Loving Yourself Inside and Out

Metamucil, the fiber "regularity" product for older folks has developed ads for the young, nut-and-berry set. "Drop Dead Gorgeous Guts" the ad headline reads next to a pretty model moving into a yoga "plow" position.

Issues of these ads and potential eating disorder-related concerns aside, Metamucil is okay, but not necessary for everyone. I keep a discreet mini food grinder on our kitchen counter for the express purpose of grinding flax seed every morning to either sprinkle on food, or eat as a cereal with rice milk, soy milk, or milk of the conventional cow kind. Great fiber. Plus you get your Omega-threes. Flax seed, whole or pre-ground, is now available at all health food stores. Be sure to refrigerate it.

What's your fiber of choice?

Drunk and Not Forgotten

The hottest actor in New York right now is Liev Schreiber. "New York Times" theater critic Ben Brantley calls him the "finest American theater actor of his generation." I saw Schreiber in David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross" a couple of years ago. And last week I saw him drink, chain smoke, snort cocaine, and viciously hurt those who love him in the guise of a broken talk radio show host named Barry Champlain, in Eric Bogosian's play "Talk Radio."

Though Mr. Chattering will forever be my one and only, I've... um, it's been difficult to get Liev Schreiber out of my chattering head.

In the course of 90 minutes, Schreiber's character dumps his co-dependent girlfriend, viciously chews out his best friend, maybe ruins his whole career (but maybe not), and gets drunk and stoned enough to sustain more than 60 seconds of radio silence as he sits at his desk in a depressive sulk. Schreiber's hugely attractive, compelling energy seemed to be sucking nothing but awe out of the audience. The way he physically portrays a man who is completely smashed mesmerized me. I'm the adult child of an alcoholic parent, you see. And it was surprising how both the revulsion and the love came charging back.

Drunks are truth-tellers. Drunks have special connections to wonderous states of consciousness.

Drunks are also drunks. And really dense, oblivious to the lives they're damaging.

Anyway, I don't think Schreiber, the actor, is too religious or spiritual. Here's the only piece of an interview I could find that touches upon his Jewish upbringing.

ELLE: You've said that you felt being Jewish was a cultural thing. In relationships, is there any trait that you regularly display that would be considered culturally Jewish?

LS: Complaining a lot.

Hum. Too bad. So that's that.

"CSI" fans are jubilant that Schreiber has signed on for a continuing part in that television series.

Happy Birthday, Al Gore

March 31st is Al Gore's birthday (he's an Aries), and astrologer Shelley Ackerman has responded to my initial please-lose-the- grief-weight-Al post so intelligently, that I must quote her here. She posted this on her website KarmicRelief:

"How about examining WHY we're so freaked out by weight in the first place? Do we really understand what causes it? Is it the same for everyone?

"I've felt for a long time that, beyond the obvious benefits of diet and exercise, there is an "X" factor...I've noticed in my own life, and in the lives of other very sensitive friends and associates (especially empaths, caretakers, or those in a care-taking sequence), that weight is harder to drop, almost as if energetically it is used as a kind of 'bubble wrap' for a very fragile core that hasn't found a better or healthier way to protect itself.

"Vice President Gore has been dealing with loss, injustice, and being misunderstood by millions. His journey can be compared to that of a very high initiate. He continues to serve and by all accounts is a very kind and caring man to all who he encounters. For years, millions, no billions, have projected their psychic energy on to him. Like all public figures he has been scrutinized, criticized, and at times treated very shabbily by the media. How well would any of us do with the projections of a couple of billion people (many misunderstanding of your good will) focused intently on you?

"Gore has just completed his second Saturn return, and in his solar return chart the Moon in Virgo--in a positive aspect to Venus in Taurus--suggests that his health and fitness will be a priority this year, and the Pluto station bodes well for an expansion of his power and influence in the year ahead."

Please chime in with your thoughts.

'The Secret' Bashing Begins

Now, new books are being released that argue against the "Law of Attraction" mindset so many find inspiring in "The Secret."

Somehow I doubt they'll sell as well.

Wish You Were Here

One thing in today's New York Times really struck my fancy. It's about how fashionable it's become to check in for a drug or alcohol mind/body detox. I quote:


Less than a decade ago, a stint in rehab was assumed to be a body- and soul-wrenching experience. A trip to even an elite facility like the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., was sufficiently shaming to keep under wraps — the psychic equivalent of a week in the stocks. Today a sojourn at a boutique establishment like Promises in Malibu, Calif., where until last week Britney Spears was tucked away, is openly discussed and in some quarters glamorized as a hip, if costly, refuge for the gilded set.

That idea is perpetuated — indeed aggressively promoted — by the marketers of a handful of high-end facilities, some of which advertise amenities on their Web sites like private rooms with 600-thread-count bedsheets, high-tech gyms, spa cuisine and ocean views. “There used to be a stigma to coming to a place like this,” said Chris Prentiss, the director of Passages, another exclusive treatment center in Malibu. “Now it’s like wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt.”

San Francisco Bans Plastic Grocery Bags

It was bound to happen. Read all about the plastic grocery bag ban in San Francisco here, and then buy some of these or this great site's many other options so you'll be prepared when the same ordinance is passed in your town.

Get Wacky with Your Easter Eggs!

Found a nice Easter egg decorating twist on iVillage: "fiber eggs" brought alive with bits of yarn or string. Click here.

Watch Inspiring 'Raw for Thirty Days' Trailer

Take the nine minutes to watch this inspiring documentary film trailer for "Raw for Thirty Days."

It's the story of how six insulin-dependent diabetics who'd previously been subsisting on American junk food "undergo a radical 30-day diet and lifestyle change in the hope of reversing or reducing their insulin dependence."

In the hands of Dr. Gabriel Cousens, medical director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, study participants who stuck with the eating plan made stupendous health gains in a month. I think you'll be touched by and excited for them, and inspired to eat healthier yourself!

Envision a New USA for 10 Minutes Every Sunday

An appealing progressive group called Envision a New America is asking all of us to join their members for 10 minutes every Sunday, at any time of day, to pray and envision a new America. The idea is to imagine the country at peace, free, getting clean, meeting every citizen's needs. Here are "envisioning" instructions from the group's website:

From wherever you are sitting:

1. See yourself connected with millions of Americans and world citizens who are participating in Envision a New America

2. Imagine Lady Liberty--the Statue of Liberty which embodies the original ideals of freedom, liberty, tolerance, and compassion upon which America was founded--and tell her your vision in practical detail of what a New America looks like and means to you.

3. From your heart, send your flame to Lady Liberty’s torch and imagine that the fire, which has nearly been extinguished there, bursts forth with renewed radiance, illuminating the darkness in the land of today’s America and also connecting the New America to the inner light of all countries of the world.

You can do this envisioning exercise in your imagination any time of day, any day, anywhere! But they ask that, at the minimum, you join with everyone for 10 minutes every Sunday.

Find more information about this effort here.

Screening Jesus

If you are thinking of showing your kids a film about the life of Christ as we get close to Easter (a valid, wonderful thing to do, no matter your faith), my choice for you would be the 1961 Samuel Bronston production "King of Kings" starring Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus--if you can tolerate the fact that Jesus is played by a hunky teen idol with fabulous shoulder-length hair. I loved this film as a pre-teen girl and would watch the Chicago television guide for it every year around this time (back when we all had to wait for movies to show up for us).

The scenes on the cross aren't so realistic as to terrify kids, but they're bloody and gripping for sure, and Jesus' conversations with the thieves being crucified on either side of him are well done. The tomb scene the next day is incredibly moving, and the music throughout will just pierce your heart. (I can hear it in my head right now.) Critics hated the Jeff Hunter casting, but free of any knowledge of his former work, I have no problem with his performance.

Since "King of Kings" invests little energy in pointing fingers and speculating about who killed Jesus anyway, it is more instructive than Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" which seemed to inflame and repulse many viewers (though I know it inspired others). More than that to me, the violence in "Passion" was so over-blown and gratuitous. By comparison, "King of Kings" is watchable, and focused on Jesus' real message. Better still, it's safe for kids 10 and up, who are ready to contemplate Christ's death and resurrection.

Do you agree? "King of Kings" is still a staple of most video stores. Here's an article that mentions other biblical film-making efforts.

Accepting What Is

I found the following passage in Christian Hummel's "Space Clearing Kit: Working with Nature to Enhance the Energies of Your Home." She calls it "a personal demonstration of the transformational power of accepting what IS."

It only takes a minute or two. Try it, then tell me how it worked for you.

1. Take any particular emotional, physical or mental condition that you have deemed a problem.

2. Focus your attention of that situation or problem.

3. Make no attempt to change it, resist it, or have it be in any way different.

4. Simply bring your total awareness--without any resistance--to the situation.

5. Do this for a minute.

6. Notice what you feel afterwards.

Did you notice that you felt a relief of stress, anxiety, worry, pain, or any other symptoms of your resisting this situation? Much of our stress is not a result of the problem itself, but of our unwillingness to be present with the situation.

Help for the Cleaning Impaired

This week marks a time when Jewish families sweep their homes clean of any bread crumbs in preparation for Passover. Others clean this week because it's spring and they can sweep dust bunnies out the door.

I've known people who have a genius for cleaning and organizing. I've known people who really struggle with it. Either way, hard work is always involved, and then renewed commitments are called for to keep on top of the clutter.

Clean freak Jeff Campbell wrote three books on cleaning to help the cleaning impaired. Here are FlyLady.com's fabulous tips on spring cleanings and getting organized for Easter and Passover (especially valuable if you're preparing a large family meal for either one of those holidays).

