…be the change you want to affect….

I look at it like this…if our intention affects change, change can happen many ways. If you like to use your breath, your thoughts, or a wave of the hand just remember this:

Blow your intention into the wind with the visualization that it will bump into molecules and particles that will bump into other ones and so on, and so on… and eventually spread across the earth, like a virus.

Use your mind to visualize the spread of your intention across the earth. Pick a starting point and choose how you want it to implode, spill forth and infect the land.

Infuse your hands with the love and intention for all good and go touch a large body of water… hold your hands there for a few minutes… infusing each water particle with love, so that it will bump into the next molecule and the next….

These are just a few of the ways we can drop Love Bombs across the land.

No serious crystal healer would deny the power of western medicine. Medical technology, especially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is responsible for an unprecedented increase in the average human lifespan. While in pre-modern societies people lived around forty to forty-five years, today they are expected to reach their seventieth year and beyond, depending on the country. However, western medicine does not present concrete solutions in every problem. Especially, emotional and psychological issues are completely ignored until the pain becomes unbearable. Emotional problems do not cause only mental pain but also considerable physical disturbances. The existence of psychosomatic problems is undeniable. Heart attacks, for example, are closely related to depression. Irritable bowel syndrome, thyroid e.t.c. are directly linked to stress. Western medicine tends to treat the symptom (heart attack, colitis, thyroid, headaches) but it would consistently ignore the problem that caused it (stress, emotional problems, negative emotions). And this is where complementary holistic treatments enter the equation. Crystal healing is a powerful complementary, not alternative, healing process. It is the perfect complement to western medicine. While medication and surgery take care of the symptom, crystal therapy treats the whole person. It addresses problems at an emotional level. This way, it brings the body as well as the mind in its most perfect condition. It also works as a preventative measure. A crystal healer can and will acknowledge the physical problem before it manifests itself. On the whole, regular sessions of crystal healing can promise a happier and healthier life.

Come to Thailand and learn Thai massage with the Integrative Healing Society. Participants are eligible to receive CEU’s from the NCBTMB. Visit www.ihsociety.com

Come learn Thai massage in Thailand and receive CEU’s from the NCBTMB. Tour dates are from 4/16/10-5/2/10

Tune Him In, Turn Him On: Using Intuition to Find and Keep the Man of Your Dreams

By Servet Hasan

Published December 1, 2009 (Paperback) Llewellyn Worldwide

My son said yesterday, “Mom, you’re a witch.” Calmly.  With love in his voice, so I knew he didn’t mean the Margaret Hamilton kind.  I protested.  “You are,” he said, “You’re the most pure person I know, and when you’re really yourself, amazing things happen.”

So why do I need a book to remind me to use what’s God-given?  Tune Him In, Turn Him On arrived today, on time, as do most of the books I need and want most.  Servet Hasan says in her book that she comes from a long line of psychics, and that we all have this intuitive ability.  We just have to respect it — and listen to it!  Yeah. But.  I’ve spent a lifetime ignoring the magic I hear and see and feel — when it comes to the men who enter my romantic life.

Servet Hasan tells how to go out of body, into the body of the man we’re interested in — and sense him out.  Ask questions, and receive answers.  Respectfully.  She says he won’t know, but I have done this kind of thing before, and the guy nearly always calls me at that moment.  A bit spooky. If you have questions about a relationship, get quiet, and ask in your head — staying open to perceive the answers.  Trust your intuition. Another variation – reach out through your third eye and enter his heart chakra to sense his spirit.

Burn that past baggage, and monitor your thoughts.  If you’re hearing “nobody is going to want me,” you are to replace that thought immediately with something like “I naturally attract loving relationships into my life.”  Yay!  Doesn’t that feel awesome already.  Relationships, she says, have to be on all three levels – physical, spiritual and psychological.  She also says, like my friend Marianne Comaroto, to love yourself enough to marry yourself.

Servet is  happy to kick your butt if you’re hanging onto the wrong guy or nagging a guy.  She emphatically tells you to use your intuition to sense what is truly going on.  What a liberating stance.

As I read the book, my older son stopped by, saying he was headed out.  I noticed the Red Bull.  I stopped, and “read” him, and picked up that his ego was in command, and that his body didn’t really want that high level of caffeine.  So I told him.  He brushed it off, took off with his Red Bull, and I just got a text that said, “You were right.”

He’ll be okay.  So will I – now that I know I can use my intuition on men.

  Tonight we had a testimony of a miracle that God did a week ago.  A humble father and pastor came to report what God had done.  He shared how a large cobra, possibly a king cobra, had bitten his son in the leg.  His body was beginning to shut down and there was no way that they could get him to any hospital.  Yet, even if they did, it would be very unlikely that in the rural Philippines that anyone would have anti-venom. 

  The father is a church leader and the only thing he knew to do was pray.  The son’s body was nearly completely paralyzed and in excruciating pain.  He could feel his body shutting down as the venom went closer and closer to his heart.  The father, at a point of desperation for the life of his son, placed his Bible on his son’s heart and began to pray.  Immediately after placing the Bible on his son’s heart, the pain started to subside.  Within one hour, the son’s body was completely back to normal as the anti-venom of the Holy Spirit was working to expel the cobra’s venom.  The leader told us that his son could feel the venom moving away from his heart where the Bible was and slowly being flushed out of his body. 

   The Great Commission as recorded in the Gospel of Mark says, “¹⁷ And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Mark 16:17-18). Indeed, this father knows Jesus’ words to be true and is living them out.

That time of year is fast approaching. Even faster for those of you in the States, with your special Holiday this week.

Now that Spring Racing is finished here, we are on the downhill run to Christmas. Every shop I go into is covered in Christmas shyte. Every shop is having pre-Christmas sales. The local department store has its famous Christmas windows up and running.

The streets aren’t quite drowning in giant trees and sparkly baubles yet. But they will be. The incessant headache-making carols haven’t started in earnest. But they will.

