Monday, December 31, 2007

A New Year's Prayer: Let Your Light Shine in 2008

Happy New Year World!

I've always ushered in a new year with contemplation and prayer. It seems a sacred time to me. A time to reflect back on my "works" of the past year; not just the mental and physical projects that I undertook, but the progress of allowing my Soul to permeate and transform my mental and physical works. (This blog is about applied spirituality, after all.) So after the contemplation, there is my evaluation, and after the evaluation comes my "prayers" which are the desires of my heart for the New Year.

The prayers of course begin with my desires for myself, my increased communion with my Godchip, the ever increasing spiritualization of my human mind being translated and communicated in my thoughts, words, and deeds. After that comes my "prayer" - my desires and wishes for others: family, friends, the world.

I pray for my "enemies". I think of "enemies" as those with whom I disagree, of course, which automatically implies their disagreement with me. I particularly love this part, because it brings soothing to me. I remember as I pray for them that they are God, too. That they are Love at their core, as well. My human mind wriggles about wanting to find a "solution" or "resolution", but my Soul knows that's where the magic happens and miracles abound. "Watch," it whispers, "just watch."

My prayers for the New Year 2008 center more around the continuing awakening of the individual to Who They Really Are: God having a physical experience on planet Earth. I see signs of this awakening everywhere. As institutions fail (government, health care, education), individuals are forced to look to themselves for answers, solutions and healing. Awaiting each and every one is their own Godchip, "ising" away It's Love, guidance, peace and fulfillment.
This is the silver lining in every cloud. One's Godchip is always there, having never left, and ready, willing and delighting in being back on your team.

In psychology It is called self esteem or confidence. This is what it feels like to be connected to your Godchip, for It is Who You Really Are. Full and replete with everything you ever needed.
Your personal Godchip is your personal I AM, connected to all the wisdom, all the joy, all the love, because it is just that: fulfilled.

Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

My prayer this New Year is my continued desire for the unfoldment of our individual and collective awakening. And I include everyone in this prayer, absolutely everyone.

It's all Good. (And remember, Good is a noun)

Happiest of New Years to us All!

Thanks for reading!


Kath



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Friday, December 28, 2007

Re-solve

Hello Everyone!

I love words, but more, I love to find where they came from. The etymology of a word is usually fascinating and reveals the deeper, truer meaning of a word for reconsideration for us in the modern usage.

I am one who had Latin in high school. Back in the day when one could get an excellent education at public schools. Mind you this was in Ohio and Pennsylvania. All in all I had four years of Latin. I only wish I'd had Greek as well. The point to this is that I learned to pull words apart in order to discern their meanings and intuit a deeper meaning or an original meaning.

So I got to thinking about Resolve. It's a new year and we naturally look back over the previous year and make determinations. We liked this; we enjoyed that; we want more of this, and MUCH less of that; and by the contrast of events we choose a new desire and make our New Year's Resolutions. We Resolve. Re-solve.

So I looked for the etymology of the word and found it comes from the Latin: solvere (you're gonna love this) to free! So, re-solve is to be free again!

If you view the word "resolve" from the vantage point of "becoming free again", that meaning informs your interior state. "I'm tangled up in a web that I don't enjoy and I want FREE of it."

How different this is from making a mental declaration to yourself that I will loose 10 pounds or stop drinking or whatever.

It feels different. I feels better. It imparts an understanding of where I am and where I want to go. It gives me a mental picture of unraveling a knot and climbing out of the center of the mess, leaving the knot behind and simply walking on without it.

What do we Re-Solve?
What knot are we entangled within that we no longer enjoy or desire?

The nature of our Godchip is freedom and joy. Where do we dally with our human-mind focus that no longer serves?

Where is it time to course correct, wriggle free and skipity doo dah on down the path TOWARD the joy in more freedom.

