Friday, February 28, 2020

You've suffered enough, my child, for the heaven of heavens



<< You've suffered enough, my child, for the heaven of heavens,>>
a nun says to Sister Mary Bernard in The Song of Bernadette about the nun whose vision of the Blessed Virgin brought forth the miraculous healing springs at Lourdes. Bernadette suffered from skeletal tuberculosis, an excruciating disease, but no one knew it, she kept it a secret until the end. She responds,

<< No. I know about sick people. We all exaggerate a little. Our pains aren't so terrible.>>
I know the feelz each of us feelz when we feelz the deep feelz is incomprehensible, I know our sufferings are unique and experienced deeply, we can only imagine what other people are going through, even if we've been through a similar scenario.

I just wanted you to know, I could not bring you the hope I do that all is well and all will be well had I not gained that hope on my path through my little pains.

I just wanted you to know that I could not remind you to tap in to the joy eternal, the deep and abiding joy internal, had I not been reminded to muster that joy from its very source on my path through my little pains.

I just wanted you to know that I could not bring you the love, the deep and abiding love, I hold had I not been loved along the path through my little pains.

I read a bunch of Solzhenitsyn in high school, he sure could light up a room, and I have ALWAYS remembered this quote:

<< If you're reading this book then you can't possibly understand or empathize with my condition. Can a person who's warm understand one who's freezing?? The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow. >>

We must remember before we complain we're "freezing" that there are people who live on the street, like, that's where they live. We must remember before we say, "I'm STARVING," that there are people who could feed their entire village with what's rotting in our fridge, sitting in our pantry, or what we left on our plate at the restaurant the other night. We must remember before we complain that we're tired that there are people with three and four jobs who still don't have enough left over to buy a coffee that we'll sip and toss in the street before we jump on the train.

'Tis the season to take stock, to remember that although there are troubles in our life, HUGE life and death problems in our life, that we need to take big chunks of the day for ourselves in order to benefit the universe. Moments to breathe in life, breathe in love, breathe in refreshment, and exhale thanksgiving. Time to let our rib cage settle on our spirit like a hug from the universe, sponsoring that inward glow which reminds us, we're still good, we're still going, we're drowning in provision of all kinds, we CAN be strong, we CAN put another foot in front of the other ... and we're mindful that we are grateful for this one second, this one moment, shared with one another, shared with a loved one, shared by us sending light into the world. xoxo

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

I love you, Mother, really I do, but let's not be sticky about it.

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Our current Book of Common Prayer sprinkles words with JUST the right amount of penitence in order to obtain a broken and contrite heart, in my humble opinion, without getting ridickie-poo about it ("I love you, Mother, really I do, but let's not be sticky about it. ~ Veda, MILDRED PIERCE).
I love in the bidding of Ash Wednesday, reciting our Lenten history, it's said, "It was also a time when those who, because of NOTORIOUS ! sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church."
I find that JUST the right dramatic tone, no? Listen, I do take VERY seriously, though, the schedule set out in the bidding for a Meaningful Lent, because I feel it keeps us all on track, no? balanced and focused, spiritually toned and taut, and the perfect workout to bring up from the death of Winter to the RIOT ! of spring.
<< I invite you, therefore to the observance of a holy Lent,
by self-examination and repentance;
by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and
by reading and meditating on God's holy Word ...>>
Let's give this all a try, shall we? LOVE YOU!

The Bidding of Ash Wednesday

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THE BIDDING OF ASH WEDNESDAY DEAR PEOPLE OF GOD !
The first followers of Jesus observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism.
It was also a time when those who, because of NOTORIOUS ! sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church.
Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to RENEW their repentance and faith.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent,
by self-examination and repentance;
by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and
by reading and meditating on God's holy Word ...
Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return ...

Order of The Burning of the Palms in Preparation for Lent

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(photo: Vince Chiumento, February 22, 2012)

