Monday, September 24, 2012

On Creation and Evolution by John Lennon

"There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. 
When we are afraid, we pull back from life.
When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance.
We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections.
If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life." ~ John Lennon


Butterfly Future (Effective activism in these times) by Hank Stone

Amazing read! Bingo! Right On! Once again Thanks to my friend, Hank Stone for another insightful piece!

Butterfly Future (Effective activism in these times) by Hank Stone, Rochester, NY, July 11, 2012


Opposing current wars is not enough. Even opposing the war system of dispute settlement is not enough.

Opposing fracking, coal burning, and the XL Pipeline is not enough. Opposing billions in subsidies for the fossil fuel and nuclear industries is not enough.

Opposing immorality by banks, corporations and government is not enough. Even opposing all injustice is not enough.

There is a complex, interconnected, international, and powerful system that profits from wars, fossil fuel use, and from corporate government. Our money-driven government hardly resembles the democracy we were taught about in school.

We engaged citizens write letters, protest and demonstrate. Yet we keep being surprised by our ineffectiveness.

The underlying problem is that the whole Western world is living unsustainably – beyond its means. We citizens want to “adjust” society so that the prosperity we have enjoyed for our whole lives can continue, without unwanted side-effects, like war and climate change.

Our money-driven government is broken. But it can’t be fixed, because pretending that corrupt government is the problem allows us all to avoid facing our difficult situation.

The system is a caterpillar, ravenously devouring the world’s resources. For generations, we enjoyed great wealth and power as a result. Now, that consumption endangers our future.

We cannot “adjust” the caterpillar to become the butterfly. It must be “transformed.”

In the cocoon, the caterpillar is destroyed from within, dissolving into a soup of nutrients. From that soup, “imaginal” cells assemble themselves into the butterfly.

Make no mistake! The human race is just starting out! We can have a peaceful, just, prosperous, sustainable, and transcendently beautiful future on this planet. Ideas for creating this future are on the shelf. For generations wise and good people have thought about what to do, but the time wasn’t right.

Our caterpillar society is unsustainable, and so cannot be sustained, despite our earnest attempts to adjust it. Opposition to wrong social choices is not enough.

For a positive human future to emerge from today’s society, new thinking will be required. We must tell a new story. We must be the imaginal cells for that future society. Effective activism in these times requires that we describe the positive future we want.

We must name and proclaim our butterfly future.
 
 

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Sacred Action Thought for the Day..."Your Work..."


Your work is not to drag the world kicking and screaming into a new awareness. Your job is to simply do your work... sacredly, secretly, and silently...

Your job is to be about your "Father's business", anywhere and everywhere you can...reaching out, lifting up and being the "Light" through the myriad opportunities that present themselves in the seemingly sim
ple, mundane and every day moments...

...and those with "eyes to see and ears to hear", will respond...

And The Miracle Will Be Born and Made Manifest In and Through You!

"Any path devoid of kindness leads nowhere." ~ Alan Cohen
 
 
Sacred Action Thought for the Day...Joan Baez

"Action is the antidote to despair." ~ JB


"One Universe Under God" ~ or ~ The Lessons of 9/11 by Linda Lorenzo


Since 9/11/2001 our country and its people have gone through a myriad of changes. We experienced together the same phenomenon and went through the same process of shock, fear,...disbelief and grief...it was a time of coming together as a country, as a people.

But, in the subsequent years, I have noticed a resurgence of what is being called a new "national pride" and a renewal of misguided "patriotism."
What is interesting is that this seems to be manifesting in a number of religious based issues.
I have been receiving countless emails and articles, of late, on both the issues of the use of “under God” in our pledge of allegiance and the controversy about prayer in public schools. I have heard many opinions on these subjects both for and against and for a vast number of reasons.

These debates have caused me to look deeply at my own values and revisit some of my own deep-seated beliefs.

You see after the events of 9/11 my reactions were much the same as the rest of the country ... all of them fear based.

I heard many phrases bandied around by the media and by politicians. They all spoke of separateness, enemies, attacks and counter attacks. They used words like “them and us “, “the good guys (us) and the bad guys (them,)” ,” those who would attack our freedom and our way of life”, “ those who hate us”. For the first time, in my adult life, I found my belief system begin to crumble as I was spiraling out of control fueled by panic and terror.

