SYNERGY

Blacklisted?

2012-01-29T11:31:00.003-05:00

It gets curiouser and curiouser, this internet business.

Over these past few weeks, my blog consistently had several daily readers. Then the day Google, et al, protested the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation, my readers dropped to zero.

Connected? Or was my recent subject matter too too?

I was born on the cusp. I’m philosophic. I must review both sides. But I’m also deeply passionate.

Globally, we’re at the cusp in our cycle of time.

Whether others know it or not, I know we’re all connected energetically.

We are all electrons of energy that interact – either favorably, or not so much.

I also know – and many others seem not to know – that each one of us can Cause energy to be favorable. I define favorable as pro-survival, pro-progression.

Most understand how a negative attracts a positive, then when connected, become neutral.

Perhaps being neutralized has an offensive connotation for some. Or, being neutral seems blau, bland. Self seems gone.

But did you know neutral – when it comes to interactive emotions –can be productive?

Let’s talk politics…

Have you noticed how similarly politicians voice the undercurrent of purpose while simultaneously and vigorously fomenting a concept of differences?

And each one becomes more and more enamored with their ability to arouse response, so they augment the nastiness.

I contend that being neutral as a single entity, but passionate regarding cooperation is the broadest optimal solution. I believe it is possible. That’s the kind of energy I publish. Like Emily Dickinson: I dwell in possibilities.

So, after the great sadness of losing my son, I had to monitor the energy of my soul. I could not remain the Effect of such sadness.

That’s why puzzles find a pattern at the end of my pen. I philosophize.

And despite our domestic political bickering, I trust those so full of themselves can reach for a hope outside their own containment.

Tough times never last. Tough people do.
-Robert Schuller

A Tribute to Tessera

2012-01-24T09:37:00.000-05:00

The Power of One

2012-01-22T08:39:00.000-05:00

Modus Operandi

2012-01-19T11:38:00.015-05:00

I was born in Bible-Belt country. My maternal grandfather was a hell-fire-n-brimstone preacher. Mom’s attention to religion was her priority. Dad’s was on science, adventure, family.

I claim to be hatched in a Mason jar. This, because I was born at Ball Memorial Hospital named for the originators of that glass canning jar. Mom canned. Dad taught chemistry.

Mom taught us about putting God first. Dad taught us the mechanisms of the world. Both were monitored by The Great Depression in their separate approaches to living.

Being second born, I came to think I had no position of priority. I learned to fend for myself. This had its consequences.

I was first to marry, first to move away three time zones, first to divorce. Another first was my exploration into New Age religion.

It filled a vacuum after my divorce. Family had failed me. Intuitively, I knew I needed community.

I was gung-ho on expanding my horizons but wedges were positioned between me, my family, my choices.

This I know: When we try to diminish others, we can only diminish ourselves.

Swimming With the Alligators

2012-01-17T03:36:00.007-05:00

Perhaps the most difficult thing a preteen son of divorced parents must discover is who his real friends are...

During a summer vacation away from home, new friends - adult males - charmed Eric, plied him with gifts, and showed him how hypnotism works...

He returned not a child, not a man, but with innocence lost.

It is said: You are as sick as your secrets. Eric harbored a deeply buried secret ever since time spent with that gay couple.

He probably tried to expose it when he returned home and asked, "What does hypnotize mean?"

Where did you hear that word? I asked.

"Dennis. He said I wouldn't do anything I didn't want to do."

My heart sank. I explained hypnotism but made no other comments. I didn't want to expose my suspicions.

In the ensuing years, I allowed my son to live with strong male relatives. He came back with me for his senior year.

It wasn't easy for him then. He was too new, too gentle, too attractive to the girls at school. Too too! Not ordinary.

He was bullied. I know because he told me of an incident.

He asked me one day, "What do I do when someone tries to pick a fight?"

I instructed: Just walk away, or try to talk it out. If those tactics don't work, you may have to get physical, but as a last resort.

A few days later he came home late explaining he'd been in a fight, "I think I broke his nose."

He then confided, "I don't want to be gay! He accused me of being gay!"

My heart froze.

I had no problems with gayness. The issue was the suspicion of how my son's mind had been high jacked years earlier on his summer vacation.

Eric, like Vincent, was an excellent artist. Eric, like Vincent, shot himself.

And as the song reads, [Eric] "This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you."

Ethical Eric

2012-01-06T23:54:00.005-05:00

I was flying up the Arroyo Seco Parkway towards home one afternoon trying to beat L.A. to Pasadena commuter traffic.

One doesn’t really fly up the oldest freeway. It’s too winding, too tricky to maneuver with speed.

Anyway, I had an errand to run. I was to pick up Eric’s paycheck for him since he had a track meet..

Twenty minutes later, I met the owner at the men’s clothiers in South Pasadena where Eric worked.

I thought it would be a simple in-and-out, but Mr.Owner wanted to talk to me about Eric.

He began,"Your son is one of the most honest young men I have ever had in my employ."

Oh?, I queried.

"Many try to rip me off. Eric kept one of his classmates from doing just that. The other student wanted to lift a tie, but your son wouldn’t let him. Neither knew I was watching."

Thank you for telling me, I said as I left with paycheck in hand.

I was in awe of my teenage son.

Vintage Mojo

2012-01-02T16:32:00.000-05:00

Water Color Water

It’s a new year, a new era.

My era: The Fourth Quarter.

I’m convinced there are three basic types of retirees, each type with subsets.

1. Those winding down: Coasting; Waning; Feeling drained; Health or money issues dictating actions.

2. Those gearing up: Starting new careers; Manufacturing energy; Cash & carrying in the now.

3. Those in limbo: Decreasing autonomy; Unaware of choices.

In reality, or what we can agree upon, all modes may exist within the same person periodically.

Not so easily agreed upon is how to sort out what, or who, the driver is. This is important to know so one can change a course toward more optimum survival at will.

Expanding is survival. Diminishing only leads toward the opposite.

Two major events in my life chartered my path. Thankfully, the best came in childhood and the worst came as an adult.

In my youth, I experienced an epiphany that affected me profoundly. I discovered I was larger than my body. I saw beyond the scope of my physical boundaries. That information was foundational.

Decades later, when my son committed suicide, I had to center and anchor myself in a new way. I withdrew from the blame game, even when blame was directed toward me.

Withdrawing to lick one’s wounds is counter-productive. Withdrawing to redirect one’s course is a means of correction.

This I know… Being spiritual may or may not have to do with religion. But being spiritual creates expansion.

In this new era, I will become Eric's voice, the voice of his spirit.

Can vs Can't

2011-12-29T13:52:00.002-05:00

My definition of creativity: Distilling limitless boundaries into certain boundary limits.

Will Smith says it similarly...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy Holidays from the Jive Aces and The Satin Dollz

2011-12-23T13:02:00.000-05:00

Seasonal Sentiments

2011-12-22T12:23:00.001-05:00

MERRY Christmas

FELIZ NAVIDAD

JOYEUX NOEL

HAPPY HANUKKAH

BLESSED KWANZAA

Playing For Change | Feliz Navidad

If God were to send out a 2011 Christmas card, it would undoubtedly be ecumenical.

Up-Beat

2011-12-21T11:17:00.000-05:00

Artzy Fartzy

2011-12-18T14:26:00.000-05:00

It was the annual Boat Parade of Lights on the Indian River last night.

I'm no geek! My tech is done using common sense and serendipity, with simple inexpensive tools.

...but this assortment is an artzy array of splash.

The fun was being there.

Old, Older, Oldest

2011-12-16T03:04:00.178-05:00

Perhaps I'm getting old. I don't care. I don't feel old.

Recently, I visited the oldest city in our United States of America, St. Augustine, Florida. I felt young there.

