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."
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?
"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!
"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."
"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 their kids and strive to provide it as well as they can. Those who step out of the mainstream with dietary, medical, or schooling choices aren't necessarily more conscious or skillful than other parents." She goes on to say that the Holistic Mom video I showed you last week implied that nut'n'berry mamas who buck the conventional system are in some way superior. "Funny, too," Sierra writes, "that a video that would've been intensely interesting to me 17 years ago seemed a bit dull now. Having children is a big part of one's life experience, but still only PART of one's life experience. I like being on this side of child rearing."
Amen, Sister! There's more to life! And while the holistic movement contains a lot of acceptance and love, there's still too much posturing going on out there, an "I'm more holistically macho than you are" attitude that should be put out into the open as a discussion topic more. I've heard of women who've inadvertantly placed their children's health in jeopardy for fear of using conventional medicine. And as a first-time mom, I cluelessly allowed my infant son to lose weight because I was so gung-ho-La Leche and distrustful of baby formula. Read my next item for expanded thinking along these lines. May holistic moms chart the course, but also develop ways to observe themselves so they might never tip into zealotry. Thanks, Sierra for sending us wisdom from your mountain top!
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 televised football games, usually eating only chips, dip, and carry-out pizza. Ray made them her version of a Philadelphia Cheesesteak sandwich (something I'd be too prim to prepare despite the fact it's a meal Mr. Chattering would love). Then she prepared a large antipasto salad, tossing grocery store coldcuts, cheeses, pickled peppers, and vegetables into a large wooden bowl without any mention of nasty nitrates, insecticides, carcinogens, or wax coatings. Nah, food is fun to Rachel Ray. Nothing's scary! Better to eat this, at any rate, than carry-out pizza (which she went out of her way not to criticize either).
Ray threw it all together with love, and that voluptuous, generous style of hers. As a result, at the Food Coop this morning I bought a heap of artichoke hearts, organic red peppers, cheeses, and AppleGate Farm cold cuts (they even have a Pepperoni now). Sure, it's basically my own nitrate-free, organic version, but I never would have ventured in this direction had I not acquainted myself yesterday with Ray's relaxed manner, and the notion hidden within the program--that every meal needn't be backed by a research study. Since becoming a whole foods devotee, I admit to having cultivated a tendency to think more about health and food safety than how fun food can be to chop, taste, smell, and feel. Food should not be wrapped in worry!
Anyone else out there have this proclivity? Anybody else liberated by Rachel Ray? Let me know what food gurus inspire you most! Vegetarians, chime in. (Sorry about the cold cuts. They're just an every-now-and-then thing.)
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 essence of St. John's Wort). I feel like I've stored Hypericum in our car's glove department for twelve years in anticipation of just this event, but alas, when I pawed through the car's interior and my purse (a mess again), my reassuringly blue Boiron tube wasn't there. Drat. No Arnica either (a bruise-inhibiting remedy derived from a yellow daisy that grows through much of Europe).
In the meantime, Chattering boy's middle school friends had gathered, and once they realized he wasn't headed for the hospital, their light-hearted jokes eased the pain. ("Do you see the light? Don't go towards the light! That's only New Jersey!" said his friend Camilla.)
"Mom, it still hurts," he whispered to me, dissolving into tears again. There's no parking at meters until nine a.m. on these mean Brooklyn streets--and no homeopathy for sale until nine too--so I drove six blocks to a regular drug store, threw the blinkers on, and told my son, "Look, if the police try to give us a ticket, just tell them you are hurt and that I had to run in here." I returned minutes later armed with Neosporin with Pain Relief, and a special finger bandage, relieved to see that by that time, he was contently reading a vintage Mad magazine.
I couldn't cease my interior chatter about how homeopathy would really fit the bill here, so after dropping him back at school, I drove to the health food store Back to the Land, (which everybody calls "Back to the Bank" since it's so expensive). Got the Hypericum and the Arnica. Called my son out of class to give him the first dose; left him with instructions to take the next thirty minutes before lunch.
Later, when digging through my purse for more parking-meter quarters, I found an old vial of Bach Flower's Rescue Remedy rattling around under my wallet. Ha! If I'd found that when I needed it, it could have helped!
So I just gave myself a dose.
Click here and here and here to find wonderful books on household homeopathy and floral essences; they make fantastic gifts for yourself, or a friend, especially a new parent.
