Message From a Fruit Fly

Many years ago I studied spiritual practices of indigenous cultures.  One aspect was to pay attention to the presence and movements of animals.  If an animal were to appear often, it might be a message from the spirit world. ¹

Back then I would look for "cool" animals: bear, coyote, fox, deer.  I've certainly seen them from time to time.  But not all animals are mammals.  We're more likely to encounter insects and arachnids and dismiss them.

Yesterday and today, for example, I'm seeing a fruit fly hover in front of my face.  Its behavior was annoying - certainly "swat-worthy."  But I think annoying behavior often helps to attract someone's attention.  And you need to attract someone's attention before conveying a message.

So what is Fruit Fly's message?

In general, flies indicate the presence of garbage, refuse, waste ².  But there is so much more to this creature than just its desire to lay eggs on a food source.  Here's what "Aunty Flo" has to say about Fruit Fly as a spiritual communicator ³:

"Fruit flies are tiny and annoying but to me, they hold lessons. They appear when we ignore neglect. They teach us about life's cycles and they remind us to clear all that rubbish in the spare room that we leave for another day. To see them is to reflect on neglect, what is messy in your life right now?"

Also I find this encouraging (being unemployed):

"Fruit flies are adept survivors. They can utilize most of anything they feed on, even though it may be only a scrap of food. As a guide, they can show us how to make the most of what is accessible to us, to be frugal and use what we have sparingly in order to survive. They are also quite mobile and fast, able to fly from one spot to another. This shows us how we too must be able to adapt and move from one environment to another, looking for what we need."

Do I truly believe Fruit Fly came here to give me a message?  Not really. I think it came into my home because I bought a bunch of bananas that had its eggs on it.  But it is odd that it's flying in front of my face and not hanging out with the food.  And there's not just one fly because I found a fly in my oat bran earlier.

Is your attention interrupted by an annoying animal?  Find out what the spirit world may be trying to tell you.  The best way I found to look up an animal's message is to use the Search feature at the AuntyFlo site.  If there are multiple results, choose the link that includes the word "magic/" in front of the animal.

What message did you receive?

---

¹ https://www.richardalois.com/symbolism/animal-symbols-native-american
² poop
³ https://www.auntyflo.com/magic/fruit-fly

Chanting for World Peace and Happiness

If you've ever thought about praying for world peace or happiness, today of all days would be a good day to start.

Below is a link to a page with videos that describe one Buddhist practice of chanting.

Please try it.  Or pray in your own way.  Everyone's contribution counts!

http://www.sgi-usa.org/memberresources/beginnersresources/howtochant.php

Quotes from "Meditation as a Way of Life"

The following quotes are from "Meditation as a Way of Life," by Alan L Pritz.

"Chanting is an especially potent [devotional] practice because it brings energy (might) to the heart (love) and directs the attention completely (with all thy soul) on God.  In my years of leading meditation groups, I have found that chanting effectively helps people get past their heads and into their hearts.  Even persons with no spiritual leaning have reveled in the alluring aura generate by chanting.  When practiced deeply, devotional chanting can induce a kind of intoxication similar to that which Jesus's disciples felt when toughed by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: Your energy gets elevated to a divine plane, and you simply get drunk on the love of God! (page 95)

"Another form of devotional practice involves using prayer beads of the rosary -- whatever fits your tradition.  The idea is to pass these beads between your fingers one at a time while reciting a mantra or prayer. Like anything else, it can either be an empty gesture or have inner value, depending on the quality of your attention and intention.  One story tells of a woman who complained to a Hindu saint that prayer beads were ineffective:  She had been using hers for years with no result.  Discreetly observing her over time, he noticed that her attention was on everything else but God, so naturally her mechanical prayers would not bear fruit.  The same can be said for any superficial spiritual practice.  We could be in heaven but miss its glories if inattentive.  With right determination and devotion, however, nothing can  keep us from Spirit.  Loving thought of God invites his company, and that can be done anywhere, anytime.

"The love of God opens mental and emotional channels that keep us in tune with Spirit because Spirit is love.  The Divine is omnipresent, and remembrance of God is a doorway to his presence.  'Be thou diligent in performing actions in the thought of Me.  Even by engaging in activities on My behalf thou shalt attain supreme divine success.'  When thinking of and loving God, our vibrational field is raised.  Ordinary persons may notice this rise by feeling joyfully inspired.  Those steeped in divine ardor may experience spiritual ecstasy or, in the case of the Christian mystic Brother Lawrence, can levitate.  When divinely enraptured, Brother Lawrence rose off the earth; his fellow monks, being ever practical, put him on refectory duty so the ceiling would keep him from floating away.  Heaven, it seems, manifests whenever the head and heart are absorbed in God." (page 96)


"A principal feature with breathing exercises is that mental states respond to the depth, rhythm, and retention of breath.  Regulated breathing balances energy movements through the brain hemispheres, causing a tonic effect that enhances nervous and immune system functions.  Associated benefits include resistance to stress and disease, plus elevated mood, calmness, focus, and creativity.  Even a little done daily is beneficial.

