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ms. early bird

I’m a night owl and late night phone calls are perfect for me. But when a late night call comes from an early bird, it’s necessary to carefully listen as they usually have something they want to say and can’t fall asleep til they talk it out. Ms. Early Bird was very tired when she called, and that in itself suggests the importance of paying attention to her by carefully listening. She was so tired that the number of yawns coming from the other end of the phone nearly put me to sleep. Ms. Early Bird wears her heart on her sleeve and helps anyone in need. In the process she wears herself to a frazzle and needs to recoup. There should be a beautiful spa for people who always seem to put themselves last in the game of life. They can talk with people who will understand them and at the same time renew themselves in luxurious surroundings. And it should be mandatory for them to go at least once a year. That’s the only way their own selves will be taken care of.

There are times when I’m a wee bit concerned about Ms. Early Bird. The reason is that in putting everyone’s needs before her own. it’s very easy for people to take advantage of her. She’s modest and doesn’t appreciate her own worth, When you recognize the goodness in her, you want to protect her. That’s an impossible task because this gentle one doesn’t see that she’s doing too much at the expense of herself. Trying to convince her that care of self is a good thing makes you look like a cad, and you sense that the thought is occuring to her that maybe she’s called the wrong person. So what is there to do for Ms. Early Bird? Simply listen to her.

But maintaining ourselves in a state of balance is vital. Otherwise we’ll become a doormat and basically we’re telling the Universe that that’s the role we intend to play in life. This could mean that we’ll be the one skipped over when it comes to receiving the things that bring happiness (“your kind of happy.” – Shadowlands), harmony, beauty, freedom, etcetera, into our life. Helping others is a good thing, of course, but being a doormat is not. Giving and receiving-a balance-is important. And now perhaps you’re thinking of someone such as Mother Teresa who, we have read, gave of herself many times over. Possibly her spiritual life gave her the balance she needed. And it’s doubtful that she would neglect that part of her life, so she was assured of balance. Mother Teresa’s story would seem like a category reserved for an entirely different way of life, an evening’s worth of discussion.

I found out that Ms. Early Bird was simply exhausted from a grueling week of commitments. Of course, she worked a few additional shifts because colleagues needed time off – she was spent into fatigue. It would be nice if simply listening helped put things into perspective for her.

“If you are losing your leisure, look out; you may be losing your soul.” -Logan Pearsall Smith

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heavy baggage

Some people are easily ruffled when anything happens that they don’t like. They’re “very sensitive” beings. They can rattle off a list of things people have done to them, or now do to them, and, at the same time, are completely oblivious of the part they play in the events of their life. They interpret perceived slights as monstrous acts against them, and, along with that, have a fierce determination to not make peace with their past which can result in an unforgiving heart. Most recently we’ve seen this in so-called celebrities.

Refusal to leave behind that kind of heavy baggage, along with the added burden of lugging around a big ego, can bring awful consequences. Have you noticed that big egos, or those who see themselves as frail or powerless, are easily flustered and quick to anger? They tend to blame others instead of themselves for just about everything they don’t like about their life? To them it’s always the other guy who has wronged them because big egos don’t see beyond their own selves. And when they’re angry they lash out 100 times more furiously than whatever perceived action set them off in the first place. And after their burst of anger has subsided they tend to behave as though nothing has happened. It’s all so very interesting, and it’s all so very sad because it could be all so very different when we just let go of the heavy baggage.

Life experiences are a powerful way of learning, and many of us have had lots of them. However, there’s a time when we need to wake up and get to a clearer understanding of the way we’re behaving toward Life. We need to realize that we’ve been sabatoging what could be a life filled with joy, love, success, strength, great adventures, beauty, and harmony. We need to remember that other people don’t make or break us; we make or break our own selves.

Choosing to drop the heavy stuff and taking total responsibility for what happens in our own life is a enormous step in itself. After that comes the desire and belief that there’s a more powerful, stronger and better way to live. There are people who can guide us, and books that can show us, and they’ll come a time when something within us will teach us. But sometimes when we begin this change there’s a tendency to look back, and, more or less, go back, because we think change is not forthcoming, or we don’t want to do what’s necessary to allow change to occur, so we become wishy-washy and nothing happens. How can it? We’ve confused the whole situation and until we decide once and for all that there’s no turning back-ever-until that time comes, we’ll stay in a state of being neither here nor there-still carrying all that baggage.

