Welcome to a World of Spiritual Harmony

So I wrote the blog a couple of days ago about the friend who, to me, is giving her power away, insisting that the only healing that can happen will be done by doctors / medical folk over there somewhere who have all the right answers. In other words, the power to save and make her well is outside herself. And I was definitely giving up - didn’t see the point in trying, since she can’t hear me.

So at Reiki Healing Circle on Sunday evening, at the mini card reading after the healing work was done - I drew a Faery Oracle card called Lys of the Shadows. Lys is all about healing the shadows, addictions, bondage, self-esteem. We were all puzzled - didn’t seem to refer to me at all. I found a line that said ‘If you call upon Lys for assistance in helping another, she will always give it, often by encouraging that person to be receptive and others to also be helpful. She always has time to support those who have time for others.’ That made sense to me, since it is a lot of what I do.

And then I woke up Monday morning, understanding that the message was telling me not to give up on my friend, and to ask for help both here and in spirit to move her to wellness.

I love the way Spirit works in the world. Thanks, Spirit!

Interesting, interesting. Was at a meeting about urban policy yesterday, where the issue of women as a constituency for housing came up - and what housing would look like created, not for families (mom, dad, kids are only 23% of our country, with that number falling) but for women. Clearly not a thought most had had, yet a major factor in the reality of housing today - one factor clearly being that women can now economically take care of themselves, and do not need to choose a partner for financial reasons. So many are simply not choosing.

While I was at the meeting, the downstairs here was being painted, preparatory to turning it back into a classroom. And during that process, the aquarium full of guppies fell over and broke. The painter scrambled, and did a pretty fine job of getting most everyone into a bucket.

By the time evening fell and I was home, there were casualties. And the message was clear. The women and the babies came through pretty well. All - really all - of the adult male guppies succumbed to the stress. One of the mamas died last night, and one was finished this morning. But most (about 15) made it through. And among the babies, there are some tiny males. But of the grown up guys, none made it through.

As I said - interesting, interesting.

I have a good friend facing major abdominal surgery, and don’t feel I can say anything more to her about how to handle the situation / her body / her belief system. But I am still working away on it in my mind, looking for the words that could lead others to a different understanding of healing and how to be well.

The looks she’s giving me now seem to mean - you are being totally unrealistic, you don’t want me to be better. The statements she’s making are that once this surgery is done, it will all be taken care of and finished. And yet the evidence is not there to back up those statements. She’s still living with the effects of a major surgery over 10 years ago. And what I know of the surgery she’s facing now is that it will happen again and again and again, as the situation continues.

And of course I do want her to be better. I want everyone to be better. I just think that to be better, the most important thing we have to change is our minds. What in our beliefs and choices is calling this dis-ease in? What change in our thinking is needed to cause it to exit?

In the case of abdominal disease, for instance, one might ask - what is going on with the garbage in my life? Perhaps I am holding on to material that needs to be released. Or I might be letting go way too soon, before the situation is dealt with, and ending up with diarrhea and dehydration.

In any case, of course we have to do what’s necessary to be well. So if, after you sleep on a medical problem for a few days, you make a decision for surgery. But don’t take it as a label for yourself, take it as a working theory, and entertain other theories as well. And certainly add in the possibility that you can heal it by changing your beliefs, even as you move toward a medical solution. Or simply believe in miracles.

Being practical and realistic seems to mean for many people being negative and seeing only the worst case scenario. And of course believe in your doctor. Just realize that if you ask ten doctors, you will likely have 10 different opinions and 15 different options - that the surgeon will recommend surgery, that another physician might recommend physical therapy, that a third may recommend drug treatments, all for the same condition.

I also believe that anyone facing a major disease, and certainly facing surgery, needs to get one or two of those second opinions from an alternative practitioner and from an energy healer. I have seen over and over again dis-ease disappear, and heard stories from the healed about doctors not even asking what happened - just saying, for instance, that someone must have read the scans incorrectly. That attitude of not inquiring as to cause seems very unscientific to me.

I continue to wrestle with cutting through all this fear, and with making clear what seems simple and fairly easy to me. We are self-healers, truly. We can practice wellness body, mind and spirit. We can support each other in health and healing. Yes, we can.

I teach White Light Meditation in virtually every class on my calendar - yet I’ve never written it down. So I thought the easy way to do this would be to blog it first, and then turn it into a formal document afterwards. And what an excellent way to spend a very hot late summer Sunday afternoon!

White Light Meditation

This meditation and its visualizations work best when standing. So stand up, get comfortably set on your feet, shake out your arms and legs - and then take 3 long slow deep breaths.

The closest we can see of the protective white light is when the sun breaks through the clouds some distance away from us after a rain. That pillar of light coming down from heaven to earth is what the sacred white light looks like. Now visualize that wonderful light coming into your crown chakra, your fontenelle, the soft spot on the very top of your head when you were born.