Exercise 1: Centering Breath

This exercise is a cornerstone for stress management and can be done anywhere, anytime -- at home, driving (with eyes open!), or at work.  It helps us to be present and turn within for meditation when desired.  In fact, many and spiritual traditions use centered breathing in conjunction with prayer or guided imagery to enhance inner experiences.

• Sit in a comfortable position with body relaxed and spine straight.  You may also lie down if circumstances allow, but it is often easier to remain awake and alert when sitting upright.
• Close your eyes and mentally focus on the breath.
• Clasp the hands together, placing them gently on the stomach.
• Inhale deeply and slowly through the nose.  Let the belly expand.  Imagine drawing an elixir of calmness directly into the body and brain.
• Exhale slowly and fully through the nose.  Allow the belly to release.  With each exhalation, let go of all mental worries and physical tension.  Experience a sense of increasing physical heaviness.  Retreat within and drop awareness of the body.  Enjoy being interiorized inside the bodily shell.
• Repeat the inhalation and exhalation process smoothly and continuously.
• If the mind wanders, return it to observing the breath.
• Do not try too hard or judge yourself.  This is not contest.
• Practice 5 to 10 minutes.
• When finished, inhale fully and gently return to normal." (pages 160 - 162)

"Use of sound frequencies deliberately exercised for spiritual purposes is rarely employed in the West outside of Wiccan or indigenous traditions....

"Use of this mantra requires that it be repeated in conjunction with breath..."

Quotes From "The Raven's Gift"

Ravens may drop walnuts on your head, storms may batter your canoe, blizzards may scatter your reindeer, but lighten up; nature is "'playing' with you and that is all.  It is not to be taken seriously." (page 210)

I wonder, does nature make traffic lights turn red just as you get to them?

The Koryak Creation Story

When the cosmos was new, there were no people, so Etinvin, our God, made people and placed them on the earth.  He started off first by making the Northern People.  He gave them the best, richest, and most wonderful place on the planet, right here near Vyvenka and above.  He put salmon in the rivers, seals in the bays, and reindeer on the tundra.

When Etinvin finished, there were many places left on the earth with no people.  But he ran out of genuine parts to make people with.  He asked Kutcha [the Raven God] what he should do and Kutcha suggested that they carve some people out of wood.  So Etinvin carved people out of wood.  These people became the Europeans.  They are stupid because they are made of wood and not genuine parts.  They fight too much and they don't think about the future of the earth.  They build too many machines that destroy the earth.

When all the people were finished, Etinvin looked down and saw a woman on the tundra.  She was giving birth and crying in great pain.  Her husband didn't know what to do, so he tried to cut the baby out of the woman's stomach with a large knife.  But that made the women and the baby dead.

Etinvin was sad and called Kutcha: "These people are new and they don't know how to live.  You must fly down from the heavens and teach the people how to live."

So Kutcha gathered the people, and explained: "Women must go to the tundra.  Watch the birds and see how they give birth."

The women walked out to the tundra and watched the birds laying eggs.  And then they understood.  They had many healthy babies and their numbers grew.  But still the people didn't know how to live very well.  So Etinvin called Kutcha again and told him to go back down to earth and tell the people out to live.

And Kutcha gave the following advice:

"Ocean water is full of salt and is not good to drink.  Drink water from the mountains.  That is the sweetest water.

"When the sun is setting, your children must not cry.  They must sit near you and you must tell them stories.  After the stories, the children must sleep.

"You must wake up early in the morning, especially in the spring, when the earth is waking after the winter night.

"If a child falls down, you the must say, 'Stand up.  Don't cry.'

"When fish swim up the river, you must have silence near the river.  The fish will have babies, so you must be quiet to respect the children.

"If you have a headache or stomachache or other pain, you must call Kutcha and say, 'Help me.'  And Kutcha will put on his raven coat and fly down from the heavens.  He will spit on the place that makes the pain.  Then you must push the pain through the body with one finger.  Pick up the pain on the other side of the body, grab it in your hand, and say, 'Go to your mother.  She lives in the darkest place in the North.'  Then you must go outside and throw the pain into the wind." (pages 194 - 195)

From "The Raven's Gift," by Jon Turk

Welcome to USA Pope Francis

Pope Francis will be visiting the USA from today until Friday, so I'd like to extend a warm welcome to him.

It seems a fitting time to give readers a condensed timeline of my religious background, especially since it all started with Catholicism.

I was born in the early1960s to Roman Catholic parents and baptized into the Church, in which I had my first Communion and Confirmation.

Both G-d and Santa Claus were used as threats in order to temper my behavior.  G-d would punish me while Santa would grant or deny presents.  Actually, I never believed in Santa; I knew my parents and other relatives provided the presents.  Rather than write a letter to Santa for presents, I would simply pray for them.  And I'd write a list for my mom.

Being musically inclined, I was involved in the Folk Group as a teen.  We played during the Saturday evening Mass.  Then I turned 18 and graduated high school, and I left the group and stopped attending Mass altogether.