We are so free that we can and do build our own prisons; thought prisions. We get stuck in thought patterns that hold us back, down and kill us. They don't feel good, they feel bad. Yet, we keep focusing on and in the same lifeless thought patterns. Fear, lack, disease. Enough!!!

When I get that way, I hear myself say, "Alright. Time for a new re-freshing thought." I get quiet. I breathe. and I break free of that thought pattern and allow my Godchip to inspire me in a new thought.

Let's not spend one second dismantling the thought prison, deliberating on how we got there, why this block, where this bar came from; but rather let's just slip out and breathe fresh, clean free air and create anew.

And don't look back! Remember Lot's wife? She turned to a pillar of salt. There is no point to looking back, there is only now. Are you free? If not; re-solve. Free yourself. When you're free, create anew in joy. Your Godchip is "ising" new, fresh and creative thoughts for you if you but listen.

Thanks for reading!

Kath

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Monday, December 24, 2007

Good Beyond Measure

Christmas Eve

There's a hush that comes over the world on Christmas Eve. Have you ever noticed?

Walk out tonight. Take a break from the feasting, the gatherings, the merriment and step out to look up at the night sky. Tonight will be spectacular for two events are happening in the night sky: a full moon and Mars. You can see Mars when you're looking at the full moon. (see link: http://www.telescopes.net/doc/3000).

Mars is in Opposition tonight, which means it will appear large, reddish and can be seen with the naked eye. It will appear right next to the giant Full Moon, which illuminates the night without scorching us. These are magical nights where you can walk about without aid of flashlight, but everything is frosty and brilliant.

It's so interesting that Mars, the planet of war, is being so fully illuminated on the full moon.
Perhaps the Moon will illuminate us about war without scorching us, softly and gently and profoundly. Step out and see what happens.

We are so Good. We are so full of Good. (Remember, please that Good is a noun!)

Here are some links to illustrate just a very few of the abundant and overwhelming Good in our World.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/saving_ala_a
An American Gi adopts an Iraqi boy

http://reference.aol.com/planet-earth/animals/new-species
New species are constantly being discovered on our planet.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4025712&page=1
Missing family found; relied on Faith

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/odd_on_the_job_reunion
Man reunited with mother

When you're out there tonight soaking up the magic and mystery of Christmas Eve, imagine the Good; determine to only see the Good in 2008.

We can and do change the world every moment depending on our lens through which we see things.

Take that feeling of tonight with you into the year in to every single moment. Resolve to hang on to that feel of Well Being no matter what. This is how we change it to look like what we imagine it to be.

Thanks for reading!

Kath

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Friday, December 21, 2007

Purple States: Hurrah! Labels Are Falling!

Good Morning Everyone!

Reading the New York Times Online this morning, I ran across an inspiring story: Introducing Purple States.

I had to think back for a minute to grade school art classes when we learned to mix colors; and by gosh I remembered that red + blue = purple. I don't know who thought up the labels of "red states" and "blue states", but that might go down in history as the most divided time in recent history.

And I remember thinking I'm neither! As much as the politicos would like to pigeon hole us, we can't be. Now approaching the Primaries in 08 (just got my pamphlet in the mail yesterday), I am glad to see that the people, we, are changing the face of the politics in America.

I had a most enlightening and enjoyable conversation with my realtor yesterday. We talked about lots of ideas and concepts in light of the current situation in America today. What I know is that these conversations are happening all over the Nation: earnest, sincere regular folks are grappling with choosing the very best candidate to represent them, not big interests.

But ordinary folks aren't just interested in the issues that directly affect them, but have real concerns for the larger issues such as the war in Iraq, our economy, our future, and I think at the heart of all the discussion, is our image of ourselves as a Nation.

Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green, Libertarian - all labels - everyone is first an American who loves this place we all call home. Everyone is concerned with our direction, our "feel" of ourselves, our presence in the world, and what we represent. We are grappling with "our mission", "our focus", our very identity.

