The Urban Shaman

2009-07-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF...
PUT YOUR OXYGEN MASK
ON FIRST!
gail oliver © 2009

I rarely get real personal here on my blog, at least not the details. As much as I really covet my privacy,
I had to share my most recent and very personal experience, in part for healing and in part for the benefits of a good catharsis.

After months of bizziness, feeling like Superwoman: caring for and managing a parent with dementia, an officer of the Board of Directors of a foundation and on the board of a higher education facility, juggling 5 graphic design clients, teaching yoga just to name a few... Anywho, I awoke last week with total numbness and severe nerve pain on one side of my body, slurred speech and a left facial droop (as they put it). I was needless to say rushed to the emergency room in a full blown panic.

They thought I had had a stroke... not good! As it turned out, after a CT scan, Ekg, Full Blood work up, IV stint, 2 MRI’s, and hours of waiting in a cold arse room, it was concluded I did not have a stroke... Instead, I have the full blown effects of an over stressed life... an overly FULL PLATE. I was lectured and prescribed some things if needed (I don't do pharmaceuticals, but that's a different story), and put on complete rest with no stress what-so-ever for a few weeks. Whew! ... But STILL...

How ironic this is since I had just started Taking Time For Myself.... remember last months blog? I had just pulled back from most of my duties and obligations, hired help for my mother, finished half of my design jobs, turned phones off at 10pm, started walking again, started doing my creative stuff just for pleasure... Hell, I even ran into some friends at the park and went fishing last week. I was making a concerted effort to have a life.... I meditate and journal, I practice deep breathing, do yoga, eat right...Who’d a thunk?

Imagine where I’d be if I didn’t do these things? ..............on second thought, lets not.

Well the body is a funny thing (and I know this). While you are in the throws of the hustle and bustle, you deal with it, you perform, you handle your business. The minute you sit back to take a breath, your body nuts up and rebels from the lack of balance in our daily lives... As it tries to right itself, it shuts down. Sometimes briefly and sometimes permanently. If you are lucky, maybe you just end up with an auto-immune dis-ease like Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes Type 1, Narcolepsy, Myasthenia gravis, Hashimoto's disease, Psoriasis, Graves' disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, Vitiligo, Scleroderma, Primary biliary cirrhosis, Endometriosis, Autoimmune hepatitis, Alopecia areata, Crohns Disease...... ewwww!

Stress accounts for about 75%- 80% of all diagnosed illnesses... So I have attached some information on stress for you to explore....

The top 3 common dis-eases that are due to Stress are:

1. Heart Disease
2. Strokes
3. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Live Long, Prosper... and CHILL, it ain’t worth it!

Stress Reduction
By Jake Lawson | 07.19.09

What are sources of stress?

Change of any kind can induce stress due to the following reasons:
Fear of the new, the unknown * Feelings of personal insecurity * Feelings of vulnerability * Fear of rejection * Need for approval * Lack of tolerance for ambiguity * Fear of conflict * Fear of taking a risk * Fear of developing trust * Fear of inability to cope with changed circumstances

Individual personality characteristics that can induce stress include:
Low self-esteem * Feelings of over-responsibility * Fear of loss of control * Fear of failure, error, mistakes * Fear of being judged * Lack of belief in being good enough * Chronic striving to be perfect * Chronic guilt * Unresolved grief over a loss or a series of losses * Chronic anger, hostility or depression

Interpersonal issues that can induce stress include:
A lack of adequate support within the relationship * A lack of healthy communication within the relationship * A sense of competitiveness between the parties involved * Threats of rejection or disapproval between people * An inability to be appropriately assertive * Struggle for power and control in the relationship * Poor intimacy or sexuality within the relationship * Chronic conflict and disagreement with no healthy resolution * Over-dependency of one party on another * A troubled person who refuses to recognize the need for help

System (family, job, school, club or organization) issues that can induce stress include:
Lack of leadership * Lack of sense of direction * Uncooperative atmosphere * Competitive atmosphere * Autocratic leadership * Unclear expectations * A chronic sense of impending doom * A lack of teamwork * Confused communications * Developmental disability or chronic ill health of one or more members.

Is all stress bad?
Not all stress is distress: a certain amount of stress or pressure is necessary and shows a positive adaptation being made by a person. This is called eustress.

Bad or negative stress is called distress: the negative physiological and emotional response when stress is intense and unresolved.

There are three degrees of stress:

Low: This is distress leading to boredom, fatigue, frustration or dissatisfaction.
Optimum: This is eustress leading to creativity, problem solving, progress, change, learning and energetic satisfaction.
High: Involves irrational problem solving.

What is the definition of stress?
Stress is defined as a person's response to his environment. Stress is measured in terms of arousal or stimulation. As such, stress must be present for a person to function.

Each person has his own normal (homeostatic) level of arousal at which he functions best. If something unusual in the environment occurs, this level of arousal is affected.

There are three phases of arousal:
Phase 1. Alarm phase: When an unusual (or stressful) event occurs, the output of energy drops for a short period as the event is registered in the person's mind.
Phase 2. Adaptation phase: Next, the output of energy increases above the normal level; arousal is heightened as the person seeks to deal with the situation. Adaptation responses available to humans include physically running away, fighting, freezing (self immobilization), suppression emotion or learning.
Phase 3. Exhaustion phase: Finally the person's available energy is expended and his capacity to function effectively is reduced.

What is the stress/relaxation physical response cycle?
Signs of physical response include:
Increased heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, perspiration, pupil dilation and muscle tension. In the state of chronic stress, heart rate, blood pressure and respiration are chronically elevated.

The signs of relaxation response include:
Decreased heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, pupil dilation and muscle tension.
A stress management strategy involves evoking the relaxation physical response on a regular, daily basis.

Personal Life Events Analysis
To learn the level of stress (distress) in your life, circle the value at the right of each of the following events if it has occurred within the past 12 months:
Event--Value

Death of spouse--100
Divorce--73
Marital separation--65
Jail term--63
Death of close family member--63
Personal injury or illness--53
Marriage--50
Fired from job--47
Marital reconciliation--45
Retirement--45
Change in family member's health--44
Pregnancy--40
Sexual difficulties--39
Addition to family--39
Business readjustment--39
Change in financial status--38
Death of close friend--37
Career change--36
Change in number of marital arguments--35
Mortgage or loan over $10,000--31
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan--30
Change in work responsibilities--29
Son or daughter leaving home--29
Trouble with in-laws--29
Outstanding personal achievement--28
Spouse begins or ceases working--26
Starting or finishing school--26
Change in living conditions--25
Revision of personal habits--24
Trouble with boss--23
Change in work hours or conditions--20
Change in residence--20
Change in schools--20
Change in recreational habits--19
Change in church activities--19
Change in social activities--18
Mortgage or loan under $10,000--17
Change in sleeping habits--16
Change in number of family gatherings--15
Change in eating habits--15
Vacation--13
Christmas season--12
Minor violation of the law--11

How to analyze your score:
Add the number values. If your total score is more than 150, find ways to reduce stress in your daily life so that your stress level doesn't increase. The higher the score, the harder one needs to work at staying physically well.

Suggested uses for personal Life Events analysis:
1. Become familiar with the different events and the amounts of stress they promote.
2. Put the list of events where your family can easily refer to it several times a day.
3. Practice recognizing the stress level when one of these events happens.
4. Think about the meaning of the event for you and identify your feelings.
5. Think about the different ways you can adjust to the event.
6. Take your time in arriving at decisions.
7. Anticipate life changes and plan for them well in advance whenever possible.
8. Pace yourself. It can be done even if you are in a hurry.
9. Look at the accomplishment of a task as a part of ongoing daily living; avoid looking at such an achievement as a stopping point. Congratulate yourself and push ahead.
10. Recognize that your internal mechanism of coping with stress is directly tied to how your health and well being will be influenced by it.

Note: This scale is derived from the Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Scale. Holmes, T. & Rahe, R. (1967) "Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale," Journal of Psychosomatic Research, vol. II.

What is personal progressive relaxation?
Learning to relax:
You may have grown to accept a certain high level of stress and anxiety as "normal." You may be unfamiliar with what it feels like to be relaxed, calm and unstressed. With progressive relaxation you learn what it feels like to be relaxed, you learn to increase relaxation to a new level. By doing this you not only improve your physical well being by reducing hypertension, headaches and other physical complaints, but you improve your mental state by reducing stress, anxiety, irritability and depression.

About this Author

James J Messina, PhD, is a licensed psychologist with more than 35 years of experience counseling individuals and families. Messina, who specializes in adult and children psychotherapy, serves as Director of Psychological Services at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Tampa, Fla. He has a private practice in Tampa and is also a member of the American Psychological Association.

For more info: http://www.livestrong.com/article/14656-stress-reduction/

2009-06-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

Take Time for Yourself...
Ignite Your Wanderlust

The last few weeks have been dizzying... bizzy, bizzy bizzy... I’m sure all of us are experiencing some sort of overload, our day to day responsibilities to our children, career, businesses, parents, finances... Where are we in this mix? We fend off the bombardment of negativity broadcast daily on TV, the internet... etc.
OH my God!
What’s his name is testing nukes and missiles, Osama Bin Laden is spouting more BS threats (I still can’t believe they can’t find a 6’5” guy on dialysis with a satellite phone in the desert), GM is bankrupt, Chrysler is sunk... and so on and so on...

What Do You Do for Yourself as Not To Go NUTZ?

A lifelong friend of mine called me the other morning out of the blue and said “We’re going to lunch at 12 noon, I will pick you up.” CLICK! I’m glad I had awaken at 5:30am and was finish with all my work projects and responsibilities for the day... talk about divine timing...

Off we went to steal the day! It was a beautiful day, clear and in the high 60’s as we headed up the coast... Just perfect! We parked on the side of the road, took a few deep cleansing breaths of the ocean air as we exited the car, all the stress melted away in almost an instant, and we went into the quaint little fish place. We ordered a delish lunch of grilled fish, salad and potatoes a bottle of Chard and found a table under some palm trees on a cute private deck (only because it was more of a walk than the main deck) ... As we ate and chatted, we were both amazed at how we both had allowed life and all it’s “IT” to suppress and almost kill the creative inner child we both once exuded in all our glory a few short years ago... caregiving of a parent, restarting a business, civic obligations and in her case caregiving of a parent and her family and her job. When did WE, of all people, get so serious? Hours later and after another bottle of wine with dessert, as we wandered the local corner boutique, and the canyon... We made a pact, not only are we setting aside a day a month to just hang out, but that we, from this moment on, will rebirth our inner child and act on our creative impulses. Man! that was the best therapy ever and cheaper too. Oops! it’s 6:30pm and we were late picking her kids up from school....that darn traffic! Back to reality.

I had been in the process of getting back to me, expressing my creative side... But now it’s not just an option on the back burner, but a need as great as air to my Soul. I am in the process of converting my dining room into my art studio where I can bring the outside in and why not? I can’t wait to play!

She’s Baaaack! Ain’t nothin’ but a “G” thang bay-bay!

© Gail Oliver 2009

Ignite Your Wanderlust

Wanderlust – in its original translation from German, this word meant “to enjoy the hike.” In English, we’ve borrowed this term and altered it a bit to mean a “desire to journey.” So you could say our entire life is one long journey with each moment extending into the next, building upon what has already been created. With each step we venture forth into an unknown realm; with each word, each thought, and each action, we participate in the unending creation of the universe. Life’s impressions flow through us, and we distill them through our intellect and define them through our ego.

We get to choose our interpretation. Sometimes our life conditioning clouds or influences the moment, our interpretation, and our response. But nevertheless, our own individual view of life is the only interpretation we have. Our personal journey is THE journey and we have a choice: dive in and celebrate the journey or back up, freeze, or complain about it. When we find ourselves feeling constricted, jealous, or fearful, or we are looking outside of ourselves for answers, it is evident that we have chosen to view the journey with a less-than outlook that comes from an interpretation of lack or scarcity. When we find ourselves feeling expansive, abundant, and affluent . . . then it is clear that we are seeing our journey from the perspective of love.

Regardless of our interpretation, in each moment the journey continues . . . and we have the opportunity in that instant to take a step towards abundance, expansion, and wanderlust – to learn as we grow, to see each moment as a guidepost of the journey, and to know that only from a place of openness does our world grow.

Right now you probably know someone in a state of constriction (it may even be you). They are in pain and fear; they feel doubtful and they do not believe in themselves or in the divine god or goddess that rests within. They may be exhibiting panic, stress, anxiety, greediness, selfishness, aggressiveness, or just plain meanness. Know that in any moment, this could be any of us. The antidote is unconditional love. The remedy is finding out what your heart is longing for. The cure is wanderlust . . . opening to the unknown, if just a little bit at a time.

The true journey is learning to see the world with fresh eyes. This is our daily path to freedom and expansion. Enjoy your journey . . . wherever it leads.

Staff, Deepak Chopra Wellness Center © 2009

2009-03-24T14:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Spring!

Seeds of Intention
Eat What you Sow

The Power of Intention
Seeds of Intention
by Deepak Chopra

Intention is the starting point of every path in life. It is the force that fulfills all of our needs, whether for money, relationships, spiritual awakening, or love. Intention generates all the activities in the universe. Everything that we can see – and even the things we cannot – are an expression of intention’s infinite organizing power.

As the ancient Indian sages observed thousands of years ago, our destiny is shaped by the deepest level of our intention and desire. Once we plant the seed of an intention in the fertile ground of pure potentiality, our soul’s journey unfolds automatically, as naturally as a bulb becomes a tulip or an embryo becomes a child.

Nurture your Intentions Here a few recommendations for using intention to the highest possible benefit:

Set your intentions high.

Aim to be a saint and a miracle worker. If you know that the goal of inner growth is to
acquire mastery, then plant the seed for mastery as soon as possible. Don’t strain to work wonders, but don’t deny them to yourself either. The beginning of mastery is vision; see the miracles around you, and that will make it easier for greater miracles to grow.

Unmask your false intentions.
False intentions take the form of guilty desires: I want someone else to fail. I want to get even. I want to see bad people punished. False intentions can be elusive, but you will notice their existence by the feeling connected with them – a feeling of fear, greed, rage, hopelessness, and weakness. Sense the feeling first, refuse to buy into it , and then remain aware until you find the intention lurking beneath.

Nurture your intentions every day.
Everyday life surrounds us in a swirling chaos, and it’s easy to fall into the grip of our ego’s fears, demands, and confusion. You need to remind yourself – daily – of your intentions and purpose. Some people find it helpful to write down their intentions and review them each day; for others, periods of regular meditation and prayer are invaluable. Find your center and don’t let go of your intention until it feels centered inside yourself. Detach. Intend for everything to work out as it should, then let go and allow opportunities and openings to come your way. Don’t listen to the voice that says you have to be in charge, that constant vigilance is the only way to get anything done. The outcome that you try so hard to force may not be as good for you as the one that comes naturally.

Eat What You Sow
Gail Oliver © 2009

Every May for the last 20 years, for Mother’s Day, my gift to my Mom has been an edible garden, the gift that keeps on giving.

We spend the day playing in the garden... eating fresh strawberries, giggling and getting dirty... The usual crop was 3-4 different varieties of tomatoes, herbs in a lovely herb pot, strawberries and miscellaneous veggies that tweaked my curiosity at the nursery....

Last year, I got industrious and added miniature fruit trees in the mix. I planted an avocado tree, a blood orange tree, and a red plumb tree. I also planted collard greens and edible flowers (pansies, marigolds, astumerias (sp?) and nasturtiums.

On my patio this winter (always mild in Southern Cali) I planted big pots with lettuces, red and green romaine, watercress, curly lettuce, curly spinach, red kale, and other colorful varieties...yum! It’s kinda cool to be able to go pick my own fresh and “organic” salad right out my back door...

The Surprising Benefits?

I save about $5-8 a week the equivalent of 2 containers of organic salad mix from the market. It never gets old or limp if I keep it past the expiration date....ooops. I don’t run out of salad, I no longer waste salad greens... I only pick what I need, I don't get bored eating the same salads all week... I can mix them up, it’s always fresh and it has much much more flavor than salads picked a week ago and then shipped in cold storage to the market...

Soooooo, I started sowing seeds to transplant in my mother’s garden later this month.... I sowed: multi colored beets (Obama doesn’t know what he’s missing ;-), multi colored carrots, Kentucky bush beans, more curly spinach, brussels sprouts, and cherry tomatoes (sown from my coolest neighbor’s crop last year). I will also plant 2 other varieties of tomatoes, broccoli, broccoli rabe, swiss chard (the colorful kind) and my coolest neighbor is giving me a starter blackberry vine from her big BB vine. Planting all these goodies will give my mom something to fuss over and nurture every morning, and me something to share with her. I am looking forward to reaping all the benefits of a tasty harvest this spring and summer.

Now I know Michelle, our First Lady has gone public with her White House Victory Garden, but why not follow her lead? It’s a great lesson for your kids and the kid in you (a great reason to play in the dirt and mud). It’s a great way to show your loved ones you care about their health, after all, your garden is organic and there are no mysterious and/or harmful pesticides on your mini crop unless you put that crap on them. It will save you money. You get great satisfaction from knowing you are being green.... no plastic bags, no packaging, no waste, and you only pick what you need to prepare.

Every thing old is new again...
Thanks Grandma Mamie, for teaching me how to garden...
I paid attention!

Good to Know Stuff About Gardening...

Vegetables need 7 to 8 hours of full sun daily. Cool season vegetables get by on 6, some can even be planted in partial shade.

Framed Bed Soil Recipe: 50% existing garden soil, 25% aged manure, 25% compost or humus

Gardeners in tropical regions plant & grow cool season vegetables in fall and winter.

So you are looking out the window at 2 feet of snow wondering what you can possibly do now to start your garden the first thing to do is place your seed order. When your order arrives, it may still be too early to plant the seeds outdoors, but many cool season vegetables can be started from seed indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the frost free date in your area.

Some transplants can be put out a few weeks before the frost free date as well. Now I foresee the comments from readers in the Deep South already, “This doesn't apply to me!” Well, you are right. You are already midway through your cool season vegetable garden time frame, but there is still time to plant. A great resource for you is www.FloridaGardener.com.

On the flip side, gardeners in the extreme north have such a short growing season that they will plant their cool and warm season vegetables practically side by side.

Last Frost Dates by Zone
Zone 3 1 May / 31 May
Zone 4 1 May / 30 May
Zone 5 30 Mar / 30 Apr
Zone 6 30 Mar / 30 Apr
Zone 7 30 Mar / 30 Apr
Zone 8 28 Feb / 30 Mar
Zone 9 30 Jan / 28 Feb
Zone 10 30 Jan or before
Zone 11 Free of Frost throughout the year.

Before you start sowing seeds and planting it's important to know what the last frost date is in your area. This will determine when your spring growing season begins. There are several on-line sites where you can find this information using your zip code or by checking frost dates of near-by cities. These are average dates that may differ slightly year to year but they give you a basic window of time in which you can create a planting schedule. Another good source of local, reliable advice is your area's County Cooperative Extension Service or check with knowledgeable members of local gardening clubs I don't want to mislead you, even though many of these vegetables are regarded as cold tolerant, they can all be wiped out by a sudden, severe drop in temperature. It's important to be prepared with something to drape over the crops if an overnight cold snap is expected. Simply cover your crops with newspaper, old sheets or frost blankets. Just remember to remove the covering the next morning.

So that brings us to just what types of vegetables should we plant.

Here is a list of common cool season vegetables with a few tips to help you produce a bountiful spring garden.