All good stuff here, from our Order of The Burning of the Palms in Preparation for Lent:
<<Dear People of God: At the end of our last Lent, we carried these branches to welcome the Messiah. In preparation for a NEW Lent, the church's holy springtime, we have gathered these holy branches to be burned. Tomorrow on Ash Wednesday, the ashes will be placed on our foreheads. For us, these ashes signify an ending AND a beginning, a season of repentance, a time of purification and cleansing, a time of fresh growth.
Almighty God, you are a consuming fire and refine our humanity into the beauty of divinity; bless us as we burn these palms to the glory of your holy Name. May these ashes signify to us our mortality and dependence on your merciful providence all the days of our lives, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we receive everlasting life.
Psalm 51 below.
Bless, O Lord, these ashes, by which we are reminded that we are dust. Give us contrite hearts as we walk the pilgrim way of Lend that we might follow Christ in his ascent to glory.
God of tender mercy, you fashioned us from the dust of the earth and bid us follow your Gospel call in the Company of the Church. Look on us with kindness as we prepare the ashes which will mark the beginning of our Lenten journey. Grant that we who make the desert pilgrimage may come to the font of rebirth with a renewed passion for justice. May our offerings serve your people and bring us peace; may prayer sanctify all our deeds, and may we come at last to the table o your heavenly kingdom where you reign with Christ and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever, Amen.
Let us bless the Lord ! The maker of all our endings and beginnings. Thanks be to God. >> 

Psalm 51 Miserere mei, Deus

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your

loving-kindness; *
in your great compassion blot out my offenses.

2 Wash me through and through from my wickedness *
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions, *
and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against you only have I sinned *
and done what is evil in your sight.

5 And so you are justified when you speak *
and upright in your judgment.

6 Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth, *
a sinner from my mother's womb.

7 For behold, you look for truth deep within me, *
and will make me understand wisdom secretly

8 Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; *
wash me, and I shall be clean indeed.

9 Make me hear of joy and gladness, *
that the body you have broken may rejoice.

10 Hide your face from my sins *
and blot out all my iniquities.

11 Create in me a clean heart, O God, *
and renew a right spirit within me.

12 Cast me not away from your presence *
and take not your holy Spirit from me.

13 Give me the joy of your saving help again *
and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.

14 I shall teach your ways to the wicked, *
and sinners shall return to you.

15 Deliver me from death, O God, *
and my tongue shall sing of your righteousness,
O God of my salvation.

16 Open my lips, O Lord, *
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

17 Had you desired it, I would have offered sacrifice, *
but you take no delight in burnt-offerings.

18 The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; *
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

19 Be favorable and gracious to Zion, *
and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

20 Then you will be pleased with the appointed sacrifices,
with burnt-offerings and oblations; *
then shall they offer young bullocks upon your altar.

If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair. Shirley Chisholm


<< My God, what do we want? What does any human being want? Take away an accident of pigmentation of a thin layer of our outer skin and there is no difference between me and anyone else. All we want is for that trivial difference to make no difference. What can I say to a man who asks that? All I can do is try to explain to him why he asks the question. You have looked at us for years as different from you that you may never see us really. You don’t understand because you think of us as second-class humans. We have been passive and accommodating through so many years of your insults and delays that you think the way things used to be is normal. When the good-natured, spiritual-singing boys and girls rise up against the white man and demand to be treated like he is, you are bewildered. All we want is what you want, no less and no more. ~ Shirley Chisholm, Unbought And Unbossed >>

Monday, February 24, 2020

The rat-bastard is he? The rat-bastard is thee.

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#LentUnEdited < I want to roll my eyes right now but the doctor said if I keep doing it, my ocular muscles might spasm and eject my eyeballs. ~ Liz Lemon >

Know how some random or specific asshat gets up your nose? And you recognize it, you're good, you do your spiritual exercises, especially since you know that half of THEIR problem is you see YOUR OWN ass-hattery in their behavior and it's the behaviour you detest most in yourself that's bothering you? sure, the other half is stuff you'd NEVER pull, but you still just wanna throw a book at their fat head or give them a karate chop to the throat so they might shut up for two seconds so your eyes get a break from rolling so hard?

then, have you lived long enough for this one? you think you've done all your spiritual work and they glide gently out of your life and one day you realise you can hear the birds again, singing more sweetly than ever before and you realize in that quiet, the asshat has gone away ... your movement through the world is unencumbered and life is light and gay. Then SOMEtimes you turn around and the rat-bastard is BACK, or a reasonable facsimile in the form of a different human, and it's like C'MON ! god, I thought we went THROUGH this already ...

Then you gotta double-down on whys and wherefores and a whole new round of self-examination ... EEEEHN, c'mon, SERIOUSLY? nicely, though, for me? it's JUST in time for Lent, thanks. I've been up half the night with this and realized that lately? I've been talking AT god and not WITH god. I guess I HAVE been talking TO god, but it's more like as a teenager with headlines and reporting? and not waiting for an answer, just like I've been leaving God voicemails, telling God my thoughts, and hanging up before God answers, you know?