The encouraging part, to me, is that the people are now on board for their own future. In past elections people were happy to be led. Now, they are wanting to lead with their voices and their votes. We as a people, one by one, are picking up our own beds and walking forward sincerely looking for those who would represent our feelings and concerns as we are more clearly identifying what we DO want by having experienced a long and protracted period of experiencing what we DO NOT want.

And this is perfection. This is how we grow, learn, expand and change and choose again, by the contrasts we experience. We feel the pain and discomfort and immediately know what we prefer, sending out a collective desire for more choice, more truth, more real, more sincere, and we are now choosing to participate, listen carefully with our Godchips more than our ears to know what is so.

2008 is going to be known as the year of America's Pivot. This is the year we more consciously choose our own course rather than being led by thoughts and platforms that others have chosen for us. Rather, we the people, will write the platform.

Follow the link (http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=c131f4ce775266) in the weeks to come and witness the emergence of the Purple States - We the People. Applied spirituality in action.

Thanks for reading!

Kath

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Monday, December 17, 2007

Infinite Possibility: Accepting the Beauty of What IS

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LnLVRQCjh8c&feature=related

Good Day Everyone!

A friend of mine sent me this link today. So before you even read the blog; watch the video. I cried rejoicing in the beauty of it.

If this blog, A New View, attempts to do anything at all, it is to give you a new view of appearances. The worn out cliche of "the glass being half full or half empty" is not a cliche, but a powerful directive for a happy life no matter what the appearances are.

Pollyanna called it the Glad Game. And Mary Poppins - incidentally has taken up residence at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York and is enjoying rave reviews - see this if you can.... (http://www.broadway.com/gen/show.aspx?SI=524489&SR=sr2bw210go25667sb3729pi32ai754&gclid=CK_kk7GisJACFSFaagodHl_j8w)

Mary Poppin's view on life has been thought in Western Culture as a nice child's fairy tale. But I think in years to come that Pollyanna and Mary Poppins will be revered as the new "saints".

If you want to become more thoroughly immersed in a "new view" for life; rent the movie "Hook" as well. This should round out your new immersion in the practical and applied spirituality of joy, love and seeing your life, all of life, with new eyes.

It's a new year coming, yes? And you would agree that it's insane to keep doing what you're doing and get a different result, yes? So here it is
your homework:
#1: Watch this YouTube video; follow the link and let it fill you up.

#2: Rent the movie Pollyanna, or better still...read the book by
Eleanor Hodgman Porter first published in 1913. And it has a sequel!

#3. Rent the movie Mary Poppins or read the stories by P. L. Travers; and if you're lucky enough, go see the play in New York; and

#4: rent the movie "Hook" and/or read the book. (
Hook : The Storybook Based on the Movie (Paperback) by Justine Korman).

Children's stories have the luxury of being accepted in their full glory of "fantasy". What's brilliant is that the wisdom in them is undiluted and it's perfectly acceptable for adults to secretly "reach down" and fill up their baskets from children's literature.(Why else do you think the library is committed to keeping what you read confidential?) Whereas when you attempt to find wisdom in adult literature, it's either not accepted there, or it's been so diluted by "rational thought" it would take a miner to find it.

What is the wisdom of children's literature? It's pure and unadulterated (now isn't THAT an interesting word?). It's speaks directly to the unclouded soul and goes straight to your heart - your Godchip - your very own Spirit, by passing your "adulterated" mind. It speaks to Who We Really Are: delight, joy, infinite possibility: LOVE....God, itself, having this marvelous physical adventure.

If "rational thought" and "human mind" had it right, I imagine the world might look a lot different than it does. To get a different result, we have to see with New Eyes and get a New View:

The one we were born with.

Thanks for reading!

Kath


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Friday, December 14, 2007

Seeing Through A Glass Darkly: "Then" is Now

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/holier-than-they/#comment-15680

13:11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. 13:12For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. 13:13But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Good Day Everyone!