How do we know when we’ve really let go? There are lots of ways we know; life becomes sweeter, those little things we spent so much time and effort defending, we no longer care about. Instead of causing problems, we want to find a way to solve them. The bigger picture is clearer. We’re open and ready to understand Life on a grand scale. And we gladly welcome the adventure, it’s something we desire so much that the time and effort to arrive at this state is no longer seen as a chore, but something more precious than we could have ever imagined.

Oh, yes, It’s our choice. Imagine that!

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about nursery rhymes and fairy tales

Other than the charming song Alouette which my mother enjoyed singing, and which is firmly anchored in my mind, no one sang nursery rhymes, or told those famous fairy tales to me when I was very young. I guess you’re either in a nursery rhyme family or you’re not. And I don’t recall seeing any nursery rhyme books around the homes of children I babysat for either. So, it could have been a location thing as to who got nursery rhymes sung to them at an early age and who didn’t. Did you? if your answer is “no”, remember, it’s never too late, or if you never quite got the hang of the words, or if you only know part of those rhymes and fairy tales, or some of them, here’s your chance. Actually, I think you’re going to enjoy this site because it’s absolutely delightful. And if there’s a night when you can’t seem to fall asleep, well, you can go to www.nurseryrhymes4u.com and return to a time when life was perhaps a little less stressful for you.

At dictionary.com I got an inkling of the beginnings of nursery rhymes and fairy tales, and went from not having thought much about them to finding the subject vast and interesting as they have their own kind of history as Mother Goose, The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments or a Thousand and One Nights, and Brothers Grimm, etcetera, suggests. www.dictionary.com

Then I got to thinking about a wonderful gift shop I was in some time ago, and about the book I wish I’d purchased. It was a different kind of book having to do with the history of nursery rhymes and fairy tales. It was one of those occasions when, for a split second, you say, “Nah, what am I going to do with this book?” And I overruled that gut feeling and am now bookless about a subject that suddenly seems quite fascinating. Hmm! The book’s essence was that some of those nursery rhymes (not all) sung to children are downright scary or creepy, and if they weren’t sung in such a whimsical fashion, they could easily produce nightmares. Then it went on to suggest that the writers found their, shall we say, inspiration in the period in which they lived – the culture and hardships that went along with that time – influencing the writers of those “endearing” nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Perhaps I’ll spend more time filling in the gaps of what little knowledge I have of this interesting subject. It’s never too late. Right?

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it’s raining, it’s pouring; the old man is snoring. he went to bed, and bumped his head and he couldn’t get up in the morning

I want to think light and fun on this rainy day. You, too? A rainy day is a calm day unless one’s schedule is on overload. A rainy day is a slower day because accidents happen more easily if we don’t make it a slower day. Have you ever slipped and fallen on a rainy day because you were in a hurry to get somewhere? That’s always a tap on the shoulder to not rush. Judging from the look of all those clouds, it seems they’ll be no sun shining on us today, unless we’re heading for a beautiful island with sunny weather. And, so, here we are with a no-sun kind of day. We have to appeciate these days because summer is peeking around the corner, and usually that means we’ll be complaining of hot and humid because hot and humid is hard to take.

Well, not always. We can do hot and humid by by a beautiful body of water, bare feet in sand, sipping a cool refreshing drink – the biggest decision to make is whether to go for a swim before or after lunch, oh, and another, what to have for lunch. That’s not hard to take.

Ah, but we want to keep our energy in the present moment, so back to our rainy day; it’s puddles for us today. That beautiful body of water is for another time. Actually I’ve been noticing lately that people are not timid about the rain as much as they used to be. I don’t know how that came about, but people seem more willing to walk a few blocks in the rain, without an umbrella, not caring whether they get wet. It’s nice to have that attitude, that sense of freedom. Then the rain becomes fun and we get to be like children. Children love the rain. They look for puddles to jump in never caring whether feet get wet, clothes get splashed on, mud sticks to pants. Children think fun, and rain is fun. Have you ever heard a child complain about rain? They’re not the ones who remember to bring an umbrella. They don’t want anything hampering their fun. Children stay in the present moment. We’ll watch them and learn.