I know this time of year is incredibly triggering for many of us. I wish we could all bunker down somewhere safe and non-triggery and let this time pass. Even have a happy time together in a world where Christmas doesn’t exist – where there are no trees, no lights, and no merry freakin’ carols blasting in the shops.

I am hoping I am healed enough this year to get through unscathed. Or at least less scathed than last year.

This year I’m going to try to do things a little differently.

There’s a guy at work who does the Santa routine. He gives me the creeps. He uses the opportunity to have all the women sit on his knee and give him a kiss or to pinch them on the bottom. Yuck.  Most years I freeze in fear that he’ll come near me. This year I’m going to try to take control back from Creepy Santa and run to the toilet when he comes to my area. Probably not the “best” response – and certainly not as good as telling Creepy Santa to keep his hands off me – but all I can do at the moment. (This guy has a disability and I don’t think he means any of it in a creepy way.)

This year I’m going to spend as little time as possible in shops that are bursting with Festive Cheer. I’m determined not to go to any department stores, no matter how wonderful their windows. This year I’m doing my shopping differently. I’m shopping in local stores and buying things that are hand-made and either come to me in the mail, or from markets where the Festive Cheer generally isn’t so sick-making. I might even try to make some things myself.

This year I’m going to try to convince my family that we don’t need enough food to feed a small African nation when there are just three of us. I have recently discovered an enjoyment of cooking so I might even suggest I cook something “nice” – possibly some things from the man I now consider my favourite chef, even if they’re not very Festive (though I still want my mother to make her shortbread and yo-yos, they are too too yummy to pass up!). 

This year I’m going to try not to get too caught up in any of this Festive shyte. I’m going to try not to pressure myself. I’m even going to see if I can enjoy moments – long summer nights, long summer nights with friends, lying in the gardens at lunchtime, indulging in things I enjoy, like cooking and photography.

This year I’m hoping things can be different.

PS  I am still grappling with and confused/conflicted about the work stuff. Stay tuned.

Spiritual Blindness is a curse reaped by one who has sown disobedience to the voice of the LORD:

Deuteronomy 28:15, 28-29 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee…The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

Zephaniah 1:17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.

Isaiah 56:10-11 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Isaiah 59:9-12 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them.

Repentance–turning from sin–is necessary before God will restore spiritual sight:

Isaiah 59:20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.

Isaiah 42:6-7, 16 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house…And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

Isaiah 29:18-19 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

To the meek, the poor in spirit, those who turn from transgression:

Isaiah 35:1-10 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Jeremiah 31:8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.

Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Jesus healed many physically blind people:

Matthew 9:27-28 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

Matthew 12:22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.

Matthew 15:30 And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them:

John 9:25 He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.

Jesus testified to John the Baptist:

Matthew 11:5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Jesus’ physical miracles pointed to His ability to heal and restore the soul.

Lazarus was not raised from the dead simply to live 40 more years on this earth, but to demonstrate that Jesus IS the Resurrection and the Life (able to give spiritual life).  Likewise in Luke 5, the paralytic was raised physically in order to show what Jesus could do for a man spiritually:

Luke 5:23-25 [Jesus speaking] Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.

When we recognize we are spiritually lame, blind, dumb and maimed, let’s cast ourselves at Jesus’ feet!

Matthew 20:30-31, 33-34 And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David…They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

CRY OUT TO JESUS—HAVE MERCY ON US, LORD!! He will have compassion on us and heal our eyes too.

What about those who do not recognize their blindness, and refuse to repent? Jesus said of the Pharisees:

Matthew 23:5-7 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

Matthew 23:11-13 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.  (God resists the proud,But gives grace to the humble JAMES 4:6) But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

1. Matthew 23:16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
2. Matthew 23:17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
3. Matthew 23:19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
4. Matthew 23:24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
5. Matthew 23:26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

JESUS SAID OF THESE MEN, WHO EXALTED THEMSELVES AND THOUGHT THEY KNEW SO MUCH, THAT THEY WERE BLIND—5 TIMES!

Luke 6:39 And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?  WALK BY THE LIGHT—JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD—THY WORD IS A LAMP UNTO MY FEET—JESUS IS THE TRUE LIGHT THAT GIVES LIGHT TO EVERY MAN, JOHN 1:9

John 9:39-41 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

John 12:35-36 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.

WARNING!!! IF YOU DON’T WALK IN THE LIGHT AND BELIEVE IN THE LIGHT WHILE THE LIGHT IS WITH YOU, DARKNESS WILL COME UPON YOU!!! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN BLINDNESS!

John 12:37-40 But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

John 12:44-46 Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. (spiritual sight) I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. (spiritual blindness)

Paul, speaking of the Jews who rejected Jesus the Messiah:

2 Corinthians 3:14-15 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

The veil/blindness is done away in Christ! Those who come to Him will be healed of their blindness.

Isaiah 25:7 And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.

Satan blinds the minds of the lost (but we are still responsible for our blindness.)

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Romans 1:21-24 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, (THOSE WHO EXALT THEMSELVES WILL BE ABASED) And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

After being saved and having our eyes opened, we can return to blindness!

Ephesians 4:17-19 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Jesus and Peter (among others) taught that a previously healed person could return to an even worse condition through SIN:

John 5:14 See, you have been made well [physical healing]. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.

2 Peter 2:20-22 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ [spiritual healing], they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Peter and John admonished Christians as to what they should do so they would not return to blindness:

2 Peter 1:1, 5-10 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ…And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. [UNFRUITFUL = BLIND] Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.

1 John 2:10-11 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

Loving our brother will include keeping God’s commands:

1 John 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

Jesus Christ, speaking to the church of Laodicea concerning their blindness:

Revelation 3:15-19 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

According to Jesus, if we–after being saved–pass into a state of spiritual blindness, we can be restored through repentance!  Jesus will give us “eyesalve” for our blind eyes, if we admit our blindness and our need for His healing.

