Free Hugs video

This video was shared with me by a friend. It is so wonderful that I had to share it here.

Dazzling Insanity from Rob Brezsny

This wonderful stream of crazed inspiration showed up in my inbox this morning in Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter. You can read more of Rob's iridescent wisdom ramblings and sign up for the weekly newsletter at his website, www.freewillastrology.com.

Thanks, Rob. You keep changing my life!

BRAINSCRAMBLING
by Rob Brezsny

Relax. Put yourself in a comfortable position. Breathe deeply. Let the tension stream out of your head and neck and shoulders. Imagine that your worries are flowing out of you into the good earth below. Say "ahhhhh" in your softest tone.

Dissolve the constricted energy in your chest and belly and pelvis, and let it trickle away. Allow the stress in your legs and feet to evaporate. With each breath, send out a wave of love to your entire body. Relax even more deeply. Become aware that all of the disquiet within you is departing. Your knots are unraveling. Your congestion is dissipating.

Now close your eyes and imagine that it's a bright and warm summer day at the beach. You're sitting in a cozy chair. The sky is a deep, infinite blue. A balmy breeze caresses your cheeks. Your body feels strong and serene. You're in harmony with the flow of life. Look around you. See the sparkling white sand. Feel the gentle waves swirl around your ankles.

As you bask in this beauty and calm, imagine that you're reading the Wall Street Journal and listening to the soothingly riotous music of a klezmer polka band playing free-form jazz with a hip-hop beat. Nearby is a shopping mall you have recently bought and converted into a country club for poor people. A satellite phone and a wireless laptop are by your side because you must always be available to conduct late-breaking business deals, buy or sell stocks, or give spiritual advice.

Amazing but true: You are both a billionaire and a wise counselor. This blend of wealth and sagacity has led you to become a philanthropic healer. Through cash donations and gifts of insight, you have helped thousands of people transform themselves into gorgeous geniuses skilled at expressing their souls' codes.

Relax even more deeply. Tune in to the understanding that you are a furiously curious soul full of orgiastic compassion for everything alive. You are an ongoing experiment in lyrical logic, a slow explosion of uncanny delight, a sacred agent devoted to breaking the taboo against feeling crafty joy.

Now say this: I have only barely imagined the blessings that await me. As interesting and as full as my life is, I'm ready for it to become even more so.

With this declaration, you have given the future permission to transform you into a more awakened version of yourself than you ever knew was possible.

Continue your cooperation with the glorious fate that's coming your way. Speak the following affirmations, which have been scientifically formulated to free you of all rigid beliefs that might cause stupidity:

I kick my own ass and wash my own brain.
I push my own buttons and trick my own pain.
I burn my own flags and roast my own heroes.
I mock my own fears and cheer my own zeroes.

Nothing can stop me from teasing my shadow.
I'm full of empty and backwards bravado.
My wounds are tattoos that reveal my true beauty.
I turn tragic to magic and make bliss my duty.

I honor my faults till they become virtues.
I play jokes on my nightmares
till I'm sure they won't hurt you.
I sing anarchist lullabies to lesbian trees
and love songs with punch linesto anonymous seas.

I won't accept gifts that infringe on my freedom
I shun sacred places that stir up my boredom.
I change my name daily, pretend to be nobody.
I fight for the truth if it's majestically rowdy.

Gravity fucks me and I fuck it back.
The sun is my sex slave, the moon smokes my crack.
I pump up my conscience with idiot laughter.
I'm living happily, in love ever after.

I brag about what I can't do and don't know.
I take off my clothes to those I oppose.
I'm so far beyond lazy, I work like a god.
I'm totally crazy; in fact that's my job.

It's all true. You're completely wacko. Throbbingly, succulently, shimmeringly insane. And that's good news.

This understanding frees you up to sing in the acid rain and cultivate global warming in your pants. You are in prime condition to study the difference between stupid insecurity and smart insecurity until you get it right. You realize beyond a doubt that everyone who believes in the devil is the devil. You feel a longing to stick out your tongue and cross your eyes and put on your most beautifully ugly face as you sneak up on yourself from behind and whisper "boo!" And you see the healthy wisdom of now and then inserting into your conversations the following quote, uttered by the Baron in the film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen: "Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash, and I'm happy to say I have no grasp of it whatsoever."

