Intimacy With Death and Dying Video

What if there is a BIGGER picture even around death and dying?

What if we could add a different perspective into the already existing ones? One that would allow us to feel good even about death and dying, not as the exclusive emotion, but as a silver lining on a normally very dismal and dark subject.

Here is a video that explores that possibility:

This video is a presentation that I put together using poems I have written while someone was actively dying, mandala art pieces I created during my Hospice volunteer training, and photographs of friends and clients either close to dying or shortly after their death.

Thanks for Ed Keller at Edify Productions for shooting and editing this video.

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Swine Flu Musings

I have been watching the Swine Flu news quite closely as for years I had a sense that we as humanity might have to go through a pandemic outbreak of some sort. Various channeled entities, especially in the 90s, talked about scenarios involving pandemic infections. But so far nothing seemed to manifest in that large scale.

All of a sudden, that is within a few days the news headlines are all about the global dangers of the swine flu.  Yet for me there were just too many questions popping up and not willing to go away, such as

• why so much clamor over so few cases in a few days (about 135,000 people die of the flu every year in the USA);
• how can they all show up all over the world in such a short timer (follow Veratect on Twitter to get the newest updates by the minute);
• how do the flu viruses migrate from swine to humans;
  
• who is to benefit from all of this attention and fear mongering; and
  
• what if there is a BIGGER picture here that will  help us not buy into the fear being spread worldwide?

Here is one posting on the web in regards to my questions:

“To date, close to a hundred people have died and more than a thousand affected. It is reported that: ‘The worrisome new virus combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before….’

Now, reports like this immediate send shock and suspicious signals. In natural-occurring animals, birds, plants, and human species, the genetic strains do not mix. If it does, we humans would have noses with beaks, the hind part of birds would have long swinging tails instead, etc.

In the natural biological order of growth and sustenance, as God the Almighty had intended it to be, the order for the genes transmission is vertical.

This means the genes of swine will only pass on to swine, the genes of cows will only pass on to cows, the genes of birds will only pass on to birds, and the genes of humans only pass on to humans.

In the natural order of beings, genes of different species do not transfer horizontally. Likewise, transmission of diseases is only vertical, and not horizontal. Swine and bird diseases do not transmit to humans. Unless…”

Quoted from “Latest flu outbreak an American plot” by Wong Ang Peng,  Apr 27, 09 4:24pm. Click here to find the “rest of that story”!

Below is another posting with another angle of answers:

A TIMELY MESSAGE FROM MATTHEW (Channeled through Suzanne Ward):

“Once again the dark streamers that are heavily influencing individuals in powerful positions have lashed out in what can be well-termed this energy’s ‘death rattle.’ The newest strategy – the ordering of laboratory-designed, created and released swine flu virus – is, as before, abetted by the controlled media’s part of the plan, to declare PANDEMIC!

It is puzzling to us that these dark ones did not learn from their abject failures with SARS and then the avian flu, both of which were widely publicized with the same global pandemic prognosis; eventually the publicity was forced to cease because those diseases caused a few deaths, then totally fizzled out.

This swine flu situation will have the same result. The technology of our family in other star nations has neutralized the vaccine that is intended to spread this disease, just as they did to prevent the spreading of SARS and avian flu.

This new … plan has been done without the US government leader’s knowledge, unlike the previous two pandemic attempts, which were fabricated with the approval of the highest members [of the Bush] administration. Think about the timing of this latest disease publicity. In addition to authorizing the creation of a virus and its intended worldwide fear, the darkly-inclined individuals’ aim is to distract the attention of the populace from their growing demands

• for peaceful negotiations;
• indicting responsible ones in the US government who authorized torture;
• the truth about the perpetrators of 9/11;
• what caused the collapse of the global economy;
• the decades of government cover-up about the presence of extraterrestrials;
• who operates the illegal drug industry;
• the real purpose of chemtrails and weather control;
• and the ‘black ops’ behind terrorism around your world.

It is not enough to create a distraction for only the people of the United States simply because this is the country where much of the corruption and deception originated and where now investigations are running deep. No, it must be a global effort because individuals with dark intentions, who live around the world, are panicking as they see other governments’ citizens joining the clamor

• for truth, for peace,
  
• for renewable energy sources,
  
• for improved health care and education,
  
• for just laws and
  
• rightful recognition of women’s equality.

All of those are anathema to dark individuals as those conditions are the opposite of all dark goals. But just as the collapse of the global economy is exposing the truth about who has been manipulating it, so will this swine flu plan expose other evils perpetrated by the same dark ones within the Illuminati or under their control. Welcome this evidence of progress in ‘bringing to light’ the truth and the fast-withering tendrils of dark energy around your planet!

There are firm indications that the public-at-large is increasingly skeptical about the motives of individuals at highest levels of medicine and pharmaceutical corporations: There is this sudden outbreak of yet another kind of flu and “accidentally” there is live virus in the vaccines? Yes, there is some fear as well, but not nearly in the proportion the Illuminati intended and expected. Quite the opposite – this is a setback of major proportion for them!

People’s reactions show their expanding consciousness, and this is likely to cause widespread outrage that will not be confined to the deliberate attempt to infect millions and cause global panic. Light efforts are underway in numerous other areas too that will remove the long-time heavy hand of dark control in your world. Holding steady your light and being patient a bit longer for dynamic developments will be abundantly rewarded!”

