October 2006 Archives
Tuesday October 31, 2006
Astrologer Foresees Voting Disputes Next Week
Next Tuesday's Election Day planetary "aspects" between Mercury in retrograde and Neptune (which can have secretive, deceptive characteristics) will deliver shenanigans and voting irregularities, says astrologer Shelley Ackerman. One difference between now and 2000, however, is that feisty Mars comes into the mix, creating the possibility of vehement protests and arguments over what has (or hasn't) transpired. "With Neptune, 'smoke and mirrors' are at play," Ackerman says. And "if the polls and voting show a wide gap, no one is going to sit in silence."
posted by
Chattering Mind
@ 5:38pm
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Add to NewsvineTuesday October 31, 2006
Do You 'Believe' In Cold and Flu Season?
I avoid worrying about cold and flu season and don't get flu shots, but scoll down here and watch this film about a positive-thinking approach I've never tried that looks like fun (yeah, okay Brian, tear me up for this): tapping around your ears front to back with your fingers and repeating to yourself "I'm not going to get a cold or the flu" to train your belief system.
I know that "Emotional Freedom" tapping therapies can be tremendously effective, odd as they seem. Anyone else know more or had actual experience?
I know that "Emotional Freedom" tapping therapies can be tremendously effective, odd as they seem. Anyone else know more or had actual experience?
posted by
Chattering Mind
@ 3:32pm
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Monday October 30, 2006
KFC Kicks Trans Fats
Wherever he is, I hope Harland Sanders is proud of his restaurant chain for promising to make the expensive switch to a non-hydrogenated frying oil for its famous chicken this week. Kentucky Fried Chicken's corporate leaders yielded to consumer pressure and truly did the right thing, though kudos are also due to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which filed a lawsuit against the fast food giant last summer, alleging its fried products endangered public health. "What are McDonald’s and Burger King waiting for now?" asked CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. "If KFC, which deep-fries almost everything, can get the artificial trans fat out of its frying oil, anyone can. Colonel Sanders deserves a bucket full of praise."
Next stop: Getting KFC to go free-range!
The Colonel actually died of cancer (not heart disease) at the ripe age ninety. Scroll down here for a picture of his grave. Will someone please buy his Christmas album on eBay now? It's surely a collector's item and great conversation piece!
posted by
Chattering Mind
@ 3:11pm
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Monday October 30, 2006
You Probably Can't Adopt a Black Cat Today
Sorry, some humane agencies are afraid they'll be used in satanic ritual sacrifices. Other animal shelters argue that such a restriction only reinforces the black cat's negative image.Photo by Lorelei
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Chattering Mind
@12:01pm
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Monday October 30, 2006
Can You Love Your Addictions?
"If it’s food, love it. If it’s cocaine, love it. If it’s painkillers, love them. If it’s cigarettes, love them. These are some of your greatest teachers. They’ve taught you through direct experience what it is that you no longer wish to be. They’ve taken you to the depths for some reason. This is an intelligent system you’re a part of. There are no accidents in a Universe supported by omniscience and omnipotence. Be grateful for these teachers. "If you hate them, curse them, and attempt to fight these addictions, you tip the balance toward hatred and fighting. You then continue to chase after what you don’t want because you’re in a weakened state. Fighting weakens; love empowers.
"So tip the scale toward love. Be grateful for the addictions that have taught you so much. Send them a silent blessing. By doing so, you shift toward the love that you are."
--from Wayne W. Dyer's new book "Being In Balance: 9 Principles for Creating Habits to Match Your Desires," quoted in the latest issue of Hay House's "Present Moment" newsletter.
posted by
Chattering Mind
@11:42am
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Friday October 27, 2006
A Holistic Mom Writes From the Other Side of Child Rearing
"I was a 'holistic mom' (and proud of it) 17 years ago," writes reader Sierra. "Midwife, late/no immunizations, homemade baby food, and, of course, breastfeeding. As a more mature parent now, I know that all moms want the best for...
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Chattering Mind
@ 4:56pm
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Friday October 27, 2006
Rachel Ray: Relaxed and Wonderful
I tuned into Rachel Ray's TV show for about twenty minutes yesterday as I was doing the dishes. I'd never watched it before. She was giving cooking instructions to three sporty guys in the habit of gathering weekly to watch...
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Chattering Mind
@ 1:08pm
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Thursday October 26, 2006
'Homeopathy Mom' to the Rescue
The eldest Chattering boy slammed the car door on a left-hand finger right outside school this morning. He was in terrible pain. The cure here is usually a huge hug from Mom, ice, and the homeopathic remedy Hypericum (a highly-diluted...
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Chattering Mind
@ 2:55pm
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Thursday October 26, 2006
The Ultimate Bedside Lamp
But does it brew coffee?Here's a nice essay on waking up gently by Sarvananda Bluestone, author of "The World Dream Book: Use the Wisdom of World Cultures to Uncover Your Dream Power."...