And congratulations. Every cell in your perfect animal body is beginning to purr with luminous gratitude for the enormity of the riches you endlessly receive. You are becoming aware that each of your heart's beats originates as a gift of love directly from the Goddess herself. Any residues of hatred that had been tainting your libido are leaving you for good. You are becoming telepathically linked to the world's entire host of secret teachers, pacifist warriors, philosopher clowns, and bodhisattvas disguised as convenience store clerks.

In other words, you're on the verge of détente with your evil twin. And you're ready to submit to a multiple-choice test, which goes like this:

How does it make you feel when I urge you to confess profound secrets to people who are not particularly interested? Does it make you want to:

a. cultivate a healthy erotic desire for a person you'd normally never be attracted to in a million years;

b. stop helping your friends glamorize their pain;

c. imitate a hurricane in the act of extinguishing a forest fire;

d. visualize Buddha or Mother Teresa at the moment of orgasm;

e. steal something that's already yours.

The right answer, of course, is any answer you thought was correct. Congratulations. You're even smarter than you knew.

To seal your victory, repeat the following affirmation: "Stressed" is "desserts" spelled backward.

Now remain here for a while in this state of supernatural relaxation. As you begin to return to normal waking consciousness, don't return to normal waking consciousness. Instead, practice feeling the confidence that you can invoke the scent of wild honey in a sunlit meadow any timeyou feel an urge to.

In honor of your enhanced power to be yourself, I hereby reward you with a host of fresh titles. From now on you will be known as the Senior Vice President of Strawberry Fields and Hummingbirds, and the Deputy Director of Green Lights and Purple Hearts. Consider yourself, as well, to be the new Puzzle-Master Supreme, the Chief Custodian of Secret Weapons, and Field Commander of Free Lunches and Poetic Licenses.

Petals on the Soles of my Feet

I didn't feel well today. I haven't felt myself in a couple of weeks, actually, and I was feeling quite down about it this evening. My dear one advised me to just lie down and listen to some soothing music. I didn't want to lie down--I wanted to get things done...but I did it anyhow. It was good. I switched to hypnotic meditation music, and, revived, I worked trancelike on a painting until bedtime (it's bedtime now, lol).

I feel as if I've experienced the most exquisite massage. I'm flying and floating, gently swaying, and it's lovely, lovely, and I am blessed.

So now I'm looking back on my day in which I didn't feel well, and I'm questioning my feeling that I never quite get enough done. What did I do today, while feeling weak and slow?

I worked a full day, for starters. I came home from work and went straight to the nursery to look at bushes and trees, making note of varieties I may want to plant in a large bed we're filling out back. I came home from the nursery and went outside with the dog. It was lovely. The sun had come out after a full day of clouds, and it was warm! I got out my seeds and planted pumpkins, gourds, sunflowers, dill, green beans, purple beans and summer squash. I weeded a flower bed. I thinned my carrots. I played with my dog. I ate dinner, answered emails, had a conversation with my dear one, meditated, worked on my painting, then photographed its progress and blogged it.

Not bad for not feeling well. I'm really very blessed...and grateful for the reminder to be mindful of what I'm doing. I very nearly wrote this off as a not-very-useful day.

So where do the flower petals come in? I let the dog out before coming to bed. The night is dark, slightly warm, slightly humid, full of the scent of growing things. The frogs are in full voice, from the treble drone of tree frogs to the bullfrogs' percussive bass. The darkness is alive, and I am alive in it. My crabapple tree, at the very end of her abundant bloom, spreads her branches over me as I breathe in the night. Petals flutter past my face, a perfect imitation of the first snowfall. I can hear them hushing, hushing to the ground. My heart is open wide and I am everything...and all of it is me. As I come back into the house, I leave a trail of crabapple petals on the floor. I'll leave them 'til morning--and begin the day in this same magical space.

My prayer is gratitude.

Visit "Lloyd's Art"

This extraordinary artist and philospher is virtually blind, yet he creates vibrant paintings accompanied by inspirational prose. Read his blog here.