The other thing I THINK I've been doing is going down YouTube Rabbit Holes instead of seriously working through things with God. I'll flip from topic to topic while I'm sorting my problems, and not thoroughly cleansing my spirit, just taking a series of whore baths out of a Marine's helmet. I know better than this, so it's no surprise I almost hurled this morning mulling over this kid whose back in my face again.

And srsly? listen ... "be sweet," "you're bigger than this," "judge not, etc.," I get it, kay? very pretty stuff there, very nice, all well and good, and I AM ! encouraging bumper sticker spirituality right now ... but this particular meme of this particular personality type comes back over and again so it must be a cancer inside of me that needs to be cut out.

I tackled half of this personality type last year, you'll remember, under the topic "There Are No Grown-Ups In The Room. Ah, WE'RE ! The Grown-Ups Now," and that's been going great for me, and has brought me a great deal of joy and peace. (HIGHlights: I was expecting certain persons to rise to a higher standard of inhabiting their role in my existence than they were capable of achieving let alone maintaining, and while it is worrisome, it's more a no-harm-no-foul sort of thing, the Bad is all on me, because MY understanding of their role has little to do with what OTHERS expect and it's just, my definitions of things don't exactly line up with The World's. I am from a different generation in my head, and there aren't enough southern women around me patting my hand and shaking their heads in silent agreement with me. In that regard, I'm alone up here, so it's hard to keep reassuring one's self. Praise god for ice cream.

I think what I've been wrestling with this morning is the other shoe of that same pair which needs to fall: The person who HAS no authority who CLAIMS all authority and can't recognize that they're a bloviating prig with no self-realization, filter, or sense of remorse. ((a) see how easily this describes me, but at least I have the decency to contain that hideous personae to my online life (shuddup), and (b) there's so much judgment wrapped up in this and so much SHADOW of Completely ME in this, that I'm the guilty one, one finger pointing out and three pointing back at me. blergh.) It's just that, when EYE do things it's with a completely pure and gentle and giving heart, but when THEY do it it's all for show and aggrandizement, I'm so much BETTER than them and no one every points THAT out ... ohmuhguh, get off the cross, honey, somebody else needs the wood !

[[ UPDATE: Since writing this? It happened again last night and I was looking at this kid and complaining to God about it? and I heard God plain as day say, "Why are you looking at him, why aren't you looking at ME." ... Got it, okay? I GOT IT ! !  ]]

You know, it would be SO (!) MUCH (!) EASIER (!) if I could just be that miserable bastard we all knew when we were growing up who always just flat out read people to filth, basically just saying out loud what everyone else was thinking ... but that's not life-giving, that's not even Correct, so I gotta figure a different way out of this. Problem is, I just want everyone to be sweet and act right all at once, and that isn't gonna happen in this life, is it. 1. No matter where you go, there you are, and 2. The world is a people-ie place.

"The rat-bastard is he? The rat-bastard is thee."
Tee Hee. xoxo

#ThereIsPrayer #LentPrep #iLoveLent

Friday, February 21, 2020

To her who has no means nor power, a burnt turnip is a roasted fowl.

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I can't get enough of this young lady's beauty. She's one of Teeny Harris' friends who posed for him and his new camera, documenting any normalcy their gang could muster throughout the 30s and 40s Pittsburgh. He went on to capture some of the most famous persons of color of the day, and his achieve is housed at The Carnegie. If one knows one's history, this Story from The Gulistan of Sa'di comes to my mind, because we'll so easily complain about the smallest thing, and yet look at all the joy in this young woman's face; you can't imagine the daily horrors she must navigate, and yet here she is, shining for us still. << I never lamented about the vicissitudes of time or complained of the turns of fortune except on the occasion when I was barefooted and unable to procure slippers. When I entered the great mosque of Kufah with bare feet and a sore heart, I beheld a man without feet. I offered thanks to the bounty of God, consoled myself for my want of shoes and recited: 'A roast fowl is to the sight of a satiated person less valuable than a blade of fresh grass on the table; and to her who has no means nor power, a burnt turnip is a roasted fowl.' >> Let's be happy for little things today, shall we? If we stub a toe, let's be thanksful for the toe and even for the piece of furniture we own that we stubbed it on and even for the room we have to put the piece of furniture in and even the roof that covers the piece of furniture and on and on and on ... people say it's hard to meditate, difficult to pray, and all it is is noticing everything about us and reciting it out loud ... kinda makes ya feel silly to complain about anything at all after a while, hmm? Golly I loves ya. Happy FIR-HI-dee WHEE ! ! xoxo kisses and hugs to you from me at werk. WERK werk werk werk werk

Ntozake Shange: Knowing a woman's mind and spirit had been allowed me ...