LOVE and PEACE
Suzanne Ward

Through their soul level agreement that includes communication by mental telepathy, Matthew Ward, who died in 1980, and his mother Suzanne have produced books on spirituality and metaphysics. Check out their website on www.matthewbooks.com

May 7, 2009 – This update was was sent to me by Fred Burks:

“There is (a) revealing 90-second video clip we recommend watching. This one contains two sad, yet almost laughable commercials from the 1976 swine flu outbreak in New Jersey that led to a failed national vaccination campaign. Though only one person died as a result of that swine flu outbreak, over 30 people died and hundreds more were permanently paralyzed as a result of the vaccine that was promoted by the government and media.

To learn more and watch this amazing video clip, click here. And if you are ready to go even deeper into the swine flu scare, watch Dr. Len Horowitz in this fascinating 10-minute video clip.”

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The Twitter Battle

The social networking site Twitter was the occasion for a contest of popularity: Ashton Kutcher, who is an American actor and former fashion model best known for playing Michael Kelso in the FOX sitcom That ’70s Show, and for being married to Demi Moore, challenged CNN breaking news to a race of who could reach a million followers first.

Kutcher had offered to donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to charity for World Malaria Day in April if he beat CNN, and 1,000 if he lost. CNN agreed to match the donation. Then Oprah (new to Twitter) added another 10,000 moskito nets.

Kutcher’s Twitter account reached 1 million folowers on Twitter at about 2:13 a.m. ET Friday, narrowly beating CNN’s breaking-news feed, which had 998,239 followers at the time. CNN passed the mark at 2:42 a.m. ET.

What is so interesting is Kutcher talking on Friday on “Larry King Live” about the battle and why he felt it was so important.

“We now live in an age in media that a single voice can have as much power and relevance on the Web, that is, as an entire media network,” he said. “And I think that to me was shocking.”

I see several reasons to add this post into my category of Change Tracker:

• the consumers are in the driver’s seat, making their choices known,
• individuals can make a difference over institutions, and
• individuals using their star power to give help where needed.

This does not discount that a lot of BIG show business egos are involved here, but who cares if these egos serve a good cause.

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Never Judge a Book by its Cover: Susan Boyle

Susan Boyle

Wow!  This 47 year old woman, never married, not even kissed in her life, living alone with her cat, unemployed, had the guts to sign up for the British equivalent of “American Idol” called “Britain’s Got Talent” and wooed the judges and the audience with her spectacular performance of “The Dream” from “Les Miserables”. Wow….

I felt touched to tears (just like many of my friends) by her performance and the reaction of the audience, kind of an ugly duckling to fairy princess story. It seems to have touched so many, as within 4 days the Youtube video of her audition has been viewed over 7 million times, and more than 45,000 positive and encouraging comments have been left accompanying her video. (A week later the views have soared to 25 million and the comments to 115,000).

All of this makes me wonder whether there is an archetypal element in her story, one common to me and so many others around the world. It feels to me as if Susan Boyle has become a symbol of hope in these challenging times: if an “Average Susan” can, with some  encouragement from her Mom, can become a singing world sensation, then there is hope for each one of us, no matter how stuck, unimportant or invisible we feel.

To me President Obama’s story has been a precursor to this phenomenon and has a similar effect: if he can stay positive and optimistic in the midst of all these worldwide and easily overwhelming challenges, then I can too.

Here is the video:

Click here for a more detailed article on the Susan Boyle phenomena in the Washington Post and here for an article on BBC News exploring some reasons why Susan Boyle has won over the world, and here for an article titled:”Susan Boyle’s appeal not so surprising“.

April 24, 2009:
I just found a Time Online Magazine article offering some good journalistic background material and context for the Susan Boyle phenomenon. Click here for the online article.

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The Human Perfection in a Physical World

Here is a short video (only 1:35 min) showing the rhythmic gymnastic routine of the Bulgarian gymnast Bojanka Angelova as a junior finalist at the European Gymnast Championship in Torino, Italy in June 2008.

I was completely spellbound watching Angelova perform her ball routine in such an effortless, fluid, precise, and absolutely flawless way.

posted with vodpod

I could not help but wonder about such a performance. It felt like she was outside space and time, as if in a quantum state. What a gift Bojanka Angelova has….

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Walk On

Another very inspirational and touching video:  30 year old DJ Gregory was born with cerebral palsy, underdeveloped lungs, and entangled legs. His parents were told he would never walk. This 12 minute video shows his journey towards walking 988 miles and  3,256 holes of the 2008 PGA Tour.

posted with vodpod

If you go to the vodpod page for this video, take a look at the comments left for DJ – they are a testament to the inspiration DJ is offering to so many….

Here is a link to an ABC news story: Person of the Week: D.J. Gregory

And again, check out the comments left for DJ…

And here is a link to DJ Gregory’s Blog

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The Most Perfect Illusion

“Who of the most powerful of souls
can conjure up an illusion
that is real to its creator.”

Source Unknown

In moments when I feel most uncomfortable in my role as a human here on this physical earth, this sentence (it hangs over my kitchen sink) helps me feel relieved and not quite as stupid about some of my more human behavior or actions. I end up being more gentle with myself, especially in these times of changes.

The video below makes the same point…

more about “LegTryingToStealBone.wmv videos from …“

posted with vodpod

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Challenge Day – Imagine a school where every child feels safe, loved and celebrated

I just watched a 15 minute video called “Challenge Day” and felt touched enough to share it here on my blog. This video shows an excerpt of the award winning documentary of the same name, depicting the results of a one-day program offered by Challenge Day in hundreds of high schools and junior highs every year.

I wish we had had a program like that when I was growing up in Germany. It would have helped so much to create the closeness and connection I always longed for. It took me many years of workshops to finally find it.