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Chattering Mind
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Wednesday October 25, 2006
Oppose the 'National Uniformity for Food' Act
Thanks to my old pal Alan Pell Crawford, now a regular contributor to Vegetarian Times, for alerting us all this month to a legislative effort supported by food industry companies to nulify many state laws regulating food safety by imposing...
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Chattering Mind
@ 3:20pm
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Wednesday October 25, 2006
Skull Prayer Beads
People who commemorate the Day of the Dead aren't the only ones occasionally preoccupied with bones, skeletons, and earthly remains. Some Tibetan Buddhists and some Hindus use or wear skull malas to more deeply contemplate death and impermanence. I found...
Wednesday October 25, 2006
Wikipedia Defines 'New Age'
Wikipedia has a lengthy write-up on the term "New Age" including links that will extend you in many directions. Take a look. It has more crop circle mentions than I might like, I guess. But the writers did a thorough...
Wednesday October 25, 2006
Fighting Depression, Finding Health
Beliefnet.com has launched a blog called "Beyond Blue" which chronicles the spiritual life and thinking of Therese J. Borchard, a wife, mom, and writer who copes with depression, and knows the topic from the inside. You might also be fascinated...
Tuesday October 24, 2006
There's More to Halloween Than Candy!
You'll discover the real meaning of Halloween, Samhain, and the Day of the Dead by clicking here and reading Waverly Fitzgerald's commentary on each of these celebrations. Still more can be yours when you pay nine dollars for her downloadable...
Tuesday October 24, 2006
Trick-or-Treating Tips from Readers
Since I wrote about Halloween candy last week, I've located two websites with tips on natural sweets. "Queen of Green" Debra Lynn Dadd, promoted these natural candy mixes in a recent newsletter. And the Feingold Association (which helps kids whose...
Tuesday October 24, 2006
Beliefnet On the Map
Here's an article about Beliefnet.com from yesterday's USAToday, featuring a photo of Steven Waldman, my husband (usually referred to here as "Mr. Chattering")....
Tuesday October 24, 2006
Tricycle's Daily Dharma
Sign up here for a steady daily stream of Buddhist wisdom....
Monday October 23, 2006
Do You Nod Off When You Meditate?
Do you gleefully register for meditation workshops, show up on time, take notes in a pretty new notebook, and then PROMPTLY FALL ASLEEP when that all-important guided meditation begins? Please have no shame! Others are snoring beside you.In the last...
Monday October 23, 2006
Deepak's 'Wellness Radio' on Sirius
Here are some nice segments from Deepak Chopra's new call-in show on Sirius Satellite Radio. One caller asks how she can honor her body's need for peace while she's working a high-stress job. You can also catch a snippet of...
Saturday October 21, 2006
How They Make a Normal Girl Gorgeous
Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty is a hugely exciting effort. And you'll be amazed at how an ordinary looking woman is turned into a bionic, completely fake billboard star in this new commercial, "Evolution." Makeup artists, hairdressers, fashion stylists, photographers,...
Saturday October 21, 2006
Holistic Moms Unite
Homeopathy. Natural child birth. Osteopathy. Charter schools. Home school. Whole foods. Positive parenting. Protecting the earth.If you're a mother and these words or phrases light your fire, you're probably a proud "holistic mom." Good news! Now, there's a growing national...
Saturday October 21, 2006
Check Out B'net's Redesign!
Be sure to click around and notice Beliefnet.com's fabulous redesign. You'll find easier navigation, a cleaner look, and so many more ways to interact with our spiritual, religious, and inspirational content. There's also a new section for you spiritual-but-not-religious folks,...
Saturday October 21, 2006
How to Make Autumn Leaf 'Roses'
You've ironed leaves in wax paper. But have you tried to make roses from leaves? Pretty, don't you think? And this could be the perfect weekend to make this autumnal craft project. [via Haha.nu]...
Wednesday October 18, 2006
How to Sign Spiritual Correspondence
"Sincerely yours," wasn't working. So I started to end my emails to everybody with a "Best." But then "Best" began to align itself with "Cheers," which feels like a perfunctory kiss-off. So I shifted to "Fondly." I never flirted with...
Wednesday October 18, 2006
What If Men and Women Just Got Along?
“There hasn’t been a battle between the sexes,” says Warren Farrell, author of “Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say.” “There’s been a war in which only one side has shown up. Men’s cowardice has prevented them from showing up...
Wednesday October 18, 2006
Eco-Islam: A Mag for Green Muslims
This is cool. The world's first and and only Islamic online environmental magazine, published by the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences."Our home planet Earth is undergoing rapid and sustained destruction of its eco-systems. This is giving rise to...
Tuesday October 17, 2006
In What Do We Trust?