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<< Knowing a woman's mind and spirit had been allowed me ...

With dance I discovered my body more intimately than I had imagined possible.

With the acceptance of the ethnicity of my thighs and backside, came a clearer understanding of my voice as a woman and poet.

The freedom to move in space,
to demand of my own sweat perfection that could continually be approached,
though never known,
waz poem to me,
my body and mind ellipsing,
probably for the first time in my life.
Dance as explicated by Raymond Sawyer and Ed Mock insisted that
everything African,
everything halfway colloquial:
a grimace, a strut, an arched back over a yawn,
waz mine.

I moved what waz my unconscious knowledge of being a colored woman's body to my known everydayness.

~ Ntozake Shange, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf >>

James Clear: Atomic Habits: How to Get 1% Better Every Day





This man is SO kind and SO clear and this is SEW what I need right now for #LentPrep and mayhaps yew dew tew? here are some notes I took from one of his talks. He's all over YouTube. 

<<Small habits and little choices are transforming us in little ways daily.

So, if we can change our habits, we can change our lives. Change happens from nothing, to getting a hammer, some wood, some nails, and then plank by plank, board by board, nail by nail, habit by habit, we can build a house, have proof of our habits, we can gradually become someone new, a builder. With consistency and repetition we can not only change our results, but actually our identity. The more evidence we have for a belief, the more likely we are to believe it. The actions we take provide evidence for who we are.

So, many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity. Here are four Implementation Intentions: Noticing, Wanting, Doing, Liking.

Noticing.

People think that they need to get more motivated, that they need willpower, in order to execute a habit: if I just FELT like doing something (working out, reading a book, practicing the guitar), then I would do it. But the thing is we need a PLAN to do things, we can't rely on FEELING like it. We need to take the decision making out of it by explicitly stating the WHERE, WHEN, and HOW we want to implement the habit.

Give your goals a time and a place to live in the world.

If we're not good at making plans, then here's one:

The Failure PreMortem - Thing of Everything That Can Go Wrong:

Think about the habit / project / goal / the most important thing you want to work on, then imagine six months out, and guess what? You've failed. Now ... tell the story of WHY and HOW you failed: what happened, what were the challenges that took you off course, and once you have all that stuff laid out on the table in front of you, you can start to make better choices about how to develop a plan. You can start to have if / then plans, you can identify them, you can strategize ways around those obstacles, and you can prepare a pathway to succeeding.

Wanting.

One of the most overlooked drivers of our habits is our physical environment.

Our environment often influences our wants, simply because it's an option, simply because it's in front of us at the time. If you want to practice the guitar, put it in the middle of the floor so you would have to step over it to ignore time you should be spending practicing on it.

Thankfully, we don't have to be the victim of our environment, we can also be the architect of it. WE can decide to design something to make our good behaiours easier, and our bad behaviours harder.

Doing.

The important insight is, in the beginning, just shut up and put your reps in (sports analogy: you want to get good at shooting baskets, shoot baskets over and over and over again. dance analogy: you want to be able to do a triple on the left? twirl and fall out, twirl and fall out, twirl and twirl and twirl until you can TWIRL, gewrl). Just hone the skill. Just power through it. Just do it.

Any outcome you wish to achieve is just a point along the spectrum of repetitions. Fewer reps is an easy goal, more is a harder goal; the more reps you put in? the more likely you are to achieve that goal.

We should optimize for the Starting Line, not the Finish Line. Don't think about the end result: make it as easy as possible to get started and get your reps in. Then the outcome just comes as a natural result.

Liking.

The only reason we repeat behaviuors is because we enjoy them, because we like the reward. If we don't enjoy the experience along the way, we're unlikely to stick with it. We need to figure out ways to bring rewards to the present moment because good habits have a problem: the immediate consequence is there, there's a cost that happens in the moment, but the reward is often delayed. So we need to figure out a way to bring the reward in to the present moment.

The best way to change long term behaviour is a short term feedback. Long term behaviours, sticking with writing, or going to the gym, they have delayed consequences. A way to enjoy it in the moment? Try getting a year wall calendar. Any day you achieve your task? like writing jokes for 15 minutes? Put a check on the calendar. Now, at first it looks silly, you may have false starts, empty days, but after a while you'll get a chain going, you'll see four, five, six days in a row ... at that point your only goal becomes, Don't Break The Chain. What's interesting about this is that, by measuring your progress, you get an immediate reward in the moment, by tracking it.

