New Year 2022

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Happy New Year!

We hope it will be a happy one, just as we have hoped every year since time immemorial. New Year’s celebrations are always filled with high hopes.

I write “time immemorial,” but we’ve only been celebrating the “new year” since Babylonian times, about 4,000 years ago. To us, as tiny humans, that seems like time immemorial, but you could ask the dinosaurs from millions of years ago and I don’t think they’d have much to say about the new year. But, I digress.

Back to our celebrations. Do you have some new year’s resolutions to mark this one-year journey around the sun? Read more books? Walk in nature on a regular basis? Reach out to friends and family more often?

As we clink our glasses, our celebratory cocktail has a touch of bitters in it, doesn’t it? It reminds us of all that was regretted, lost, or mourned in the past year.

The Virus And 2022

Will 2022 be the year that COVID begins to fade away? Everyone hopes so. When will the day come that the virus no longer dominates our news, activities and movement? It does cause one to pause and wonder whether we should be jet-setting all over the planet after all.

Perhaps we were never designed for that. Could it be that taking the slow-boat is a more natural way to move on this planet? Maybe a slower, more natural rhythm is what is ingrained in our DNA.

At The Portal Of Time

Time. We measure it, count it, divide it, and add it up. Sometimes we have too much, other times, too little. We cling to the past, or fret about the future. We think we know what time is. As if it were tangible.

In fact, time mostly exists in our minds, entangled in our thoughts.

There’s nothing wrong with the acknowledgment of the changing seasons and picking out dates that we celebrate on our man-made calendars. On the New Year, we celebrate a point that we call “last year” and rejoice at a point that we call “next year.” We might want to keep in our awareness that it’s all just one big flow of energy.

We’re always standing at a portal of time. In every minute we stand in the center of the present moment of consciousness and yet, the weight of our human lives often dims this realization.

Still, we sense it. We feel it. We almost see it. Just out of view, at the corner of our sight, it reminds us to look closer. Perhaps this year we will. This year, we won’t just stand in the gateway, we’ll step through to the other side.

Wherever You Go

Wherever you go, there you are. You start to realize that more deeply with each passing year.

In this manner, we share the world of the spider – wherever we go, we spin our own web. Whether our web is humble or glittering with jewels, it’s still created with our fantasies, illusions and deceptions.

Sure, we might change some different ornaments on our web depending on our location. A French croissant, a German beer, an American hamburger (webs are, after all, all about catching food), but it is still a web of our own making with all the sticky traps of the unawakened mind.

Changing the decorations on our web will not change the web itself. Once we recognize this self-made construction surrounding us, it helps us to break free. Our awareness expands and we become more clear about our reactions and conditioning. We still have a web, we need one to live, but it no longer defines us, limits us. It’s only a part of being on this planet, not the core of who we are.

New Year Wish

This last year, we didn’t publish many blog posts. Words seemed limiting, inadequate. However, words help us to communicate, so maybe we’ll talk a bit more in the year to come.

For now, as we usher in 2022, a heartfelt wish is captured in this illustration by Pamela Zagarenski.

“My wish for you... a holiday, a winter, a year, a life full of joy & peace.”
— Pamela Zagarenski

Let’s also add, may it be a year full of good health – with healing on all levels.

Happy New Year 2022.

Flowers At Home

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Flowers To Brighten Our Days

During the pandemic that started in 2020, we have spent a lot of time in our homes. When I lived in San Francisco, there were flower shops near my workplace, so fairly often, I would bring a small bouquet home to decorate my apartment.

As the years passed, I did this less and less. It seemed to be money better-spent elsewhere and, at the time, it simply seemed a bit extravagant.

Fast forward to the pandemic of COVID-19. Staying home as much as we did, having a vase of flowers in the house was a way to bring a bit of nature inside and to brighten up the space with a pop of color.

Flowers From The Supermarket

Where I live now, I don’t have the dedicated little flower shops of an urban environment. My flowers come from the local supermarket. However, these little flower faces have proven to be just as sweet. They provide an uplifting spot of color, a breath of a living vibration that graces the center of the table.

And I’ve found that I don’t have to spend a lot of money for a small bouquet to decorate our room.

Flowers From A Neighbor

One day, a neighbor stopped by and gave us a bouquet of dahlias. These had come from a specialized grower of dahlias. The song of these gorgeous, full blossoms filled the room with their vibrant melody. The variety of the flowers made for a rich harmony of colors and shapes.