If you truly want to curl up with this subject, the most magnificent books on homeopathic medicine ever written are by Catherine R. Coulter. In three volumes, she delves passionately into matching the right homeopathic remedies to specific constitution types (since p
eople developing chronic conditions generally resonate to one "overseeing" remedy more than any other). Coulter's descriptions of people's presenting symptoms and mannerisms, her literary allusions, and her stunning understanding of health and human nature, make her writings on homeopathy required reading for any actor, fiction writer, or psychotherapist. We're all living organisms in and out of connection to the essences of Mother Earth, aren't we?
Anyone else out there (besides J.D. Salinger) a homeopathy lover? Do you treat yourself or your family on your own? Or do you consult a professional homeopath? (It's really the best way to learn.) I could write about my fruitful encounters with the pros (if you're interested), or tell you about the day Mr. Chattering and I had one of the biggest arguments we've ever endured over whether to try a remedy given to us by a liscensed homeopath, OR put our then-15-month-old son on a third round of antibiotics to heal a chronic ear infection. In the end, we used homeopathy and I've sworn by its effectiveness in relieving the aggravations of common ailments ever since.
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 more uniform and lax federal standards. Read more about it and see how you can help here (scroll to bottom).
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 this on a website called LuckyMojo.com:
Among the people of India and neighboring regions, the skull necklace is an iconographic 'memento mori' worn by certain gods and goddesses, most notably Siva in his ascetic form and Kali in her wrathful form. Skull necklaces are also worn by the wrathful aspects of allied Tibetan and Nepalese deities such as Kurukulla, and necklaces and prayer beads carved from animal or human bones in the form of skulls are popular with their devotees.
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 job. Do you think they got it all? When, if ever, do you use the term?
posted by Chattering Mind @ 12:15 PM | Permalink |
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 by her latest compilation, "The Imperfect Mom: Candid Confessions of Mothers Living in the Real World." A Roman Catholic, she runs, meditates, and says eight hours of sleep a night helps her stay sane.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:54 AM | Permalink |
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 Halloween package.
There are some obvious reasons why this place on the Wheel of the Year is associated with death. The sun is approaching its nadir, the leaves are falling from trees, the death and decay in the natural world remind us of our own mortality. Martinmas, November 11th, was the traditional time for slaughtering the cattle, sheep and pigs which could not be maintained during the winter. The Welsh called November the month of Slaughter while the Saxons called it the Month of Blood.
In the Odyssey, Odysseus summons the shades of the dead by sacrificing animals. Their blood drains into a pit and the restless shades come eagerly crowing up from the underworld. Odysseus holds them at bay with his sword until the particular spirit he wants comes forward, laps up the blood and then prophesies what will happen in the future. This scene combines the themes of fear, slaughter, death, the Underworld, ghosts and divination which are common to Halloween.
In Mexico, All Souls Day is called Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) and is a time of commemorating the dead by decorating their tombs (with marigolds, a flower sacred to the Aztecs) and inviting them to a feast in their honor. Families go to the cemetery for a picnic and eat skeleton cookies and sugar skull cakes.
Trick-or-treating derives from an ancient British custom of going from house to house begging for soul-cakes. Some say the soul-cakes were given to the priest to buy Masses for the souls of relatives in Purgatory. Others believe they were offerings to the dead. Candles flickering in the windows (or pumpkins) were meant to serve as beacons for the dead, just as on the similar holiday in Japan, lanterns are hung by the garden gates.
Many thanks to all the Chattering Mind readers who posted! Some samples:
- When reader Nicole's kids were young, she let them eat one candy for each year of their life. At age five, they ate five, etc. "Then we left the remaining candy out for the 'Pumpkin Witch' who would take the candy while the children slept, and leave a gift--usually a book or video. That way we didn't have the candy battles for weeks afterward!"
I think that's a great system. I wish I'd instituted it years ago.
- CM reader Raven buys bulk prizes, pencils, stickers, and so on, at Orientaltrading.com, and allows the kids to trade Halloween candy for prizes. "Alternatively, [you can] have a Halloween party. Decorate the house in Halloween theme, have some nice treats handy that they can eat during the party like deviled eggs with an olive in the center to look like an eyeball, etc. Have fun games like wrapping a parent up in TP like a mummy, pin the bolts on Frankenstein, etc. Decorate some party bags with fun Halloween stickers and drawings, then finish the party with a big pinata like a spider or a pumpkin. (I found a fabulous skull piñata here!) If your piñata is filled with raisins, fruit leather, small toys, you can't lose! Invite a bunch of children over, and make sure to have some festivities for the parents as well!"