Psalms 146:8-9 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous: the LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

Find sample blogs on a gazillion topics at Alpha Inventions

Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves, c. 1440

‘Pray Without Ceasing’

From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the liturgy of the hours. In this way the Church fulfills the Lord’s precept to pray without ceasing, at once offering its praise to God the Father and interceding for the salvation of the world. —Office of the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship

I, Fanny McElroy

When I, Fanny McElroy, first discovered The Brother Cadfael Mysteries, by Ellis Peters, I ripped through them like a scairt rabbit about to be et by a hawk, as Sister Alma Rose says her Daddy Pete says, or maybe it’s “a hawk after a scairt rabbit.” Anyway, I read them fast. And then there weren’t any more, because Ellis Peters died, so for the longest time I put off reading the final book, the twentieth, because I didn’t want to say goodbye to Brother Cadfael, a Welsh Benedictine monk living at Shrewsbury Abbey during the 12th century, but I found other books to read because I had become fascinated by all things medieval and all things Roman Catholic

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Compline — Coronation of the Virgin

I loved Brother Cadfael’s irreverent way of being genuinely and truly religious, his painstaking cultivation of herbs for healing, his humor and his kindness. And the way he told the time not by the clock but by the Canonical Hours for Prayer — Matins, Lauds, Vespers, Compline, and so forth. Sister Alma Rose has specific times for prayer during the day, and if I am at her house when one of those times comes, we go into her chapel and pray together, and sometimes we pray out loud, sometimes we don’t, and she reads a psalm and we sing a hymn — harmonizing rather nicely, if I do say so — but the thing is, she always seems to know what she’s doing, I mean there aren’t any awkward “what should we do now?” moments. And now I know why.

The Liturgy of the Hours

Book of Hours, Paris, c. 1410

One lazy summer afternoon I was sitting on the steps of Sister Alma Rose’s great green wraparound porch half-listening to Sister Alma Rose talking with Father Dooley and his sister Bernadette, who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and who is a willowy, fair-haired, freckled young woman who has, as she says, “enough money,” and her occupation is Doer of Good Deeds, and she would have become a nun, she told us, but she wanted to get married and have children, which she hasn’t, yet, but she’s only something like twenty-two, so anyway, she visits the sick and does what she calls “healing prayer work,” and sometimes she takes in the homeless, temporarily, like mothers with children running from an abusive man, that sort of thing, not scary people or drug addicts.

Versicle: Poem on a Stick?

So I’m sitting there, drowsy with the sun and the sounds of a summer afternoon, and I perk up when I hear Bernadette say “Compline,” so I get up from the step and go over to the green wicker table and sit in the one vacant green wicker chair and listen to Bernadette talking about the Liturgy of the Hours, which is also called the Divine Office, I have no idea why, but Catholics have funny names for everything, like antiphon and breviary and versicle, which is not “a poem on a stick,” as I suggested, and everyone laughed, which was very gratifying because when one thinks that one is being very clever, it’s good to know that others think so too.

The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreaux

I think that everyone was surprised by my fascination with such a dry subject as the Divine Office, which I had thought was something from long ago… well, which it is, but it is still practiced, or “celebrated,” as Father Dooley says, and he as a priest is obligated to “celebrate” the Liturgy of the Hours, but it is a joy to him, he says, and Bernadette also “celebrates” the Liturgy of the Hours, and Sister Alma Rose says that her daily prayer times are “based on” the Liturgy of the Hours. “Fanny McElroy,” she says, “y’all have been doin’ it with me for years,” and then she laughs and pours me a glass of Mr. Truman LaFollette’s incomparable lemonade.

Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, c. 1410

Sister Alma Rose is not Catholic (she has referred to herself as “a Christian Jewish Buddhist,” probably offending adherents of all three religions, but she doesn’t mind — like J. Krishnamurti, she doesn’t mind much of anything, she says, and she is certainly the most serene person I have ever known, though in a crisis she becomes very exercised and shouts prayers to Heaven.

I am not a Catholic either, but there are many things I like about Catholicism, and here is one of them: For two thousand years or so, in spite of corruption and scandal and competition from other religions, and popes who had mistresses and children, and so forth, the Catholic Church has inspired, comforted, counseled, educated, and healed. Sister Alma Rose has told me about the vile perverted priests who prey on young boys, but I don’t think that those sick men’s transgressions erase all the good that the church has done. And I love the idea of Confession and, of course, the Liturgy of the Hours.

Some facts about the Liturgy of the Hours

So I ask a thousand questions, and here is some of what I find out about the Divine Office:

It sprung from Jewish prayer practices (“Seven times a day I praise you,” it says in the Psalms)

It began rather simply, with reading or chanting psalms; reading from the Old Testament, the  Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and epistles; and canticles, which are basically hymns from the Bible.

By the end of the fifth century, the Canonical Hours were — and this is a lot of praying and involves getting up in the middle of the night —

• Matins (during the night), sometimes referred to as Vigils or Nocturns, or in monastic usage the Night Office; it is now called the Office of Readings
• Lauds or Dawn Prayer (at Dawn)
• Prime or Early Morning Prayer (First Hour = 6 a.m.)
• Terce (rhymes with “purse”) or Mid-Morning Prayer (Third Hour = 9 a.m.)
• Sext (rhymes with “next”) or Midday Prayer (Sixth Hour = 12 noon)
• None (rhymes with “John”?) or Mid-Afternoon Prayer (Ninth Hour = 3 p.m.)
• Vespers or Evening Prayer (“at the lighting of the lamps”)
• Compline (KOM-plin) or Night Prayer (before retiring)

Wow! Don’t you love it that the time for Vespers is “at the lighting of the lamps”?

The complete Liturgy of the Hours is contained in the Roman Breviary. Most of the pictures on this page are from personal breviaries made for wealthy people in the Middle Ages.