Arugula – Sow seeds in the garden as soon as soil can be worked in spring. They will germinate in about 7 days and are ready to harvest in 3 to 4 weeks. For a continuous harvest, sow seeds every 2 weeks until temperatures heat up.
Beets – Sow seeds in early spring as soon as the soil can be worked. Beets prefer a well-drained, sandy soil. Avoid high nitrogen fertilizers as this will encourage top growth at the expense of root development. As with all root crops good soil aeration is key to uniform, robust development. Consistent moisture is also important. Keep areas weed free to avoid competition for nutrients.
Broccoli – Broccoli seed can be sown directly in the garden 4 weeks before the last frost date in your area or set out transplants 2 weeks before the last frost date. The ideal day time temperature for broccoli is between 65 and 80 degrees. Feed the plants 3 weeks after transplanting into the garden. Use a low nitrogen fertilizer.
Cabbage – Start seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last front date or plant transplants in the garden 2 weeks before that date. Direct sow in the garden immediately after the last frost date. Cabbage plants are heavy feeders that require fertile soil rich in organic matter and consistent moisture.
Carrots – Sow seeds in spring about 2 weeks before the last frost date. Carrots need deep, loose soil to form a robust root. Keep the bed weeded to avoid competition for nutrients from other plants. Too much nitrogen will result in forked roots. When the seedlings are about 2-inches tall, thin them so there is about 1 to 4-inches between them. Cover the shoulders with mulch or soil to keep them from turning green and bitter.
Collards – Collard transplants can be planted 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost date in your area. Plant in fertile, well drained soil with a pH of 6.5 to 6.8. Rich soil encourages rapid growth and tender leaves, which are the best tasting collards. English Peas – Direct sow in the garden 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost date in your area. They will germinate in soil temperatures as low as 40 degrees F. Seedlings will survive a late snow and short periods of temperatures down to 25 degrees F.
Kale – You can plant kale in early spring, about 3 to 5 weeks before the last frost date. Cover with frost blankets during severe cold. Similar to collards very fertile soil is ideal to encourage rapid growth and tender leaves.
Kohlrabi – Kohlrabi is similar to a turnip, but is actually related to cabbage. Set plants out 4 weeks before the last frost date. Protect young plants from freezing temperatures with a frost blanket. Cool temperatures enhance the sweet flavor. Lettuce – Sow lettuce any time in spring when the soil is workable. Lettuce is more sensitive to cold than other cool season vegetables and should definitely be covered during cold snaps. The ideal day time temperature is between 60 and 70 degrees. Fertilize with fish emulsion, which is high in nitrogen. Lettuce will grow in partial shade and actually appreciates the shelter from intense late spring sun.
Onions – Onions can be grown from sets, small bulbs, or transplants, which look like scallions and come in a bundle of 60 or so. Either method should be planted in early spring as soon as the soil is workable. Long-day varieties are suitable for Northern gardens and short-day varieties can be planted in the South. Place time release fertilizer in the planting hole so that it is close to the roots. Follow the fertilizer's label directions.
Potatoes – Greening of grass is a good indicator of when to plant potato sets, dried potato pieces with 2 to 3 eyes. In my zone 7 garden that occurs in March. Soil should be loose, fertile and well drained. As the tubers mature, cover with soil to prevent burning.
Radish – Sow radish seeds in the garden about 4 weeks before the last frost date in your area. No feeding necessary, but soil should be fertile and well drained. They are quick to mature so check them regularly. They are ready to harvest as soon as they are of edible size.
Spinach – Spinach seeds can be sown over frozen ground to germinate as the soil thaws. Transplants can be set out 4 weeks before the last frost date in your area. Fertilize when the plants are about 4 inches tall. Spinach prefers very fertile soil to encourage rapid growth and tender leaves. Once the days get long and warm it will bolt, meaning that it grows tall, blooms and becomes bitter tasting. For grit-free leaves select plain leaf varieties such as Giant Nobel and Olympia.
Swiss Chard – Swiss Chard is one the more beautiful vegetables in the garden. Bright Lights and Ruby are favorites for adding color to the garden and the dinner table. Plant or sow seeds 2 weeks before the last frost date in your area. Thin to 6-inches apart when seedlings are 3-inches tall. Water regularly.
Turnip – Plant 2 weeks before the last frost date. Any well-drained soil will do. Consistent moisture is key for healthy root development. Although it is not necessary, the greens will be the most tender if you plant in a fertile soil.

I got this information when I googled Organic Spring What to Plant. Sorry I didn’t get the link....
my bad!

2009-02-17T21:29:00.000-08:00

Follow Your Passion...
and Be Happy.

As I was shopping last week at the Annual African American Art Market in Lost Angeles, where you are exposed to hundreds of artisans, fashion designers, hand made crafts, and such for about 2 weeks. I met a woman... as we shopped for unusual but cool attire, we got to talking. She asked what I did... I responded with my usual, Jamaican Enterprises schpeel, graphic design, yoga, artsy stuff, foundation stuff, grantwriting ect. Her response became the theme for this February blog. She said she was a retired teacher (noble profession), and looked me in the eye and said “wow, how nice that you do what makes you happy.... I’m trying to get there too.” She might have been a year older than me.

As I thought about her this past week, I thought, how many people are spending their lives being secure but not happy.... hummmmm. What is happy worth? What is security worth? And if we are doing what is our passion and it makes us happy, how great is that?.... They say, “if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life.”

Of course being a Virgo... I kept on thinking....How many creative people are out there trapped in the illusion of being secure with many losing their jobs as we speak.... And how many are frightened to venture out on their own and embrace their passion? And all the while, short-changing themselves from their true potential....After all, God & The Universe will support you if you have faith and your heart is in the right place. Or, you can work for someone else, and be the subject of the new phenomenon, the disposable workforce/society.

I have heard friends say they need to get the benefits, mainly health benefits.... ???.... As a culture here in the US, we tend to put car insurance above health insurance... I hear, "I feel we shouldn't have to pay for it".... WTF!...So let me get this straight, your car is more important than your body temple... again,..????... Insuring a high end car (with the average car costing $25,000.00+) is more important than your health, the health of your wealth (home, savings, investments, family) and so on and so on. I think they have it twisted, after all, you'd never expect anyone else to pay for your car insurance... Health insurance may be a scam, but for $150 bucks a month or more, you won’t lose your life or home. So let’s see the logic, I’ll get a job and suffer through it to be secure, I'll put my health and wellbeing in someone else's hands, be at someone else’s whim, control, and well.... whatever helps you sleep at night.

Right now, the world economy sucks.... People are being terminated quicker than I’m writing this. So why not put your God given gifts and talents to work for you? Dare to trust your gifts and be happy. You may find you have something someone needs and wants...What do you have to lose? Yourself? And who’s more important?

Gail Oliver©2009

Create VS Consume

An Obituary in The Times

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.

No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come from out of the rain; Why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; And, maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place.

Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses preaching politics from the pulpit; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason. His 4 stepbrothers survive him; I Know My Rights; I Want It Now; Someone Else Is To Blame; I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
unknown

40 Golden Tips for
A Better Life in 2009

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.

4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My purpose today is to __________ '

5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.

6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008.

7. Make time to practice Meditation and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.

8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6. - Appreciate their genuine nature, strength, and innocence. For real!

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan Salmon, broccoli, almonds, & walnuts.

12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk, and let new and flowing energy into your life.

14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, issues of the past, negative thoughts, or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away (like any class) but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.

17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the energy vampires away.

18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'

26. Forgive everyone for everything.

27. What other people think of you is none of your business.

28. Nature heals everything.

29. However good or bad a situation is it will change.

30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful, or joyful.

32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

33. The best is yet to come.

34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up.

35. Do the right thing!

36. Call your family often (Or email them notes of a personal nature).

37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for ______. Today I accomplished ______.

38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

39. Enjoy the ride. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.

40. Breathe

May your troubles be less, May your blessings be more, May nothing but Happiness come through your door!
unknown

2008-11-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

YES WE DID!

Can you stand it?
The World rejoices
with us...
HOPE...
PROGRESS...
CHANGE...

But now we have a great job ahead... We must step up to the plate, be more self reliant and more responsible in our actions. IT will take years for the mess that has been made of this country to be corrected and made great again. I am most excited for our children.... They now have a "real" role model for them... not a Hip Hop Rapper.... Not an athlete... not a TV or Movie star. A MAN of color, raised by a single mother... a MAN, who is intelligent, self confident, articulate, passionate... A MAN, that takes the high road in all situations, A MAN, courageous in his convictions, hell... a MAN of conviction, A MAN of INTEGRITY. No More Excuses... YES WE CAN!

This is the Gratitude month of November... and we have much to be grateful for... A brave new world... where color is no longer an issue... (however, some still need to catch up and we must send them love and light...)

peace n blessings,
Gail

Living from the Heart

Many of us have been taught to live from only one of our six senses, our mind. We have forgotten, lost touch, with the other five senses available for our perception of life. Assuming no physical disabilities, every moment of life, we can see with our eyes, we can smell with our nose, we can taste with our mouth, we can hear with our ears, and we can touch life with our skin.

Living from the heart is allowing our body/mind sensations to come to our attention, moment by moment. In reality, every moment of life is new and every situation is fresh and clean. When we live from our head only, life can appear to be repetitious, sometimes exciting and sometimes boring. We are continually seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Much of my life has been in this seeking process. An inner feeling of uneasiness, that I should be somewhere I am not, with someone I am not, having something I don’t have. Instead of living from my whole being, I have been in the process of having this and wanting that, of being this and becoming that. The cycle of emotional suffering is very painful and I have learned that it is all self inflicted.

Living from the heart means we are connected deeply with the core of our real being. We know who we are and where we are all the time. We are connected with the source of life.

A child is born in the world, he has an experience, this experience goes into his brain, he remembers the experience, he desires the experience again, if he gets what he desires, there is pleasure, if he doesn’t get what he wants, there is emotional pain for him and or others around him. At a very young age, the child has formed an image of himself and of the outside world. When the outside world fits the inside image, there is pleasure, when there is no match, there is pain. The cycle of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain begins.

He starts using his intellect to figure out what works and what doesn’t. This becomes a habit, an ingrained pattern in the brain. Patterns repeat until replaced. The longer a pattern is repeated the deeper ingrained it is. His brain becomes conditioned to look at life in a certain way, with certain beliefs. This pattern continues until something happens in his life to show him that his version of life no longer works. This is can be viewed as life waking him up.

To live from the heart means to live from feelings, body sensations. We learn to trust our own feelings and rely on them. We learn not to rely on our mental and emotional states alone. We learn to distinguish between emotions and emotional reactions.

When our mind and body are not in sync, in the present moment, there can be tension and conflict in the body. Mental and emotional movies can create drama in our minds and our brain sends chemicals flooding the body alerting it to dangers that are not real, they are only in our mind.

We can learn to slow down our thinking process so that we can observe our thoughts and feelings. The brain is a receptacle for thoughts, an instrument, a tool. Slowing down the function of the brain will slow down the production of thoughts. Thoughts produce feelings, sensations in the body. Feelings produce emotions. An emotion produces energy in the body.

We can slow our brain down by meditating, by praying, by deep breathing, by exercising, by touching our body and letting it know it is safe, by allowing thoughts to come as they will and seeing clearly that we can let them go as quickly as they come.

A clear mind and a receptive heart is a recipe for a healthy and vital life. My hope is that everyone will realize that all suffering, with the exception of physical pain inflicted on one person by another, is self inflicted. When we realize that we are creating our suffering, we can stop doing that and observe the thoughts and feelings instead of becoming them.

It’s takes time to drop conditioning, but the rewards are well worth the effort and we have plenty of time to do this. Time is a function of the mind. Time comes from nowhere and goes nowhere.

Tomorrow never comes, everyone knows. Tomorrow never comes, it just goes! Awareness of the body/mind functions over time reveals to the observer the truth that this present moment is all there is.

©2002 Michael D. Johnson, all rights reserved.
http://www.blogthings.com/howthankfulareyouquiz/

Be Happy by Being Grateful for Whatever Comes
by Enoch Tan

All we want is to be happy in life. Happiness is not only what we feel when we have what we desire, it is also the very emotion that attracts what we desire to us. It is much easier to manifest our intentions if we stop focusing on intending but instead we focus on just being happy with what is. Focus less on asking the universe for this or that and more on just being grateful for whatever comes. We will feel such sweet and true joy when we enjoy the present fully than by trying to create for the future.

Many a times, we sabotage the manifestation of our intentions unknowingly by focusing too much on intending. The truth is that focusing on our intentions too much only reinforces the fact that they do not exist, therefore we are trying to manifest them. The idea that you must focus on your intentions all the time is a fallacy. To manifest our desires, you have to be in vibrational harmony with the realization of our desires, which means you must think, feel and act as if your desires have already manifested.

If you already had all your desires manifested, you wouldn’t be trying to manifest anything, but you would be enjoying and being grateful for all that you have. You would feel totally happy and joyful about the way your life is. You would totally love your life. That is exactly the state for you to be in right now if you want to be in vibrational harmony with all your dreams and desires. This is the secret key all along. It is about not trying to manifest at all but to allow yourself to be as happy as you can be.

http://www.mindreality.com/be-happy-by-being-grateful-for-whatever-comes

Being Grateful for Your Uniqueness

Have you ever wondered if it is really true that no two snowflakes are alike? Well, scientists tell us that variations among complex snow crystals are purely limitless. Many snowflakes look alike – even under the microscope – but at closer examination, they differ. Even with 1024 snowflakes per year, the probability of two exactly identical snow crystals happening within the lifetime of the universe is practically zero.

Given the infinitely greater complexity of a human person, you may be absolutely sure that there never was, not ever will be, anyone like you.

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person...
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those
who have lighted the flame within us..."
~Albert Schweitzer

2008-11-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

2008-09-28T00:06:00.000-07:00

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN
THE GREAT ILLUSION
FALLS APART?

The Chinese say.... May you live in interesting times... Well these times are more than just interesting... I thought I was being challenged until I spoke to a few of my friends. One lost a job for caring for an ailing parent, some are watching as their investments go up in flames, some friends are upside down, ect.... I had my identity stolen last month and then again today....
( man I hate when someone messes with my money! ) all the while trying to survive “the depression” no one wants to talk about at least not with that language. Seems we are all being tested and reevaluating... our faith in ourselves (keeping our inner peace and resolve) and how much faith we can put in others (which is usually a really bad idea)...

It’s a time of optimism and growth... or complacency fueled by fear. We are on the eve of great changes in our society and our country as we knew it, and not only with the upcoming election. How’s it working for you? It’s time for cleaning up and securing our beliefs, our relationships, our inner workings (how we perceive ourselves), how we project ourselves to the world and how we want the world to see who we really are. It’s a time for discarding things, old ideas and theories, and people who/that no longer represent who and what we are... those that no longer serve us. It’s time to step up to the plate and be the change you want to see in the world... or not, that’s up to you... But serious change is a coming, like it or not and it will be uncomfortable as most change is.... and not just because the leaves are changing their colors this season...

Peace and Blessings,
Gail

We are in the midst of the battle of our lives. If fear wins you chain yourselves to a dimension that will never support your highest potentials, your authentic nature, your vitality or your peace.

If love wins, you regain everything that supports your passions, your relationships, your alchemical natures and your internal peace.

Each one of us is either going to free ourselves now to live as Ascended Beings on a New Planet Earth or relegate ourselves to one "hell" of a life.

If you are wondering why this is so, it's simple. Our Mother/Father God, the very soul of we are no longer desires the experience of further decline.
~Maureen Moss

"God is a God of Love and He does not teach through fear or use fear in any way."
~David Nelmes

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN
THE GREAT ILLUSION FALLS APART?

Maureen Moss wrote the following timely article for her World Puja newsletter. It inspires hope and action for the financial crisis we are facing today.

I pray you are well as we watch the "end times" and the "beginning times" simultaneously take their rightful and destined places on Planet Earth. As we watch the great illusion crumbling into ash, it is we, The Great Phoenix's, that are being prepared to rise up from the ashes, and stay up as we witness the end times of one of the most strategic games of Illusion ever played in any dimension at any time.

(I remind you that The Phoenix is the mystical bird, which consumes itself in the fire and then rises from its own ashes.)

While many profess we are in the worst times in our human history, with our "Wag the Dog" politics, shaking and shuddering of Mother Earth and an economy careening out of control, I beg to differ. We are in the midst of the most mystical times of our life, and the most demanding times of our lives as we are being called UP to higher consciousness and higher stewardship of our lives on ALL levels of our Creation including the aspect living on Planet Earth.

What we are facing in the world external is our blessing, not our curse. How much longer could we continue to live beneath ourselves as powerless hostages rather than Powerful Alchemists and Unified Co-Creators of a Great Reality rather than a pathetic Illusion? Yet again, does crisis unite us? Perhaps this time, after this particular crisis passes (and it will) we will call forth our unification without crisis as the instigator.

Undoubtedly and understandably because we are accustomed to believing illusion is reality, it appears to many as though we're all going down on the Titanic. We are NOT. The illusion however is, if we let it. The distortion of reality is going down, if we let it. We are not going down, if we agree to come out of the trances and denials that illusion has hypnotized us with for eons of time and is making strong last ditch efforts to persuade us that Truth Is, where clearly lies are. We will not go down if once and for all we finalize who is going to be in charge of our lives, (and it's not a President) and whether the almighty dollar or the Almighty Gods that we are is going to be a priority and a force for change. We will not go down if we stop trying to breach our security by grasping for fear based solutions granting us momentary reprieve.

The world external grants us a grand mirror my brothers and sisters. This is the time where we are being called upon to be super-conscious about what illusions and fears lie hidden in ourselves (not just in those running for office) that must be exposed and examined, blessed and left to die off before the mind gets in there to perpetrate another cover-up, and believe me it will. The only difference between the mind and the government is the spelling. Both make frenzied and inappropriate choices more often than not, which we have come to find out repeatedly. The mind however goes one step further by deciding to get prophetic about your future, by conversing rapidly and repeatedly with you as to what to do about the predicament you and our world "appear to be in." Actually as I consider that, the government is doing that as well now isn't it?

Please let me remind you that neither the mortal mind nor the government have the capability to be either prophetic or design a Divine Blueprint of re-creation. Only our hearts and soul coupled with passion, intention and action can. With the great illusion finally falling apart, we are being given all of the legroom necessary to create something that is its polar opposite, something that has been waiting in the "wings" for us as a potential for a very long time - The Great Reality.

It seems that we in the United States had best cast our votes as wisely as possible and get busy with the task at hand, creating a Great Reality out of the ashes of the fallen Illusion. Once our votes are cast, the rest will be taken care of. Since I have never known Spirit to deal from the top of the deck, EVER, perhaps it's another Masterful set-up for unification on a much higher playing field. I certainly don't know for sure, but I have seen and experienced many a set-up that turned out to be experience used for something greater.

There is a reason that the election has stirred up a hornet's nest in so many bonnets and it's a good thing. It's caused many to stand up and fight for what they believe is fair and right. It's caused many to be sickened by blatant lies and fraudulent statements and to go to great lengths to discredit what they will not tolerate. It's inciting humanity to move out of complacency and fight for the right to be free and to demand honesty and integrity and to make sure our voices are heard and actions are taken. It's exciting that this might be the very fuel that's long been needed to amp up consciousness, to create a Greater Reality, not just talk about it or pray for it. It's our task, and it will be our blessing.

Imagine the example we are capable of setting for all of humanity including our children and theirs to come. Imagine the healing that will be felt by of our entire ancestral lineage if we go about the task at hand? There isn't a President or Head of State or Nation that's going to "secure" anybody's future. That's just another illusion being irresponsibly promised. It's a blessing to finally see what illusion does to humanity on a grand scale, and it's humbling to see where in our own lives we have done it to ourselves and each other.

Now, if each will take that stirred up energy, turn it inward and clean up any personal internal messes and clear things up with your loved ones (past or present) you will have fertile ground on which to create a Great Reality. You will be supported by a God and Guardians of higher dimensions in your pursuit of happiness and fairness, self-respect and love as you turn your attention towards what you really came to this earth to do, create a Great Reality that is dependent on nothing other than your increased abilities to love responsibly, BE compassion and imbue the vitality of Spirit in every soul you meet.

What would your version of the Great Reality look like based on heartfelt and soul-filled terms and conditions and love and beyond for your-Self and each other? Do you doubt for a moment that you can create a Great Reality and then inflame it? You can. After all we did it with the illusion didn't we? The same energy and power we used to inflame and joint venture with the great illusion shares the metal of the same coin to create the Great Reality and inflame it, and live peacefully within its embrace. It just depends which way you purposefully flip it and how sick and tired you are of the fraudulent nature of illusion and recognize once and for all how it rapes, pillages and plunders TRUTH and LOVE and COMPASSION and UNITY.

To some it may seem improbable to consider birthing (creating) a Great Reality given the current state of external affairs. It's not. It's perfect timing. Apparently we needed a great prompting and now our attention has been gotten in a palpable way. Are you ready for something fresh and life giving? Are you ready to once and for all BE harmonious with your Divine State of Being and with each other? Are you going to wait for someone to get elected to an office in third dimensional territory for a fifth dimensional happening to take place?