Here's my favorite Beliefnet.com article on ritual spring cleaning written by a L. Lisa Lawrence, a pagan whose sweepings are fueled by magic and chai. It's a piece I love mentioning every year. Enjoy! Don't sweep your past under the rug! Clean for "the now."

Blogging by Blood Type

This is so fascinating. I just discovered it. Dr. Peter D'Adamo, author of "Eat Right 4 Your Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight," maintains a site with a fleet of good bloggers writing about their lives and diets, planned according to their blood types.

I happen to be a type O (I need some red meat and am not the best candidate for a vegan lifestyle). Do you know what you are? You can buy a blood-type determining kit for $9.95 plus postage. I'll be posting more on this fascinating, health-transforming subject as I get deeper into it myself.

Guns and Yoga

Here's a funny piece by a groovy yoga-practicing liberal who discovers a passion for firing pistols at a gun-shooting class. The article nicely explains how we can all hold different temperaments alive inside us. Here's a brief excerpt:

I believe in sustainable agriculture. I support gay marriage. I think war is a failure of diplomacy, logic and leadership. I’m embarrassed by the fact that it’s 2007 and my country is debating evolution. Pot should be legal. I dream of a world where punches are made of flowers.

And, it turns out, I love guns.

'Nightline' Tackles 'The Secret'

Fans of "The Secret" will want to read about ABC's "Nightline" show that included experts expounding on the best and worst ways to interpret the "Law of Attraction" philosophy. (Including one of Beliefnet's own editors, Valerie Reiss.)

The show inspired a lot of lively blog talk that you can check out here.

Here's an excerpt of ABC's online write-up:


ABC News consulted a range of professionals about the claims in the book. Dr. Richard Wender, president of the American Cancer Society, has concerns with the implication that we can create disease or heal ourselves simply by our way of thinking. "I want to be very clear that there is no evidence that people attract cancer by their thoughts," said Wender. "Not only that, I know patients who went through their treatments anxious as can be, convinced the whole time that they would never make it, who today are completely cured because they got good treatment in a timely way."

Elizabeth Edwards' Favorite Poem

Diane Sawyer mentioned Friday morning on ABC's "Good Morning America" program that this Emily Dickinson poem is Elizabeth Edwards' favorite.

Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

--Emily Dickinson

Now, Yoga Class to 'Superman Returns' Soundtrack

The new yoga teacher I'm seeing every Thursday at 4 p.m. is a wonderfully odd duck. Last week, she played a depressing Nick Drake tune at what's supposed to be the most blissful, relaxed moment of class. Yesterday--ZAP! POW! CRASH!--she played the highly-orchestrated "Superman Returns" summer-movie soundtrack through the first hour of a ninety-minute Ashtanga class. And, this time...it pretty much worked.

We blasted out of Utkatasana (Chair Pose), flew over the planet in Virabhadrasana III (Warrior Three), gliding down to the floor much later for Salabhasana (the Locust). At the close, we bowed to our newly energized "inner superheroes," and I sailed out the door (forgetting to leave my mat in the rack).

Every religion has its superheroes, and Hinduism is no exception. Deepak Chopra and Richard Branson launched Virgin Comics last year, a series that features super-human do-gooders.

Al's 2002 Therapy Session With Stuart Smalley

Lots of disagreement today regarding Al Gore's weight, and what he should do about it. Writes CM reader Laurie Sue: "Weight gained via trauma-based consumption holds the trauma in place. And he, as a public figure who was beloved and selected by over half our country, is an icon to us. Recognizing that he is still holding the pain, keeps that pain in place for us as well."

Plenty of others indicated that we should stay off this subject and let Al stay big if he wants to be big.

I stand by what I said, but I'm not standing in cruel judgment. I feel Al Gore's William Howard Taft silhouette on the public stage is best considered (by him and by us) as temporary. It's not the "real" Al Gore (yeah, such a thing does exist). In fact, Al Gore himself has said as much himself--quite humorously.

Here's the transcript of a terrific comedy sketch he and Tipper actually taped in the flesh on December 14th, 2002 with Saturday Night Live's comic New-Ager-in-constant-recovery Stuart Smalley (a.k.a. liberal radio host Al Franken). The sketch took the form of a mock couple's therapy session with Tipper and Al focused on something they wrote together with Smalley posing as the Gores' doting therapist.

Stuart Smalley: Well, I think you might have left out one family trauma that I think you two could have written very eloquently about.

Al Gore: Uh...I'm not sure I follow you.

Tipper Gore: Honey? I think it's about the... election?

Al Gore: Well, sure... that was a disappointment. But I wouldn't describe it as... "traumatic."

Stuart Smalley: [glances at Tipper again] Tipper?

Tipper Gore: Well... it was difficult.

Stuart Smalley: Al? do you hear what Tipper is saying?

Al Gore: Yes. That the outcome of the election was very hard for... her... and the children.

Stuart Smalley: [glances at Tipper again] Tipper.

Tipper Gore: Um... well, honey...

Stuart Smalley: Go ahead, you can say the "E" word.

Tipper Gore: The eating.

Al Gore: Okay! I was a bit down, and I took some solace in... food.

Stuart Smalley: Al? Tipper gave me this picture that she took about three months after the election. Now, I think it's pretty clear that you were in a humongous chain spiral.

Al Gore: Well, as you can see, I lost the weight, and I'm over it!

Stuart Smalley: [glances at Tipper again] Tipper? Is he over it?

Tipper Gore [faux crying]: It's been difficult...

Stuart Smalley: Yes. Do you think that Al has feelings... about not being President.

Tipper Gore: Yes.

Al Gore: Well, of course I have! I-

Stuart Smalley: Al, I'm talking to Tipper. [turns to Tipper] And, do you think that Al is maybe in denial about his feelings?

Al Gore: Oh, for goodness sakes!

Tipper Gore: Maybe a little.

Stuart Smalley: Do you think it might be good for the whole Gore family if Al dealt with his... his feelings?

Tipper Gore: Well... sure, I do.

Stuart Smalley: You're doing good work! Good work. Al?

Al Gore: [fuming] What?

Stuart Smalley: You are in... denial. But we are going to trace it, face it, and erase it. I want you to look at the mirror - come on, don't look at me, only you can help you. [Al looks into the mirror] Look at t he mirror. Come on. That's it. Okay. I want you to say... "Hi, Me!"

Al Gore: [reluctant] Hi, Me.

Stuart Smalley: "I am sad... about not being President." Come on.

Al Gore: I am... sad... about not being... President.

Stuart Smalley: "And that's... okay."

Al Gore: And that's okay.

Stuart Smalley: "I don't have to be the most powerful man in the world."

Al Gore: I don't have to be the most powerful... man in the world.

Stuart Smalley: "I don't have to be able to... [thinking] ..bomb a country any time I want."

Al Gore: "Look, I would never arbitrarily ...

Stuart Smalley: Okay, okay.. I-I-I'm sorry. Uh... "All I have to do is be the best Al I can be."

Al Gore: All I have to do is... be the best Al I can be.

Stuart Smalley: "Because I'm good enough..." Come on! "I'm good enough.. I'm smart enough.. and, doggonit, people like me!"

Al Gore: Because I'm good enough... I'm smart enough... and, doggonit, people like me!

Stuart Smalley: Feel better?

Al Gore: Actually, I... I do feel better!

Stuart Smalley: You do? You do feel better?

Al Gore: Yes. Actually, I do.

Stuart Smalley: Hug? [holds arms out]

Al Gore: No.

Has Al Called Jenny Yet?

It bothers me that Al Gore is holding onto the weight he's gained.

Not because I'm anti-fat. Not because I want him to run again.

But because I've always believed that his weight gain was due to the personal trauma of winning the popular vote and losing the election, and that in the early years of the Bush administration, I imagine Gore must have been eating, grieving, and beating himself up over not having been a more perfect candidate.

With the weight, he holds the whole country's grief (well, he at least holds the sadness felt by the chunk of the country that voted for him). If he lets the grief go, we can all breathe easier. We'd think: Well, we've all taken a hit, but we still have our health.

Since Gore knows what fitness is and has enjoyed being lean in the past, and since, for God's sake, he has won an Oscar, come into the limelight again in a big way, he can now lose the weight and feel victorious.

Al's flab seems attached to our sad, communal casting back, our head-shaking, grief-stricken imaginings over what might have been. None of us want to live that way any longer. We need to get back into fighting shape, so we can build something new. So Al, hop on that exercise bike (you can watch CNN as you pump). Not since Kirstie Alley has a nation been so fixated upon a public figure's girth. Letterman even did a Top 10 on it in early 2001. So let's get it, as a topic, off the tables. What do you say, Al? Please!

Healthy View of Osteoporosis in Alternative Medicine Magazine

Thank you, James Keough, for telling us how we can sensibly sustain our bone health, in the April 2007 issue of "Alternative Medicine" magazine. In a courageous article titled "Bones of Contention," Keough explains how osteoporosis is being "sold" to us as "a silent crippler" by phamaceutical companies dying to profit by our rampaging fears of losing bone density. "I have to say the publicity about osteoporosis is mostly about profits, not about women's health," says Dr. Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP, and co-founder with Christine Northrup, MD, and others of the medical clinic Women to Women.

The article will tell you how to offset your risk of hip fracture (which can lead to immobility, pneumonia, and decline into death), by exercising and eating wisely now, Keogh says, going on to write the wisest three paragraphs on bone health I've read recently. He says:

Losing bone mass might be an inescapable aspect of getting older, and fragility fractures are certainly a hazard in old age, but bone loss needn't lead to a fracture. Susan Brown jokes that we could cut hip fractures in half if we could get everyone to die five years earlier. The obvious (and far more attractive) alternative is to figure out how to keep people strong. "The message to individuals," she says, is if you want to live long, take care of your infrastructure."

