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I contemplate this a lot. What is mine to do? Eleanor Roosevelt said that “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." Stuff bugs me, but I’m not going to discuss people or events here. It’s a waste of time, and just contributes to what is really bothering me: Polarity. Us and them. Separation. Duality. All different names for the same thing. I feel as strongly about this as Ernest Holmes must have been feeling when he said this: “The belief in duality has robbed theology of power and has polluted philosophy with untruths; it has divided science against itself, and has made countless thousands go through life with saddened hearts.” And this: “The belief in duality is the father of most negative thinking.”

The opposite of duality is oneness, and that is what I believe in. I also believe that what we believe in affects our lives and shows up in physical form. If you don’t believe me, check out quantum physics...specifically the “observer effect.” I’ll leave that up to you, I’ve got other things to write about. And if you think science has no place in a conversation about oneness and theology and ideas and god, I respectfully suggest that you consider why you are even reading this. There are no mistakes in life. There must be a question in your mind or you wouldn’t be reading my words. Contemplate that while I move on.

Oneness to me means that not only is there no separation between me and you, but there is no separation between me and god. Powerful stuff there. Because believing in oneness means that I believe that what you do affects me, and what I do affects you. This happens in the micro form, between you and me, and it happens in the macro form, world wide. So when we point fingers and blame and attack and separate ourselves from them because they are all fucked up, it is hurting us as much as them. All this polarity that is going on in the world hurts. It hurts me, and it hurts you. It is duality at its worst.

What does this duality look like on a gritty level? It looks like I’m right and you are wrong. It looks like there is only one way to refer to god, my way. It looks like “well, I’m not perfect, but you did this and that and for that I am standing firm and holding my ground and blaming you for all this trouble.” Duality looks like stubbornness and close mindedness. And it bugs me.

When I get really bugged about this stuff, and I do, a lot, I contemplate: “what is mine to do?” And the honest answer? I don’t know. I sometimes feel like the way I felt when I witnessed a devastating fire burn down much of my town. There was nothing I could do but bake cookies for the firemen and the displaced. So I baked cookies. I guess in a way, I really do know what is mine to do. It is the metaphorical equivalent of baking cookies. I’ve got a certain skill set, and certain credentials, and I can voice this, and spread the word. I can present a different way to be. And so that is why I speak. It is why I write. It is why I teach. It is why I do workshops and retreats. I want people to be happy. I want them to live more peacefully. I believe that when individuals live happier and more peacefully, that has a far reaching effect.

I look at it like this: if it is true that there are only two basic states of being: fear or love (and I believe this to be true), then we are either coming from a place of fear or a place of love in any given situation. When we attack, when we point fingers, when we judge, it is all fear based. What’s up with the fear? Why would someone else’s lifestyle threaten you? How could it? What if, instead of attacking, you realized that this fear you are feeling that is making you attack and condemn and judge others is really a call to investigate why you are so fearful in the first place? This removes the attention from them and places it on yourself. Perhaps an uncomfortable place to be, but people like me can help you with that.

What if instead you contemplated what love would do? Call it what you will, there are many names for love, just as there are many names for god. What if instead you asked why a suggestion that there are different names for god gets your feathers all ruffled? What if instead you contemplated what your life would look like if you replaced all that fear with love? What if instead you contemplated how a belief in separation and duality is harming you, and found a different way to believe? What then? Do you think that might contribute to a better life, for you and for the rest of the world? I do.

So I’m going to bake cookies. What if you baked cookies too? What is your metaphorical equivalent of baking cookies? Do that.

As Rumi said, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

Today is Fat Tuesday. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and Valentines Day and the beginning of Lent. And Easter falls on April Fool’s Day this year.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say something is trying to tell us something.