Reader Steph writes: "On Halloween, we do a combination of keeping, imbibing, and trading. I let them eat anything the first night, keep all those candies with no food dye (i.e. snickers, reeses, etc.) for later consumption, and 'trade up' the remaining dyed sweets for an acceptable small treat (ice cream, hot wheel)."
Thanks again to everyone. You're a crafty, creative, healthy bunch!
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").
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 year, I've been to two workshops where sleepy people had the courage to raise their hands during the workshop's Q&A segment to tearfully confess, "I completely zoned out. I totally missed it. What is wrong with me?"
On both occasions, the meditation teachers said the same thing, "Look, you may have been exhausted, in which case, the nap did you good. But chances are greater that even if you don't recall what I said, the material went in, and something meaningful will transpire from the work."
Why is staying awake so tough? We're all sleep deprived, for one thing. And we're all under stress. Take the stress away, and sleep seems the most obvious state to reside in.
I've found that if I avoid eating carbohydrates before any workshop, I'll do better in the med. "Do not eat that cookie after lunch!" QiGong teacher Roger Jahnke wisely admonished an audience I was in once.
A cup of tea before the workshop might help you stay awake. And repeating to yourself: "I will not sleep through this one," could help. Or, more positively, you could say: "It is my intention to fully experience whatever this teacher is offering me."
When your meditation instructor says, "Get into a comfortable position," don't get too comfortable. You're doomed if you stretch out on the floor! You can also keep your eyes open if you wish. Or you can stand up, and quietly walk to the nearest wall to meditate standing up if you feel you may soon greet Winken, Blinken, and Nod.
By all means, don't let sleep make you think you're flunking Meditation 101. Switch methods, if you must, and consider walking meditations until you get the hang of it. I don't think it's possible to sleep while you're walking, is it?
Tell us: When's the last time sleep tried to steal your enlightenment? How do you stay aware and awake?
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 his marvelous heart meditation with mantra "So Hum," and repetition of the phrase, "Thy will be done."
posted by Chattering Mind @ 10:50 AM | Permalink |
Makeup artists, hairdressers, fashion stylists, photographers, and computer software programs are all necessary to give cover girls their exaggerated beauty. The words "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted," appear at the ad's conclusion. Click here to discover why Dove's Self Esteem Fund was launched to give young girls positive body images (apparently, only two percent of women globally find themselves beautiful). "Changing the way we define beauty can change lives" is the fund's motto, and I couldn't agree more.
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 network of holistic moms communicating with each other daily at HolisticMoms.org. Watch a video about the mindset here.
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, "Holistic Spirituality," as well as an expanded yoga page.
Refinements are ongoing. Your reactions are most welcome; go here to say what you think.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 10:15 AM | Permalink |
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.
"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 "Warm regards."
"Fondly" is fine. "Very fondly," might be better. But then, as I became more connected to my colleagues and pen pals, I switched to "Yours always," (which has an "As your servant" quality to it). I also like "Warmly" and "Very warmly."
I've edited articles by spiritual teachers, who even when they're disagreeing on word changes, sign their letters with a big-hearted "Love." This shocked me at first, but I've learned to bask in the word's affectionate glow.
"Bright blessings," or "With Blessings," are catching on as ways to conclude spiritual correspondence. "In love and light" and "With love and light" are now hugely popular. Today I got a letter from a Feng Shui teacher signed "Much Light," cozy since it withholds the "With."
My Dad's sign off is always "God Bless." My sister uses "Take good care." The Yiddish salute of choice might be "Zei gezunt" meaning "be in good health." "Peace" and "Shalom" are classic, but not for everybody.
The benediction "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace" has always worked for me, but it's best spoken by a minister with one arm raised at the back of a sanctuary!
So how do you end emails to your spiritually-attuned buddies, or anyone you care about? Do tell!
“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 because they’re so addicted to female sexuality.”
This quote is from Jennifer Armstrong's article "Men Don't Suck," which you can read for free in the online magazine "Sirens." The whole of the piece is actually quite favorable to men generally, but I happened to find the above quote arresting enough to highlight. Here's another passage from the text of Armstrong's excellent piece:
These days, we women are inundated with advice about how to get a man. There are hundreds—maybe even thousands—of books on the subject, and every women’s magazine every month devotes significant space to tips, tips, and more tips. We’re taught how to catch them, keep them, use them, trick them, manipulate them, please them, conquer them—how to, basically, achieve them. Because that’s what our generation of girls does, right? We kick ass. We have accomplishments to check off. Men are just one more thing on our to-do lists.
