Prescription for Bliss

Yes, there is such thing as cosmic forces, or cosmic energies. The one that I think affects us the most is Mercury Retrograde.

As we all from the Mythology, Mercury is the god of communications. Well, when the planet Mercury seems to be going backwards in the heavens, we say that it is retrograde.

This means that the communications systems get screwed-up one time or another. But that's not all. Cars break, planes delay, appliances stop working; you miss important deadlines, you miss important contacts; you save your work only to realize that the system freezes and when it "defrosts" your document ahs been converted to God knows what and now, your book has 2MB of undecipherable words.

All these circumstances (and others) make you very "happy" indeed!

Mercury Retrograde happens 3x/year and usually lasts 3 weeks.

It is ending this weekend. At last!

As a student of life, I get great pleasure in learning about things in areas that interest me when they interest me. Let me explain.

Like most people, I operate in cycles. Each cycle triggers my interested and then I learn everything I can on the subject. Interestingly, my interests surround my right brain qualities.

During the past 10 years or so, I have had cycles from which I learned about Feng-Shui, Nutrition, Homeopathy, Natural Medicine for people and animals, Flower Remedies, Essential Oils, Vegetarianism, Buddhism and Spiritualism, Metaphysics, Anthroposophy, Religion, Divination, Reiki, Everything Medieval—music, households, children, family life, witchcraft--, HTML Coding, Distance Education, Copywriting, and Internet Marketing. I think that’s all.

I have read plenty of books, participated in plenty of workshops, seminars, courses, classes. Except for Internet Marketing, which will expand my business tremendously, none of the others were pursued with the purpose of improving my finances, but rather, to make me grow. And during the years, I have added each subject to my lifestyle and my “knowledge bank” which affords me to use them all the time.

Today, however, I realized that, it is all right to learn about things and make money in the process. This principle totally contradicts what was ingrained in me for decades. It is all right to be spiritual, natural, compassionate, as well as wealthy. In fact, we should strive to be both. Thank God I woke up!

Don’t you just love this time of the year?

Regardless of the rampant commercialism that I don’t care much for, Christmas has a special flavor for me. Even in California!

When I was in upstate New York, this time was simply magical. Now, even without the snow and the freezing temperatures (thank God), it is still fabulous.

I specially love to tune to my favorite radio station, Capital Public Radio, KXPR in Sacramento, and hear beautiful carols and other celebrative classical music. Just today, I heard Greensleves, as my inaugural seasonal piece. This kind of traditional music puts me in such a state of bliss that nothing in the world will cause it to be disrupted. I particularly like the ones played with harps and brass. They sound like the smell of pine and cinnamon filling the air with an incomparable sweetness.

It is like listening to Dvorak or Mozart or Beethoven or Mahler, my most favorite composers of all time. Classical music, and in this case, Christmas traditional music fills my soul with the wonder of the divine. Who can get angry or aggravated or upset, when God’s music fills the senses?

Call me hard core; call me fanatic, call me radical.
The truth is that what I hate the most about Thanksgiving is the stupid meal tradition—not to mention that myth of pilgrims inviting “Indians” for a meal. Please!

Why do people need to slaughter millions of turkeys every year, to follow a tradition baffles me, especially when turkeys are generally tasteless anyway.

Some traditions should be abolished. I’d say: let’s abolish everything that has to do with human or animal sacrifice. No one should be harmed or worse, killed so that others can have a good time.

We need not inflict pain and suffering upon our earth companions just because we are the top of the food chain. We have a choice, we know better; we can do better.

Now, if only we redirected this beautiful tradition of giving thanks to just giving thanks and showing our appreciation for the blessings we have in life, then, our tradition would really have a meaning. No turkeys, no TV, no pumpkin pie (yuck!). Let’s just get together for a day filled with spirituality and gratitude.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Have you ever noticed how powerful it is to have routines? For someone like me, this is indeed a strong compliment. You see, I hate routines. I love variety for everything. To date, I never know when dinner will be served!

Children and animals are specially rewarded when we follow a certain routine for things.

I will tell you about my kitty Zen. Zen loves to go outside using his flap door, through the garage. Now, every time he wants back in, he doesn’t use the same door. He climbs on the windowsill of my office and looks at me.

I get up, go to the window, open it and in he comes. I pet him when I open the window. Then he goes to the floor, rolls back and forth, cover his eyes with his paws and then stretches his whole body, belly up, waiting for me to pet him again.

I give him a good petting and come back to my chair at the computer. Zen goes out again.
Ten minutes later, he is back. And we re-start the process. Sometimes he takes longer to come back. Sometimes he comes back every hour. Sometimes I forget to look at the window and then see him patiently waiting for me. His eyes are glued to my face, so that I will not miss him when I look out.