In my mid twenties, I went on a binge of reading about Christian Mysticism, as described here.

That changed after I proposed to my fiance and we became engaged.  She was Roman Catholic, too.  One of her first actions was to pin down a wedding date, select a Church and have us start attending Mass together.  Since we both viewed Catholicism as more punitive than nurturing, we "shopped" all the local Christian congregations until we settled on a modest Lutheran church in our town.  I joined their choir to sing bass, and we were married there several months later.

Our daughter was born a few years later.  We continued to attend services weekly.  Six months later, our daughter was baptized.  We would keep our tiny daughter with us in the pew among the other choir members and walk out with her if she acted up, which she rarely did.

After our daughter became a toddler, we decided to leave her in the daycare that was provided.  At this point she could become upset and quickly react with a meltdown under certain conditions, including being left alone in a room.  We called that separation anxiety.  So on that first day in the nursery we made sure she was comfortable and occupied, and we reassured her that we'd be back.  She seemed fine.  About twenty minutes later, the daycare provider was trying to comfort our screaming daughter, who was writhing and arching her back as if the woman was torturing her.  The woman was aghast and asked if our daughter were sick (or abnormal, perhaps).  We drove home right away -- we needed the entire 10 minute car ride to calm her down, and we kept our daughter with us in the pew among the other choir members for a few more years.

Eventually our daughter would be diagnosed with Mild Autism, and she was enrolled in the public school's preschool for children with developmental disorders.  Sunday school was difficult -- the church had no professionals to provide therapy or support.  The teachers were mostly parents or grandparents of "normal" children.  So my wife and I would attend the earlier grades of Sunday school with our daughter until she settled down.  But she never really "took" to it -- she formed no connections with the other children.  This continued into her teenage years and the Youth Group.

What she did connect with was the choir.  Unfortunately there was no children's choir at the time.  It wasn't formed until after our daughter was a bit older and after the idea about singing in a choir was no longer fresh and interesting.  Still, she gave it a go.  But with her extremely well-tuned ear for pitch and her sensitivity to tonal quality, she was disappointed with the other children and lost interest.

In the Lutheran Church, children wait until they enter grade 5 to receive their First Holy Communion.  And then they get confirmed even later.  I sincerely thought she'd drop out before getting confirmed.  The more she "learned" about Christianity, the less sense it made to her.  Fortunately the assistant Pastor made some accommodation for her, and she squeaked by.  And then she announced that she was Pagan and left.

I continued to attend the services as a choir member.  But it bothered my wife.  She didn't want to sit in the back with me and the other choir members, and she didn't want to sit alone in the regular seats.  So I stopped wearing the choir robe and sat with her in the regular seats, joining the choir only when necessary.

After eight years was getting tired of the weekly rehearsals and the getting up early on Sunday.  I had planned to announce my retirement from the group.  But the choir director beat me to the punch -- one evening she announced her retirement.  So I remained quiet about my own desire to leave.  It took one full season for the church to find a replacement, so I stayed on in support of the interim choir director.  I was the strongest bass we had.  I wasn't necessarily the best singer, but I could sight-singing and learned the parts quickly, even the tenor and alto lines, too, to help folks with their parts.

When the cat died, the emotional impact of singing was nearly too great for me.  Leaving my sad wife and daughter at home twice each week was an additional burden.  Plus my wife had been hospitalized two years earlier for four weeks and left with chronic pain and fatigue.  I stuck it out for another three months and then abruptly failed to show up for the first rehearsal of the next season.  When they called, my wife said simply, "He quit."  I stopped going to church for several weeks and didn't even speak with anyone until a couple of months later when I'd accidentally bump into a choir member.

We would attend some services, such as Good Friday (my wife's favorite) and Christmas Eve.  These days, getting out of the house by 9:30am five day each week in time for work is challenging for me.  It takes me four hours every morning to get myself ready, feed the four cats and dog, get my daughter ready for school, attend to my wife's needs.  So I like having the weekend with no morning obligations, church included.  And frankly, I've always considered prayer a solitary endeavor, so I never feel the need to be a part of a congregation.

Recently my wife became reacquainted with her Reiki instructor.  It turned out that the instructor was a practicing Buddhist.  We were invited to attend some meetings / sessions / whatevers.  So my wife decided to join them.  She and my daughter are now official Buddhists.

And me?  I really don't know.  I need to strip away all the brainwashing that I received and then figure out what make sense to me.  Most followers of the major religions in our world could be considered psychotic.  Do you think not?  Then read this: "I believe if I say certain words at a certain time each week, that life will be easier for me and my loved ones, and it will bring about World Peace.  And best of all, when I die, I won't actually die -- I'll go to a special, wonderful place."  That's some really crazy sheet.

Sorry about all that content, Pope Francis.  I do hope you enjoy your stay here.

What's Your Life Purpose?

These are my answers to Mark Manson's slightly quirky "7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Life Purpose" which you can find at http://markmanson.net/life-purpose .

1. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FLAVOR OF SHIT SANDWICH AND DOES IT COME WITH AN OLIVE?
This question made no sense to me.  First of all, the wording is stupidly designed to grab one's attention rather than to provoke thought.  Perhaps you'll find it easier to answer this, "What miserable or tedious activity are you willing to endure in pursuit of your passion?"  Even worded this way, it's difficult to answer -- "one man's meat is another man's poison."  There are activities that I would dread (such an influencing someone to invest in something or purchase something) that others would relish.  And those others might assume that everyone enjoys those activities.  I'm sure there are activities that most normal people abhor that I don't mind.  But I don't know what those activities might be.  Nevertheless, the first thing I came up with is this: I'm willing to repeatedly work and rework something until it's perfect.

2. WHAT IS TRUE ABOUT YOU TODAY THAT WOULD MAKE YOUR 8-YEAR-OLD SELF CRY?
My 8-year-old self had absolutely no empathy toward people.  He would've cried if his cracker broke while he was buttering it, or if he got stung by a bee, or if the fast food joint put tomato on his burger even after he told them not to.  But he wouldn't cry over his future self.  Still, I'm sure he'd be disappointed that, as an engineer, I haven't invented anything cool like a space probe, rocket ship or killo-zap ray gun.

3. WHAT MAKES YOU FORGET TO EAT AND POOP?
Art and coding, and especially Artful Coding.  Figuring stuff out, like how to perform calculus with batch files.

4. HOW CAN YOU BETTER EMBARRASS YOURSELF?
This is another nonsensical question.  What it's really asking is, "What's something you'd really like to do but you have refrained from only because you think you'd look silly doing it or people would laugh at you?"  For me, there's nothing worthwhile to be done that I consider silly.  Become a rock musician?  Sure, why not?  Go on an autumn bike tour in Vermont?  I'm there, even though my legs sometimes don't work too well.
The closest I can get is perhaps publishing a very personal, revealing, intimate autobiography (one that would include even all my erotic fantasies) prior to the deaths of all my immediate family members and myself.

5. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE THE WORLD?
Yeah, right?  Like anyone's going to listen to me?  The world will have to fend for itself.  I'm done thinking about what's wrong with it.  I can't even convince Google to provide an option to turn off Autosave or implement Copy-Drag in its online editors, which is why I'm writing this in a word processing program rather than the default Blogger post editor.
Well, still, on my own small personal scale, I am doing all I can to lower my ecological footprint.  I didn't install the air conditioner in the kitchen this year - it wasn't oppressively hot enough.  I'm a hypermiler, but I'd prefer to walk or bike everywhere if I could.  I'd like to go solar and live off the grid.  I wear clothes until they're threadbare - even the thrift stores don't want my old clothes.  I'm willing to forage more, especially if I can safely identify edible invasive plants that can be eaten raw or steamed.  I fix broken appliances rather than throw them out to make room for new ones.  I've started to find uses for ordinary twigs in home repairs and crafts.

6. GUN TO YOUR HEAD, IF YOU HAD TO LEAVE THE HOUSE ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, WHERE WOULD YOU GO AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Easy.  I would go into a large forested watershed that's blazed with hiking trails, bringing my camera, a hearty snack or two and lots of water, and hike all day.  And you don't need a gun to make that happen.
What's with the gun thing, anyway?  Is this written for Millennials who stereotypically stay indoors in front of their computers all day?

7. IF YOU KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO DIE ONE YEAR FROM TODAY, WHAT WOULD YOU DO AND HOW WOULD YOU WANT TO BE REMEMBERED?
Within one year, I might frame my best cat photos and exhibit them at the library, and I could also use the exhibit as a platform for a fundraiser for our favorite cat shelter.

So what does all this mean?  Is my purpose to do Artful Coding for a Cat Shelter that's located in an off-grid cabin close to a woodland stream?  If you leave out the detail about the Cat Shelter, it could make me out to be like Ted Kaczynski.


What are your answers?  I want to know.

Pulled Off Center

Today I was pulled way off center.

My plan was to drop off my wife's car at the mechanic near my work place for minor service, then drive it over to get the biennial state-mandated inspection at lunch time.

Plans, well, they often go awry.  But I was able to take a break from work when the car was ready, at about 4:15pm.  The inspection station would still be open when I got there, but I was annoyed at all the traffic.

I was especially annoyed at a blue Honda that I'd waited patiently for.  I could've pulled out in front of it, not exactly cutting it off, but somewhat rudely causing it to slow down when I would eventually turn off the road 30 yards later.

But after I pulled into the road behind it, I could tell that this car was also headed for the inspection station.  The clue was the temporary license plate that was affixed to the inside of the rear window.  So it seemed that this driver would be first in line for inspection, and I'd have to wait.  I still had to call in an order of Chinese food, pick that food up, and then pick up my daughter at school before finally arriving home.

I shadowed the blue Honda, turn for turn.  It parked in the only parking spot near the station's entrance.  I had to pull the car around back and park partly on a sheet of slippery, compacted snow.