Dahlias, with all their variations, are a magical flower changing shape and color with abandon. They are also the “city flower” of Seattle.

Flowers To Mark Our Journey

All of the flowers that have filled our home have their own song to sing. Sometimes they match the feel of the season or they mark the various celebrations passing by on our calendars. Colors of autumn, Christmas themes, a celebration of hearts, a way to bring warm colors inside our homes during dark, winter nights.

Flowers Bring Nature Inside Our Homes

We decorate our homes with flowers even while remembering that the greatest of nature is outside. Of course, we know this. Yet, to have a tiny bit of nature, albeit in cut flowers, inside our room has the vibration of nature. It calls to us, reminds us of the life-force at the center of these colorful little beings. The sap rises in the stems and suffuses the petals with its energy, its life force. We are reminded of our own pulsing “sap” in our veins, carrying life to all the cells of our bodies. We are a part of nature.

For students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), we can connect to the marvels of nature with our Radiant Touch®. By using our TRT® hands-on, holding the flowers, lightly touching their petals when we greet them in the morning, we connect with the essence of nature. “Hello,” we say in our hearts as we add more water to their vase, “thank you for being here with me. Thank you for your existence.”

Even in the toughest of times, we say thank you. We lift our eyes to the sky and whisper our gratitude for this day, for these flowers, for our lives… even while we stay at home.

Big Tech Censorship

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Censorship

Houston, we have a problem.

First off: this is not a political blog. As soon as you open your mouth about one side of the political landscape, you alienate the other half of the population who disagrees with it.

Along that same vein, this is not a political blog post. I am not here to debate who is right or wrong or who won the election, no matter my personal feelings about it.

This post is about censorship and Big Tech. Censorship is being exerted by Big Tech right now and it’s deeply troubling and alarming.

Big Tech

Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey along with the others at Google, Amazon and Apple are in the power game of a lifetime, of several lifetimes actually. Let's be clear, they are not enlightened. I don’t want another person running my life. And even if they were enlightened, I would still not want them running my life. Nor would an enlightened person want to do so!

These unawakened and unenlightened people actually think they can tell us what to think and what to do.

I did not elect, vote for, ask for, nor do I desire Big Tech to decide who or what I can hear or see. We have ego-driven people deciding what is “fact-checked” and then forcing it down our throats. And they know nothing about what is real, about the deeper dimensions, about the Whole.

Learning From History

This type of censorship cannot sustain itself. Communist Russia and Europe could not be sustained. But unfortunately, millions of people were murdered by Stalin along the way. And no, that is not hyperbole, it was literally millions. I don’t have any illusion that I couldn’t be swept up as one of them.

What will happen when it is deemed that people cannot work with energy techniques? When meditation is banned? What makes anyone think that couldn’t happen? We are a hairbreadth away from losing everything and becoming a totalitarian country.

Censorship, suppression and repression do not work. Thoughts and ideas need to bubble up and be exposed to the light of day. They need to be examined and criticized in the full noonday sun and if not honorable, they will eventually fade and lose strength.

No Safe Haven

If we think we’re safe because we’re running with the "in" crowd, because we agree with them, or because we’re mindlessly shuffling along, sure that no one will notice us, we need to carefully clean off our glasses. We need a clearer perspective.

If we think it’s okay to censor The President of the United States because we "don’t like him" – we need to grow up. Not meaning to sound harsh, but honestly, living life only driven by likes and dislikes is a childish approach.

If we expand our awareness to hold simultaneously both our likes and dislikes, we have a greater chance of seeing with expanded vision and wholeness. An even more advanced level is the ability to hold two opposing ideas at the same time. Are you ready to take the leap?

With Or Without Tech

People of my age grew up and lived the majority of their lives without social media and even without the internet. We did just fine. Sure, the internet brought excellent advantages like online banking (along with the disadvantage of identity theft) and the movement and transfer of documents. I’m old enough to remember when sending a fax was an event and in the legal field the debate was, does the signature on a fax have the same validity as a real ink-on-paper signature?

Having the internet to stay in touch with our loved ones during a pandemic, or at any time for that matter, is a blessing. Ordering online is such a convenience. Being able to gather information swiftly, without needing to “go to the library” is a delight.

However, I fall-on-my-knees in gratitude that I did not grow up with social media.