The light pours in, beginning to fill you up. You may feel it in your fingers and toes, or you may not. Whether or not you feel it, it is pouring in. Now you are so full of white light that it is pouring in and pouring out at the same time - so you are now a fountain of this beautiful light. It is creamy white, and gold, and silver, as well as transparent and irridescent and sparkly. Keep breathing, and picture this beautiful scene. Makes you smile, doesn’t it?

When you are calm and peaceful in all your radiance, talk to Spirit about how you want the white light to help and protect you. My favorite is to say - ‘Spirit, I want the information and not the energy.’ In other words, I want to see everything that’s coming at me, all that I need to see of what’s going on around me - but I don’t want anyone else’s energy, good or bad, getting through the white light barrier. Some folk say - ‘I want the information and the good energy’.

If you’re driving, you could put this energy around the car, and cause it to spin, deflecting any problems - like radar. You can make the energy thicker, less transparent. You can make a concrete or stainless steel barrier of it if you’d like - and tell Spirit which energies need to be blocked from getting through that barrier.

I usually do this in my living room, and put the protection first around me, then around the house, then to the edges of the property. I end with taking it clear down to the river and up to the major street behind me, to keep my whole environment in great order.

When you’re comfortable that you’ve done all the work you wanted to do, say Thank You for all the spiritual assistance, and bring yourself back to normal time and space. The white light will stay after you end the meditation. You can refresh yourself with it whenever you choose. It’s a good idea to take a few minutes to do so if you’re going into a difficult and stressful situation. I do it at least once every couple of week or so, or more often if I need to be calm and centered.

I did a reading for a client this afternoon - it was a great reading, and very affirming for her, which always is great for me as well.

Afterwards, she talked about the President and the uproar / opposition surrounding him and the Democrats as we face the midterm elections. I had another deck out on the table, and was moved to use it to ask two questions 1) what’s going on right now with the situation and with the president himself, and 2) what will the situation be six months from now. (Wish I had asked specifically about the elections, but didn’t.) I had her shuffle and draw the cards, and I read them.

1) The current situation has President Obama hemmed in so that he doesn’t have real freedom of movement in many situations, and the mindset of many is heartbreaking in terms of the President achieving his goals (8 of swords, three of swords). However, it looks like he is focused on those ideas and programs that he can grow and make prosper, and is not taking most of this personally. He’s also still very willing to take risks when the timing is right (princess of staves in the deck I was using, which is the page of wands in most decks). The same applies to the Democrats, thought perhaps at a lower octave.

2) Six months from now will be much happier and more integrated overall (9 of cups). President Obama will be relaxed and calm, and focused on making changes to programs and regulations already in place, to make them even more productive, and help them be applied even more broadly (king of staves/wands). The country’s economy will be much healthier - not perfect, but with real growth seen in the fairly near future (10 of pentacles).

So that would be about the first of March. Let’s keep track and check back.

Back in the day when I first started using Rescue Remedy (sometime in the pre-historical era : > ), it only came in one form: a small brown bottle, with an old-fashioned dropper, mostly yellow label, 27% alcohol - though only 4 drops were used at a time. Great for shock / upset of any kind, being overwound, not sleeping. Whatever had us out of balance, Rescue Remedy, a Bach flower remedy, would help us to center again. Physical or mental, this homeopathic remedy could take care of it.

Now it comes in all kinds of formats, still with the same label on all the products. Rescue Cream is a tube of soothing and healing for the skin: hands, body and face. There’s Rescue Sleep, a spray bottle for when we wake up and can’t get back to sleep, Rescue Spray, less alcohol-y, 2 or 3 sprays right under the tongue. And my current favorite - Rescue Pastilles, alcohol-free gummy bears-type in a very old fashioned yellow tin, which I appreciate in and of itself! They come in original and pomegranate flavors. Natural Stress Relief is on the label.

And - like most alternative healing products and modalities - no harm is done. I’ve heard that if you ate a bunch of them, you might get a mild laxative effect. Since one or two pastilles will do the trick, no problem there. And, of course, also like almost all of alternative healing - it’s all very cheap. A tin of about 50 pastilles is $6.95 at Clifton Natural Foods. All health food stores carry Rescue Remedy - it’s a staple.

If you want to know more, google Bach flower remedies, homeopathy, Rescue Remedy, alternative healing.

It’s what I use when I forget to stay calm, forget it’s all lessons down here, and don’t stop to remember that there is nothing to fear anywhere. : >

So during a break in the tennis action, friend Diane and I went to the movies: and saw Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts. A good film, not excellent. But the locales and backgrounds were worth the trip, especially Bali. I expect them to have a major spike in tourism!