Okay, I get it, we’ll be like children; we’ll see the rain as freeing and fun. We’ll do rain. Yeah!

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. . . to plant a seed

Words are powerful. That’s why I’m wondering why doctors are at liberty, when a serious illness is diagnosed, to plant a seed in the mind of a patient as to how long s/he has to live. The mind is powerful, too, and when words of doom and gloom are uttered, they’re not easily forgotten, and can jeopardize the outcome if a patient places a lot of belief in them. The doom and gloom words stick and put a patient in a zone of sorts where thoughts of a healing are diminished.

Years ago, doctors told patients very little; I’m beginning to think that, in this case, very little is possibly better than too much. A sick person tends to become vulnerable when under a doctor’s care, all those appointments, all those tests, meetings with the doctor to discuss a course of action, perhaps a second or even a third opinion, a decision to be made about who would be the best doctor, researching treatments, decision as to the best treatment, concern of family and friends, disagreement among family when making these decisions, medication that dulls the senses leaving a patient unable to see matters clearly. For one to understand how to go about healing, and to tap into one’s own knowing, encouragement of the highest quality is needed.

It’s not the fault of the doctor that many things have gotten so out of hand; it’s the way of the world. A doctor of today is taught to practice differently from a doctor in, let’s say, the 1950’s. I don’t know when things began to change, but it seems it would benefit both sides if a middle ground were reached. It makes sense to use words that speak of possibilities, words that capture a patient’s body, mind and spirit, rather than words that give an overall sinking sensation of despair.

The mind is powerful and, words of encouragement are like a healing balm-a divine kind of medicine. Many books have been written about the mind and its power to heal the body. And people have healed from serious illnesses; If one person has that ability, it would seem that we all have it. We do have choices, but in a time of illness we are inclined to put all our trust in a doctor and forget that there’s another part of us that is there to help. Fear can get in the way when we listen to discouraging words.

From “the SECRET of INSTANTANEOUS HEALING” by Harry Douglas Smith:
In spite of emphasis on the word “new,” the healing power of the Mind has been known and used for centuries. Mind is the great physician. This truth is not new. The following quotations demonstrate its timelessness and universality:

400 B.C.: We do not cure the body with the body; we cure the body with the Mind; and if the mind is confused and upset, it cannot cure anything properly. -Plato, The Republic

300 B.C.: . . .as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. -Proverbs

Often it takes only a small emotion to furnish the primary cause for the onslaught of a cold or an attack of the flu. All the ordinarily blamed causes – cold feet, drafts, wet weather, etc. – are only secondary causes,”. . .else,” as John Caius said in 1552, “if one were sick, all should be sick.”

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deepak chopra and david simon

If you have a free weekend or more, and have money in your account screaming to be used, I have an idea. I know someone who’s been researching spas and decided that the Chopra Wellness Center in NYC could very nicely handle a desire of hers to straighten out the way she thinks about food, pamper her body with massages, manicures, pedicures, yoga, meditation, speak the ayurvedic language so that she’s not always in the process of trying to understand it, and help her to heal from cancer – all this in a setting that speaks of beauty from the moment one enters its doors. www.chopra.com

When I was at Optimum Health Institute in San Diego, a few of us who were staying there took a ride to La Jolla. As we walked along the town, we noticed The Chopra Wellness Center and walked in. A staff member took us on a tour of all the facilities, also the kitchen, the beautiful dining area, and the retail shop where I bought a cd. Eventually the cd landed in the hands of the person sitting next to me in a bus heading for Boquete in Panama. When I think about that cd, I know it was not really meant for me. I was just the delivery person for the one who now has it. And that’s why I smile when I think of the Chopra Wellness Center. It wasn’t very long ago that this center with Deepak Chopra and David Simon opened its doors in NYC. The body, mind and spirit places took their time in coming to NYC. But Hallelujah!-they’re here. www.optimumhealthinstitute.com

I read scathing comments about Deepak Chopra on a website. There are times when well-known people have to endure all kinds of comments from all kinds of people. What’s funny about this is that those commenting are so sure of their own way of thinking, and for them it comes down to them being perfectly right and the other guy being perfectly wrong. It’s really quite interesting, or entertaining, depending on how you look at it. What Chopra has to say is not for everyone, and if his writings grind on you, there’s an option of not reading the books. It’s amusing how bent out of shape some people get when they don’t agree with someone. It is as it is.