This is a routine that he has established for me to pay attention to him. I take the opportunity to stretch as well and to give thanks for all the blessings in my life. I love it.

Resistance is nothing more than blocking our energy from getting what we truly want. Every day we find different things we are resisting and then get upset because things are not as they are supposed to be.

Avoiding resistance requires a lot of practice but the good news is that it is never too late to do it. But you need to pay attention to your life.

How do we know we are resisting something? I find the easiest way to detect resistance is by noticing warning signs. Now, I am a person who has some difficulty understanding universal hints. By that I mean, for me to pay attention, my angels need to be screaming at the top of their lungs.

I know that things are supposed to be easy. The universe is not complicated. So, when a situation gets a little muddled, I know that I must distance myself from it. Sometimes, though, I forget this “law of simplification” and butt my head into situations that I could have very well prevented.

I have several examples of situations in which my resistance hurt me in absolute certain terms. That means that I am perhaps a little impaired in regards to listening to my inner voice (you may call it: the Universe, Angels, God, etc—the name doesn’t matter, really) and consequently do dumb things.

I will talk about three, the result being that I hurt myself physically. Can’t get any louder than that!

The first was many years ago, when I was living in upstate NY, close to the mountains. Beautiful! Winters for me in that area were absolutely a disaster, so, I decided to make peace with snow and learn to ski. I took my son to the mountains; he was about 6 or 7 years old then. We got there, and he happily went to his instructor and got lost with his little children's group, all day.

I, on the other hand, hated the boots, hated the clothes, hated the goggles, hated the skis. My group, all middle-aged women went its way. As opposed to all the other women, I couldn’t learn to make a curve, to go one direction or another, or even climb the mountain. To make a long story short: I was horrible and hated every minute of it. But I insisted. After futile attempts at conquering the bunny slopes, at one point, I pleaded: “God, help me!” Immediate response: I fell. Two weeks on a crutch.

Later, I was taking this movement course and that day I didn’t feel like playing this stupid ball game, which I hated, but decided to do it anyway, just to “belong.” In the midst of that ball commotion (as all ball games are), I said: “God, give me a break!” Immediately, I saw the ball coming at me (it was not), tripped (in thin air, for there were no obstacles, not even my legs), fell down and broke a wrist. Points to God! Six weeks in a cast.

Just recently, I was doing a pole exercise in Tai Chi, which I love. But I didn’t like those pole exercises because my hands were sweaty and the pole didn’t slide and I almost got blisters. It hurt. Next week I did the same. I hated that exercise and, lo and behold! At one point, I twisted my knee and have been “resting” for two weeks now.

I have many more examples of this resistance. Will I ever learn? I know better. How about you? What are your resistance stories?

I used to be a movement person: dance mostly. I always liked dancing. From Jazz dance to country to swing, to ballroom, to folk dance, I did it all, even ballet, which I totally dislike. The only form of dance I didn’t do was modern, because I dislike it even more so than I dislike ballet. I also did rhythm gymnastics, the one with balls, and ropes, and clubs, etc. and Bothmer gymnastics, which is a form of movement based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. I liked that a lot.

Of the forms of movement that I tried, the ones I was not too good were: gymnastics, with all that tumbling around and ballet. I also tried but didn’t like: Eurythmy (another form of movement based on Steiner). I could never understand it. Fencing I admit, I could have done better, but I couldn’t take the poking. Too much of it.

Life, however, happened to me big time and soon, I saw myself doing absolutely nothing at all. Suddenly I couldn’t take the music; I couldn’t take the repetitions, I couldn’t take the crowds. I had changed.

Many years passed until I decided I liked Martial Arts. I took a class of TaeKonDo and decided it was not for me. More time passed. I was craving for a form of movement that would speak to my body and my soul. A month ago, I found it. Tai Chi. I just absolutely love it.

I have the privilege of having a son who writes for the Teen page of Sacramento Bee, called Sidetracks. Sacramento Bee is one of the best newspapers in California. Alex, my son, does a great job, especially writing film reviews.

The nice thing about this volunteering job of his is that, well, he gets to go to screening of films that are not yet available to the public. And so do I! Today was a good day. We watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Those of us into Harry Potter delight in seeing the trio Harry, Hermione, and Ron and the whole gang at Hogwarts. Every time a film comes up, it is like we are visiting good friends, or coming home. It is simply delightful.

Today was no exception. Besides great storytelling, cinematography, and wit, this film brings us back to our beloved characters. I like to see how much they have all grown up and older, and how different they look. I was surprised to see how tall the twins are. And so is Longbottom. I think he should wear braces. England is not like the US, as far as perfect teeth are concerned. In the first movie, Malfoy had truly crooked teeth. Now, he has corrected them. Longbottom needs braces.

