Happy New Year

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Welcome 2017

Time races across the centuries and another year ticks past. A year doesn't meander anymore, it rushes past like an out-of-control wildfire. 

Say hello to 2017. 

You Are The Burning Flame

Many would say 2016 was a wild year. Ups, downs and inside-out. Wins and losses. Strong polarities that pulled people apart and gathered others together. 

Don't let the events of the outer world dim your inner fire. Stand steady in your heart. 

You are the spiral. You are the burning flame within the flower of your expression.

Sometimes, in our most difficult moments, all we can do is close our eyes and breathe. Breathing is good.

Keep Your Flame Burning Bright

 
“Your life spark fires from within your innermost temple
no one can reach there but you
it is your inner sacred sanctum…
you are your own master there
only you can reach and ignite your fire!”
— Osho
 

Happy New Year. Keep burning bright.

 

O Holy Night

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It's Christmas Eve

A hush falls across the land as we gather for Christmas Eve.

We finish our Christmas shopping and gather with family and friends. We light candles and offer prayers. Midnight mass is chanted in churches large and small.

We spiral into Christmas Eve on stars of light.

A Star In The East

“And for a moment, the sky stood still while a new star was born.”

Suspended in the firmament, a powerful star sparkled and beckoned. Wise men followed the light. It's possible that an alignment of the stars is what drew the astrologers as far back as... 

April 17, 6 BC when the Sun, Jupiter, the Moon and Saturn aligned in the constellation Aries while Venus and Mars were in neighboring constellations.

The star could have appeared up to two years before the wise men arrived in Jerusalem.

Grant Mathews, a Notre Dame astrophysicist, believes the wise men were "Zoroastrian astrologers who would have recognized the planetary alignment in Aires as a sign a powerful leader was born."

“In fact, it would have even meant that this leader was destined to die at an appointed time, which of course would have been significant for the Christ child, and may have been why they brought myrrh, which was an embalming fluid.

Saturn there (in that part of the sky) would have made whoever was born as a leader, a most powerful leader, because Saturn had the strength to do it, in their view.”
— Grant Mathews
 

Christmas Is In Our Hearts

Perhaps you spend Christmas with a large, noisy family or maybe your Christmas night is at home with a beloved pet. If you have studied The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), allow yourself some extra time for TRT® hands-on. 

Amidst all the gatherings and activities, the light burns bright and we can tap into that expanding light in our meditations. Hold yourself close to the light.

Remember that Christmas exists in our hearts.

Today we are all wise men when we follow the light in our own hearts.

 

As We Gather For Our Feast

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Thanksgiving Preparation

Grocery shelves groan under the weight of extra produce that will grace our tables. Pumpkins and butternut squash are piled high. Extra displays are set up with traditional foods for the Thanksgiving table such as sweet potatoes and yams, bags of cranberries, green beans, and stuffing mix for the turkey.

We Remember Our Farmers

It's a holiday for feasting, a celebration of the abundance of the year's harvest. We come together to share our food and to give thanks.

With gratitude for our endless bounty, we also take a moment to remember and thank those who provide all this food for us.

Our farmers.

Paul Harvey, a radio broadcaster from a time when radio was king, delivered a broadcast in 1978 about farmers. It became known by the title, "So God Made A Farmer."

Harvey painted with his words the hard work and humble life of a farmer. A rising sun waits for no one and so, the farmer rises early each day to tend the animals and the fields, no matter what. It's a life that requires resiliency and strength. How many of us would have the fortitude to be a farmer?

God Made A Farmer (text)

And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.

"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church. 

Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life doing what dad does." So God made a farmer.

–Paul Harvey

 

Farmers Face Challenges

There are struggles for today's farmers on many levels. Concerns swirl around us such as animal treatment, genetic manipulation of seeds, loss of crop land, and getting food to the hungry, just to name a few. As we become more and more urbanized, there is concern as to who will set up to becpme our next generation of farmers.

We Say Thank You

We also remember the long chain of people who bring the farmers' food to us. Many hands touch the food before we buy it, like people who package it, the truckers and the store workers.

This Thanksgiving holiday, we bow our heads before the beautiful food on our tables and we say thank you to everyone who helped bring it to us.

 

Photos of the farmers are all
by Paul Mobley from an article in The Morning News.