Yet, somehow I managed to walk to the door of the testing station before the other driver, who, it turned out, was a young attractive woman.  She moved in a Certain Way, like the musical way that tall grass blows in a gentle breeze.  She moved just like another young attractive woman who works at the same company as me.

At first I decided to pretend I didn't see her and let the door close behind me.  But then I stopped in the threshold and held the door open for her, because I felt her Pull.

She was conversational, asking what the station's hours were (when they were clearly displayed) and how much the test would cost.  After we checked in with the attentant we sat down on separate couches.

I'd been at the station before.  Back then they had two friendly dogs roaming about.  But the dogs weren't here today, so I asked about them.  Then the woman perked up and said she'd like to get a dog.  She'd been through a divorce just recently and her ex took the dog and her son really misses it.  I jokingly said she could have mine.  Then, seriously, I mentioned the rescue organization that I got my dog from.

It wasn't just the divorce that she'd been through.  Today, she was also laid off from her job.  "The condo's expensive," she added.  I thought she was going to cry.  And the reason for the temporary plate was that her registration had expired and she was fined and the car was towed away.  On top of that the taxes are due next month.

At this point I wanted to help her so badly.  I would've hired her if I ran a business.  And then I thought of starting a business so that I could hire her.  Or I could pay her to pet sit whenever our family went away (not that we ever go anywhere overnight).  My employer always seems to have an opening for an assembler, so I mentioned that.  But she knew about my workplace; her sister works there.  Her sister, is, of course, the other woman who moves, enchantingly, in that same Certain Way.

In a mystical flash, I sensed the life lines of her and her sister very briefly.  Her sister came to the workplace a couple of years ago, a fresh start after a divorce and a bad experience at another company.  And now this blue Honda woman's life line, co-mingling ever so briefly with mine, drifts along much like her sister's.

How to Become Euphoric

Do you want to experience a sense of euphoria¹?  Here's how you do it.

Help someone.

Find someone who's struggling and help him or her.

Last night, I experienced euphoria.  I was picking up my daughter from school.  One of the other moms was stuck.  She couldn't start her car -- the battery was weak.  I drove over, hooked up my jumper cables, and gave her a boost.  Also I popped open the battery filler ports and showed her that the water was low.  The woman I helped was my daughter's friend's mom, too.

She was so grateful, and so was my daughter.  But I am even more grateful for the opportunity to make a real difference in someone's life.  And I get another topic for my blog.

How do you become euphoric?

---

¹ Euphoria would be a good name for a rock band. In fact, it is the name of a rock band!

Parkinson's Disease and Christmas

A few months ago yet another family member was diagnosed with a neurological disorder.  My cousin Joe has joined the 1 percent of folks over 60 years old who have Parkinson's Disease.  His sister already had been dealing with Multiple Sclerosis for 30 years.

The latest issue of Neurology Now features an article on Parkinson's Disease (PD): Not Just Tremor: Recognizing depression and other non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease.  And as I read it during the Christmas season, I was especially drawn to this single paragraph:

People with PD even have a tendency to lose their interest in religion—a change more readily considered philosophical than pathological. According to research by Patrick McNamara, Ph.D., of Boston University School of Medicine, people with PD report significantly lower levels of interest in religion. Brain scans show that this lack of interest coincides with changes in the prefrontal cortex but does not correlate with depression, age, education, intelligence, or medication.

 I pondered this all throughout the Christmas religious service.  And I also thought about why I quit the church choir -- mainly it was the hypocrisy of singing about that which I no longer really believed in, particularly at Christmas time when the verse proclaimed the miracle of virgin birth.  (And it should be noted that hypochondria is one of my "pastimes.")  So (feeling empty myself) I wondered if this is how someone who has lost religion feels at Christmas?  Are ministers aware of this aspect of Parkinson's?  What if this happens to a minister with Parkinson's Disease?

Merry Christmas

Jack-o-Lanterns in the Labyrinth

Sign From the Angels

Caller ID showed that the new call was from my wife's cell phone.  I answered quickly, a little alarmed.  She usually uses that phone only for emergencies, like when the car battery died several weeks ago.

"Hello?"  (If I answer "Hi Honey," she gets confused -- she's still not accustomed to caller ID.)

"Hi Square.  Are you busy?"

I can usually tell what kind of call it's going to be right after "Hi Square."  But  this was a New Call.  It wasn't the call in which "The car's running really rough and the check engine light is flashing;" or, "Where are all the peppers I bought?  Don't tell me you ate them all!  [You idiot!]  I was going to make PEPPERS AND ONIONS TONIGHT!" or, "Simba knocked your favorite plant over and then he crapped in the dirt.  And then dog came over and ate all the dirt & cat poop and then he threw up in the middle of the living room carpet!"

No, this sounded like it was going to be an Exciting Discovery, a winning lottery ticket, perhaps.  Not a measly five dollar teaser, either.  Here's what she said.