What a huge opportunity for young people to discover their common humanity so early. We are definitely living in a changing world.

posted with vodpod

Check out the Challenge Day website  for more information on this inspiring and transformational program.

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6 Companies Born During Downturns

Think a recession is a bad time to start a company? Imagine if the founders of these major corporations had thought the same…

Company: Procter & Gamble, Household products
Founded during: The Panic of 1837

Because consumers rely on P&G products in good times and bad, it is considered a titan even in a rough economy.

Company: IBM, Computer
Founded during: The Long Depression, 1873-1896

Last year, the company had record revenue of $103.6 billion. However, thousands of layoffs are reportedly underway in IBM’s sales and software units.

Company: General Electric, Energy and other
Founded during: Panic of 1873

In 1896, Edison’s GE landed a spot on the first-ever Dow Jones Industrial Average. Today, it is the only remaining company of the original twelve.

Company: General Motors, Automobiles
Founded during: The Panic of 1907

General Motors became a holding company for Buick and Oldsmobile in 1907, which had already been been for established several years, and it went on to acquire many more companies after that.

Company: United Technologies Corp, Aerospace
Founded during: In 1929, amid the Great Depression

The notorious year that the stock market crashed, spurring a 10-year global downturn, also marked the birth of an aerospace giant.

Company: FedEx, Shipping
Founded during: The Oil Crisis of 1973

When several Arab states had embargoed oil exports to the United States, it could have been disastrous for a company that relied on petroleum-fueled transportation, but Federal Express stayed alive and became profitable in July 1975, when oil prices finally leveled off.

Read the full article on the web here.

An encouragement to keep thinking outside the current box of scarcity and financially hard times, no matter how crazy that seems!

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Humbled Banker Parts With Yuppie Past

I love cruising the internet news websites these days, as I keep finding these great stories of people whose lives are changing. To me the most interesting stories are the ones where people lives take a new turn when they share their predicaments from a real and authentic voice.

Over the years I have found that the more real and authentic in any given moment I allowed myself to be and to be seen, the more I felt accepted, loved, and actually was able to get what I wanted or dreamed of. And now I am watching the current economic crisis provide the context for people to explore doing exactly that, explore being real and authentic.

I found the story below on CNN.com and felt touched by the opportunity found in the current financial crisis, by thinking and acting outside our comfort zone, and by the courage to be real about what is actually going on instead of “looking good.”

By Thelma Gutierrez and Wayne Drash, CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Ernie Casillas lived the good life as he doled out millions of dollars in loans in California. The former banker drove fancy cars and took extravagant vacations.

But with the banking industry in crisis, his job is gone — as is his lavish lifestyle. Desperate for work, he recently swallowed his pride and posted a message on Craigslist: “Unemployed I need a job.”

“It took a lot for me to put that ad on Craigslist, because I had to change what I was before,” he said, breaking down in tears. “I wasn’t this rich little yuppie anymore, driving expensive cars, having expensive suits. I’m in this just like everybody else looking for work. It humbles you. This is real.”

If you want to read the rest of the story, click here.

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Reforming Our Global Financial World

Image by kugelfish via Flickr

“The new financiers will show why the old financiers and central bankers can no longer have a monopoly on money and its creation.  Information-based currencies and trading platforms will operate wherever necessary for evolving human communities so as to match needs with resources and create jobs – from local and regional to national and international exchange. Today’s financial “crisis” is facilitating the evolutionary jump to the next stage of human development – shifting from faulty, money-measured GDP growth to the cleaner, greener, sustainable economies.“
– Hazel Henderson on global financial reform

Fred Burks

Below is the full article as sent to me by Fred Burks . For years he has been putting information on his website www.WantToKnow.org which although “verifiable and reliable” is nor covered by the major news media such as CBS, Wall Street Journal etc. If you want to sign up for his weekly email list, summarizing key media articles which should have made headline news, click here. (The highlights in the article below are Fred’s.)

Global Financial Reform

The New Financiers

By Hazel Henderson

A venture capitalist friend of mine asked me in a recent discussion about the financial meltdown, “who will be the new financiers?” I answered immediately, “the new financiers will be the high-level information and knowledge brokers – and they will aggregate the new research on global change processes and lead in structuring the deals now creating the growing green economy.”  Today information and media drive markets.

These new financiers are already operating unseen by traditional Wall Streeters and asset managers.  They are largely invisible to current financial players and governments because information is their prime currency; rather than money.  The new deal-makers value the role of honest, well-managed currencies that remain dependable stores of value and mediums of exchange.

Money is a special kind of information, not a commodity in itself, but rather a brilliant invention of the human mind.  When backed by real-world goods and service, as well as strong contracts, money can accurately track and score human ingenuity, productivity and transactions interacting with the natural wealth of resources of our home: Planet Earth.

The problem with money is keeping it honest and keeping its “promise to pay” firm.  From the goldsmiths who over-lent against their piles of gold held in storage for their customers, to the kings who shaved of the edges of coins and today’s bankers who create our money out of thin air, we humans have found many ways to debase our currencies.

Human activities grew from traditional barter, mutual aid and gifting to the invention of money back around 3,000 BC.  Our money evolved from clay tablets, shells and cows to metal tokens, gold, silver, today’s paper money and electronic currencies that are blips on millions of financial trading screens.

