful simply for our togetherness in these shifting & sometimes challenging times.

But later, while taking our dogs for a walk, my hubby made a joke and I felt so happy to laugh. In that moment, I was somehow reminded that even as life and indeed the planet experiences its challenges, there is a bigger picture, and part of keeping the balance and our Way is to also honor our spirit and joy. Every day. No matter what else is going on. It's a part of being balanced and whole. And it is so important too.

It felt good to feel good. And to stay connected to that side of Self too. The common bond and the detached awareness. It's both. But the joy felt really good.

Then I came across this post by a blogger named Sasha. She didn't add her last name, but it was so uplifting I wanted to share it here as well. A wonderful and simple account of living in the present. And it seemed to go with the theme I've been feeling today of appreciating the extraordinary of the ordinary. In any case, I hope she doesn't mind that I'm sharing her writing today too.

The Joy of Living in the Moment
by Sasha's Tea Room Blog
I recently discovered quite by accident, and much to my delight, the true feeling of living in the moment. I guess I would describe it as a zen type feeling, a state of content and awareness of this feeling with the absence of any other thought. There is no past, there is no future. You are experiencing the joy of being in the experience of now. When we dwell on the past it keeps us from experiencing this day just as looking forward to another day to come robs us of now. ... It's not the parties, the trips, the shopping sprees that bring the joy. Rather it's the cat sleeping beside you as you type away on your computer, gazing at the sky looking for the shooting star, feeding wildlife, cooking a savory meal, relaxing in a warm bath..... The ordinary. It really is extraordinary.

Thanks to Sasha for the graceful reminder. I was just feeling it too!

The Comfort of an Unmade Bed

Comfort Food for the Soul: The Unmade Bed

On Saturday I made the bed up fresh. New sheets. Fresh from the dryer and sooo wonderful. In fact, all of the bedding was fresh and delightful.

By Sunday it was cloudy and gray. Waking up in those fresh sheets on a cloudy day felt irresistable.

I sometimes make it a practice not to make the bed. If for no other reason than to break my habit of feeling like I have to. But on this Sunday, I left that bed unmade with such joy for the comfort it gave me the entire day.

Each time I walked into that room, that wonderful room with the unmade bed, that cozy, cushy bed with the freshly made sheets, my cloudy Sunday felt like such a comforting treat. Home. Love. Easy. Comforting.

And later that night, I couldn't wait to climb back between the sheets of that warm and inviting cozy unmade bed.

Things to Believe

Here is the Group Belief narrative
from www.awakened-journey.com

Hope to see you there.


We believe that humanity is at a cross-roads in her journey to a better world.
We believe that we are all a part of One world and that together we can make a difference.
We believe that what we do, and think, and choose, matters.
We believe we can create a better world.
...In fact, we believe we already are!

www.awakened-journey.com

Toltec Teachings

Toltec quotes:
by Kristopher Raphael

"Our Dreamer is much, much larger than we are. On the level of Destiny the Dreamer is the one in control. As the leaf is a part of the tree, we are part of our Dreamer. However we are a part with a "mind of its own". It is this mind of ours with its beliefs, wounds, patterns, attitudes and ego that get us into trouble, and convince us that we are separate from that which we really are, our Dreamer."

"The elements of the world don't exist the way we assume they do. They exist only because we discriminate them from other things. As separate things they don't exist. As separate things WE don't exist. The problem is that the world we live in is so linked with our concepts that we cannot separate who we are and the world we live in from the content of our minds. We are not just living IN the past, we are living the past."

"Within the human the Nagual aspect is the unstructured part of self. It is UNLIMITED. Our tonal is our personality aspect, which consists of our mental, emotional and physical bodies, is our structured aspect. Our personality contains our POTENTIAL. If we fully align our tonal to the Nagual through the Dreamer we have UNLIMITED POTENTIAL."

"The jaguar moves silently following every movement of its prey. The prey is unaware of its presence. When stalking we, like the jaguar, must also observe in silence. If we begin to judge or try to change what we observe, we lose our stance as the stalker. We become that which we are stalking."