They all had longer hair, sort of 60’s fashion. Perhaps more like the 70’s. I wonder if this is the fashion at present. Since I am not into the popular media, I am not sure. Harry and Ron are almost the same height, it seems; Hermione is a bit shorter. This makes me think that, obviously either she is tall or the boys haven’t grown much.

I don’t know what they do so Hagrid appears to be a giant. In this 4^th movie, there is another giant, the headmistress of the French school. Don’t ask me names, now! How did they make her so tall? She is even taller than Hagrid, which is hard to believe, and has a slim figure.

The second Dumbledore is not as charming as Richard Harris, with that melodious voice of his, but we now got used to him. Snape is as usual, a great character, though we barely saw him this time. Professor Flitwik, I now recognize was the main character in Willow.

I thought they could have chosen a better looking Cho. She is quite plain and inexpressive. Fleur is very pretty and very skinny. I didn’t like the way they portrayed her: too weak for my taste. But then again, this is absolutely Rowling’s fault. However, for what she has done for the lot of us, I think that, this time only, we should forgive this incredible storyteller, who, by the way, had better fixing that sad story of Dumbledore’s death in the 6^th book. Or else.

Welcome to the world of Harry Potter. Quite delicious!

This is another “game” I like to play. The Blessing Game.
Have you ever been in a position when you want to pass someone on the road and the person doesn’t budge? You get angry and aggravated and soon you will start saying bad names and then your driving gets worse because of the stress and on and on?

This is the best time to play the Blessing Game. This is how I do it:

Before I leave my house, I bless everyone that I will encounter, especially the ones on the road with me. Now, when I am driving, I bless anyone who is on the faster lane and refuses to make way (Californians are notorious for this—they can’t grasp the concept that the fast lane is for those who go fast, regardless of the fact that they may be disobeying the speed limit, which, by the way, I never do).

Soon enough, if the person accepts your blessing, he or she will go to the right and let me pass. If they don’t accept my blessings, the universe will open a way for me to pass through the right. Rarely is the time when I have to wait for more than a minute to pass the person in front of me, one way or another.

Of course, you may still be mad when you send the blessings, but wouldn’t you rather say: “blessings, you jerk,” than only: “get away, you idiot?” If nothing else, you will feel better, and that is what it counts. Sooner you will learn to disengage your anger and just plain bless the person.

Before I forget, you can also bless every poor soul whose car is broken along the way. I am sure they will appreciate that. I go like this: when I see a distressed car on the road, I bless the person who owns the car and his or her entire family. That feels extra good!

I just read about this incredible idea called The Abundance Swap.
As it is customary in this country, the day after Thanksgiving is the “official” opening of Christmas Season –though, I have already seen tons of Christmas decorations already, gosh!

Anyway this one man started this tradition that is fast spreading through a community near you. Why not catch up? The idea is very simple. You need a place to gather. Invite your community to partake in the event. Any community will do: your children’s school, your church, your street, your club… use your imagination.

When you invite people to attend the event, you also invite them to bring something pretty, in great condition, that they no longer need. You then go around the place and get the things you want to give as presents to your family and friends for Christmas. Someone else will pick yours.

Voilà! The swap is done. There is no bargain. This is no garage sale. You just swap. No need to fight for a parking spot. No need to face crowds. Can’t get any better than this.

Need more info? Go to http://www.abundanceswap.org/Letter.html

Have you noticed how resilient our bodies are? We break a rib; it heals, we have surgery; it heals; we have an infection; it heals, we have a cold; it heals. Many times the body heals by itself; sometimes we need a little help. I read a long time ago that researches did a study on the bodies of soldiers who had fallen in the Second War, I think, and they found a lot of scars of tumors that had healed by the body without any assistance. Just like that. Apparently, we all have several instances of malignant tumors during our lives that simply come and go. Poof!

That makes me think that, indeed, our mind is a powerful thing. Have you known people whose physicians gave them 3 months to live and on the clock, 3 months later, they die? And how about those who were also given a death sentence but refused to believe it and went on living forever?

Also, imagine how we nourish our bodies: some people live on junk and others live on everything good. Though I think it really does make a difference how we choose to nourish our bodies, this is by no means a guarantee that we won’t spoil them.

I have a good example: my uncle. He is now 98 years old. His body is not doing too well at present, though his mind is very sharp. Now, this man ate rice and chicken for meals; and tea and crackers for snacks. His whole life. Wouldn’t you think he was malnourished, if we consider the food pyramid? My brother, on the other hand, only ate good things. He passed at age 33. How is this possible?

The truth is that, indeed, when we think right, we get right things. The opposite is true. So, what do you prefer to think? Positive things or negative things? Better not talk about the things we don’t want.