In today's New York Times, Judith Warner addresses the essence and therefore the evidence of religion as it is being playing out in the political arena today. I love that these questions are being raised and discussed, as we are beginning to "see through the dark glass". I have opened today's blog with a quote from 1 Corinthians 13:11. It's one of my favorites and a place in the Bible where Truth is able to be felt amidst a lot of human interpretations of mind. I determine this by how it FEELS to me.

One day science will have a gadget that measures Truth/Love. It will be called the Love/Truth Angstrom Meter. It will operate much like a Geiger counter does that detects the amount of radiation. It will be a small screen at the bottom of your TV or in the lower corner of your computer screen. As a program's content unfolds, the meter will detect the level of Source or Light or Truth or whatever you wish to name It, contained in the program.

We already have that Love Angstrom meter Self contained within each of us.

This is that part of everyone of us that our Founding Fathers referred to when they said, "All men are created equal". It is our individual Godchip that is constantly and faithfully "ising" to us the Truth of anything. Our ears and eyes see words and images, but It is constantly telling us the Truth. Often - no, most of the time, what we see and hear is at distinct and diametric odds with what we feel. We struggle with labels today - Christian, Democrat, Republican, Islam, Jew - because the definitions no longer hold but rather shape-shift for convenience.

Where once I felt aligned with the Republican Party because I thought they most closely represented a thought form that believed in the power of the individual as sovereign, I left as they no longer represented that viewpoint. Now I align with no party, but rather cast my votes as an Independent. Free from the label, free to discern as it feels to me.

In America, my home, we have gotten so bogged down with these "names". I can remember my Mom saying, "Don't call people names. It's not nice." She was (and still is) wise. Names trap us into a mental construct that confines us ever into a frozen definition. Yet, we are dynamic as individuals and as a nation.

We are in the throw of growing pains as Nation. Wriggling like a two year old to get free from the stroller, yelling "Let me out!" The stroller we have been strapped into for the past 231 years is the conveyance of religion(s). God love us, we strive to know the Truth; to know God aright; our intentions are so pure, so earnest! And because of these Intentions to Know, we are growing and learning. But in order to walk, run and then soar we have to get out of the stroller.

America is moving from spiritual childhood into spiritual maturity. Nothing in the world scene is separated from the movements of spiritual growth, but indeed reveal in the physical the spiritual movement of the individual and the Nation. The "struggle" that is taking place on the world's scene today regarding religion in America is invigorating, enlightening and expanding us to a new consciousness. And it is time, for we have asked in our individual and collective intentions to know the Truth. Oh, this is what I so love about America - about Us. We are so free that we can ask these questions and allow ourselves to be transformed.

I can also remember as a teenager complaining to my Mom about this ache or that pain. Again in her wisdom she would reply, "It's nothing. Just a growing pain." Likewise America is growing, and because we are reluctant to expand, to let go of old ideas and embrace the expanded truth, we resist and experience such growing pains as a Nation. But the Intentions of our core - our true Nature of God - drive our deepest desires to be the best we can be, to do the right thing, to know More - we will expand, we will evolve, and we will and are growing into our spiritual maturity, leaving "religion" behind as the base camp from which we left long ago when we began our ascent to Know the Truth; to Know God Aright.

Religion constrains our expansion because it is a definition of human-thought labels. Likewise do politics restrain and constrict our expansion as they, too are definitions of human-thought labels. They shift like sand on the beaches. Our essence, our Core is the same: it is Source in each and every single human being. It is the Truth of our beingness that is emerging, like it or not. This emergence confounds the human mind which struggles to hang onto the labels, but if we would shift our trust from "mind" to "gut", ah then.....we Know. This is the evolution that is happening now. So allow me to update 1 Corinthians 13:12:

13:12For THEN we saw in a mirror, darkly; but NOW face to face: THEN I knew in part; but NOW shall I know fully even as also I am fully known. 13:13But always abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love......and love is Who We Really Are.

