Word of the Day: Defenestrate

defenestrate \dee-FEN-uh-strayt\, transitive verb:

To throw out of a window.

Some of his apparent chums . . . would still happily defenestrate him if they caught him near a window.
— Andrew Marr, “No option bar the radical one”, Independent, July 5, 1994

I defenestrated a clock to see if time flies!
— Lane Smith, quoted in “Who’s News”, Time for Kids, September 25, 1998

From my high school French, I know that “fenetre” means “window” so this word now makes sense. But honestly, did you know that this word even existed in English? Hmmm…I have to mull over whether I have ever defenestrated (or wanted to) something……..perhaps an annoying alarm clock? A importunate infant (see April 8)???

At Sixth and Howard in San Francisco “Defenestration”:

 

It is Good and I am Happy

There are those moments in life when an all pervasive peace prevails. It is much like when Yahweh, on the seventh day, looked over all of creation and said ” It is Good, Tov!” And then rested.

I woke up this morning feeling that goodness… I looked around me and said ” It is good, and I am happy.”

Why?

I planted my small flower plots on my deck yesterday- that deck was just a vision in my mind’s eye last May, and this May it is now built and I can sit out an enjoy the surrounding trees.

I paid off my credit card bill yesterday, and there is still money left in my checking account. A month ago, my financial reality was looking grim, but again, in my mind I knew prosperity was to come. And an investment grew to the point where I could draw some money out yesterday to pay those pressing bills.

When I was a child, I played piano non-stop. When we moved at age 10, I stopped lessons. Yesterday, I took my first piano lesson in 45 years, and loved it. I am back to sitting in those quiet moments and playing music.

Our cold, rainy spring will change today- already I can see the sun starting to come up and the forecast is for sunny and hot. Not only that, we are starting a long-weekend here where I live. Can you imagine that??

My dear friend is coming to spend time with me this weekend and we are off to the spa this afternoon for some pampering, and then off to a dinner at another friend’s home to watch the sunset and welcome the Sabbath.

My children are all well, my husband is off in a foreign land with our oldest son exploring and enjoying life, and…. It is good and I am happy.

 

A Tale of Two Desires

I have to admit- I was curious to find out how it would end. When two people have conflicting desires, who will win out. Here is my story:

We just celebrated Mother’s Day in North America, and a tradition for those of us that live far from our mothers is to send flowers. Every time I do so, my mother calls me to say that she received them, but that I was far too extravagant. In the beginning of this yearly exchange, I used to feel hurt; now I understand her “post Depression” mentality.

So this year, I chose not to send flowers but a basket of plants that I ordered over the internet. I spoke to my mom the day before Mother’s Day and at the end of the conversation she admonished me: ” Now remember, no extravagant flowers for Mother’s Day! Save your money!” I wondered then how her and my desires could both be fulfilled. I could not have organized what transpired next.

When she did not call me to thank me on Mother’s Day, and then tell me that I should not have done so, I called the florist who told me that they had lost a whole bunch of internet orders and that her basket was not delivered. I laughed and thought to myself- she won! I told them to just cancel my order.

Well…… I just got a call back from the florist- they want to deliver flowers now to my mother at no cost to me as an apology for losing my order. I couldn’t stop laughing as it dawned on me that we were BOTH going to get our desires….my giving her flowers, and she knowing that I had not spent any money on them.

 

Word of the Day: Parsimonious

Here is a word that I KNOW I never knew what it meant.

parsimonious \par-suh-MOH-nee-uhs\, adjective:

Sparing in expenditure; frugal to excess.

His mother became increasingly parsimonious over the years, and even if there were a good doctor around she did not like to pay one.
– Willard Sterne Randall, George Washington: A Life

I also found out that in penal theory and the philosophy of punishment, parsimony (pahr’-suh-moh-nee]) refers specifically to taking care in the distribution of punishment in order to avoid excessive punishment- the theme of “sparing” is present in both definitions.

What an interesting word, and fun to say- try it. And I wonder if an opportunity will arise today to actually use it in conversation- let me know!

 

Homeopathy: The Convinced vs. The Skeptical

I discovered homeopathy over 25 years ago, and all my family now chooses homeopathy to help them keep well, and to treat aliments as they come up. I have been made aware recently that, in the UK primarily, there is a concerted attempt by those who call themselves skeptics to attack homeopaths and homeopathy in general. They seem to believe that science and the scientific method is the only way to determine truth and that homeopathy does not stand up to that kind of scrutiny.

What has been upsetting to me is the vitriol and what I call “swarming” that happens on some of the anti-homeopathy blogs. It is ugly and angry. It is easy to get caught up in defending one’s position, and the anger and frustration builds up even more. I am sure that people on both sides of the question spend many hours writing in these blogs to present their point of view.

I opened up a book yesterday, Lights of Holiness by Abraham Isaac Kook, that spoke to my heart and to this situation :

It is an art of great enlightenment to purge anger from the heart entirely, to look with a benevolent eye, with compassionate concern, without reservation. It is to emulate the eye of God that focuses only on the good.