Remember WE are the ones we have been waiting for, not an elected official. It seems that those in every state and every nation would be well served to unite and co-create a new Great Reality whose underpinnings are Certainty, Strength, Support, Honest Communication, Wisdom, Compassion and Love. And here's something to consider; though some may not be ready to co-create The Great Reality with you, so be it. Bless them and let them live out their version of life. You will only be affected if you allow it or when you bend down in the mud and roll around with them.

Mahatma Gandhi said: "Human greatness lies in being able to remake themselves and then they will be the change they wish to see in the world." I add to that: Human greatness lies in being fully capable of closing down an era of time known as the Great Illusion and co-creating The Great Reality, opening a new era in time of love and beyond.

Copyright, September 2008, Maureen Moss, http://www.worldpuja.org
Please pass this on with proper credit and website.
as condensed by Sylvia Silk at www.sylviasilk.com

2008-09-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

The Lost Art of Human Communication...
(have you been replaced by a server?)
&
The Meaning of Falcon and Hawk Sightings... as I saw them...

Hello friends... this month is interesting...
Happy birthday to all Virgo's

Wishing you all lots of heartfelt love and happiness

P & B,
Gail

The Lost Art of Human Communication
by Gail Oliver © 09-05-08

In 2004, I turned my personal phone’s answering machine off for good. I got tired of coming home to 10 messages that were urgent in the minds of the senders. OPP & OPS* (you figure it out). It works... with Caller ID I can see who called, and I can return the call when I have the time... which is usually the same day. Add that to 7 email addresses, a Business line and a cell phone, I figure that's good enough and if you really want to find me.... I can be found.

2+ years ago, I joined a social website (then called Zaadz, now Gaia, now part of the Gaiam conglomerate) for spiritual growth and fellowship. Their pitch was join us, network and share ideas, do conscious commerce and be the change you want to see in the world. God bless you Brian! WOW! I thought, how forward thinking and what a great opportunity to connect with like minded people.

At first I only had a few friends... then a year later I looked up and the numbers increased, now I have 215 friends (not much compared to some other larger social web sites, but considering the numbers, enough... and more than enough "friends" to try to manage). A few of us have communicated off the site and have discussed life, most of them overseas and I chat with them weekly. Onsite, well, some I will write to and hear from again, and some I won't. Some are friendly and some are aloof. Some a genuine, and some are not. Some just need attention... Some are on there all day ( how do they make a living?). Some invite you and then you never hear from them. I guess you get out... what you put in. But when does this become just a collection of people for ego gratification (look how popular I am) or sincere goodwill? If that is the case, then less is way better... if you can’t keep up with the real time people in your life, how can you keep up with ePeople?

Switch reels, this becomes a parable for life. When did electronic communication replace actual human interaction? When did intimacy get replaced with pablum relationships that require no commitment? Sometimes sending love and light, peace and blessings, is a great thing to hear when you are having a tough time... But I still appreciate the human call or visit. On these spaces, its easy to say anything to a stranger... no harm no foul. It is what it is. No "real" investment or "real" responsibility and again, "no" intimacy. This type of communication truly does not matter in terms real life and waters down real relations. How does this foster or sustain human interaction?... There are no challenges or interactive conversations, no emotions, no immediate feedback... Cuts our brain's skills down to silly (useless) putty because again we aren't responsible for anything we say or promise. I find this true with email too... When things get uncomfortable... And they always do.... that’s life!...But now you can “delete!” a conversation. Thus deleting life. And what’s more important than life itself in real time.... after all, we only have NOW!

I am at last weaning myself off of this site... Was I in it for the attention like most? Or was I in it to connect? True I have met friends that are like minded that perhaps I would have never met where I live, and I love them.... but then given the chance, maybe I would have run into real time humans that are like-minded in my own environment. The internet seems to dis-enfranchise us from real connections with real people.... and make it OK to be disfunctional.

When did we become a society of email junkies instead of real time communicators? When did we lose touch with human interaction? When did arguments online replace shared human emotion and passion? We’re all guilty...(been there done that, got the tee shirt, gave it to goodwill, and soooo over it) When did phone skills and talking with people back and forth become replaced with a “tag your it” mentality? (I got you first, now the balls in your court)... This cuts out rejection or consent in real time...Real life.... Are we that insecure? When did our lives begin to be played out over the world wide web like a soap opera? (seemingly private, but by now we should know better) When did this become the optimum way to communicate? Is this easier than dealing with the messiness, and responsibilities of real people? Are we that lazy?

I still prefer a real visit with face to face interaction (being able to see, touch, react) or a 5-10 minute conversation if not longer when a visit is impossible, for optimum communicating.... it takes longer to email anyway. With email, you don’t have to deal in real time with real time reactions... and by the time you check back, the response either irrelevant or outdated.

If you are in business, it cuts out faxes and phone calls therefore, I understand the worth of this form of communication. What took hours, messengers, FedEx and 2 day shipping in my chosen profession, now takes minutes... Now I can do my graphic design and be "Green"... I can collect photos, copy and art, create it, it can be proofed and it can be approved online. I can even order the printing online, transfer the files and then have the project shipped to the client without leaving home... So I get it, and I'm glad to be able to utilize this technology.

But when did this become acceptable for dealing with and cutting out our friends and loved ones by lumping them into an abyss of eCommunication? No one is that [fill in the blank] busy... When did our form of relaxation become bantering on a social website for hours with strangers and or emailing loved ones replace and become our chosen form of human reach out OR touch? Jokes, political mess, photos, a great poem/story, uplifting info.... Yeah, I get it! Texting and e-mails after all have replaced paging... but at least with paging you usually spoke to the person at some point. Cell phones... Well you know how I feel about that from previous blogs... Its rude! Especially when you bypass old phone etiquette ( I have company), for new school urgency (look, I'm popular!). News alert! There is a time and a place for this! As stated before... If you are always attached to the new millennium’s umbilical cord ( your beam me up Scotty gear), you are detached from the real time real world with your foot in the future.... If I have company, or I am in a meeting, or I am interacting with a real human... the cell phones off! I do not answer. And I do not answer if I am driving... My life is too important and so should be yours!

When did we get so self-involved and so self-centered, that we have no time for people? Aren’t these devices and innovations suppose to make life more efficient? So why has it made real time interaction with humans seemingly obsolete and unimportant?

Enough said....

To my friends on Zaadz and the like ( my real time friends)... I LOVE YOU ALL.... However, I am going to go back to real life interaction... as messy as it is... as uncomfortable as it is... as inconvenient as it is... as beautiful as it is... as rewarding as it is... as fulfilling as it is... as comforting as it can be!.. At least it's real... and stop this madness... It is the regression of our society as we know it.. a major dis-connect when we are supposed to be connecting... in these disconnected times.

I hope you can disconnect long enough from the “E” world to join me in the “RT” (real time) world... BALANCE!

Disclaimer... I really enjoy email to reach out to friends and family that live in other towns and countries... after all there would be no way to communicate with them other than high phone bills. My rant is based on the social web sites... and those that use this as a way to avoid true intimacy... As a friend told me last night... with texting and email, there is no way to save a kind message or love offering, birthday greetings or words of encouragement.... not like a handwritten note or card that can be reread and cherished forever...

*other people's problems and other people's shit...

Hawk

In Native American cultures the hawk represents a messenger. It often appears in our life when we need to pay attention to the subtle messages found in our surroundings and from those we come in contact with. As with all messages received it is important to recognize its underlying truth. Because there are so many varieties of hawk its messages vary and can affect all levels of our psyche.

One thing that all hawks have in common is the skill to move between the seen and unseen realms gracefully connecting both worlds together. Their acute vision compliments this ability and their discriminating nature keeps them out of harms way. The broader vision of the hawk allows them to see what the future holds. In man this symbolizes prophetic insight. If this medicine is underdeveloped a tendency towards over analyzing everything is common. In so doing, clear vision is lost. Those who hold this totem should remember to keep their analytical mind under control and not allow it to run wild.

The Peregrine Falcon

lives up to its Latin name: Falco Peregrinus which means foreigner or stranger because it is a migratory bird rather than sedentary - it is found throughout the world and tends to travel great distances. The peregrine is most often used in falconry due to its keen intellect and incredible ability to calculate or judge its prey.

Throughout history, culture and myth, Falcons symbolize superiority, spirit, light, freedom and aspiration. The Falcon is a solar emblem for success, victory and rising above a situation. Further evidence of its solar influence, the Falcon was symbolic of the rising sun in Egypt. It is also the king of all birds where many gods were shown with the head or body of the Falcon (including Ra).

In Western tradition, the Falcon represents the huntsman and is associated with the Germanic sky-gods Wodan as well as Frigg and the trickster Loki.

In European culture the Falcon is considered a warlike symbol. At its core, the Falcon represents visionary power, wisdom, and guardianship. This powerful bird awakens visionary power, and leads you to your life purpose. The Falcon carries with it a message of transition and change - perhaps in your vocation, work, home, etc.

The fact that this Peregrine chose to show itself is a powerful message in itself. This is a call for you to pay attention to the your performance, your function, your actions. Falcons encourage us to calculate and strategize. If we have a goal, Falcons beckon us to make plans and strategies to obtain these goals.

Falcons are all about focus - strong, one-pointed focus. When they show themselves to us, we are being called to focus on our desires and our goals, and do what is necessary to bring our desires into our reality.

The fact that the Falcon is a solar beast, something in your life that you are highly passionate about, and the Falcon is asking you to take action on this passion. But be smart about it - don’t jump into something without doing research and planning. Make your passion a reality by persuing it methodically.

Lastly, invoke the spirit of the Falcon in your meditations, during quite/relaxing times, and just before sleeping. When you calm yourself and call upon the spirit of the Falcon, the Falcon is then able to come through your consciousness and provide you more details about what you must know. Animals are always willing to provide us more messages - it is up to us to allow their messages to come through an listen.

Thank you for this gift! These birds are a wonderful gift from God to witness...

2008-08-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

FOOD WARNING: Seems we need to either need to grow our own or, BUY ORGANIC Spinach and Lettuce.

I don't have a lot to say these days (have gone within to do some spiritual maintenance and rethinking a lot of things that don't seem to support my highest good, to emerge a better version of me), but thank you for reading my blog... this is a MUST READ for your health... Take action to save our food supply... If this is alarming to you and a bit extreme, good... BTW, I AM growing my own greens and tomatoes and fruits, maybe if you have a yard, this isn't such a bad idea..... BTW, those are me and my Mom 'Matos from last year... this year's crops are going strong... and darn tasty too!

peace & blessings,
G

Food Warning...

The FDA has announced that beginning today August 22, 2008, spinach and lettuce sold across the United States may now be secretly irradiated before it reaches grocery store shelves. What's "secret" about it? The FDA previously decided that irradiation warning stickers would not be required on any food items because it would be "too confusing to consumers." (The word IRRADIATION apparently has too many letters to be understood to food buyers.) Thus, irradiated foods will not be labeled as such, and consumers are going to be left in the dark about all this (except for those who actually eat the irradiated food, in which case they will glow in the dark).

The FDA, of course, insists that the levels of irradiation used to kill e.coli will have no effect whatsoever on the nutritional value of the food. This astonishing statement comes from an agency that doesn't believe food has any nutritional value in the first place, so lowering the value to zero by destroying all the phytonutrients does not, in the opinion of the FDA, alter its nutritional value at all. Thus, destroying all the anti-cancer nutrients in a head of broccoli merely brings that broccoli into "compliance" as a non-functional food, according to the FDA.

Radiation, of course, destroys delicate phytochemicals in plants -- the very phytochemicals protecting consumers against cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol, inflammation and other diseases. Microwaving broccoli, for example, destroys up to 98% of its anti-cancer nutrients. (The FDA has not yet acknowledged this scientific fact, either.) In a similar way, irradiating food destroys much of its nutritional content, including vitamins, carotenoids, anthocyanins and other delicate protective nutrients that are right now providing the last, desperate nutritional defense against the American diet of meat, milk, fried foods and processed junk. Irradiating fresh produce will leave the U.S. population is a state of extreme deficiency in protective plant-based nutrients.

Does the FDA plan to destroy the health of the U.S. population?

Many people suspect that's what the FDA really wants. A nutritionally-deficient, disease-ridden population would mean a windfall of profits for the FDA's buddies in Big Pharma -- the folks who sell patented medications at monopoly prices. With the food supply destroyed by radiation, ordinary people would have virtually no remaining sources of protective phytonutrients! In promoting this food radiation policy, the FDA has accomplished what all the terrorists in the world could not: The mass irradiation of the U.S. food supply -- much like setting off a dirty bomb over the nation's farms (but with less radiation).

This destruction of the nutritional value of the food supply is a far greater threat to the health of the U.S. population than any terrorist event, including 9/11. And yet it is being done by our own people, TO our own people, by a lawless agency that answers to no one. FDA officials are not voted into office by the People; they are appointed by politicians. They answer to no one, they refuse to follow federal law, and they operate as tyrants over a quarter of the U.S. economy.

And now they have taken it upon themselves to destroy
the national food supply

We should be more than just alarmed -- we should be outraged! The FDA has committed an act of war against the People. With this decision, the FDA has firmly positioned itself as an enemy of the People, and a bringer of death and disease to the nation. Why are our elected representatives in Washington allowing this madness? Think about this: If the FDA has its way:
• All your food will be irradiated, pasteurized or killed
• All your children will be vaccinated
• All your medicine will be based on pharmaceuticals
• All your free speech about health will be suppressed
• All informative labeling on food and supplements will be outlawed
• Growing and selling non-irradiated garden vegetables will become a crime!

Today it's spinach and lettuce; tomorrow it's all fresh produce Don't think the FDA will stop with spinach and lettuce, either. They're already talking about irradiating tomatoes, peppers and onions. Before long, radiation could become mandatory for ALL fresh produce, and all the fresh fruits and vegetables that are supposed to contain health-protecting nutrients will be transformed into sterile, inert plant mass with no health benefits at all. (Brilliant scam, huh?) This is by design. I believe the FDA wants the American public to be sickened and diseased. Why else would they ban Free Speech about healing foods like cherries, broccoli and garlic? Why would they outlaw the selling of herbs and nutritional supplements that claim to treat and prevent disease? The FDA wants you to be sick, enslaved and medicated, and irradiating the food supply is the quickest way to accomplish that.

He who controls the food controls the People.

He who destroys the food can profit from the People's sickness.

The FDA's crimes against humanity

In pushing this radiation agenda, the FDA is committing a crime against humanity -- a nutritional atrocity that violates fundamental human rights. And yet the FDA's top decision makers continue to operate with zero oversight and zero accountability. They make decisions in a corporate-sponsored vacuum, absent any input from reasonable, health-conscious consumers or scientists. And because they have been granted tyrannical powers by Congress, the FDA operates above the law. It is not subject to any laws whatsoever; not even the U.S. Constitution which is supposed to protect the People's right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" (as stated in the Declaration of Independence).

The mass irradiation of the food supply is a violation of the "Life" part of that phrase, wouldn't you agree? If we can no longer buy nourishing foods with their nutrients intact, then we are all doomed to degenerative disease and death... but not before paying out our life savings to doctors, drug companies and hospitals. That's the evil genius of the food irradiation plot: It kills you slowly, at just the right pace to drain your bank account before you expire from malnutrition. I truly believe this irradiation of the food supply is the beginning of the end of America. No nation can survive the destruction of its food supply.

The FDA is dooming America to a slow, painful, medicated death. In a generation, this nation will be lost, destroyed from within by short-sighted tyrants who violated nature and left the People to rot. What you can do right now to fight this latest transgression by the FDA For starters, you can: 1) Grow your own food. A little gardening is good. Grow whatever you can, even if it's just a few kitchen herbs. 2) Buy your food at farmer's markets, coops and CSAs. See http://www.localharvest.org/csa 3) Ask your grocery store if they are buying irradiated spinach. If they don't know, demand they find out! 4) Raise hell with your Senators and Congresspeople, demanding they pass new laws protecting consumers from the FDA and its plot to destroy the nutritional value of the food supply. Also, listen to two podcasts I've posted on this topic. The first was recorded several months ago, where I publicly predicted the FDA would do exactly what we're seeing right now. Listen to that podcast here: http://www.naturalnews.com/Index-Podcas...

The second podcast was just posted today. I recorded it right before writing this article. It goes into much greater detail about the FDA's plot to destroy the health of the U.S. population. You can listen to that here: http://www.naturalnews.com/Index-Podcas...

Finally, don't stand for this food supply madness! Raise your voice. Write your local paper, call your representatives in Washington and tell them you strongly oppose the irradiation of the food supply. Teach people about phytonutrients. And stay tuned to NaturalNews as we continue to cover this important story. The FDA has gone mad. Criminally mad. It is an agency that will literally kill you if given the chance, and it is up to all of us to stop this madness before we lose our health, our children and our very nation.

About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and technology pioneer with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored more than 1,500 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of energy efficient LED lights that greatly reduce CO2 emissions. He's also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates.

2008-07-31T22:47:00.000-07:00

Can You Hear Me Now?
&
Happy 2nd Anniversary!
to The Urban Shaman

Well it's been 2 years.... and I'm still posting!

Thank you all for your support... without you all this blog would not be...

Here's wishing you all health, happiness and lots of love,

Gail

The Art of Listening

The ability and need to communicate touches every area of our lives. Everything we do in life requires communication with others. Just try to not communicate at work for a day or in your business transactions and see what happens. Refuse to communicate in your personal relationships and see what kind of interesting results you'll create.

Much of communication theory focuses on how to speak to others and how to convey your message. But, communication is really a two-way process. It is an activity, not a one-time event. The listener's role is as central to the communication process as the speaker's role. Real communication and connection occur when the speaker AND listener participate in the process.

Since listening is as important as speaking in the communication process, if you wanted to improve your listening skills, where would you begin? Here are a few ideas and suggestions you can use:

1. Exercise active listening skills. Try asking more questions. If you need clarification ask the speaker to say more, give an example or to explain further. Give feedback or paraphrase what you've heard: "Are you saying such and such? What I heard you say is this. Is this what you meant?" Try nodding your head to show interest. Or ask a question of interest to demonstrate that you are really listening to what is being said. Add the occasional "uh-huh". Try making eye contact with the speaker. Even though you are sitting and listening quietly, this may not be enough for the speaker to feel that s/he is truly being understood.

2. Become aware of your personal filters and triggers. Each of us is a product of our upbringing, culture, life experiences and anything and everything that makes us unique as human beings. Our uniqueness can sometimes be an obstacle to being an effective listener. As you listen, try to remain open to what you are hearing and withhold evaluation or judgment. Become aware of what your triggers are in the communication process and what shuts your listening down.

3. Observe your own and other people's listening habits. Ask yourself what it feels like when someone really listens to you and when they don't. Make a list of any behaviors that you find irritating in the listening habits of other people and then examine your own listening behavior. See if you just might exhibit any of the behaviors you find annoying. Create a checklist of habits you want to change. Also, acknowledge yourself for listening habits you have that do work for you. This type of thorough self-exploration is another way to learn about your filters, barriers and triggers as a listener. Once you identify and reduce what gets in the way of your ability to hear, you'll increase your effectiveness as a listener.

4. Listen without formulating a response to the speaker. As listeners we think about 500 words per minute while the normal speaking rate is about 125 to 150 words per minute. That creates a lot of room for communication to break down or for your mind to wander! Try to hear everything that is being said, listen to the entire message and then respond. The temptation is to fill the extra space with your own thoughts and/or responses to what is being said, but filling this space with your own thoughts or responses will take you out of the current conversation. And, you may miss valuable information because you've moved on to a new topic - without the speaker.

5. Listen with empathy. Empathy is an imaginative process. Empathy is emptying the mind and listening with the whole being. Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing. True empathy is the ability to fully understand and accept another, complete with all their feelings, thoughts and opinions. It is often frustrating for someone needing empathy to have us assume they want reassurance or "fix-it" advice. Learn to listen for: What's not being said? What's in the way? What's missing? What's needed right now? What's most important to the speaker?

6. Become aware of the speaker's non-verbal communication. One estimate has it that 75% of all communication is non-verbal. Beyond the words is a host of clues as to what the speaker is communicating. Is the speaker's posture rigid or relaxed? Does the speaker maintain eye contact? Does the speaker's vocal tone match the words s/he is using? Are the speaker's movements tense or relaxed and are the movements congruent with the message the words are conveying? Is the verbal and non-verbal communication consistent?

7. Create an environment for the listening to occur. Remove distractions. For example, if you are watching a sporting event on TV or are in the middle of a project at work, you probably don't have the time or space to be an effective listener. Or if you are feeling stressed, you just won't be available to hear what the speaker is saying. Let the speaker know now is not a good time and schedule a time when you can be fully present for the conversation in mind, body and spirit.