Exciting times to be alive. It's all so Good. (Good being a noun)

Thanks for reading!


Kath

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

On Faith in Ameria

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Rarely do I post twice in one day. Today, however, I was cruising headlines and ran across Mitt Romney's speech on Faith in America. Since faith is my life's work, I was eager to hear what he had to say.

Before I go into that, I want to comment on how sad it is that he even has to stand up an give a speech about his religion. Personally, I think you can find God in tree bark, if that is your intention and you way to It. My objection has been and continues to be religion.

Religion is what confuses the issues of Faith. Religion is all man man doctrine. All of it, with the Truth deeply buried in small tiny segments. Can one find God through religion. Yes. If that is your clear and focused intention. Your Godchip will navigate that course, naturally. But you will probably find yourSelf at odds with many of the "teachings" while the Truth you feel will resonate with yourSelf.

God did not establish any religion. God is present in all of them somewhere.

But there is a movement in America away from religion, not away from God; in fact this movement moves closer to God on a personal level without the intermediary of religion and its doctrines.

Mr. Romney talks about secularist being wrong. So I had to look up the word secularism to understand its meaning. According to Wikipedia:


Secularity (adjective form secular) is the state of being separate from religion........

........One approximate synonym for secular is worldly; another could be phrased as neutral in religious matters. Approximate antonyms for secular are religious and devout.

Despite occasional confusion, secularity is not synonymous with atheism

Many over the past 40 years have embarked upon personal, spiritual journeys which have led us into and through the personal and deep exploration of many disciplines, philosophies, histories and practices in a seriously focused personal pursuit of Truth. The quintessential of "religious freedom" in practice.

I have come to a place after all these years of this singular pursuit of a new synthesis of my understanding of God and Truth. I am not a religious person. Although I give all credit to my platform of growing up in the Serbian Orthodox Church as my launch point for more. The credit lies in that the services were in Serbian, which I did not understand; in the beautiful 2 hour liturgy every Sunday with the candles, incense and choir that set a vibrational countenance for knowing God aright...personally; the credit goes to the fact that the sermons and readings were all in Serbian, to which I never heard one single word of human dogma. By the time I was 16 years old I had a very personal and intimate connection with Source, God, It. And it was my own. Religion - "their" interpretation of God was not involved.

I was in my twenties when I first heard that "we were born in sin". I was astonished that anyone would or could even convey that as a truth.

Religionists assume God is unchanging, but the corollary to this is that religion doesn't change either, which is to say, they assume that what they were taught is true...from hundreds of years ago to even the beginning. What if what was laid out by the "founding fathers" of a certain religion was only partially true or not true at all? The religion doesn't allow for any updating or "evolution" or expansion as we come to know more. It is assumed they knew the absolute truth from day one and there was no more to know, ever. I question that premise in everything.

This is an expanding Universe, and there is always more to know. It is infinite and eternal. What hubris to think that what we know and believe now is all there is or ever was. If that were the case we wouldn't be using the wheel and would never have found electricity or the atom.

We are dynamic beings, constantly growing and changing if we would allow. This clinging to old dogma and doctrines as absolute truth is what has caused most wars in the years since Jesus walked the planet and delivered his message of LOVE. Yet we still fight about "my God" and yours. Religion is at the heart of this and its intractability.

Faith is not owned by religionists. Faith belongs to God and spirituality, which are intimate and personal. Religion is public and a group activity. People who move away from the group activity to find their own Truth are not wrong. Martin Luther, Brigham Young, were amongst those who moved away from the "group think" to find a higher truth. And their movements were not the end of finding the higher truth, it continues and will continue forever, amen.

Mr. Romney talks about the beautiful churches in Europe that are relatively unattended, that people don't stop in to pray. It's because we have learned that we can pray anywhere, and don't need an audience or a group to validate this communion. Even I love to stop into a church now and then. On a recent Good Friday I very much wanted to be in church. So I stopped at the local Catholic Church service on my way home. I was sorely disappointed. Long gone was the Latin mass, the mystery, the sacred feeling. Instead it was cold and matter of fact, without Life. I left.