Whoever reflects on divine ideas in their purity cannot hate or despise any creature or talent in the world, since everything manifests the grandeur and might of the action of God.

Hatred, sternness and irritability result from forgetting God, and the extinguishing of the light of holiness.

Here is a lovely posting I found today that is a wonderful testament to homeopathy:

My family have used homeopathy and herbs for generations which has kept us well and healthy. None of us has needed any conventional medicine including vaccinations in decades including my father who at 90 was still gardening eight hours a day.

Just like the Queen when we travel abroad I take my little box of remedies which deals with all those nasty bugs like Hep A and diseases like Malaria. If it is good enough for HRH it is good enough for me.

For all the skeptics out there have a look at the figures for the cholera epidemic in London in the mid 1800s when hundreds and hundreds of people died in the conventional hospitals compared to the homeopathic hospital where the death rate was next to none. What more proof do you need????

I will stick with my homeopathy thank you and stay drug free unlike the rest of my pensioner friends who take a cocktail of drugs for their aches and pains, diabetes, high blood pressure etc., etc.,

For those of you who want drugs and all their side effects good luck to you, you have the freedom to chose that path if you really want to, that is your choice. I am sure you will agree that the important thing is that we all have freedom of choice on how we wish to look after our health.

 

Freedom and Joy: Eckhard Tolle, Abraham and Opa

The basis of your life is absolute freedom, the goal is joy, and the result of that perfect combination is motion forward, or growth. Your goal is to find objects of attention that let your cork raise- from the Teachings of Abraham

-

A few years ago now, I picked up Eckhard Tolle’s new book ” A New Earth”. I had read “The Power of Now” and even seen him talk at one of his last public events. I experienced a deep sense of stillness and peace emanate from him. And I wanted to find out more about how to achieve that place.

Last year, I offered a course where I live on his teachings blended with the teachings of don Miguel Ruiz, author of “The Four Agreements.” Over two months, ten people studied with me- we went week by week over the four agreements, listened to music, and tried to carve out two hours where we could start the journey towards finding joy and freedom.

For me, it is also about finding those magic moments in life where you feel really alive and excited. Or where you make a heart connection with someone, even a stranger. I was walking on the trail near my home the other day, and I saw a young women in front of me stop and give this big tree a hug. It was a lovely moment, and when I found myself catching up to her, I asked her if she was from where I live. She said “no”, that she lived 3000 miles away, but that she had lived here in the early 90’s. I confessed that I had witnessed her embrace, and she looked embarrassed. I said ” I just wanted to tell you about Opa- the 1000 year old tree nearby- friends have built a bench around him whereby you can lean back and look way up through his sky high branches.” We laughed as I gave her directions, and then chatted a bit more… and then gave each other a lovely hug and went our separate ways.

After living like I do, surrounded by nature and trees like Opa, the stillness that I witnessed in Eckhard has started to be experienced- I love now waking up early, seeing the sky beginning to lighten, and enjoy a few hours of extreme quietness before the busyness of my day begins.

 

Law of Attraction Part Four: Victim or Empowered (from teachings of Abraham and Eckhart Tolle)

The one who fears something the most is the one who has it most activated in their vibration. And so, it is logical that they would experience it. — Abraham

In some ways, this post will discuss the the most challenging concept in regards to the Law of Attraction- when life provides us with evidence of being the “victim”. For the Law of Attraction states “That which is like unto itself is drawn.” It is lovely to work with this concept when desiring beautiful things, relationships, travel destinations, money…and they manifest. It is much more challenging to accept this concept when illness happens, things go wrong, or “disaster” strikes.

But a law is a law, and Abraham teaches that there is just ONE universal law: the Law of Attraction. And this law is non-discriminatory – it will bring to you what you don’t want just as easily as that which you do want. How to reconcile those events one reads about in the news with this law? How to make sense of what appears as senseless and random events where one person clearly appears, from our vantage point, to have been a “victim”?

This is what I understand at this point in my journey: Infants and children are affected by the thoughts and fears of their primary caretakers, adults attract based on their own thoughts and fears. For that which one fears and dwells upon will generate enough “pulling power” over time to bring it to you. Fear of robbery, bodily attack, germs, diseases, etc. all will manifest over time if one holds those thoughts with emotion.

Being a victim is therefore only the final outcome of many generations of victims before you. When I survey the state of our planet, I see pockets of people who have inherited “victim-hood” from their parents, and grandparents before them. For we will believe what we see and experience as being our truth until someone “wakes up” and sees the Truth. And all it takes is one person……who shows it to another and another. In my lifetime, I have witnessed such a thing happen in Northern Ireland, the former Soviet Union, and the falling of the Berlin Wall.

We are NOT victims, unless we choose to be one. We are powerful co-creators. When we see things we don’t like or that we fear, we have a choice: to become victims of that fear, or to decide to choose what we DO want. And if we hold the thought of what we do want, we will then start to create, and then to manifest, what the contrast has shown us.