Teen years, and even the 20s, are difficult enough without having it dominated with "likes" and on-line bullying. If I were raising children today, I would not want them on any of the social platforms. Only text messaging to coordinate times to pick them up after class, for example. Fat chance that would be successful, but one can dream.

So, do we remove all technology from our lives? That seems like throwing out the baby with the bath water as they say. Our lives have technology deeply embedded in it now. It would be nearly impossible to eliminate technology in our modern society which is a strange statement when you think about it too much.

Perhaps we do step back from some of the social media. At a minimum, we need to hold Big Tech’s feet to the fire and demand benevolence. We need fewer monopolies. We need other options.

What To Do?

So, what can we do? Here's the difficult part: I don’t know. It’s why I hesitated to write this post. Why present a problem if you don’t have a solution?

However, to start the healing process, we have to have awareness of what is happening. Seeing it is step number one. Students of TRT® can direct energy to a situation to support an alignment in Wholeness for all that is taking place. We can direct energy to clarity – first, within ourselves.

We can hold the process in our hearts, expand our understanding and yes, our universal love for all that is.

In the end, we may not understand everything at the mental level. But, we know that these present-day energies are out of balance and need re-alignment.

Stay aware, stay awake. Keep your lamp filled with oil so that your light may shine brightly.

Namasté.

Baking Bread

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Homemade Bread

“Breadbaking is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony.
It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”
— M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

The smell of homemade bread wafting in your home provides a sense of warmth and comfort and the promise of good food. The odor of baking bread can elicit feelings of well-being.

What makes bread smell so good? The little yeast critters are an important factor. They produce chemicals during baking that break down into delicious-smelling aromatics. The key aroma compounds create between eight and 12 notes which create the familiar smell of bread.

Bake Your Own Bread

Making your own bread at home is pretty straight forward with a bread pot by Emile Henry. Directions to make this tasty bread are included with your purchase. The wonderful lidded pot turns bread-baking into a straight-forward, no frills process. Something all of us can do.

Proof And Rise

“Bread deals with living things, with giving life, with growth, with the seed, the grain that nurtures.
It’s not coincidence that we say bread is the staff of life.”
— Lionel Poline

Mix together the ingredients: flour, salt, yeast and water. That’s it. Simple.

Allow the dough to proof and rise.

Those ingredients take on a life of their own over the next 12 to 18 hours. The instructions say 18 hours is ideal, gives the dough time to develop its personality, don’t you know.

Such a delightful idea to have a little food-being in a creation process sitting on the counter whilst you run about doing other things.

Once the rise is done, the dough needs a couple of folds, another rest of about 2 hours, and then the dough is dropped into the pre-heated bread pot. Only baking remains. It’s a no-knead bread.

Light With Your Food

For students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), you can bring extra light to your bread-making skills. Place your hands on the outside of your bowl when it’s full of ingredients, or while the dough is rising.

As the dough rises, you can share a cosmic symbol with your future bread when you happen to walk by. Just saying hello! Of course, when you handle bread dough, folding it, kneading it, you are bringing radiant energy to your food with your Radiant Touch®.

When it’s time to eat, you can place a hand in your heart to remind yourself of gratitude for our food and blessings.

Freezing Bread

Bear in mind, this bread has no stabilizers or preservatives, so it doesn’t do well sitting out on a counter past two days. If you have a small family and you can’t eat it all in a couple of days, you can freeze your bread. It’s ideal to freeze it while newly fresh.

Once it is completely cooled, slice it up and place in a plastic bag that you can seal tightly, then pop into your freezer. If you slice it before freezing, then you can take out slices as you need them. The bread thaws out in a flash and it’s great for toast.

Enjoy Your Bread

“Here is bread, which strengthens man’s heart, and therefore is called the staff of Life. ”
— Matthew Henry

Time to enjoy your bread. Make sure you have a sharp, serrated bread-slicing knife. You don’t want a dull knife squishing down your lovely loaf.

You can top your bread with a slice of Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, made with grass-fed cow’s milk. A pure bread-and-butter treat.

Maybe you’ll want to use your bread to sop up some broth or stew. Or, perhaps, you wish to savor the unsullied freshness of your homemade bread and eat it plain, relishing in its chewy crust.

Bon Appétit.

Radiant Nursing is not affiliated with Emile Henry or Kerrygold.
Bread photos taken by Radiant Nursing w/smartphone.