"You're not going to believe this, but I was at the store and then I came out to put the groceries in the trunk.  When I opened the trunk, I found two boxes of Angel Hair pasta!"

"What, you mean 'pasta?'  Tinkyada rice pasta?"  We don't buy wheat pasta because of the gluten.

"No, this is regular Prince Angel Hair pasta in the blue box!  How did this get here?  Did someone think this was their car and put it in?  Do you think this is a sign from an angel?  It's Angel Hair pasta!"
"Maybe you had a bag of food to donate and it spilled out?"

"Square, I know my trunk.  There's no way this Angel Hair pasta should be here!  Could this really be a sign from an angel?"

"Wow, yes, it sure sounds like it!

"Oooohhh, wait a minute.  I know where this is from!  I gave the twins a ride to school this morning, and they were talking about a non-perishable food drive.  It must've fallen out of their bags.  Ooooohhhh!"

"Well, it's still a Sign from the Angels, though."

Right?

Have you had any Signs from the Angels, lately?

A Search For Meaning

About a year and a half ago, Kerry wrote about Dr. Viktor Frankl's book, ”Man’s Search for Meaning”. Being the wise-ass that I am, I asked whether it's better to actually find meaning rather than just search for it.

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that the search may be better than the finding. What if the meaning turns out to be that we're an accident or mistake? Wouldn't it be better to believe that we were lovingly crafted from some All-Powerful Being?

Isn't it better to look at the presents under the tree and wonder what's inside? Or would you rather open them and discover a tie, an ugly sweater, and a fruit cake?

Blessings to you during this holiday season.

A Medicine Woman's Words

“Envy and the need to control others is where witchcraft and sorcery are hatched.”

“The squirrel is very wise. Two-leggeds have learned from him over the centuries. He knows the turn of the season wheels and he collects food and prepares for winter. The squirrel knows many things about food that humans have yet to learn. They are familiar with tree spirits and tree magic. They know secret places of power, places that radiate with enough power to drive the human crazy. They know of invisible places and will bring the love of one tree for another.”

- Agnes Whistling Elk, in "Flight of the Seventh Moon," by Lynn Andrews.

Bridge to the Beyond

Most of humanity tries to huddle in secure domains. Yet there are always those few we call walkers on the edge, or rim. They are searching for a bridge that leads over the river. There are many bridges. Some of these are masked under the name of religion. Yoga is a bridge. Sufism is a bridge. In the end there is only one bridge to follow, and that is the bridge of love. That bridge is the singular way to span into the beyond. Ultimately that is the one that gets us all there. When you experience the unexpected and the unprecedented in your life, follow your heart. It's the one sure path that leads to safety.

- Zoila in Star Woman: We Are Made from Stars and to the Stars We Must Return, by Lynn V. Andrews

On Healing, Artists, and Regaining Control

"...it is what you choose not to observe in your life that controls your life."

- Butterfly Woman
from "Jaguar Woman and the Wisdom of the Butterfly Tree," Lynn V. Andrews

...your culture doesn't support its artists. Your culture accepts only the great nurturing matriarch, the type of woman who grows the corn and raises children. These women love routine, get married, raise their children, and generally have a much easier time than their rainbow sisters. While the Rainbow Mothers are frustrated, unfulfilled, and perhaps alcoholics because of the expectations of others, the Great Mothers are the pillars of society. Until they reach midlife, that is. Then they find that their children are grown, and there is no one to nurture. At that point, their opposite energy, Death Mother, comes close and tries to take them away.

- Zoila
from "Jaguar Woman and the Wisdom of the Butterfly Tree," Lynn V. Andrews

Sylvia Browne on the Healing Process...

Anyone can heal, but advanced souls often do it with more strength than others do, and they can even see faster results. Yet if you're not a mystical traveler, I don't want to discourage you from healing because you *can* absolutely do a transfer of energy.

Make sure you begin by surrounding yourself and the person you're healing with white light, and then thread green light through his or her body. Next, you can follow the very simple process that the ministers of Novus Spiritus do after every service. They wait until after the service is over and stand behind those who want healing, who are seated. If the minister is female, she simply puts her right hand on top of the person's head, and then places her left hand over that. If it's a male minister, the hands are reversed -- his left hand would be on top of the individual's head, and his right hand would go over that.

This signifies and recognizes the left and right sides of the brain, and how they typically work with the sexes: Males generally operate from the left sides of their brains, while females tend to be dominated by the right sides of their brains. However, this can be individually different, so you might want to experiment to see which hand placement works better for you.

After the placement of hands, the ministers surround both themselves and the people being healed with the white light of the Holy Spirit, and then they ask that they become tubes by which God's energy flows through to heal those who need it and can benefit from that energy. It's as simple as that, and very effective. Our ministers have had great success in healings, and men and women invariably stand up in our churches to relate that they feel 100 percent better.

You don't have to pay for lessons in healing unless you're going to become a doctor... or the like. It's always baffling to me when people who do holistic or faith healing follow rituals or ritualistic practices and over complicate it. Our Parents know what we need -- we're all Their children and have the power to channel Their energy. Thus, we don't have to explain ourselves and what we're doing to Them.