For example, when I reflect over the state of Israel and Gaza and Palestine, I see much conflict and people in pain and confusion and anger and fear. I could spend many hours debating with others about who is right, who is wrong, engaging in debate that usually turns heated, and can turn ugly. And groups spring up that are “anti” this and “anti ” that. For what one “pushes” against, draws more of it to you.

Or I could look at what the contrast is making me desire: more peace and understanding in the world, more freedom, more tolerance, the allowing of all people to worship their own faith, more patience, more love, more empowerment for people. Do you see the difference?

This post is dedicated to my son who sees the contrast with such passion and desires to be a powerful creator of peace and understanding.

 

The Delight of Meditation: Abraham,Eckhard Tolle, and Oprah

For those of you that watched “The New Earth” class last night with Eckhart Tolle and Oprah ( well, I just got the first 15 minutes and then lost the connection), you heard Eckhart talk about the importance of sitting still, even for just 15 minutes a day, and quieting the mind- meditation. I have tried to do this for many years on and off with varying degrees of success. And then one day, something extraordinary happened, and now, those 15 minutes, sometimes longer, are the most delicious part of my day. When I recently read this on the Abraham Forum, I read in words what I now experience- my fervent desire is that you do too!!

When Esther first began meditating..
It was so much more love than she’d ever felt that
she didn’t know what she was feeling
it was cellular love
it was a love so thorough, so complete, so wrapped through her that she thought she was having a heart attack,
it was love that was so pervasive she didn’t know what to do with it
she couldn’t describe it, she couldn’t label it, she couldn’t contain it

It was bigger than she was consciously and vibrationally ready even to endure,
a love so great she couldn’t quantify it or understand it

And in time, little by little by little, she and so many others of you have raised your vibration until you feel on a very constant basis that love wrapping through you.-Abraham

 

Thirsting for God

Thirsting for God

Expanses divine my soul craves.
Confine me not in cages,
Or substance or of spirit.
I am love-sick –
I thirst, I thirst for God,
as a deer for water brooks.
Alas, who can describe my pain,
Who will be a violin to express the songs of my grief,
I am bound to the world,

All creatures, all people are my friends,
Many parts of my soul
Are intertwined with them,
But how can I share with them my Light?

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook was a mystic and a philosopher born in the middle of the 19th century. Raised in Latvia, he served as the chief rabbi of Jaffa, Palestine until his election to the chief rabbinate of Jerusalem where he served the entire Jewish community of Palestine until his death in 1935. But his true passion was as a poet and writer of volumes- he saw ” the whole universe stirred by the pulsating energies emanating from the divine source of existence.”

His most popular book is called ” The Lights of Penitence”. Penitence, an archaic word, is used in this context as remembering who we truly are: divinely connected at all times to Source/God.

This form of penitence dawns on a person through the grace of some inner spiritual force, whose traces point to the depth of the mysterious.

Day by day, inspired by this higher level of general penitence, his feeling becomes more firm, clearer more illumined by reason…..His manner becomes increasingly brightened, his anger recedes, a kindly light shines on him, he is filled with vigor, his eyes sparkle with a holy fire, his heart is bathed in rivers of delight and holiness and purity hover over him.

 

The Magical Creation Box: Part One

I love magazines- just ask my husband! We get delicious travel magazines sent to us by our travel agent, and I enjoy looking at all the 5 star hotels and the cruises to exotic locations. Pictures of people’s homes that overlook tropical oceans send me into daydreams of living there. And so when I came upon this idea from the book “Ask and it is Given” , I knew I had found something that would be fun for me to do. And so I am sharing it with you…..

To begin the Creation Box process, find a nice-looking box, one that is pleasing to you when you see it. On the lid, in a conspicuous place that you will easily notice, write the words: Whatever is contained in this box-IS!

Next, gather magazines, catalogues and brochures, and leisurely look through them for whatever you would like to include in your experience. Then clip out pictures of anything that exemplifies any desires that you hold: pictures of furniture, clothing, landscaping, buildings, travel destinations, vehicles; images of physical characteristics; photos of people interacting with one another…if it feels appealing to you in any way, clip it and drop it into your Creation Box. And say as you drop it in, “Whatever is contained in this box-IS!”

The more things you find for your box, the more the Universe will deliver to you other ideas that match them. And the more you ideas you drop into your box, the more your desire will be focused. And the more your desire is focused, the more alive you will feel- for this Energy flowing through you is what life is.

If you are usually a good-feeling person who has not established strong habits of feeling unhappy about not having the things you have put in your box, you will experience the immediate positive result of feeling more focused and more excited by life, and the things you have put in your Creation Box will begin to manifest in your experience right away.

I am going to make my Creation Box today, and start clipping out those pictures from my many, many magazines and catalogues. And I would love you to join me! Please let me know, and I will post more tomorrow as well on this process.