We all need to feel that we are being heard and understood. It is a basic human need that is as primary a need as having enough water, food or air to survive. So, try out any of these suggestions and you will experience more of a connection to those around you.

And, if all else fails just remember this quote by Epictetus, the Greek philosopher and you are guaranteed to improve your listening skills:

"Nature gave us one tongue and two ears

so we could hear twice as much as we speak."

© 2008 Creating Strategies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Art of Listening
By Brenda Ueland

"It is through this creative process that we at once love and are loved."

I want to write about the great and powerful thing that listening is. And how we forget it. And how we don't listen to our children, or those we love. And least of all - which is so important, too - to those we do not love. But we should. Because listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. Think how the friends that really listen to us are the ones we move toward, and we want to sit in their radius as though it did us good, like ultraviolet rays.
This is the reason: When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life. You know how if a person laughs at your jokes you become funnier and funnier, and if he does not, every tiny little joke in you weakens up and dies. Well, that is the principle of it. It makes people happy and free when they are listened to. And if you are a listener, it is the secret of having a good time in society (because everybody around you becomes lively and interesting), of comforting people, of doing them good.

Who are the people, for example, to whom you go for advice? Not to the hard, practical ones who can tell you exactly what to do, but to the listeners; that is, the kindest, least censorious, least bossy people you know. It is because by pouring out your problem to them, you then know what to do about it yourself.
When we listen to people there is an alternating current that recharges us so we never get tired of each other. We are constantly being re-created.
Now, there are brilliant people who cannot listen much. They have no ingoing wires on their apparatus. They are entertaining, but exhausting, too.
I think it is because these lecturers, these brilliant performers, by not giving us a chance to talk, do not let this little creative fountain inside us begin to spring and cast up new thoughts and unexpected laughter and wisdom. That is why, when someone has listened to you, you go home rested and lighthearted.

When People Listen, Creative Waters Flow

Now this little creative fountain is in us all. It is the spirit, or the intelligence, or the imagination - whatever you want to call it. If you are very tired, strained, have no solitude, run too many errands, talk to too many people, drink too many cocktails, this little fountain is muddied over and covered with a lot of debris. The result is you stop living from the center, the creative fountain, and you live from the periphery, from externals. That is, you go along on mere willpower without imagination.
It is when people really listen to us, with quiet, fascinated attention, that the little fountain begins to work again, to accelerate in the most surprising way.
I discovered all this about three years ago, and truly it made a revolutionary change in my life. Before that, when I went to a party, I would think anxiously: "Now try hard. Be lively. Say bright things. Talk. Don't let down." And when tired, I would have to drink a lot of coffee to keep this up.
Now before going to a party, I just tell myself to listen with affection to anyone who talks to me, to be in their shoes when they talk; to try to know them without my mind pressing against theirs, or arguing, or changing the subject.
Sometimes, of course, I cannot listen as well as others. But when I have this listening power, people crowd around and their heads keep turning to me as though irresistibly pulled. By listening I have started up their creative fountain. I do them good.
Now why does it do them good? I have a kind of mystical notion about this. I think it is only by expressing all that is inside that purer and purer streams come.
It is so in writing. You are taught in school to put down on paper only the bright things. Wrong. Pour out the dull things on paper too - you can tear them up afterward - for only then do the bright ones come.
If you hold back the dull things, you are certain to hold back what is clear and beautiful and true and lively.

Women Listen Better

I think women have this listening faculty more than men. It is not the fault of men. They lose it because of their long habit of striving in business, of self-assertion. And the more forceful men are, the less they can listen as they grow older. And that is why women in general are more fun than men, more restful and inspiriting.
Now this non-listening of able men is the cause of one of the saddest things in the world - the loneliness of fathers, of those quietly sad men who move along with their grown children like remote ghosts.
When my father was over 70, he was a fiery, humorous, admirable man, a scholar, a man of great force. But he was deep in the loneliness of old age and another generation. He was so fond of me. But he could not hear me - not one word I said, really. I was just audience. I would walk around the lake with him on a beautiful afternoon and he would talk to me about Darwin and Huxley and higher criticism of the Bible.
"Yes, I see, I see," I kept saying and tried to keep my mind pinned to it, but I was restive and bored. There was a feeling of helplessness because he could not hear what I had to say about it. When I spoke I found myself shouting, as one does to a foreigner, and in a kind of despair that he could not hear me. After the walk I would feel that I had worked off my duty and I was anxious to get him settled and reading in his Morris chair, so that I could go out and have a livelier time with other people. And he would sigh and look after me absentmindedly with perplexed loneliness.
For years afterward I have thought with real suffering about my father's loneliness. Such a wonderful man, and reaching out to me and wanting to know me! But he could not. He could not listen. But now I think that if only I had known as much about listening then as I do now, I could have bridged the chasm between us. To give an example:
Recently, a man I had not seen for 20 years wrote me. He was an unusually forceful man and had made a great deal of money. But he had lost his ability to listen. He talked rapidly and told wonderful stories and it was just fascinating to hear them. But when I spoke - restlessness: "Just hand me that, will you? ... Where is my pipe?" It was just a habit. He read countless books and was eager to take in ideas, but he just could not listen to people.

Patient Listening

Well, this is what I did. I was more patient - I did not resist his non-listening talk as I did my father's. I listened and listened to him, not once pressing against him, even in thought, with my own self-assertion.
I said to myself: "He has been under a driving pressure for years. His family has grown to resist his talk. But now, by listening, I will pull it all out of him. He must talk freely and on and on. When he has been really listened to enough, he will grow tranquil. He will begin to want to hear me."
And he did, after a few days. He began asking me questions. And presently I was saying gently:
"You see, it has become hard for you to listen."
He stopped dead and stared at me. And it was because I had listened with such complete, absorbed, uncritical sympathy, without one flaw of boredom or impatience, that he now believed and trusted me, although he did not know this.
"Now talk," he said. "Tell me about that. Tell me all about that."
Well, we walked back and forth across the lawn and I told him my ideas about it.
"You love your children, but probably don't let them in. Unless you listen, you can't know anybody. Oh, you will know facts and what is in the newspapers and all of history, perhaps, but you will not know one single person. You know, I have come to think listening is love, that's what it really is."
Well, I don't think I would have written this article if my notions had not had such an extraordinary effect on this man. For he says they have changed his whole life. He wrote me that his children at once came closer; he was astonished to see what they are; how original, independent, courageous. His wife seemed really to care about him again, and they were actually talking about all kinds of things and making each other laugh.

Family Tragedies

For just as the tragedy of parents and children is not listening, so it is of husbands and wives. If they disagree they begin to shout louder and louder - if not actually, at least inwardly - hanging fiercely and deafly onto their own ideas, instead of listening and becoming quieter and more comprehending.
But the most serious result of not listening is that worst thing in the world, boredom; for it is really the death of love. It seals people off from each other more than any other thing.
Now, how to listen. It is harder than you think. Creative listeners are those who want you to be recklessly yourself, even at your very worst, even vituperative, bad- tempered. They are laughing and just delighted with any manifestation of yourself, bad or good. For true listeners know that if you are bad-tempered it does not mean that you are always so. They don't love you just when you are nice; they love all of you.
In order to listen, here are some suggestions: Try to learn tranquility, to live in the present a part of the time every day. Sometimes say to yourself: "Now. What is happening now? This friend is talking. I am quiet. There is endless time. I hear it, every word." Then suddenly you begin to hear not only what people are saying, but also what they are trying to say, and you sense the whole truth about them. And you sense existence, not piecemeal, not this object and that, but as a translucent whole.
Then watch your self-assertiveness. And give it up. Remember, it is not enough just to will to listen to people. One must really listen. Only then does the magic begin.

We should all know this: that listening, not talking, is the gifted and great role, and the imaginative role. And the true listener is much more beloved, magnetic than the talker, and he is more effective and learns more and does more good. And so try listening. Listen to your wife, your husband, your father, your mother, your children, your friends; to those who love you and those who don't, to those who bore you, to your enemies. It will work a small miracle. And perhaps a great one.

Brenda Ueland, a prolific Minnesota author and columnist, died in 1985 at the age of 93. Her father was a lawyer and judge, her mother a suffrage leader. From a collection of her essays, "Strength To Your Sword Arm: Selected Writings by Brenda Ueland." Copyright 1992

2008-06-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

It's Summer!!!
So What'cha Gonna Do? Ever Heard of a Staycation?

This issue of The Urban Shaman explores the possibilities of Staycations. Let your creativity lead you to some of the best times of your summer without leaving the city, county or state. And I have included some safety precautions to follow before you go to the beach....

Remember, Life is short, play hard!
Peace n' Blessings,
Gail

Take a Staycation!

What does it mean? Staycation is a portmanteau that combines “stay” and “vacation” and refers to a holiday that takes place either at or near home.

With the economy sagging and the nationwide average price for unleaded regular gas passing $4 per gallon and $10+ internationally, a pricey destination might not be in the cards for many people. Staycations are the newest alternative and can take many forms, including backyard camping “expeditions” and romantic “escapes” to a local hotel, chartered boat cruises around your local marina and dinner, Let your creativity come up with the ultimate Staycation.

Imagine the perfect summer vacation: Swimming in clear blue water, tennis and a little bicycling, barbecued meals, a concert under the stars, a ball game with fireworks, maybe even a museum or two …. and all for free.

Well, okay, not for free – but for a fraction of what other people will pay.

How? By Vacationing at Home

Depending, of course, on where you live, the home-based vacation — also known as a "staycation" — can be a great alternative to an expensive two- or three-week trip, assuming you plan it well and really treat it as a true vacation. My family and I have done it a couple of times, and we had a ball.

The Do's and Dont's

First, treat the home vacation as a real vacation, not just a poor alternative. That means preparing. Pay the bills ahead of time, just as you would before traveling. Mow the lawn and do the other chores you’d finish before leaving on a trip, so they don’t hang over you on your vacation.

Get hold of some local travel guides — the ones out-of-towners would get. Around home, we all fall into patterns, and there may be all sorts of local attractions you’ve forgotten or never knew about.

Plan a list of activities just as you would if you went to Rome or Athens, else you fritter the days away.

Set a budget — something less than you’d spend traveling but more than you’d spend in your regular routine at home. Don’t get too frugal. If you’re saving a bundle on airfares and hotels, you can splurge on meals and entertainment.

Get everyone to pitch in. There may be practical reasons that Mom or Dad is the chief cook and bottle washer the rest of the time, but that’s no excuse for saddling the same person with the chores now.

In fact, all but the most essential chores should be avoided. One of the biggest threats to a home vacation is the feeling that, “Well, I’m home and have some time… Maybe I can finally get to tidying up the garage…”

Absolutely not – this is a vacation!

By Jeff Brown
© 2008 MSNBC Interactive

I have done this a few times this year... I pack up or buy a really good lunch and head down to the beach or up the hill to my local park (which overlooks the city) and enjoy the great outdoors. Or sometimes I choose to stay at home... I clean the house top to bottom before the weekend, make sure I have all my provisions (favorite foods and wine, bath salts, essential oils (lavender, ylang ylang, rose geranium), pull the candles out to change the atmosphere) turn off the phones and enjoy my own spa/retreat...

Some Ideas:

Hire one of the many mobile spa practitioners and enjoy a spa night complete with facial, massage, mani-pedi without leaving home.

Have exotic foods from other country’s delivered and do a theme night/weekends... Brazilian Food and drinks, Clothes, Brazilian Music, ect...

I love the idea of a backyard camp-out, gazing at stars, mallo-mars, grilled dinner and breakfast.
(and thank God you don't have to do your bizness in the bushes) Or if you can get a reservation,
go to your local campground, rents some tents and go for it.

Go on a foto safari... it's amazing whats in your own backyard/city/county/state.

Silent Meditation Retreat at home (these can cost thousands of dollars if you go to India)... going within, and discovering yourself. Do some yoga, go for mindfull meditation walks, be with yourself! Who know you might like who you meet...

Unplug the devices... WOW, now that's a thought... No phones, pda's, email, answering machines, TV, ect....
Can you do it? I dare you! Everything will be handled, you are not indispensable and it's great for your mental health.

Amtrak it!
Pacific Surfliner in Southern California

The Pacific Surfliner Route lies in a generally northwest by southeast direction along the Pacific Coast of California, connecting the cities of San Diego, Los Angeles, Oxnard, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo. There are Amtrak motor coach connections between the Pacific Surfliners and the San Joaquin Valley. Amtrak's Pacific Surfliners also share some station facilities with Amtrak's Coast Starlight, and rail commuter services in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties.

For instance, From Los Angeles’ Union Station, $34.00 will get you to San Diego’s Old Town on Friday night where you can hang out at the Zoo, the Safari Park, Jazz Clubs, Spas... ect... and you can return Sunday night and be refreshed.

Or go to the beach in Santa Barbara.... the train station is blocks from the beach, great little hotels and plenty of restaurants... $15-$19-$23.00 one way...
Wow, that’s cheaper than going to the beach in your car, sitting in bumper to bumper traffic and paying to park... Once again leave on a Friday, come back Sunday... You don’t even need a car and you’ll feel like a million bucks when you get back.

Amtrak even has diner cars, snack cars and beverage service to make your trip even more relaxing...
Explore you options at:

http://www.amtrak.com
http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak

Healthy Beaches
by Paul McRandle

The dog days of summer are rolling in and your local beach may be the best place to cool off away from the heat of the city. But before you bodysurf on the swells, you'll want to be sure you'll leave as healthy as you entered.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) most recent report on national water quality, 2006 saw more beach closures than any of the 17 years NRDC has been monitoring them. High levels of bacteria in water were the occasion for over 60 percent of those closures and advisories. A third were due to pollution carried by rainfall into swimming waters. Beach closures in 2007 saw no change from 2006 levels, according to the EPA.

The risks of bacteria in water range from the unpleasant, such as ear, nose and throat infections, to the serious-cholera, hepatitis and amoebic dysentery. Even beaches regarded as safe can hold startlingly high levels of bacteria, found Dr. Andrew Rogerson, who headed up an EPA study of Florida beach sand. Bacteria concentrates in sand as water rises and recedes with the tides, leaving both wet sand and the dry sand just beyond it more heavily contaminated than the water.

And be careful of the elements as well. Sunscreen and sun protective clothing will shield your skin. Check for undertow or riptide warnings and swim parallel to the shore if you intend to swim a long distance.

Pregnant women, children, the elderly and those with a weakened immune system need to be particularly diligent about checking for advisories, but everyone should follow these basic precautions at the beach:

* For recent beach closings and information on how to find out if your favorite swimming spot is currently home to unsafe levels of bacteria, see the EPA's Beach Advisory and Closing on-line Notification (BEACON) site and Earth911's Beach Water Quality pages. Beaches that aren't listed may not be monitored regularly.

* Swallowing water is the most frequent way swimmers are exposed to bacteria, so keep your head above the waves.

* Avoid swimming near flowing stormdrain outlets, outfalls or runoff ditches. A study of City beaches beaches found that swimmers near stormdrains had a 57 percent greater chance of fever than those swimming over 400 yards away.

* Don't swim alone and don't dive into water you haven't been in previously.

* Don't swim after a heavy rain or near trash.

* Keep an eye on the waves-don't be caught unawares by large ones.

* Shower after visiting the beach.

* Disinfect cuts or abrasions to avoid infection.

* Those with suppressed immune systems should be checked for cuts both before and after swimming.

To help preserve the health of our beaches:

* Some chemical preservatives and stabilizers in sunscreens can damage coral reefs. For reef-safe lotions, see our Sunscreen Buying Guide.

* To protect your beach, contact the Surfrider Foundation (www.surfrider.org).

* Since the stormwater runoff accounted for the majority of closures, support measures to reduce runoff in your community.

The Green Guide @ 2008

Ever Wonder Where Your Plastic Bottles Go and Look Like When
You Don't Recycle?
Be responsible!
(or get a stainless steel bottle and filter/ionize/bottle your own water)

we only have One Planet. Play nice...

2008-05-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

Are You Feelin’ It?

For the last little while, I have been feeling unsettled, as if something, some energy is shifting. As if the consciousness of the planet is in a state of rebirth... Either people are really kind and considerate or they are complete pricks. I kinda know what's going on with me on the inner level, but I wanted to do the outer search... So I looked up The Age of Aquarius... yep, I did.

A very interesting read...

I also have included information on being a care giver which is very close to me... If we are lucky enough to still have our parents or loved ones who face health issues... We have to remember to take exceptional care of ourselves in order to care for our loved ones. , I felt compelled to share this info for the challenges some of us face now and for those that will in the future.... There is an old saying “The caregiver usually gives out before the patient”.

These are exciting times we are blessed to experience...

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!
ENJOY!
Much love to you all...
Peace N' Blessings, Gail

What does
Age of Aquarius mean?

"What lies ahead for Humanity? With all the problems we have, it's hard to believe our future is bright. Inflation and recession, environmental deterioration, diminishing resources, unrest and oppression in developing countries, and apathy, loneliness and lack of direction in developed ones all combine to severely cloud the horizon...

Jesus was the one to announce the Age of Aquarius: "a man will meet you carrying an earthen pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he goes in" (Luke 22:10; Mark 14:13.) The Last Supper was the symbol of the future "unio mystica."

"So, now a New Age has started which is called the Age of Aquarius, meaning the pitcher carrier of spiritual holy water that is the work of Kundalini."
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

It may seem fantastic, but the signs in the heavens point to an extraordinary renewal in the years just ahead. If we recall some recent trends, this prospect doesn't seem so outlandish. It wasn't too long ago that we heard about the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, and about the revival of spirit among the new generation. We can still hear the echoes of John Kennedy's call to action and see the vision of Martin Luther King's dream. Before he and his dream were shot down in 1968, he said we as a people "would get to the promised land." The promise seems empty now, yet the planetary cycles support his prophecy. For what we discover when we examine these cycles is compelling evidence that a renaissance and a golden age is right around the corner." [1]

"You are probably familiar with the term New Age, and you may have heard or read about the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. This simply means that we are leaving one age (Pisces), and entering into a new one (Aquarius). This happens every two thousand years - the last one coinciding with the arrival of Christ.

What does this have to do with you? Well, it has quite a lot to do with you and everyone else on the planet. For a start, if you haven't already undergone any changes, you might be feeling the urge to change now, or you may be witnessing changes around you. Either way, you will certainly be aware that life on planet Earth seems to be going off the rails in one way or another.

This is characteristic of the changing of the Ages as people struggle to adapt to the new energies. You will also have noticed certain major developments - such as science, computers and technology, all of which are now forming the backbone of our society. UFO's, alternative medicine, astrology, vegetarianism and other subjects previously considered weird or cranky are growing rapidly in popularity, and are all subjects associated with the sign of Aquarius. These subjects will become more and more commonplace, and astrology and other 'mystical' methods of self-help and understanding will help people to become more in tune with their spiritual selves in preparation for the New Age.

People are already beginning to look within for the answers they seek, instead of outwards to money, possessions and other people. The more enlightened members of society will welcome the New Dawn with its emphasis on humanity, kindness, truth, spirituality and enlightenment." [2]

You also probably have heard the song, Age of Aquarius, "the one about the time when Jupiter aligns with Mars. Well, there's really more to it than that, as Jupiter and Mars align relatively often. What's really remarkable about this epoch is the powerful change that will sweep through our world, the shift in mood, action and intention that is already palpable. The estimated start date is thought to be sometime around the millennium, but, though its exact start date is contested among astrologers, astronomers, theologians and others, the effects of the Age of Aquarius have already been felt." [3]

The Age When Everything
Becomes Unified...

"In the New Age we break free of centuries of false doctrines, destructive indoctrinations, absurd ideas, and children’s stories about God, education, medicine, and love. The corrupt foundations of false society crumble. This time of crises is not the signal of the end of the world. What comes is not the end, but the beginning. The dream humanity has lived for centuries ends and we awaken to a bright new day, a bright new way .

Now in the Age of Aquarius, everything becomes unified. All our differences, all our dualities mix together like the fragrances of a flower shop, with all of the different flowers adding their bouquet to the overall mix until they are inseparable. Each individual flower remains distinct and individual, each one’s fragrance is unique and discernible when you come up close to it, yet joined together in unity with the others in the wonderful mixture that is the smell of the shop.