As we expanded worldwide with the advent of the Industrial Revolution in Europe 300 years ago, our need to trade and exchange grew exponentially.  This required expanding our money systems of exchange.  Gold, which backed most currencies in growing international trade, became too constricting – there just wasn’t enough of if.  Many traders turned to silver and other precious metals.  Soon, the lack of gold led governments to issue paper “fiat” currencies backed only by promises and a fraction of actual gold.  Some countries shut their “gold windows,” including the USA in 1971, and restricted their citizens from owning gold.

Our current financial crises go beyond those earlier contractions, panics and recessions caused by the lack of gold or sufficient supplies of credible paper money.  Central bankers have learned the lessons of the Great Depression.  The money supply must keep up with, not surpass, the expansion of production and trading as a country grows and its real economy progresses.  Today, the interlinking of all countries’ economies due to the globalization of finance and technology caused money-creation to go wild, leading to a credit bubble and mountains of debt.

Computerization of finance and markets speeded up trading to seconds; satellite inter-linkage of round-the-clock stock and commodity exchanges led to the explosion of derivatives contracts, ever more exotic “securitization” of packages of mortgages, student loans and credit card debts.  Risk-analysis was relegated to ivory-tower mathematicians’ algorithms which ignored real-world conditions.  All this multiplied the creation of money and credit exponentially.

Reckless, poorly regulated financial firms on Wall Street sold their dubious, toxic “securities” to gullible investors and pension funds (which should have known better) around the world.  For example, the bets on who might default, called credit default swaps, grew unregulated to now comprise $683 trillion of contracts (Bank for International Settlements December 2008) – while real global production measures only the $62 trillion of global GDP (IMF October 2008).

The resulting crises were predicted by me and others over the past decades.  All that money and debt creation led to illusory gains and today’s inevitable losses and “de-leveraging.” The bubble in finance and money itself has popped.  Central bankers and financiers, schooled in the world’s leading business schools and economics departments focus on money and global monetary circuitry.  They were rarely taught that money was simply one form of information – now deeply devalued as all the new forms of money-creation went wild.

Today, we see central bankers printing money on TV.  No amount of ink and paper can print enough new money to close the hole between that $683 trillion of false promises and the world’s real GDP of $62 trillion.  The only issue is who will take the hit.  Up to now, the political influence of financial sectors has forced taxpayers to bail out financiers. The blatant unfairness and stupidity of this has caused huge outcries from outraged citizens. Those billions given to irresponsible bankers could have financed universal healthcare and college education.  This is the end of finance based only on money and fiat currencies.  We now know it’s about priorities and values.

Enter the new financiers: those high-level information and knowledge brokers who understand our Information Age and the great transition from the fossil-fueled Industrial Age to our new Solar Age.  Overloaded money-circuits have broken down and the huge new volume of transactions in the past decade have migrated to the internet.  Pure information-based exchange and sharing has led to the new hybrid economic model described by experts, including Lawrence Lessig’s Remix (2008), Yoichi Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks (2007), Don Tapscott’s Wikinomics (2008), Verna Allee’s Knowledge Evolution (1997) and my own work (www.ethicalmarkets.com).

This hybrid economy is half the old money-based competition and half information-based sharing, cooperation and exchange. From electronic stock exchanges, Instinet, Archipelago, NASDAQ, Knight and Entrex to Google, e-Bay, Craigslist, Amazon, Facebook and Wikipedia, we are seeing how money-obsessed financiers are trailing behind.  The new financiers: those high-level information brokers go beyond economics to understanding whole systems and the human family on planet Earth.

Money may return to its honest base, reflecting real world values of Main Street productivity, but may never again be the dominant medium of exchange.  Just as gold remains valuable but can no longer support the new volume of human transactions.  Money will be superseded by all the new digital currencies already circulating from local exchange trading systems (LETS) and complementary currencies like “Berkshares” and “Wirs” in Switzerland to Freecycle and many other barter sites, cell phone networks and radio shows.

Incumbent money-circuit players will try to get regulators to shut down these upstart, disruptive technologies and competitors.  The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for example, shut down the website Prosper.com which boomed by facilitating local residents and businesses in lending to each other.

The new financiers are operating these new digital trading platforms in many countries.  Many designs for global digital currencies are on the way.  They will complement the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights, another pure information-based currency for international development which is still conceptually tied to gold.  The new financiers will show why the old financiers and central bankers can no longer have a monopoly on money and its creation.  Information-based currencies and trading platforms will operate wherever necessary for evolving human communities so as to match needs with resources and create jobs – from local and regional to national and international exchange.

Today’s financial “crisis” is facilitating the evolutionary jump to the next stage of human development – shifting from faulty, money-measured GDP growth to the cleaner, greener, sustainable economies. Governments are realizing that they must now also correct those money-based indicators and GDP national accounts to adopt the new Quality of Life Indicators.  Pension funds have realized their errors in chasing only short-term money returns and are demanding that companies report their performance beyond the old single bottom line of money to the triple bottom line, including progress on social, environmental and governance performance.   Welcome to the Information Age.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hazel Henderson

Hazel Henderson is also author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (2006), co-created the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators, updated regularly at www.calvert-henderson.com, and co-organized the BEYOND GDP conference in the European Parliament, Nov. 2007. For more, Google: US Geothermal, Nevada Power, World Water & Solar, Western Wind and pre-IPO companies, including Solaria, EnVision Solar, and Stirling Energy Systems. The above article is taken from www.ethicalmarkets.com/?p=1642. The entire Ethical Markets website is filled with fascinating and inspiring information.

More Important Information : For a three-page lesson on monetary principles of which few are aware, yet which should be taught in every high school, click here. For highly revealing major media article on the reasons for the banking and financial crisis, click here. And don’t forget to take a look at the incisive analysis of 12 key deregulatory decisions which played a critical role in the banking and economic collapse, available here.