What history! What a confluence of forces! And Christopher Columbus started it all.

Ponce de Leon was Columbus' First Mate on his second trip to the New World in 1493. Ponce stayed on.

Wikipedia tells of the Spanish, French, and English all contesting for dominance at this site in the 16th C.

In the 17th Century, the Spanish built Castillo de San Marcosa, a fort made of coquina rock. This rock of shell fragments made the fort impenetrable. It remains the oldest standing fort in North America of that type of masonry.

St. Augustine has more than its share of oldest. Oldest wooden school house. Oldest street. So on...

The movers and shakers of the 19th Century settled in in style.

In 1888, Henry M. Flagler, John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, and Louis C. Tiffany built the quintessential hotel, the Ponce de Leon.

Today, and for the past 40 years, this elite hotel serves as the girls' dorm at Flagler College. The stutents' dining hall is the very same in which Flagler and his cronies dined surrounded by Tiffany glass, Tiffany chairs, and Edison's electricity.

But perhaps the most unique aspect of St. Augustine is the oldest as the ageless, the ghosts!

St. Augustine's lighthouse is one of the most visited and studied paranormal densities.

I took the Ghosts and Gravestones tour. They advised us to shoot as many pictures as we wanted. I didn't hear any unusual noises, or see anything with my naked eye, but the pictures I took really surprised me.

I have nighttime shots throughout the city, using my digital camera.

Three of my best pictures I sent to their website. This is one of my others.

Be aware that I was riding in an open tram, there was no mist in the air, and those random symmetrical orbs are supposedly ghostly energies.

This next photo was at the park adjacent to the lighthouse.

You can see the light at the top of the lighthouse and the spiral of Christmas decorations on it, all in the distance. The park is off the beaten path. I stepped out in front of the crowd to take this picture because I wanted the lighthouse shot.

There is a cluster of small orbs (children?) bottom right. Up higher are bigger orbs. The lighthouse was the site of an accident when it was being built. Children were riding in a cart that broke and sent them into the water. They all drowned.

Someone else on our tour had a smart phone camera. We could see a single orb reviewing her pictures. My digital didn't show anything on replay. My captured orbs only showed up when I uploaded the pictures.

I also got a shot of a few orbs in the dark jailhouse.

So if there is something beyond this body, some energetic signature, I too may be ageless some day.

I've no enemies I wish to haunt.

Life's a Lot Like a Game of Poppit!

2011-12-16T02:16:00.002-05:00

The playing field is set.
Strategy helps.
Prizes are released only in paired - or greater - matched balloons.
Winning isn't always about numbers.
High scores will not yield a win if a single balloon with a prize is left unmatched.
Low scores may yield a win if all prizes have been released.
Win or lose, one is compelled to continue.

Pogo Poppit

Deja Vu

2011-12-13T09:33:00.000-05:00

I'm smitten! I'm in love!

It's a love I never dreamed would come again.

She's a new friend but the twin of my own baby daughter decades passed.

Julia Grace

Heart's Intelligence

2011-12-10T03:21:00.000-05:00

Whaddaya Know!

2011-12-09T12:57:00.177-05:00

Silly me…

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me… (unless they’re my own against myself).

Words fascinate me…it’s in my genes. My parents, both teachers, taught me well. I was a sponge then, and still absorb as much as possible today. It’s unlikely I’ll ever cease seeking knowledge.

Something I have learned: Like it or not, we are all connected by virtue of the electrical fields generated by each and every one's own body. Everything physical has measurable energy.

Every cell in the human body has either a positive or negative pull. Curiously, nearly everything toxic to the body is electromagnetically positive. The Earth's mantle is negative and if we ground ourselves to it, we become healthier.

Alkaline foods render a negative charge and are much better for us than acidic foods with a more positive charge.

Humans have 50 to 60 trillion cells in their bodies. That's 50 to 60 million million packets of energy to manage per person.

We manage them to our detriment when we assume they operate best on their own, or via our best mental mechanics.

Mental mechanics usually has to do with what one believes to be an intelligent use of brain power. However, emotions dictate much more than we calculate.

Emotional Energetics Research:

The heart produces by far the body's most powerful rhythmic electromagnetic field, which can be detected several feet away by sensitive instruments. Research shows our heart's field changes distinctly as we experience different emotions. It is registered in people's brains around us and apparently is capable of affecting cells, water and DNA studied in vitro. Growing evidence also suggests energetic interactions involving the heart may underlie intuition and important aspects of human consciousness. http://www.heartmath.com/about/research-information.html#hbi

Language evolves. Fortunately, with the kind of research referred to above, emotions - the management of them sans drugs - is evolving too.

One body of study by Brent Phillips, and documented in his book Where Science Meets Spirit, emphasizes how our subconscious sabotages our ability to manage our own 50 trillion cells well.

Our thinking doesn't drive us as much as our subconscious does. Those packets of energy stored as misemotion are hidden from the analytical mind. They dictate actions unwittingly.

Emily Dickinson spoke on this issue nearly 200 years ago:

THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.

The brain is deeper than the sea,	5
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.

The brain is just the weight of God,
For, lift them, pound for pound,	10
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.

She's appropriate today. Her brain wasn't just three pounds of grey matter. It was primarily as HeartMath has researched and documented. Emily was referring to the heart and soul of a person.

Clear away the sabotage within and our 50 to 60 trillion cells wake up to Infinite Wisdom.

GET USED TO IT! ENJOY IT! HAVE FUN WITH IT!

Dreams Are Never Done

2011-12-05T12:04:00.003-05:00

I soar. I glide. I fall. I trip. I pick myself up and try again, and again, and again - ad infinitum.

Out there, above the heaviness, I see gleaming connections, threading a weave from heart to heart.

I see life's tapestry, resplendent in radiant patterns of shadow and light.

It's a design no one truly defines. Attempting definition may diminish its splendor.

I'll try anyway. I'll do it for myself alone.

I'll continue the dream.

Noah's Lessons

2011-12-02T10:55:00.003-05:00

Mt Ararat

Every thing I needed to know I learned from Noah! (not Noah Wyle)

Don't miss the boat!
Remember we're all in the same boat!
Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark!
Stay fit! When you are 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something REALLY big.
Don't listen to critics. Just get on with the job that needs to be done!
Build your future on high ground!
For safety, travel in pairs.
When you're stressed, float awhile.
Remember: the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic was built by professionals.
No matter the storm there is always a rainbow waiting.
http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/noahs_ark_found.html

Squirrelly

2011-11-29T23:01:00.002-05:00

This little fellow - we'll call him Harry - gets a bad rap. Harry's a rodent!

But look at his right eye looking back at me, the photographer.

Harry knows I'm there. He's fearless!

Harry can make himself at home anywhere he wants, like the eaves of my roof.

Harry's a herbivore. He's a cutesy rodent but he's fixated on hoarding.

Harry's oblivious to his being low on the food chain.

Harry doesn't need to do a seasonal hoard in Florida, but there are seasons for him.

Fall is Florida's hunting season. Squirrels, as well as alligators, turkey, or white-tailed deer are hunted now.

Our Harry is no doubt safe. I found him in a park in an affluent part of town. If he's smart, he'll live out his days there.

Harry seemed smart to me.

Seasons In Sync

2011-11-26T04:36:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving’s tryptophan sedated everyone briefly then Black Friday jolted many into action. Cyber Monday may be quieter but it is still about self-indulgence. Let’s face it, frenetic shopping isn’t about gifting as much as it is about the cheapest price for those personal choices.

Remember O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi? It’s a poignant tale of how a loving couple each sacrificed their most treasured possession in gifting to the other. Things didn’t turn out as expected for either one, but the love was real.