Our individual worth comes from inside, from what we have inside, through our development, our evolution, and what we can give to society. Now our drastic differences dissolve and we integrate into the whole. We integrate and unify with the energy of the universe, with the great cosmic spirit.

Mystically, Aquarius signifies friendship. Friendship bursts upon us in its most elevated sense, in its most noble aspect — with understanding, collaboration, and fraternity. Love and friendship will have nothing to do with possessing or ego. The idea of love meaning "you belong to me" ends in the New Age. The thought of friends of convenience, friendship based on an ulterior motive such as business ends. Love and friendship based on anything other than pure love, the divine and pure love of God, changes the sentiment into a coin of exchange — you no longer have love or friendship because of who you are, but because of what you do or can do for me.

This is the era of peace, of unity, of love. The polarity of Aquarius, Leo, floods us with its complementary characteristics. The celestial throne of the Sun, Leo, encourages, ennobles, enriches, and enlightens us for the growth of our hearts, the growth of our inner beings. Together with Aquarius, Leo promotes the integration of our individuality with our unity with all humanity. We realize that we must first be something in and of ourselves to be something for others.

Under their combined influence, friendship with an agenda disappears into true fraternity, into pure unity. Then we can prepare ourselves for unity with the universal spirit. . . . In the Age of Aquarius, we break from the past to invent the future we desire in our society and in our person. The answers we find will be wholly new ones, totally original ones, but they require a thorough examination of what has been and what we wish to come. All our institutions as we know them must adapt to this new reality." [4]

This Golden Age is destined to synthesize all religious regimes and free the minds of ignorance and delusion forever. Once enlightened, each human being will begin his or her individual journey within, and strive to become the new race of super conscious humans awakening seekers of Truth and the eternal Spirit, healing peoples of many tongues and nations in the process. In this new millennium there will be no more falsehoods or derision, but spiritual living and third-eye vision. The Human Family is truly entering the Age of mystic revelations and the mind's true liberation which is broadly known as spiritualism or New Millennium Religion.

"The "New Age" is actually a synthesis of many different beliefs and currents of thought, the emphasis being on a rejection of the limitations of reductionist materialism and an emphasis on the way that one can alter one's personal reality through the application of belief, visualisation, and positive affirmation. In a sense it is a spiritual awakening, an activation of the "theosphere", an integration of holistic healing, alternative spirituality, esotericism, environmental sensitivity, alternative life-styles, awareness of other dimensions of existence, and attunement to the cosmos. for more on this, go to...

www.gravity.org/mythology

REFERENCES 1. www.california.com
2. www.ajco.demon.co.uk
3. www.astrology.com
4. Walter Mercado, Beyond The Horizon: Visions of a New Millennium,
A Time Warner Company, 1997, p. 106-8.
5. www.kheper.net
6. Dan Costian (Ph.D), Bible Enlightened, 1995, p. 254-61
7. Knowledge of Reality Magazine 1996-2006

How to Be a
Healthy Caregiver...

Alzheimer caregivers report that they frequently experience high levels of stress. Too much stress can be damaging to both a caregiver and the person with Alzheimer’s.

If you experience some of these signs of stress on a regular basis, consult your doctor. Ignoring them can cause your physical and mental health to decline.
Symptoms of caregiver stress

Denial
Anger
Social withdrawal
Anxiety
Depression
Exhaustion
Sleeplessness
Irritability
Lack of concentration
Health problems

Be a healthy caregiver

Taking care of yourself is one of the most important ways to be a healthy caregiver.

Know what resources are available. Adult day care, in-home assistance, visiting nurses and Meals-on-Wheels are just some of the services that can help you.

Become an educated caregiver. As the disease progresses, new caregiving skills are necessary. Find information on alz.org or contact your local Alzheimer's Association.

Get help. You are not failing as a caregiver by asking others for assistance. Seek the support of family, friends and community resources. Alzheimer's Association support group meetings are a good source of comfort and reassurance. Or you can join our online community.

Take care of yourself. Watch your diet, exercise and get plenty of rest. Make time for shopping, lunch with friends or even a golf outing. Take advantage of community services such as adult day care or in-home companion services to care for your loved one while you take a break.

Manage your stress level. Stress can cause physical problems and changes in behavior. If you experience symptoms of caregiver stress, use relaxation techniques that work for you, and consult your doctor.

Accept changes as they occur. People with Alzheimer's change and so do their needs. They often require care beyond what you can provide on your own. Look into care services such as in-home caregiver services and residential care.

Do legal and financial planning. Consult an attorney to discuss legal, financial and care issues. If possible and appropriate, involve the person with Alzheimer's and other family members.

Be realistic. Many of the behaviors that occur are beyond your control and the control of the person with Alzheimer's. Grieve your losses, but also focus on the positive moments.

Give yourself credit, not guilt. You are doing the best you can. Don't feel guilty because you can't do more. Your loved one needs you, and you are there – that should make you feel proud.

www.alzla.org

2008-04-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

Earth... We Only Have One
Treat Her With Respect!

What can we do to help preserve our precious planet?

Have you made any changes?

Simple things can make a big difference.

• Changing out your light bulbs to CFC’s
• Using reusable shopping bags (not just for food
shopping)
• Planning your car errands and trips (save time and
gas)
• Switching to the many biodegradable nontoxic
household cleaners and personal care products (what
goes down the drain, goes in the ocean)
• Recycling
• Home water filters (bottle your own water)
• Paying your bills on-line (no paper)
• Read the newspaper on-line (some magazines are doing this too)
• Buy recycled paper for you printer and use both sides...
• Water less (your grass will survive)
• Find out ways to lower your carbon footprint (see link in “Other groovy
souls” section to the left)

These are some of the things I’ve done this past year and they were a no brainer... I have included a story about an environmental visionary Van Jones, he is the director of an amazing advocacy group Green for All, in Oakland, CA... This guy is inspiring... Please take the time to read this article “Green For All” and let it get your creative juices flowing! The articles in this April/TUS are from a cool publication called "Whole Life Times" you can go online at www.WholeLifeTimes.com to see how to receive monthly issues.

Earth Day is a great chance to rethink how we consume and many times we waste our precious resources and make a change in our lifestyles to do better.
Who knows... make a difference and... BE THE CHANGE!

enJOY!
peace n’ blessings,
Gail

What Counts?
Compiled by Jenny Rough

1/3 Amount of earth’s natural resources that have been mined, chopped, blown up, or otherwise extracted in the past three decades alone.

5 Percentage of earth’s population living in the U.S. (yet Americans use up to 30 percent of the world’s resources and create 30 percent of the world’s waste).

3 to 5 Number of extra planets we would need if everyone consumed at American rates.

75 Percent of global fisheries that are fished at, or beyond, capacity.

100,000 Number of synthetic chemicals used in commerce today, many of which wind up in our bodies (human breast milk is the food at the top of the food chain with the highest level of many toxic contaminates).

30 Percentage of kids in the Congo who have dropped out of school to mine metals, the majority of which end up in cheap and disposable electronic products bought by Americans.

99 Percentage of stuff we harvest, mine, transport or otherwise produce that is trashed within six months (many products are specifically “designed for the dump”).

3000 Number of advertisements targeted at American consumers each day.

4.5 Pounds of garbage each American makes each day (twice as much as we made 30 years ago).

SOURCE: www.StoryofStuff.com, an online film narrated by Annie Leonard that takes viewers on a journey through our consumer-driven culture from extraction to production, distribution, consumption and disposal. For more dirty details, check out our chat with Leonard in this month’s Conversations section.

Worth Repeating

“I really didn’t like TV-Turnoff week, except I did notice that my grades went up and I was in a good mood all week.”
—Second grader Drew Henderson on the annual program (4/25 to 5/1 this year) designed to counteract the more than 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence an average American child witnesses on TV by age 18. (www.tvturnoff.org)

“If we fight evil with inhumanity, what does that make us?”
—Mort Rosenblum on waterboarding, in which suspects’ faces are held underwater until their lungs nearly burst. The Bush administration has refused to classify waterboarding as torture.
(huffingtonpost.com, 2/15)

“When we stop working with our hands, we cease to understand how the world really works.”
—Clive Thompson on the importance of basic mechanics in solving our country’s nastiest problems, like oil dependence and climate change. (Wired, 2/25)

“The federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent the local food movement from expanding.”
—Minnesota farmer Jack Hedin on federal laws that make it financially disastrous for growers of federally subsidized commodity crops to help meet the demand for organic fruits and vegetables. (NY Times, 3/1)

“That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that.”
—President George W. Bush, upon hearing that numerous analysts are predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline. (White House news conference, 2/28)

www.wholelifetimes.com

Green For All
By Jessica Kraft

Since we reported on the idea in last year’s Earth Day issue, “green collar” jobs, have generated quite the buzz. After cycling through the mainstream media and the blogosphere, the term is now common parlance among business leaders and community organizers who want to bring about a New Green Deal. It even got some play during the presidential campaign, with contenders on both sides of the aisle citing it as a way to end dependency on foreign oil, protect natural resources and reduce carbon emissions.

Green for All, a new advocacy group out of Oakland, CA, is the organization driving the discussion. According to director and environmental visionary Van Jones (author of last Earth Day’s cover story), green collar workers are the labor force of the future — they’ll be the ones weatherizing buildings, installing solar panels, servicing electric vehicles and building green rooftops. They’ll be the local union members getting livable wages in positions that can’t be outsourced to India. And if Green for All succeeds, this first generation of workers will come from today’s impoverished inner cities. Their message is that the legacy of American inequality can be reversed through environmental innovation. “The green economy will simultaneously address our economic, ecological and moral crises,” said Jones at a recent conference of green builders.

While serving as director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Jones, along with a coalition of groups including the Apollo Alliance and the Center for American Progress, lobbied congress and the Oakland City Council to establish a green jobs corps. Their efforts paid off. Last summer’s massive federal energy bill included the Green Jobs Act providing $125 million to train veterans, formerly incarcerated workers, at-risk youth and the urban poor for clean-tech occupations. Now Jones and his new organization need to hold Washington to its promise. Field director Jeremy Hays said that the Green Jobs Act has yet to be cemented into the 2009 federal budget. “We’re going to keep on top of them until congress gives us a clear signal of an actual allocation.”

But federal procrastination hasn’t deterred the Green for All vision. Now that one act has passed, they’re pressing lawmakers to fund another $1 billion in national green jobs training by 2012 that will bring 250,000 workers out of poverty and boost green industries. In preparation, they’re building a national network of green entrepreneurs, educators, union workers and government officials who are sharing best practices and getting technical assistance for the job training programs.

Since opening in March, Green for All has been responding to a deluge of interest. “One minute we plugged in the fax machine,” said Hays, “and the next minute we’re standing in a pile of messages from community leaders and activists all wanting to work with us.”

Early this month, Green for All is putting on “ The Dream Reborn,” a conference in Memphis commemorating the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. One of the conference’s goals is to facilitate partnerships between labor, activists and communities of color. “The green economy is a complicated puzzle,” remarked Hays. “Some people are banging away on job creation strategies and others are doing training programs, so we want to develop ways for people to talk to each other and create a community of practice that brings the green economy to the next level.”

When the federal funds become available next year, Green for All will help manage a competitive grant process to determine allocations to various training programs. To stay informed and find out how you can get involved, visit www.greenforall.org .

From Whole Life Times April © 2008
www.wholelifetimes.com

2008-03-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

It's Spring Again
and Life is Blossoming

Don’t you just love the energy of Spring? We had a spectacular “First day of Spring” here in SoCali, it was in the 80’s and clear as a bell. It felt like Summer, but that’s LA for you.

All the metaphors of celebration. All the sleeping beauty’s blooming out and nature’s aromatherapy in the air. Nature's hibernation is over and we’re all rearin to go for it!

For the last few weeks I have been antsy... why I even did my “Spring Cleaning” a month early. However on a deeper level, I felt a kind of weirdness as if something big was on the horizon.
It IS! For all of us!
Tap into nature’s energy and kick butt and take names...

“Be the change you want to see”. ~Gandhi

“Remember today, for it is the beginning of always. Today marks the start of a brave new future filled with all your dreams can hold. Think truly to the future and make those dreams come true.” ~Unknown

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!
ENJOY!
Much love to you all...

Peace N' Blessings,
Gail

One of my Coolest Friends from Toronto Canada posted this on his blog and it was so inspiring, I had to post it myself... Thanks for being your magnificent self Reyji...
Hope you don’t mind the foto.
It’s my fav :-) enJOY!

Instead of striving to get where you wish to go,
simply allow yourself to be there.
All that is, is available to you in the moment you're in.
As long as you're trying to understand something, you will fall short.
Let go of the desperate need to understand, and you'll find that the
understanding is part of you already.

When you think you lack something, that blocks it from your awareness,
your experience and your life. Instead of filling your thoughts with what is
missing, focus on what is possible.

Relax into the limitless abundance of now.
There is always enough, and it is
all here for you to allow.

Life's overwhelming richness is mirrored in every little detail.
The only thing separating you from that richness is the
wall you imagine to be around yourself.

Allow the goodness, the possibilities, the value and joy to fill your life
in this moment that is now.

-- Ralph Marston

2008-02-29T10:09:00.001-08:00

Technology Part 1
Phones...
The GOOD,
The BAD
and The UGLY...

Once again, I’m late with the blog this month, but I just had to do the Leap Year thing...
Why not?
Sooo, HAPPY LEAP YEAR DAY!

What is leap year anyway?

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!

Much love to you all...
Peace N' Blessings,
Gail

The GOOD...

In Case of Emergency/ICE...

In Case of Emergency, or ICE, is a program that enables first responders, such as paramedics, firefighters, and police officers, to identify victims and contact their next of kin to obtain important medical information. The program was conceived in the mid-2000s and promoted by British paramedic Bob Brotchie in May 2005.[1] It encourages people to enter emergency contacts in their cell phone address book under the name "ICE". Alternately, a person can list multiple emergency contacts as "ICE1", "ICE2", etc. The popularity of the program has spread across Europe, and has started to grow into North America.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_case_of_emergency
http://www.snopes.com/crime/prevent/icephone.asp

Free 411

Google threw a new product called Goog-411 into Google Labs today - a free telephone based information service that could replace toll 411 calls. About 2.6 billion 411 calls are made in the U.S. each year, and it is a $7 billion/year market.

Goog-411 can be accessed by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411. The product is completely automated and there is no way to talk to a human for additional or clarifying information. You tell it your city and state, and then ask for a specific business or business category. In my tests the product was excellent. Although the voice recognition was only working at about 70% efficiency, I just said “back” and retried when it didn’t understand what I said. Results are spoken back or text messaged back to you, and you are automatically put through to the phone number requested.

GOOG-411 is using Google’s normal local business information available on Google Maps and elsewhere. Businesses that want to add or correct data can do so here.

The product competes head on with Jingle Networks, which has taken 6% market share in the U.S. 411 business over the last year. AT&T is also experimenting with free 411 calls. None of these products come anywhere close to as good as TellMe’s rich client business information tool for mobile phones, but few phones support TellMe at this time (TellMe was recently acquired by Microsoft).

The paid 411 market is so dead. I’m betting these free alternatives take at least 50% market share within a couple of years.

The BAD....

The Secret to Breaking Through On-Hold Hell...
by Tom Barlow Feb 25th 2008

When was the last time you called a company and talked to a real live person before first wandering through a labyrinth of voice-mail hell? All the while, being told that your call is important, then being pitched 15 minutes of ad copy while waiting for someone to pick up?

The web site www.gethuman.com was designed to help you with this problem. It lists hundreds of companies and the code to punch in that will take you to a real, live human being. For example, when calling Blue Cross and Blue Shield, saying the word "associate" at the prompt bypasses the computer menu. At Kitchenaid, 3420 does the job, as does #### for MetLife.

The site also has suggestions to try for bypassing phone tree hell when you don't know the code. Tricks to try:

1. Interrupt by pressing 0 repeatedly
2. Talk: Say "get human" or mumble
3. Pretend you have a rotary phone by not responding to the prompt to
press a key
4. Select "Spanish" even if you don't speak it -- the queue is often
shorter and the customer service rep will be bilingual.
5. Once connected, ask how you can access people directly next time,
then add it to the gethuman database.

and The UGLY...

CELL PHONE ETIQUETTE
By Tony Gaston

Man, we are all so guilty of these rule violations; I know I am;
So, I have the following proposal.....
What do you think? Care to add on?

Cellular phones are definitely 21st century. Unfortunately, our
technologies have outpaced our etiquette.
The cellular telephone requires a new set of telephone rules.

If you do not know it yet, it is rude to:

-Talk on the telephone in public place in a manner that all who are around you must listen to the mundane and dreary details of your life.

–You and a friend undertake a journey together. It need not be a long
journey, but it is rude to have your passenger (who is alive and
present) ignored as you either make or take a phone call while they
sit there and twiddle their thumbs. How do you think it makes a person
feel when it is apparent you would rather talk to a person who is not
present. It always make me think: "Am I that boring?"

–Cell phone to cell phone. A call is received; the person says: "Hold
on a minute." Then you hear in the distance breakfast or lunch being
ordered while you hold on. Or, you hear an uncompleted conversation
with another person. Or, after this person has disturbed me with a
cell call while I am driving or otherwise involved, places me on hold
to answer the first, and any call waiting call placed to the caller.
How rude and boring.

–For some reason cell phones seem different than hard line phones or
else why, in "the old days" when you visited a person in their home,
they would not think to pass the time talking on the phone to some
other person. But, with a cell phone, a lot of people think nothing of
answering a cell call and talking for extended periods, or relaying
parts of the conversation as though the unknown cell caller were
present in the room.

–There you are at the grocery or department store check out line and
the person at the register is on the phone trying to talk, and pay the
bill at the same time. This always results in a longer wait in the
line. Hang up before you get to the counter. Of course, a better ideal
is not to make the other people in line listen to the dreary details
of your life or love life while they wait, captive in line.

–By the way, why is it that People think it is "sooo cool" to walk
around with that wireless earplug/phone terminal in their ear? It
looks like you are an escapee from the Borg Collective, or waiting for
Scotty to beam you back up to the Starship Enterprise. At the very
least, it makes you look like you only have one foot in the "here and
now."

I am sure as we advance, that new etiquette outrages will present
themselves, but this is a good start. STAY CONNECTED TO THE
COLLECTIVE (If you really want too.)

2008-01-31T18:27:00.000-08:00

Consideration
of Others...

Welcome to the late but not forgotten January Issue of my blog. This year seems to be speeding by already... I looked up, and realized, I had better post something before the end of the month... well... it’s the end of the month.

Have you noticed that people have lost their people skills?
Consideration of others is a lost virtue...

This post was inspired by a good friend of mine. We often commiserate on the subject of lack of consideration of others.

How driver’s have forgotten road etiquette, people who honestly believe that they can drive and talk on the phone, or be in a public place and share their importance and conversation with complete strangers in the most inappropriate places... a restaurant, the bank, ect., people cutting in line, those blocking your way and acting like you have the problem when you say... “Excuse me”... Excuse me, but when did that become an insult?. It’s hard not to lose your center (and want to react in any fashion other than with grace...) when these instances rear their ugly selfish heads...

These are true tests of patience in us all. The electronic age is on us and we have forgotten the old ways... we have virtual friendships, and e-mail... we don’t have to be polite or be personal... we don’t have to interact with real people face to face any more. This has made it easy to forget our actual people skills... We have very few intimate relationships with those we did years ago. People are basically rude, arrogant and impatient because of the “instant gratification junkies” we have become (I want it now... and I want it my way... double click :-)...
The result is a severe disconnect with real time humanity...
One of the many causes for our 21st century stresses.

I found this lovely passage from a book by Douglas Fairbanks entitled, Laugh and Live, written in the early 20th century. It was his thoughts on how to have a happy life... and I thought I’d share it with you...

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!
ENJOY! & Much love to you all...
Gail the Groovy

Consideration for Others
Laugh and Live
Chapter 9
by Douglas Fairbanks

Consideration for others is man's noblest attitude toward his fellow man. For every seed of human kindness he plants, a flower blooms in the garden of his own heart. In him who gives in such a way there is no hypocritical feeling of charity bestowed. His very act disarms the thought. It is as natural for an honorable man to show consideration to others as it is for him to eat and sleep. Acts of kindness are the outward manifestations of gentle breeding—a refinement of character in the highest sense of the word.