All hours begin with Ps. 69-70 v.2, “God come to my assistance, Lord make haste to help me,” and then the doxology:  ”Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.”

The Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer may consist of

• opening versicle (a short verse said or sung by a priest or minister in public worship and followed by a response from the congregation) or (for morning prayer) the invitatory (Psalm 94)
• a hymn, composed by the Church
• two psalms, or parts of psalms with a scriptural canticle. At Morning Prayer, this consists of a psalm of praise, a canticle from the Old Testament, followed by another psalm. At Evening Prayer this consists of two psalms, or one psalm divided into two parts, and a scriptural canticle taken from the New Testament.
• a short passage from scripture
• a responsory (chant or anthem recited after a reading in a church service) typically a verse of scripture, but sometimes liturgical poetry
• a canticle taken from the Gospel of Luke: the Canticle of Zechariah (Benedictus [Blessed be]) for morning prayer, and the Canticle of Mary (Magnificat: The “Song of Mary” from the Gospel of Luke, Magnificat anima mea Dominum = My soul doth magnify the Lord)) for evening prayer

Nativity from an Antiphon

It looks complicated, doesn’t it? But I have to tell you, it is refreshing and renewing to drop everything at 3 p.m. or whatever because that is the time you have set aside for prayer. And if you’re not Catholic, you can develop your own structure for prayer and praise, as Sister Alma Rose has done, she created a sort of hybrid of the Divine Office, and Father Dooley says that’s fine with him, he encourages everyone to pray in the way that suits them best.

Well, you can buy the complete Liturgy of the Hours in four volumes for more money than I have in my piggy bank, which last time I counted was $97.13, I am saving for a school trip to walk the Appalachian Trail. There are less expensive books, such as those that have only the Morning Prayer and the Evening Prayer.

There is much, much more to be told about the subject, but Bernadette had to leave to go back to Grand Rapids and her Good Works, which she does out of love and not to earn points toward Heaven or anything like that. So I will just tell you that I, Fanny, “celebrate” the Hours four times a day using the website DivineOffice.org, which has an audio version with beautiful music, and there are other websites with text versions. Sometimes I pray with Mama, and sometimes with Sister Alma Rose, and sometimes it’s just I, Fanny.

Even if you are not a Christian, you might enjoy this prayer discipline, which is principally made up of psalms anyway, though the references to Jesus Christ Our Savior might make you cringe, I don’t know. What I do know is that I need and enjoy discipline and structure in my prayer life, and for me, Fanny McElroy, the Divine Office is the beginning of that discipline and structure.

Chant; Troparion; hook-and-banner notation

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Micah 7:19 NIV
You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

O Lord, when I consider the anguish the Mumfords have undergone during this trial, I feel compassion. Have mercy upon them.
Take the spirit of fear and control, the anger and resentment, the exhaustion, the temptation to trust the natural rather than You. There are so many unanswered questions! You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Take their anxiety related to this illness, past, present, and future. Take it all, Lord, and cast it into the sea of forgetfulness. Remove the sting out of their memories and grant them peace. Amen.

Here is my favorite Essential Oil Recipe for stress reduction and emotional support for people and animals.  I have shared this recipe with hundreds of clients to use for themselves and their animals to help them through difficult times.

How to Use:
1. Valor
•    1-5 drops on bottoms of feet, hold for a few moments or
•    1-5 drops on one wrist & hold the wrists together a few moments.
•    For grounding, developing strength, courage, and self-esteem.

2.  Harmony
•    1-5 drops on solar plexus area, the soft spot below the separation of the ribs.
•    An exquisite blend that calms and balances.

3. Joy
•    1-5 drops over heart region
•    An exotic blend that is refreshing and uplifting.

4. White Angelica
•    1-5 drops on palms
•    Brush the head, face, base of neck, shoulders, chest, arms, Solar Plexus, down the body, over the clothes, as if creating an angelic shield…
•    An exquisite blend that is calming, soothing and encourages feelings of protection and security

Frequency:

The more challenging the emotions, the more frequently I recommend using this recipe.  People find that if they are particularly stressed, using this combination up to three times a day works well.

Why use these oils?
•    Anxiety
•    Stress
•    Grief
•    Vulnerability
•    Sensitivity
•    Sadness
•    Grounding
•    Calming & Soothing
•    Uplifting

I hope you find this information to be helpful and inspirational.
Thanks to Susan Ulfelder for first introducing me to this recipe.

The information in this Blog reflects personal experiences only and is not intended as a substitute for medical or psychological diagnosis, advice or treatment.

I recommend you use only pure, unadulterated therapeutic-grade essential oils, and follow the safety directions of the manufacturer. This email is from Young Living independent distributor #75479.  To order these blends click here;
Young Living Essential Oils

You may reprint any items from The Holistic Animal in your own print, electronic Newsletter or Blog only if you also include the following information: Reprinted from “The Holistic Animal” by Sandy Rakowitz
Subscribe at: http://theholisticanimal.wordpress.com

About the author;
Sandy Rakowitz of One Heart Healing Center for People & Animals offers a professional perspective with 20+ years experience in the field of Animal Wellness.  Sandy offers private sessions in person via telephone & Skype with TTouch, Energy Healing Medicine, Animal Communication, and Young Living Therapeutic Essential Oils for people and animals. 434-973-8864

To order these Essential Oil Blends;
Young Living Essential Oils

They will take you to your dreams.

Two weeks ago, a young woman who had been my daughter’s friend since early grade school, leapt to her death off her apartment building.  She was part of a  group of friends who  had stayed together through high school, experiencing an almost idyllic stability unusual in today’s world.  They were mostly children of academics, highly talented, bright, beautiful, funny.  They went to prestigious universities, garnering accolades, and all seemed well, until a year and a half ago when one of “the friends,” class president at UNC, was dragged from her apartment and brutally murdered one night.  Her death had become the defining moment of their lives, which are now divided between Before Eve and After Eve.