Now is a time of fanciful sugar plum fairies and toy soldiers to create an ambiance for children. It promotes a season of believing, which may or may not last. Some grownups retain their believing despite existing realities. There are always those who see a cup half full rather than half empty.

Perhaps the most poignant, true story is that of The Christmas Truce. This story is of Christmas 1914 on the Western Front during World War I. It’s worth repeating.

Thousands of troops were lobbing shots across a divide of barely 30 yards in some places, and rarely more than 70 yards. The weather was cold. The terrain was muddy. Demolished hillside villages could be seen all around. At dusk on Christmas Eve, a lull fell across the countryside. No shots were being fired. Voices speaking in their own dialects were heard across the lines. Then, out of the cold night air, a solo voice singing Silent Night rang out. Others chimed in their own language. Calm began to soothe the weary. Some even braved the divide to barter cigarettes or rations with their enemies. Eventually fighting resumed, but periodic lulls continued to give respite along enemy lines.

The wars being waged in our time have tales of kindness in them too. But the lesson too easily forgotten is the lesson of hope. Hope is never out of season. Giving hope, accepting hope is attitudinal. Attitude relates to gratitude. Did you know the root words for gift, gratitude, and grace are very similar?

Thanksgiving is an American tradition setting up a universal season of gratitude. Practicing gratitude keeps the heart open, open to other cultures, traditions, beliefs. We then may be grateful for our similarities which will always have to do with family, love, and life.

Seasons in sync are proportionate to souls in sync.

Blows My Mind!

2011-11-18T17:30:00.001-05:00

Science is not only

The movie Thrive is science at its best because it explores outside the box in a systematic way.

Somehow it does it with spiritual intuitiveness.

An inquisitive mind asks vital questions and delves into the unknown with gusto expecting new answers, and not the same-o, same-o.

Science is systematic knowledge. It can benefit from exploring systems outside the known parameters.

As uncanny as it may seem, the currently running movie Happy Feet 2 corresponds to the Thrive movie, available at this link or on YouTube.

Let me tell you how I see this corollary. Bruce Lipton helps me explain it too. It is also as I posted on 10.30.10 in Cooperation. The cells in our bodies survive best when they are working together systematically. All systems are similarly organized. Work as a team or succumb.

An intelligent mind perceives differences, similarities, and studies the patterns. It is not braggadocio that I have confidence in my ability to spot these.

The similarity in these two movies is that cooperation among systems enhances survival. Lack of cooperation causes the opposite.

Both movies emphasize the critical nature of the current moment in time. The message is the same: Make things better, or die.

Heart Coherence is the best way to make things better. The word coherence means an integration of the dissimilar. The secret is - it begins with the individual -as in me acting first. If we are not contributing to the solution, we extend the disease.

Nothing in nature is idle. There is only either expansion or contraction. Doing nothing contracts us down while promoting the expansion of what we don't want.

Science tells us of entropy - the disorganization, deterioration of all things physical. Yet, as we become more spiritually aware, more accountable for our own thoughts rather than hand-me-down ones, we have the ability to create a new expansive kind of metaphysical.
As the cellular biologist, Bruce Lipton, has shown in his book, what we think changes our own DNA, our own cells respond to our own thoughts.

Presently, one may view the world and see only darkness and doom. It is said, the darkest is just before dawn.

As for me, I see light ahead.

Bruce Lipton - Occupy Wall Street

2011-11-16T22:21:00.000-05:00

Heart-Coherence Technology for World Peace

2011-11-10T08:56:00.001-05:00

Cheerleading for Humanity

2011-11-05T12:08:00.000-04:00

Design Change

2011-11-03T13:06:00.004-04:00

I love Google! I love blogging.
I was intrigued with the new template designs.
I followed the instructions to make the change I wanted.
But it didn't quite come out as chosen.
I wanted the Dynamic Template.
The word dynamic has different meanings.
I'm thinking Google defines it as an energetic change.
However...
The Dynamic Template button has several choices.
Apparently, the reader must make the choice... ????
I chose MOSAIC, but it always reverts to CLASSIC.
So the reader must peek under the title of my blog -SYNERGY - to switch the view.
I am confused about this.
Can anyone solve this simply?

Exquisite Creatures!

2011-10-31T23:59:00.000-04:00

Going Bump in the Night!

2011-10-30T13:43:00.000-04:00

Do you believe in ghosts? I do! I've seen a few. None were scary.

One sighting of mine was in a hospital room where a former patient had passed.

He obviously had not crossed over.

It was a fleeting glance. The room was empty, except for that apparition and myself.

He was standing beside the bed. I didn't linger. He might have.

The big discussion: "There is no scientific proof."

What is science? How do you prove something?

Science is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding of how the physical world works.

The real question seems to be: Is there something other than particles of matter?

What survives after entropy? What is Life?

The newest sciences identify particles of energy on a par with, or superior to particles of matter.

Quantum physics describes quarks as the most elemental constituents of matter. No quarks have been seen in the laboratory though.

Quarks have been considered the glue that holds the physical together.

Energy can be seen, can be experienced.

For those who say ghosts cannot be proved, I suggest they have failed to apply an up-to-date scientific process.

They have a blind spot. As in Shakespeare, me thinks he doth protest too much.

Webster defines Science as knowledge attained through study or practice.

In science, there is data regarding the milieu interieur. It is an unseen stabilizing force at a cellular level in all living organisms.

Botanists point to this milieu interieur to explain how hardy vegetation survive the fiercest storms. It cannot be measured in milileters or inches however.

Neither can it be consistently predicted.

A unique life force within holds healthy, and some unhealthy with mucho milieu interieur, plants and trees steady.

One cannot always look at life through a physical microscope to learn how the spiritual world works.

Another definition of science is knowing how to know.

I have studied many aspects of my own life. I know I am not only a body. I have a spirit-soul-essence beyond my body.

I offer a delineation between the physical and the spiritual. My definition of spiritual is not about religion.

I view the physical universe as having different laws of operation than does the spiritual universe.

In the physical world, it diminishes, becomes disordered, deteriorates. Entropy happens.

In the spiritual world, if applied and utilized as part of life, it can only expand and become moreso. It is not normally comparable, nor measurable, nor quantitative in common physical terms.

Hubbard described the lowest common denominator of life as the urge to survive.

It seems to me that we survive best if we study to know all aspects of life, whether documented and measured as currently prescribed or not.

Whether seen or not seen, believed or not believed, ghosts are an aspect of life.

Why fear spirits? What we fear controls us. What we confront, we can control.

As the Buddha says: All is life!

I say death is not definitive!

Real Ghost Videos!

TAI CHI - THE GENTLE ENERGY

2011-09-27T17:38:00.000-04:00

Remembering our Spirit on 9/11/11

2011-09-12T12:46:00.000-04:00

Delta II To The Moon

2011-09-11T19:30:00.000-04:00

Creation Calls

2011-08-30T17:59:00.000-04:00

Eagles Reinvent

2011-08-14T16:10:00.000-04:00

THE EAGLE

This is Amazing...

No wonder there are scriptural references to the eagle!

And, no wonder the bald eagle has such a significant symbolism to our country!

Hope!!!!

When it rains, most birds head for shelter; the eagle is the only bird that, in order to avoid

the rain, starts flying above the clouds...

An amazing tidbit about the Eagle's eyesight: The eagle can probably identify a rabbit

moving almost a mile away.

That means that an eagle flying at an altitude of 1000 feet over open country could spot

prey over an area of almost 3 square miles from a fixed position.

No wonder God wants us to spread our wings and soar with the eagles.