This tracking becomes evidence, and the more evidence we have, the more belief we have that we've achieved something, and the more we believe we've achieved something the more likely we are to repeat the beaviour because that's who we are now, we're someone who writes 15 minutes a day and checks off a box on the calendar. It's not that habits matter more, necessarily, on an individual basis, each moment in life matters, of course, but over the broad span of time, each of the things we do once or twice fade away, and each of the things we do time after time, day after day, week after week, accucmulate the bulk of the evidence about what we believe about ourselves, about who we really are. >>

Source: APB Speakers: https://youtu.be/U_nzqnXWvSo 

James Clear: Obvious Cues, Attractive Cravings, Easy Response, Satisfying Reward

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<< Habits are essentially autopilot scripts your brain writes to decrease the cognitive load of solving recurring problems … As Jocko Willink says, "discipline equals freedom." People without a grasp on their habits are those with the least amount of freedom.

First, the cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior.
Make the CUE OBVIOUS.

This indication triggers a craving, which is the motivational force behind every habit.
Make the CRAVING ATTRACTIVE.

Third, the response is the actual behavior that is performed,
Make the RESPONSE EASY

and finally:

the reward – the end goal of every habit
Make it SATISFYING.

The first two steps, cue and craving, are the problem phase, and the last two steps, response and reward, are the solution phase, you satisfy your craving and feel relieved. >> ~ Atomic Habits by James Clear

Debates as The Hunger Games

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WHY aren't we standing hand in hand spreading messages of hope, recovery, and healing. This is not the time for me, it's the time for we and us. As Jenna Maroney said on 30 ROCK: <<You two can talk about America all you want, but I’m not going to listen, because there’s no 'I' or 'Me' in America. I mean, if I'm gonna get political, it's gonna be to build a better country for Jenna Maroney. It's an opportunity to finally put a pro-Jenna president in the White House.>> That's all it feels like. If any of those persons wanted what's best for the COUNTRY, then they wouldn't be talking about themselves, they'd be talking about us. and they SURE as hell wouldn't circle up and Hunger Games the new kid in town like they did. I wouldn't have one of those people over my house let alone make them my chicken pot pie (okay, Mayor Pete 'cause he's adorbs and to meet his dogs, and 'cause we're both EpiscoPals ...) ANYWAY ! ENOUGH ! i'm back ! after taking some days off to get those astrology forecasts out, (gewrl, and if you think they were long? that wasn't even HALF of it ... "watch this space") ... and I gotta get TONS off my desk, so here's to a kissy day for kissy YOU and kissy me, and let's DOOOO it ! ! ! LOVE you ! and please to take some hugs and kisses along for your journey from me right here at werk. WERK werk werk werk werk

Juanita Moore

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Lettuce Learn from Ms. Juanita Moore today, shall we? from Greenwood in The Great ! State ! of MISSISSIPPI ! ! She wanted to be a performer and took a part in the chorus line at the Cotton Club before becoming a film extra. Yearning to perform significant roles in plays relevant to her times, she joined with The Negro Ensemble Company as Vice President of the original Cambridge Players and took a production of The Amen Corner to The Broadway, kids. She became friends with Marlon Brando, and asked him to lend James Baldwin $75 so that he could write a play, BLUES FOR MISTER CHARLIE, loosely based on the Emmett Till murder that occurred in Money, Mississippi, before the Civil Rights Movement began. Ms. Moore was married to bus driver Charles Burris for 50 years until his death in 2001, and she lived on 13 more years 'til 10 months shy of her hundredth birthday, dying of Natural Causes. xoxo

James Clear: Habits are a memory of past success

Image may contain: possible text that says 'First Time... After a couple days.. 4প amill Habits are essentially a memory of steps that solved a problem in the past.'

#GoodStuff #BumperStickerSpirituality #Habits are essentially a memory of steps that solved a problem in the past. #UrWelcome. xoxo ~ Atomic Habits by James Clear

June Jordan ... we are the ones we have been waiting for

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<< Our earth is round and, among other things, that means that you and I can hold completely different points of view and both be right. The difference of our positions will show stars in your window I cannot even imagine. Your sky may burn with light while mine, at the same moment, spreads beautifully to darkness ...