But what if instead, we started by liking them? What if we achieved equality not by dominating them, but by partnering with them? What if we accepted them just as they are? What if we didn’t try to “fix” them?
My answer: We’d have the best damn relationships possible—the kind where you can discuss important world issues with a man you genuinely like, dissect pop culture with him, laugh with him … and then have some great sex with him, too. The kind where you haven’t tricked him or manipulated him into anything, so he loves you just as you are. And you love him in all of his silly, stupid, infuriating, intriguing, awe-inspiring masculinity.
Next month: He’s a Husband, Not a Pet or a Houseplant
I'm looking forward to that next installment.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:38 AM | Permalink |
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 unacceptable levels of pollution, increasing damage to human habitations and ultimately threatening world-wide population disruption. Muslims comprise at least one fifth of the human community and they can contribute much to the thinking that is vital to re-evaluate the future direction of the human community and save its home for itself and other life forms."
posted by Chattering Mind @ 10:55 AM | Permalink |
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 argue issues over the dinner table. But lately, I've been picking up on a cosmic lack of trust in everything, alive in the mind of our 12-year-old. World news is so distressing, global warming has us in its clutch, and here he is, emerging into the world as an older young adult. He needs to bulk up on happy thoughts, and find institutions, people, and a higher power he can trust. So I was especially eager to read this article from the current issue of Forbes written by Tom Tyler, author of "Trust in the Law" and "Trust in Organizations."
Tyler writes: "Whether you're talking about small groups, larger institutions or society in general, trust is an important condition of effectiveness, because trust leads to high levels of engagement and motivation. When they trust authorities and institutions, people feel connected to groups and do what is needed to help them succeed."
If your trust in others has been damaged, how do you work to reconnect? Parents, how to your nourish trust--consciusly or unconsciously--in the minds of your growing children?
Forbes' fun sidebar on trustworthy celebrities helps to get us thinking about how trust is built. Tom Hanks tops the list, followed by Rachel Ray, Michael J. Fox, Oprah Winfrey, James Earle Jones, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and more.
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 the AFP. "Now 50 percent of our clients say they want to buy fair trade products. That is remarkable."
posted by Chattering Mind @ 12:24 PM | Permalink |
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 that beautifully illustrates 608 yoga asanas. All three celebrities glided through the "cobra" nicely, but when Kelly delivered a pretty good "crow" position alongside the swami, Regis, who couldn't balance knees on elbows, got jealous and pushed Kelly out of the pose and onto her side for a robust studio-audience laugh.
Mercola is pro-raw milk and embracing the small farm, anti-establishment side of the dairy industry. In this video, he sends people to RealMilk.com so they can find un-pasturized dairy products in their vicinity. I've been scared to take this step, but I've been reading Sally Fallon, and find myself tempted to take the leap.
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 Reese's Peanut Butter cups. And every year, it's me who feels like passing out. Hey holistic parents, what do you have planned this year for the Halloween Candy Problem? What do you do to prevent your child from going into sugar shock?
Many wise people make arrangements in advance with their children, and trade the sack for a really good present. Other parents let the kids pig out the first night, and then place the bag on a high kitchen shelf that within a day gets lower, and lower, until it mysteriously reaches the level of the garbage can. And then, of course, there's always UNICEF, but my kids always manage to convince neighbors to contribute generously--in money and Mars bars.
I must admit with great sadness--and I do mean great--that I've pretty much let my kids have their way these past two years--that is, I let them eat their candy over time, not all at once. For one thing, they seem to tolerate candy better, and not get as hyper, now that they're ten and twelve. And they are discouraged from ever eating candy on an empty stomach. A little something ingested beforehand, with protein in it if possible, seems to keep them from swinging on the chandelier. If I put too much energy into forbiding obnoxious substances, it creates a creepy cathexis, and the kids want whatever I ban all the more.
One thing I have noticed is that the makers of natural candies don't put a lot of effort into packaging their products for this harvest holiday. I guess it would be prohibitively expensive to stock only natural treats like Sun Drops.
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, significant because it's born of the loins of Procter & Gamble, maker of Downy and Tide.
