Frog Soup

We all know the story of how to make frog soup. You put the frog in a pot of cool water. Turn the heat on low. It warms so slowly the little frog is not worried at all. By the time frog starts becoming very hot the frog has been lulled and made drowsy by slowly increasing warmth. He does not have the strength to fight and jump out of the pot. He would have easily jumped out when the water was cool ... but he thought it was a great little pond. HE IGNORED THE WARNING SIGNS... perhaps he even made excuses for the changes so he could enjoy the warm water just a little longer.

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We are those frogs. We are ignoring the warning signs even as they become blaringly obvious. Earthquakes are growing stronger. Hurricanes are growing ever more deadly. Tornados are coming thru in greater frequency. Tsunami is becoming an everyday word related to frequency of occurance. We have gravely injured the Mother and her body is convulsing.

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For your consideration here, a few of the two-legged produced disasters contributing to the injury of Mother Earth:

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Oxygen levels have been slowly dropping over the centuries as we turn The Mother Earth into a parking lot destroying the living plants who are her lungs. The O2 is dropping slowly and we do not notice. The water of our pond grows warm.

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Earth's blood, the waters of the Earth grow more polluted daily. A few years ago you would have laughed if someone had suggested you would be buying water by the bottle to have it pure. The pollution is rising and some are just starting to notice. The water of our pond grows warmer.

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We used to produce only living plants to feed ourselves and our little brothers and sisters who share the earth with us. These plants would produce new plants when their seeds were nutured by the mother in the fecund earth. Now many of the plants we grow have been genetically modified so they are no longer capable of producing life. This is because these modified seeds are a parody of life. It looks like food. It may taste like food. But it lacks the life force given to us by The Mother to reproduce itself. We are slowly getting used to these pretend foods. The water is becoming quite hot and many still do not notice.

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The Mother though gravely injured will survive and ultimately over millenia heal. It remains to be seen if the two-leggeds who think they are human beings will be alive to see that day. It may be too late for us to survive. However, you may want to consider pulling yourself out of the lethargy induced by the ease and comfort this lifestyle has produced. You may want to consider making a stand for change ... consider getting out of the soup. It will not be easy, the changes needed are huge. It may be too little and too late ... but maybe not. Add prayer to the mix and all things can change.

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CONNECTION

Is it possible, that perhaps one of the causes of fear stems from loosing touch with our CONNECTION to all of life? We innately know we are 'supposed' to be connected . We innately know were are all related. We may not know these things consciously however on some level we feel that need for connection. Then, when we can not touch that place, we are more apt to feel fear and concurrent anxiety related to knowing something is missing even if we can not put a finger on exactly what it is that is missing...

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Seeing the Self as seperate from the Whole

creates isolation.

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Isolation creates fear and anxiety.

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When prayers are focused on needs other than those of self ... when at least we see the needs of others as just as important as the needs of the self (the topic of ... need vs want ... is something to also look at sometime in the future) fear tends to diminish. Taking the focus (perhaps obsession) off of self is a good thing. The Buddhist have a form of prayer called Lojong Tonglen or taking and recieving which lends itself to expanding the prayer beyond the needs of self. http://www.lojongmindtraining.com/

Certainly there are times when it is appropriate to pray for self, however, it is not uncommon for our prayers for self to not take into consideration the effect our prayers will have on others. The indiginous peoples of Turtle Island remind us to take seven generations into consideration when we pray. Our prayers for others and for self must take into consideration the effect we have on all Creation.

Recently my family said prayers that a relative might recieve a liver transplant so that he could live. One of the things the family had to look at before sending these prayers out was the consideration that in order for our family member to recieve a liver transplant someone would be loosing their life so that a liver would be available. The wording of the prayer needed to be very specific so that no harm was brought to anyone. The prayer had to not end the life of someone so that our relative could have a liver. The prayer was made for a liver to come from one who was leaving this earth life for his / her own reasons and then the liver would then be available and matching. A liver did come to our relative and his recovery was many weeks faster than is common. The doctors were astounded at how his body accepted the liver and recovered from the surgery.

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Who sees all beings in his own Self

and his own Self in all beings

loses all fear

... from the Isha Upanishad

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KAI and RAJA

What do you think goes on in the mind of a human baby? What do you think goes on in the mind of a member of the cat nation? I would expect Raja (the cat) to want nothing to do with (the little human boy of 10 months of age) Kai. I would expect the little boy Kai to pull Raja's fur. However that is just not the case. The cat actually seeks Kai out. The cat will call to Kai to get his attention. Kai did not need major teaching to understand the importance of being gentle with this old gramma cat (Yes, Raja though a typically male name is a female cat. You need to ask Starr about the naming process here).

Kai's mom, Starr was one who has always been comfortable with life. I remember taking her to an ashram when she was about 5 or 6 years old. In a quiet side garden there was a coy pond. She became quiet looking at the coy. she put her little hand in the water making an upturned cup with her hand and fingers under the water. numerous little fish swam into her hand and just sat quietly. The fish were not nibbling at her fingers. They were just sitting quietly. Others in our party tried the same 'trick' but none of us obtained the same response from the fish. So.

When Starr was about two years old and just learning to express herself well i thought i would ask her about her memories of being born. i was a la leche league leader surrounded by conversations on birth and nursing and so had an interest in her perception of birth. Also she had been exposed to pregnancy and birth so i was cautious of blindly believing her story (if she had one) of what it was like to be born. What she told me stunned me ... in a good way.

We were sitting on the couch in our living room. Just Starr and i - no one else around to distract us.

i asked starr, "Do you remember what it was like being born?"

Starr nodded and said, "Yes."

"What was it like?" i asked.

She held her head in her hands and said, "Hurt."