Which means, by the way:
I am not wrong:
Wrong is not my name.
My name is my own, my own, my own,
and I can’t tell you who the hell set things up like this
but I can tell you that from now on
my resistance
my simple and daily and nightly self-determination
may very well cost you your life

For, I am a feminist,
and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black;
it means that I must undertake to love myself
and to respect myself
as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.
And who will join this?
and will sing and sing back into the mountains?
and if necessary even under the sea?
…we are the ones we have been waiting for ... ~ June Jordan >>

Love is NOT the limitation; love is the flying. The Universe Is Unconditional Love.

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<< We were created out of love, to be loved, and covered in unconditional, inexhaustible love from the very Source of love. So for us to live as if we were unloved is the limitation, self-imposed, not the other way around. Living with the perception of being unloved is like clipping a bird's wing and removing its ability to fly. A bird is not defined by being grounded, but by her ability to fly.

Remember this: humans are defined not by their limitations, but by the intentions the Universe has for them; not by what people seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in the image of the Eternal.

Love is NOT the limitation; love is the flying. The Universe Is Unconditional Love.

If any one thing matters then all things matter. Because each of us is important, everything we do is important. Every time we forgive, the universe changes; every time we reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, The Universe's eternal purposes are accomplished and nothing will be the same again.

Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person's throat. All the Universe wants from us is to trust with what little we can, and grow in loving people around us with the same love poured upon and in and through us. It's not our job to change others, or to convince them, of anything. We are free to love without an agenda.

Oh! So many believe that it is love that grows, but it is The Knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it. ~ mostly William Paul Young from The Shack >>

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

2020: Looking back, looking foward


We can be taught through experience? or we can learn through Wisdom. Which will it be. Do you want the learning to happen TO you? or do you want to willingly study and prepare, do you want to be ready to be actively engaged so that you don’t have to RE-act, you can have as much of the situation under control as possible. Sure, no kiddin’, the chaos is still gonna fly around our heads, but srsly, I’m sick to death of allowing circumstances to dictate my impulses, I’m tired as all get out of being pummeled by selfishness and ugliness, that I think it best to study up, prep up, train like an athlete, and face our destiny head on like warriors.

Listen, I don’t mean to threaten you with a good time, but we can do this the easy way or the hard way, and the EASY way is going to take A LOT of work. It’s going to take a selfless concerted effort on our part, on the part of those who are awake while they’re alive, those who are paying attention and who want to strive to make this world a better place. We’ll talk about the 1960s in a second, but meanwhile …

All these happenings in the heavens are all going to happen with or without our consent, and they are going to happen with or without our cooperation, too. We can swim in the current and navigate our trajectory through it, gorgeously, or we can let it hit us, knock us off our feet, tumble us ass over teakettle, and sweep us in its wake. I mean, we can just walk outside and hit the pavement, push our way through the wind and have the elements pelt us, do our very best Lear with ye olde, “Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!”

but srsly?  WHY ! do we want to continue to live the hard way when there’s SUCH an EASIER way. Because it’s gonna take some work? Well TOUGH TIDDY ! Know what? There are no grown-ups in the room, people ! So, know what that makes US !?!? THE GROWN UPS IN THE ROOM people. WE’RE the ones who are going to have to continue and double-down putting in all this karmic yoga. WE’RE the ones who must continue in selfless actions, philanthropy, volunteering, and embracing selflessness. The era upon which we’re embarking is for the common good, not for individual glory.

I know that sounds very far away, especially looking around us at all the ugliness, but the day is going to come when there are going to be more of us than of that, because it’s what happens when the extreme implodes and the pendulum starts to swing the other way. Karmic Yoga is a means of serving the community and saving the world. There's no goal of glory or fame involved, there’s also no bitching allowed either; we have to pour sweet and kind and good and whatever is charming and beautiful and worthy in to the ether so that it can get in to the stream and spread throughout the Universe.

I know I jumped head first in to this, I’m sorry/not sorry, but I thought it might help to come at an astrological forecast through the back door and not begin with the astrological jazz words. There are eternal dispositions to every one of these massive celestial objects which spin and whirl and twirl and twinkle in the heavens because they’re the exact same ways in which they’ve been dancing since they first exploded on the scene. People been studying and charting and graphing their behaviours and our responses to their positions in this universe for thousands of years, so … we can navigate the immediate future the easy way or the hard way, and here's what's transpiring as we speak.

See, we are moving out of two centuries of an epoch ruled by materialism and might-makes-right (the age of Pisces), and into an era of two centuries of interrelatedness and community (the age of Aquarius). It’s not going to be an easy transition, but some light news is after this Mercury retrograde at the end of March? things are going to speed up at a mind-numbing pace. A door to a radically changed world is about to be unlocked in late March and kicked wide open by December when the forecast says all this … ugliness ... will resolve itself. By the end of the upcoming three year period, if we’re not personally radically changed beings, then we really are just coasting.