Religion has lost sight of what it was intended to be: a place holder for the individual to find their own personal way to God; not a proscribed set of beliefs and behaviors for living. That comes with an intimate communion singularly and personally with Source.

Some of the most moral and Real people I know do not step food in an organized religious church.

I acknowledge that it is a step on the path, but it is not the destination. I acknowledge that it can be a place on the journey, but it is not the place in my heart.

Faith is the domain of all people, not just religionists'. Do I think we should have prayer in public schools? We should provide a time for silent introspection, meditation, or prayer for everyone to do with as is real to them. Should we have "In God We Trust" on our coins? Of course. Because the word God belongs to all of us, not any singular religion. We all agree about the word God in some form. Should we have it in the pledge of allegiance? Absolutely. This Nation is all about God....not religion. And it is all about my own interpretation of God, personally.

As to the politics of religion. There's the worst possible combination of ideologies. Politics cannot be trusted with the word God and religion cannot be trusted with politics. These two are human-mind constructs. But a man's faith, his personal intimate connection with Source, the Creator, unimpeded by either politics or religion, inform and reflect profoundly his life and his works.

Under the "tent", Mr. Romney, is a pole for us "secularists" and we are a growing number, who have no faith in religion, but infinite and limitless Faith in God.

Indeed this country was founded on the tenet that "all men are created equal". And that equality is in one way, and one way only - spiritually. We are each born with that Godchip of Source that is Who We Really Are. That is what levels the playing field everywhere. Each of us is God having the physical experience here on planet earth. We love Earth; we love Life; we love America. We have Faith...in us.

That is Applied Spirituality.

Thanks for reading!


Kath






http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/us/politics/06text-romney.html?pagewanted=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular

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Appearances

Good Day Everyone,

Today finds much of the Midwest in the throws of a relentless ice storm. Late in October were the recent wildfires in San Diego. While in Las Vegas and Colorado shootings. Appearances of "bad".

What do we make of these things? How do we internalize and deal with them? Does "shit" just happen?

First of all let me say that "shit" does not just happen. We are the creators of all that we experience. All of it. The next question is how are we doing this?

Each moment builds on the previous moments. How we are perceiving and internalizing what is happening "now" sets the stage for what is to follow. Back in 2001 at the event of 911 (and of course that moment having been set in motion by previous moments), we as a nation embarked on a sustained and ever-deepending course of fear. And for the last 6 years we have built fear upon fear. Lead by and choosing to focus on ideas of lack, limitation, vulnerability and powerlessness heaped upon us by media steeped in fear-based and sensationalized reporting, addicted to newscasts, we became a society of fear inch by inch.

Fear begets more fear and what we fear appears. It's Law.

When my boys were small in the 80's I recall telling them that what you put into your body and mind will come out. Garbage in, garbage out. Quality in, Quality out. It's quite that simple.
This year is my 17th year without network television. I gave it up in 1990 after returning from Cornell to San Diego to find that my television antenna had been ripped out by the tenants as they opted for cable. I couldn't imagine paying for television; and having just spent 2.5 years at Cornell with the mandate to read everyday the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, I was not inclined. I'd read the papers and listened to the news and decided that they weren't reporting the news, they were interpreting it for me. I didn't need someone else to interpret anything for me. And at that time determined for myself that the news was not being reported without bias.

It continues this way today, but even more so. Attention to good news items is scant. I suppose I would be inclined to listen if equal attention were paid to "good" news stories as is paid to "bad" news stories, but this is not the case.

And the most important aspect for me, is how it makes me feel. How can anyone listen to doom after doom with that "tone" and not be affected adversely?

Why does this matter? We get to the question of what do we do with this information and how do we internalize it?