"It hurt being born?" i asked.

Starr nodded yes.

i asked, "So, what did you want to do?"

She responded, "i wanted to go back."

i assumed where she wanted to 'go back' was to the womb, but i asked her, "Where did you want to go?"

Starr became very still and she looked at me with the eyes of an ancient being. Then without a word while maintaining focused eye contact with me she very carefully placed her index finger at the point of the third eye.

Maybe there were more questions to be asked. But the ancient eyes looking at me with powerful focused intention stilled my tongue. My little daughter had said it all. I interpreted her actions to tell me she wanted to return to at-one-ment with Creator and Creation.

So perhaps Starr's children will have a similiar understanding of Creation and Creator. Maybe.

i do think, little 10 month old Kai hanging out with the gramma cat is a good start.

WATER

W A T E R

Interview with Masaru Emoto. His work is worth continuing to consider. Dr. Emoto work first came to light some years ago. Listen and reconsider the impact of our thoughts and prayers on the world around us as shown thru the impact on water.

Link to interview on YouTube.com

Interview from Healthy Planet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoRDPgMvro4&feature=related

RIGHT vs WRONG

black - white

hot - cold

day - night

happy - sad

joyous - angry

up - down

yes - no

male - female.

left - right

GOOD vs BAD

i am right. i am wrong. i am black. i am white. i am hot. i am cold. i am day. i am night. i am happy. i am sad. i am joyous. i am angry. i am up. i am down. i am yes. i am no. i am male. i am female. i am left. i am right. i am good. i am bad.

i am not right. i am not wrong. i am not black. i am not white. i am not hot. i am not cold. i am not day. i am not night. i am not happy. i am not sad. i am not joyous. i am not angry. i am not up. i am not down. i am not yes. i am not no. i am not male. i am not female. i am not left. i am not right. i am not good. i am not bad.

http://www.lojongmindtraining.com/

FIRST I MADE PLANS REVISITED

Through out all the months on the road, but especially in recent weeks unexpected choices have come up and i find myself asking ... 'if not now, when?' ... to those situations and choices. With some freqency i follow up with asking myself ... 'isn't this why you disassembled your previous life? ... to be available to just this sort of situation ...Well, ya, but i still expected a different outcome.' ...

For a few weeks the Chaos of the unsettled was near unbearable for this bull. Everything i attempted to pin down spun out and away. It seemed as though i was getting further and further away from my imagined goal of work / career / calling. I was growing depressed. Depression is something i rarely have to deal with. Life was not bending to my will. Life was not following my rules. Crossing my T's and dotting my I's and still i was not moving in the direction i expected to be moving.

Brought to my knees, I prayed. I asked for help to unravel the chaos and confusion. I asked for peace. With prayer ties as focusing tool, i breathed in the life unfolding in me and through me. Again, i re-dedicated self as a conduit to serve life and the people. Hanging the ties from the pine tree in the front yard of the home i am staying in, the depression lifted and peace came into me with the breath. In under 24 hours the chaos began to loosen its hold on me. Situations that were not resolving were now resolving. There were many layers of situations one relying on the other to reach resolution and now one after the other resolution was created and the next puzzle piece and the next clicked into place.

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I have been confusing career with vocation.

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I have been assuming that the career and vocation were one. Perhaps because so often they have been one. I never questioned if it were possible for them to not be one.

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"When you are working within the field of Fortitude ....Some form of humiliation is often part of the picture, so you may face obstacles that will humiliate you while you are trying to ground your vision into everyday reality. The reason for the humiliation is mystical in that you are forced to relinquish your personal vision of how something should be accomplished, allowing for the divine plan to be set in motion."

Taken from DEFY GRAVITY by Caroline Myss

www.Myss.com

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The Pathway of MOTHER

This morning my daughter, Pure Joy, spoke of spiritual practice (called by some sadhana). She voiced concern related to not finding time for prayer, introspection and meditation as her time is so completely taken up with the care of her Little Lightning Boy. She spoke of levels of exhaustion wherein she could not stay awake or focused to pray.

How well i remember those days of holding, rocking, nursing, bathing, touching, touching touching with compassion and peace the little ones given to my care. The extended period of exhaustion was beyond anything i had experienced before or since that time. Yet concurrently there was a joy and peace beyond anything before or since. How i remember breathing in the essence of the little one, the purity, the life force so powerful. It was and continues to be humbling to be chosen to be Mother by Creator, Creation and the Spirit coming in as my child.

We then discussed BEING MOTHER as a pathway to the Center of All Things, my daughter shared her practices now and i shared my practices during that time when i was Mother to little ones. Practices wherein we are for days, months and years continually 'on call' to meet the needs of the little one given into our care.

By necessity related to the commitment to be Mother, there were/are no extended times for going into physically quiet places for long periods of focused melting and melding with spirit. It seems my daughter and i have both come to similiar practices to assist in centering. They are practical and simple and most important they really work to create opening to spirit in a good way.

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Be present in the moment, knowing that BEING MOTHER is The Practice

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Each breath is a prayer. There may not be time to have extended focused prayer/meditation, however a single breath with focus can be the prayer

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Put on Music that is prayer or sing to yourself and your little ones songs that draw us upwards to places of peace

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Read the words of those who love Creator and Creation while you are sitting and nursing your little one

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While preparing food, serving food, eating, feeding the little one put good thoughts/prayers into the food so that this is also a prayer

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Washing self, washing the little one is more than a physical cleansing, it is a cleansing of spirit also

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Washing clothes, washing dishes, folding clothes, drying dishes, this is also a prayer

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All care of the Little One is a prayer

... all is a prayer

... all is a prayer

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All is a prayer

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All is a prayer

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All is a prayer