Check out these guys doing a funny and inclusive (almost) take on the music of the season! These guys are awesome!
Enjoy!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The Joy of God Expressing
I started this blog for purely selfish reasons. I wanted to create more joy in my life. I know that wherever my intention and attention intersect the result will be creation.
It is true that my capacity to tolerate joy has risen. Way Cool! This blog has also served to help me to better stay in touch with family and friends. That has brought me tremendous joy. Sophia seems to be good for my traffic!
My hope was that in blogging about my own exploration others would find themselves thinking about joy more often and hopefully experiencing it more often as well. I have no clue weather that is happening. I don't really know if there's anybody out there reading...Pink Floyd is running through my brain...post a comment now and again if you're out there...
One thing is for sure, this blog has heightened my awareness for things that bring me joy or make me think about how I can better serve our world. And it has given me a place to share what I am finding...
Today I want to share a video that is making its rounds around the internet and on You Tube. It's five minutes. I will share my thoughts about it below, and hope you'll watch it first.
I sat entranced watching these two graceful dancers. Their bodies looked absolutely gorgeous to me. Healthy, toned, strong. Their creative expression moved me to tears. Maybe that happened for you too.
As I reflected on my tears and my feelings I noticed I was feeling such pride and love for these people who had overcome what would seem like an obvious impediment to this level of dance expression. At the age of 13 I had allowed some off-hand comments made to me about how "real dancers" have long legs derail my passion for dance. Knowing I did not have long legs and being young and impressionable, I tossed my dancing dream and my weekly lessons aside. How about having TWO legs!
So many of us have given up on our dreams because they seemed impractical and/or unrealistic. We all get to be healed just a little bit by watching something like this where the idea of limits is shattered before our eyes. And maybe we are given another chance to dust off our old dreams and breathe life into them once more.
I had a second response, one that brought more tears than the first. This response was the realization that not all that long ago, people like these two brilliant dancers would have been considered society's throwaways. They would have been deemed useless or a burden. They may have been left to die at birth or abandoned at an institution. What struck me was how brilliantly their Essence was radiating out from them as I watched. That radiance is God on Earth.
I began to think about all of the other people society often chooses to call "throwaways." The poor, the uneducated, ethnic people, gays and lesbians, people of differing faiths or world views, people with mental health issues, or severe physical challenges, those who commit crimes, welfare moms, basically anyone "not like us." Many of these people are considered the world's expendables. We kill them in war, we execute them or lock them up like animals in our "justice" system or our "institutions," we steal their resources, killing their children or dooming them and their way of life to slow death.
And just look at what can happen when the Light of God that exists in every human being is nurtured and allowed to shine despite outward appearances, despite differences. Just how much beauty, love, GOD, are we missing because we see only something useless or offensive that needs to be thrown out.
I see a day when every man, woman, and child on earth is seen for what they are in their truest nature - an expression of the Divine. I see a day when we take up our responsibility with great joy and fervor to unleash our own Divine Expression to its full magnificence and create cultures, systems, structures, and environments that are designed to support this unleashing in every person, for every child.
Some people would say this is ridiculously naive. They would point to people like Hitler and say where is there God in him. My answer is that Hitler's aren't born, they are made. WE make them.
God is born anew in every child. Just look at a newborn and tell me it's not so. Whether that child grows up knowing and embracing its magnificence, whether it is told it is the worm-ridden dust, or told it is useless, or just a simple cog in the great machinery of society and should resign itself to taking its place, is completely up to US. To each one of us.
Not just the child's parents, family, teachers, religious and political leaders. These children are all around us. They are aged 0 to 103. They dwell in each of us, now. And they hear us. In every word and deed we either affirm those around us are Divine Expressions of God or we deny it. We either feed the flame of Spirit or throw water on it.
Can you see your own fire of God burning inside you? Can you help others to see it in themselves?
Will you call out to the Light in you to come forth and shine? Will you have the courage to say yes to it and give it free reign over your life? Will join me in every word and deed urging others to see and embrace the magnificence inside them? Yes, with practice it can be done. We can and we must! There are dances to be danced, songs to be sung, love to be shared, God to be expressed...and what a world it will be! Can you see it?
It is true that my capacity to tolerate joy has risen. Way Cool! This blog has also served to help me to better stay in touch with family and friends. That has brought me tremendous joy. Sophia seems to be good for my traffic!
