Welcome to a World of Spiritual Harmony

Well, summer is officially over in Cincinnati! The WEBN fireworks are just finished, so it must be time for autumn to begin.

I’m always ready to watch the fireworks from a new place, a new location, a new direction. This year was the easiest ever. I walked across the street to my neighbor’s home in the Kingston House, and watched the fireworks, which are down river from her balcony. She does a fundraiser every year for a political candidate supported by the Cincinnati Women’s Political Caucus. This year it was Caucus stalwart Connie Pillich. It was easy and fun for Nancy to do. And a breeze for me - making my contribution, and not being stuck in a two hour traffic jam as I was last year.

These were not the very best, but quite good. There were some new groupings - waves of color coming up over the Taylor-Southgate bridge, and then fireworks in the sky above that. The waterfall was excellent as usual. And then, to Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire, a cascade of fire and red rings of fire above.

The ending was a little strange. Instead of five minutes of total madness in the sky, there were elegant and distinctive fireworks at a leisurely pace, then 2 loud bangs of what used to nearly a hundred lighting up the sky like strobe lights. And then - that was it!

The flotilla of boats began their slow turnings, heading back up the river at a leisurely pace, reluctanly letting summer go. It will be hours before all of them return home - as it will be for those many who walk down to the river on either side. Walking is always faster than driving, though, on this season-ending day.

A friend of mine had a bad case of poison ivy on her leg the other day. After I used Reiki to calm it down, take care of the itch, and reduce the redness, I looked it up in Louise Hay’s Heal Your Body. This little book contains tables of information extracted from Louise’s 300-pager called You Can Heal Your Life. She wrote that after she cured herself of cancer some 30 years ago. Readers kept asking to have the tables in their own separate book, which became Heal Your Body.

The subtitle is The Mental Causes for Physical Illness and the Metaphysical Way to Overcome Them. Under Poison Ivy, the Probable Cause listing is ‘Feeling defenseless and open to attack’. The suggested affirmation to create the New Thought Pattern is ‘I am powerful, safe and secure. All is well’.

This certainly does sound very simple, and our culture teaches us to mistrust anything that is not scientifically proven - especially if it doesn’t cost anything.

But it does work.

One good way to use these affirmations is to repeat them everytime the thought in your mind is negative. Or in this case, every time you want to scratch. At the very least, you will learn how much time and energy you spend on the negative. And you have the opportunity each time to turn your mind in a positive direction.

Try it. You might just like it!

My friend Carolyn invented It’s Commonly Jazz at what was then Swifton Commons shopping center over 20 years ago. She was manager of the center, and wanted a promotion that would pick up the summer and get the attention of her customers. It did, and so the every-Thursday-in August jazz continued on after the shopping center closed, and than became Jordan Crossing, and the home of one of the biggest churches in Cincinnati, as well as the Community Action Agency.

At the end of last season, Carolyn felt the need for change. Her primary sponsor, Fifth Third Bank, agreed and thus was born It’s Commonly Jazz at Seasongood Pavilion in Eden Park. Wow! What a difference a few miles makes.

Everything works so much better in gorgeous Eden Park. Much more room, all those lovely trees, a a lot of grassy area for the kids to play safely. Lots more younger people in the crowd, more diversity, chances to win more different kinds of prizes, just plain more fun. Parking is also just as easy - the entire Art Museum parking lot is available, as well as your favorite parking spot in the Park, wherever that is (I know we all have them).

Good choices for food: the Pit to Plate barbecue stand behind the stage, and Aunt Flora’s peach cobbler (from Findlay Market). Or you could do what I did a couple of times, and pick up my favorite eggplant sandwiches from What’s for Dinner in O’Bryonville.

The real bonus is the new more open and resonate sound in the bowl of the amphitheater. The line-up was wonderful as always. My favorite was the Tia Fuller Quartet, a group of women from New York City playing jazz with an ambient quality, with lyrics and ideas that were often spiritually-based. They played lots of hard driving jazz as well. The other three groups were great, too: Randy Villars, featuring Thelma Massey; Ron Jones Organ Quartet (the only one I missed) and the Mike Wade Quintet, featuring Ralph Peterson, rowdy and fun. I think all the groups when from Eden Park downtown to the Blue Wisp for the rest of the evening.

It’s Commonly Jazz also went green this year, using fans without wooden sticks, recycling the paper various groups handed out, and the water bottles consumed by all of us.

I know how hard Carolyn works on the Jazz - and I appreciate the way she makes it look effortless. So mark off the August Thursdays in your calendar for 2009 - the 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th. You’ll be glad you did!