On the Friday following the attacks I attended a service at a local Catholic church around the corner from where I lived…This would not have normally been my service of choice but I was literally paralyzed in fear and could no longer bear the pain of separation that I was experiencing, and I had known the priest, Father Kennedy, as he was the one who so graciously and compassionately came to my house where my father lay in hospice and administered him last rites…I remember being so impressed with his gentle spirit and loving being as he literally dropped everything to answer a call from someone who was not a member of his parish and who he did not know…And the prayers he said with my father, surprisingly to me, were not the prayers of death but of healing and hope…He was so kind and gracious and genuinely concerned for our entire family that it was indeed a gift for all of us…

At that service on 9/14/2001, Father Kennedy said something that brought me back to my spiritual core and the point of the beginning of my healing and clarity…He quoted a verse from the Bible…over and over…”MAN MEANT IT FOR EVIL…BUT GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD!”: He kept reminding us of all the good that it had brought out in the citizens of the world and our fellow countrymen …of the people that had rushed to the aid of the victims and their families of the countless and limitless acts of personal courage, sacrifice, prayers, compassion and concern for each other that had occurred…

It was at that moment that Spirit, found a small but definitive hole through the fear to bring me back to the Truth that was at the core of my reality. And in the subsequent days and weeks, as I was riveted, like the rest of my fellow countrymen to the news channels and the speeches, it was one term that permanently turned the tides to bring me back to my heart ‘s foundation...it was the words “ the evildoers.” And It was at that instant that I could feel a major shift occur within my entire being...in that moment I became aware that the enemy was not outside of our borders but within ourselves. And I literally was brought to my knees in a fervent prayer for peace and compassion…the words kept ringing inside my head…”Man meant it for evil, but God meant it for Good”…and the prayers kept coming, through tear filled eyes to Creator, for the Light that was dawning so profoundly inside of my very Being…Prayers of Gratitude…Prayers of Joy and of Love…

At that defining moment, my fear for my own personal issues shifted to a concern for the consciousness of the entire planet.

The famous words rung true in my ears...and took on a meaning that I had never considered before...”We have nothing to fear ,but fear itself.” I understood with an awareness that goes beyond all words....that it was the fear and the fear alone that would destroy us...not our so called “enemies.” And then another quote surfaced..."The fault, dear Brutus lies not within our stars, but within ourselves.”

All that week, and in the months that were to follow, we went into our churches and synagogues and places of worship. We prayed for solace, we huddled together in candlelit prayer vigils, we mourned our dead and then we waged war in the name of ”God “ and righteousness.

And my soul was crying out in pain...for I knew that in that moment we were not expressing the “God” we professed to worship…(and once again in most recent events of our country’s jubilant celebration over the death of one that we had pronounced the “architect” of that day.)

Everything inside of me knew that the only way to honor this Spirit would be to extend to those fists that were clenched in fear, rage and anger towards us, the outstretched, open hands of love, peace, understanding and compassion…and that we are all responsible!

That fateful day back in 2001, was a wake up call to build bridges...not to destroy them.

And as a nation we had begun to enter into a frightening and arrogant place of religious fanaticism instead of evolving into a spiritual awakening.

We had forgotten the very tenets on which this country that we all love so dearly was founded. Freedom, the freedom to say or not say whatever we believe is true for us.

The freedom of the individual to worship or not worship in the manner that best befits his own souls growth.

You see we are not One Nation, under God we are citizens of the Cosmos and the Beloved Creations of the One Universal Mind.

We are all One. We are not separate from each other. We say this so often but do we really understand the full implications of its truth?

I am reminded of a dear friend's sudden awareness earlier this year to the question that had plagued her for some time. She said one day, as if a light had gone on... “I will never again ask if I am my brother’s keeper.. for I am my brother!”

You see, we do not honor our Creator by making our selves separate from those who walk this earth with us, or by reciting words that we learn by rote...they are meaningless if we are not expressing Spirit for all that inhabit this planet with our thoughts and our actions of compassion and understanding and love.