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Prosperity Is Like This

I was sent an email last week with these simple suggestions on how to improve our prosperity consciousness. They feel really good and appropriate to me, and so simple…

Breathe.
In and out.

Filling and releasing,
Accessing energy that flows through the body.

Money, like breath, comes & goes.

Prosperity is like this.

Breathe strong and fierce,
Breathe soft and allowing.

Prosperity is like this.

How much do you hold your breath?
How shallow or deeply do you breathe?

Prosperity is like this.

Opening to greater giving is like breathing out more
Opening to greater receiving is like breathing in more
Continuing to circulate
Energy
Love
Pleasure
Money
Breathing deeper through the places
Where we want to withhold.

Prosperity is like this.

Thanks to Kathy Kali
Lotus Moon Temple

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Quantum Speed Reading

What if there is whole new way of processing information available to us, and especially to some of the new kinds being born in the last 10 years? What if we as the human family are evolving to processing information not only in a linear fashion as in one word at a time, but in a conceptual fashion, as in whole concepts at a time?

Click here to watch a video I found which offers some interesting examples of “conceptual reading”.

For more about speed reading, or conceptual reading, click here.

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A Baby’s Infectious Laugh!

If I need a quick and instant pick-me-up, this is what I watch, as I can’t help but feel better (even thinking of this video makes me giggle):

more about “haha baby“, posted with vodpod

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Satisfying Solutions to Challenging Problems: Ellis Peter’s Cadfael Novels

In challenging times like the ones we are currently living in, I like to feed, or better nourish, my mind with stories that help me to remember the goodness in all challenges, to dare to trust in positive outcomes even if it looks impossible, and to relax knowing that all is well, no matter what.

One of my favorite writers twho offers that to me is Mary Pargeter, author of 50plus novels, who lived from 1914 till 1995 in England. She wrote 30 plus mystery novels under her penname Ellis Peters about Brother Cadfael, a Benedictine monk in England in the 12th century. The name or character Brother Cadfael is probably better known through the 13 episodes, that were made for British TV inthe nineties, although I am not talking about the film episodes.

The novels are set during the civil war between two royal cousins, Empress Maud and King Steven, both contenders for the royal throne. Peters wrote these mystery novels in the tradition of a good “whodunit” though situated at a time before carriages, mail service, and before the inquisition.

The author has managed to evoke a microcosm in which life has a deeply satisfying internal order. There are murders, there are laws, there are heroes and villains, there is a world of both good and evil, but they are all balanced out into a deeply coherent and functional world. A “bad” deed, for example a cold blooded murder, gets revenged not by an act of law by the sheriff or the king, but by the murderer’s own behavior. In “One Corpse Too Many” the murderer Adam Corsell dies in a “combat till death” with his opponent Hue Berringard by falling onto his own poignard, and not by his opponent’s hand.

To me it is a very good example of a deeply spiritual world that is not pollyannaish, not just full of cheap happy endings. Ellis Peter’s world and stories are full of challenges, depicting the whole range of human behavior from exemplary to despicable. But these challenges are being resolved in a very satisfactory way with all behaviors and acts balancing out at the end. You come away feeling full and rich, ready to trust the inherent goodness in life once again.

The interesting thing is that she manages to portray this balanced world in the midst of a world torn apart by civil war, where morals and laws are slowly but surely eroding into an inherently unstable political situation. She describes the ability to hold fast to integrity, love, and balanced out actions in the midst of a world falling apart. What wonderfully rich and satisfying morality plays, worth reading or listening to in depth to help us remember that kind of moral capacity at its best during our own challenging times.

I highly recommend reading these stories out loud to lovers, friends and family, or to listen to the books on tape.  I especially recommend the narrator Patrick Tull on the Recorded Books series, as his voice has a deeply satisfying timbre, plus his reading has a wonderfully slow pace that lets you literally sink into the less hectic pace of these 12th century tales, and complements Peters’ beautifully crafted stories very well.

Here is a website providing a list to all of Ellis Peter’s books in the Brother Cadfael series.

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Nation by Terry Pratchett: A Bookreview

Cover of Nation

If there is one book, that deeply soothes and relaxes my mind in these challenging times, it is Terry Pratchett’s novel Nation. Written for young adults, and the first non Diskworld book in 20 years, it spoke to me on a very deep level about how to deal with changes bigger than we would normally like to deal with.

The central theme of the book is one of coming to terms with radical changes, as the subtitle says:

When much is taken, something is returned.

Nation is set in an alternate history of our world in the 1870s and tells the story a young man, Mau, and a young woman, Daphne, whose lives are changed forever by a tsunami. Coming from two completely different cultures and upbringings, one tropical island, one British upper class, the tsunami throws them together as the only survivors, which requires the protagonists to blend and mix their two worlds with surprising results. For more details on the plot, click on wikipedia.

What makes this novel so rich, is a deep river of coming to terms with catastrophic changes. How do you make your peace with a situation that takes so much from you? Daphne ends up asking Mau towards the end of the book, if he would have preferred living a life without the tsunami and they both agree that the new opportunities were well worth the loss, pain and suffering brought on by the huge wave.

Pratchett’s gift for story telling is at its best and invites us masterfully to accompany his young protagonists on their journey into acceptance of lives dramatically disrupted and even celebration of lives forever changed. Here is a quote:

“They didn’t know why these things were funny. Sometimes you laugh because you’ve got no more room for crying. Sometimes you laugh because table manners on a beach are funny. And sometimes you laugh because you’re alive, when you really shouldn’t be.”