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omega in rhinebeck, ny

Omega in Rhinebeck, New York sent their catalogue recently. On the cover is written: workshops retreats trainings conferences vacations community. In its pages is a history of Omega’s beginnings, and its development over the past thirty years. The catalogue introduces us to teachers from all over the world, teaching us just about anything we can imagine in the beautiful way Omega lets it happen. If you want a different kind of vacation, this could be just what you’re looking for. It’s very nice to turn the catalogue’s pages and see the faces of teachers and participants enjoying and learning in many many many ways-together. I’ve not been to Rhinebeck, NY, but have heard it’s a beautiful place, and I’ve heard Omega is not to be missed. In case you’re wondering, the phone number is 800.944.1001, and the website is www.eomega.org. Perhaps I’ll see you there soon. Nice!

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stirrings from within

I went away last week-not far-but far enough to see that life is just a little different there than it is here at the moment. That’s always okay because one finds food for thought in places that are different. What wonderful conversations I had with three people at three different times. Neat! Interestingly, these conversations were along the same lines, having to do with relationships which can get rather sticky at times-if we let them. These three people are searchers. The thing is though that they’re not quite sure what they’re searching for. You can tell when they’re talking that there’s something nagging at them and it keeps telling them at every opportunity that there’s a better way of thinking, doing, imagining, loving, and, in general, living. Every indication suggests that the time is right for them, and now they’re paying attention to the stirrings from within urging them to watch, trust, read the signs, let go and be open to change, to discover and explore a better, more powerful and loving way of being in this world. Ah, what an adventure; it’s an amazing journey we’re all on.

“Before you die, dare to walk the wildest unknown way.” – Bryce Courtenay
www.brycecourtenay.com

“Let the beauty we love be what we do.” – Rumi
www.mevlana.net

“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” – Otto Rank
www.ottorank.com

“Unless you leave room for serendipity, how can the Divine enter in? The beginning of the adventure is to lose your way.” -Joseph Campbell

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the law of the universe

I very much like the idea of reincarnation, not that it matters, one way or another. It seems a wonderful way of sorting out things. Do you feel the same? I didn’t always think this way. When I first heard a simple explanation of the word reincarnation years ago, I actually felt stuck-yes, stuck in this world-forever and forever. And that was due to the fact that I had no real understanding of its meaning and worth. Now I appreciate what it is, and feel that the Energy that created the Universe created a beautiful, fool-proof, easy way of keeping a balance in everything. We need never be concerned with making sure justice is served as justice is always served one way or another by the Law of the Universe.

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about the weather

We’re complaining about the weather, for a good reason. Do you think that our planet is trying to tell us something by way of the weather? We all know that, aside from getting our act together, and keeping our planet from choking and dying from all the pollution we’ve given it to digest, there’s nothing much else we can do. If we could do that we’d at least be doing what we should have been doing all along. That seems to be a tall order in today’s world, because we’ve strayed far off the course. We don’t know Life’s plans for the planet, but if we uphold our part of the bargain and except responsibility by nurturning it instead of heaping one insult upon another on it, there’s a good chance that it would continue to nurture us in its grand style.

Our mass consciousness at the moment is one of wars, killings, hatred, random acts of cruelty, greed, and there’s more. How is this nurturing anything? I’ve read many times that we live in an intelligent universe. It must feel slighted, ignored, somewhat depressed, maybe a bit angry, when it observes what we’re doing. Talk about disrespect in the name of more, more and more. Our planet doesn’t ask much of us, only that we take care of it and keep it in good stead. It gives so much to us, but if we continue to destroy it by our toxic ways, and dissipate its bounty, it won’t be able to keep us in good stead.

It’s like everything else, when we take care of what we have, perhaps leave it in a better way than the way we got it, certainly not in a worse way, whisper words of love to it, enjoy it, offer a thank you prayer to it, how can we go wrong? But that’s not what we’re doing. Hmm!