Now, know what? COASTING IS PERFECTLY RESPECTABLE, #NoJudge. I am fine and dandy where I am.  But know what else? There’s so much more to do. There’s so much more I can do if I’m given the gift of another day. and if I can stomach the selfishness of sitting on what’s been given me? If I don’t make the most and the best use of all the resources at my disposal? Then that’s a shande as they say in Yiddish, a shame … a low-down dirty shame … a misuse of gifts and talents and opportunities afforded me each and every day I wake, and the LEAST I can do is some Karmic Yoga … not for the benefit of Karmic Cleansing, not for any benefit on my part, but for the betterment of humankind, pitching in … it’s the least we can do, no?

Okay, I know I buried the lede, but here we go, DEFINITIONS FIRST !
  • JUPITER: The planet symbolized as the sky god ! the god of thunder. Know what thunder is? The result of lightning. Know what lightening is? When nature equalizes itself after a buildup of electrostatic energy. The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces a rapid expansion of air and creates a sonic shock wave, often referred to as a "thunderclap" or "peal of thunder". Thunder and lightning are ways the Universe cleanses itself from a buildup of tension. JUPITER is also the bringer of Light, the god of gods. JUPITER's temperament is philosophical, variety loving, knowledgeable. JUPITER LOVES expansion, indulgence, growth, optimism, risk taking. JUPITER  governs our ethics, our philosophy about life, where we want to learn and how we can benefit from that knowledge. JUPITER is a lucky charm that expands whatever it touches, thus showing what it is that we do on a large scale. JUPITER is about the search for truth, and governs law, religion, philosophy, and education.
  • SATURN: The planet symbolized by the god of farmers, sort of, the god of agriculture kind of, the patron of sowing and harvest, seeds and wealth, abundance. SATURN LOVES hardworking and ambitious people with discipline and commitment. SATURN LOVES to reward those persons who work hard with fame and success and achievement and a sterling legacy. Saturn describes our ambition in life, our major life lessons, and our feelings of inadequacy. SATURN informs us about restrictions, limitations, boundaries, safety, and practicality. 
  • CAPRICORN: The star sign ruled by Saturn and embodies all of the above attributes of the planet Saturn.
  • AQUARIUS:   The star sign who says, "We’re in this together, I am a connector, I achieve and desire to achieve and make a name for myself in this world; I am orderly, a planner, ambitious, and know how to have and maintain discipline."

So … Jupiter and Saturn are huge, big planets that have a lot of gravitational pull in the galaxy. Every 30 years, Saturn comes back to the exact place it was when you were born. Your 29th to 30th year on this planet is very important, it’s called your “Saturn Return Year,” and it KIND of solidifies the type of person you're going to be for a while … we sort of come to some conclusions around 25, 26, we experiment trying on different personalities and costumes, but about 28? 29? our subconscious starts to firm up who we are and it’s not just the “ohmuhguh I’m turning 30 !” sort of thing, it’s actually a force greater than our fears.

So … Jupiter chases Saturn through the heavens, and every TWENTY years, Saturn and Jupiter end up spending time together in the same place, the same “house,” the same area of the wheel of the zodiac. Every SIXTY years, Saturn and Jupiter come “home” to Capricorn where they are most comfortable, where they have “Dignity” because they are in their home turf, where they have the highest universal vibration, and where they are most powerful in influence.

Know what 2020 - 60 is? 1960. Remember what happened in the 60s? Chaos, yes, but a destruction of all norms, all strongholds on what is true and good and right and just. All the walls surrounding all the lies came tumbling down and all the people who did the most harm were uncovered, at least, even though many not brought to justice. Even though many of the lessons learned were easily forgotten or misplaced or taken over by other forces like the "ME" generation of the 70s, the "GREED" generation of the 80s, the bills which came due in the 90s, and the general flailing of the aughts and here we are ...

So right now we’re going in to a period where the cosmos is lined up in such a way that we can completely change who we are and our trajectory through this existence. Like … you know those times when people say

… outside of like rehab, but rehab too, I guess, I mean like

someone goes from being a paralegal to being Wanda Sykes

someone goes from gluing plastic flowers on to his mother’s flip flops to being Michael Kors

THAT is the level of complete Doctor Who Regeneration possible to each of us is right now in this era … as everything else swoops around us, and things get faster and nastier until it all implodes, we are able, right at this second, not as much to make our dreams come completely true, as we are literally on The Cusp of A Great New Age, building an infrastructure to support a major refocusing, setting priorities, learning on a whole new level, and being inspired to achieve a legacy that is worthy of the gifts we've been given.

