November 29th, 2012
My dear friend Rusty Carnarius and I spent countless hours in deep conversation during the last decade of her life, and she comes to my mind throughout the years as those of us who so appreciated her love and wisdom reflect in her everlasting legacy for an expansion of consciousness. Lizanne McClenon brought to my attention an idea that Rusty included in her pamphlet, The Nature of Sharing (1998, Rosehip Press):
"As I think about it, sharing is beyond just telling. It is paying
attention to what is important, then being vulnerable enough to let
someone else know that it is important to you. It is almost like
breathing; you inhale experience, then you exhale and share its
meaning with others. In the give and take of sharing we
demonstrate how much we need each other.”
In the words of Marc Edmund Jones, “When we are living worthily we are living in the constant emptying of ourselves because we are sharing all values and so conserving all values.”
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November 15th, 2012
One of the Peace Pilgrim Beatitudes has made a major impact in a person with whom I have corresponded for many years: “Blessed are they who love and trust their fellow beings, for they shall reach the good in people and receive a loving response."
The Merriam-Webster’s dictionary equates ‘harmony’ with a sense of internal calm or tranquility. Related words include compatibility, integration, oneness, togetherness, unity. One of my favorite analogies is like listening to a magnificent classical music masterpiece, each note spontaneously vibrating in a most pleasing arrangement and concordance with all the parts that integrate the whole creating a sense of profound interconnectedness and unity with all that is.
Peace Pilgrim’s Beatitude inspired my correspondent to consider what Peace meant when she talked about being ‘in harmony’. She has been wondering how she can be in harmony with an out of harmony situation, person, or internal feeling of her own. And she finally thought about a simple tuning fork. In her own words, “Let's say I need to be attuned to myself first, aligned to my inner beliefs and principles and living up to the highest light I have at the moment, then I can resonate or be in harmony with other people and situations. Like sounding one strong, clear, free of conflict, unconfused note. A resonant gong, rather than a loud and jarring alarm clock.”
After a couple of months, she is still feeling very much as she did when she wrote to me then. She adds, “This feeling of inner harmony or resonance has been very strong and I am so happy and thankful. It's been such a great gift. I feel it on all levels of my being: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual; a great sense of clarity and well-being. I think that's what Peace Pilgrim meant about being ‘in harmony.’ Congruent. Whole. A feeling of personal power and of effortless ease that comes from living with integrity with your own deepest aspirations and deeply held beliefs. I guess it would be the "mind-set" and in addition the equally important, "heart-set" being aligned or attuned. Resonant. Consonant. As a result, JOYFUL!”
Yes… in the wonders of inner peace we resonate as a harmonious gong to all people and situations….
Posted in Inner Peace, Oneness, Wholeness in Living | 1 Comment »
October 31st, 2012
Michel Montaigne expressed that the great and glorious masterpiece of man is to know how to live to purpose. A golden stepping stone to the awareness of wholeness comes from a dedication to the fulfillment of our deeper purpose. We are the artists of our life and shape our experiences with our own brush. When we find our unique mission, we know it with certainty from within. We attain that which we came to do by expressing the richness of our own personality, using our special talents, and sharing it all with others in everyday life.
I would like to invite you today to consider the following questions, pertinent to your own mission in life.
- How does my mission in life relate to universal purpose?
- What are my primordial priorities based on eternal values?
- In what ways do I fulfill my social responsibilities, my unique contribution for the good of the whole?
- How can I best employ my special talents for the fulfillment of my mission?
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October 15th, 2012
Over the years a dear friend of mine, Sherry Carroll, used to keep Tao quotes that spoke to her, on her desk at work under a clear plastic pad. Over the years she had to keep enlarging the pad and fortunately her desks kept getting bigger as she became fond of her collection. She says it was surprising how many times, in the course of a day, she would glance down to her desk and read something that would either gave her a boost or pertain to the issue she was working on.
Here’s one of her favorite quotes:
“Once you understand the meaning you can forget the words.”
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October 2nd, 2012
Poems from my dear friend continue to come to me in a desire to share them with you. Peace within embraces it all.
Peace Brother
Solitary Sunday.
Mist on muddy canal
Dances ever so slightly.
Crow caws,
A fish rises.