I felt deeply touched on several occasions during the reading of the book, and some had less to do with the details of the story and more with its author: last year Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with early signs of Alzheimer’s, and I could not help but wonder how much this book is reflecting Pratchett’s attempt of coming to terms with the prospect of such radical changes as that particular disease can bring.

The gift of a good storyteller is that he or she can invite us to dare the ride on the wide and fast river of change even when it feels like there is no other option. We can actually imagine making it through the possibly treacherous rapids not only unscathed, but stronger for it.

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• Review: Terry Pratchett: Living with Alzheimer’s BBC2 Minder Five (telegraph.co.uk)

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Celebrate the Recession: From Wall Street Banker to GreenSoul Shoes

Here is an example of how the present economic crisis has inspired three former Wall Street bankers to do something different:

Quoted from Reuters:

“Feb. 12 – Three former Wall Street bankers are using their expertise and following their hearts by creating a shoe business out of recycled trash.

Rising from the collapse of Bear Stearns was not easy for Stephen Chen, co-founder of Greensoul Shoes, who decided to use what he and his friends learned on Wall Street to build a business with financial and social benefits. Speakers: Stephen Chen, co-founder, Greensoul Shoes; Alastair Onglingswan, co-founder, Greensoul Shoes; Iris Chau, former JP Morgan Chase investment banker. Conway Gittens reports from New York.”

My newest meditation: every time I see a store closed or hear that jobs are lost, instead of thinking, “Oh, how bad, how terrible…” I do my best to switch to:”Another opportunity for someone to do something different like following the dream you had never had the time for”.

Here is their website and the Reuters story on video:

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=98676&videoChannel=1

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Poem: Mumurs of the Seasons

Murmurs of the Seasons

For Paul who died on Dec 27, 2008 at 2:22 PM

The easter lilies told me so
long long ago and far away
that dying is a blessing in disguise
revealing lasting treasures finally

The summer berries told me so
a while ago and yet so close
that dying calls for loving more
in all these times of changes

The autumn walnuts told so
long long ago and yet so close
that dying is a journey home
forever deeper into light

The winter grasses told me so
a while ago and far away
that dying calls for celebration
amidst all loss and grief and pain

I listen with my heart
and hear the murmurs
of the seasons

I listen with my eyes
and see the bounty
of the journey

I listen with my soul
And know that all is well
And know that all is well

By Ulla!

Death & Dying Mandala by Ulla!

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What If Economics Is All About Personal Satisfaction?

I found this quote in my inbox this morning:

“Every bit of it is about economics. Every bit of it, without exception. Everything about religion is about economics. Everything about politics is about economics. And everything about economics is personal satisfaction. Everyone is personally motivated to do the best that they can possibly do for themselves.”

Excerpted from an Abraham workshop in Boulder, CO on Saturday, June 12th, 2004

What if economics is actually about personal satisfaction? What if the current economic crisis is about bringing more emphasis on personal satisfaction in our lives? So much of the existing economic model has been about making money for the sake of having money to pay the bills.

What about first finding something that satisfies us personally, that touches us deeply, that motivates us strongly, and then making it pay our bills? What a different way of looking at our relationship with money.

As the existing economic model is in the process of breaking down anyway, why not use it as an opportunity to find out what does bring us personal satisfaction? What do I love doing? What gets us out of bed in the morning, full of excitement and joy, AND pays our bills?

I was raised to focus on finding something that pays my bills, and then do what satisfies me as a hobby, or when I am old and retired. It never worked for me, let me tell you. I can only really get involved in something that pays my bills, if either I feel passionate about it, or if i can focus on something in it, that brings out my passion.

I am sure going for passion in my blog here. I have a passion for BIGGER perspectives (ask my friends…). I love writing about my passion. I love using the internet and all its opportunities to reach out and be seen. Now I get to share that passion with the rest of the world.

I am pretty good at trusting that my passion for that BIGGER Picture will eventually pay my bills. And if it doesn’t, at least I get to do what I love doing and feel good doing it.

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Feel Good Physics: Scalar Energy in Healing

Physics in school was a real chore for me. It made no sense as a teenager. It felt disconnected and unreal, and I just could not get into it, an dit showed in my grades.

After I watched the following video on Scalar physics (and cried at the end because I felt so touched by it), I know understand why I did not like physics as I learned it in high school in the late sixties. I was (and probably everybody else at that time) taught Newtonian physics: mechanistic and applicable only to parts of our universe (certain parameters were called “fuzzy” and simply excluded).

Here is new physics, more quantum, more wholistic, more for today’s world.

Research physicist, John Michael Mallon MSc. (http://www.thehealinguniverse.com) describes with elegant simplicity the science of scalar-waves and scalar-energy – the energy that underlies the healing technologies that will replace the failed pharmaceutical drug-based medicine of the last century. This landmark video, acclaimed as being an “awakening” video, is also rapidly gaining acceptance as an educational aid in the teaching of enlightened science.

More about “Scalar-Energy in Healing from The Healing Universe“, posted with vodpod

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What If Experiencing Fear is Just the Absence of Connection in Our Lives?

Many of us are experiencing various degrees of fear these days. Here are my musings on the nature of fear:

What if fear is not a power but the absence of a power?

What if fear is actually the absence of a bigger picture? What if FEAR as in “False Evidence Appearing Real” is the hole left behind when there is no larger perspective available to help us trust, hope, and dream? To know that what is happening is perfect, is good, has purpose, and is part of larger plan, even if we do not see it?