REALISE ! however, this is taking place in Aquarius. Aquarius is concerned with the environment and with paring down excesses. Notice the new plastic bag ban that is coming in to effect, notice little things you might be sacrificing, ordering in, going out, to save up for a Ninja Foodie or a cruise (ooo, not a cruise, a trip to a domestic seashore far away from international travelers ... sorry ... too soon?). Think of these adjustments not as punishments but for sacrifices which will reward in days and years to come.

It is possible right now to begin starring an entirely different movie if we want to, and the universe is POISED to remove all the obstacles in our way, bless our every step with bounty and peace and prosperity and auspicious voyages …

Pam Gregory says that if we can just allow ourselves these monumental blessings, if we will just get out of our own way, do the work, and allow these blessings to come upon us, we can use these months “positively to find a sense of deeper personal purpose to live with a deeper state of meaning in our lives … like it's almost starting our life with a blank sheet of paper because the veil is so thin between the inconceivable galactic energies which are descending into our earth plane right now, so much so that … this is a superb time to create an entirely new life for ourselves … and the more we can forget the past the better …

... so we need to just get that blank sheet of paper, meditate, think of what we would really like to offer to the world, living with a deeper sense of meaning and a deeper sense of personal purpose, and what best of ourselves we can bring to the party to help heal the planet.”

One of the blessings of Mercury in retrograde during this era is, anything that stalls? any business dealings, any writings, any projects, any communications which don’t quite click? the stalling gives us the opportunity to check our work, to cross the Ts and dot the Is and wow is THAT an antiquated phrase. The pause gives us time to make absolutely sure that everything is absolutely correct. THIS is the time to do our breath work. THIS is the time to meditate, to chant, to ruminate. THIS is the time when the Galactic Center is open to us, hears us, blesses us, and is at its highest frequency in our consciousness.

We are well blessed by imagining a column of white, diamond-sparkly light coming from above through the top
 of our head, pouring that light in to our heart’s center, and imagining breathing through that center and expanding the light throughout the universe. The cross of a “t,” the light down from up and out through us. We are poised to make quantum leaps in our own elevation and the world’s evolution.

I’ll close with this right now because there’s an important watch-cry for the next, oh, 90 years that I think we need to employ:

SIMPLE IS BESTEST. 

If you're writing something and it's three paragraphs? make it one. Especially right now during this Mercury Retrograde (Feb/Mar 2020)? Especially through the end of the year? We may have every best intention on the planet to tell someone something? But if they have no ears to hear it, it’s going to possibly go south, possibly be used against us.

There is no “convincing” anyone of anything right now, people are locked down, baybee, locked down TIGHT, and they’re not letting go. They’re happy in what they swear works, they say they don’t want to bitch and moan and the next thing you know they’re reposting something HORRIBLE about this one or that thing and all you can do is shake your head. They know spreading discord is antithetical to a life filled with bubbling joy, but habits are hard break. The older I get the more I realise why old southern women do that thing, that shake their head thing, with a wry smile and say, mmph mmph mmph.

Listen, now, conversely, people are going to be careless with what they’re saying, and a good way not to get caught up in the misunderstanding on OUR side is just the old side-step.  People are going to tromp through puddles, but you can just jump to the side and not get caught, not get splashed on.

We are NOT required to engage, you know, we are NOT required to respond. That’s where the old chestnut “bless your heart” comes from, and you don’t even have to say it out loud. I don’t CARE anymore if people think I’m rude, I literally just stand there now, I literally just walk away. I can't afford to say anything anymore because it’s not worth it to me, it’s like talking to a drunk.

When I MUST engage, I give it the old E.S.T. routine, Erhard Seminars Training, a.k.a Meisner Acting Method, “What I think I hear you saying is this, and then I repeat what they just said to me back to them with no line readings, no emotion, just the exact words they used. I've LITERALLY had people completely deny they said any of that, and most times they’ll hear how awful or stupid or careless what they said was, and they’ll try to fix it with backpedals or new utterances, but “Honestly, Lucy,” it’s just exhausting and so much better to let it be and let them figure things out for themselves.

There is SO much more to talk about, but let's start with this, shall we? now you have the overview? Peace, dear ones, and love and soul ...

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