The splash widens in circularity,
Defining a serenity
To be absorbed and cherished.
Jonas Mather
Posted in Inner Peace, Peaceful Living, Wholeness in Living | 2 Comments »
September 5th, 2012
Life experiences come to teach us something, to inspire us in deeper and wider levels of appreciation and also to open up opportunities to be of service to others. The potential to serve others expands through a developing sense of compassion.
Anthea Mitchell, a friend in England, shared the core of her understanding: “Compassion is another component of love: of loving with empathy, with understanding, with wisdom, with the beauty of sharing another’s pain and of wanting to help because you know, you really know, what they are going through.”
Compassion is a virtue that adds significance to the experience of pain and suffering of others as if it were ours… opening the gates for profound inner communion with our beloved fellow human beings.
In compassion we experience completeness, wholeness in living.
Posted in Oneness, Relationships, Wholeness in Living | 2 Comments »
August 22nd, 2012
In a presentation to the Congregation Keneseth Israel earlier this year I shared with the group the Hassidic Saying that captures the essence of my philosophy of life:
“All souls are one. Each is a spark
of the original soul, and this soul is inherent
in all souls.”
In the context of the oneness of all, this session was an opportunity to talk about the power of the wisdom that arises from within as a meaningful golden stepping stone to wholeness. When we allow the rush and pressure of our days to fall away, we are more able to discern the essential truth of what lies before us. Peace Pilgrim said, “Each of us is a cell in the body of humanity, and has the potential to make a special contribution. Alan Cohen, author of “Rising in Love – The Journey into Light” invites people to clarify their role by asking themselves: “Where does my passion call me? How can I serve others in the highest way possible? What tools can I offer that will bring them greater peace and aliveness? Regardless of what I was told about how the world is supposed to work, what do I know, from inside out, about how life really works?”
I look forward to hearing your thoughts about your own mission in life.
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August 6th, 2012
How are you expressing your creativity? Are you inspired to share the core of your being through creative writing, poetry, music, dance or any other expanding way to unfold your imagination through inner communion with the divine?
In response to one of my earlier Musings, Carol Zengara shared some words of wisdom coming from Dane Rudhyar, which capture what resides in her heart.
“The individual who is consecrated and true to the spirit acts as the spirit, in terms of human needs. Performing thus the acts of the spirit, carrying forth the dynamic purpose of life, the individual will know fulfillment and harmony. He will know it as the cyclic linking of God and of man within the creative act. He will know it as the lightning knows the Earth, as the wind feels the sea, as light experiences the worlds it stirs out of space.”
Posted in Meaningful Living, Peaceful Living, Wholeness in Living | 6 Comments »
July 24th, 2012
The beautiful gardens of the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, England, recently hosted the 2012 Unity Conference, where international speakers enthusiastically shared their understanding about a world where we can live in peace with each other and in 
harmony with nature.
Today, I wish to invite you to meditate on a statement that became the Conference’s theme, in an embrace of this opportunity to develop existing ideas, share new ones and imagine what life would be like living in unity.
“So powerful is the light of
Unity that it can illuminate
the whole Earth.”
Bahá u’lláh
And from Rumi:
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world.
Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
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July 13th, 2012
A friend in Argentina, Neestor Hugo Almagro, represents the power of acting in harmony with the universe. He was answering mail on a Sunday morning when he suddenly felt a strong desire to ascend with other people to the top of a 12,000 ft. mountain called “Lomas Blancas”. With his backpack, equipment and companions ready, they climbed.
25 years earlier he had said to himself: “I must prepare to practice medicine, even on a hilltop, doing without technology.” Finally the opportunity had come. Upon reaching the peak they found a man suffering a severe anxiety crisis, incapable of breathing. He received a conscious breathing treatment from my friend. Once out of the crisis, in about 15 minutes, he was astounded and said that such crises usually lasted 72 hours, handicapping him severely for work or the performance of even small duties. As he was feeling better they all returned happily to the city.
For my friend, this was a dramatization of what it means to live in the present doing what needs to be done and trusting the future will unfold in wondrous ways.
Works remain the proof of faith.
Posted in Meaningful Living, Oneness, Wholeness in Living | 2 Comments »