The obvious first step is to find ways to avoid or minimize the lifestyle bone robbers. Quit smoking, drink in moderation, cut back on caffeine, reduce the stress in your life (or practice meditation or yoga), and stop trying to lose those last five pounds. You can't do everything on your own, however. Countering the effects of prescription drugs and endocrine disorders requires working with your healthcare provider to find alternatives and root causes--attempting that by yourself is simply too risky.

The second step involves getting off the couch and into your exercise or yoga clothes. Your body works on a demand and supply basis when it comes to bones--if your muscles and tendons put stress on your bones, your body will respond by strengthening them.

The article goes on to say that reducing your intake of meat, dairy, sugars and other acid-forming foods will create an internal environment that can strenghthen bones as well. Twenty minutes of sun exposure daily (without sunscreen, wow!) and maintaining healthy vitamin D levels are vitally important. (I find this personally interesting as my vitamin D has dipped dramatically since I launched this blog, and I'm currently taking cod liver oil to get it back up.)

Think this out. It all makes sense. Ladies, find a doctor who talks this talk!

The whole April issue of "Alternative Medicine" is pretty fantastic, boasting also an article about commercial fragrance products that can stir serious allergies and a diminished immune system response.

Are Vegetarians Bringing 'Sexy Back'?

I don't know, seems to me that when you're young and cute and active, you have a few years where what you eat barely matters.

But here are some vegetarians who've submitted themselves to a "Most Sexy Vegetarian" contest. Have a look!

Can One Guy with a Great Blog Have 'No Impact?'

New York-based writer Colin Beavan has launched a marvelous blog about how he, his wife and two-year-old are striving to have "no impact" on the current warming of our planet. His blog (which already has a great archive of posts) is called "No Impact Man."

And you've got to read the whole subhead, since the blog will closely chronicle how "A Guilty Liberal Finally Snaps, Swears Off Plastic, Goes Organic, Becomes a Bicycle Nazi, Turns Off His Power, Composts His Poop and, While Living in New York City, Generally Turns into a Tree Hugging Lunatic Who Tries to Save the Polar Bears and the Rest of the Planet from Environmental Catastrophe While Dragging His Baby Daughter and Prada-Wearing, Four Seasons-Loving Wife Along for the Ride."

Beavan is under contract with Farrar, Straus, Giroux, and yes, there might be a film about his year of witty eco-obsessiveness too.

"Stage one was figuring out how to live without making garbage: no disposable products, no packaging, etc," he writes. "Stage two was figuring out how to cause the least environmental impact with our food choices. Stage three is figuring out how to reduce our consumption to only what is necessary and how to do that sustainably. The whole thing gets harder and harder as we add each stage.

"What will the future stages be? Who knows? I am no eco-expert. I am just a liberal schlub who got sick of not putting my money where my mouth was. In a way, the whole project is a protest against my highly-principled, lowly-actioned former self. I’m fumbling through, trying to do my best and doing the research as I go along. This blog is my attempt to tell you how it’s going."

On another page, he writes: "None of the practical questions about no impact living would be relevant if my wife Michelle, my daughter Isabella, our dog Frankie and I intended to approach the challenge by becoming ascetics. Until now, we have been your typical convenience-addicted, New York City take-out slaves. Asceticism is not a realistic way forward, not for my family and not for the world.

"Saving this planet depends on finding a middle path that is neither unconsciously consumerist nor self-consciously anti-materialist. The idea for No Impact Man is not to be anorexic but to be abundant, not to be eco-efficient but 'eco-effective,' in the words of the environmental scientists William McDonough and Michael Braungart."

Sounds wonderful, don't you agree? I'll be following this one closely!

How to Turn a 'Bad' Thing into Good Karma

Since we were recently speaking about "The Secret" and how some people might see illness as something the sufferer brought on or "created," I went back to a blog post integral philosopher Ken Wilber wrote about his own health, in which he discussed how one might view major illnesses through the prism of karma. After a hospital stay and a coma last December, Wilber wrote:


Many people hear of situations like this, or perhaps suffer similar ones themselves, and imagine it must somehow be retribution for some horrendous crime in one's past. But keep in mind that karma doesn't mean that what happened earlier in this life is finally catching up with you; the orthodox doctrine of karma actually [has more to do with] something that happened to you in a previous life.

According to the doctrine of karma, in this life, you are reading a book that you wrote in a previous life. Many people draw the erroneous conclusion that because, e.g., they used to yell at their spouses, they now have throat cancer--but that's just not the way it works. As a matter of fact, from at least one angle, the "bad things" that are happening to you now actually indicate a good fruition--it means your system is finally strong enough to digest the past karmic causes that led to your present rebirth.

So if you were reborn, that is, if you are alive in a body right now, then you have already horrifically sinned, and unless you work it off in this lifetime, guess what? You're coming back. Illness itself does not cause more karma; your attitude towards illness, however, does.

Therefore, if you are undergoing some extremely difficult circumstances right now, and you can meet those difficulties with equanimity, wisdom, and virtue, then you are doubly lucky--the causes that led to your being reborn now are starting to surface and burn off...

I only mention this because all too often, people undergoing difficult circumstances of one variety or another, add a type of New Age guilt or blame to an already difficult enough circumstance, and truly, that's not only inappropriate, it's inaccurate...if you're undergoing some sort of truly difficult or even horrific circumstances, please don't kick yourself when you're down. That, indeed, would create bad karma. The good news is that you are finally ready and able to burn off the karma that led to this rebirth, and this is good news indeed--if you meet it with love and openness and a smile.

The Mark of a Great Jyotishi

Here is a wonderful passage from Vedic astrologer James Kelleher's website in which he describes the beauty and pandemonium of India as he searches for a spiritual teacher. He is a young man here in 1975, describing how, despite being new to Bombay and on foot, he finally locates the Hindi saint Beedi Baba by just asking random people for directions.

...I wove in and out as I walked, bumping against the throngs of pedestrians who filled the busy lanes...I was enjoying the fact that I had completely lost myself in the belly of this ancient city, and couldn’t even think of how I would find my way back. Yet many of the people I asked seemed to know Beedi Baba....“Beedi Baba kaha hai. His house is there,” the flower seller said, pointing across the street to an old building.

I jogged the remaining few yards to the teacher’s door, in order to dodge a rickshaw. The door was open so I poked my head in and said, “I am looking for Beedi Baba.” A middle-aged lady dressed in a royal blue sari beckoned for me to come in and pointed to a ladder-like staircase. I entered the dark building and started up the steep ladder towards the second floor where I could see a doorway. Halfway up the ladder the lady in the blue sari raised her voice and started chattering at me in Hindi. Confused, I turned around, not understanding what she was saying. A man said, “Your shoes, your shoes, leave them down here!” Embarrassed by forgetting to take off my shoes, I turned completely around and began my hurried descent. Unfortunately, the darkness, pitch of the ladder, and my impatience combined at that moment and my foot slipped from the ladder.

...I apologized to the lady and the man as I picked myself off the floor and painfully removed my shoes. I climbed the ladder-stairs once again, and entered the door at the top. As I entered, I found myself at the front of an attic-like room, filled with about twenty-five people. At the front of the room a very old man, with failing health, sat in silence. He looked at me for a moment as if he was deciding whether to let me in, after I had made so much racket on the stairs. After an awkward moment, he pointed to the back of the room and said, “Sit there.”

I made my way to the back, edging by the sitting devotees, half of whom sat with their eyes closed. I found a place and sat cross-legged on the floor. Beedi Baba said nothing, he just sat, eyes open, gazing out the window down at the street. After several minutes he mumbled something to his translator in Hindi. “Baba is saying there is nothing other than the self, the self alone is,” he repeated for the group. Again a long silence as Baba sat gazing. My first reaction was simply that I found it interesting that this man did not speak much. He was not giving a talk. I was aware, however, that something was happening which was not on the level of speech....My agitation from falling down the stairs seemed to disappear and I felt a sense of peace...

Read the whole passage here. And here is Kelleher's analysis of the astrological chart of the United States (moon in eighth house brings volatility).

Been to Any Good Non-Religious Baby Welcomings?

Beliefnet is gathering stories from readers on different ways they welcomed babies into this world (from anointing the baby with holy oil to hosting a Jewish bris or baby-naming to Muslim head-shaving ceremonies).

The editors also hope to learn how people commemorate a baby's arrival in non-religious ways. Parents could show their baby a first sunrise, for instance, or call together friends to more informally celebrate the baby's arrival. Blended-faith families please tell us your experiences as well. I think some Jewish-Christian households are naming the child formally but skipping the boys' ritual circumcision.

Send your stories or ideas to the address on this page. Or tell us here how you'd do it over again, if you weren't happy with the way you did it.

Dancer Works Without Feet or Hands

NPR's "All Things Considered" aired a piece yesterday about an artist named Lisa Bufano who dances without fingers or feet.

That's right, when Bufano was 21, a staph bacteria infection cut off blood flow to her extremities, and doctors had to amputate them. So now she performs as she is, who she is, and she's great at it. Click here to read NPR's article about Bufano's life and deepest ambitions. On the same page, you'll find video links (you'll need Real Player) to her recent dance performance "Five Open Mouths." (I find the second of the three offered the most moving, but the third is good too.)

"I want to be seen as attractive and beautiful and sexy like everyone else," Bufano tells NPR. "But I think that in my artwork, for me, it's trying to find some comfort with being everything a human can be."