What would we do in this world without the helping hand, the friendly word of cheer, the thought that others shared our losses and cheered our victories? If consideration for our feelings and thoughts did not exist on this earth we would never know the depths of the love of our friends. There would be no such thing as an earthly reward of merit. We know that no matter what happens to us in the battle of life there will be someone to cheer us on our way. We may be strong and thoroughly able to rely upon ourselves but there comes a time when we need friendship and sympathy. Society would crumble into dust without these influences. The family circle would degenerate into a hollow mockery if consideration each for the other was absent. It sweetens and makes wholesome what otherwise might only be an existence of monotonous toil.

Consideration for others is the milk of human kindness. For what we do for others our recompense is in the act itself . . . we should claim no other reward. Observation brings to view that they who give in real charity cloak their acts from the eyes of all save the recipient. Givers of this type rise to the supreme heights of greatness. It is a part of their wisdom to know what is best to be done and they go about it as a pleasure as well as a duty.

Consideration for others pays big dividends. It is a virtue that makes for strong friendships and true affections. Those who possess it have a hard time hiding their light under a bushel. In teaching fortitude to others they partake of the same knowledge. In the hours of their own affliction they retain their courage and keep their minds unsoured. They are the sure-enough good fellows" of life and their presence is the signal for instantaneous good cheer. We all know them by their gentle knock at the door. In a thousand ways they impress themselves upon our lives, have entered into our councils, have given us the right advice at the right time—and when the sad day comes along their strong shoulders are there for us to lean upon.

The world helps those who help themselves. We have little admiration for the man who is forever whining. Society has no work for such people as these. When we have exhausted every means of helping such a man we must in selfdefense pass him up before he contaminates our sense of justice. We must keep our visions clear.

Consideration for others is a prime refinement of character. To be able to use it in our daily lives becomes one of our greatest consolations. Sympathy begets affection and kindly deeds—in a relative sense it binds together the properties which go to make the soul within us. Browbeating, scolding, irascibility and the like are microbes which react against the milk of human kindness, to which, if we succumb, leaves us stranded and alone amid a world of friendliness and good fellowship.

2007-12-26T20:56:00.000-08:00

Year’s End...
A Time For
New Beginnings

Well it’s the end of the year again... Seems the year's-end comes around faster and faster.

As we look back on 2007... Our growth... Our accomplishments... Lessons learned... The loses...
The new relationships... The vicissitudes of life...

Know that this is when you can reflect on all these experiences with profound gratitude and set powerful intentions for an abundantly prosperous new year... My wish to you all is... A fresh start with unlimited possibilities.

Here are two quotes for your New Year!

“Every man believes that he has a greater possibility”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves.
The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.”
~unknown

Life is not just a journey...
make it an adventure!
ENJOY! & Much love to you all...

Gail the Groovy

My friend, Ralph Warren, in Antwerp, Belgium shared this with me, and I am sharing it with you...

The Four Candles
of Life...

The Four Candles burned slowly. Their ambiance was so soft you could hear them speak.

The first candle said, " I Am Peace, but these days, nobody wants to keep me lit." Then Peace's flame slowly diminished and went out completely.

The second candle said, " I Am Faith, but these days, I am no longer indispensable." Then Faith's flame slowly diminished and went out completely.

Sadly the third candle spoke, "I Am Love and I haven't the strength to stay lit any longer. People put me aside and don't understand my importance. They even forget to love those who are nearest to them." And waiting no longer, Love went out completely.

Suddenly, a child entered the room and saw the three candles no longer burning. The child began to cry, "Why are you not burning? You are supposed to stay lit until the end." Then the Fourth Candle spoke gently to the little boy, " Don't be afraid, for I am hope, and while I still burn, we can relight the other candles." With shining eyes, the child took the Candle of Hope and lit the other three candles. Never let the Flame of Hope go out of your life. With Hope, no matter how bad things look, Peace, Faith, and Love can shine brightly in your life.
Author Unknown

The A, B, C’s of Happiness

Act - Take the first step for your life
Be Present - Be in the moment
Change - Change is uncomfortable, but change is the only constant in life
Determination - Are you committed to see you intentions become reality?
Energy - Be positive, your energy has an effect on everything

Fear - Have courage and your fears will disappear
Gratitude - Be grateful for everything in your life
Humanity - Compassion for others
Intentions - The first step to your success
Joy - Loving your life as it is
Know Yourself - Who are you... really? If U don’t know U, U can’t see others
Loving - Open your heart to love, because love is all.
Meditation - Is the key to knowing yourself and spirit.
Nice - You catch more bees with honey than with vinegar
Optimistic - Be optimistic, everything will work out
Passion - Find what you love to do and Do what you love
Quiet - Be still and know...
Restoration - Take time to restore yourself... Heal yourself
Self Awareness - Know yourself, Love yourself, Be yourself, Be authentic.
Trust - Trust that everything is unfolding as it should
Understanding - Without it you will never know compassion
Visualize - Think it, See it, Be it...
Willingness - Be willing to give of yourself
Xenial - Be kind to others/guests
Yes - Say yes to living your dreams
Zenith - Realize your power, you are perfect whole and complete!

“All high achievers plan their work and work their plan, for they are keenly aware that "luck" is most often being prepared to take advantage of a situation.”
INTENTION + ACTION = SUCCESS
unknown...

Some Things to
Make You Say...
Hummmmm

The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow. What are your intentions? How have you prepared?

Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail. Be kind in your dealings, being better than or superior to... breeds contempt in others. And it will always make you work harder for the same outcome.

If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all.
Oscar the Wilde said... “Life is too short to be taken seriously”
Laughing at yourself is a great gift.

Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure any day... Regrets are no fun...

A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're angry. People will remember your kindness... but being cruel will erase that kindness for a lifetime. .

Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without. Cut to the chase and cut the excess... Time is precious.

Why is it that at class reunions you feel younger than everyone else looks? You are as young as you feel, there are no requirements for you being who you feel you are at any age. (of course, being insipid does not count :DOH)

Scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job. Feeding the egos of attentions seekers and fools does not pay a good pension... and the sacrifice is your “self”.

No one has more driving ambition than the kid who wants to buy a car. Remember to call up that same determination, drive and imagination in all you desire to accomplish.

There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity. You reap what you sow... Cause and Effect... Karma.... Only you an prevent your own living hell.

There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4 AM. It could be a right number. Be grateful for you family and friends.

Think about this ... No one ever says "It's only a game" when their team is winning. The trick is to show the same grace when you are losing and without failure, there can be no real success.

Be careful reading the fine print. There's no way you're going to like it. Next time you want to sign something without reading it thoroughly... Think of the Sub-Prime market crash this year... You are the only person responsible for your actions...
nuf said.

inspired by an email... and embellished....

HAPPY
NEW YOU

HAPPY NEW
YEAR !

Peace n' Blessings!!!!

2007-11-20T00:03:00.002-08:00

A Season for Gratitude
Giving Thanks

November is the Start of the
Holiday Season...

I wish you and yours a wonderful and...
Happy Thanksgiving...
Also, if you have any suggestions for future blogs... Use the “comments” button on the bottom of this months blog... or email me at: TheUrbanShaman@aol.com
Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!
ENJOY!
Much love to you all...
Love n' Light,
Gail Oliver

A Season For Gratitude...

Gratitude is the substance of a heart ready to show appreciation, or thankfulness; it is not simply an emotion, which involves a pleasant feeling that can occur when we receive a favor or benefit from another person but rather the combination of a state of being and an emotion; often accompanied by a desire to thank them, or to reciprocate for a favor they have done for you.

When you live charged with gratitude, you will give thanks for anything or anyone who has benefited you, whether they meant to or not. Imagine a giving thanks when the driver in the car next to you lets you merge without protest, or when the water flows from the tap, or you have a place of shelter on a cold night.

When you open up to the trait of gratitude, you see clearly and accurately how much good there is in your life. Gratitude affirms. Those things you are lacking are still there, and in reaching for gratitude no one is saying you ought to ignore or those shortcomings. But most of us tend to focus so heavily on the deficiencies in our lives that we barely acknowledge the good that balances them.

When gratitude is established, it is a sign of a heart that has been made right and whole. Gratitude opens the heart. Gratitude can't coexist with arrogance, resentment, and selfishness.

A simple and effective way to practice gratitude is by making giving thanks part of your everyday life.

Giving Thanks

Do you take many things in your life for granted? By looking at the world a little differently, you just might realize how much you have to be thankful for. Here's how to stop and smell the roses.

The Steps...

• Pay attention to the people around you. You will find that everybody has
something to worry or complain about, not just you. It's easy to focus on those who seem to have it all, but you never know what's going on inside. They might look happy, but they might be miserable as well. Don't look at others and think "I should have it like they do." Look at those who aren't as fortunate as you are and take note of blessed you are. Count your blessings. If it helps, consider volunteering or start a relationship with someone who is not as fortunate and find small or gradual ways to help them.

• Practice acceptance. Stop dwelling on how things should be, what could've been, and what you don't have. Recognize what you do have--whether you like it or not, it's yours to keep or to change. Accepting your lot in life is not about resigning yourself to unhappiness. It's about not wasting time wishing for what you don't have.

• Become a problem solver. Use your lemons to make lemonade. Get in the habit of asking yourself how you can turn the negative into a positive. The most successful people in life, and those who have the most to be grateful for, are also those who've endured tremendous trials and managed to persevere and turn it all around.

• Learn to see hardship as a chance to develop character. Imagine yourself looking back ten years from now and recounting your difficult circumstances, and being proud of how you handled it and worked through it.

• Develop a gratitude journal. It's pretty simple. At the end of every day, write down five things that have made you happy or appreciative that day; not necessarily big things, even small ones count.
For example: 1) nice weather, 2) being thanked by a customer at work, 3) my pet, 4) having people who love me, 5) a funny joke or a song you like.

• Take joy in the small things. Blow bubbles. Walk the dog. Get lost in the park. Goof off or watch a funny movie and have a good laugh. Life's treasures are the small pleasures; give thanks for each small gift you receive!

Tips

• Avoid negative people whose social interaction consists of comparing their lives and competing for who has it worse.

• Volunteering to help those in need will help put things in perspective.

Warnings

• Variation is a part of life; the seasons, day and night, hilltops and valleys, light and darkness.

• No matter how positive and thankful you are, remember that life will always have its ups and downs. You're going to have to take the good with the bad.
wikihow.com

Recipe for Feelin’ Groovy...

This appeared in a Dear Abby column from a newspaper dated May 1961. Here is a wonderful recipe for feeling good written by a woman named Maxine.

Recipe for Happiness
2 heaping cups of patience
1 heart full of love
2 handfuls of generosity
Dash of laughter
1 head of understanding
Sprinkle generously with kindness
Add plenty of faith and mix well.
Spread over a period of a lifetime and serve everybody you meet.

If you were to implement this recipe during the holidays as you interact with your family, you would be contributing to heaven on earth. If you were to commit to feeling good every moment, what a contribution to peace on the planet that would be! There is no greater gift.

Have a Happy and Joyous Thanksgiving.
Love and Light to you all!

2007-10-29T20:53:00.001-07:00

Want to Save Some Money?

Are You Getting Enough
Alkaline Foods in Your Diet?

So October is about over...

One of my good friends, Dr. D, recently shared with me his latest wellness information. Alkaline and it's benefits. I know it sound tricky, but it's not... Want lower blood pressure, balance your blood sugars, have more energy, sleep better???? I thought so...I even included this easy diet's guidelines...
enJOY!

Let's all be healthier! That's why I hope you are enjoying these blogs... and passing them to your friends and family. This information is not something your doctor will tell you. If you are not in my database email me @ TheUrbanShaman@aol.com ...

Also, if you have any suggestions for future blogs... Use the “comments” button on the bottom of this months blog... or email me at: TheUrbanShaman@aol.com

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!
ENJOY!
Much love to you all...

Love n' Light,
Gail Oliver

Want to Save Some Money?
It’s easy and it's cheap too!

I know you'all are just about “Greened Out” but I tried an experiment and it worked.... For about $25, I went to Home Depot and bought 3 packages of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (you know the funny curly looking bulbs)... When I got home I replaced all of my old school bulbs. I sat back and waited for my power bill...And to my surprise, what was usually $156.00 was $102.00. I saved $54 a month (The cost of a massage or facial or whatever you want to do). Now per year that is $648.00. I don’t know about you but... money is money, unless you are just a blatent consumer. The CF’s paid for themselves and saved me money in the first billing cycle.

If you want to save more money and you have a grand or two or three (depending on the size of your home, and you plan to stay put for a while), look into tankless water heaters. A friend of mine put one in his home last year or so, and saves roughly $50.00+ per month on his Gas Bill. The theory being... Why keep 75+ gallons of water heated to the boiling point 24/7 to only use 20 gallons to bathe or shower once a day. How much unrenewable energy are we wasting? Now you are up to $1,200.00 aa year savings... So the tankless water heater will be paid off in 2-3 years.

More to come!

Are You Getting Enough...
Alkaline Foods in Your Diet?

'Your health depends on an alkaline environment, created by eating foods such as tomatoes, avocados and green vegetables...striking the optimum 80/20 balance and regulating your body's acid/alkaline chemistry through simple changes in diet can result in weight loss, increased stamina and strength,a stronger immune system and a greater sense of wellbeing.'

How did we become so out of balance?

After years of societal changes, millions of dollars of marketing spent and technological advances we, as a race, are now facing more dietary based health challenges than ever before. It is no coincidence that the rapidly growing numbers of cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes correlate almost exactly with the rise in consumption of acid forming foods such as sugars, saturated fats, and white breads. At the same time our consumption of fresh vegetables and essential fatty acids has decreased dramatically, making way for convenience and a generation hooked on sugary treats.

Becoming Alkaline

This is not as difficult or as technical as it sounds. When we talk about eating alkaline foods or starting an alkaline diet we are referring to consuming those foods and drink which have an alkaline effect on the body. This effect is based upon the ash residue that remains after our foods are consumed. Some foods leave an acid ash, whereas others leave an alkaline ash. Conveniently for us, our bodies have been designed to categorize which foods leave which kind of ash into neat and easy to remember groups.

Of course, everybody is different - but most of us should aim to eat 75-80% alkaline foods and a maximum of 20-25% acid forming foods.

Why is the important?

When you body harbors too much acid, Myotoxins have a prime environment to flourish. Mycotoxins (fungal) and exotoxins (bacterial) are the poisonous waste that is generated by microforms. Microforms produce these extremely harmful toxins when they digest glucose, proteins and fats.

In an acidic environment, these toxins are given a license to grow rapidly and cause harm to tissues and bodily processes.

Microform growth occurs in an acidic environment, particularly following the consumption of sugars, alcohol, yeast and most acid forming food and drink. Symptoms of excess microforms and myco/exo-toxins include: autoimmune dis-ease, infections, fatigue, cancer, clogged arteries, diarrhea, asthma, colds, flu, tumors, cysts, insomnia, lethargy, headaches, over/underweight, PMS, lack of sex drive, joint pain, bad breath, thrush, depression, dry skin, ulcers and many more!

List of Alkaline and Acid Foods:

Alkaline Foods

Vegetables

Asparagus
Artichokes
Cabbage
Lettuce
Onion
Cauliflower
Radish
Swede
Lambs Lettuce
Peas
Courgette
Red Cabbage
Leeks
Watercress
Spinach
Turnip
Chives
Carrot
Green Beans
Beetroot
Garlic
Celery
Grasses (wheat, straw, barley, dog, kamut etc.)
Cucumber
Broccoli
Kale
Brussels Sprouts

Fruits

Lemon
Lime
Avocado
Tomato
Grapefruit
Watermelon (is neutral)
Rhubarb

Drinks

'Green Drinks'
Fresh vegetable juice
Pure water (distilled, reverse osmosis, ionized)
Lemon water (pure water + fresh lemon or lime).
Herbal Tea
Vegetable broth
Non-sweetened Soy Milk
Almond Milk

Nuts & Grains

Almonds
Pumpkin
Sunflower
Sesame
Flax
Buckwheat Groats
Spelt
Lentils
Cumin Seeds
Any sprouted seed

Fats & Oils

Flax
Hemp
Avocado
Olive
Evening Primrose
Borage
Oil Blends (such as Udos Choice)

Others

Sprouts (soy, alfalfa, mung bean, wheat, little radish , chickpea, broccoli etc.)
Bragg Liquid Aminos (Soy Sauce Alternative)
Hummous
Tahnini

Acid Foods

Meats

Pork
Lamb
Beef
Chicken
Turkey
Crustaceans
Other Seafood (apart from occasional oily fish such as salmon)

Dairy Products

Milk
Eggs
Cheese
Cream
Yogurt
Ice Cream

Others

Vinegar
White Pasta
White Bread
Wholemeal Bread
Biscuits
Soy Sauce
Tamari
Condiments (Tomato Sauce, Mayonnaise etc.)
Artificial Sweeteners
Honey

Drinks

Fizzy Drinks
Coffee
Tea
Beers
Spirits
Fruit Juice
Dairy Smoothies
Milk
Traditional Tea

Convenience Foods

Sweets
Chocolate
Microwave Meals
Tinned Foods
Powdered Soups
Instant Meals
Fast Food

Fats & Oils

Saturated Fats
Hydrogenated Oils
Margarine (worse than Butter)
Corn Oil
Vegetable Oil
Sunflower Oil

Fruits

All fruits aside from those listed in the alkaline column.

Seeds & Nuts

Peanuts
Cashew Nuts
Pistachio Nuts

General Guidance:

Stick to salads, fresh vegetables and healthy nuts and oils. Try to consume plenty of raw foods and at least 2-3 liters of clean, pure water daily.

Steer clear of fatty meats, dairy, cheese, sweets, chocolates, alcohol and tobacco. Packaged foods are often full of hidden offenders and microwaved meals are full of sugars and salts. Microwaving and over cooking also removes all of the nutrition from a meal!

For more information: http://www.energiseforlife.com

2007-09-23T23:10:00.000-07:00

Summers Over!

Eat fresh. Eat local. Eat in season.
and...
Are You Addicted to Stress and Drama?

This month we celebrate the end of summer and the arrival of Fall...
The time of the Harvest.

And in Part 2, I ask... Are you or someone you know, addicted to Drama... an interesting thing to think about and change.

I have also updated my “Original Blog”. I forward the email of my blog to you all monthly... However if you click on this link:

www.TheUrbanShaman.blogspot.com

I have added some new features which include resources for Green Living, I have a link to see how Green your household is and how to be more efficient, music, art, and some of my groovy friends blogs.
They are listed under: “Other Groovy Souls and Helpful Sites”.
Please click on the link and be forwarded to and explore...The “NEW” Urban Shaman...

Please pass this information to your friends and family... Pass the Love around! Also, if you have any suggestions for future blogs... Use the “comments” button on the bottom of this months blog... or email me at: TheUrbanShaman@aol.com.

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure! ENJOY!!!!...

Peace N' Blessings,
Gail Oliver

Eat fresh.
Eat local.
Eat in season.

Top 10 reasons to buy local:

1. Locally grown food tastes better. Food grown and sold locally is crisp, sweet, and loaded with flavor because it is picked less than 2 days before it reaches your hands. Produce flown or trucked in from California or Chile spends a week or longer in transition from field to plate, enough time for sugars to turn to starches, plant cells shrink, and produce to lose vitality.

2. Local produce is better for you. Studies show that fresh produce loses nutrients quickly once harvested. Food that is frozen or canned soon after harvest is more nutritious than "fresh" produce that spends a week on a truck or supermarket shelf. Locally grown food, purchased soon after harvest, retains its nutrients.

3. Local food preserves genetic diversity. Local farms tend to grow a large variety of plants, instead of only a limited number of varieties that can withstand the harvest and marketing process. This variety provides a harvest all season long, an array of brilliant colors and flavors, as well as preserves the genetic material from hundreds of years of human selection.

4. Local food is GMO-free. Since biotechnology companies currently only license to large factory-style farms, local farmers don't have access to genetically modified seed, and most of them wouldn't use it.

5. Local food supports local farm families. Direct markets, selling directly to consumers, cut out the middleman allowing local farmers to receive the full retail price for their food. With commodity prices at historic lows and farmers getting less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar, supporting local farms mean that farm families can afford to stay on the farm, doing the work they love.

6. Local food builds community. When you buy direct from the farmer, you are re-establishing a time-honored connection between the eater and the grower. Knowing the farmers gives you insight into the seasons, the weather, and the miracle of raising food. Relationships built on understanding and trust can thrive.