I cannot believe how much TV I’ve watched this week - and now this weekend!

The TV in my house is usually downstairs in the bedroom my grandson uses when he stays over. The last time I watched it was when Tim Russert died, and Meet the Press did a beautiful show presenting all sides of him. I did watch the Wimbledon final with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at my friend Diane’s house.

But then the Democratic convention - so many beautiful / fun / uplifting moments - excepting several of the pundits - had me in front of the TV all week. And I was on the Square watching Barack’s acceptance speech on the jumbotron. I really found myself much tireder and less focused, less clear most of the week. Wonder if that’s part of TV watching, and whether others experience a sort of exhaustion and lack of motivation.

I don’t have cable - wouldn’t mind paying for what I want to watch, but the cable company doesn’t like to be paid that way. So I watch the big three and pbs, which is almost all I can see on my set.

Now, this Labor Day weekend - it’s the US Open - and since I am a hard core tennis fan, with the Open on CBS over the weekend - I am again glued to the set.

And planning to watch Barack and Joe on Sixty Minutes this Sunday evening.

Good thing the fireworks are not on when CBS is running tennis! I’ll be able to leave the house and go to the party across the street to watch.

It’s easy to tell when September’s getting close - the male hummers start to dive bomb the feeders, chasing away anyone who might want some of that precious nectar. They sip as much as they can, then sit like little fluff balls on a high branch, guarding the feeder from any competition. I think they look at their little hummingbird watches and see that it’s nearly September. They always seem to be gone on September 1, on the dot.

The females and young males - no red patches on the breasts - stick around another couple of weeks, drinking from the feeders, the squash blossoms, anything they can find. September 15 seems to be their deadline for heading South. So everything is normal there.

But the deer! Their coats are already turning gray-brown - their heavy winter coats. Their beautiful summer reddish-brownish and tan coats usually don’t even start to turn until sometime in October. Yet I saw a doe this week who is nearly all winter-colored already. And everyone has a patch in the middle of their backs that is cold-weather ready.

I haven’t seen any wooly worms yet - the blacker they are, and where the black strip is on their girth, tells a lot about winter - so folk say, and so I have seen. I do not want a cold winter - too many people will be pushed under by their energy bills. I want a long, long fall.

It’s okay with me if we have an early cold snap. It gets the season under way, and gets rid of the mosquitos so I can enjoy the yard again. But I’m going to keep visualizing that long fall and early spring.

My friend Lisaann has a store full of fun spiritual items, a lot of them for kids, called Whimsy. Right now, it only lives at Second Sunday on Main and other places where she’s doing readings.

At the SSOM in August, I took a break and went shopping at Whimsy, which was a table and a half of Tarot decks, books, magic wands, kids’ toys and other neat stuff. The other half a table was where she was doing her readings. I ended up with 5 new decks, with lots of good energy.

I always let new stuff sit on my wonderful window still until they’ve been through a full moon - cleaning them up, as it were - getting rid of all the energy that isn’t mine. Luckily, the full moon was two days later. I’ve already read with 2 of them, found them easy to talk to, and had a good time.

Did readings for the Dream Group with the Vanessa Tarot. It comes in a cute little metal box, and is inspired by contemporary pop culture - i.e., today’s swingy, sassy, fun and smart women characters. Women CEOs, reporters, moms, beauty queens, performers, spies, daredevils. My fellow dreamers loved it, and the messages were easy and clear.

Took Tarot of the Gnomes along to lunch at Ambar with a friend yesterday. The card names are in Italian, with English, German, French and Spanish translations. Very cute, lots of good energy - and, like Vanessa, small enough to fit in my small purse.

Still have three more to break in: Fairy Tale Tarot, which ranges broadly in its choice of stories - not just Western Europen, but Asian, Russian - and many tales I don’t know, which is even more fun. The Whimsical Tarot, made for kids, though you’ll love it to - simple and easy fairy tale themes in a positive vein. And The One World Tarot - I love the name - which includes some sacred geometry, some natural symbols, some photographs. I’ll wait and see how it reads - could be great, might not be.

Always fun to play with new toys! Email me if you’d like to be in touch with Lisaann about Whimsy.

Being produced in theaters across the country on this Labor Day weekend, Birth is a play about being pregnant from start to finish and even after, by Karen Brody.

Here in Cincinnati it’s at the Know Theatre, presented by Birth & Beyond: Advocates for Woman Centered Healthcare. You can check out their website at www.birthnbeyond.org.