Sites That Shine Light on Spring Equinox

ReligiousTolerance.org has good information on how Tuesday's Spring Equinox is celebrated as a sacred time around the globe.

And here are wonderful images of the stones at Cairn T, the ancient Irish burial mound that is aligned like a clock with the Spring Equinox, and built so that the sun near and on March 21st shines brilliantly on a carved ceiling stone. You can look at still images or watch a film of the equinox light illuminating the gray space here. Historians estimate that Cairn T was built around 3200 BC, before the arrival of Celtic tribes.

Martha Graham's Simple Gift

The greatest anthem to springtime wasn't written with spring in mind. Here's what modern dancer Martha Graham wrote about how Aaron Copeland's ballet score for her most famous ballet (a story of pioneering newlyweds in Pennsylvania) came to be called "Appalachian Spring."

When Aaron first presented me with the music, its title was "Ballet for Martha"--simple and as direct as the Shaker theme that runs through it. I took some words from the poetry of Hart Crane and retitled it "Appalachian Spring."

When Aaron appeared in Washington for a rehearsal, before the October 30, 1944, premiere, he said to me, "Martha, what have you named the ballet?"

And when I told him, he asked, "Does it have anything to do with the ballet?"

"No", I said, "I just like the title."

Appalachian Spring is essentially a dance of place. You choose a piece of land, part of the house goes up. You dedicate it. The questioning spirit is there and the sense of establishing roots.

The piece still works for me this time of year!

Here's the Hart Crane passage she mentioned. It's from his poem, "The Dance."

"O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge;
Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends
And northward reaches in that violet wedge
Of Adirondacks!"

Kabbalistic Café Debuts in Florida

Café Emunah, the first-ever Kabbalistic lifestyle lounge and tea bar is opening this month in Ft. Lauderdale with a "biblically inspired" menu.

I quote from the press release:

Café Emunah’s modern “organic chic” aesthetic presents diners with environmentally sensitive décor consisting of evocative art, natural woods, large open windows, frosted glass, muted metals, recycled plastics, ergonomic chairs and chandeliers...“Emunah’s philosophy is to offer a haven for the senses,” explains co-founder Dr. Marla Reis, Ph.D., “We are designed to appeal to diners of all beliefs and faiths. We cater to those individuals who believe in living consciously and welcome those who want to learn how to incorporate this consciousness into their lives.”

Biblically-influenced dishes such as “inspired miso soup”, “genesis
salad” and “enlightened encrusted salmon cakes” set the dining tone.
Terminology such as Foresight (appetizers), Revelation (entrées) and
Soul Stirrings (drink & tea choices), replace the expected. A sushi
menu titled “After The Flood” presents innovative sushi rolls
including Rabbi Rolls, Day 5 and East Meets West. Garden-direct whole
leaf organic teas are proudly served to diners accompanied by
electronic sand timers.

It's all Kosher too. Click here to see more pictures of the high concept.

I generally like to take my chai in the quiet nooks of used bookstores, but I have been drawn to the faith-centered coffee shop concept ever since I first found my way to The Potter's House in Washington D.C. 20 years ago. Gordon Crosby's notion then was that God would be more comfortable in a coffee shop than in most traditional sanctuaries.

What do you think? Would you drink your "inspired miso soup" and eat your "genesis salad" with gusto at Café Emunah? Come what may, I'm betting the concept will go national before much more time elapses.

Where to Find the Face of the Feminine

Thanks J. Esmerelda Durbin for this clarifying post regarding the absence of the feminine form near and around sacred obelisks:

"...I was led by my teachers to believe that every obelisk has a reflecting pool (of water), either at its base, or nearby, into which the image of the obelisk reflects. This pool of water is the representative of the feminine element. Think of the oceans, from which scientists believe life on Earth began; and of the waters of the womb that come rushing out at birth if you are not already familiar with how water and femininity correspond. Anyway, if you look hard enough I think you might find feminine aspect is neither hidden nor forgotten. The divine feminine is widely represented alongside male symbology. She's just not as glaringly loud!"

Denise Roy Practices Momfulness

Denise Roy, author of "My Monastery is a Minivan," has written a new book called "Momfulness: Mothering with Mindfulness, Compassion, and Grace." And boy, is it good. It's the best book on parenting I've read since Jon Kabat-Zinn's "Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting" seven years ago.

I cracked open my copy of "Momfulness" on one of those late afternoons when I'd been running in a dead heat from school meetings to blogging to walking the dog and dropping the kids at religious school without looking at myself in the mirror or eating much more than a few handfuls of honey-roasted peanuts and a cup of tea with milk in it (yep, even I screw up). Yoga? On such a day, how could I fit it in?

So I started reading "Momfulness" and then, gulp. I saw myself. I felt as though Roy (who is a family therapist and minister) was reaching her loving hands across the country (from where she lives near San Francisco) to pat my carpal-tunneled, stressed-out-mom forearm gently. She understands. She is with you in your most mom-ish moments! She has three grown sons, an 11-year-old daughter, and an 18-year-old foster daughter from Iran.

The book is sliced into chapters on presence, attention, compassion, embodiment, community, and "seeing the sacred." Each section ends with a meditation or to-do list I think you'll find valuable. My guess is that progressive Christians and Christian-Buddhists will enjoy this book most. But anyone whose life is stressful, kid-filled, and lacking in moment-to-moment contentment will find value in it.

If an audio version appeals more to you, here's good news: Random House Audio will be releasing Roy's "Meditations for Mothers" as an audio book in April. Read on to see how Roy centers herself when the family is running late for school, getting irritable, or frantic.

The Late-for-School-Practice

Here's an excerpt from Denise Roy's wonderfully helpful new book "Momfulness: Mothering with Mindfulness, Compassion, and Grace." Try this practice when you're running late with your family, or just feeling stressed, she says.

1. First, take a slow, deep breath--for you.

2. Become aware of your thoughts, your feelings, and your physical sensations.

3. Pay attention to what's happening inside you. Are some of your buttons getting pushed? Are these old patterns?

4. Now take another deep breath for your children.

5. Notice what is going on with them. What is it like from their point of view?

6. Then take a breath for the "Now what?" Ask yourself, What is needed in this moment?

7. See if you can find grace in the chaos.

8. Then choose what you want to do next.

Savasana to Nick Drake?

I love deceased British singer Nick Drake as much as anybody. The melancholic, lean, long-haired man in jeans and a rumpled sports coat--who either took an overdose of his anti-depressant by mistake in 1974, or killed himself because his albums weren't selling well--is someone whose haunting music and life story rips open my chest wall, revealing my heart.

But yesterday, while I was attempting to relax into savasana, the final flat-on-your-back corpse pose that ends every class, my yoga teacher turned on Drake's song "Black Eyed Dog" (his most depressing anthem according to the liner notes). My closed eyes shot open, and I glared at the ceiling, thinking surely, my yoga teacher was kidding. But no, this selection seemed deliberate. It is a soft song, at least. So I said a prayer for Drake. And let him go.

Pete Seeger: 'God is Everything.'

Don't miss Wendy Schuman's interview with folk legend/civil rights leader Pete Seeger, focusing mainly on his spiritual beliefs.

"I feel most spiritual when I’m out in the woods. I feel part of nature. Or looking up at the stars," Seeger says. "[I used to say] I was an atheist. Now I say, it’s all according to your definition of God. According to my definition of God, I’m not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes I’m looking at God. Whenever I’m listening to something I’m listening to God. I’ve had preachers of the gospel, Presbyterians and Methodists, saying, 'Pete, I feel that you are a very spiritual person.' And maybe I am. I feel strongly that I’m trying to raise people’s spirits to get together."

Find the rest here.

Did Saint Patrick Design the Celtic Cross?

"St. Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century," says this St. Patrick bio. At the age of 16, it is said he was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who took him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity. He turned to his religion for solace. A voice--which he believed to be God's--told him to flee back to England. So he did. Then an angel in a dream told him to return to Ireland as a missionary.

The legend goes that since Patrick was already "familiar with the Irish language and culture, a he incorporated traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the Irish."

However, in this history of the Celtic cross, another writer suggests that the image of St. Patrick as a really talented religious icon designer is pure folklore.

"There is a legend of how St. Patrick, when preaching to some soon-to-be converted heathens, was shown a sacred standing stone...marked with a circle...symbolic of the moon goddess. Patrick made the mark of a Latin cross through the circle and blessed the stone, making the first Celtic Cross. This legend implies that the Saint was willing to make ideas and practices that were formerly Druid into Christian ideas and practices... These, and many other stories and beliefs are the sort of folklore history that cannot be substantiated by the academic convention... "

Sort of like George Washington and the cherry tree (also probably false.) But we can't be sure. How craftsmen came to superimpose the cross over the Druid's circle may never be known. But what remains today is an exquisite symbol. Here's a lovely page of Celtic crosses I'd never seen before. And here's the surprisingly vast collection of Celtic crosses currently for sale on Ebay.

Puppy Sings Irish Tear-Jerker

This has excellent pass-around value. It's really cute and funny.

Best Irish Folk Music

If you're looking to improve your collection of Irish folk music, here's an award-winning Irish folk music blogger's list of the best folk albums of 2006.

Oh, and here's a list of the best Irish bloggers addressing all subjects.

Great Irish YouTube

If you don't have an Irish pub in your neighborhood, this and this will help you open your heart to the real soul of Ireland next Monday.

Best Easter Cookies, Music, and Incense

If you are shopping ahead for Easter goodies, please check out the Monastery Greetings homepage for music, incense, and the most remarkable Easter cookies I've ever seen or tasted. (They're cut from a 17th century German cookie mold!)