What if fear is also the absence of connection? Connection to friends and family, connection to the community around us, connection to Self, connection to Inner Being, connection to Higher Self, to Soul, to the Devine, Source, Spirit, God, you name it.

What if this external crisis which is bringing up so much fear in many of us, is a HUGE opportunity for us to recognize that absence of connection? Once we see fear for what it is, we can look at the opportunity its presence is bringing to us. We can, collectively and individually, start the journey towards towards more wholeness, more connection, more ease and more joy.

More on these ideas on mp3 here .

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Courage Campaign

What a beautiful video with pictures from all these happy gay married couples… just precious to watch their joy and happiness. I felt really touched. Seeing their happiness made me feel good!

I found the video on this site:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/divorce

posted with vodpod

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The Cure For Money Madness

How do we manage to feel good about our finances in these challenging times?

Here are 10 tips on how to survive today’s economy, quoted from Spencer Sherman on his website (I especially love his point 8):

1) Remember to take a Money Breath whenever you’re feeling stressed or fearful about your money situation or about the world. Just make the exhale twice as long as the inhale and say at the end of the exhale “May my money wisdom increase.”

2) I urge you to put your credit cards in a drawer until Thanksgiving like my wife and I are doing. Use cash for all purchases, or, if you have to, use checks or debit cards. Using cash reorders your priorities and reduces your spending. It’s much more difficult to put down five 20’s for a fancy dinner than just fling down the plastic. Try going cardless until January 1st.

3) Review your spending intentions and really think about which spending adds the most value and which you could easily live without.

4) Put some cash into a shoebox for savings, even if it’s only $1 per day.

5) Put some cash into a shoebox for charity, even if it’s only $1 per day. Saving for yourself and for charity cultivates and increases your sense of sufficiency and generosity; it’s impossible to be fearful when you’re in these two states.

6) Keep repeating your Curative Money Message (the message that is the opposite of one of the unproductive money messages you received as a child) in the morning and evening to yourself and take one action each week that will support your message.

7) Ask yourself whether you’d prefer to be a billionaire in terrible health or homeless with your current health?

Have a conversation with your spouse or an objective friend about how to double your income in the next 12 months. The opportunities are the most abundant in times like this. It’s this kind of thinking that will keep you in your heart and less gripped to your reactive thinking.

9) Stop listening to all newspaper, radio and TV news for a week. My wife and I are doing this now. Give your mind a break from hearing that the financial world is melting down completely and you have to do something radical today. Also, take a break from negative conversations with others.

10) If you have investments or cash, this is an opportunity to buy things like U.S. and international equities at low prices and to sell bonds, for example, at relatively high prices. Also, make sure you are really diversified in your 401k plan.

Spencer Sherman, very timely, just published his book “The Cure for Money Madness” and is on book tour these weeks. For tour details click here.

Images from Iran

A young artist’s invitation to see Iran and its people and a different way. It is so beautiful – it made me cry…

Thanks to Jenice for sending this video to me.

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What If This Economic Crisis is About Bringing Integrity to the Financial Sector?

What if this current economic crisis actually has a purpose, is part of a BIGGER picture?

What if it is about bringing integrity to the world of finances? What if the breakdown we are witnessing all around us is just a way to let the old way of dealing with money break down? The old way that was only about making a quick buck? The old way that was about cutting as many corners as needed to get rich quickly? The old way that was about me and my pockets/bank accounts first, and I don’t care what happens after I get rich? The old way of an old boys network that made sure that only the old boys got rich and everybody else paid for it, and all of it behind closed doors?

You get the point…

What I sense here is that the break down of these old ways makes room for a new way to deal with finances, with money.

- A new way of making sure that income is created sustainably, that is that it not only benefits one person, but the whole system as in community, earth and others around it.
- A new way that promotes transparency as in where the money comes from, who gets paid how much and what, and what is done with the money earned.
- A new way that creates a solid foundation of integrity for every aspect of money in our economies worldwide.(I define integrity here as “looking at the whole picture” instead of separate parts)

What if this economic crisis is here for the benefit of all of us by bringing consciousness to even the financial sector, so that “business as usual” is not anymore the MO of the day.

What if this restructuring of the world of money will be so successful, that in years to come historians will give it a name like “the Age of Renaissance”?

What if the new economy AFTER it has hit rock bottom and found its integrity in all its aspects will serve as a role model in years to come for other developing economies in the world like Africa?

More to read on these ideas here and more to listen on mp3 here.

Satisfying Solutions to Challenging Problems:Terry Pratchett’s Disc World Novels

In a time where we are very much interested in positive solutions to some of the more pressing problems of this modern day world, creativity and imagination are important tools to access these solutions. Here is a master of creativity and ingenuity at work:

Imagine a world that is shaped like a planet size disk. This disk rests on four huge elephants, which again rest on an even huger turtle. This contraption is called Diskworld and hurtles through space. It is a great playing field to let Terry Prachett’s wildly creative imagination combined with a Renaissance man’s breadth of knowledge loose to comment on anything and everything.

He makes fun of about everything in witty oneliners. He slaughters any holy cow possible and turns the carcass into creative and delicious entrees. And he quotes anything and everything from Shakespeare to Churchill to popular songs to James Bond: you name it – he quotes it (and you can read about every quote and its origin on a website created by dedicated fans – see L-Space references at the end).

Nothing is safe, nothing is sacred and everything is game in a sea of creativity, wit, and a deep understanding of the human psyche and way beyond. In his close to 40 novels the native British author just won’t quit coming up with unique perspectives on our modern day society, even though his Diskworld technologically has only reached the use of horse drawn coaches.