In the meantime - back to the play. I was there because I like edgy / different theater - and because my friend Bet Stewart is the director. Also because several other play-going women friends of mine wanted to go. So we all had dinner at Lavomatic - meaning we got there early enough to get a great on-street parking space - and then on to the theatre.

All of us in my group related to the many and varied stories, even though most of our pregnancies and births were long, long ago. The play begins with discussion of how dogs and cats - mammals, as are we - give birth. They want quiet, dark, calmness gentleness. Not the Lucy and Desi craziness of too many delivery rooms. It goes on with eight stories, well intertwined and well pace, with lots of humor, about actual births by actual women.

Even the good birth stories on stage were not very good - most experienced their deliveries as having been arranged to meet the needs of the doctors (whether women or men) and staff. Though they didn’t figure that out until later. The ending is of a great birth - loving, quiet, gentle, celebratory. And left us all feeling great, and knowing what we all need to work toward for our daughters, grandaughters and friends - all those next generations.

I watched the whole convention up until Thursday at home on TV. But for The Big Day - Barack accepting the nomination - I wanted to be on the Square with the rest of the town!

When I got there, Fountain Square was abuzz with the salsa dancers that have been filling it every Thursday this summer. Michael Beck, one of the best, gives salsa lessons each week - and judging by the crowd, lots of folks have been showing up - and are showing off their skills. Lots of guys showing off their moves… nearly an equal number of women. We all know that’s often not the case. Lots of fun.

We picked our spot, set up our chairs, taking turns walking around the bustling scene. The salsa finished, we got to see a bit of the action at Invesco in Denver, when the jumbotron switched back to local and regional politicians here talking to the crowd. And their volunteers were working the crowd, passing out stickers, signing us all up for lit drops and phone banks.

I wore my O’Bama tshirt for the occasion - a lot of fun to talk about my Irish brother.

When the TV switched back to CNN in Denver, a speech or two - and here is Barack walking out on the stage. Confident, comfortable, smiling. As soon as the crowd calmed down - took a while - he said very simply that he accepted their nomination for president. And the crowd was off again.

The man is magical. Calmly loving us, teaching us, having fun with us, through this madness of 80,000 people hanging on every word. I know he’s the first African American to be the candidate of a major party in our country. I just think he’s the best I’ve seen since Jack Kennedy. Black is irrelevant in many ways, except as it has informed his life and his experience, made him more empathetic, given him the ability to see into the core of a problem, see it as structural rather than person, given him keen observation abilities.

The speech itself was perfect. Hit all the right bases. Showed that empathy, showed his toughness, was specific about the steps he’ll take, who he’ll tax, what his priorities are. We all knew we had heard a speech for the ages, no matter what the pundits would say.

A constitutional lawyer, one of the best writers I’ve ever read, a man who’s family really comes first, as demonstrated by his actions, not just his talk.

President Barack Obama. Has a wonderful ring to it, doesn’t it?

So how about those great Bill Clinton and Joe Biden speeches? Were they both at the tops of their games or what? It was sure fun to watch!

I loved Bill Clinton’s statement that the world has always been more impressed by the power of our example, than by the example of our power. Terrific line. I definitely agree that America has always led better by attraction than by coercion - fits right in with current spiritual themes.

Joe Biden’s story delivered by his son, Beau, about to leave for Iraq, was moving and beautiful. Biden’s speech was just great. And his moments talking about his friend John McCain, and why McCain should not be president, were impressive. I also liked the litany of problems afflicting the country right now, and how proposed Democratic solutions, by Barack, will work to solve them.

Another of my favorites about this convention has been the personal narratives. Michelle’s, Hillary’s, Bill’s, Joe’s - and the stories of many others. All powerful, all simple, all ringing with the truth of America.

The energy was electric all evening. But it absolutely went through the roof when Barack surprised Joe and Jill Biden on stage after Joe’s speech - just his first step out onto the stage brought everyone to their feet, screaming, crying, laughing.

What a gathering!

p. s. I’m still expecting a blowout election.

I’ve been enjoyably blown away by the diversity at the convention. No picture of a group is of all white folk. Or all black folk. Everyone is all mixed up, with brown, red and yellow in the mix as well. I love it when the camera pans the room.

The speakers are also all mixed up. One after the other on the podium, young, old, black, white, other, women, men, rich, poor, elected officials, just folks. The people in charge of each session - same deal. It sure looks like America.

No need to even speculate about the Republican convention. Rich old white guys showcasing here and there a women, a minority, a youth. Just sad. And not much about America.

It’ll be interesting to see how Sarah Palin plays out. Looks like a ringer to me.