This new death has only reopened the not-yet-healed wound.  Whether the new death was a result of a manic high, of hidden despair or stress, we will never know.  All that is know is that is vibrant, loving, funny and gorgeous young woman who had been a part of all our lives, is no longer with us. Why, the young women keep asking each other and us, their mothers, why?

We are driving to the cemetery.  I am sitting in the front with one of the other mothers, and two of the daughters in the back seat, although not my daughter, who is in another car full of her friends.  We are trying to untangle the events that led up to the unimaginable, as if by parsing it out, we could lessen the hurt.  My friend begins to weep, recalling her own mother’s death when she was twelve.  Every new, tragic death, it seems, resurrects the old ones, makes them fresh, raw.  Then one of the girls brings up how she had been very depressed and how a river near her house had saved her.  “No joke,” she said, “I know that sounds weird but I swear that the river saved me.  I would just go and sit by it all the time and finally the depression just went away.”  The other young woman recounts how depressed she was in high school, and how one day she threw all her belongings in the hall and slept with nothing in her room, like a self-flagellating monk.  I told them the story of being their age, twenty-three, and flying home, angry and depressed. A middle-aged man next to me offered some kind words to me, and I rebuffed him coldly.  How could he offer such easy kindness?  He was obviously unenlightened, some soft bourgeoisie.  I was an intellectual girl, all right, I could deconstruct a text and situation with the best of them, little noticing that once you shred everything down to its finest units, you are left with very little.  I had an uneducated heart.

What can we offer our children in their moment of great need?  We can’t get to the bottom of these deaths–tragedies and mysteries beyond our comprehension, suffering almost too hard to physically bear.  Brought down myself by illness in the face of this latest loss, I happened to pick up the wonderful book by Kat Duff, The Alchemy of Illness.  I turned randomly to a page, and this is what I read:  “The Nahuatl peoples believed that we are born with a physical heart, but have to create a deified heart by finding a firm and enduring center within ourselves from which to lead our lives, so that our hearts will shine through our faces, and our features will become reliable reflections of ourselves.Otherwise, they explained, we wander aimlessly through our lives….”  She goes on to suggest that the sufferings we endure, physically and emotionally, by being consciously borne, can open us up and soften us. By offering our suffering as a sacrifice, we can “heal by resuscitating our hearts.”  “In our hearts, which many native peoples consider to be the seat of true intelligence, we discover the simple capacity to feel our losses, sorrow, and shame, and have compassion.”

We educate our children’s minds, but we often abandon the education of their hearts and souls.  There is nothing we can do to bring these wonderful young women back to us, and we can never answer the question “why?”  But we can offer the suggestion that their deaths are not in vain, if from our deep sorrow, we can grow new hearts. In the car that day, winding through the cemetery, we made a start.

Listening with the heart of a Buddha

One of the practices that my heart teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, stresses is listening deeply.  This kind of listening involves the whole heart and complete presence.  It means really being there for the other person, putting aside all our self-defenses and self-interests, and really listening.   Of course, this requires great empathy, but also mindfulness, so that we do get caught up in or overwhelmed by what is said.

In Buddhism, this kind of listening is exemplified in the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.  One of most widely revered bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism, this Buddha is also depicted in female form as Guan Yin, or Kwan Yin.  In Tibetan Buddhism, this compassionate listener to the suffering of the world is called Chenrezig.

Anyone can learn to be a skillful listener

By whatever name, this bodhisattva exemplifies a kind of skillful listening that anyone can aspire to and learn how to do.  Even if we are a lousy listener, this can change. All it takes is the aspiration to be able to listen in a healing way and to then to practice.

If we find it difficult to listen compassionately and patiently to the woes of others, we can almost be certain this is because we haven’t been able to sit still and listen to our own heart’s cries.  If we don’t listen to our own needs, if we don’t listen deeply to the cries of our own hearts, how can we do that skillfully for others?

Listening to others, listening to ourselves—one thing

So while we shouldn’t put off the practice of listening deeply to others, we should also make sure that we practice listening to ourselves skillfully in our meditation and metta practice.  You will find, as I have, that love for ourselves enables love for others, and that love for others, helps us love ourselves.

At the deepest level, there’s no difference between the two—love of self is love of others; love of others really is love of oneself. Listening deeply to our own hearts is listening to the cries of the world; hearing the cries of the world is listening to our own hearts.

In the excerpt below, Thich Nhat Hanh focuses on how family members can learn to listen deeply to each other, but the skill can be practiced in any relationship.

~

Living together in Harmony

by Thich Nhat Hanh

“Listening deeply is something we have to learn to do—we can’t do it just like that. When the other person is talking he or she is trying to express his or her difficulties and sufferings, and needs us to listen to that. But if we are not capable of listening, then the person who is speaking will not feel any relief in his or her suffering, and will finally give up talking.”

“People who have suffering, who have feelings hidden deep in their hearts, which they have not been able to express, they need an opportunity to express this suffering, and if no one sits to listen to them, how can they have that opportunity to express these hidden feelings of suffering? Therefore we need to practice looking deeply into that person, and that is the way to show that we love them.”

Deep listening in a family

“If we are a father and we want to listen to our children, we can sit alongside our child in silence, and then we say: ‘My dear child, please tell me, do you have any difficulties? Do you have any suffering? Please tell me. I want to listen so I can see if I can help you at all.’ So the father says this with his heart.”

“And if we are a wife, and we know our husband has sufferings and difficulties which he has not been able to talk about, we go to our husband, and sit silently, very freshly, alongside him, and then we say: ‘My dear husband, do you have any suffering? Do you have any difficulties hidden in your heart? Please let me know about them.’ The wife must say that.”

“If we are a husband or a father and we have suffering—and we all have suffering; some of us have a great deal, some of us have a little—when the other person says that to us, we see we have an opportunity to say what we want to. At first it’s difficult for us to say it. No one has tried to listen to us before, and now when somebody invites us to speak like that, we’re not sure if we really believe it.”