Dadd says the lavender-vanilla, rose-violet, or waterlily-jasmine fragrances added to the "Simple Pleasures" line are not true aromatherapy essential oils. That's not surprising, because at nine dollars per fraction of an ounce, real oils would be prohibitively expensive. Dadd goes on to say something fascinating: There's a "a segment of the mass market now that could be called mainstream naturals, made up of consumers who want to stay with the brand name products they are loyal to, but also want them to be more natural. This product is appropriate for that market."
She continues: "These types of products are not 100 percent natural, nor marketed to the natural/organic products market, but they have added natural ingredients... a move in the direction of natural for mass market consumers. I would not recommend this product for people with allergies, and I'd like others to keep in mind that these are extra strong fragrances, which would affect people who are fragrance sensitive."
Most important, Dadd says "Tide is biodegradable, but is a detergent made from nonrenewable petrochemicals."
P&G's Tide.com is admirable in that it publishes consumer reactions to its products, even negative ones, on this message board. Oh, and these are a riot: three different video web journeys, or "Virtual Escapes" (with romantic, relaxing, or refreshing options) inspired by the new awareness aroused, I guess, by tossing your clothes in the suds of "Simple Pleasures." Plus Downy's sponsors a "Mood Quiz" here, where you can choose online your "ideal scent experience."
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:01 AM | Permalink |
Goleman writes: "...my hostility bumps up your blood pressure, your nurturing love lowers mine. Potentially, we are each other’s biological enemies or allies."
Do your best friends keep you physically healthy? When did you last place some distance between yourself and a friend who wasn't good for you?
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:19 PM | Permalink |
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 brief description (200 words or less) as to why this person is inspiring to you. Include specific examples of what he or she has done this year that was inspiring. Attach photos where available for use in a photo gallery Beliefnet will be assembling.
Send to: BeliefnetMIP2006@gmail.com. The subject line should say: "Most Inspiring Person 2006." Please email us photos of your nominees, if available.
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 deer heads, a criminal investigation about the e. coli/spinach scandal, non-allergenic cats, and why chef Anthony Bourdain hates vegans (here’s a hint: we’re darksided!). We also discuss why Ben & Jerry’s recent announcement about using cage-free eggs isn’t a victory in our estimation, and we look at some of the problematic views from Singer & Mason’s book 'The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter.' ...You also get a short lesson about anarchism and Marxism."
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 Hate This Man?" Boyhood chum and pro-ball player Doug Mientkiewicz quipped in late September: "I would have thought he'd have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge by now."
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.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 12:57 PM | Permalink |
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 New York Times perhaps, and no doubt hating The New Yorker.
J.D. Salinger was in that elite group of authors who in the 1950s brought the teachings of Buddhism and Hinduism into this country. For that alone, I bow to him. Here's a passage from his 1961 novel "Franny and Zooey" that caught my eye this morning.
"I just think it's a terribly peculiar coincidence," [Franny] said, exhaling smoke, "that you keep running into that kind of advice--I mean all these really advanced and absolutely unbogus religious persons that keep telling you if you repeat the name of God incessantly, something happens. Even in India. In India, they tell you to meditate on the "Om," which means the same thing really, and the exact same result is supposed to happen. So I mean you can't just rationalize it away without even--"
"What is the result?" Lane said shortly.
"What?"
"I mean what is the result that's supposed to follow? All this synchronization business and mumbo-jumbo. You get heart trouble? I don't know if you know it, but you could do yourself, somebody could do himself a great deal of real--"
"You get to see God. Something happens in some absolutely nonphysical part of the heart--where the Hindus say that Atman resides, if you ever took any Religion--and you see God, that's all." She flicked her cigarette ash self-consciously, just missing the ashtray. She picked up the ash with her fingers and put it in. "And don't ask me who or what God is. I mean I don't even know if He exists. When I was little, I used to think--" She stopped. The waiter had come to take away the dishes and redistribute menus.
"You want some dessert, or coffee?" Lane asked.
Gad! All the smoking! It's getting dated, right? But I still love it. I feel deeply indebted to this great old man--despite his many frailties, peculiarities and apparently vicious traits as exposed by his daughter's tell-all autobiography. I pray he's in good health.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 10:05 AM | Permalink |
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! Amazon reviews are profoundly mixed, however, and some early buyers are "sending out an S.O.S." So I'm wondering: Is this the vanity project of a pretentious rocker, or the noble stretch of a heart that's in full flower?