Happy New Year 2019

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Hello To New Year 2019

Last year was a wild ride and it appears that the bumps in the road will continue.

As a new year rolls into view and we practice writing 2019, remember to listen to the quiet voice in the heart – even while everything and everyone around us runs at a frantic pace.

Take Time For You

Be sure to take time for the little things this new year. Take a break from social media, set down the smart phone and enjoy a walk among the trees.

Bake some bread or cookies. Make a thick stew. Read a book, one that you actually hold in your hands.

Take time to exercise and stretch, to listen to music, to nurture your joy.

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

In this rough-and-tumble world, even if it seems like it’s crumbling around you, look past the worldly troubles and focus on the light in your heart.

For students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), take time for a meditation with TRT® hands-on in Front Position #1, in the heart. Use of TRT® expands the radiant energy of your heart center. It supports a deepening of heart-filled wisdom. Listen to your heart as you decide which way to go.

Happy New Year!

“Let not your heart be troubled…” from The Bible, New Testament, John 14:1

National Coffee Day

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Let’s Celebrate Coffee

“Coffee – the favorite drink of the civilized world.”
— Thomas Jefferson
 

Everything has its day and coffee is no exception. National Coffee Day is September 29 and is celebrated in the United States.

It’s not as if every day isn’t coffee day, but hey, it’s fun to actually call it out loud and celebrate this dark brew that comforts us.

After all, we didn’t always have coffee.

Introduction Of Coffee

“Europeans got their first taste of coffee in 1615 when Venetian merchants who had become acquainted with the drink in Istanbul carried it back with them to Venice. At first, the beverage was sold on the street by lemonade vendors, but in 1645 the first coffeehouse opened in Italy.”
— History of Coffee

Coffee spread throughout Europe, dripping its way into Italy, France, Germany and England. Coffee began to replace the common breakfast drink beverages of the time — beer and wine. Those who drank coffee instead of alcohol started the day alert and energized, and the quality of their work was notably improved.

The Birth Of The Coffeehouse

“Coffeehouses soon sprang up all over Europe and, across the lands, they became a platform for people from all walks of life, especially artists and students, to come together and chat.”

In The Netherlands, the Dutch were initially more interested in coffee as a trade commodity since they cultivated coffee in their colonies. However, in the 1660s, the Dutch coffeehouse grew in popularity and took on a decidedly unique style of rich décor and lush gardens. These coffeehouses were located in the financial districts of Dutch cities and thus, were places where merchants and financiers conducted business meetings.

In the 1680s, the Dutch introduced coffee to Scandinavia. Today, this far northern region has the highest per capita consumption of coffee in the world.

In England, London coffeehouses became an integral part of social culture by 1660. People nicknamed coffeehouses Penny Universities due to the entrance fee of one penny and all the writers, artists, poets, lawyers and politicians who patronized them. Customers benefited from more than just hot steaming cups of coffee, they shared in the intellectual conversation that swirled around them.

Originally called The Turk’s Head, the Jamaica Wine House was one of London’s first coffeehouses. It opened between 1650 and 1652.

In North America, coffee traveled across the ocean blue in 1668. The first coffeehouse that opened in New York in 1696 was called The King’s Arms. Coffeehouses were not for the literature scene, because the early colonists had no professional writers of note.

Instead, for New Yorkers, the coffeehouse served as a civic forum, a meeting place for merchants and politicians. The long halls served as a gathering place for general assembly and council meetings. Colonists sometimes held court trials in the assembly rooms of early coffeehouses.

Imagine slipping back in history, to a time when people are trying their first cup of coffee in Europe. A hot, bitter brew slightly burns your lips, slides down your throat and warms you from the inside out.

You might have marveled at its exotic flavor and wanted another cup. Perhaps you worried that it was a dark magic that gave you a boost in energy. How would you have pictured this strange, black liquid if you lived in the 1600s?

Light Up Your Coffee

Whether you’re drinking coffee in a coffeehouse or at home, warm or cold, as a student of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) you can add a dash of light to your magical brew.

If you studied The First Degree of The Radiant Technique®, you can hold your coffee beans in your hands, whole or ground, while in the bag. Let radiant energy infuse their own natural life energy, the bag doesn’t inhibit universal energy. The same applies when holding your coffee cup. Place one hand in your heart while you take a sip.

