Welcome to a World of Spiritual Harmony

Last Saturday night, a friend and I trekked out to Batavia to see another friend play an over-the-top role in a melodrama (over-the-top by definition).

We were at a dinner theater production at The Clermont Inn, had a good and interesting meal, and saw two funny plays by the time dessert was over. As we were enjoying our appetizers (I appreciated the special effort the Inn made for my vegetarian self), 2 couples appeared, sat down at their tables - and then began showing us just how bad blind dates / first dates could be. We were laughing as we took a break for soup and salad, and then dinner, eating them while the actors presented more disasters, in the series of skits called “Check, Please”.

“The Great Western Melodrama” , with our friend Sheila playing a swaggering overbearing guy with a mustache (think Snidley Whiplash) played as we were enjoying dessert (bread pudding for Carol, Boston cream pie for me).

It turned out to be a treat of an evening. I’m looking forward to checking out the next productions of The Clermont Inn Players.

An incredible idea, the BlueGreen Alliance brings together - by their own admissions, this evening - beer drinkers and tree huggers.

The United Steel Workers and the Sierra Club have made a pact to work together for good jobs, a clean environment and a safer world.

Their goal in Ohio is job growth in renewable energy and in component manufacturing for such renewables as wind turbines. An analysis shows that this state could see an increase of $3.6 billion in investments, and nearly 23,000 jobs, if the nation makes a commitment to accelerate renewable energy development.

The projections for Cincinnati’s county, Hamilton, sees $222 million in investment, and a gain of 1,500 jobs.

My friend Susan Knight of the Sierra Club called together both unions and environmentalists this evening at the LEED certified building at the Zoo. It is inspiring to see the results of her work. And the solid possiblities coming out of this collaborative effort.

Go, Susan!

Just read this one, originally published in 1982-83, and handed to me by a friend this summer. The authors are Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, researchers and producers for the BBC in London. It gives the research (also in Woman with the Alabaster Jar, and a couple of others) behind the story in the DaVinci Code. These authors are the ones who sued Dan Brown for stealing their ideas. And lost.

The book focuses much attention on the Priors of Sion, tracing the Grand Master from 1188 to the current Master in France. It also includes information on the Masons’ beginnings and history.

Early on in the book is the statement that Jesus did not die on the cross, and that this was known at the time. Then the bloodline in France, through the Merovingians, is painstakingly researched. There are numerous side issues also presented. including the notion that a village priest in France in 1891 found hidden documents and treasure related to the story.

It is presented step by step as good research is, but still sweeps the reader along. A good read, with lots of interesting historical characters.

I, for one, have no problem with the entire DaVinci Code story, though I don’t accept every statement in Dan Brown’s book or in this one. The Goddess has always been alive and well in Christianity, even though churches remain in denial. This is just more evidence of the power of the Divine Feminine.

Women Helping Women, which changed its name to the Rape Crisis and Abuse Center in 2003 (was it really that long ago?), is changing it back on March 3.

I always thought the old name was terrific - made us all feel great about helping one another. The new name was more specific - and much more coldly clinical - not descriptive of what really went on inside those welcoming doors.

I’m glad they’re changing it back.

I’ve seen several stories lately about the growing popularity of natural burial. Sure sounds good to me! My idea of the best way to go is just to be slipped into the garden and start to give back to Mother Nature. And it’s beginning to be possible!

Now there are biodegradable coffins made of recycled newspapers (called the Ecopod), natural fiber shrouds, fair-trade bamboo caskets lined with unbleached organic cotton. We no longer need formaldehyde embalming (turns us into poison!), chemical lawn treatments or laminated caskets, all of which damage the earth and are not sustainable. And those old ways are also more expensive. Cremation, the best choice up until now leaves a big CO2 footprint.

Today, we can choose ‘green’ cemeteries hosting natural, environmentally friendly burials, popular in Britain and now growing here. As often turns out to be the case, going green with death just means going back to the way we used to bury people - with love, honor and simplicity.

I find it hard to believe that there are people out there who are unable to believe in such simple concepts as hands-on healing. Who don’t believe that they themselves could, if they weren’t so scared, know exactly who’s on the phone, and never have trouble finding a parking space. People who think they are little bitty victims instead of big powerful spiritual beings.

What does it take? People gobble up shows like Medium, and now see on TV every day some manifestation of intuition being used to solve crimes and help people. Yet somehow, when a healer is sitting right next to them and says ‘I can help you with that headache’, they often say, stiffly and drawing back, a quick No.

Fear is everywhere in this country - but right beside it, spreading fast, is love/healing/fun. There are more and more of us now - the world will tip soon!

My friend Ann sent me actual mail the other day, with a post-it note attached, which reads:

I meditate. I burn candles. I drink green tea. And still I want to smack someone.

I laughed all day long.

That’s the journey, right there, isn’t it? I do meditate - though none of us thinks we meditate enough, including, I expect, the Dalai Lama. I burn candles - as long as they’re unscented. I drink tons of the many different kinds of green tea.

And while I may not actually want to smack them, I often have a pretty strong opinion about what they should or should not be doing to make this a better place.

The hardest thing on this journey for me (up until now, as I can hear all my friends say) is to let everyone else have their own journey, and not help/push/shove them along their appropriate (my version) path.

So I am still laughing about that silly post-it.

The weather is still being weird - sleet, snow, rain, ice, sunshine following one another randomly.

And today when I threw the birdseed out the backdoor onto the patio (usually I put some in this feeder and then that, place this kind of food here and that cracked corn there), it bounced off the ice on top of the thick layer of snow. Have never seen that before.

And a while later, while I was looking at blue jays scarfing up the peanuts…I saw a chipmunk dashing around the edges looking for his big chance. In February? Never have I seen chipmunks awake in February.

The birds have been chittering early, early in the morning, telling me it’s spring. I have paid no attention. Now a chipmunk is giving me the same message? While there’s ice all over everything? And no good news in the weather forecasts?

Last week, I saw geese in their V formation flying north. None of this computes. Wonder what weird messages the wild family will give me tomorrow……

Had a great time in Chicago last weekend. Got to see much more of city neighborhoods than I expected, since the rehearsal dinner on Friday was in one neighborhood, the couple’s apartment (they set off fireworks by the lake as part of their celebration) in another. Saturday we shopped (at Nordstrom’s - I’d not been there before), and then went a different direction for the wedding and back near the hotel for the reception.

Sunday morning friend Pat and I left our decidedly upscale and fun hotel to head home - stopping first at The Palmer House for breakfast, and taking in the Art Institute. When I’ve been in Chicago before, it’s been to Miracle Mile and many times to the Field Museum.

The Art Institute was new to me - and incredible. Even rushing through the impressionists (and they are all there - WOW!) took a long time. There were also two special exhibits - Edward Hopper and Homer Winslow.

I’m only now recovering from all of that visual stimulation, and coming back to normal. Will definitely have to make that trip again soon.

Well, I am totally tired of all this! Isn’t it time for winter to be over? Is February ever going to end? Urghhhhhh.

I liked the global warming winter two years ago, when we barely had snow and it was all a long extended fall and then faded into spring. Last winter wasn’t too bad - we had fall until January 25, and then 5 awful weeks of winter, but by March 1 it was over. Kaput. Finished.

This is much more like a traditional winter. Except we really have - some weeks, not this one - had a pretty good amount of sun.

But I am definitely at that antsy stage of wanting to be out and about more, not cleaning off the driveway, the steps and now the car - the garage door decided to malfunction and it’s been too cold to fix it.

The snowdrops are up all the way, the winter aconite is blooming, the daffodils and crocuses are pushing up. C’mon, Spring!