Fractal Animation

2011-08-14T15:58:00.000-04:00

Validation

2011-07-28T07:53:00.000-04:00

Outside the Box

2011-07-11T22:06:00.000-04:00

A Message from The Future

2011-07-01T10:16:00.000-04:00

Be Happy

2011-06-20T17:29:00.000-04:00

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet."

- James Oppenheim

The Town of Allopath

2011-06-20T17:21:00.000-04:00

Molecules-Smolecules

2011-06-20T16:50:00.000-04:00

Hey!

Einstein claimed it was easier to change the particles of matter than change the thinking of men.

It's amazing that cellular biologist Bruce Lipton's research has shown our own DNA is contingent, not only upon all the environment around us, but most importantly on our interior - how we think. In his The Biology of Belief, he shows how our thinking can change our biology.

Mandelbrot's explanation of our fractal universe fascinates as well. He shows the sameness of cycles in the micro universe beyond the classical mechanics of molecules. There are the tiniest continuously repeating patterns in everything ad infinitum.

In Gregg Braden's book - Fractal Time - we go macro. He speaks of the cycles of our cosmos, cycles which repeat similarly, like Mandelbrot's . An epoch cosmological cycle repeats circa 2012.

Recognizing all these elements of life, we can then elect to manage and control them more advantageously. "Knowledge is power. The lack of knowledge is the lack of power." anon

It seems apparent we can either remain victims of former thinking and mindsets, or we can explore the possibility of creating our own destinies in a new way.

I choose the plural of destiny for two reasons. A single destiny implies set in stone. More than one destiny implies we're in it together.

I love connecting the dots. I love rising above the mundane, humdrum of It's always going to be that way. I love releasing myself from a victim's mentality.

Just as Emily Dickinson said, I too dwell in possibility.

infinity-symbol

Change - The Only Constant

2011-06-11T13:21:00.000-04:00

I love the message Playing For Change promotes. They are proactive in the universal language of music, effecting change on a broad scale. I applaud them.

Everything changes, whether we're ready or not. Everyone's noticed global weather changes recently, right?

Everything is connected. It's all energy, therefore connected.

The Global Coherence Initiative has scientific data revealing the influence of human emotion on the entire planet.

We wear bodies made up of energetic frequencies. We have options on how to manage our energy. HeartMath tells us how. Love or Above tells us too.

Bruce Lipton in his Biology of Belief has documented his cellular research proving our personal responsibility towards survival, outside the Darwinian model.

However, there are the non-believers, ones who cannot give credence to any kind of meta-physical control. They tend to hold tight to the status quo. Or, as with politicians, some believe they effect change with words, not with spirit, or with personal integrity.

Richard Gordon and his Quantum Touch Healing modalities have known phenomenal success. He has mentioned his disappointment with the government's health care summit and its failure to research or discuss the efficacy of our new age alternative medicines.

I agree that the ole boys' club should finish off with interiorizing their belief systems and investigate what's happening outside their boxes.

It's scary stepping out into the abyss of the unknown... Except, so much more is known today than people are willing to accept as believable. Old beliefs too often remain fixated on imprinted false messages.

Tradition can work for families, but we've become a global community. If we cannot change, we become brittle and break. Piety - feeling superior - puts the brakes on smooth energetic flows.

Love of self is part of the equation.

Love makes the world go around.

Gotta Love the Attitude

2011-03-12T08:33:00.000-05:00

Odd Couple

2011-03-04T09:38:00.000-05:00

Invisible No More!

2011-02-03T13:22:00.000-05:00

Philosophizing

2011-02-01T23:11:00.000-05:00

Being poetic lends itself to philosophy. Philosopher means "lover of wisdom." A poet philosophizes on life.

Being an old-fashioned minister's granddaughter makes me reflect on spiritual lessons.

I confess I'm a fan of Dr. Michael Beckwith and his Agape Community. I love how he cuts through (the you-know-what) to shout out his pearls of wisdom.

I also subscribe to Brian Johnson's Philosophers Notes.

When the two became fused together in this video, I just had to share it with you.

Old is New 3

2011-01-23T15:34:00.000-05:00

Have you noticed my theme for the new year?

Old is New?

I’m not fixated on getting old. I’m intent on living my best life ever.

There is a paradigm shift occurring, and the pendulum swings back and forth.

Ebb and flow.

Physical things become disorganized and disintegrate.

Spirituality offsets this with its ever expanding simplicity of order.

I’ve convinced myself my life becomes healthier on all levels the more ordered I become.

That’s a trick for me - a creative, fly by the seat of my pants person.

It’s a fun game though. I am experiencing benefits.

In the video above, some commonly accepted myths are debunked. I like Dan's conclusions because it seems to illuminate a way to live much longer with ease.

Ages ago, it was standard to move naturally and not obsess over getting enough exercise. The present day centenarians in the video demonstrate this.

It was common long ago to surround yourself with family and friends one's whole life.

Despite all the opportunity to connect globally, isolation can still be devastating to a person's sense of well-being.

I'm aiming toward an amalgam of carpe diem and que sera sera.

New Age Hipster

2011-01-06T18:19:00.000-05:00

We all have our own kind of genius. I call it eclectic genius.

Not of the Einstein or Hawking genre... but practical, fun, easy.

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
Stephen Hawking

My own definition of genius: ability to see the tiniest detail plus the panoramic view, together as a unit. Separate while similar - connected.

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've also defined creativity as: distilling limitless boundaries into certain boundary limits.

Creativity and genius are not always synonymous.

We are all...can be...creative geniuses whether we recognize it or not.

And we can become aware of that perfect solution for our problems. We may find it residing within.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
Albert Einstein

Life's lowest common denominator: survival.

I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.

Oscar Wilde

Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit.
Ansel Adams

Passion is the genesis of genius.
Tony Robbins

Old is New 2

2010-12-31T19:47:00.002-05:00

Survival of the fittest is passé.

It is, if we aim to survive.

Darwin’s theory was based on a contest among the species, each fighting their own kind in order to survive.

Epi-genetics, the new age biology, reveals colonization and cooperation promotes survival best.

This is true at the molecular level all the way up the scale to the macro level.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Matthew 12:25 (KJV)

My 10.30.10 post -Go to the ant!- spoke to this. That video illustrated the dynamics of the colony, how the group succeeds as a unit.

There's much to learn from the ant.

There's even an "ant colony optimization" algorithm used in computer science!

Here's another video demonstrating the Leaf-Cutter ant as individual in the context of community. These young ants lose their ability to do their jobs as they age, but they take on new responsibilities that help the whole.

MY POINT?

Like it or not, we are connected like chain-link, but on a fifth dimension.

We only diminish ourselves when we try to diminish others.

We do evolve. We can learn from the ancients a kind of simplicity that illuminates our present path of complexity, expanding exponentially.

The answer is always LOVE! It was long ago. It still is today.

Happy New Year!

Seasonal Reality

2010-12-18T14:43:00.000-05:00

We wish for Peace on Earth... and not just at Christmas... but all year through.

We know we must Be the Change We want to See... or we become smaller and less expansive than before.

As Dr. Wayne Dyer said,
"Nothing real can be threatened, Nothing unreal exists, Herein lies the peace of God."

What seems most advantageously real are agreements. Agreements yield coherence. Coherence yields peace.

We want our bodies to agree with our minds.

We want neighbor to agree with neighbor, not in a cookie-cutter way but agreeing to disagree if necessary.

The links below express these desires beautifully. I share them. It's a Paying it Forward seasonal gift.
Global Coherence
Free WisdomFlash

Grandma's Game

2010-12-18T13:24:00.000-05:00

A must read for Grandparents. Those who aren't will love it, too!

At one point during a game, the coach called one of his 9-year-old baseball players aside and asked, 'Do you understand what cooperation is? What a team is?'

The little boy nodded in the affirmative.

'Do you understand that what matters is whether we win or lose together as a team?'