For students of The Second Degree of TRT®, you are able to direct energy to where the coffee beans grew, to the people who brought you the coffee, or to the coffee itself while its brewing. If you enjoy history, you can direct radiant energy to the long journey of coffee as it was introduced around the world.

And, a cosmic symbol in your coffee cup is great way to start your day.

May you enjoy your coffee today, and every day.

 

Evensong At St George's Chapel

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Windsor Castle And St George's Chapel

When you visit Windsor Castle, a must see is St George's Chapel. As a place of worship, it serves The Royal Family and the local community with church services. It also provides a venue for marriages (Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were married here) and funerals as well as ceremonies that include The Order of the Garter.

The beauty of St George's Chapel lies in its Gothic architecture, Perpendicular Gothic style to be exact. Construction started in 1475 and was completed by Henry the VIII in 1528.

“Perpendicular Gothic is the “phase of late Gothic architecture in England roughly parallel in time to the French Flamboyant style. The style, concerned with creating rich visual effects through decoration, was characterized by a predominance of vertical lines in stone window tracery, enlargement of windows to great proportions, and conversion of the interior stories into a single unified vertical expanse.”
— The Royal Family

The Chapel Of Royals

The Chapel holds in its heart a number of Kings and Queens who have come before. Ten former Sovereigns are buried in St. George’s Chapel, notable among them, Henry VIII, Charles I, George III, Edward VII and George V.

Connected to the Chapel is a Memorial Chapel (built in 1969, the only structural addition since the 1500s). The Memorial Chapel annex contains King George VI (Queen Elizabeth's father) who is interred alongside his beloved wife, the Queen Mother (Queen Elizabeth's mother), and Princess Margaret (Queen Elizabeth's sister). Funerals also take place at St George's Chapel. A list of burials and funerals can be found here.

“St. George’s Chapel is a place of worship for The Queen and the Royal Family as well as a church serving the local community, built by kings, shaped by the history of the Royal Family.”
— The Royal Family

Worship Service

If you're seeing St George's Chapel during the busy summer months, you will be sharing it with throngs of hot, sweaty tourists rolling through the aisles in never-ending waves of jostling humans. The crowds keep on coming.

As in the State Apartments at Windsor Castle, no photos are allowed inside The Chapel, so you'll find yourself craning your neck, trying to imprint the details into your memory. Eventually, you'll be swept along the waves of tourists. 

To fully appreciate St George's Chapel, I recommend attending a service to get in touch with The Chapel's true purpose and function – a place of worship.

During a service, the crowds are dispersed and the weight of the throngs is lifted. The aisles stand clear and welcoming. The Chapel offers a refuge of healing calm, dignity. The secrets of history beckon.

Evensong

I attended Evensong (Evening Service) at St George's Chapel in July. The welcoming priest pointed to a carved stall that I could claim as my own during the service. A dark pew from hundreds of years ago enfolded me in its smooth, worn wood. I tucked into my seat and surveyed the richness of the Chapel.

Gone were the tourists traipsing around. The Chapel now belonged to us, those who had a purpose there, as worshipper, chorister, or priest.

From the corner of my eye, I could sense the phantoms and wisps of humanity as they paraded through the aisles and settled in the carved stalls.

The molecules of breath of all the people who came before, who also sat in these same seats, swirled around me. Within the breath, we were all held in a co-existance. Inhale, all the forgotten details of our individual lives; exhale, the collective memory of the whole of humanity.

Visiting Choir

The service was blessed with a visiting choir, The Choir of St Mary's, Warwick. Here is their program.

- Preces & Responses:
Richard Shephard Psalm 4

- Canticles:
Orlando Gibbons Short Service

- Anthem:
Charles Villiers Stanford Beati quorum via

Scriptures were read, The Apostles' Creed was recited, resounding tones from the organ filled the Chapel – as it had been done for centuries. 

History unfurled its banner before us.

Attending A Service

For students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), you can attend a Chapel service whether you consider yourself to be Christian or not. It's possible to participate in your heart as you listen to the words and music. TRT® hands-on placed in your heart allows you to listen, sing and speak from your heart.

Sitting in the Chapel during a service, gives you a chance to drink in all the history. As a student of The Second Degree of TRT®, you can direct radiant energy to people or historical events. You can direct energy to the Chapel and the people in attendance, deepening your participation.

Enjoy your visit to St George's Chapel.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wed at St George's Chapel

 

First photo by Aurelien Guichard