Yesterday

Yesterday Daniel and I went on a bike ride. We started in a state park up by the lake, a place known for its sightings of thousands of migratory hawks and other birds. The wind was out of the north, though, blowing the birds inland, so no hawks today. We rode north along the east edge of the bay toward the lake, through the marina and into a little park at the end, with a strip of sandy beach on the lake itself. We rode out onto a little spit of land maybe a half mile long, appropriately known as East Spit, that separates the lake from the bay. The wind was howling off the lake, stirring up big breakers to crash upon the rocks a few feet to our right...and only a few feet to the left was the placid bay, dotted with swans. The cold rush of air made us feel as if we could fly!

It was a marvelous day to be alive.

Next time I go out there, I'll take pictures.

The world is perfect. It's a mess.

When we talk about settling the world's problems, we're barking up the wrong tree.
The world is perfect. It's a mess. It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.

~Joseph Campbell

Daniel and the Butterfly Effect

What my son Daniel was talking about in the previous post is something that has been called the Butterfly Effect. It's a component of chaos theory, wherein very small, even infinitesimal changes in variables can ultimately affect an entire system. It was originally discussed in terms of meteorology, asking the fanciful question, "Does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?" (For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect.)

It's a wonderful name for a powerful concept. I find it comforting when the world starts looking so impossibly out-of-control. Be a butterfly! Flutter your wings for change!

On Changing the World

One day when my son was nine or ten, as we sat on the steps enjoying a summer evening, I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He told me he wanted to be an environmentalist.

At that age, Daniel was often content with one-word answers (accompanied by a knowing smile), but of course I wanted more. I asked him why he was drawn to that kind of work. He gave me one of his indulgent looks and began to explain.

"You see this little stone here?" he said, pointing to a small pebble in the grass. "Imagine that an ant is crawling along and reaches that stone. He might decide to go around it to the left. When he goes to the left, he will get eaten by a larger insect, which will change what that insect does, which will then get eaten by a bird, which will change what that bird does, and so on."

He looked at me to see if I was following, then continued.

"If I move this stone, " he said, picking up the pebble and moving it a few inches away from us, "that ant won't need to go left, so it won't feed the same insect, which won't feed the same bird, and on and on.

"So," he concluded in a reverent tone, looking intently at me, "by moving this stone, I can change the world."


We all have the power to move pebbles and change the world. Commit yourself to moving some pebbles today.

Compassion and the Hundredth Monkey

An article by Daniel Ferrera.

I chose this article in part because it utilizes and fully explains the "Hundredth Monkey" concept....an idea that suggests we really CAN change the world one person at a time. ~Kim


The Compassion Experiment


This is the simplest yet most powerful thing we can do each day to CHANGE THE WORLD in which we all live.

1) Each and EVERY DAY, commit at least one act of compassion to another person and/or living thing. For example, if you see a worm dying on the sidewalk, pick it up and put it somewhere where it will survive and wish it well. If you see someone in need, help them or at the very minimum, mentally bless them or make a wish that the get the help they need.

2) When you look upon people that causes you to judge them, STOP YOURSELF and instead wish them PEACE & HAPPINESS. Have COMPASSION for Everyone and Everything ALL THE TIME.

3) Print this out and read it everyday so that you make it a daily habit.

4) Email these instructions to everyone in your address book and have a few extra printed copies you can give to people after you generate some interest in this unique experiment. You can easily generate interest by understanding “WHY” this will work and how wonderful the final outcome will be. Besides, we all want to be better anyway.

How This Should Work

Remote Shared Learning – The mysterious phenomenon where knowledge, behavior or knowing is passed on or transmitted somewhat like radio waves to the consciousness of similar species without direct teaching or contact.

Example 1: One very famous example of this “remote shared learning” phenomenon occurred in Britain where for nearly 100-years the milkmen have delivered bottles of milk at the doors of the homeowners in the darkness of the early morning. In 1921, the first incidence of a small bird (a blue tit) opening the top cap of one of these milk bottles was recorded in the small town of Southampton. By 1937, eleven additional species of birds had duplicated this same activity and it spread to 89 different cities in England. Then, a critical jump occurred “everywhere”. Suddenly, blue tits in Sweden, Denmark and Holland began to attack and open milk bottles. It was absolutely impossible that this could have been a learned behavior or something that these birds witnessed or observed. To further complicate this mystery, milk bottles were not even used in Holland during the years of World War II and where not reintroduced until 1947. None of the blue tits alive then could have ever even seen a milk bottle. Yet as soon as the bottles reappeared, they were attacked and opened by the blue tit species of bird.