“But the wife, or whoever asks the question, should be patient and say, ‘Please, please tell me. It may be because of my un-skillfulness, my foolishness, that you suffer, and I want to hear this. Please tell me if I do anything foolish or clumsy which makes you suffer. I promise that I will sit by you very calmly and silently and listen, because I am practicing as a student of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. I will not judge, I will not react, I will not be angry.’”

“We all have to practice in the family: mother, father, and child. We can’t just listen deeply because we want to do it, we have to practice first…”

Excerpts from a talk called “Living Together in Harmony” given on July 19, 1998, Plum Village, France

KNOCKED DOWN BY THE FLU

Well, the good old H1N1 flu got us. It took us down in waves. First the kids for a week and then the adults for a week. Fever, chills, aches, coughs, nausea, the works. It was bad and don’t get me wrong here, I don’t particularly enjoy the flu.

WAIT A MINUTE, IT’S JUST THE FLU!

But here’s where I have to say, IT’S JUST THE FLU! And what is the big scary deal about getting the flu? Come on, people! Yes, some people have died from the flu. But thousands of people die from the flu each year, just in the area I live. Here are some stats I read in the newspaper a few weeks ago…last year 1500 people died from the flu. So far this year, 2 people have died from H1N1 and the people who are dying always have some other underlying condition. In other words, they’re not just dying from the flu. It’s from the other condition that they have.

YOU STILL GET THE FLU, EVEN WITH THE FLU VACCINE

And now a word or two about the flu vaccine. Here’s the thing, every single person I talked to who got the flu vaccine, came down with the flu immediately afterward. And then they exposed everyone around them to the flu as well. Now according to the research, the previous flu vaccines DID NOT STOP YOU FROM GETTING THE FLU, they only shortened your flu by 4 hours. Did you know that? Most people don’t.

RESEARCH DOES NOT SUPPORT VACCINES

According to the Cochrane Collaboration (an international non-profit dedicated to making up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of healthcare interventions readily available worldwide and who conduct high quality systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions) they conclude, after extensive research, that: “The universal immunization of healthy adults should achieve a number of specific goals: reducing the spread of the disease, reducing the economic loss due to working days lost and reducing morbidity and hospitalization.” None of these goals have been demonstrated in the available RCT evidence. Clinical implications: “Universal immunization of healthy adults is not supported by the results of this review.”

VACCINES ARE WATERED DOWN

The H1N1 flu vaccine has not be researched enough to know all the negative side effects that come from it (except for basically guaranteeing that you will in fact get the flu, only a slightly shorter version of it). Plus, because it has been in such high demand and there was not enough to go around, I have heard doctors actually say that the vaccine was “watered down” in order to get more out of it. Hmmm…… That’s not even taking into account all of the harmful chemicals and preservatives and, well, basically poison that you are injecting into your blood stream. When somebody is making billions of dollars off a product,  at some point you have to stop and question their motives and do your own research, not just blindly accept the foder they feed to you that preys on your fears.

BUT I’M IMMUNIZED, RIGHT?

Did you know that if you get all of your vaccines mixed together and injected at the same time that your body will think it is one illness? In other words, if you get the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine and then by chance you are exposed to Measles at some other time, well guess what? You’re probably going to get sick. Why? Because your body will only provide you with immunity if you are exposed to Measles, Mumps and Rubella at the exact same time. Now what are the chances of that happening?

MY DAUGHTER’S REACTION TO VACCINES

When Isabela, my first daughter, was born, I didn’t really do any research into vaccines. I just went along with what my doctor said, and gave her the 2 month old dose of vaccinations. We came home and she cried and screamed the whole night. Then the whole week. And then after that she became a much more irritable, fussy baby. Soon after that she started throwing up more often and developed a runny nose and a cold that did not go away for 3 months and FINALLY, I thought to myself, “Something is wrong. A cold does not last for 3 months!”

My mother suggested that maybe the excess mucous was caused by a lactose allergy, so I went off of cow’s milk and after two weeks her runny nose went away (my baby was only breastfeeding at the time, so what I was eating was what was making her sick.)

When I reflect upon Isabela’s experience with vaccines, obviously I can not blame everything on them, but what is clear to me is that it severely compromised her immune system, triggering and onset of numerous allergies (which may or may not have developed on their own without the vaccines) and it made her so uncomfortable and in pain that she cried for a whole week, and then just cried a lot more easily than before.

ARE YOU ALLERGIC TO EGGS?

If this had, on the other hand, been Diego, my three year old, who had received the vaccines as a baby, he would have had a massive reaction due to his egg allergy. (Did you know that they grow the illness on eggs and so part of it the egg is transferred into the vaccine?) Have you ever had a doctor ask you if your child had an egg allergy before you got a vaccine? Not in my experience.

BYPASSING OUR FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE

Since then I have done a lot more reading and research on vaccines. The thing that seems the  most important to me is that our immune system has several lines of defense to ward off illnesses. By injecting vaccines directly into the blood stream, you are bypassing so many of the body’s natural lines of defense. First the nostril hairs, then the nose or mouth, the stomach, the intestines, and if the disease is still kicking around, then it goes into our blood stream, but is then attacked by white blood cells. If our immune system is healthy, we will not catch the illness.

HOW TO NOT GET SICK: SLEEP

A study conducted by “British immunologists asked volunteers to inhale a noseful of aerosol containing common cold virus. Ten percent of those exposed resisted infection entirely. Another 30% were asymptomatic despite infection, 30% got a mild cold, and 30% got a bad cold. Statistical analysis of the subjects’ diet, exercise routines, smoking habits, stress levels, and other heath-related items revealed that one of the most significant factors in determining whether someone caught the common cold was how much sleep he go the night before exposure.” (p.77 in To Kindle a Soul, by Lawrence Kelemen – great book!)