More About Sacred Obelisks

We were talking about festivals and the Washington Monument yesterday (scroll down if you missed this valuable conversation). So I decided to press on with my research into the sacred symbolism of obelisks (tall, four-sided towers than end in a pyramid-shaped point). In ancient Egypt, obelisks paid homage to the all-male, all-powerful, stud sun god Ra. His obelisks united heaven and earth.

But here's where their symbolic value to the world's religious culture gets interesting: I had forgotten that the obelisk outside St. Peter's Basilica, the Christian mother church in Rome, was shipped there from the ruins of an Egyptian pagan temple! It seems that history is a tumbling roll of great civilizations appropriating the sacred symbols of the last.

According to this informative web page about the obelisks of Rome:

In imperial times, after the conquest of Egypt, several obelisks were brought to Rome. Others were made by the Romans, who imitated Egyptian hieroglyphics to simulate the real thing...When the Roman empire came to an end, one by one the obelisks fell to the ground and were buried. It was not until the Renaissance that a renewed interest for antiquities caused them to be unearthed. At the end of the 16th century, Pope Sixtus V had the idea of using them as landmarks to guide pilgrims around Rome. In an early attempt at rational town planning, he designed straight streets linking the major basilicas with an obelisk visible from a distance outside each one. [The obelisks were "Christianized" by the addition of a cross on the top.]

The obelisk which now stands in St. Peter's Square was brought to Rome in 37 A.D., on a huge ship measuring 104m x 20m. The obelisk, which weighs 440 tons, originally stood in Nero's circus, at the foot of Vatican Hill. Unlike the other obelisks, it remained standing throughout the Middle Ages. In 1585 Sixtus V decided to position it in front of the basilica of St. Peter's. The complicated feat of engineering, which required 140 horses and 900 men, was accomplished by Domenico Fontana and was recorded in a number of contemporary drawings and a fresco painted in the Vatican Library.

Here's a long but enthralling paper that quotes (when you scroll down) Theosophy founder Madame H. P. Blavatsky reviewing what sacred obelisk-shaped towers say about the public psyche. The paper additionally reveals that funds for our Washington Monument were gathered in the 1830s by Freemasons (a fraternal organization that had counted George Washington as a member). The pagan origins and lofty aspirations of the tower's form were not lost on them.

Imagine getting similar architectural plans past the right-wingers in Washington now?! Even if they moved through the pagan part, they'd probably link the monument's shape to the gay rights movement. Here's a more serious question for feminists: Is it offensive that a phallus has in essence been our nation's guide? Or is it just incomplete and half the story, as it were?

Seeing Through the Eyes of Pure Compassion

Thank you, reader Matthew for the following letter in regards to the questions stirred by the popularity of "The Secret"'s Law of Attraction philosophy.

Matthew writes:

The idea of blame is completely without merit in the larger New Age set of beliefs that include the "Law of Attraction." If someone's attracted cancer into his or her life then it's our goal, our essential role, our baseline responsibility to express our love to that person, to know their suffering and to do what we can to reduce or eliminate it.

Do we "blame" a toddler who's learning to walk for falling? No, we help her up, kiss her skinned knee, and encourage her to try again.

Blame only occurs where there's judgment. There is no "blame" in the full New Age canon, there is only yet another wonderful opportunity to show love, love without condition. As in Buddhism, seeing the world through eyes of pure compassion is the ultimate goal, and people who have attracted tough times are the greatest targets of that compassion.

If you haven't seen the whole "Secret" DVD, here's a video meditation that will introduce you to the nature of the positive mind philosophy. I have to admit--this little YouTube clip makes me cry every time.

Omega's 30 Years of Healing Workshops

Well, the postman struggled to squeeze it through my slim mail slot. And when I picked it up to quickly review its contents, I realized that reading it slowly is a much better objective. At a full-figured 136-pages, it's a thing of beauty.

I'm talking about the Omega Institute 30th-anniversary catalog, a guide to 300-plus summer seminars in every spiritual practice imaginable, workshops in virtually any healing modality known to man from "Getting the Love You Want" to "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" to "Apology, Remorse and Forgiveness in Trauma's Aftermath" to "The Transcendent Power of Drumming."

This season, Omega boasts a rather unbelievable program of spiritual retreats for men, women, couples, and whole families beginning in late April and lasting through this coming October. Take a quickie two-day workshop with your favorite spiritual teachers, or plan part of your summer vacation around a full five-day retreat with bonus relaxation and detox. Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Jean Houston, Pema Chodron, Debbie Ford, David Deida, Eckhart Tolle, Iyanla Vanzant, Deepak Chopra, Krishna Das and hundreds more will be teaching and lecturing at Omega this year.

If you don't live on the Eastern seaboard, consider calling a skilled member of Omega's reservation's staff and figure out how to fly to Albany or New York, or take a train to Rhinebeck, New York, a beautiful area not far from New York's Catskill Mountains and Hudson River Valley. (I recently met a woman from Maryland who organizes busloads of women to come to Omega.) All manner of accommodations are available with different price points from private rooms to campgrounds. In between your workshop sessions, you may benefit from body work, massage and spiritual counseling at the healing center. And the whole food cooking served up in Omega's community dining room is both innovative and delicious.

Give yourself a treat and study Omega's website, which also features films of the work of some teachers. Ask them to mail you a catalog, since the paper copy is sometimes easier to read and manage. Here are some other retreat centers I heartily recommend. And here's a faith-based retreat center guide.

If you're shopping for a Buddhist retreat center in your area, best buy "The Complete Buddhist America Guide." Please post the name of your favorite retreat center if it's not mentioned anywhere in here. And tell us about your retreat experiences.

A Penis For Your Crops?

I once wrote an article for "The Washington Post" about the dreams people have about Washington D.C.

Turns out lots of people have dreams that involve the Washington Monument.

When I queried a Jungian analyst on this, we both agreed it was hard not to see this 555-foot tall obelisk as our nation's phallus. "A great country needs a great phallus," the Jungian analyst said, stroking his beard. This remark astonished me, and then made sense for a time, and then stayed with me long after I'd moved on to other projects.

Well, the folks who march around the Tagata Shrinei carrying phallus flags in central Honsu every March 15th to commemorate the Shinto Hounen Festival have the same general idea. Only their phallus isn't nationalistic. Their ritual parading of a thirteen-foot long phallus is all about their gladness for the universe's creation and their hopes for a fertile farming year. "It is the time plants come into bud and [we] feel the power of life," says one website. Couples longing to become pregnant also come to meditate and celebrate.

Here's a pretty amazing (and amusing) film of the 13-foot long penis (called Oo-Owasegata) that will again be on display at Tagata Shrinei this coming Wednesday. Pass this link around and wish your friends their own Happy Hounen Festival! (Do any readers know how to say "Be fruitful and multiply!" in Japanese?)The men carrying Oo-Owasegata offer drinks to attending farmers in hopes of inseminating their fields for a bountiful year, according to Anneli Rufus's "World Holiday Book" and Waverly Fitzgerald. So you could lift a glass yourself, in honor of spring and everything fecund.

P.S. Regarding that Washington dream project I mentioned earlier: People didn't only dream about phalluses. They also had dreams of being served a sumptuous meal by a motherly Barbara Bush, and other understandably odd things like that.

If They Can Make It Here, They'll Make It Anywhere...

The Chattering clan recently pulled over to the side of Flatbush Avenue and ran out onto the sidewalk to get a better view of a large hawk sitting on top of a streetlight. He was so beautiful, and very patient with all the commotion going on beneath him as the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library gets remodeled.

Here's an inspiring blog running on the urban hawks of New York City featuring great photographs of celebrity hawks Pale Male and Lola, who may be sitting on a nest of hawk eggs near Central Park right now!

Butterfly Soup

While attending Washington National Cathedral's Sacred Circles conference a couple of weeks ago, I took a workshop with Carol Lee Flinders, the highly-acclaimed scholar of women's studies and religion, most recently the author of "Enduring Lives: Portraits of Women and Faith in Action."

Flinders called her workshop "Motherlines." And she encouraged the 60 female participants there to express their thanks to the long line of women behind them, women who had forged the paths that made our current freedoms possible, women tied to us by blood who have supported us in spirit. At one point, we broke into pairs to discuss the spiritual legacies of our mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and other female wisdom figures. Whether a tragic case or a heroine, each woman has left a mark on us that's important to recognize.

But then in passing, Flinders mentioned one tiny fact from the world of science (a field that obviously fascinates her), and I found this small fact so remarkable that I thought I'd pass it along to you. It's a fact about the development of butterflies. I just didn't know this, perhaps you did: When a caterpillar seals itself into its cocoon, it doesn't just sprout wings from its fat wormy body. Once safely within the protective cocoon covering, the caterpillar's body actually turns into a liquid, a soup of pre-programmed cells that contain the genetic code from which the butterfly's body is automatically built.

I'm imagining that many of you will find this metaphor appealing. It might help you consider your current favorite cocoons. What safe place do you know where you can melt? In whose company can you dissolve into the soup you need to be before you are transformed? Some people have daily spiritual practices that help them change from caterpillars to soup, to butterflies. Others hold on to their old containers, resisting the necessary soup state. One wonders: If I dissolve completely, what will I then become? Best to go into the cocoon, I guess, like the butterfly, without great expectation or fear.

I couldn't find any cocoon-y soup photos online, but here's a film of a Monarch butterfly hatching from its cocoon for the first time, a wonderful thing to meditate upon as we contemplate the coming changes of springtime!