Writes listener/reviewer Christina Roden: "For listeners accustomed to hearing material of this period interpreted by rigorously trained early music stylists, especially countertenors and the like, Sting's sometimes tight-jawed, chest-heavy vocals may seem amateurish. It's undeniable that in four-part harmonies, the singer, tightly overdubbed, comes across like a combination of the Swingle Singers and Queen (meaning Freddy Mercury and crew, NOT the first Elizabeth). But it's important to remember that music of this period was routinely heard as a casual diversion in private homes, even more often than at Court...With this in mind, the overall effect is of a candle-lit, postprandial entertainment in the home of an English gentleman. Muttered readings from Dowland's letters and brief snippets of sampled birdsong aside, it is a courageous effort, displaying heartfelt admiration for the composer and a considerable degree of earnest charm."
Sting confided this to Oliver Condy in a BBC Music Magazine interview: "For me it's all about development--becoming a better musician, a better singer, a better songwriter... a better person. And you improve by putting yourself at risk creatively or entering a milieu that may seem uncomfortable at first. If you think you know about arranging, listen to Ravel. If you think you're a composer, then listen to Bach and be humbled; but know you can get better. I didn't think the disc was worth releasing until the last minute. I was thinking 'I can't see this becoming a record, and me taking this risk'."
What do you think? You could wait until Amazon puts some clips online. Let me know if you get yours before I get mine. (And also, Sting will be on "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" next week--apparently plugging the album!)
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:06 PM | Permalink |
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 what he aptly termed 'misplaced forbearance,' citing as an example complacent acceptance and tolerance of things which are in fact intolerable and genuinely need to be challenged and changed. Gandhi’s passive resistance threw off British colonial rule in India. Muhammed Ali’s principled stand as a conscientious objector against the Vietnam War draft cost him his heavyweight title but helped highlight the issues of the time and coalesce public opinion and end that war.
"Personally, I am feeling a certain urgency lately in wishing for some good news for a change. How not to become overwhelmed, viewing all the bad news nightly and learning through many different channels of all the major problems we face today? I see the virtue and efficacy of truth-telling, spiritual activism and sacred warriorship as a form of transforming oneself while transforming the world, working on both outer and inner levels towards positive growth and authentic freedom. We must take our place as responsible stewards of this world and guardians for the future..."
Do you feel the same urgency? Many spiritual people are working so hard on their own development--which can include (or be sidetracked by) an illness, parenthood, caretaking, recovery, fitness, developing career, and more--that social action isn't scheduled.
How do you plan to connect your spiritual work with political action in the coming months and years, if that is a current aim of yours?
posted by Chattering Mind @ 10:24 PM | Permalink |
"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 of the world? ... How can one preserve one's attunement where one's soul is being pummeled all the time from all directions?
"In the course of history our societies have built temples and churches in order to seek refuge, so one is able to find one's soul again in favorable circumstances. The purpose of the temple is to provide a safe place for worship, to give expression to the nostalgia of our soul. The nomads, whether they were Jews or Arabs, found that since they were always on the move they could not rely upon a place where they could find peace and the sacred attunement of their being. They realized they had to create their own temple. Living in our modern societies, we might benefit by dedicating a room in our home that would be a temple for meditation, but not all of us can afford even that in our crowded lives. The answer is to build an inner temple out of our own being.
"The temple provides a threshold marking a very definite transit from the profane to the sacred, and marking a protection so you are able to find peace within your self without being subjected to the impressions coming in from all sides. You can seek refuge in that temple, even when you are right in the middle of activity, because you have built the temple from within. It's always there."
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 the front pages usually in the ghastliest ways. In the name of God, the faithful fly planes into buildings, blow themselves up to murder the innocent, burn down rival houses of worship, insult and condemn and cry out to heaven for vengeance... But sometimes, faith helps ordinary men and women do the humanly impossible: to forgive, to love, to heal and to redeem. It makes no sense. It is the most sensible thing in the world. The Amish have turned this occasion of spectacular evil into a bright witness to hope. Despite everything, a light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:19 AM | Permalink |
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 passes. (And the work gets done.) Another provides breakfast and people blow in from out of town. (And the work gets done.)...
"Today I helped paint a classroom at a daycare center. There was more work than volunteers, but it felt almost effortless because of the spirit that brought us together. To me, it was an act of holiness. But I didn't always get this. I once did volunteer work begrudgingly, selfishly, and with a sense of duty, or even guilt. I often thought more of how it would fit my schedule than benefit another.