From don Miguel Ruiz:

+ Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

+ Your life is the manifestation of your dream; it is an art. And you can change your life anytime if you aren't enjoying the dream. Dream masters create a masterpiece of life; they control the dream by making choices.

+ Christ called it heaven, and Buddha named it nirvana. But they mean the same and what they tried to express is that experience that they had when they experienced the truth. And whoever experienced the truth, he will explain in their own way, but whoever listens, whoever is explaining the truth will understand it right away because they were there.

+ Be aware that even if you meant your words as honey, other people can turn what you said into poison.

+ You face life depending on who you believe the main character is, the way you learned to be. Your father tells you that you are this way. Your mother tells you that you are that way. And that's what you become.

+ The infinite, the absolute, is a living being and the only one living being that really exists. And we all are part of that living being. And from that point of view, the way I see the universe, the way I see God is as perfection, like only perfection exists and it's not difficult to understand at all.

+ At the present time I really have no religion at all. But I love and respect all religions and philosophies. I see how they get formed, how they grow up, and how powerful they are. But for me to believe in a specific god.. no.

+ I can tell you that we have only one mission and that is to make ourselves happy. The only way we can be happy is by being who we are.+ Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive.. the risk to be alive and express what we really are.

+ Every human is an artist. And this is the main art that we have: the creation of our story.

Eating Right to Feel Our Best

At its simplest, food is fuel. Though our preferences regarding taste and texture can vary widely, we all rely on the foods we eat for energy. Most people are aware that it is vital we consume a diverse assortment of foods if we aspire to maintain a state of physical well-being. However, the intimate connection between diet and our mental well-being is less understood. Just as the nutritional components in food power the body, so too do they power the mind. Some foods can impair cognitive functioning and sap our energy while others heighten our intellectual prowess and make us feel vigorous. What we eat and drink can have a powerful effect on our ability to focus, mental clarity, mood, and stress levels.

Food allergies, which don’t always manifest themselves in forms we recognize, can also play a significant role in the maintenance of mental health. Thus, for most of us, even a simple change in diet can have a profoundly positive impact on our lives. Taking the time to explore whether anxiety, muddled thoughts, or inexplicable tension can be linked to a food allergy or food sensitivity can empower you to treat your symptoms naturally. The benefits of a healthier, more personalized diet are often felt immediately. Sugar, saturated fats, wheat, and dairy products are frequently allergens and can stress the body. For people that are allergic, consuming them can cause imbalances in the physical self that have a negative effect on the body’s ability to nourish the brain. Water, fiber, nuts, unprocessed seeds, raw fruits and vegetables, and vegetable proteins, on the other hand, support physical and mental functioning by providing those nutrients we do need without additional substances we don’t.

A balanced, natural diet can ease mood swings, panic attacks, anxiety, and mild depression. Intellectual clarity and agility is improved when the mind receives proper nourishment. Even those individuals who are blessed with the ability to consume almost any food can benefit from a healthier and simpler diet. Since the mental and physical selves are closely bound to one another, we must feed each the foods upon which they thrive.

My Zen Dog

I was watching my dog Jersey this morning sitting in the back yard watching a squirrel. The squirrel knew he couldn't be reached, and he seemed to torment and tease my Jersey girl in joyful play.

The startling thing was, about an hour and a half later, I looked out the window and Jersey was still sitting there, peacefully, engaged in the moment, just watching and looking around a bit.

What a reflection of inner peace. Just being in her moment, sitting quietly enjoying the day. I couldn't help but think that I would not have been able to sit that long without a fidget or distraction. It seems like a long time since I have sat quietly in the yard (or anywhere for that matter) for such an easy, luxurios extended-moment of pure beingness.

Thanks Jersey! namaste

The Facts of Life

A fresh attitude starts to happen when we look to see that yesterday was yesterday, and now it is gone; today is today and now it is new. It is like that - every hour, every minute is changing. If we stop observing change, then we stop seeing everything as new. ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

The Buddah taught that there are three principal characteristics of human existence: impermanance, egolessness, and suffering or dissatisfaction. According to the Buddah, the lives of all beings are marked by these qualities. Recognizing these qualities to be real and true in our own experience helps us to relax with things as they are.