Hay House Publishes Something New on 'Manifesting'

Incidentally, Hay House has just released a new 4-CD set, for the first time combining the talents of inspirational teachers Byron Katie and Dr. Wayne Dyer (two people whose faces for me have the most gorgeous radiance).

Both of these great teachers have been talking about the power of our intentions, and the magic of our thoughts for decades now. So any teaching series that unites their energies sounds good to me. This one is called "Making Your Thoughts Work for You." And lovers of "The Secret" will no doubt groove to this too!

A Cancer Survivor's View of 'The Secret'

Have a look at Valerie Reiss' response to the publishing phenomenon called "The Secret." She rightly points out that the notion of attracting positive energy and "manifesting" a new reality is nothing new, and mentions a book by Esther and Jerry Hicks called "The Law of Attraction." There's another famous volume I've heard about, written by Florence Scovill Shinn in 1925 called "The
Game of Life and How to Play It," in which she too discloses that your thoughts have the power to create your experiences.

But Reiss (who has had cancer) goes on to tackle the truly icky viewpoint that "The Secret" seems to manifest: that if something bad ever happens to you, your anger, unfinished business, or negative viewpoints brought it on. Reiss writes:


...no one to my satisfaction addresses the blame-the-victim issue at the slippery heart of this; in a culture that’s already not too fond of "losers," do we really need another reason to disdain or pity those who suffer because they’re not "manifesting" the right reality? In a culture that already likes to look away from systemic political and economic oppression (bo-ring!), do we need another excuse to walk away from it all and say, "not my problem"?

"The Secret" feels like white rice to me—stripped of its nutrition for maximum palatability and fluffy appeal. And I’m all for fluff, with the Entertainment Weekly subscription to prove it. But not when it comes to something as serious as creating genuine joy and peace. That should be sacred-—done with a combination of faith in a force that knows better than I do and compassionate free will to make my life and the world a better place. Manifest that, Universe.

Read the whole piece here.

God Wants Wedding Bells to Ring for Gays

Wow. This downloadable paper on why gay marriage is part of God's plan for more freedom and equality should light up the ChatteringMind boards.

It's written by a young, Episcopal, black, gay lawyer named Otis Gaddis III who additionally serves as an assisting academic coordinator at the Institute for Progressive Christianity. Gaddis writes:

"...God is bringing into the present the future God has planned for us, a future in which there is no hierarchy and no outsider even to the point of humanity enjoying mystical communion, in social equality with God. This movement is the building of the Kingdom of God. That Kingdom of Equality by definition is opposed to the conservative project of maintaining the past and its hierarchies.

"Taking the witness of gay marriage seriously means realizing that the Holy God of Christianity is actually bringing God’s idealized future for humanity into the present, right now. Moreover, the advent of gay marriage in our social history is giving us a glimpse of the kind of relationship God wants with us, one of mystical communion in social equality, a relationship of love. God’s people are the people that are enacting in the present, as best they can, the vision of the Kingdom of God. Gay marriage is a sign to the world that God is again intervening to bring the Kingdom of God more and more into the present. For those who accept this sign, God presents a challenge: anyone who hears the voice of the Spirit in the explicit inclusion of gay couples into the concept of marriage is obligated to gather up the truth of this witness in their own lives whether they are gay or straight."

There's a whole lot more. Download the entire paper from this web page.

Honor Pope Gregory This Monday

This Monday marks the day Pope Gregory the First is commemorated in the Eastern Catholic Church and Orthodox church. Saint Gregory was a pope from September 3, 590 until his death, March 12, 604. Though the term "Gregorian chant" was coined in his honor, Gregory had been dead for two hundred years when Gregorian chants were incorporated into the Mass, so scholars now believe that Gregory had reasonably little to do with their characteristics or development.

But who needs more than the slightest reminder to investigate the web's vast Gregorian Chant resources (which can even assist you in your search for a Gregorian ringtone). Here's a nice disc of Old Roman chants (perhaps closest to the general period we're discussing here). And here's a sweet amateurishly made film of chants in France from YouTube.com that will place you in a fine Gregorian chant mood.

Scalp Care for Every Warrior Monk

It's hard not to notice that a lot of guys are assuming the Ken Wilber/Moby/Andre Agassi look not because they're losing their hair anyway, but because it's now cool to be "bold" (the new word for bald).

Here's an article about the latest scalp sunscreens and moisturizers that quotes Todd Greene, developer of the HeadBlade razor, saying "Large companies are beginning to say, 'We've maxed out the female skin care market, we need to educate men in order to sell them, too'--and part of that should mean selling to men who shave their heads."

Here's a website I found on my own, HeadShaver.org, with other bold bits of wisdom.

Does New Age 'Fuzziness' Bring Unifying Focus?

"Elmo" recently suggested in a post that "New-Agey spirituality" might not lend itself to compelling ideas or strong writing. I sat on this for a few days a little defensively 'cause it stirred old painful questions for me as to whether or not I personally will always struggle with stating my views decisively, with real authority. In fact, I used to have a recurring dream as a young girl in which I was a pioneer in a settlement, hiding behind a tree, as bullets and arrows flew around me. Native Americans were attacking us, and another settler kept crying out, "Come out, come out, Amy, and fight for your country!"

I just kept trembling, sobbing, and shaking my head "No."

Sort of a scene from my childhood living room, frankly.

So what do you guys believe? Do strong commitments to specific viewpoints create the best religious commentary? Strong viewpoints and good arguments certainly make for better television. Is there another way to relate? Are we doing that?

Chi Is Good

I am sitting in the pristine examining room of Dr. O. Alton Barron, Assistant Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Attending Physician, CV Starr Hand Surgery Center, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center.

As luck would have it, he is also the go-to guy for repetitive motion syndromes for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra! How cool is that?

He is wearing a white coat, and he is examining my hands and forearms so tenderly, as if they are engaged in meaningful work.

He asks: "Does it hurt when I press here?" He squeezes a point on my elbow.

I say, "Yes."

"How about here?" He presses on the joint of my thumb.

"Well, that's not pain. It's...it's more like density." I pause, and then I take the leap, "In the world of Chinese medicine, one might say that it feels like there's chi stagnating in there."

"A-huh," he says. He stops to look at me. Then he says, "Wait. I thought chi was good."

"Chi is good," I say. "But this chi is stuck in there. You want to keep the chi flowing." I run my right hand fingers up and down my left forearm.

He laughs.

He says I have mild carpal tunnel syndrome. This is great news because I was worried I had a bad case. I'm to do what a CM reader once suggested in a blog post: sleep with my hands in splints. I also must swim more, and do more yoga. I can deal with all that. Finally, I need to make some small changes in my work station.

Before we parted, Dr. Barron said I should be able to continue writing into my eighties if I keep my life in balance.

I enjoyed our visit. It came to $350. Out-of-network.

Should You Return to the Fold?

On the subject of how you can practice Buddhism and stay loyal to your faith of choice or origin, CM reader Pacific231 posted this:

"Buddhist teachers like Surya Das, Thich Nhat Hanh et al, actively encourage Buddhist practitioners to return to their spiritual/religious roots. For example, I believe one of the 'prostrations' by Thich Nhat Hanh states this very clearly, noting very kindly, that perhaps one's ancestors (parents, grandparents etc.) may have been unskillful in imparting the values and beauty of their religion, and actively urges people to return to them on their own. I am not aware of anything from any other religion, certainly not the monotheistic ones, approaching anywhere near that level of such openmindedness."

Advice for Men Married to Spiritual Retreat Junkies

Here's a cute article about being the husband of a woman interested in her own spiritual development that ran in Harville Hendrix/Helen LaKelly Hunt's Imago couples therapy newsletter. It's called "Gynestrology 101: How to Husband An Enlightened Hottie," and it's by a guy named Will Craig.

What is Gynestrology? you might ask. Craig writes: "Gynestrology is the spiritual study of women’s spiritual study, an elusive but rewarding adventure. You see, women do all kinds of things related to 'spirituality,' a blanket term that refers to pretty much whatever may be vaguely related to religion, inner knowing, mistakes, feelings, and anything else where a definitive, straight answer cannot be had. They have an incomprehensible, irresistible instinct to do spiritual things, meaning you had better just stay out of their holy freaking way...Your best bet is to participate in Gynestrology, which means that you dedicate authentic effort to understand, but never entangle yourself in the gears of some great spiritual machination that can, and will, reduce you to a whiff of organic afterscent quicker than a toddler wants some of what you’re having."

Sounds like a good book to me.

The Imago newsletter boasts other interesting articles with titles like "Why is My Partner So Annoying Sometimes?" Sign up to get it here.

Christian Goals, Buddhist Means

Writes reader Paul M. Martin: "..while I grew up with Christianity telling me to be good, in Buddhism I found many concrete practices for how to go about it."

His post led me to his excellent "Original Faith" blog, which I think might interest you also. Have a look. He has a masters in religious studies from the University of Chicago, and a book coming.

A Fine Blood for Jim Bowie

My 12-year-old-son is home today, slightly ill. Not too ill. Not so ill he can't make dioramas of the Battle of the Alamo with plastic toy soldiers on the floor of our family room.

He just rushed into my office asking for something he could make "blood" with. Blood? Yeah, blood for Jim Bowie's death. Bowie had tuberculosis in 1836, and was in the Alamo's infirmary when Santa Anna's troops broke in and killed him.

Surely, at moments like these, any mother can quickly locate red paint or a red marker, but no, neither one of those items were found in the time allotted. So we started experimenting with foodstuffs.

"How about that natural red food dye?" my son asked eagerly.

We used it in Valentine's Day cookie icing in 2006.