Julia was to me not particularly believeable, and especially in the early scenes, melodrama rather than drama. A different actor likely would have been better. The flashback scenes of her courtship and wedding - especially where their first dance together turns into him breakdancing in front of her - were interesting - as was the dance of forgiveness in India, very real. The holy man / psychic in Bali was good - with his psychic wife in the background. Julia was more real there than anywhere. And Texas in India was terrific.

All of it was interesting, and a way for us (mostly women) to share the communal cultural experience of having read the book and seen the movie more or less together. Being in that dining room in Rome, in that ashram in India, and anywhere in beautiful Bali was plenty enough for me.

That’s the official and important title of the tournament held out near Kings Island each summer - one of the 13 top tournaments on the entire planet. My friend and I go get a hotel room and stay out there for the entire men’s tournament. It started off a little slowly this year, or maybe we just know most of the players now, and the first two days didn’t feature many matches we cared about.

Things really heated up on Wednesday, when everyone we cared about was in the mix. Roger Federer, my favorite player, had 13 minutes on court before his opponent injured an ankle and retired. The next day, his next opponent exacerbated a shoulder problem and withdrew, so that was a walkover. Finally, on Friday, Roger got to play Davydenko - it was more like a clinic, and quickly over, even though Davydenko is number 6 in the world. And on Friday, Rafa Nadal was beaten by a red-hot Marcos Baghdatis, so my friend’s favorite was gone. Roger met Baghdatis in the semis on Saturday and lowered his energy level in a fairly easy match. Two Americans met in the other semi - Andy Roddick, my fav, and Mardy Fish, at nearly 30 playing the best tennis of his life. In a surprise result, Mardy took it.

So on Sunday, Roger met Mardy on Center Court at noon, and they fought it out for nearly 3 hours. Roger prevailed, but at a couple of moments, it was a real nailbiter. Tiebreaks the first two sets, then a break of serve by Roger late in the 3rd set. A few minutes after that, Roger was the crowned champion for the fourth time. And the trophies this year were not the Waterford of every year I’ve attended. They were gorgeous Rookwood Pottery, made in the same way at the original trophies at that first tournament here in town, 111 years ago.

A fitting way to cap such a great week and honor a great player.

I could keep on going… but those are the highlights. Hurray for tennis in Cincinnati and for all those great players!

I saw Inception, the dreaming movie, again a couple of days ago, with a group of friends. It sure went a lot faster the second time. And still had way too much boy stuff in it: lots of spectacular things blowing up (whole city blocks, an entire Paris market), lots of shooting and killing (except in dream time, killing doesn’t kill - it just wakes you up). Underneath all the racketety boom, it is still a very interesting deep film.

My friends were often confused about whether, in the film, a given scene was part of a dream, or reality. In some ways, that didn’t matter much to me. Particularly since I already recognize a lot of daily life as a movie set, and enjoy holding layers in my mind. There are three layers in the major dreams the plot turns on - wonderfully managed and edited, so we never got lost there.

Leadership and trust were more visible the second time, particularly male and female styles of leadership, in the dreams and out. The dream sharing concepts are exciting to think about. Our dream group already does community dreaming - the film presents another whole level.

On the one hand, the film makes dreaming exciting perhaps. On the other, if women who aren’t dreamers decide dreams are like this, it may turn them off.

Go see it and get your own thinking and musing process going - Inception will definitely stimulate that!

Friend Diane and I are headed out on Monday morning to the Western & Southern Masters Series out by Kings Island. Just followed my Best Player Forever Roger Federer as he beat Novak Djokovic in Toronto in the semifinals. So he’ll play Andy Murray of Scotland in the finals there tomorrow, then head here. Which means he will probably play Tuesday night - the tournament will schedule him so he has a chance to get used to being here, and have some time to practice on the court before he has to play a match.

Murray beat Diane’s favorite player, Rafael Nadal, earlier this afternoon. Sounded like a good match, just that Rafa did not come out on top. Yesterday, Roger beat Tomas Berdych, who beat him at Wimbledon. Evidently, the crowd stood up in the tiebreak of the last set, and stayed standing - urging Roger on, giving him their energy. The whole sport would like to see Roger back on top again.

Monday and Tuesday at our tournament are a total madhouse, chaos everywhere, as all the players are playing on 10 different courts, squeezing in practice where they can. So while watching one match, keeping an eye on the scoreboard for other matches, and paying attention to the ebb and flow and buzz of the crowd, to figure out where Roger or Rafa will show up next - it is hectic. We’re going out at 10 Monday morning, and probably won’t get back to our hotel until midnight. Wiped out and expecting to be blissful!

So you won’t hear from me til next Sunday evening the 22nd.

P. S. Next year, I’ll have a laptop, iPhone and iPad - so I’ll be blogging from there. : >