As for me, I’m having a bit of fun with it all. Really?!?!?! Ash Wednesday, a day when Christians are supposed to fast and remember their basic nature (sinners) and sacrifice......coupled with Valentine’s Day? This could have far reaching ramifications for your relationship: Declaring undying and unconditional love on Valentine’s Day, or sacrificing everything to remember that we are really nothing but dust and to dust we will return, except that there will be a resurrection that is going to happen on....wait for it.....April Fools Day. ...continue reading "On Gluttony and Sacrifice and Penitence and April Fool’s Day"

The first time I ever went to Death Valley, it was under protest.  I had gone to a photographer’s convention in Vegas with a fellow photographer who insisted on stopping at Death Valley on the way home.  I was not impressed, but he was driving, so I went along for the ride.

We get there and I immediately became impressed.  Why they call this place Death Valley is beyond me.  Well, actually, I know whey they call it that.  Something about extreme heat in the summer killing everything that stops long enough to experience it.  But go in the spring, or the fall, or the winter months, and it’s different.  What I was impressed by was the energy there.  Call it woo woo if you want, but I feel energy.  It’s a powerful thing, that energy.  It’s like The Force, and if you allow yourself to feel it, you can learn awesome things.  There is a stillness about Death Valley that has much to teach us, if we allow it.

I’ve since gone back to Death Valley many times.  I’ve gone alone, and I’ve brought groups in.  This year, on March 6-8, I’m bringing another group in.  I call it the Creativity Retreat.

A couple of things:  I’m different.  Some might say I march to a different drum.  Actually,  what really happens is that I hear a different beat than most.  It’s the beat of that woo woo energy I was speaking of.  I believe that if you get quiet long enough, you begin to get in touch with that Force, and you open up to new and wonderful things.  This is what creativity is all about.  And this is what the camping is all about.

I could take a group to a hotel.  But then the whole camping/energetic/woo woo experience would change. I like the whole camping/energetic/woo woo experience. You say you don’t camp?  Then this is your first lesson.  Come.  Step outside those limitations  and see what happens.  This is also a part of creativity.

So come.  Join me and some other pioneers.  Camp with us.  Share meals prepared at campside by whoever wants to participate.  Sit and experience the energy that is Death Valley, do a bit of inner exploration, prompted by me, yours truly.  Explore the valley a bit too.  There will be time for that.

My husband seems to think that money is tight.  I did the math.  $90 for the retreat itself, maybe $50-$100 for groceries, maybe $100 for travel to get there and back.  $300 for a life changing experience.  To me, it is a no brainer.  But then again, I did say I march to a different beat.

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License plate musings:

So....I live in an area where lots of people come from all over the world to visit. I enjoy hearing the different languages, seeing evidence of different cultures. Here in agricultural Nevada, we’ve got cowboys. And tattooed folk. Sometimes they mix. So I enjoy seeing women wearing saris and guys with turbans. I marvel at the lack of personal space evidenced by Chinese people. These folks have absolutely no concept of personal space. Get near a bunch of them and prepare to be crowded. I remember watching the eclipse last year with a group like this. We were on a bluff, over looking Lake Tahoe. Plenty of room, lots of open space, lots of trails. I had my tripod set up to photograph the eclipse. They crowded around me so close that I had to watch to make sure my tripod didn’t get knocked over. Nice people, we communicated as best we could with the language barrier. They loaned me their special little viewing glasses, I let them look on my camera monitor to see what I was capturing. We shared OOOHs and AHHHs. But they crowded me. Where was I? Oh yeah, license plates. So one of my other hobbies is noticing out of state license plates. I can always tell when it is tourist season by the number of out of state plates I see. Some plates are beautiful. They have rainbows and bright colors and catchy slogans. Then there is Delaware. Now there’s a no-nonsense plate. No bright colors. No mountains. No catchy slogan. Just...the plate number. I did a little research on Delaware license plates. Apparently they’ve always been some variation of light numbers and letters on a dark background. I saw no evidence of rainbows or mountains. What kind of state does that? I went to Delaware.gov to explore a bit, and saw an archived blog post in which was written this: “In exploring this unique part of First State culture – the program will include such topics as the desirable black & white porcelain sets from the 1940s, the black stainless steel tags from the 1950s, and the story behind the controversial font-style changes in the early 1990s.” Yes folks, apparently it is a cultural icon in Delaware to have plain black and white.

Ok. ...continue reading "To thine own self be true…..or……license plate musings"