"Honey, I don't see that here." I said, moving neglected cans of black beans around in our pantry.

"How about pomegranate juice?" he asked.

"Well, I think that might come off brown, and besides, we're out. Oh! Hey! I've got black cherry juice."

The Lakewood organic brand is fresh pressed, but not nearly thick enough to look like blood on Bowie's miniature bed linens (made out of torn paper towel).

So we mixed in some Emergen-C black cherry "heart health" powder (the powerful antioxidant formula).

My son stared at our concoction. "No, this looks too gritty." But as time elapsed, the cherry juice ripened into a nice dark red. "Yeah, okay," he nodded approvingly, and ran off.

"Just don't spill it on the rug!" I shouted up after him.

What the Future Looked Like 50 Years Ago

“As for the world’s future, I am not so discouraged as many are. Granted that the old, easygoing optimism is impossible!...Nevertheless at threescore years and eighteen I find this generation the most stimulating, exciting, provocative - yes, promising - era I have ever seen or read about. I am not yet ready to die. I can’t wait to see what is going to happen next.

"Like the French editor, carried in a cart through the streets of Paris to the guillotine, I would say: ‘It is too bad to cut my head off. I want to see how all this is going to turn out.’ Prophetic creative ideas are here; there are open doors of possibility for good as well as evil, which did not exist when I was born; and though I am an old man, I share at least a little the hopeful spirit of the young, facing life, as the poet, Lowell, sang, with the ‘rays of morning on their white shields of expectation.’”

--from a 1956 sermon by Harry Emerson Fosdick, pastor of Riverside Church, New York City.

You'll find more uplifting Fosdick quotes here.

What Is Engaged Buddhism?

If I could go away for extended meditation retreats and study Buddhism with full heart and mind, I would want to be listening with expanded focus to the teachings of Lama Surya Das. Some people feel he has over-Americanized Buddhism, loosened its strictures, made the cushion a little too comfortable, but his writings speak to me and my concerns directly.

He has lived his material, and makes it come alive for others in his books, tapes, blog, and public addresses. If you are a beginner to Buddhist studies, I think you'll find his work alive and accessible. (And oh--a reminder--you can practice Buddhism and still remain as good a Jew, Christian, Muslim, etc., as ever).

For your reading pleasure, here's an excerpt from Lama Surya Das's most recent column, which addresses the common desire to bring greater peace, safety, health, and contentment to all the world's citizens. What can we, as individuals, do to support peace and nonviolence (besides the obvious activities--like voting or volunteering--within our smaller community)? The answer, he says, cannot be fully fathomed by meditating for long periods in removed settings (so already, my desire to do just that has been gently rejected by him as any kind of solution). We must stay engaged in our lives as we're living them, opening up more fully to compassion (which is tougher to do in traffic on Flatbush Avenue, than on a scenic mountaintop). So Lama Surya Das sends me back to where I started, being the most compassionate wife, mother, and writer I can be right now.

He says, "Transforming the self transforms the world. Can you see that when you become clear, things in general become a lot clearer? It’s worth reflecting on and it’s worth defending. Too many of the few people I know who actually practice nonviolence have forsaken the political process and much of modern life, finding harmony through the simplicity and purity of their own contemplative, principled lives—-often outside of cities and the work-a-day world. These people seem to represent a loss, an untapped natural resource...

"If we want to transform the world, we must engage in it. Certainly we need to work externally for peace in the world, for disarmament among nations, and against injustice, racism, and genocide; 'The gift of justice surpasses all gifts,' according to Lord Buddha in the ancient Dhammapada.

"His Holiness the Dalai Lama has written, 'I think it is important to acknowledge here that nonviolence does not mean the mere absence of violence. It is something more positive, more meaningful than that. The true expression of nonviolence is compassion, which is not just a passive emotional response, but a rational stimulus to action. To experience genuine compassion is to develop a feeling of closeness to others combined with a sense of responsibility for their welfare.'"

Kozol Enlightens My Two Kids

On Sunday, my younger son sang with his school chorus to some 3,000 Montessori teachers, all here in New York City for their annual meeting. The performance went just fine. But then our whole family stayed on for the keynote address given by Jonathan Zozol, the country's angriest and most influential public education critic, most recently the author of "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America."

I was worried that our 10-year-old wouldn't want to sit through a full speech on the wretched state of American public education. But I didn't know how effective an address Kozol can give. By the end of the hour, both my kids and two of their friends were among the throngs of people standing to give Kozol a huge standing ovation.

My sons sometimes complain that our Montessori school rushes lunch, and doesn't allow much recess (giving them modern dance, drama, and ceramics instead). But I was pleased to see that the Kozol address helped my kids appreciate something I've been telling them all along but that they couldn't get until they heard it from someone else: that their school is a palace of enlightenment compared to the schools in America's poorest neighborhoods where classes are overcrowded, books are in short supply, kids are over-tested, and teachers are stressed to a breaking point.

I tell my kids, "Listen, the world needs you to be good people. The world requires your leadership." I don't want to "lay a trip" on them, or make them think that life is all responsibility and no fun. They are, after all, still young. But since they are the beneficiaries of all the good the world can offer, since Mr. Chattering and I daily knock ourselves out to give them a nice life, I think they should grow up with the expectation that they will be required to give something back to the world in return. How do you convey this lesson to your kids?

A little web research reveals that Kozol has essentially been giving the same address for several years. Here's audio of a speech that repeats several of the same stories we heard on Sunday, and sticks to the theme of America's educational inequities.

And here's a portion of another speech in which Kozol speaks to the importance of religion--in his own life and in the public square. He has advanced the cause of moral education throughout his career, and thinks children should be allowed to discuss religious ideas in school. He says that leaving the language of faith out of the inner-city school systems is like tearing the soul of the people out. As you see from what he says here, Kozol--who was a close friend of the late Fred Rogers--is a key member of the emerging "Religious Left."

He has said, "I talk a lot about religion, and many of my old friends in the press, some who have known me since college days, find this bewildering. Some of my friends from Harvard even look at me clinically when I talk about religion. That used to happen when I was at Harvard, too. I lived, God help me, in a place called Eliot House, where people were so self-consciously sophisticated that if you said you believed in God, they would give you a funny look — a s if maybe you needed to go to health services. I find this very troubling. A lot of sophisticated people, particularly northeastern liberals, have been far too patronizing on this subject. By steering away from anything that has to do with religion or morality or ethics, many of us who view ourselves as liberals have left a tremendous vacuum that has been filled skillfully by people on the far right, like the Christian Coalition. This is our fault.

"You can’t even start to speak about a place like the South Bronx if you don’t speak about religion. I don’t mean writing seasonal stories at Easter or Christmas. Perhaps, I ought to use a word like faith. Faith in the real sense. That is intimately linked to what led me to the South Bronx. I didn’t go there, initially, to write a book. I went there because I was morally and emotionally exhausted. Although I couldn’t have said so at the time, I went in search of my own salvation. I felt that I was dying on the flatlands of political exhaustion, euphemism, and abstraction. Particularly, in the world of education, I got sick of dehumanizing, business-minded jargon like downsize, restructure, privatize, decentralize, and hyphenated doublespeak like outcome-based-instruction.

"I felt like a thirsty person who was being given a glass of sand to drink. When I went up to the South Bronx, I wanted to find strength, something to restore my soul. The irony is that I should have found it in one of the poorest places in the world. It came from children. It came from grandmothers."

If you want to learn more about this fascinating and important man, click here.

A Prayer for Tax Time

Here at the Chattering home, we are sorting receipts and bills in preparation to take a fat envelope of records to the tax preparer. I'm confident you are doing the same thing, or preparing to do so.

Have a look at this prayer I found by Lynn Robinson, first published in her book "Real Prosperity."

Dear God,

I surrender my financial affairs and concerns about money to your Divine care and love. I ask that you remove my worries, anxieties, and fears about money, and replace them with faith. I know and trust that my debts will be paid and money will flow into my life. I have only to look to nature to see proof of the abundance you provide. I release all negative thoughts about money, and know that prosperity is my true state. I commit to being grateful for all that I now have in my life. I learn to manage my finances wisely, seeking help where needed. And finally, I ask you to help me understand my purpose in life and to act on that purpose with courage and strength. I know that prosperity will come, in part, by doing work I love. Please help me use my skills and knowledge to be of service in the world.

Thank you, God.

Amen

Copyright © 2002 by Lynn Robinson. All rights reserved.

Vintage Easter Postcards on Ebay

Some 1,430 vintage Easter postcards (with chicks, cherubs, crosses and more) are currently for sale on Ebay.com.

I sometimes buy antique post cards in thrift stores (with their odd, cryptic messages and old addresses on the back), remount them, and send them to my closest friends. You can also maintain a small frame on your desk to display a postcard collection that you can shuffle with the season. I always find the old artwork touching, a sentimental glance at the past. Have a look.

From Vestry to Buddhism to Confusion

This week's Newsweek details the spiritual journey of Boston University professor Steve Prothero, author of the new book "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--and Doesn't." His beef is that while most Americans claim they are religious or spiritual, they actually know very little about the history of the views that they and others hold. I think you'll find his odyssey quite fascinating.

[Prothero] grew up on Cape Cod, Mass.; at 16, he was on the vestry of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, in Osterville, Mass. In college, he was "born again," but not for long. "The imperative of really believing your friends were wrong, and trying to convert them never made sense to me," he says. Post-college, he flirted with law school, politics and Buddhism until he found himself in graduate school at Harvard in religious history. There, he came to the crushing realization that as an American Christian he could never be a proper Buddhist, and so he returned to the mainline church. Today he defines himself as a "confused Christian."