"Today I do it with an open heart, thinking of the people I'm serving. I'm full of gratitude for the privilege and the wherewithall to meet someone else's need."
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 for the child or the family. This is simply not the case. My son, who has Down Syndrome, has an IQ of 102,is bright, gregarious, outgoing, and there is no better teacher of compassion and beauty.
"And, for those who believe that somehow they are not the "super mom" that I am; that somehow I can do this, but you never could—-please know I am no different than any other mother. Each day, I put one foot in front of the other, am fiercely devoted to my child and creating opportunities for him. I just have the extra duty of making the world realize their dated beliefs (like lazily using the 'R' word or believing in segregated educations) about his disability.
"It's October, Down Syndrome awareness month; why not challenge your beliefs about Down Syndrome? It’s ok to admit you don’t know—-hey, I had to have a child with Down Syndrome before I knew. Here are some ideas:
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 year-end party with friends, buy three presents and tuck them aside, contemplate your holiday card and mailing list, buy the homeopathic remedy Aconite and store it somewhere you can find it at the first sign of a cold.
Completing projects at harvest time and preparing for winter is a ritual with its own quiet thrills. I'm a grasshopper in recovery.
"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. Some of us are green. Some have changed to yellow, and some have evolved to red. But unlike the leaves, we can evolve ourselves forward through conscious action and discipline. We can move beyond powerlessness, transform suffering, create new neural pathways, new ways of being. This, too, is in our hands. And we can take it on or not."
--Jan Phillips is an inspirational writer and thinker whose own quest has led her "into and out of a religious community, across the U.S. on a Honda motorcycle, and around the world on a one-woman peace pilgrimage." Her most recent book is called 'Divining the Body: Reclaim the Holiness of Your Physical Self.' View her website and subscribe to her Museletter by clicking here.
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 to debunk 'God,' they are debunking the 'supernatural theism' view of God, the view that believes in a God 'somewhere out there' who occassionally intervenes in the world, however unpredictably. As another poster noted, 'how can God let thousands of children starve to death daily?'...But Borg says there is a different way to view God, which is also biblically supported, that holds that God is not just 'out there,' detached from the world unless it suits his fancy to do otherwise, but rather a God that is within us and within everything.
"...I would urge atheists to read Borg's works like 'The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion To A More Authenthic Contemporary Faith' for example. I think they would find themselves relating strongly with Borg in chapter 1...just promise you keep reading! It's easy IMHO to debunk the extremist Christian religion too many people are practicing today. It makes me angry also. Borg is at least a breath of fresh air and his thesis is worthy of debate whereas it is a waste of time to debate a wide-eyed Christian extremist."
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, the moon closest to the Autumn Equinox, the Harvest Moon whose light, says Waverly Fitzgerald at SchooloftheSeasons.com, has illuminated the harvest work of farmers on deadline for centuries, so ample and tireless its glorious glow.
Harvest festivities, dances, and ceremonies are also held by the light of this moon, so you'll at least have to grab a good look (and maybe shake your booty!) at its beauty. This full moon may look much bigger than it ordinarily seems, due in part to an optical illusion called the Moon Illusion, which you can read more about here.
"During September, the relationship between the ecliptic plane (on which the planets orbit) shifts in relationship to the earth and the moon rises more or less at the same time every night for the three nights of the Harvest full moon," says Fitzgerald, citing Christopher Dewdney's book "Acquainted with the Night: Excursions Through the World After Dark" as a reference.
The flame-red moon, the harvest moon, Rolls along the hills, gently bouncing, A vast balloon, Till it takes off, and sinks upward To lie on the bottom of the sky, like a gold doubloon. The harvest moon has come, Booming softly through heaven, like a bassoon. And the earth replies all night, like a deep drum.
So people can't sleep, So they go out where elms and oak trees keep A kneeling vigil, in a religious hush. The harvest moon has come!
And all the moonlit cows and all the sheep Stare up at her petrified, while she swells Filling heaven, as if red hot, and sailing Closer and closer like the end of the world.
Till the gold fields of stiff wheat Cry `We are ripe, reap us!' and the rivers Sweat from the melting hills.
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 about how the Amish bury their dead.
"The bodies of the dead will be dressed by family members in white, almost the only time people of the Amish faith wear anything other than dark tones. Plain pine coffins will be placed in a room in their family homes, from which all furniture and decorations have been stripped. Viewings will be held at least a day before the funeral. The mothers will wear black for a year. The men will wear white shirts instead of their usual solid-colored ones..."