Healers don't even have to necessarily know where an illness is, for they're just the vehicles that Mother and Father God's grace and healing energy comes through, with no effect on them. There's no ego involved, for They are the Ones doing the healing. Everyone can do this, although it's true that some may be better at it than others. However, the more you do it, the better you'll get at it, whether you're a mystical traveler or not.

- from "Mystical Traveler," Sylvia Browne

Edited on 2011-02-22 to add links to quoted books.

Howard the Spirit Guide

My wife enjoys reading Sylvia Browne. If I'm between books, I'll read them, too, as you can see from my LibraryThing collection. I enjoy them because they're easy to read, entertaining and a bit thought-provoking, but I don't take them too seriously.

In the latest book that I'm reading, Contacting Your Spirit Guide, Sylvia writes about her spirit guide, Francine, and how you can meet your own spirit guide. (A spirit guide is an entity who is assigned to help you through your time on Earth.) She provides meditations (which are really just daydreams) that are meant to help you find out who your spirit guide is.

I'd gotten to the meditation part of the book late Thursday evening. I was incredibly relaxed. Barely awake, I read the first exercise, effortlessly visualizing as I went along (as I always do with non-technical books). I experienced (in my mind's eye) the warm, secluded beach, the palm tree that I sat against, the sand that I dug my toes into, the tropical sun that drenched me with warmth, the slow rhythm of the waves, etc. Right on cue, my spirit guide came out toward me. He was a tall, large black man with a head that was small compared to his body, the hair on it (the head, that is) short and black. He was wearing an white suit with a maroon turtle neck shirt, incongruous for the beach. Through a brief telepathic exchange, I found out that his name is Howard.

Since then, I can sense him nearby. But I don't actually see him as Sylvia can. He road with me to and from work, his head sticking through the roof of my wife's compact car. But I hardly talk to him the way Sylvia talks with Francine. I'm not really interested in finding out anything about "my chart" or past lives. I'm not sure I'd believe any of it anyway.

My wife spent hours with candles burning and mind-numbingly soft music playing, yet she could not meet her guide. My daughter couldn't do it, either, although I'm not sure how much time and effort she put into it. So my wife and daughter want me to find out who their spirit guides are because, at this point, they think their spirit guides abandoned them. I think I sensed that my wife's spirit guide is female, but that's all I could get. I suspect her spirit guide just got so frustrated from my wife not paying attention (and doing the opposite of what she's told) that she might've abandoned her.

So that's what I've been up to lately. How about you?

Coffee and Hebrews

"I'm looking to talk to someone who doesn't need to cook a turkey," said the approaching woman in the parking lot outside of Starbucks. I smiled politely, with my wife's venti Peppermint Mocha Latte in my left hand, and my car keys in my right, poised near the car door.

Then my spirits sank as she pulled out religious paraphernalia. For some reason she wanted to quote Hebrews 3:4. As she flipped through the pages, I wondered just how long I'd have to stand there before telling her that I had to go. After all, it was Thanksgiving morning, and my sole contribution to the holiday was to buy enough of a caffeinated beverage for my wife so that she would have enough energy to prepare Dinner. Then my perspective suddenly changed dramatically when I imagined this stranger to be an angel sent to give me a personal message from the Universe.

She found the verse and read it out loud, "For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God." And then she handed me the December 2009 issues of "Awake!" and "The Watchtower". The cover of "Awake!" featured the intriguing question, "Does the Universe have a purpose?" It's a question I've increasingly been answering with a resounding "No!" And then just as suddenly as she appeared, she bade me a Happy Thanksgiving. I responded in kind, and I thanked her both for the happy holiday wish and for the pamphlets. As she turned to go, she asked, "You will read them, won't you?" "Yes," I assured her. I watched her walk into the Starbucks, and I thanked the Universe for yet another topic for a blog post.


In case you're wondering, I am reading the pamphlets. In fact, when I got home and gave the latte to my wife, I then fetched the bible and read the verse to her, in case the message was not for me but for her. "Awake!" also has an article titled, "Young People Ask How Can I Talk to My Parents?," which I read aloud to my daughter while she played Webkinz. These are published by Jehovah's Witnesses, a group regarded as non-violent terrorists by my parents. If they came to the door, I'd have to hide, and we'd pretend that no one was home. So I have this quandary about reading these pamphlets, as if I were reading a communist manifesto.

Consciousness and Happiness

In popular Western culture we are taught that the way to achieve happiness is to change our external environment to fit our wishes. But this strategy doesn't work. In every life, pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame keep showing up, no matter how hard we struggle to have only pleasure, gain, and praise. Buddhist psychology offers a different approach to happiness, teaching that states of consciousness are far more crucial than outer circumstances.