The little boy nodded yes.

'So,' the coach continued, 'I'm sure you know, when an out is called, you shouldn't argue, curse, attack the umpire, or call him a pecker-head. Do you understand all that?'

The little boy nodded again.

He continued, 'And when I take you out of the game so another boy gets a chance to play, it's not good sportsmanship to call your coach a dumb ass is it?'

Again, the little boy nodded.

'Good,' said the coach. 'Now go over there and explain all that to your grandmother.'

The Scale of Things

2010-12-06T18:35:00.000-05:00

You're OK, I'm OK

2010-12-04T20:21:00.000-05:00

Status Quo Won't Work

2010-11-30T17:46:00.000-05:00

Did You Know; Shift Happens - Globalization; Information Age

2010-11-30T17:44:00.000-05:00

This info was collected in 2008 and 2009... It's different now. Facebook has grown exponentially and surpassed the documented facts in this video.

kan man ha roligare?

2010-11-30T16:53:00.000-05:00

"A Good Day" With Brother David Steindl-Rast

2010-11-24T17:30:00.000-05:00

Kahlil Gibran...

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

Cooperation/Coordination

2010-10-30T15:28:00.000-04:00

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise. Proverbs 6:6 KJV

The new biology, not yet in textbooks but still scientific fact, reveals how a human cell operates independently and collectively for optimum survival.

Bruce Lipton, after decades of research in cellular biology, considers cells as "miniature humans." He speaks of "lessons from the Petri dish."

One human is made up of more than 50 trillion individual cells. All of these cells are "smart" and actively seek out environmental conditions that promote survival.

A single-celled organism "learns" survival is enhanced by becoming multicellular. Communities of cells are born.

Communities of any kind must communicate to effectively survive. This new biology reveals how cells talk to one another much more through electromagnetic signals than through chemical ones.

Biophysicist F. Weinhold asked: "When will chemistry textbooks begin to serve as aids, rather than barriers, to this enriched quantum-mechanic perspective on how molecular turnstiles work?"

This isn't a biochemistry lesson I'm writing about... It's about humanity...

Humans are more electromagnetic energy than biochemical energy. Thought is electromagnetic energy.

If we each could only comprehend (like a lowly cell does) how much toxicity (negative thought) causes our downfall and decreases survival, we could then perhaps create a better world together.

So consider the wisdom of ants!

Effort vs Ease

2010-10-30T14:10:00.000-04:00

We can fight it, whatever it is, and make things worse. Or we can go with the flow, and go forward...

Starry Starry Night

2010-10-16T01:58:00.000-04:00

Whenever I hear this song, I think of Eric...

Here's a sample of his art...

This last one was done in his cartoon phase... earlier than the ones above.

Eric was like Vincent -- gifted, tormented, bullied...

But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

The Now Season

2010-10-14T19:50:00.000-04:00

It's my favorite time of year, especially in locales where trees turn... Deciduous is the word...

Autumn is a time to reflect, to fill our cache with happy memories, and even hoard them for winter...

But that's the physical side of things. Internally, it's a season to take stock, look around, see what works, what doesn't work.

I ask: What does my personal modus operandi bring me? I don't succeed well for long on automatic pilot if I want to progress.

It is said: Change is the only constant.

So I monitor, and monitor in ways that are kindly. Being kindly is by accepting and modifying as needed.

It's allowing for seasons of the soul.

Dear Reader, please know I am talking to me...You're eavesdropping, and I invite it...

And I invite you to consider the cyclic changes within:

Sorrow looks back.
Worry looks around.
Faith looks up.
Now looks forward.

Fall is my season of renewal.

Connecting the Dots

2010-10-06T12:27:00.000-04:00

Remember that old song Dem Bones?

The foot bone connected to the leg-bone,
The leg bone connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone connected to the back bone...

So on...

We know all of us have the same building blocks of DNA, yet are unique separately.

The sameness is in the make up, or the chemical structure. Every human being utilizes identical chemicals in their genes.

Animals too carry the same chemical structure. All living things are carbon based.

Uniqueness is in each individual configuration.

Research also shows us that photons, or light molecules, connect us as well, and more broadly. More universally.

Except humans have devised ways of shutting out that connecting light to their detriment. Those tiny photons infuse everything if allowed.

Dem Bones is the problem.

We error while believing all there is is the physical. Or can only know what is seen, felt, tasted, touched as truly authentic.

We error while believing someone, or something, outside us is the sole conductor of light.

The brilliance of light is within, first, and surrounds us without.

Humans can block the incoming rays with their belief systems.

Dr. Sue Morter spoke brilliantly of this to NASA.

It's not the thinking, it's the feeling that counts.

Salvation, redemption comes with connecting to our own true light at the core of our being. That core can be found in the human heart.

Tranquil Moment

2010-10-02T11:21:00.000-04:00

Got Game?

2010-09-26T18:18:00.000-04:00

Role Play

2010-09-19T14:01:00.000-04:00

Interviewer: So, Ms. Happy-No-Reason, are you daft?

Ms. Happy: Possibly. Why do you ask?

Interviewer: Well, you seem out of touch with reality. Are you?

Ms. Happy: I’m less and less so. My reality is validated when there is agreement, not necessarily with me, but with the way others treat others. I’m surrounding myself more and more with people who are in agreement with creating a new paradigm. I’m shunning those who passionately stir up dissent.

Interviewer: What do you mean? Real is real. The outlook is grim. Aren’t you keeping yourself out of touch? Isn’t that the stance of an ostrich?

Ms. Happy: Out of touch with what? I want to be out of touch with those who dig divisiveness. I want to separate myself from those who shout “Henny-Penny, the sky is falling!”

Interviewer: Does that mean you’re one of those quirky Law of Attraction people?

Ms. Happy: I understand that concept. I gravitate toward people who realize resistance is futile, but not in Star Trek’s Borg-kind-of-way. I only know what we resist, we pull toward ourselves. What we resist persists. Resisting holds resistance in place. There seems to be an energetic dimension between cause and effect. We cause to happen what we employ as our guidepost. If we dwell on the need to correct all the wrongs of the world, we’ll get a whole lot of wrongs that need correcting.

Interviewer: You sound like a Pollyanna. So, in your way of thinking, government is unnecessary because government keeps the bad guys in check?

Ms. Happy: Do they? The politico-speak presently seems disruptive to order. We should all have a voice, but voices should be talking dissent more softly, then speaking of finding the agreements more strongly. Right and Left can find ways to agree to disagree without bashing each other. Taking the morally superior high ground only antagonizes, creating more antagonism. Right + Left = Whole.

Interviewer: Do you vote?

Ms. Happy: Yes, of course. But I feel my best influence is putting forth the energy of love as broadly as I am able.

Interviewer: Excuse me, but you don’t seem to be any kind of widely known opinion leader. How do you do that?

Ms. Happy: I do it moment by moment by being in alignment with the truth at my core and by attending to an awareness of what is valuable. If my core is off kilter, I have little to offer anyone. If I know my own true worth at my core, I impart value without effort. If my energy enhances another’s energy, it will have a ripple effect. We are all connected.

Interviewer: Good luck!

Ms. Happy: Thank you.

Knowing How to Know

2010-08-14T18:32:00.000-04:00

For those who's era precedes personal computers, informational anxiety abounds. Especially if any one tries to keep up but can't.

Today’s a sound-bite age. We all know it, like it or not. Find Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat 3.0 and discover the extent of it. Businesses are outsourcing. Individuals are uploading. The viral world dominates. Or so it seems.

But how does one wade through the plethora of gobbledygook and find the gems without wasting hours upon hours?

What's true? What's hype? What's subterfuge?

If one's in the game to win at the game, one must know how to know.