7. Local food preserves open space. As the value of direct-marketed fruits and vegetables increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely. Lush fields of crops, meadows of wildflowers, and wild open landscapes will survive only as long as farms are financially viable. When you buy locally grown food, you are doing something proactive about preserving the agricultural landscape.

8. Local food keeps your taxes in check. Farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, as opposed to suburban development. On average, for every $1 in revenue raised by residential development, governments must spend $1.17 on services, requiring higher taxes of all taxpayers. For each dollar of revenue raised by farm, forest, or open space, governments spend 34 cents on services.

9. Local food supports a clean environment and benefits wildlife. A well-managed family farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued and diversity is welcomed. The habitat of a farm, with fields, meadows, woods, ponds and buildings, is the perfect environment for many species of wildlife, including bluebirds, killdeer, herons, bats, and rabbits.

10. Local food is about the future. By supporting local farmers today, you are helping to ensure that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful, abundant, farm fresh food. www.sustainablefoodcenter.org

Fall Harvest:

• Garlic, Leeks, Onions, Shallots
• Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage,
Cauliflower
• Belgian Endive, Chard, Escarole, Radicchio,
Spinach, Mushrooms
• Beets, Celery Root, Parsnips, Potatoes,
Radishes, Rutabagas, Turnips
• Artichokes, Bell Peppers, Eggplants,
Pumpkins, Winter Squashes
• Apples, Apricots, Grapes, Pears

Please check the listing under “Other Groovy Souls and Helpful Sites”, on my Blog Page... www.TheUrbanShaman.Blogspot.com
and click “Local Harvests in Your Area” to find the local farms and farmer’s markets in your area.

Low-sodium diet:
Why is processed food so salty?
Why do processed foods contain so much sodium?

Mayo Clinic dietitian Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D., and colleagues answer select questions from readers.

Answer: Salt (sodium chloride) helps prevent spoiling by drawing moisture out of food so bacteria can't grow. Salt also kills existing bacteria that might cause spoiling. At one time, salting was one of the only methods available to preserve food. But today, food manufacturers have many other preservation methods available — such as refrigeration, freezing, dehydration, irradiation and chemical preservatives.

So why do they continue to use salt?

There are many reasons. In addition to making food more flavorful, salt makes soups thicker, reduces dryness in crackers and pretzels, and increases sweetness in cakes and cookies. Salt also helps disguise metallic or chemical aftertaste in products such as soft drinks. Healthy adults need only between 1,500 and 2,400 milligrams (mg) of sodium a day. However, most Americans consume more than double that amount — due in large part to a heavy diet of processed foods.

To reduce sodium in your diet:

* Eat fewer processed foods such as potato chips, frozen dinners and cured meats.
* Choose foods labeled "low sodium" or "reduced sodium."
* Don't add salt to your food. Instead, use herbs and spices to flavor foods.
* Eat more unprocessed, fresh foods, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats,
poultry, fish and unprocessed grains.

Keep in mind that if you have high blood pressure, are African-American, are older than age 50, or have a chronic condition such as kidney disease or diabetes, you should aim for less than 1,500 mg of sodium a day.

Are You Addicted to Stress and Drama?

How many of you are in situations that are not fulfilling, that don't support or nurture your spirits. This pertains to jobs, friendships, relationships and all facets of your life. All of life requires a sense of balance.

If everything we do is because we have to, where is the joy?

Do you put more importance on things we do for other people than the things
(if we have the time) we do for ourselves?

Is there something you would do differently than what you are doing now if you had the chance?

So what's stopping you?

If it was possible to do whatever you wanted to do with your life from this day forward, what would that be?

Trusting and believing in your self is a major accomplishment in our society now. With all the negative energy being spread worldwide it's hard to trust anything going on. But know, you can trust yourself to fulfill all your dreams!

I recently read this from Published in: Perspective Rant The Human Condition Thought on those addicted to drama... it stated ”If you focus on something long enough your vision will tunnel, the thing that you focus on will become the only thing that you can see. I just don’t get people who hone in on one thing going wrong in their life and ignore everything else that is going right”. hum...

Are You An Adrenaline Junkie?

Seems somewhere along the way people became addicted to drama and stress in their lives. We see it everyday. We all have friends that no matter the day, they have this unbelievable drama in their lives. They seem to thrive on it. Their whole being is drama... if they don’t have it they create it. Sometimes “we” don’t even realize we are creating unnecessary drama in our own lives.

Consciously or unconsciously, all human beings use adrenaline to create intensity. The intensity thus produced is then discharged through a variety of emotional states. These reactions may include anxiety or fear, anger or excitement. Regardless how they are expressed emotionally or physically, all these responses are fueled by adrenaline.

Used as a drug for this effect, adrenaline's intensity helps human beings repress the terror, and the wonder, of embracing their essential pain. That pain, at the deepest levels, rises from chronic or unresolved feelings of loss, abandonment, and disconnection. When the underlying reservoir of essential pain is significant, the individuals affected seem compelled, often unconsciously, to generate abnormal amounts of adrenaline to repress that pain.

The intensity of life becomes more vital than it's quality. That, in sum, is Adrenaline Addiction. Our society has mislabeled this entire process. We project the origins for this turmoil externally, and call it "stress". Individuals (and their guides) focus their attentions on reducing “job stress" or "economic stress" or "relationship stress" or what have you. In chemical dependency, for example, the source of this "stress" becomes "his drinking" or "her nagging."

Through the mechanism of the use of the term "stress", we become detached and insulated from reality. That truth is that we alone are ultimately responsible for our own choices. Thus, through adrenaline, we remain free to maintain unnaturally high levels of what has become required intensity. This process allows us to repress, at least temporarily, the emergence of our essential pain.

From, Addicted to Adrenaline.Copyright @ 1995 Larry I. Meadows

Got Healthy self esteem?

The truth is that we alone are ultimately responsible for our own choices. The only person we can control is ourselves. Trying to change another person to fit our needs and wants is like trying to teach a moose to fly.... It ain’t gonna happen. If we continue to stay in a partnerships that are not what is for our deepest good, not meeting our needs or wants... It is our direct attack on ourselves. You have to love yourself in order to have someone love you... If you are not invested in yourself, why would anyone else want to be.

The following is the result of, and happens as the need for adrenaline goes unchecked and you do not address your insecurities.

Are you a Drama Junkie?

If the following checklist looks familiar to you, you may be a drama junkie. In essence, it means that you are drawn to people and situations that get your adrenaline flowing both in the positive and the negative. The positive highs in relationships are primarily associated with the earliest enchantment phase of love, so those feelings are not sustainable at a high level over time. Once the initial enchantment period fades, the drama junkie has to find other ways to get his or her “fix.” The following are examples, behavior patterns, that indicate you or someone you love may have this issue:

* Automatic negative assumptions about other people’s motives without checking them out; i.e., someone cancels a date or outing because of work overload and you assume they don’t care or isn’t invested in the relationship; you escalate the situation by going out and acting out in a dramatic fashion

* Feeling consumed with other people’s drama; talking endlessly about other people’s dramas; reacting to other people’s dramas; at the end of the day, little was accomplished in your life plan because all the focus was on your toxic relationship(s)

* Inability to handle stress without acting out (i.e., drinking, calling ten friends to complain about what happened, overeating, bingeing/purging, etc.)

* Rapid, knee-jerk reactions when other people say or do things you don’t like; i.e., he says he’ll be there by 7:00 and shows up at 8:00; by then, you’ve left the house and gone drinking with your friends OR the minute he gets in the door you go into a tirade

* Feeling compelled to escalate in relationships when you feel wounded in some way; i.e., she says it’s girls night but stays out until 2:00 a.m. and comes home drunk; you immediately toss her out on the front lawn

* Compulsive behavior when under stress in a relationship; i.e., she won’t answer her phone, so you text message her with angry words for the next two hours, trying to provoke a response.

If you’re dating someone who fits any of the above profile, you too, may be a drama junkie. People who really want serenity in their lives and relationships are so turned off by this behavior that when it appears, they quickly move on.

If you feel hooked and stay connected to a chaotic person for more than a couple of weeks, then you have the same issue. What can you do about this?

First, take a giant step back and look at your life. Get real about what you want and where you are currently headed. Be willing to sacrifice some excitement in favor of stability.

Second, Be with like minded friends or those you would like to emulate while in the process of getting rid of the drama filled friends of old...toxic relationships...

Then: Put your focus on what you want to accomplish in your life: create a vision, have goals, have a plan. People who are focused on making a real contribution in the world, whether it’s through a professional vocation (i.e., doctor, nurse, attorney, etc.), a career (helping a business grow), or creating something meaningful (i.e., write a book, paint a picture, act in a play, perform or create music, etc.), have little time or energy for the cycle of drama.

©2007 Nina Atwood

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt

2007-08-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the August issue of my Blog...
www.TheUrbanShaman.blogspot.com

The theme for this month is:
Celestial Events... Heavens Light Show Non-Attachment

I hope you are enjoying these blogs... It is my pleasure to share this information to you all. This month we get to witness some heavenly sights... It's warm outside so pull up a chair, some tea or a glass of wine and enjoy the show... I have also included subject of Non Attachment for your reflection.

Please pass this information to your friends and family... Pass the Love around! Also, if you have any suggestions for future blogs... Use the “comments” button on the bottom of this months blog... or email me at: TheUrbanShaman@aol.com Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!

ENJOY the rest of your summer!!!!...
Peace N' Blessings,
Gail Oliver

Celestial Events to Behold

Eclipse season kicks off in just a couple days.
August 28, 2007....

It is the time of the Pisces Full Moon, so the pressure for change and completion of old undermining patterns is already building. This brings to a head the need for healthy improvements in your life that you began to target last Fall.

All of North America will witness some portion of the eclipse, but western observers are favored. The early penumbral or umbral phases will be in progress at moonset for observers in Maritime Canada. From the eastern USA, the Great Lakes region and Ontario, the Moon sets in total eclipse. Only observers to the west of the Rockies (including Alaska) will be treated to the entire event.

The Aurigid Meteors

The Perseid meteor shower has come and gone, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any more good meteor displays to look forward to. In fact, another potentially good shower is just around the corner, scheduled to reach its peak during the early hours of Saturday, September 1st: the Aurigid meteors.

Aurigid outbursts are very infrequent, having been definitively seen on only three occasions: in 1935, 1986 and 1994. That moment (4:37 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time) favors the far-western parts of the United States, where the constellation Auriga will be about two-thirds up in the northeast sky around the time morning twilight begins. If you live in Portland, San Francisco or Los Angeles, you'll be in perfect position to view the meteors.

The Aurigids get their name from the constellation of Auriga, the Charioteer. The meteors appear to emanate from a spot in the sky near the bright yellowish star Capella in Auriga. The Aurigids, however, are rarely mentioned in most astronomy guidebooks because they are hardly worth mentioning in any given year. Then why bother about a shower that almost nobody has heard of and that's due this year just days after a bright full moon? Because in 2007, these unheralded Aurigids are this summer's wild card. Unlike the steady and reliable Perseids, little or no activity is usually seen from the Aurigids. Yet, every once in a great while a short-lived outburst of bright meteors has been reported from the Aurigid shower. Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute's Carl Sagan Center has recently shown that these rare outbursts of Aurigid activity were caused by a comet which ejected a trail of dust that very occasionally wanders into the Earth's path.

Non-Attachment
Gail Oliver © 2005

Non-attachment is a tricky subject to say the least, and to understand it is a challenge. In my reading, I was always intrigued by the concept of Non-Attachment. It seemed an impossible theory to understand, let alone practice. The definition of Non-Attachment is not in any dictionary because the word does not really exist in English. Nirvana, a Sanskrit word, and one I’m sure you have at least heard has many spiritual definitions. The definition closest to non-attachment is: one free from suffering, death, rebirth and all worldly bonds.

The closest word in the dictionary is: “Detachment”
1. the action or process of detaching :
2. separation
3. indifference to worldly concerns : Aloofness b : freedom from bias or prejudice.

Based on this definition… I never thought this was something I would want to do. Why would I want to be aloof, or separate myself from people (I am an only child anyway). So what is non-attachment? Non-attachment is not grasping. Not clinging. Not Possessing.

Let me break it down...

By nature and by programming, we are taught at an early age to put importance on the things and people in our lives. A saying comes to mind; the one with the most toys wins. It is then no small wonder that by the time we reach adulthood, most of us define ourselves by the things we have and the people we associate with. When something threatens to take these people and things from us, we do anything in our power to hold on. These things take on a life of their own… ours. We are so desperate to hold on to what we perceive defines us as a person, we lose sight of who we really are. This is a reason for us to take a deep look at ourselves, and, how we relate to these things and people that surround us.

As we look at the people in our lives, our friends, our lovers, our children, we tend to keep these folks close. We are attached to them. We don’t want to lose them. We fear losing them as a miser fears losing his money. Because of this fear, our vision is clouded and, the sad thing is we never learn how to just “have” these people and things in our lives. We should enjoy their presence in our lives in the moment. We instead try to possess and control the people in our lives which never works in the long run. Remember this one? If a Butterfly lands in your hands, let it go…If it returns, it was meant to be. If it doesn’t, it was never yours. If you grab it, you kill it. There are some people that get so attached to the people in their lives they become deranged and desperate when they leave, unfortunately we see the reactions to this loss on the news form time to time. They remind me of the of the alternative ending of the above quote… If the Butterfly does not return, track it down and kill it.

It is when we put so much in and on our associations with people that we lose them and become lost ourselves.

“It’s not who you know, it’s what you know”. Over the years this saying has been reversed to say, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. In reality, it shouldn’t matter at all who, you know… if you know who “YOU” are. It is in this knowing of your power in believing in your true self that the principle of non-attachment is based. At the point in your life, when you acknowledge that you yourself are complete, and let go, that’s when anyone and anything will come into your life you desire. This is non-attachment.

On the flip side, our attachment and the need for things and people in our lives permanently, is a reflection of fear. We attach ourselves to many things every moment of our lives. We attach ourselves to our house, our car, our clothes, our jewelry, our jobs. All things we feel define us. We attach ourselves to people; our family, our lover, our friends and our children. Not realizing they are a gift to us, not a possession. We attach ourselves to routines, TV shows, places and feelings. We attach ourselves to everything we experience.

Attaching ourselves to a certain belief is dangerous too. I recently saw a movie that had a poignant example of attaching to a reaction of sudden loss. In the movie; a woman is suddenly abandoned by her husband. He seemingly just disappears off the face of the planet. But she, in her mind has it all figured out. He has run off with his secretary and left her to finish raising their four children… In her mind there could be no other explanation for his sudden disappearance She is ANGRY as hell to say the least. In her mind she feels betrayed and socially embarrassed, she spends months, years self-medicating her pain and nursing her new friend “anger”. She snaps at her children and is unsupportive to their dreams and berates their every idea. A man who is around trying to befriend her gets belittled at every turn. She becomes bitter and sarcastic, even going so far as to call the secretary in question and hangs up on her when she answers. Which is just one more validation for her anger. This goes on for the better part of the movie. Her children rebel and act out, as children often do. The man that has shown interest in her has had enough and walks away and refuses to acknowledge her calls and advances. She eventually calms down, mellows out and starts detaching from the anger she has fiercely attached herself to. She stops her self-destructive behavior. This process took 3 years for her to live out. As things calm back down, things return to a renewed semblance of normalcy. The truth is revealed. As it turns out, the decomposed body of a man is discovered in an old well shaft on the property where she and her children live. It is her husband. It turns out the reaction to her husband’s disappearance, was that of anger. She became hateful and closed, her life was fueled and consumed by the anger she attached her mind to believe for 3 years. She broke down realizing the time she wasted living in anger, alienating her family and friends, drinking and her self-destructive behavior, all behind what she thought she knew to be true. All this wasted life behind what turned out to be a tragic accident. Imagine, maybe this man was yelling for help for a few days, but because of the woman’s anger and drinking… no one heard his pleas for help. This movie is an excellent example of attachment and how it can ruin your life if you let it.

So how do we stop? It’s impossible to live a solitary life to stay safe from hurt or broken hearts. We all need to interact with others to have a healthy existence. Detaching from people is not the idea here. It’s by learning to love these people without clinging to them, without neediness, and without desperation. If we learn to cherish these people in our lives in the moment and not take their presence in our lives for granted, we can have them. If for some unforeseen reason, they go away or are taken away from us, we can look back fondly and be grateful for the time with them we were afforded. If we do not learn this, and people leave us for whatever reason, we can become distraught, and suffer great anxiety and pain.

When we put so much credence in people and things, we set ourselves up for pain, and our self-worth becomes contingent on symbols of “self”. This is dangerous because people and things (symbols) come and go in and out of our lives. When these symbols are lost to us we feel empty and react emotionally. We forget that we have ourselves. We a born alone… We die alone…And the rest of life’s precious gifts are in a constant state of movement. After all, I’ve never seen a U-Haul following a Hearst.

We tend to put too much energy and time into acquiring and maintaining these symbols. In Los Angeles, we are a car culture. Which has spawned a society of being judged by the kind of car people drive. I have a friend who was the epitome of this phenomenon. When I met him, he had a Range Rover. No property, no savings, but he looked good. His total worth was wrapped up in a thing. He had a second car, however not as cool, a fully restored 87 Jeep Cherokee Limited. One Friday, the Rover was not running and the parts were not available until Monday. I watched as this man became frustrated and became despondent. I innocently reminded him he had another car in the garage, I didn’t see any problem. He eventually calmed down and reconciled himself to use the “not-so-cool” car. I really was not getting this at all. As it turned out his whole identity and self worth was in this image of who he saw himself to be in “The Rover”. Fast-forward 6 years… The Rover blew up… Lost! During this time the man borrowed other people’s cars and rode the bus, no one really saw him socially until he emerged with his next identity, an $80,000 Porsche. I see him around town from time to time, but the funniest place I saw him was being parked at the laundry mat washing clothes. I guess owning a Maytag is not the same as driving a Porsche. I was tickled. By the way, the Jeep runs like a top, It just turned 198,000 miles and gets me wherever I need to be dependably, without all the fanfare and attention.

This is an example of how symbols are transitory in our lives and needing them to define who we are leaves us lost, fearful and empty when they are taken away. Because of this attachment to the thing, we have exchanged our self for and symbol of self. In the long run, chasing the symbols of self is like settling for a grape, when we could have the vineyard.

When we practice non-attachment, we have the power of wealth, happiness and the ability to create anything our hearts desire. That is because nothing and no one is responsible, or, is the reason for our joy, what we chose to create, or what we achieve. Non-attachment is trusting that your intentions and desires will be met without having attachment to any certain outcome. How free is that! When we detach from the outcome we in turn have the freedom to create whatever we want. Our problems are then solved in ways we can’t even imagine. When you focus on your intention and desire, then step back on let it go of (detach) your idea of a specific outcome, you will have an outcome that far exceeds your expectations.

Ultimately, this Universe can teach us that, through non-attachment, we cannot control anyone or anything other than ourselves. When we grasp at people they stay away. When we covet a thing, we are sure to lose it. People and things are on a transitory journey in and out of our lives at all times. The only constant is you. You are still you, with or without these things. They do not define who you are.

When you detach yourself from things and you are powerful and secure in your “self”, you can receive all the things you desire. They become icing on your already stand alone and perfectly baked cake. When you detach from people in you life for one reason or another, and are secure and powerful in your “self”, you will have them, or someone better in your life.
When we let it go… And let it be…
This is the only way we can truly have the very thing we desire.

Live the Let Go!!!

2007-07-29T13:30:00.002-07:00

Welcome to the July issue of my Blog...www.TheUrbanShaman.blogspot.com

It’s Been a Year!!!
"Happy 1st Anniversary"
to
"The Urban Shaman Blog"
Thank You for your Support...

The theme for this month is:
Being your Best You...
By Gettin' Out of Your Own Way!

I hope you are enjoying these blogs...
It is my pleasure to share this information to you all.

This month’s article is a "revisit" or continuation, if you will...
“Expectations”... Part 2

I recently observed how when, what we expect doesn’t go our way, or happen the way we want, we sometimes forget to BREATHE before we react thus causing negative results... the disappointment and general funky-ness that we act out, sometimes has detrimental effects on the others in our lives who... usually have nothing to do with our drama. When we stay focused in the present moment, and take a step back (breathe), we then can react with Grace, Kindness and with more Self-control.

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!

ENJOY The Ride!
Peace N' Blessings,
Gail Oliver

Expectations.... part 2

We all have ideas of the way we want things to turn out.
We expect certain results to come from our actions.
We desire certain outcomes.