1 IN 10 GET SERIOUSLY ILL FROM VACCINE

Now, supposedly vaccines are supposed to give you immunity to diseases, by giving you a small amount of the illness, small enough that the body is supposed to fight it off and create antibodies to protect it later on. But one in ten children develop mild or serious cases of the actual illness their body is supposed to fight off.

THE LINK TO AUTISM

The link of vaccines to autism is one of the most compelling reasons for me not to vaccinate. There is a lot of media controversy around this, but thousands of parents and doctors will attest to this connection. But when the pharmaceutic companies are making BILLIONS of dollars off vaccines, it is in their best interest to make people believe that there is no link. A good friend of mine has a 7 year old son who was a completely healthy, normal 2 year old, and immediately after the MMR vaccine developed autism, most likely due to the high doses of thimerosal (mercury) in the vaccines. She recommended this book, “What your doctor may not tell you about childhood vaccination.”

VACCINES ARE A CHOICE

One other thing. Vaccines are a choice in Canada and most other countries around the world. As in, not mandatory. You cannot legally be denied entrance to school or daycare or a job or anything because of not being vaccinated.

A FEW GOOD WEBSITES

http://www.novaccine.com/

http://www.vran.org/index.htm

http://thinktwice.com/

TWO GREAT VIDEOS

“Vaccine Nation”

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6696666502913965744#docid=6531447125053615129

“Vaccination: The Hidden Truth”

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6696666502913965744

I’m incredibly broken right now. but the cry of my heart is brokenness. [weird, huh?]  I want to be broken more. I want to be more Christ-like. I need Him like a hurricane. To tear my walls down.

I want to be broken. I want the thunder, wind, and rain of God to come crashing down on me. I want Him to break me and mend me. I want Him to demolish me and make beauty out of the pieces. I don’t want to have anything but Him to cling to.

And this isn’t because I’m addicted to pain or anything. In fact, I hate pain.  I hate pain. Emotional, physical, and spiritual. BUT I love God. And I’m willing for Him to break me. I want Him to break me. I want to be molded by Him. I want His perfect love.

I realize the weight of this prayer. It is intense. It shouldn’t be something I’m asking for lightly. And it isn’t. I don’t want to be an agent of Coop. I want to be an agent of God. I need God to be my focus, not others or myself. I don’t want anything but Him. But I really do want Him. And I really want Him to break me so He can break me in to who He wants me to be. I want Him to give me His eyes, His heart, His ears, His love. I feel like I’m clinging on to too much. To a very negative self-image. To pain.  To hope in things besides God. To ambitions. To grudges. To wounds. To bruises. To memories. To lost friends. To broken relationships.

I want to be broken and renewed. I want God to come in like a hurricane. I want to see Him more clearly. I want to be able to love Him more deeply. I want Him to fit in my heart where He belongs. In my God-shaped hole. I want to be broken and healed. I want to be freed through brokenness. I don’t want my will. I want His way.

And if You are the war
Let me be the casualty
Til Im Yours alone

He can see what’s going on soooooooooooooo much better. I want to be broken in accordance with the plans he has for me.

shatter me and mend me,

coop

I have an announcement and good news for you today.  God is for you!!  Wait a second before you nod and just fast forward to the next random thought….pause and REALLY think about that truth for a minute.  God is for YOU!! Not when you get to heaven, not when everything is perfect in how you live your life, not when you get yourself together…GOD is FOR YOU NOW!!

Psalm 84:11-12 says this:

¹¹For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord bestows [present] grace and favor and [future] glory (honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss)! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

¹²O Lord of hosts, blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts in You [leaning and believing on You, committing all and confidently looking to You, and that without fear or misgiving]!

To everyone who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior–Without reservation and hesitation, you ought to start the next minute of your life with a renewed and refreshed view of your present situation and circumstances. Not based on whether they have changed or not, but based on the truth of God’s word being part of what you BELIEVE (act like, talk like, walk like, and look like) is true.

There’s so much promise in these few words from God and yet it has enough power to sustain you through everything you’re dealing with right now–whether good or bad.  If you have been on the bad side or troubled side of things–there’s a cross-referenced promise that applies to God’s role as our “sun”. You know the sun provides life and its light activates the life producing systems that God so masterfully placed inside the world and all of us. Spiritually speaking–God does the same for us as our “sun” and beyond as He is our “shield” as well.

Malachi 4:2 says

“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.”

This word is for you and its for someone you know.  Apply it and soak in it for yourself first so that you’re convinced that God is for you.  It will be impossible for the enemy to convince you that God is not faithful.  Accept God’s healing, favor, blessings, and run out of whatever  stall or holding area that has kept you from moving forward!! GOD is For YOU!!

Blessings,

Randy

Wisdom sometimes arises in the middle of a conversation.

And if we are mindful, we can see how it affects both the teller and the listener. That’s how I felt in this exchange recently with someone who was halfway around the world from me, but felt like a neighbor sharing a moment over a backyard fence.

(See I’m Okay  for original story by  mittaipink

Contoveros says:    Well I’ll be damned.

Oh, not really. I’m only saying that as a figure of speech. Nothing I got from any book. Just something I feel.

“I’ll be damned,” in, and of itself probably wouldn’t work as well without the first introductory word; “Well . . . I’ll be . . .”

See. Somethings simply go together better than others.

Like throwing out all of the books. Like starting right where you are, because you “are” okay!

One of my favorite quotes is, that if you see the Buddha on the road, “kill him.”

You . . . me . . . all of us . . . can not be like the Buddha. We can’t live his life. We have to live our own. And if we try to be like another person then we are fooling no one but ourselves (Self?)

So, throw out the books, Have a cup of tea. Meditate. And if you can’t reach that state of bliss on the first try, well, who the hell can? I betcha the Buddha had to “practice,” and “practice,” and “practice” until He got it together.