 

The Sea Beckons

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Time To Say Arrgggh!

'Tis our illustrious Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Aye, on September 19, every year, ye best be sayin' Arrgggh and Ahoy. Toss in an Avast to get someone's attention!

Pirates And The Sea

When we invoke pirates, we call forth the sea and its magical allure. Siren songs float in the waves like driftwood. Mermaids coax us into the watery depths. 

What is the swirl of tides that echoes in our pulsing veins?

As the moon pushes and pulls at the shore, does the salty water in our own bodies long to join in the dance?

Wild Sea, She Be A-Callin'

A mesmerizing whisper in the lapping of waves at the shore's edge brings a primordial recognition. Sometimes, it's as if we see something out of the corner of our eye. Or, it's a sound we thought we heard behind us, but no one is there. 

Hello, did someone call me home? 

When the sun touches the water, our hearts leap. Our pulse quickens as we stare in wonder at the sparkling diamonds of sunlight. Precious jewels available to one and all.

Primordial Call

Could we crawl back into the sea and swim with the dolphins and whales? Not as separate humans, but as sea mammals, together, smiling knowingly at one another? We could whirl through the uncharted depths of liquid dark and light and open our hearts until they fill the entire ocean. 

Planet Water

Planet Earth should be called Planet Water given that it's much more water than earth. Our human-centric viewpoint defines everything through our own limited eyes, seldom stretching past our own awareness. But, sometimes, secrets from the sea are revealed and we wonder, might there be other perceptions of reality just as relevant as our own?

A Life At Sea

Let Talk Like A Pirate Day carry you away.

Imagine a life at sea. The odor of briny salt water swirls inside you as you sniff the air. Your sea legs know, without thinking, how to shift with the roll and swell of the waves.

It's a time when we traveled between distant lands on great, grand ships with our arms wide open instead of winding our way, huddled together, in security lines at airports.

Just for a day, indulge yourself and have a Pirate Heart that loves the sea and dreams of hidden treasure.

Lighthouse photo: James Peacock

My Country 'Tis of Thee

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Sweet Land of Liberty

The Fourth of July is a holiday in the United States of America, and we're celebrating the birth of our nation.

Samuel Francis Smith penned the lyrics to My Country 'Tis of Thee in 1832. A 24-year-old student of theology, Smith wanted to create a national hymn for the American people to offer praise to God for their wonderful land.

 
 

This song served as the unofficial national anthem for the United States until the adoption of The Star-Spangled Banner in 1931.

Fourth of July Holiday

We're a young nation with a relatively short history compared to many other countries. 

This nation's birth was only a short 240 years ago, in 1776. We're the brash newcomers making a splash and letting everyone know we're here.

The Fourth of July is a federal holiday and that gives us time to wave lots of flags. We line the streets for parades, gather outside for cook-outs and picnics, and join family and friends to watch fireworks at night. Bring out your patriotic red, white and blue!

Patriotism And Loving Your Country

What is patriotism?

“Patriotism is an emotional attachment to a nation which an individual recognizes as their homeland.
This attachment, also known as national pride, can be viewed in terms of different features relating to one’s own nation, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects.”
“The English term patriot is first attested in the Elizabethan era, via Middle French from Late Latin (6th century) patriota, meaning “countryman.”
This ultimately came from Greek πατριώτης (patriōtēs), meaning “from the same country,” from πατρίς (patris), meaning “fatherland.”
The abstract noun patriotism appears in the early 18th century.”

Red, White And Blue

In the United States, if you're wearing a patriotic outfit, it's got red, white and blue in it. Decorations, same thing.

Not that these colors are unique to the Americans. We share these colors with the French and the British. Their flags are also red, white and blue. However, the French describe their colors as blue, white and red, changing the order so the color blue is listed first.

 
 

Patriotism can also be service to one's country and fellow countrymen. It can take the form of serving in the military or working in other service organizations.

This idea is captured in the famous words of President John F. Kennedy.

“And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
— Inauguration Speech of John F. Kennedy

Loving Your Country, Loving Other Countries

Many people have countries that they call "home" and they share a love for their own countries. It's okay to love our countries. It's okay to love other countries, too.

Loving our own country, doesn't limit us from loving others. Our hearts are wide and open to love our whole planet and the many expressions of our cultures and countries.