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 collect spiritual beliefs as if they were attractive antiques) in a blog that--I know--sometimes seem to trade belief systems like Pokemon cards. Genryu didn't say that last part. I'm saying that. But the irony he points to is lost least on Chattering Me! I am the antique shop. That's why I posted the quote.
I was raised a Presbyterian. I practice yoga. I married a Jewish man, am raising my sons as Jews (they were dipped in a ritual bath and converted), and recently celebrated my 50th birthday in silence at a Sufi retreat center. In my free time, I read the work of Ken Wilber, a philosopher who has developed an integral approach to spirituality. And I work for Beliefnet.com (a website my husband co-founded) that is truly--and deliberately--a spiritual smorgasbord. (My favorite artist is Joseph Cornell, the ultimate appreciator of spiritually charged ephemera.)
I know I must drive the Zen Buddhist bloggers crazy, but I deliberately chose the name "Chattering Mind" since I--like many people--am both lost and found, in my monkey mind then calm, chasing my tail and then standing tall. Pieces and then all of a piece. I confess to a multi-faith mindset. And an only recently resettled meditation practice.
Years ago, Utne Reader ran a hugely important cover story on the topic of whether or not people could create their own religion by mixing and matching ideas and practices that made sense to them. The editors' answer to the question was, in the end: NO, you can't make it up. Or you could, but you'd be a fool to. Choose one. Go deep.
I'm getting there, and observing progress. But I'm made so strangely happy by all the roadside distractions; I love it that I have readers from different faith traditions, or no particular faith at all. Genryu! Please! Come to my house! It's decorated with stuff from antique stores and flea markets. Not the Zen look! But it has a warm embrace!
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 Back" and other wellness films. Click here to see free snippets of films on the stresses of caring for the elderly or raising kids. Learn more about the company's history and direction by clicking here.
More good news is that it's reasonably priced. A day pass costs $1.95. The monthly pass is $9.95.
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.
I don't think people who believe in paranormal realities see research like this as damaging to their point of view. For years, transpersonal psychologists and paranormal reseachers have been begging for more study in these areas so we all may differentiate what's explainable from what's not.
Here's a list of books on paranormal and altered states of consciousness by pioneering thinker Charles T. Tart (who has an online directory of narratives written by scientists who've experienced the paranormal. I can't access the link today for some reason, but here it is anyway). And here's the text of a speech by a researcher and theorist named Eric Weiss--whom I've been meaning to quote for you here--calling for more research into "subtle" realms and dream states.
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.
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.
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 cancer research, schools in India, and the organization Cherish Our Children International.
Not only that, you can select a graphic for your Enlightenment Card from this menu, stocked with an om symbol, Buddha, a photo of hands in a mudra, and more. Have a look.
I'm slightly turned off, but I'm shaking my head in reluctant admiration. Outside of the fact that you're fattening a huge corporation, I don't quite see the downside. What do you think?
If they run TV ads for this, they've got to use as their theme song "We are The World. We are the Children," and show fit people doing Tai Chi, Qigong, and yoga at sunrise, don't you think? Any other suggestions welcome.
"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 have studied so much. We may have studied Western philosophy or Oriental philosophy, practiced yoga or perhaps have studied under dozens of great masters.
"We have achieved and we have learned... And yet, having gone through all this, there is still something to give up. It is extremely mysterious! How could this happen? Impossible! But unfortunately it is so. Our vast collections of knowledge and experience are just part of the ego's display, part of the grandiose quality of ego. We display them to the world and, in so doing, reassure ourselves that we exist, safe and secure, as 'spiritual' people.
"But we have simply created a shop, an antique shop... Before we filled our shop with so many things the room was beautiful: white-washed walls and a very simple floor with a bright lamp burning in the ceiling. There was one object of art in the middle of the room and it was beautiful...But we were not satisfied and we thought, 'Since this one object makes my room so beautiful, if I get more antiques, my room will be even more beautiful.' So we began to collect, and the end result was chaos."
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 contemplation.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 12:46 AM | Permalink |
"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 enters our lives; then You live within our hearts, and we through righteousness behold Your presence."
Chattering Mind is a blog on motherhood, aging, health and healing, yoga, whole foods, spiritual music, meditation, as well as the struggle to manage time and clutter.
Read more about writer Amy Cunningham.
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