I would like to share with you the words written by Edna Reitz when she penned the Global Pledge of Allegiance in 1988, which has hung proudly on my wall for over 25 years.

"I pledge allegiance to the Earth
And to the Universal Spirit
Which gives us Life;
One planet, indivisible.
With Peace and Justice for Us All.

I pledge to do my best
To uphold the trust bestowed
In the gift of my Life;
To care for our planet and
our atmosphere,
To respect and honor
all her inhabitants,
All people, animals,
plants and resources,
To create a legacy
for our children
And our children's children
In a world of Harmony and Love.

I pledge allegiance
to the Universal Spirit,
By whatever name it may be called.
To align my Life
With the ongoing process
of Creation;
To grow myself with care,
To act from my own integrity,
To be for others
How I would want them
to be for me.

Together,
May we carry this vision
In our hearts,
Into our daily choices,
And through our
expanding consciousness
Within and beyond our planet... “

So in closing on the anniversary of that fateful day, I choose to remember the lessons learned, I choose to honor those who have passed with the hope of a renewed sense of Respect for all Humanity…
I have learned…

~ That might is not right…

~ That actions wrought from retaliation, revenge, fear and anger are not born from the Spirit of our Creator.

~ That no one is immune to senseless acts of terrorism and violence, and that true security and peace do not exist in the realm of the external, physical world...

~ That the only answer to any form of “attack” can and must be that of love, brotherhood, forgiveness, compassion and peace…

~ That God is in the midst of everything…and is in All…

~ That the Light of Spirit, is in All of Us…and it is our job to call that Light forth…

~ That we are the Voices, Hands and Hearts of the Creator, and as such we are our Brother and Sister's Keeper...

~ That fear, separateness, anger and hate cannot continue to rule our lives and hearts if we are to evolve to a world and a people, where even the possibility of attack of any kind are non-existent…

And in reflection on this day, for me, the words of St. Francis are as relevant and important now, as they were centuries ago when he first penned them…I offer them up as my prayers in “Remembrance of 9/11/2001” and the lessons learned, that those lives lost will forevermore be a testament to the establishment of a New Planetary Reality ruled by the tenets of Peace, Compassion and Love and not the fuel for the continuance of a world steeped in fear, hatred, greed senseless violence and pain...

“Lord make me an instrument of thy Peace…
Where there is hatred…let me sow Love…
Where there is injury…pardon…
Where there is doubt…faith…
Where there is despair…hope…
Where there is darkness…light…
And where there is sadness…joy…

O Divine Master…
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled…as to console…
To be understood…as to understand…
To be loved…as to love…
For it is in giving that we receive…
And it is in pardoning that we are pardoned…

It is time, to turn our swords into plowshares and reach across the oceans of space and time to touch our brothers and sisters hands with the unconditional love that Spirit has bestowed upon us all..and to finally fully understand that we are All truly One!
 
 

I AM the CREATIVE Power by Iyanla Vanzant

Sacred Action Thought for the Day...

Today is fellow Writer and Spiritual Mentor Iyanla Vanzant 's Birthday...therefore today's Sacred Action posting of one of my favorite pieces of her's, is in honor of this auspicious occasion...
Blessed Day of Celebration to you, Beautiful Iyanla

"I am the CREATIVE Power of the Divine at work.
I choose to be an expression of good, of peace, of joy and abundance.
The Divine thinks by means of me.
My Thoughts are clear.
The Divine expresses itself in my Heart.
My Heart is open to the goodness of Life.
The Divine CREATES, heals, restores and builds through every action I take.
My eyes, ears, hands and feet are instruments of the Divine.
Today, I rejoice in advance for all the good I Am CREATING, through right thinking, an Open Loving Heart and Divine Right Action.
For all of this and more, I Am so grateful.
And So It Is!" ~
~ Iyanla VanZandt ("One Day My Soul Just Opened Up")
 
 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Prayers for Aurora

On the unbelievable tragedy in Aurora, Colorado...

There are a lot of events and requests for prayers going around Face Book for Healing and Light to be sent, and that is one of the beautiful things about Social Media...its use as a Point of Light and Love to Heal and Manifest Miracles...