More than anything else, the way we experience life is created by the particular states of mind with which we meet it. If you are watching a high school soccer playoff and your daughter is the nervous goalie, your consciousness will be filled with worry, sympathy, and excitement at each turn of the game. If you are a hired driver waiting to pick up someone's kid, you will see the same sights, the players and the ball, in a bored, disinterested way. If you are the referee, you will perceive the sights and sounds in yet another mode. It is the same way with hearing Beethoven, pulling weeds, watching a Woody Allen movie, or visiting Mexico City. Pure awareness becomes colored by our thoughts, emotions, and expectations.

- Jack Kornfield in The Wise Heart, page 49.

Running Away From Home

We've run away from home, my wife, daughter and me. I'm referring to our church home of 15 years. And it's all on our daughter's behalf.

Our daughter is a very capable choral singer. She started this school year by joining the school's sixth grade chorus in September with the intention of auditioning for their special traveling chorus. She was undecided about joining the church choir, but we told her that she could quit if it became too much. So she joined the church choir in September, as well.

On Monday she was thrilled to learn that she was accepted into the special school chorus. So she brought up the idea of quitting the church choir, saying to me that it was boring while saying to my wife that she didn't like it.

Usually when we get different statements from her it means something isn't right. So my wife decided to call the choir director, MD, whose daughter also happens to be in the choir. We had to call anyway to announce the resignation. MD readily accepted our daughter's resignation, saying that she seemed "miserable." Well, this got my wife going. "If you saw that she was miserable, why didn't you say something to me earlier?" MD also mentioned that a loud, bossy girl just joined the choir, taking over the group and befriending her daughter. My wife tried to get across to MD the idea of inclusion, as well our daughter's need for a structured social setting. But she was met with infuriating walls of ignorance and indifference. "I was shy when I was growing up," was MD's neurotypical response.

The next day, my wife called the music director to let her know about her dissatisfaction with MD. The ensuing hour-long conversation convinced my wife that this church was not the right place for our daughter. And if our daughter isn't accepted there, then we aren't either. So tonight we've made no plans to have our daughter go to tomorrow's weekly Sunday school or to the church service. And we'll be attending a different church on Christmas.

I don't think my wife actually told the music director that we'd be leaving the congregation. But this is the time of year they collect pledges, and ours wasn't one of them. I imagine that we'll be getting a call from the Pastor (or at least the Stewardship committee) fairly soon.

I have mixed feelings about this affair. On the one hand, I'm somewhat relieved. I've never been reliant on organized religion. I'm content and confident enough in my spirituality to do my own studies and contemplations to meet my needs. But I am personally bothered that I won't be going to some physical place that I'm familiar with -- a home away from home -- where I know many people and they know me. This home-away-from-home is now verboten.

When my wife would ask me why I go to church, I'd say to her, "It's so that if I die before you, you will have many people to comfort you at my funeral." It's sounds like a wisecrack, but I was being completely honest.

I had been a member of the adult choir starting in 1994. At the start of this year I finally announced that I wouldn't be singing with them any more. I write "finally" because of how many years I thought about doing it and how difficult a decision it was. It upset a few people there. But with the new music director's arrival, I felt it was a good time to go.

What bothers me more than anything is that our daughter now has no religious education, which I think is important regardless of one's beliefs. The Bible is the most well-known work of all time in the Western world. To be ignorant of it would be like growing up in the 60s and 70s without having watched any TV.

Nevertheless, it is right to run away. The Sunday school is too disorganized. Children hang out unsupervised in classrooms while waiting for their teachers to show up late. With the low attendance on holiday weekends, the kids sit around to watch Veggie Tales. She'd be old enough to join the Youth Group next year, but it's so unstructured and poorly supervised, she'd flounder immediately.

Frankly, I don't think there's a church anywhere in our area that's equipped to handle special needs children. But we'll have to look and settle for the best we can find.

Under Construction

We have construction going on where I work. My employer needs so much more space that he's putting in a new building.

The construction is noisy, with diesel engines revving and ground-rattling booms. It makes me edgy.

So to escape, I decided I would drive past some bridge construction in order to walk in a nearby nature preserve that my wife and I used to hike in during better days.

Today I had time for only the briefest of walks, just enough to get to the pond. As I approached the pond, I detected the unmistakable sound of construction. The water had been drained, and a "steam shovel" was reinforcing the dam by adding gravel.

I laughed at the irony of trying to escape construction only to find more construction. It occurred to me that this was a message of some sort, like when several consecutive traffic lights turn red just as I drive up to them, telling me to slow (my life) down, or, perhaps, add more punctuation to my lengthy sentences.

Maybe I need to rebuild myself? My diet seems to be working, but I've certainly slacked off in the exercise department. In fact, I was thinking of canceling my membership. And I haven't done anything significant in the education department.

Or maybe I'm due for a shovel-ready spiritual renewal project. I've not been going to any choir rehearsals -- I'm thinking of quitting and skipping out on Church next season.

As I strive to think about my message, consider if you've been getting messages. Do you mis-place your keys all the time? Maybe the Universe is telling you to leave some inner part of you unlocked.

What messages do you get?