Here is a quote to brighten your weekend:

Expect hope to be rekindled.
Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways.
The dry seasons in life do not last.
The spring rains will come again.

~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

Remember that when you hit the bottom, the only way to go is up.

I have a great side job, which I love, teaching a few Spanish classes for a Community College. I will talk about my fantastic students in another opportunity.

One of my classes is held outside the main campus, at one of the teaching centers that belong to the college. Next door to this center there is a hospice. We share adjacent parking lots and in our building there are many messages posted to warn students not to park in the hospice parking lot, under any circumstances.

That kept me thinking. Here we are, all of us, in our daily lives, with our ups and downs, mostly happy, coming in and out of a building next to another building where people are dying. How many of us are truly aware that in the next building there are suffering, pain, despair, depression, stress, sadness, and transition going on day after day, night after night?

Sometimes I feel guilty that my students and I are having so much fun, when so close to us, others are in so much pain, physical and emotional. Of course, every time I pass through the front entrance of the hospice on my way to park my car, I make a point of saying a little prayer for those facing transition, ready to pass the threshold of this life, and hope that their passing is a peaceful one to a world of freedom from pain and suffering. I also pray that their kin are also in peace and that acceptance of death is really part of living.

How many places do we pass during our day where there is someone who is in deep despair? I remember once, my mother told me that on her way to bank she walked by a house, whose occupant, minutes after she passed, shot himself. On her way from the bank, she saw the commotion and learnt of the guy’s suicide. And then she kept asking herself about the man and how desperate he might have been to think that death was the only solution to his problems. And there she was, passing in front of his house, unaware that someone is about to commit an extreme act of violence against himself and hence, incapable of helping.

Have you thought of that? I am becoming more and more aware of this fact and now, besides sending Reiki to all whom I cross during my day, I also send an intention that people find peace. A little prayer may help someone along the way.

Few things are more stressful than driving, I think. And to aggravate the situation, I noticed that it is behind the wheels, protected by anonymity that most people show their dark side. Most of the drivers are very nice people, whom, if you meet at a grocery store, or at a post-office parking lot, or at the video store, would certainly smile at you, at the least. Somehow, being in control of a weapon, the car, in this case, makes them unrecognizable. Jekyll and Hyde.

I find it particularly hard to take cussing. I feel a sense of violence towards me that can only be compared to being robbed or something. It hurts my soul. Now, ordinarily, people don’t curse you on a face-to-face situation. It’s too confrontational. However, they don’t even wait a heart beat to show you the finger or shout the F word or honk in such a way to wake up all the babies in town.

This week only, two instances happened to me that made my heart sink. These, by no means reflect the quality of my driving, which is not the point here. The first one, I was the next on a 4 way stop. This young man decided that he should go too, though it was clearly not his turn. Perhaps he was not paying attention as I was supposed to cross after the car in front of him crossed the road.

Anyway, both of us started at the same time. When I noticed the potential danger of the situation, I hit the break, and was immediately shown the finger while he passed in front of me. With my heart pounding at the violence towards me, I went on my way, trying to find a thought that would immediately make me feel good, to counteract the aggression. But the thought kept churning in my mind: why?

The other circumstance was close to same stop sign. This time, My son and I are coming down the little hill, at a speed of perhaps 35 or 40 mph followed by an older lady behind my car. Suddenly, a squirrel runs in front of my car. As I break for all animals, I swerved to the right – silly thing to do as this was the squirrel’s direction as well — and hit the break, very forcefully.

Well, the lady behind me, either because she was too close to my car, or either because she was not paying attention, got really scared, I think, and hence, very angrily honked at me with all her might. Well, that really bothered me, for not only I have the right to stop for an animal but also because I think it is my duty to do so.

I never did this before in my life, but this time I left the car to speak with the lady. Of course, stereotypes being what they are, I was not afraid she would have a gun in her possession and shoot me in traffic. I was right. I went to her while she opened the window and heard my words: “I prefer not to kill squirrels, that is why I stopped the car so abruptly. I apologize.” And turned and left. She waited until I was opening my car’s door to yell something at me, which, fortunately, I couldn’t hear.

See what I mean? She could have answered something when I was facing her, but again, preferred to use her aggression only after I couldn’t hear.
That situation created other bursts of anger from the few drivers behind us. Even if her behavior made me feel bad and even if the other drivers were mad at me, this time, I felt better, for I was taking a stand for a defenseless animal who doesn’t know better than to cross the road in front of my car. By the way, my son told me I hadn't kill the little creature, thank God.

Now, I have learned that, though we cannot control how others feel, we can try and control our feelings. The best way to do this is to immediately find something to make us feel better. Appreciating anything is the best bet and recollecting great memories is the second best.