Unless you've practiced yourself hugely and know how to "selectively sift" through a news item, a horror story, a dire report - you cannot hold your own vibration in a high place of well being.
Your vibrational countenance slides downwards with each moment. This in turn causes you to vibrate at that "fear" place. Now add to yourself all the others doing the same thing and you have a collective consciousness of fear that is attracting to it events that will match that fear vibration. Thus we have "events". Consider that we could have been creating wonderful "events"....

The good news about these "bad events" is that they provide the platform from which we desire a new circumstance and send forth our "rockets of desire" for better experiences, more quality, safety, joy...whatever. So it goes whether we are consciously aware of the process or not.
I cannot imagine that our nation as a whole is not quite thoroughly sick of living in a state of fear.
And if this is true, then we are individually and collectively sending out mass rockets of desire for better times, happier events, more peace and beginning to create those events now.

Recently with the last set of wildfires here in San Diego, I learnt something significant. I learned to look at an event with detach and know that it would pass. I also learned to mine that event for the contrast (the good) that I was grateful for and could delight in. I learned NOT to be sucked into the negative appearance of the event, but to instantly be looking for the silver lining.
I think Pollyanna typifies this thinking in her "Glad Game". What can I be glad for in this event?
And moving your thinking into that mode - consciously - is to move future events in that direction as well. The most beneficial aspect of taking on this conscious approach is you feel better right away.

Events happen all the time whether near or far. But finding the silver linings as your mode of being dictates whether you will go through the event well or not. This too shall pass, this is certain. Nothing stays the same for long. If you can but acknowledge that this event shall pass and consciously determine to mine it for it's blessings, positive aspects, indeed - the miracles - you begin to shift absolutely what kinds of things show up next.

My folks used to admonish my sisters and I when we were young to " think for yourselves". I can hear it now, "If your friends jumped over a cliff, would you jump too?" I would imagine that, a flock of my friends leaping off a cliff, and then thinking that of course I wouldn't. That one lessons reiterated countless times throughout my youth has served me well, as I learned to think for myself as a fundamental principle of my own life. As people respond en mass in like, I am grateful that I have cultivated the habit of listening to my internal Godchip, my True North.

I encourage you to cultivate listening to your Godchip now. It is uttering soft, soothing and positive messages to you all the time. Perhaps while listening to the news your child says, "come color with me!" Or maybe your dog nuzzles you to take it out for a walk. Or the warm sunlight streams into your window and you feel the urge to go outside for a walk. This is the manner in which you are guided towards your good, because it feels good if you would but allow it.

As to accusations of denial or ostrich position? My answer is always the same. What I focus on is what I will get more of. What my internal state is, is what I will experience. If I'm focused on doom and gloom, can I be focused on creativity or new ideas or new solutions? If I feel scared or sad can I offer upliftment or joy?

This, dear people, is our sovereign free will choice. This is applied spirituality. You get to choose your focus and your internal state. Mine your circumstances for aspects that make you glad, joyful, amazed, awed.

Then watch as that moment unfolds to another. You will begin raising your vibrational countenance, and as a nation we will raise our vibrational countenance collectively. Focused on new desires, new solutions, hope, our own power of being The Creators of Every Single Moment.

We can, America. Oh, yes, we can.

thanks for reading!


Kath

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Thursday, December 6, 2007

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Some thoughts

Hello Everyone,

Sorry for such long silences between blogs. I looked into my "draft" file to see that I did start an entry during the 2007 Wildfires here in San Diego and then another on Thanksgiving Day. It has been a busy, busy 6 weeks.

One great thing that is a constant thread in my life is, of course, The San Diego County Library. (www.sdcl.org). Every month I try to do about a month's ordering. Living here in the back country we use our small library as a kind of 'book post office" of sorts. So months ago I ordered a book that arrived, as always, in the nick of time.