Sounds to me like you are already half way there!

 __________michael j_________________

What a surprise to see this name appearing in your post. You have to marry me now. You didn’t know that?
Well, that was the part of the “Inner Peace” poem I left off: “Whosoever shares their love with another through this poem will be tied to michal j forever.”

It’s something like the “laws of attraction” you hear so much of nowadays.

Enjoyed your company. Read you later. (wink!)

michael j

mittaipink Says:

HI Michael, That is such a nice reply. What a natural writer you are! And light hearted too.
Sorry, I can’t marry you, I already am. Thanks for the offer anyway:-)
‘throw out the books, Have a cup of tea. Meditate. And if you can’t reach that state of bliss on the first try, well, who the hell can?’
I like that piece of advice so much.
Yes, the Buddha did go through so many years of trying out different schools of thought and practice till he finally found his own Middle path didn’t he?
Even if we don’t kill him , we needn’t kill ourselves trying to be him all over.
Thanks for stopping by!

Thank you! (michael j)

Since every time we meet someone we form a ‘relationship’, significant or insignificant, the word obviously carries different meanings in different situations to different folks. To some, it is horrifying – and they insist on having as few “relationships” as possible (not a bad idea, I’m saying) to others, well… the more the merrier. Yet the quality and definition of a relationship also makes the approach more insightful, if you think of it. But I quickly got off my thought… Which is…

here’s the random thought as it relates to courage of the heart: What is love if not a risk? There are no guarantees, except to isolate and relive the loves that are, for whatever reason, no longer actively healthy, which in turn simply keeps us in our pain or misery or loneliness. The act of reaching out and opening up one’s thoughts and expressions (yes, love, the verb) is in itself a life-affirming and positive act, no matter the result. It opens new places, removes old attachments and creates possibilities. I don’t make new friends or explore old ones in new ways because I want to re-visit a past relationship. No one holds a hand and wants to think of another person when they do so. That is not good, but we all have done it. Once. But if that relationship didn’t last because of tragedy or didn’t work for whatever reason, why in the bleep do I pine for it? If we are worried about a past hurt, then leave it in the past, don’t bring it as a measuring stick for the future ones for in every measurement we are reminded of the “failure” and we instantly taint the new moment with the colorization (black? red? murky? blue?)   of our past. It is perfectly fine to put something in a positive place in our memory, as long as we realize that it belongs in memory and that no form of magic can make it present again.

Life’s a bitch, the day sucks…. then we have go to sleep to wake and…. do it all again? Are you kidding? That’s the point. I’m not supposed to live today as I did yesterday. It would be a wasted opportunity.

To see something wholly is not something we want to do when it comes to our selves, or certainly our intimate or friendly “relationships”. It is too serious, too realistic and too often, too painfully self-aware to look at our place in something.

And “wholly” is something we all struggle with I think (I certainly do). How do we live our lives wholly? That would include our family, friends, children (which go beyond family since they extend our DNA, our sense of achievement and our youthful demeanor into at least another generation), romance and passion, personal achievement and sense of worth, artistic and charitable offerings and of course, spirituality.

So I guess my point is, for my mantra “Love, The Verb” today, is to approach each friendship as fresh and unbridled, each day as fresh and unbridled. I will try my best to stop pulling the pain from yesterday into the dawn of a new morning. The more we can do this, the more we can move on and uncover the gems of action in the only time we can, the time of now. And this will help us alter the manner in which we expect others to live up to some fictional character in our past and the less we will beat our seleves up for letting that “reationship” end or, in some cases, begin at all. We did not, actually, control it’s overall dynamics, only the moments in which we participated individually. Two people, swirling together, universal forces surrounding them, who can calm the oceans for even a moment is a wonderous thing. But it often, most often, temporary. The light changes, the wind blows, the breath sharpens, the day ends. Beauty may remain, and we take that with us.

We may very well repeat the moment again, we may not. We are not in charge of all of that – because there are others in the universe – even just one other – who must also step their love forward. We can only create singularly dimensional things on our own, tied to memories that are dragged like sacks of stones into the present.

I’m reminded of the U2 song, “All that We Can’t Leave Behind”… And am attaching hope to this new day, maybe the strength to let go of one worry form yesterday, last week, last month…. last year and make room for something that is swirling past meinthis moment, unnnoticed by the murkiness of a confused tear.

Love, the verb.

Check out this news on how Elisabeth Jensen, founder of the Isis Mystery School, gradually healed a man in a coma after a nasty accident.

Oh well, maybe one day…

Elisabeth Jensen is also the Teacher to my own Teacher. Find out more here.

AEDM and Tarot King of Wands 27/11/09

Finished Heart Wall Hanging

The pictures are Prints of  Pastels on paper that I created a month ago I have used Pastels since going to Art college.  I will refine the Japanese Binding and these Journals  and cards will be available at my Etsy store soon.

Creative Update….

It has been a Creative two days … I haven’t had much time to post so I saved the work and decided to post every three days.

I have been in a creative frenzy and I felt that I needed to take refuge from life.  As a Holistic Life Coach and Healer I  tend to give too much especially to students /clients so my creative time is like a prayer however I need to balance it by spending moretime  in nature.(even if its Autumn).

So using my own medicine I took to relaxing with peppermint tea to calm my IBs brought on by stress and gave myself a healing bath with an Essential Oils that grounded me.

The same  night around 12.00 am I chose the Tower card but felt that I had cheated as I normally select a card in the morning so I still took on board the meaning of upheaval and change (The Tower) but felt that this was more internal as opposed to external events.  The next day I selected the Ace of Cups abundance love etc .  I felt a very close connection to the Earth and spent time outside in my garden.

I later decided to get some food at the local market and as I stepped out of my front door during a burst of Rain I saw the most beautiful Rainbow..

Which I realise now was   a blessing and sign for me to constantly working with Nature and Creativity.

Marilyn

Originally uploaded by mjfontaine1