People often say. “Don’t have any expectations.” But that is not realistic. We are going to have expectations, just as we are going to have judgments, fears and desires. It doesn’t make sense to try and get rid of our expectations, just as it doesn’t make sense to try to get rid of our judgments, fears and desires.

The real issue is ‘How do we hold our expectations when they come up?”

If we try to impose our expectations on the reality at hand, we will be disappointed if they are not met. If we pretend not to have expectations, we will be dishonest with ourselves and others.

Instead of imposing or denying our expectations, we just want to be aware of them and hold them with compassion. Then, we can accept the outcome regardless of whether our expectations are met.

Expectations arise in consciousness just as do fears, desires and judgments. We need to be aware of them and let them be. We don’t need to hold onto them or push them away.

Life doesn’t always show up the way we want it to. In fact, it could be said that the more we want it to show up a certain way, the less chance there is that it will happen that way. Our attachment to specific results often puts pressure on ourselves and others. It makes it more difficult for things to unfold naturally. As a result, we experience struggle and resistance.

The best results happen when we are CLEAR about what we want, COMMUNICATE well with others and DO THE BEST WE CAN. Then, we can live without regret. Even if things show up differently from the way we expect them to, we don’t take this personally. We don’t feel that we have failed or that we are being punished.

Instead, we try to accept the situation as it is and learn what we can from it. We don’t stuff our disappointment and frustration, but acknowledge them, while keeping our hearts and our minds open. We know that things change, and what appeared to be a setback can sometimes become a blessing in disguise.

Life has its ups and downs, its ebb, and its flow. The same can be found in our own lives. Sometimes we are joyful; other times we are sad. Sometimes we are confident and loving and sometimes we are fearful and defensive. Our lives are composed of waves of thought and feeling. External events have the same fluctuations.

When we are patient, we know that things are always changing. Peaks become valleys. Sadness yields to joy. What seems like failure might be success in disguise. Life is not always what it appears to be. We have to surrender what we know to discover what we don’t know.

Sidebar: When we have expectations from manipulative or covert intentions... we will always have disappointments... The key is to always be honest with yourself and set honest intentions with no hidden agendas, then you won't be sittin' around lookin' 'tupid (yes I meant that) because it didn't go your way.
The truth will always set you free, even if it is from yourself.

Staying in the Present

Regardless of what happened yesterday, last week or last year, we have a new situation with new choices available to us right now. The pain or frustration of the past does not have to become present pain or frustration. Even if the external situation seems the same as it did in the past, we can bring a new perspective to it.

The present always offers us a different look at or a different choice, if we are willing to see it.

The question is “Are we willing.”

To be sure, it is easier to see the past than it is to see the present. The past does not change. We know what it looks like, so we don’t have to be alert. Seeing the past lulls us to sleep. Being in the present requires our full, conscious attention. The best way to put our past behind us is to learn from it...

If you want to see someone skilled in being in the present, observe athletes in a basketball, football, or hockey games. The action is constantly changing. Every pick or roll or block or check creates new possibilities. Seeing those possibilities as soon as they emerge is essential.

If we are to be successful in our lives, we need to cultivate our ability to be present and alert. Having an open mind and open heart helps us stay alert in the present moment. When we are alert, we bring patience, flexibility, and willingness to each situation. We sink down through our judgments, our desires and our fears to the essence of our being, where we can respond uniquely and appropriately to the situation at hand.

From... Grace Unfolding. By, Paul Ferrini

2007-06-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the June issue of my Blog... www.TheUrbanShaman.blogstop.com

The theme for this month is:
It’s Summertime!

This is the month we celebrate “The Start of Summer”
I have an article on “Expectations” this month that I wrote a few years ago, but because of the business of life, I am revisiting it and sharing it with you all... Also, I have included a very important bit of information on your drinking water habits from a newsletter I receive from The Union of Concerned Scientist’s Greentips.

Please pass this information to your friends and family... or email me to join the mailing list if you are not in my database @ TheUrbanShaman@aol.com ...

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!
ENJOY!
Much love to you all...
Peace N' Blessings,
Gail Oliver

Expectations
Gail Oliver © 2005

Expectations will get us in trouble every time. You may not even be aware of the expectations you have in all areas of your life and your reality. An expectation is a confident belief or strong hope that a particular event will happen, a mental image of something expected often compared to it's reality, it is a standard of conduct or performance expected by or of someone.

We all put expectations on every facet of life from; jobs, family and friends, relationships, mates or perspective mates, religion and the list goes on. We expect certain service from merchants, law enforcement, our government, our cars, the phone company... well you get the gist.

Expectations are a kin to assumptions and arrogance.

When expectations are not met, we get our feelings hurt, because we expected a certain outcome. We also, most times unconsciously, tend to judge others when they do not meet our expectations. I recently experienced this, an associate was trying to ram his personal beliefs down a group of people’s throats. He threatened to leave and not participate in our group because we didn’t get him. He had expectations of us we all couldn’t possibly live up to and in his judgment, we weren’t worthy, so his reaction was to take his ball and go home. He later recanted his position. A couple of weeks ago, while in a business situation, my expectations of certain protocol got the best of me. I was judge, jury and prosecutor, which was not fair to the other person and as it turned out, was a big waste of energy because they just didn’t know any better.
I apologized for my behavior.

There are somethings we expect that are just what we feel to be are our divine right because we are humans living in a society. We expect respectful and considerate treatment from family and friends and people in general. We expect good service from a paid service provider (well unless you are a certain Cable Co. subscriber). We expect the truth from our loved ones. We expect reasonable compensation for our expertise. Some of these expectations are indeed reasonable in the grand scheme of things, but it’s when we force an expected outcome, we set ourselves up for disappointment. When we create expectations based on bad past results and experiences, we limit ourselves and often set ourselves up for failure. This is often true in relationships. The new people in our lives deserve a clean slate. After all they aren’t responsible for our past hurts or mistakes.

When we have expectations for a certain result, we often cheat ourselves.
Our expectations are limited to what we can imagine... the gifts from the Universe are infinite. If someone treats you in a way that does not meet your expectations, communicate to them how you want to be treated. But before you do, breathe, and when communicating, come from loving kindness. Usually, if reasonable, the person or circumstances will come your way and be in your favor. Remember, we are all doing the best we can with what we have to work with and we all need help from time to time to understand each other.

When you are open to experiencing your life without putting any expectations in the mix, you get more. You are living in the moment... When you stop putting expectations on relationships, and you are not attached to specific outcomes, you get more. When you eliminate your fear based expectations, you find them having no more power over you and your life becomes more free.

This took me a while to comprehend... As a child my Father never promised me anything, as he said, this way if for some reason he couldn't come through, I would not be disappointed. This served me well growing up because I was always pleasantly surprised when I least “expected” it...And because of this, the things my Dad did for me, big or small, always exceeded any expectations I could have ever imagined...

Is Bottled Water Better?
Greentips©June 2007

Bottled water manufacturers’ marketing campaigns capitalize on isolated instances of contaminated public drinking water supplies by encouraging the perception that their products are purer and safer than tap water. But the reality is that tap water is actually held to more stringent quality standards than bottled water, and some brands of bottled water are just tap water in disguise. What’s more, our increasing consumption of bottled water—more than 22 gallons per U.S. citizen in 2004 according to the Earth Policy Institute—fuels an unsustainable industry that takes a heavy toll on the environment.

Environmental Impact

Fossil fuel consumption. Approximately 1.5 million gallons of oil—enough to run 100,000 cars for a whole year—are used to make plastic water bottles, while transporting these bottles burns thousands more gallons of oil. In addition, the burning of oil and other fossil fuels (which are also used to generate the energy that powers the manufacturing process) emits global warming pollution into the atmosphere.

Water consumption. The growth in bottled water production has increased water extraction in areas near bottling plants, leading to water shortages that affect nearby consumers and farmers. In addition to the millions of gallons of water used in the plastic-making process, two gallons of water are wasted in the purification process for every gallon that goes into the bottles.

Waste. Only about 10 percent of water bottles are recycled, leaving the rest in landfills where it takes thousands of years for the plastic to decompose.

The Simple (and Cheaper) Solution

The next time you feel thirsty, forgo the bottle and turn to the tap. You’ll not only lower your environmental impact but also save money—bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more per gallon than tap water. And because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for tap water are more stringent than the Food and Drug Administration’s standards for bottled water, you’ll be drinking water that is just as safe as, or safer than, bottled.

If, however, you don’t like the taste of your tap water or are unsure of its quality, you can buy a filter pitcher or install an inexpensive faucet filter to remove trace chemicals and bacteria. If you will be away from home, fill a reusable bottle from your tap and refill it along the way; travel bottles with built-in filters are also available. Finally, limit your bottled water purchases for those times when you’re traveling in countries where water quality is questionable.

Other portable options are:
Using one of the household filters mentioned above, buy your own safer reusable bottles or stainless steel containers and fill your own... These bottles are made from materials less toxic and are reusable and dishwasher safe and can be purchased at:
Whole Foods
Bed, Bath and Beyond

or Google : Reusable water portable containers

Not mentioned in the above article is, when regular bottled water is left in a hot car, especially in the summer, it leeches the toxic chemicals from the plastic and these chemicals have been known to cause cancer in humans.... so there!

2007-05-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the May issue of my Blog... www.TheUrbanShaman.blogstop.com

The theme for this month is:
Mindfulness

I hope you are enjoying these blogs... It is my pleasure to share this information to you all. Please pass this information to your friends and family... or email me to join the mailing list if you are not in my database @ TheUrbanShaman@aol.com ...

Also, if you have any suggestions for future blogs... Use the “comments” button on the bottom of this months blog... or email me at: TheUrbanShaman@aol.com

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!
ENJOY! & Much love to you all...

Gail the Groovy

This is a thoughtful passage my friend Ralph from Rotterdam sent to me last week... and I am passing it on to you all!

Promise Yourself Each Morning!

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel there is something in them.

To look on the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and to have a smile ready for every living creature you meet.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world - not in loud words, but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the world is on your side as long as you are true to the best that is in you.

©Societas Rosicruciana in America

Being Present in Mindfulness

Touching deeply is an important practice. We touch with our hands, our eyes, our ears, and also with our mindfulness. The first practice I learned was to breathe in and out consciously, to touch each breath with my mindfulness, identifying the in-breath as in-breath and the out-breath as out-breath. When you practice this way, your mind and body come into alignment, your wandering thoughts come to a stop, and you are at your best. Mindfulness is the substance of the Buddha. When you enter deeply into the moment, you see the nature of reality, and this insight liberates you from suffering and confusion. Peace is already there to some extent: the problem is whether we know how to touch it. Conscious breathing is the most basic Buddhist practice (that we all can benefit from) for touching peace.

Making Peace

We can practice in the same way with our eyes. Our eyes are wonderful, but we usually take them for granted. Every time we open our eyes, we see thousands of marvelous forms and colors. Those who are blind may feel that if they could recover their sight they would be dwelling in paradise, but we who have good eyes rarely take the time to appreciate that we are already in paradise. If we just take a moment to touch our eyes deeply, we will feel real peace and joy.

Touching each part of our body in mindfulness, we make peace with our body, and we can do the same with our feelings. There are many conflicting feelings and ideas within us, and it is important for us to look deeply and know what is going on. When there are wars within us, it will not be long before we are at war with others, even those we love. The violence, hatred, discrimination, and fear in society water the seeds of the violence, hatred, discrimination, and fear within us. If we go back to ourselves and touch our feelings, we will see the ways that we furnish fuel for the wars going on inside. Meditation is, first of all, a toll for surveying our own territory so we can know what is going on. With the energy of mindfulness, we can calm things down, understand them, and bring harmony back to the conflicting elements inside us. If we can learn ways to touch the peace, joy and happiness that are already there, we will become healthy and strong, and a resource for others.

I Am There for You...

The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When our mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers. If you love someone but rarely make yourself available to him or her, that is not true love. When your beloved is suffering, you need to recognize their suffering, anxiety, and worries, and just by doing that, you already offer some relief. Mindfulness relieves suffering because it is filled with understanding and compassion. When you are really there, showing your loving-kindness and understanding, the energy of the Holy Spirit is in you. Mindfulness is very much like the Holy Spirit. Both of them help us touch the ultimate dimension of reality. Mindfulness helps us touch Nirvana, and the Holy Spirit offers us a door to the Trinity.

Living Buddha, Living Christ
by, Thich Nhat Hanh

All photos by Gail Oliver © 2007

2007-04-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the April issue of my Blog... www.TheUrbanShaman.blogstop.com

The theme for this month is:
Love Your Mother... EARTH!

This is the month we celebrate "Earth Day"... Which should be celebrated and remembered daily... I know, I know, we are seemingly being bombarded with Green this, Green that... But in reality, we should have been paying attention to our habits of consumerism and waste decades ago.

I liken what is happening to "CAUSE and EFFECT" and now we are seeing the effects of our causes... Weird weather, energy shortages, drought, wildfires, melting ice caps, animals dying of starvation and pollution exposure, and the list goes on and on...

This month, and from this point on, let's be conscious of our consumption and make mindful choices. We may not ever be able to reverse the processes we've started, but we can slow them down and hopefully reach a healthy balance for future survival.

My Question to you is:
"What can you do now to be a conscious visitor on this great planet?"

I have provided a few easy changes you can make for a better environment and better health in this month's blog... A good sourse for Green living tips and information contact: Union of Concerned Scientist at: UCSUSA.org. They have many eNewsletters for the asking and provide the latest in discoveries that effect our health and the planet and offer avenues for change.

Remember! We only get one Mother... Earth, treat her with love and she'll take care of you and yours. Treat her bad and she'll make life miserable...

Please pass this information to your friends and family...
or email me to join the mailing list if you are not in my database @ TheUrbanShaman@aol.com ...

Life is not just a journey... make it an adventure!
ENJOY!
Much love to you all...

Peace N' Blessings,
Gail Oliver

B.Y.O. Bag
Filed under: Reuse, Paper, Plastics

This is common practice in virtually every other country but our own. The U.S. uses 100 billion plastic bags annually, consuming about 12 million barrels of oil. As less than 1% of plastic bags are ever recycled, using a sturdy reusable bag will eliminate hundreds to thousands of plastic bags over its lifetime. That spells huge savings to your state, city or town. Take California for example: it costs taxpayers $20.5 million to collect and landfill plastic bag waste each year. And that's not counting external costs, such as pollution, risk and threat to marine life, etc. San Francisco and soon Los Angeles (will) have bans on the use of plastic shopping bags...

If you don't have a reusable bag around the house, most conscious food stores have them for sale... These canvas bags are reusable and washable.
For more information, visit:
earthwisebags.com
reusablebags.com

Junk Mail Redux
Filed under: Water saving measures, Paper, Junk mail

I get Junk mail, we all get junk mail, but you can put a stop to it... According to 41pounds.org, since last summer several hundred Green Guide readers paid $41 in return for a junk mail reduction kit and a promise to help you drop your junk mail by as much as 95% in 4 months. The savings from those few hundred participating readers came to 205 trees and 72,000 gallons of water. It's a tip of the iceberg for sure, but has me excited.

41pounds.org is not the only organization which for a fee promises to help you reduce your junk mail. Greendimes.com which charges $3 per month and automates the process of removing your name from junk mail lists. Because the smallest actions, such as donating to charity or purchasing items from a catalog or web site, are enough to put your name on yet another list, Greendimes is constantly checking lists for your name, and their list of junk mailers is constantly updated.

You don't need to work with a service to reduce your junk mail. You can also register online for the national Do Not Mail list at www.the-dma.org/consumers/offmailinglist.html though you should be warned that it is only free by postal mail. The online opt-out method costs $5, but I'd recommend the online method, since while you are there, you can put your email addresses on the Do Not E-mail list, and stop the flow of unsolicited commercial e-mails that pile up in your email box.

And if unwanted phone solicitations are the bane of your dinner hour, you can register online at www.donotcall.gov, to be removed from their list.

I'm determined to simplify my life, and in an age of information overload, I have found reducing the flow of junk mail wherever it flows, is a small step that yields great rewards every day.

Websites:
www.the-dma.org/consumers/offmailinglist.html
Greendimes.com
41pounds.org

Clean the Air in Your Home
Filed under: Vacuum Cleaners, Indoor air pollutants, Air pollutants

I relish the coming of each season, including winter, except for the fact that we have to batten down the hatches to keep the fresh, but cold outdoor air out. The air indoors can fill up with unhealthful pollutants unless you are careful. Some of us are especially sensitive to common allergens, including pet dander and dust mites. New high tech vacuums with a High Efficiency Particular Air (HEPA) filters trap 99.97 percent of particles down to 0.3 microns in size, and blocks them from being spewed back out into the air, as happens with most vacuums. HEPA filters also help trap flame retardants, phthalates and toxic pesticides found in household dust.

Not everyone needs a vacuum with a HEPA filter. A medium efficiency machine may suffice if you or someone in your family is not an allergy sufferer or have asthma.

Check out last months blog for nontoxic cleaning products... OR, you can try one of the many different household cleaning products that reduce "Indoor air pollutants" which the EPA has deemed more toxic than outdoor pollution. Most can be purchased at major supermarkets and Target.
Some options are:
Method Cleaners-www.methodhome.com
Seventh Generation Cleaners-www.seventhgeneration.com
Mrs. Meyers Cleaners-www.mrsmeyers.com
Planet-Safeway/Vons
Trader Joe’s-Cleansers and personal products

Save Energy, Eat Organic, Whole foods,
and support your local Farmer’s Markets
Filed under: Packaging, Fertilizers, Factory farming, Food miles, Organic agriculture

You can drive less, turn off lights, and buy energy efficient windows and appliances, but did you know that buying organic food will also help reduce our nation's energy consumption? According to a decades-long study, organic farms produced more food per unit of energy than conventional farms.

I prefer home cooked meals using fresh basic ingredients rather than over processed and packaged foods. The many health reasons to start from scratch are well known: processed foods contain a number of preservatives, colorants and additives that are both unnecessary and unhealthy, first among them are salt and sugar, of which Americans consume too much and which can lead to obesity and high blood pressure. But few of us think much about the excess energy spent on things like packaging and additional transport and manufacturing processes. For instance, a one-pound box of processed macaroni and cheese requires nearly seven times as many kilo calories of energy to produce than it provides as food. I don't make overly elaborate meals, particularly on busy weeknights. Simple menus, fresh ingredients - this works, is fast and always tasty.

Cold Water Washing
Filed under: Energy efficiency, Energy saving measures

Not sure whether it would be a good idea or not, but thinking I might save a little energy, earlier this year I thought I'd try cold water to wash and rinse my clothes. I use a washing machine of course and pre-soaked anything that had been stained. I found my clothes got as clean as they had in hot or warm water, but much to my pleasure, they also looked and felt more like new. This little change spelled savings in more ways than I'd expected.

I prefer to line dry some clothes for the same reason – less wear and tear on the fabric from the hot dryer - and am glad to know there is an major energy benefit to my doing that as well. Less Gas/Electricity comsumption!

Save a Tree, or Two or Three
Conservation, Waste reduction, Paper, Recycled paper, deforestation

If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one chained to it, should you still use it to blow your nose? The average American uses 50 pounds of tissue paper per year, and that equals a lot of felled trees if every pound comes from virgin pulp. That statistic has been a bee in Greenpeace's bonnet for months, and last week, the activist group blockaded Kimberly-Clark's regional office in Italy, demanding the company stop clearcutting Canada's ancient, old-growth Boreal forest to make its disposable tissue products.

Now, you don't have to make a special trip to Italy to demand action, but we should all be paying a little more attention to what's flushing through our pipes. While paper recycling facilities really don't want your used tissues or toilet paper, you can still seek out recycled-content paper products. Look for the highest content of "post-consumer waste," or PCW, since "pre-consumer waste" doesn't do much to stem the flow of paper entering landfills.

Marcal products are entirely recycled, and although they have a relatively low PCW content, that brand is the one most commonly found in conventional grocery and drug stores. Natural food stores will provide you with a greater selection of products with a higher PCW content, offering brands like Seventh Generation, Earth First, and--at Whole Foods only--365. If you're really dedicated to the cause, online retailer Green Earth Office Supply (www.greenearthofficesupply.com) sells a Finnish brand of toilet paper called Heron's, which is 100 percent PCW and even comes without the pesky, albeit recyclable, cardboard roll.

Information reprinted from The Green Guide © The Green Guide, 2006