While this is absolutely admirable and important...let us also remember, that grief is a process, one that m
ust be traveled to its completion, and one that must be traveled alone...

And while it is wonderful to set an intention for the pain to be lessened, and important to join with others at their time of sorrow, and let them know that they are thought of and blessed...

When a tragedy of this scope and horror has occurred, it is impossible to understand the kind of trauma and stark terror that has unmercifully been visited upon these innocents; men, women and children...it is unthinkable, unimaginable and unbelievable to even begin to fathom...

And the road ahead for healing and reemergence into the world, will be long and hard fought...The trauma must be unspeakable...

There really can be no words of solace from those of us who have thankfully never lived through an experience of this magnitude and scope of terror...and hopefully no one ever will again...

The best way any of us, who stand hopelessly by on the sidelines, to help...in addition to our fervent prayers and intentions of Love to those affected...and for the recovery of those who have been injured...is to dedicate ourselves to the ways of Peace...

To bring the light of compassion, kindness, servitude and love into every encounter we have with those who walk this earth with us...
To rally for an end to the epidemic of violence that is everywhere present in our communities, country and world...

It is in every aspect of our entertainment world and our lives; movies, TV, news, literature, video games, in our speech and interactions with each other, and in our own hearts...

We MUST actively move NOW toward a more peaceful existence!

How many more of these venues of violence must we endure before we Stand Up and say "NO MORE!"...
Before we shout to the Heavens..."NEVER AGAIN!...

We MUST begin Now to Learn, Live, Embrace, Embody and Walk the Ways of Peace and Harmony in every aspect of our lives...from every part of our Beings...

Lets make a firm commitment NOW to Stand for Peace, before complacency, apathy and hopelessness takes its bloody reign once again...

We Hold the Power in our Hands and Hearts to make the changes that MUST come about, if we are ever to evolve into the Great Beings that We were meant to Be...
If we are ever to reclaim our displaced Souls...

As spoken by the Prince of Verona at the end of Shakespeare's play..."All are Punished!"

It is the responsibility of ALL...
If not Now...When
If not Us...Who

'WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!"

My name is Linda...and I STAND FOR PEACE!...
Who will Stand with Me?

"I Offer you Peace.
I Offer you Love.
I Offer you Friendship.
I See your Beauty.
I Hear your Need.
I Feel your Feelings.
My Wisdom flows from the Highest Source.
And I salute that Source in You.
Let us work together for Unity and Love."
~ Gandhi's Prayer for Peace
 
 

On The Tragedy in Aurora, CO

Just a simple thought from an Activist and Worker for Peace, who also at a very young age lost my Beloved Brother William, to the barrel of a gun, I guess it goes without saying, that I am an advocate for gun control (albiet, I vision the day when guns and weaponry of any sort will no longer hold any place in our collective consciousness as a society)...

And while I 100% respect the right of everyone to hold their own opinions and view points on
this issue, including those that are different from mine...in light of what has recently occurred in Aurora, Colorado, and out of respect for the trauma and terror that has been unmercilessly and senselessly visited upon this community...I would most humbly suggest that maybe some of the posts going around advocating the personal right to own, specifically, semi automatics and other extreme type of weaponry for personal protection (and I have seen an over abundance of them, recently)...at this moment, may be deemed inappropriate and ill timed and could be curbed for another point in time...

And just to add, in my humble opinion, once again...I personally, don't understand why it would be necessary for anyone to own, specifically, a semi automatic to protect oneself or ones family, anyway...Just my opinion...just saying...and a discussion for a later date...:)

Namaste'
 
 
 

The Right to Bear Arms...

The "Right to Bear Arms" is a perceived right, wraught by the mind of man, born from a consciousness of fear and separation...

The "Right to live in Peace, Love and Harmony at One with Each Other and Mother Earth" is a God Given right, bestowed upon us, through Grace, by our Creator...

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." ~ Jesus the Christ

"At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realising Him"..."Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being."..."Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man."
~ Mahatma Gandhi

I choose to exercise "MY GOD GIVEN RIGHT" to serve the ways of Peace, Love and Compassion...