When I first heard this teaching it seemed academic and remote. But when I was encouraged to pay attention - to be curious about what was happening with my body and my mind - something shifted. I could observe from my own experience that nothing is static. My moods are continuously shifting like the weather. I am definitely not in control of what thoughts or emotions are going to arise, nor can I halt their flow. Stillness is followed by movement, movement flows back into stillness. Even the most persistent physical pain, when I pay attention to it, changes like the tides.

I feel gratitude to the Buddah for pointing out that what we struggle against all our lives can be acknowledged as ordinary experience. Life does continually go up and down. People and situations are unpredictable and so is everything else. Everybody knows the pain of getting what we don't want: saints, sinners, winners, losers. I feel gratitude that someone saw the truth and pointed out that we don't suffer this kind of pain because of our personal inability to get things right.

Pema Chodron
The Places that Scare You

The Spirit of a Place - Visiting Sacred Sites

Teotihuacan, Mexico
In '02 I made a power journey to Teotihuacan, Mexico with my beloved warrior group. It was so wonderful and a reminder for today that we need only "tune in" to visit these wonder sites around the globe.


The Spirit of a Place
Visiting Sacred Sites

Connecting energetically with sacred sites in the world allows you access to their peace and power if you cannot visit.

From time immemorial, the hands of men and women have built sites guided by both the earth’s life force and benevolent beings of light. It is because of this guidance that the sites we deem sacred have long served as repositories of wisdom, energy, and illumination that can be accessed by all. The needs that inspire seekers to converge upon sites known to be sacred vary by individual. Some crave spiritual fulfillment above all else, while others hope to draw upon a site’s energy for the purpose of enlightenment, healing, or deep meditation, awareness and knowledge of information long gone.

Sacred sites can appear insignificant to those who close themselves off from the notion of a living earth. But sites can provide us with a link to a unified consciousness that involves the living and the dead, infinite cultures, the physical plane, and the spiritual world. When we look beyond well-known sites like Stonehenge, we discover energetically active sites such as the Iron Age fogou caves of Cornwall, England, or the pyramids of Meroe in the Sudan. Similarly, it is easy to imagine that hallowed places exist only in remote or exotic locales. Yet many of the most richly vital sites are easily accessible, and visiting these lesser-known sites can be a profoundly moving experience. One such site, Serpent Mound in Ohio, was thought to be created by the ancient Adena peoples nearly 1,000 years ago to align with the summer and winter solstices. Its precise purpose remains unclear, but many who visit the site conclude that it was meant to be a conduit through which cosmic en! ergy could flow into the earth.

The sacred sites that call to you from afar—capturing your imagination and resonating deep within your soul—will nearly always be those that can help you forge a deeper connection with the divine energy that sustains all life. During your pilgrimage, reaffirm your intention to accept whatever gifts are conveyed to you through the sites you visit. Your receptiveness will help you establish lasting relationships with these sites so that you can draw upon their peace and their power from wherever you are.

DailyOm

The Happiest People

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Love generously Care deeply Speak kindly Leave the rest to God.

~ author unknown

Buddah Basics Pt. IV - Right Speech

Sit-a-Long with Jundo: Buddha-Basics (Part VII) — Speaking Right

We continue our stroll along the Eightfold Path with Right Speech, the first of three branches devoted to ‘Ethical Conduct’ (Sīla)…

The words passing our lips have power to be weapons or constructive tools, to help or hurt others, express care or disdain, make enemies or friends, start wars or bring peace.

The Buddha advised that we should:
…abstain from false speech, especially deliberate lies
…abstain from slanderous speech and words used maliciously against others
…abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others
…abstain from idle gossip.

This means that we should, as best we can amid the complexities of life, seek to tell the truth, to speak lovingly, warmly and gently, and to be careful in our words.

Thich Nhat Hanh has sometimes worded it this way:

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivate loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am committed to learn to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy, and hope. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or the community to break. I will make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.

Right Speech: Shambala Sun