It might help if we learned the lesson Opie taught Andy years ago...

Andy and Opie had been invited for an outing at a nearby country club, possibly a preamble to membership. At first Andy didn't show as much anxiety as Opie did. He told his son to just be himself.

Well-meaning friends advised Andy he should dress up. He caved and bought a suit. At the event, everyone else dressed casually. Ill at ease, Andy barely spoke.

Then Opie burst in from his outside play with the other boys to talk with Andy.

"How are you doing?" Andy asked.

"Great! I took your advice." Opie said.

"What advice?"

"To just be myself."

Epiphany!

Andy smiled and returned to his new friends. He invited them over for their next visit to his favorite fishing hole and they happily agreed.

Indeed, there are worlds to be discovered inside a computer. It has communication lines, connections, avenues to explore.

It's just a box. A box that seems magical, yes.

It may help humans to operate optimally outside the box. It can, if the being knows their own core doesn't depend on a hard drive.

One can really live outside the box - where freedom, wisdom, love expand - when they've been to their own center and discovered their own truth.

At center-point, we know what heals or pleases us without advertisement or embellishment. There are no age parameters at that core.

"A man is as well off as his goals and dreams are intact." L. Ron Hubbard

As a man thinketh, so is he. (a paraphrased Bible verse)

The viral age can serve us when we know who we really are, what we're made of, and what optimizes survival not just for self alone.

A computer term - GIGO, garbage-in-garbage-out - works for our minds as well. What is allowed in will manifest itself outwardly.

The real magic comes from knowing what's in our heart. It places us ahead in life's game. It guides us toward our own true north.

The heart knows how to know.

Secrets of the Universe : Episode 4 - Work it Out

2010-08-02T16:59:00.000-04:00

Speak Up!

2010-07-16T03:43:00.000-04:00

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss

Continuum

2010-06-27T10:11:00.000-04:00

To control anything, everything:

BEGIN!

MODIFY!

KNOW WHEN TO FOLD 'EM!

...can't manage anything until you know when to let it go. Artists know they can over-shoot the point of perfection too often.

To create something new, again, end off with the old.

Sunrise. Sunset. Sunrise. Sunset...

Life Secrets - Persevere Movie

Sunday Sermon

2010-06-20T17:11:00.000-04:00

Years ago, Bette Midler sang "God is watching us..." The song's theme was of harmony echoing through the land, of goodness that prevailed despite human tragedy. All was witnessed from a distance by God.

If we are made in God's image as the Bible says, then we know we have an ability - no, a responsibility - to help elevate the mood when times are tough. We know this if we've evolved appropriately.

With heightened awareness, we see the glass half full rather than half empty.

Laughter helps.

Just yesterday, NPR's Wait Wait... radio show gave us comic relief on the Gulf situation for a brief moment. The panel was asked: How will BP make things even worse? One response: They're going to introduce their new public relations spokesman, Hannibal Lecter.

It's a serious situation but I say jesting with love helps. With a lightness of being, the game of life isn't such a drag.

If we can't personally accept the weighty responsibility of cleaning up man's mess...often a woman's job, I propose we do what we can. I suggest we first help by making God smile. Rather than plead for help from God, we should find the resident joy at our core and pay it forward. We'll send out vibes that all is well in our souls. It can become a contagion.

sky laughter

Unlike the suggestion in my blog on May 16, 2010, titled God Laughs, this upbeat laughter I speak of today heals. It doesn't mock in a disparaging way.

Truly Inspiring - It'll Make You Smile

2010-06-11T13:32:00.000-04:00

Young Cartoonist Eric

2010-06-01T18:18:00.000-04:00

Eric's hand-eye coordination was phenomenal at a very early age.
I knew he was an artist before he went to school.
He not only did cartoons, but many well-detailed sketches too.
This is one of his early cartoons. He signed it, but there's no date on it.

Memorial Day 1986

2010-05-28T22:05:00.000-04:00

A Mother’s Goodbye

Since you went away dear and I could not go with you

My days are cold, filled with only wanting you.

Summer leaves are turning

Winter winds are calling me

To wander through the skies in search of fantasy.

If we could laugh and play

Like children as we did before

Then we could sing and ride the painted carousel

Or wander through the fields of daffodil

My dear one...

If we could touch again

And let our hearts ring out so clear

Then we could sail and soar

Above, beyond this tiny finite universe

Beloved...

Please know my heart’s an open door for you

But you are there

And I am here

And I love you.

The Ultimate relaxing video, music by Paul Collier

2010-05-26T20:26:00.000-04:00

Cutie Cara

2010-05-09T00:20:00.000-04:00

Cara was one of the most precocious little toddlers ever. She sensed the broader picture well beyond the norm.

She still marches to a different drummer and is the phenomenal mother of my grandchildren.

She walks in beauty, like the night... Lord Byron

Eric's Ethics

2010-05-08T20:08:00.000-04:00

I was flying up the Arroyo Seco Parkway towards home one afternoon trying to beat the L.A. to Pasadena commuter traffic.

One doesn’t really fly up the oldest freeway. It’s too winding, too tricky to maneuver with speed.

Anyway, I had an errand to run. I was to pick up Eric’s paycheck for him since he had a track meet.

Twenty minutes later, I met the owner at the men’s clothiers in South Pasadena where Eric worked part time.

I thought it would be a simple in-and-out, but Mr. Owner wanted to talk to me about Eric.

He began..."Your son is one of the most honest young men I’ve had in my employ."

'Oh?'

"Many try to rip me off. Eric kept one of his classmates from doing just that. The other student wanted to lift a tie, but your son wouldn’t let him. Neither knew I was watching."

'Thank you for telling me', I said as I left with the paycheck in hand.

Awesome!

2010-03-29T05:41:00.001-04:00

One evening after school, Cara went to a sleep-over for a study night. So Eric and I went out to eat at our favorite little bistro in South Paz.

The food was excellent! The décor was red retro Naugahyde!

It was a busy night but our wait was brief. Seated, with our order of Frisco burgers made, we started to munch on crackers.

For a brief second, I drifted away thinking of Cara. When I focused back, I saw Eric was gone!

Fast! He didn’t even say anything! I pondered.

I scanned the area and looked toward the restrooms. No Eric! I even looked under the table to see if he’d dropped something and bent to pick it up. Not!

I scanned the room again and spotted him at a table with two gray-haired ladies. He’d been easily camouflaged in the tableau of the three as his standing height matched their seated height.

They were in animated conversation. I did not know the women. Obviously Eric did. When he returned, nothing was said until I asked. “They live over by my school,” was all he offered.

Our burgers arrived so we delved into eating, not speaking.

Half-way through the meal, the ladies came to our table “wanting to meet Eric’s mother.” They proceeded to tell how they knew and why they adored my son. I was amazed!

The sisters had a lovely garden that students mindlessly trampled on their way to school. “Eric keeps the children away from our garden when he’s walking by,” they reported.

On our way home, we spoke sparingly. I complimented my son for his kindness to others. He was gracious in his acknowledgement.

I was in awe.

(This event happened in the time frame of the Happy Trio picture at previous post.)

Happy Trio

2010-03-29T03:27:00.000-04:00

Season of Renewal

2010-03-21T15:43:00.002-04:00

Spring's not far off, but the buds are not in full bloom yet.

They're not like the 2008 picture of my magnolia tree displayed above.

Today I hear the birds announcing the season.

It is a time to be hopeful, despite any remnants of doubt seeping through that buffer zone of thought.

It's a time to pay it forward, the hope, that is.

Did you know there is a web site that tracks daily electromagnetic emanations of human emotion and their effects on the planet?

Go to GCI's (Global Coherence Initiative) site and explore the data. Then be amazed!