I like to refer to other places that I love, countries where I am not a passport-carrying citizen, as heart homes. I have quite a list of heart homes. I wish it were possible to live in many places all at the same time. 

Enjoy your red, white and blue holiday!

Easter Comes On Sunday

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If you're looking for Easter, you will always find it on Sunday.

The trick is figuring which Sunday. That's when the hunt begins.

 

Easter Is A Wandering Celebration

You undoubtedly noticed that Easter wanders around the calendar. You have to check each year as to when you'll need to have your Easter bonnet purchased.

Easter can be celebrated as early as the end of March or in the last half of April. The Easter holiday schedule from now until 2050 shows Easter as early as March 25 and as late as April 25. That's a lot of wandering.

Easter is a moveable feast. It evokes something magical even though it has a scientific basis in the timing of lunar cycles.

 
“The date of Easter is determined according to the lunar calendar (the date of Christmas is fixed on the solar calendar on 25 December).
Before 325 AD, there was no official celebration of the birth of Christ, and Easter was celebrated by some Christians on Passover (a lunar holiday) and by others the following Sunday.

The First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD established that Easter would fall on the Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal (spring) equinox.
The church’s methods are a bit imprecise, in part because the vernal equinox doesn’t always fall on March 21 and in part because the church uses traditional tables (rather than modern astronomy) to determine the dates of full moons.”
 
 

Combine The Old And New

We expand our knowledge of the moon and Easter as well as spring and its new beginnings. The connections extend deep within our history and link back to festivals that existed long before the religion of Christianity.

Bunnies are a leftover from the pagan festival of Eostre, a Germanic goddess whose symbol was a rabbit or hare.

The exchange of eggs is an ancient custom representing rebirth and one can easily see the new beginning that spring represents. In Persia, eggs have been painted for thousands of years as part of the spring celebration of No Ruz, which is the Zoroastrian new year.

Hot Cross Buns

Easter has an ancient lineage and hot cross buns harken back to that history. Their delightful story reminds us of the adage: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." 

In the Old Testament, the Israelites baked sweet buns for an idol, and religious leaders tried to put a stop to it. The early church clergy also tried to stop sacred cakes being baked at Easter. Ultimately, in the face of defiant cake-baking pagan women, they gave up and blessed the cake instead. Hence, we benefit today from tasty hot cross buns.

 

A Moveable Feast

I have always loved the notion of a moveable feast. Partly because it's intriguing to be kept guessing each year, and partly because of the book by that name, written by Ernest Hemingway.

Hemingway recounts his life in Paris as a young man during the 1920s and describes it in this well-known quote: 

 
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”
— Hemingway
 

I passed though my Hemingway phase during my first years in college. Our youth whispered that we were immortal. There were times when reading his books, I would almost feel tipsy, caused by living vicariously as he quaffed vast amounts of clear, crisp white wine or imbibed in bar-drinks that had to be clean.

We dreamed everything was still possible: 

 
“...we would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright.”
— Hemingway
 

And while we are a bit older and wiser now – spring equinox, Easter, rebirth and moveable feasts are still a part of our celebrations.

 

Your Song Of Love

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Celebrating Our Hearts

Valentine's Day comes only once a year, but we can celebrate our hearts every day of our lives.

It's the joy of letting our hearts sing with love all the time, in our many gestures throughout our days.

Defining Love

In our society, we typically think of love as being defined only between two people. Yet, most of our definitions of love are too limiting. Love is not confined to our friends and family.

We know love when we see a beautiful sunrise or sunset, when we gaze at the moon and the stars, when we stop to notice dewdrops on a blade of grass. Love expresses in a myriad of ways. Love flies in many dimensions.

It's possible to love everything. Our love is shared with animals, nature and our world that is all around us. Love is there when we answer the phone, prepare a meal, and tuck someone in at night.

Love reaches into the cellular level of our bodies and stretches out to the galaxies, far beyond our comprehension.

Fill Your Gestures With Love

Let all your daily gestures be filled with love. 

Real love unfolds naturally and quietly within us. Over time, we start to see how it expresses in our lives. 

Don't let anyone diminish your love.

Let your love move on the wind.

Let your heart sing its love song, just like the little birds singing in the forest.

 

Take a look at Lada Ladik on Instagram who created the heart-felt artwork included in this post. She has many creative hearts to share.