That does not hold Pratchett back from transposing modern day technologies into pre-electricity gadgets. The Hex (the one and only computer based on an ant farm kit), the klacks (a fax-like transmitting system using line of sight towers and paddles), and a movie camera (a box with 3 miniature demons inside painting pictures and turning the handle whips all three of them into continuous action) are just a few examples of his ingenuity.

On the Diskworld it’s the Century of the Fruitbat and the complex multi-ethnic society in the city of Ankh-Morpork includes the following species: silica based trolls (whose brains work faster in colder climates), dwarves (who escaped from the gold mines in Uberwald), werewolves (as a uniquely gifted police officer), zombies (very important man in the undead community), vampires (who hold AA meetings for vampires sobering up on tomato juice and serve the city as lawyers), and many more characters. Any idea or mythological concept is taken all the way to its logical conclusion and way beyond like Jewish Golems in “Feet of Clay” or aging heroes called the silver horde in “Interesting Times”.

This “modern” city of Ankh-Morpork is based on a self regulating system of guilds. Among them the Guild of Thieves (you pay a yearly fee for a plaque on your house which exempts you from robberies), the Guild of Seamstresses (in the process of renaming themselves the Guild of Negotiable Affection), the Guild of Fools (always so serious in their pratfalls, red noses, and water spraying flowers), and the Guild of Assassins (everyone’s head has a price).

Every book has a major theme like opera (Masquerade), the music industry (Soul Music), Hollywood movies (Moving Pictures), Australia (The Last Continent), China (Interesting Times), fairies (Lord and Ladies), diplomacy (The Fifth Elephant), religions (Small Gods), time (Thief of Time), death (Mort and Reaper Man), and Christmas (Hogswatch), to name just a few. Remember, there are close to fourty novels, and therefore close to fourty themes, and he is not done writing yet (luckily), even though last year he was diagnosed with early stages of Alzheimer’s.

Pratchett’s books have sold over 55 million copies worldwide, but strangely enough, I found only one person in my circle of friends who knows of his novels. I myself had stumbled across them by chance when looking for a new book on tapes, and could not believe my ears when I started listening. I kept laughing so hard that I was hooked. That was 5 years ago and since then I managed to listen to all his books either on tape or as mp3. His humor, his insights and his both simple and complex concepts have kept me sane in a dark winter a few years back, when his outlandish Diskworld held a place for me to reassemble my personal world.

Thank you, Terry Pratchett, for the gift of your writing in my life.

Many of his books can be found in public libraries, both as books or in various audio formats.

The L-Space (Library Space where all libraries on the Diskworld are interconnected) http://www.ie.lspace.org A very informative website concerning anything you would like to know about Terry Pratchett and the Diskworld. Also, check out Terry Pratchett on Wikipedia.

Terry Pratchett

Even in the Mideast There is Hope

About a year ago I was introduced to this inspiring short video offering a most hopeful vision for the resolution of the conflict in Israel and Palestine. It offers strong support for a peaceful two state solution by the younger generation of the Mideast countries. At this point the grassroots youth movement, called “One Voice Movement” has over 640,000 signatories in roughly equal numbers both in Israel and in Palestine.

The basic premise of this youth movement is that the longstanding conflict is not really a conflict between Arabs and Israelis, between Jews and Muslims, but between moderates on both sides who are willing to live in peace with their neighbors, and hardliners who are not.

I still cry every time I watch it, and I have watched it at least 10 times.

Here is the video:

If this is the quality of the young people inheriting this earth, we are in very good hands.

For more information,check out

http://www.OneVoiceMovement.org

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Slumdog Millionaire: The First Film of the Obama Era

I found the following article and its headline on DrudgeReport.com:

“Slumdog Millionaire: the first film of the Obama era”

Already we are seeing the term “Obama Era” used, and Obama has not even been sworn in as the new American president.

Here is the most telling paragraph of the article to me:

“And in that single word lie the key qualities of Slumdog Millionaire. It does not have an ironic moment. It is utterly devoid of cynicism. Instead, it is bright-eyed, optimistic – idealistic, even. To generations reared on a drip-feed of corrosive cynicism, the elevation of greed for greed’s sake and weary disillusion with our leaders and our institutions it feels almost shocking.”

Interestingly enough, it is a British writer and a British newspaper (the Telegraph) that are using these terms, outsiders looking in.

YES, we are in a new ear, and yes, Obama is our most visible symbol, but we all are invited to join in this new era, to dare to be optimistic, to dare to even be idealsitic, and to dare to change ourselves and thus the world around us.

If you want to read the full article, click here.

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The whole world needs to come together now…

to solve this worldwide financial crisis. Isolation and separation is no longer a viable option. The leaders of th world are meeting and putting their joint wisdom and interests together to find and act their way out this world wide financial crisis, so long overdue – in my opinion.

We cannot act alone anymore, whether as countries, or as individuals, to find solutions for our problems to day. What a way to realize that we are all connected, that we are all in this together, that we are all needed as one…wow!

Spirit works in wondruous ways….

Greetings!

This is my opportunity to voice some of my thoughts and ideas about the world and the time we are living in.There is so much to say, as these are the times we have been waiting for and we are the ones we have been waiting for. Please feel free to comment, question and discuss my ideas, thoughts and what if’s…

May the words, thoughts and feelings expressed in these pages bring more light into this world, help myself and others to find new ways of seeing the changes we are in, and help us all explore new ways of being in this amazing world and in these magical times.

Thank you for letting me share of myself, for being willing to see me, and especially for being who you are.