March Medley

2010-03-06T23:49:00.000-05:00

Lots of jubilation in June and July was normal for our clan. Nine or ten months later, newborns often appeared!

All three of my siblings were born in March.

I was born in October. I've always been the odd one.

My maternal grandfather was born in March.

My son was born in March.

This year, my granddaughter turns sweet sixteen on the 16th of March.

Isn't she lovely? Look at those blue eyes!

Wedding Day

2010-02-14T12:22:00.001-05:00

Remembering

2010-02-14T12:06:00.000-05:00

Darling Danaya

2010-02-14T12:01:00.001-05:00

Buddies from Birth

2010-02-14T11:58:00.000-05:00

Whaddaya Know!

2010-01-24T13:35:00.026-05:00

Silly me…

I’ve been called all sorts of names…

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me… (unless they’re my own against myself).

I don’t have a photographic memory working full steam, but I do synthesize data well. Old editions of Dick Bolles’ What Color is your Parachute? had quizzes that verified my ability in connecting the dots. In other words - synthesizing. I seek to see how everything is connected.

Did you know the creed of the Red Cross is: "Everyone is responsible to everyone for everything"? (recently stated on TV by an official of the Red Cross)

My own credo is to pay-it-forward, especially when I discover what really works. I enjoy helping others connect the dots.

Language evolves. My interest in learning has evolved too. As a well-seasoned elder, with peaks and valleys of living full-throttle, my interests have broadened beyond family, or daily mundane antics. However, my desire to pass along what I’ve learned never wanes.

Today is a sound-bite age. We all know it. Find Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat 3.0 and discover the extent of it. Businesses are outsourcing. Individuals are uploading. There's a shift in who really has the power.

Years ago, a supervisor posted a note on the break room door asking everyone to write down their pet peeves. I wrote anonymously: PET PEEVE LISTS! The list came down soon after.

I like to live outside the box sans labels. I prefer to fly by the seat of my pants and explore the unknown. My theme song in high school was from Porgy and Bess, "It ain't necessarily so..."

It’s hard to pin down a single attribute that describes my being...

What I am NOT:

1. Over the hill

2. Scattered

3. Unable

4. Anxious

5. Fearful

6. Stale

7. Pedantic

What I AM:
Willing, Able, Energized, and Happy to Be ME!

Personality Test

2010-01-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

Take note, please! ...but I never knew...

You're Watership Down!
by Richard Adams
Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

Ha! This little quiz thinks it knows me! Ha! Ha!
Try it for yourself.

Dualistic

2010-01-01T10:46:00.000-05:00

01.02.2010
Uncanny...

It’s a new year, a new decade with a palindrome of numbers at the start. Without the 20 in 2010, other similar palindromes this month will be: 01/11/10 and 01/22/10.

The word palindrome is derived from the Greek palíndromos, meaning running back again.

Janus, January's origins, was the dual-faced Roman god who represented beginnings and endings.

He could see forward and backward. He was a palindrome.

Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?
...making life a palindrome of sorts...

Hands of Time

2009-12-27T06:35:00.000-05:00

The living moment is everything. ~D.H. Lawrence

New year, new decade...time to leave what is done as done...but before we do, let's recap a nanosecond or two.

February 25, 2001: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" became the most lucrative foreign movie in US history, but tanked in China.

January 06, 2001: George W. Bush was certified by Congress. He would become the 1st President with an MBA.

August 2003: Toyota sold more cars in America than did Chrysler.

March 2005: Researchers at Temple announced an experimental drug that stops cancer cell division and triggers tumor death.

October 2007: A new $800 million MGM Grand Casino opened in Detroit.

January 2009: Some 2 million people packed the National Mall in Washington D.C. to witness the inauguration of our 44th President.

These are recorded micro-moments across an expanse of time...

But Emily Dickinson said it best...

Forever is composed of nows.

Christmas Fast, Christmas Past

2009-12-13T16:56:00.001-05:00

That's me, floating through the season... I'm hurrying toward the future... Not scurrying, not worrying... Excited!

Seventy Christmases have flown by for me. I've marked a few in my memory.

My first, as a toddler, was in Alexandria, IN. Daddy knocked at our front door dressed as Santa. I cried. I didn't like him in disguise.

Around age six, at our home near Indianapolis, Dad gifted me and my brother with ice skates. Even Mom - not a fan - got some too! It was well into the new year when we all tried them out together. Mom had barely laced up, taken a few glides, then went splat! We heard the ice cracking. Our skating party was over, finito!

Growing up, all of our Christmases glowed, with or without lots of gifts. Once married, moi continued the traditions to the best of her ability, but without snow. California's cold white stuff was only in the mountains.

One memorable season was when we traveled from Los Angeles to Indiana to celebrate with my family. We had a new VW for our trip. Our daughter, eighteen months old, was as cute as a bug in our bug. We saw no snow at all that Christmas, not even in Indiana, but our spirits were high.

After the great sadness of losing our son, Christmas was never the same. A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen. Edward de Bono

With the help of friends, and the rememberence of what is true, I can now attest to a peace within which surpasses understanding.

My heart and mind have a wonderful coherence without extraneous assistance. I sense a bountiful new year, and beyond.

Peace...

Supper Club Nostalgia

2009-12-08T03:41:00.000-05:00

I've always been a foodie…

Love, love, love to cook. It’s in the genes. But it took years to get from pt. A to pt. B: A = consumer; B = cook.

Growing up in Middle America wasn't a likely place to eat raw oysters, but I did. Dad liked them. Mom saved raw ones for him when she made oyster stew. He dared me to eat one and I liked it! Ever after, Mom had to save out more oysters from her stew.

Beside all of the standard fare at our family dinner table, i.e. chicken n dumplings, we enjoyed such delights as beef tongue, sweetbreads, braunschweiger, pork rinds or pickled pigs feet. We ate fried rabbit, tasting a lot like fried chicken. Other "treats" more rare were chocolate covered insects or snake meat. These last were gifts from our next door neighbor, the VP of a nationwide canning company. He traveled the world in search of exotic foods and brought them home to share.

After my older brother had left the nest for college, he came back with a taste for limburger cheese and Turkish coffee. He'd drink down all of the buttermilk and leave the empty bottle in the refrigerator.

Mom, as a teenager, had cooked for a dozen hungry farmhands, not as a resident of the farm, but a paid worker. I cooked for my family of six as a teenager while Mom went back to school to get her Masters.

Somehow, all of my cooking experience growing up didn't easily translate when I married and moved West. I'd never heard of tacos until then. My husband wanted tacos for supper one evening. Silly me, I thought you stuffed it first and then put the shell into a pot of hot oil to crisp it up. Hubby came home just in time to show me how it was done.

Eventually, I graduated to become the hostess with the mostess, cooking for church socials and wedding receptions. A great, great aunt baked her specialty of Quince Tarts for all the best wedding banquets in her 19^th C community.

Today, there's a plethora of cooking shows and recipe books, and I love them all. Real food is so much better than a packaged meal.

...Wonder how many youngsters know what Oleo is... or that we had to mix it with a packet of yellow food coloring to make it look edible...

Child's Play

2009-11-23T05:40:00.000-05:00

It’s the season to reminisce about family…

I’m a product of polar opposites, opposites who survived fifty years of marriage. Both taught school: one math, physics, chemistry; the other English, literature, drama.

Dad, with great bravado, would whistle walking down the street. He’d converse with total strangers. This would embarrass Mom because she felt communicative only with a select circle of friends.

It was an era when we were responsible for our own entertainment. Dad provided it splendidly, or at least the opportunity. He gave me and my bro bikes with gears, the first on the block. He bought an inlaid game table for checkers or chess. He bought us a piano, ice skates, a chemistry set, a crystal set radio, so on.