I do not consistently telegraph to my children how distressed I am about international events. The kids force me to find things I can believe in and trust--instead of complain about. I admire families that speak openly about politics and...
Tuesday October 17, 2006
Edible Clothes: Prêt à Manger?
Click here to learn more about designers using bamboo, pina leaves, pineapples, and sweet potatoes to create or dye clothes!"Three years ago, the interest in ethical fashion was minimal," Elizabeth Cazorla, a director of apparel merchandising at La Redoute, told...
Monday October 16, 2006
Regis and Kelly Do On-Air Asanas
Well, Regis and Kelly donned exercise duds this morning to accompany Sri Dharma Mittra through a few moves on ABC's "Live with Regis and Kelly." Mittra, the distinguished director of New York's Dharma Yoga Center, is author of a book...
Monday October 16, 2006
Mercola Mad About 'Massive Perversion' of Organic Foods
Dr. Joseph Mercola, author of "Dr. Mercola's Total Health Program: The Proven Plan to Prevent Disease and Premature Aging, Optimize Weight and Live Longer," has posted a video of himself on his website where he directly and passionately addresses what's...
Monday October 16, 2006
Mac and PC Try Talking Cure
They've got so much to work through! Click here. It's cute....
Friday October 13, 2006
The Halloween Candy Problem
Every October 31st there comes that moment when your darling child, with cheeks pink from excitement, plops their costumed self down in the hallway and gleefully peers into that sugary, preservative- and food dye-laden sack of Sweet Tarts, M&Ms, and...
Friday October 13, 2006
Tide Offers 'Simple Pleasures'
Have you noticed the new purple-bottled "natural essence" laundry soap called "Simple Pleasures" being advertised in places like "Oprah" magazine? I wrote "Queen of Green" consumer advocate Debra Lynn Dadd, and asked her what she thought of this new line,...
Thursday October 12, 2006
Good Friends Keep Us Healthy
Daniel Goleman, author most famously of "Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships," wrote this sweet piece for yesterday's New York Times health section citing scientific studies that show how loving relationships stimulate physiological responses, keeping us happier, healthier,...
Thursday October 12, 2006
'Is God Green?'
In case you missed it, PBS ran Bill Moyers' report on Green evangelical Christians last night. Here are links to many of the environmentally-hip, otherwise conservative organizations mentioned....
Thursday October 12, 2006
Nominate Your Choices for Year's Most Inspiring People
Beliefnet's editors want you to name the people you found inspiring this year: courageous people in the news, or someone you may personally know. You may nominate more than one individual. What to do: Send in your nominees. Include a...
Thursday October 12, 2006
'Vegan Freak' Boasts Lively Audio
The folks who used to produce the online mag 'Vegan Freak' have turned the venture into a series of downloadable podcasts. How could anyone resist an audio program that boasts the following? "In this show, we talk about...George Allen and...
Wednesday October 11, 2006
Has A-Rod Found 'The Buddha Within'?
It's been a dismal season for Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez (a.k.a. A-Rod) with fielding errors and batting slumps as well as boos from New York fans. Even the newspaper headlines have been seething, asking readers questions like: "Do You...
Wednesday October 11, 2006
Me Eat Real Pretty One Day
Thanks so much to VeganLunchBox for introducing me to a fleet of fun, colorful bento box blogs, including CookingCute.com. Imagine sittig down to open a healthy lunch like this! Here's where you can buy the actual lunch box....
Wednesday October 11, 2006
Struggling to Re-read Salinger
Oh, why did I start? It feels to me like he's an old boyfriend I need to look in on occasionally. There he hides, up in New Hampshire, around 87 years old by now, eating meticulously, studying homeopathy, reading The...
Tuesday October 10, 2006
Fans of the Lute: Rejoice! Or Not...
Well, I've purchased Sting's newly-released CD of melancholy mandrigals by Renaissance composer John Dowland (1563-1626). It should arrive from Amazon any day. The collection is super lute-y, I hear, and capable of transporting you to 16th-century England in a flash!...
Tuesday October 10, 2006
Surya Das: Being Responsible Stewards
Lama Surya Das has added an item to his blog in which he quotes recent remarks made by the Dalai Lama at the University of Buffalo. "The Dalai Lama himself cautioned us lovers of peace and tolerance last week about...
Monday October 9, 2006
Today's Sufi Reading: On Building a 'Temple Out of Your Own Being'
"A sensitive person has a great need for the sacred. One needs to protect one's very fragile soul against the turbulence and grossness, vulgarity and ruthlessness one finds in the world. How can one be in the world and not...
Monday October 9, 2006
On the Amish: 'Bright Witness to Hope'
Best thing I read all week on the Amish community's response to the murder of five of its children was this editorial from The Dallas Morning News, written by Beliefnet's own "Crunchy Con" blogger Rod Dreher."In our time, religion makes...