Example 2: Another known story of this shared learning occurred off the coast of Japan on the island of Koshima in the year 1952. Scientists were studying the behavior of some local monkeys (Macaca fuscata). They began feeding these monkeys by dropping sweet potatoes on the sand, which made them difficult and somewhat unpleasant to eat. One female monkey they called “Imo”, learned to wash the potatoes in the ocean to get the sand off before eating them. She began teaching this specific behavior to her friends and relatives and pretty soon many members of this band of monkeys were duplicating Imo’s food washing behavior. Then, just like the birds in England a critical point was reached and every monkey in the entire tribe began washing their food. Amazed by this phenomenon, the scientists reported their observation. At the very same time, another group of scientists at Takasakiyama on the distant mainland noticed a very odd and eerie phenomenon: Suddenly, all the Macaca fuscata monkeys they were observing had begun to wash their food in the ocean too!

Example 3: Scientists have also proven that “knowing” or learned behavior can somehow be passed on to future generations. When they studied a group of mice and had them learn a complicated maze to find food, the first generation of mice took more than 300 attempts to master the maze. The next generation who were kept completely separate from the first group of mice learned and mastered the maze in only 160 attempts. The generation after this learned it in 70 attempts and their offspring mastered it in 17 attempts even though they were NEVER allowed to learn it from their parents.

As a common species (human), we too share in a type of shared remote learning. Just look at all the crazy fads and behaviors that catch on and spread across the globe. If we each practice compassion every day, then soon it will reach a critical mass and everyone on the entire planet will begin practicing compassion as well. You cannot force someone to change externally, but by consistently making yourself a better human being each day, you are influencing everyone in the entire world to also take on this same behavior. Compassion is at the heart of all the worlds’ religions but regardless of your religious beliefs practice and share this information with everyone you come in contact with. I implore you to PLEASE take part in the greatest scientific experiment ever attempted by any man.

COMPASSION

Rumi

If you haven't encountered Rumi, make an effort to do so! This 13th-century Persian mystic wrote profound, ecstatic, inspirational verse....I'm a huge fan. You can find his work all over the web. Here's a sample:

If you knew yourself for even one moment,
if you could just glimpse your most beautiful face,
maybe you wouldn't slumber so deeply in that house of clay.

Why not move into your house of joy
and shine into every crevice!
For you are the secret Treasure-bearer, and always have been.
Didn't you know?

much more to come!

I will be adding RSS feeds and email subscription buttons very soon. I also have a number of links I want to add, so come back often for my musings and more!

[Edit: they're up now!]

a story (a true one)

One summer day when my son was four, we were playing wiffleball in the yard. He began swinging his plastic bat into the leaves on a low branch of an overhanging oak.

When I told him, "Stop! the tree needs it leaves!" he lowered the bat and asked me why.

So, me being a teaching type and him being a cosmically comprehending type, I explained photosynthesis to a four-year-old.....

He was quiet for a moment, and then his face lit up. It may be a cliche, but there is no better description. His face simply shone.

"So," he said, in a hushed, reverent tone, "the tree....eats...the light!"

Kids get it.

Welcome! ...some things I wanted to share

Maybe it's my Leo nature, but when I have exciting thoughts, I want to share them. I've created this space for my thoughts and yours....our ecstatic ramblings that celebrate and illuminate this tumultuous existence.

I created the word "ecstalalia" just for this space...there seemed to be a need for a new word that would hold all the resonating joy I wish to express. Now, especially, when life seems so hard for so many, with crisis and doom reported everywhere, I want to talk about the goodness inherent in all Creation.

It's all perfect, of course. We just have to learn to perceive the perfection. Writing about it on a regular basis will help train my perception. I hope it helps yours as well.

Come dance with me!