Dad would also take us out on the town. Bro and I saw the Royal Canadian Mounted Police perform with their Lipizzaners. Once, after a trip to the circus, Dad purchased a Shetland pony from them they were retiring. We called her Mable.

We lived in town and stabled our new pony on a farm at the outskirts. One summer day we brought Mable into town to let the kids in the neighborhood ride. Each child took a turn around the block. There weren’t cars to worry about, but Mable did have a handicap. Her hooves weren't shod and the pavement on our street wasn’t smooth.

My turn came. It was fun… for a minute! I’d barely gone a couple of paces when Mable stumbled and I went flying – down, not out. I landed beneath her. Mable, a circus pony, was so well trained she stayed motionless on her front knees until she saw I was up and okay. Then she got up.

The permanent scars on Mable’s knees reminded me ever after of her gentle spirit.

With all of his bluster and bravado, my Dad had a playful and gentle spirit too.

Bad Hair Decade

2009-11-16T02:06:00.000-05:00

Dilemma...

I can't find a decent hairdresser.

I've sisters with luxurious locks... They're younger... My hair was never as thick, or as glorious as theirs.

As a newborn, our brunette sis came home with dark curly ringlets all over her head. A year later, our blonde sis came home without any hair at all...so light she looked as though...

By the time they were in school, I did a Toni permanent on myself. It was cute. A teenager has to have the right hair!

Much older, on my own, I had expert help. Lucky me, in L.A., I went to Vidal Sassoon's.

At home in the Midwest, I found a just-right beautician. Then I moved miles away. Before we parted, she wrote out the details of my cut and color.

At the first salon in my new town, I presented my letter to the beautician (for-a-day) who couldn't read.

Yes... it grows back. Yes... I can go somewhere else, which I have, over, and over...

That was a few years ago. I've been to upscale salons, and to walk-in ones. A $50.00 cut doesn't seem much different than a $15.00 one.

I've observed... Beauticians cut hair parallel to the floor, or to the square room you're sitting in. It seems they don't have the knack for cutting hair parallel to your head anymore.

I don't want bed-head hair...chopped, rat's nest. I don't want helmet-hair either. I'd just like a little sophistication.

I'll keep searching...

Sunset Trail

2009-11-15T17:44:00.000-05:00

Polarity

2009-11-07T19:39:00.000-05:00

Dare I speak these thoughts?

Indulge me, please... It's just for the heck of it...

I propose that all conflicts have their origins back in time to a kind of war of the roses - as in male versus female dominance.

Long before the civil wars in England, long before the Crusades, I suggest that men and women fighting for domination might have just started it all.

Was this a fight over who came first, the chicken or the egg?

There's an entry in a Timeline of History at 35,000 B.C: Human kind does not seem to have been addicted to war throughout its history on earth.

Paleontologists believe men dealt with one another having some conflict, but no war in that time.

Another entry at 5000 B.C. said: War had become endemic in almost all human societies.

OK, so a 30,000-year difference means there was a lot we don't know without written history. But we do have carbon-dating, etc.

There is documentation of religious fighting in the Bible.

Before the time of Adam, there were peaceful eras when goddesses ruled with their male counterparts, as in the Celts 1200 B.C.

There were myths of goddesses, plus we have ancient shards of pottery depicting goddesses many millennia prior.

The Genographic Project traced a "Scientific Eve" back to 200,000 years ago. She is said to be the common genetic ancestor of all who are alive today.

It was possible to track because female eggs, not sperm, pass mitochondria down through generations. Mitochondrial DNA samples were mapped backwards in time.

The "Scientific Adam", our male common ancestor, was traced back to a man 60,000 years ago.

It's all food for thought, at least the science of it. It seems to prove humans get too hung up on the 'how' and 'why' of life from the outside-in, rather than the inside-out.

Doesn't demanding domination negate peaceful negotiations?

I love the yin and yang of life.

Wings to Fly

2009-11-02T02:43:00.000-05:00

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.

Amelia Earhart

Lacy Leaves

2009-10-28T14:48:00.000-04:00

Heart Health

2009-10-28T00:27:00.002-04:00

OK! So, I am metaphysical…

I know how we are all connected on dual planes of being. I’m not alone though…I’ll tell you how the scientific world explains it.

Like it or not, all organics share in a carbon/hydrogen composition.

Beyond the physical facts, and since the early 1940s, there’s proof of an aura of energy surrounding all entities as well. This energy was photographed with Kirlian technology.

A severed piece of a leaf remained in the photograph even after being removed. A digit of a human hand had been photographed similarly. Kirlian cameras could see the aura where the severed part once was.

Years later in the nineties, Dr. V.V. Poponin, a quantum physicist, explained more fully this phantom effect. He proved non-linear dynamics of DNA with experiments using sealed vacuum tubes. Placing DNA in a vacuum caused random photons to become orderly.

It gets curiouser and curiouser.

John Wheeler, a recipient of the Wolf Prize in Physics proposed, “everything physical… is information-theoretic in origin”. I’ll abbreviate the techno babble: An inter-play of thoughts are before theory, and theory is before substance. His doctrine was called 'It from bit'.

Another way of saying it: matter is compressed energy, information is patterned energy. Humans pattern with their thoughts. They, either knowingly or unknowingly, participate in the universe.

At the Institute of HeartMath, studies have shown a power in the human heart much more profound than simply pumping blood. There’s proof that the electromagnetic signals produced by your heart affects the brain waves of people around you. http://www.heartmath.org/

Gregg Braden, in quoting the ancients on prayer said, “One must feel the feeling as though the prayer is already answered.” www.greggbraden.com

In all of Braden’s publications, he pulls together the scientific data of today and compares it with the known data of the ancients. In his book, The Divine Matrix , Braden describes the electromagnetic web within and throughout our physical universe that communicates sans limits or boundaries.

Bottom line: It all falls back on us, on our own accountability, or our own ability to fathom the responsibility, a responsibility of connection.

www.thelivingmatrixmovie.com

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Mahatma Gandhi

Autumn at Ault Park

2009-10-18T14:10:00.000-04:00

Mind Over Matter

2009-10-10T23:56:00.000-04:00

So infrequently we mull over ideas about energy, we assume it’s on automatic pilot, that it will always be the same. A grand electromagnetic force, ebbing and flowing from the edge of our universe to the molecules in our toes, seems secure. It is, until we blunt it.

In an open system of energy, the sun sends out its rays and we gain heat, vitamin D, or oxygen via photosynthesis from it. We bask in it, or have mood swings by it.

In a closed system of energy, we know minerals keep our bodies functioning with electrical charges. Magnesium, calcium, sodium, and chloride keep us ticking with their interacting positive and negative ions.

Whether we explain it by biochemistry, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, or whatever -- all of matter is bathed in electromagnetic energy flows.

There are downsides to energy. Flows can get stuck, short out. We can get too much sun, too much salt. Electric shock can assault. Lie detectors can measure bad vibes. And factions can spend tons of effort – energy – in making others wrong, intent on proving themselves right. It gets fuzzy, so fuzzy we give up on understanding.

There is hope, however. There’s always a solution, a better way. When my computer crashes, I reboot. When an angry person rages, I feel for them in their pain. The best in us can see beyond matter. The best in us can grant the other person himself. The best in us can smooth the circuitry, the wavelengths of energy.

How can we do this? “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7 KJV. We are all connected through energy we either help flow or flub.

Might as well ease on down the road.

Gratefulness

2009-10-09T16:41:00.000-04:00

Kahlil Gibran...

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

Cincinnati Skyline

2009-10-04T09:00:00.001-04:00

It was a hazy August day on Mt. Auburn...

To the right, Kentucky. To the left, Ohio, with the river between.