I think I've mentioned that my all time favorite author is Barbara Kingsolver. And she's worth the wait! Her last book, just before this new one, was a book of essays published in 2003 called, Small Wonders. Barbara Kingsolver is a small wonder herself. Maybe it's her tone, or literary skills, or her way with words, or her humor. But always it's the Spirit that flies through her onto the paper. But the book that arrived amid the chaos here was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. (www.animalvegetablemiracle.com)

To my mind, Kingsolver's writing is quintessential Applied Spirituality. This book documents a year in the life of her family when they move to the family farm in Appalachia with the sole intent to buy all their food locally grown or grow it themselves. This totally appealed to my sensibilities. It conjured memories of my childhood: first my Dad working in our garden, shirt off and hoeing between the rows of his 1/4 acre garden. All of which was either canned or frozen by my Mom and Gram. Then a local trip to a farm where the air was redolent with the small of maple syrup. Here they tapped their trees and we bought the most delicious syrup and became friends, of course, with the family. In Pennsylvania we bought our milk from a family farm just "over the ridge". Mom sterilized the glass milk bottles in the dishwasher and we bought raw milk from the dairy. In the course of moving all up and down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, at every new home, Dad and my first project was installing a fruit cellar into the basement...the second was always insulating the attic.

But the point being is it was an "organic" existence. We ate locally all the time. When peaches came into season, I can recall Mom and Gram discussing whether they should buy a bushel or two? When tomatoes came into season, the same discussion. And all our fresh vegetables were purchased at the local farm stand. In those days there was no question that he or his wife had actually grown those vegetables. And for about 5-6 years of my life, once Dad stopped gardening, I took up the post and grew food for us.

Recently I went to Trader Joe's Market and purchased some "organic" garlic as my personal stocks were depleted. When I got home I read on the label that this garlic had been grown in China. CHINA!!!! "Why?" I heard myself saying aloud. Gilroy California is not so far and supposed to be the garlic capital of the world.

Kingsolver's point to the book is how much petroleum fuels are spent in flying exotic foods all over the world. If we would adjust just 10% of our buying we could make a huge difference.

My point is that we each one can make a huge difference if we just pay attention. The benefits of eating locally from local organic growers is huge. The nutritional factor is the biggest. Organically grown foods have to develop "muscles" in order to survive. These muscles are in the form of antioxidants. All organically grown foods have as much as 60% more nutrition that industrially grown foods. And that's just for starters. So when you balk at paying more for organically grown - think about it this way: pay now or pay later. You can pay now for the quality you deserve and require for a healthy body and immune system, or you can pay later with supplements and even later with poor health and medical bills.

The benefits to buying locally and even growing a few plants yourself - well, you have to do it to understand the benefits of gardening, reconnecting with the dirt, the quiet of your garden, and the myriad miracles that happen out there. Critters come to play with you. You see the first flowers, the bud, the fruit. The absolutely orgasmic taste of the first tomato of the season. I promise you, if you grow your own heirloom tomatoes, you will absolutely never buy one in the market again.

The land, the dirt, the air, the food, you....we are all so connected. Every decision you make, with your dollars, with you time, with your choices matters and ripples across each and every one of us. When you choose more quality for your life - be it food, be it the products you use, the car you drive, the books you read, the movies you see, the conversations you have and choose NOT to have, the thoughts you think and the thoughts you choose NOT to think...it all ripples through to either add more Quality into the world or not.

When my boys were small I used to tell them "Garbage in, garbage out." "Quality in, Quality out."

Choosing Quality for yourself in every single tiny detail of your one life will make a huge difference in the Quality of this world. You Do Matter. This is Applied Spirituality in Action. Knowing the Value of You and honoring that with each and every choice....choosing what feels best and moving always towards that. Your Godchip is constantly beckoning you to come this way, it's easier, it's more loving, it's full of more goodness, it's better for you, there's more joy this way, it's more abundant here......follow your heart always. What you may start with your head (saving money and fuel) will end in a love affair of Life.

Thanks for reading,


Kath

additional resources for this topic: The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan

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