Monday October 9, 2006
Perks for Selflessness?
In response to my post on getting material rewards or perks for volunteer work outside the obvious communal/spiritual benefits, CM reader Daria wrote: "I belong to one non-profit that sees a surge of workers only when we give out movie...
Friday October 6, 2006
Why Down Syndrome Alone Isn't Enough
Thanks to CM reader Johanna for writing this: "Can we take Down Syndrome off the list of socially acceptable reasons to terminate a pregnancy? ...Many people are misled into thinking that a diagnosis of Down Syndrome is a death sentence...
Friday October 6, 2006
Living in the Now While Preparing for Year's End
Here's a motherly tip, unaffiliated with any particular religious wisdom tradition: Do one small thing today that will prepare you for cooler weather and the holidays at year's end. Bring your sweaters out of storage, choose dates for your own...
Friday October 6, 2006
'Evolution is Happening Through Us, Not to Us'
"WE are the saviors. We are the help. We are the hands and ears and eyes of heaven and earth. Evolution is happening through us, not to us. We are like the leaves on the maple tree outside my window....
Friday October 6, 2006
Reaching Beyond Religious Dogma
I am grateful to CM reader Pacific231 for taking the time to write this: "I am hardly the most appropriate person to stick up for Christianity. But the exceptional author and scholar Marcus Borg notes that when atheists set out...
Thursday October 5, 2006
Shine on Harvest Moon!
A large spider wove a perfect web outside our kitchen window yesterday, giving it a deliberately-built front row seat for tomorrow's full moon in Aries, which will rise right over our tiny garden. Tomorrow's full moon is almost everybody's favorite,...
Thursday October 5, 2006
A Communal 'Kneeling Vigil'
The Harvest Moon The flame-red moon, the harvest moon,Rolls along the hills, gently bouncing,A vast balloon,Till it takes off, and sinks upwardTo lie on the bottom of the sky, like a gold doubloon.The harvest moon has come,Booming softly through heaven,...
Thursday October 5, 2006
How the Amish Bury Their Dead
How touching, sad, and beautiful that the Harvest Moon will be glowing over the Amish farms of Pennsylvania, as families gather to grieve the little girls murdered this week. Here's a fragment of T.W. Burger's article for Religion News Service...
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Hey Man, I Know I'm the Antique Shop!
A thoughtful blogger, meditation teacher, Soto Zen monk, and Dharma store owner named Genryu has asked if any CM readers see the irony in the fact that I quoted Chögyam Trungpa's famous passage on spiritual materialism (examining how some people...
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Spiritual Videos & Self Help from MyPath
MyPathTV.com--formerly called EssentialTV.com--is up and running. Here's the company's current roster of videos featuring spiritual and holistic teachers like Dr. Andrew Weil, Larry Dorsey, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Cheri Huber. Here's where you'll find features like "Yoga for a Healthy...
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Women Unashamed of Their Abortions
Of course, no one is proud of her abortion. But Ms. magazine is collecting the stories and signatures of more than 5000 women who've had abortions and are not ashamed....
Tuesday October 3, 2006
Are Out-of-Body Experiences "Real"?
When your brain is stimulated in specific places, you may feel as if you've left your body, or as if shadowy, phantom people are seated beside you. Read more about the latest research in experiences some might call "paranormal" here....
Tuesday October 3, 2006
Prayer Circle for Amish Girls
Beliefnet.com has a prayer circle going for the five Amish girls who were killed in Pennsylvania yesterday. You may post your thoughts and prayers here, or just read the writings of others....
Tuesday October 3, 2006
Who Fasts When?
If Ramadan and Yom Kippur have left you confused as to who is eating what when, consult this helpful multi-faith guide to fasting's importance in various religious contexts....
Monday October 2, 2006
The New 'Enlightenment' Visa Card
You can now get "Enlightenment" Visa credit cards that reward you in "points" redeemable for spiritual retreats, teacher trainings, a session with a spiritual "master," and workshops. You may also convert your points into charitable contributions for things like breast...
Monday October 2, 2006
Chögyam Trungpa 's Antique Shop Analogy
"If we do not step out of spiritual materialism, if we in fact practice it, then we may eventually find ourselves possessed of a huge collection of spiritual paths. We may feel these spiritual collections to be very precious. We...
Monday October 2, 2006
Music for Kol Nidre & Other Lamentations
Last year, I bought this CD of Jewish cello masterpieces. Clean deliveries. No soul or depth. Don't buy it. But check out these renditions of the same melodies. Much better. Good for rainy days and any period of mourning or...
Monday October 2, 2006
'When Justice Burns Within Us'
"When justice burns within us like a flaming fire, when love evokes willing sacrifice from us, when, to the last full measure of selfless devotion, we demonstrate our belief in the ultimate triumph of truth and righteousness, then Your goodness...
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