Here's a link to Prothero's blog where he seems to be covering religion and politics, interfaith households, and other intriguing topics.

07/07/07: I Don't, I Don't!

Lots of couples are booking churches or ballrooms and vying for group hotel rates so that they might be wed on the upcoming weekend of July 7th, 2007 (o7/07/07). Sevens are lucky. Or sacred, or something, right?

No, not in this case, says astrologer Shelley Ackerman of KarmicRelief.com.

"07/07/07 is not the time to take your vows," Ackerman told an ABC affiliate. "Mercury is in retrograde, promises won't be kept."

There's always next year: 08/08/08 is still available.

WWMD: What Would Michelangelo Do?

Every now and then, I get depressed about this blog. I worry that I'm trying to cover too much. I think that I'm aggravating the nerves in my hands (I have tendonitis in my forearms). I believe that I'm not as fast or prolific as other talented people we know. I ponder how I could work the same hours but get paid much more. You know the routine. I take what is a golden opportunity and start to believe that it's nothing, that it's worse than nothing. Darkness descends over my computer monitor. I feel a cold wind cross over my shoulders. Brrr. Ah hell, that's enough...

No doubt you are familiar with this destructive mindset.

So I was greatly uplifted this week when I read a new book by Kenneth Schuman and Ronald Paxton, two talented life coaches, who've studied the life of heroic painter/sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti and mined it for inspiring life lessons. The book is called "The Michelangelo Method: Release Your Inner Masterpiece and Create an Extraordinary Life."

If you see living as art, and view your work in the world a creative act, you are primed for this excellent book. You get all the nuggets you'd hope to find in a conventional biography mixed in with the self-help maxims you need to achieve what the authors call "personal mastery."

Ask yourself the question: Are you slapping paint on the wall, or are you adorning the Sistine Chapel? Then read on.

According to Giorgia Vasari, a contemporary Michelangelo biographer, middle-aged Mike was "coerced into working on the Sistine Chapel through the insidious efforts of enemies seeking to undermine his reputation." The great artist wanted to finish up the Pope's tomb at the time, and complete some 40 statues.

Paint on his back for years? No way. Not interested. He wasn't even a fresco painter. But when called upon to do something important, he gathered the stamina to stand "high above the ground, his back arched in a painful curve, his vision strained, toxic paint dripping in his eyes." He painted with his back in spasm for four years. And of course, what he finished remains one of the greatest human achievements in the history of the world.

Suffice to say that if you were to stand on the floor of the Sistine Chapel today, and look up, you could safely surmise: "Well, he really got 'into' it!"

So can you.

The two authors illustrate their points with case studies from their own coaching practices, which may pique your interest in finding a professional life coach or spiritual counselor, should you find you need one to give you an extra nudge.

Thank you, Ken and Ron, for lifting me up and helping me out!

Rosy Full Moon Packs a Punch!

This Saturday evening marks an incredibly potent, wild moment on the earth.

--The moon will be full and, for six hours, eclipsed by the earth, giving it a rosy glow, the accumulated glow of all the world's sunsets, in fact, visible to many of us in the Northern Hemisphere if the sky remains clear.

--The Jewish holiday of Purim begins, a time when Jews laugh at their persecutors, get drunk, wear costumes, and throw whipped cream or sponges at their rabbi in some places. (I couldn't believe this the first time I saw it happening at a Brooklyn synagogue.)

--It's the Hindu full moon of Phalguna, the festive, holy time of Holi, when people paint themselves, their friends and relatives with vividly colored pigments, when social classes usually kept separate freely mix with one another.

--It's the night of the Chinese Lantern Festival, the culminating night of the Chinese New Year celebration, during which time lanterns are hung above doorways and sweet rice balls are eaten to celebrate the deliciousness of the coming spring.

If you're not aligned with any of these celebrations, and are looking for something grand to do with the moon, Waverly Fitzgerald (my best source for news of the world's spiritual calendar) suggests we perform a ritual she learned from Nancy Brady Cunningham (who calls this moon the Spring Waters Moon). After sunset, take a bowl of fresh water outside and bathe your face and your hands in the water under the moon's rosy light. How good does life get?

Astrologically, some say this eclipse will influence everybody. "Prepare for the gentle, spiritual, compassionate side of your nature to experience a rude awakening," writes April Elliott Kent for MoonCircles.com.
"If you've been struggling to retain a rosy, idealistic view of something in your life that is in fact god-awful, then prepare for Toto to pull back the curtain and remind you that the great and powerful Wizard of Oz is nothing more than a little man grasping at levers." (Hard not to think of how that statement relates to our president and the country's exploding pessimism about the war in Iraq.)

But listen, if you're reading this Monday morning, have missed everything, and knew nothing about the moon or the eclipse, tell us if anything felt different Saturday night. It's not too late to reflect upon the end of winter, and the next chapter of your life!

Here's a nice video clip of people in different spots of the globe enjoying the eclipse, one woman seeing it as a symbol of harmony.

More Ideas For Blessing Chemo Treatment

Oh, we heard from Reiki master and interfaith minister Vic Fuhrman on his approach to helping people with cancer bless their chemo drugs. Here's what he wrote:

"For many years, I’ve shared a simple ritual and visualization for chemotherapy recipients to use in preparation for treatment. I encourage them to ask the nurse administering the drugs to allow them to safely hold the IV bag or other dispenser between their hands. Then they relax, close their eyes and take several comfortable breaths.

"While in this light meditative state, they silently say a prayer of gratitude for the gifts of life, medicine and healing in accordance with their personal spiritual beliefs.

"Holding this sense of gratitude, they begin to visualize a stream of “golden viscous light” flowing like honey through the crown of the head, down through the neck, into the chest and then into the heart. The heart fills with this wonderful light until it overflows and proceeds out to the shoulders, down through the arms and into the palms where it then passes into the medication.

"The visualization continues with the thought that this heavenly light will travel with the drug, effectively removing the diseased cells while causing no harm to healthy tissues or unpleasant side effects. The meditation closes with another prayer of thanksgiving. While the drug is administered, the recipient should continue the visualization and 'help' the drug on its path through the body.

"This ritual may be used for any medication or treatment, at home or at the medical facility. Blessings to all of those on the healing path!"

Thank you, Vic! I know this will help a lot of people. Might occasional nurses grow impatient with this, or not let the patient bless the IV bag sometimes? Chemo recipients, write in with your experiences.

Why Do Those Royals Love Homeopathy?

Here's an especially delightful paper on the roots of the British Royal Family's allegiance to homeopathy, the style of healthcare management that involves ingesting tiny pellets of greatly dilluted medicinal substances. Thanks to CM reader Lisa, who reminded me of this!

I don't know that I agree with every word here, but it makes for fun reading. Here's a provocative excerpt:


Royals might be attracted to homeopathy because it is rather nebulous, rather exclusive, rather special, 'divine' and private in the way they probably think they are. It is also a rare, elite and minority treatment reserved for the rich and for clerics: traditionally that has been the case. It panders to their arrogance and vanity perhaps, as it stresses the delicate, the subtle, the refined and eternal...I would mark out the exclusivity and the rarefied and vitalistic or divine nature of homeopathy as being especially important reasons in this list.

Another theme is that homeopathy is essentially organic and connects with all life, living forms, plants and insects, which to rural-obsessives as Royals often were/are, is another chord of resonance between them.

Homeopathy also very soon became a tradition amongst the aristocrats and Royals and they love nothing more than their traditions. Whatever their father or mother did, they also do. This theme of slavish following of tradition is deeply typical of their approach to life in general. So once something has 'got into their veins' as a darned good thing, then they tend to keep it and lavish upon it an amazing amount of devotion and loyalty. I suspect that private schools in UK use Arnica and Calendula in their sick rooms for precisely the same reasons: it is a tradition of the aristocrats.

Homeopathy also pandered to royal and aristocratic squeamishness and horror of leaching and purging, at a time when only they had the money to 'try something different'. No surprise there really, we would all recoil from that approach I suspect.

Love that British prose style! Read the whole paper here.

Hear The Lord's Prayer in Fluent Aramaic

Would you like to hear The Lord's Prayer as Jesus is likely to have said it? Click here.

Avvon d-bish-maiya, nith-qaddash shim-mukh.
Tih-teh mal-chootukh. Nih-weh çiw-yanukh:
ei-chana d'bish-maiya: ap b'ar-ah.
Haw lan lakh-ma d'soonqa-nan yoo-mana.
O'shwooq lan kho-bein:
ei-chana d'ap kh'nan shwiq-qan l'khaya-ween.
Oo'la te-ellan l'niss-yoona:
il-la paç-çan min beesha.
Mid-til de-di-lukh hai mal-choota
oo khai-la oo tush-bookh-ta
l'alam al-mein. Aa-meen

Beauty Has No Age Limit

Dove has launched a line of "Pro-Age" products to set themselves apart from all the "anti-aging" ointments on the market. Dove marketing director Kathy O'Brien told Natasha Singer of The New York Times: "We are not saying turn back the hands of time, or stop aging, or look 10 years younger. We are saying embrace the age that you are and make the best of it."

Here's the latest Pro-Age TV commercial. Pretty fabulous, don't you think?

Here are my chattering thoughts on the subject: If you've got the time and the money to get a face lift, or an eye job, or a skin peel, first use that time and money to go on a spiritual retreat where you can eat wisely, meditate, exercise, drink more water, read poetry, and listen to beautiful music.

Then look in the mirror, and tell me how you look, and feel. Spiritual well-being is all that matters. Forget the rest, do good work, and surround yourself with people who understand what real beauty is.