My hope was that in blogging about my own exploration others would find themselves thinking about joy more often and hopefully experiencing it more often as well. I have no clue weather that is happening. I don't really know if there's anybody out there reading...Pink Floyd is running through my brain...post a comment now and again if you're out there...
One thing is for sure, this blog has heightened my awareness for things that bring me joy or make me think about how I can better serve our world. And it has given me a place to share what I am finding...
Today I want to share a video that is making its rounds around the internet and on You Tube. It's five minutes. I will share my thoughts about it below, and hope you'll watch it first.
I sat entranced watching these two graceful dancers. Their bodies looked absolutely gorgeous to me. Healthy, toned, strong. Their creative expression moved me to tears. Maybe that happened for you too.
As I reflected on my tears and my feelings I noticed I was feeling such pride and love for these people who had overcome what would seem like an obvious impediment to this level of dance expression. At the age of 13 I had allowed some off-hand comments made to me about how "real dancers" have long legs derail my passion for dance. Knowing I did not have long legs and being young and impressionable, I tossed my dancing dream and my weekly lessons aside. How about having TWO legs!
So many of us have given up on our dreams because they seemed impractical and/or unrealistic. We all get to be healed just a little bit by watching something like this where the idea of limits is shattered before our eyes. And maybe we are given another chance to dust off our old dreams and breathe life into them once more.
I had a second response, one that brought more tears than the first. This response was the realization that not all that long ago, people like these two brilliant dancers would have been considered society's throwaways. They would have been deemed useless or a burden. They may have been left to die at birth or abandoned at an institution. What struck me was how brilliantly their Essence was radiating out from them as I watched. That radiance is God on Earth.
I began to think about all of the other people society often chooses to call "throwaways." The poor, the uneducated, ethnic people, gays and lesbians, people of differing faiths or world views, people with mental health issues, or severe physical challenges, those who commit crimes, welfare moms, basically anyone "not like us." Many of these people are considered the world's expendables. We kill them in war, we execute them or lock them up like animals in our "justice" system or our "institutions," we steal their resources, killing their children or dooming them and their way of life to slow death.
And just look at what can happen when the Light of God that exists in every human being is nurtured and allowed to shine despite outward appearances, despite differences. Just how much beauty, love, GOD, are we missing because we see only something useless or offensive that needs to be thrown out.
I see a day when every man, woman, and child on earth is seen for what they are in their truest nature - an expression of the Divine. I see a day when we take up our responsibility with great joy and fervor to unleash our own Divine Expression to its full magnificence and create cultures, systems, structures, and environments that are designed to support this unleashing in every person, for every child.
Some people would say this is ridiculously naive. They would point to people like Hitler and say where is there God in him. My answer is that Hitler's aren't born, they are made. WE make them.
God is born anew in every child. Just look at a newborn and tell me it's not so. Whether that child grows up knowing and embracing its magnificence, whether it is told it is the worm-ridden dust, or told it is useless, or just a simple cog in the great machinery of society and should resign itself to taking its place, is completely up to US. To each one of us.
Not just the child's parents, family, teachers, religious and political leaders. These children are all around us. They are aged 0 to 103. They dwell in each of us, now. And they hear us. In every word and deed we either affirm those around us are Divine Expressions of God or we deny it. We either feed the flame of Spirit or throw water on it.
Can you see your own fire of God burning inside you? Can you help others to see it in themselves?
Will you call out to the Light in you to come forth and shine? Will you have the courage to say yes to it and give it free reign over your life? Will join me in every word and deed urging others to see and embrace the magnificence inside them? Yes, with practice it can be done. We can and we must! There are dances to be danced, songs to be sung, love to be shared, God to be expressed...and what a world it will be! Can you see it?
Monday, December 10, 2007
Joy & Gratitude
Is it just me or does life seem to be accelerating to others as well? Today is December 10th! Where has this year gone? Now, I know that happens more and more as we age, but really, how can it be the end of 2007 already?
It was February 10th of this year that we arrived in Overland Park, Kansas with a tiny U-haul trailer filled mostly with clothes and toys. We did have a mattress, but not yet a box spring. Neither Toby nor I had work, although I had a budding business with great potential. Sophie was enrolled in a Montessori and we had an apartment and the love and warmth from our friends at our church that would grow into a loving spiritual community for us. We had the loving prayers and well wishes from people scattered across the country. And of course we had each other.
The apartment is just about completely furnished now (our new couch arrives on the 17th) and with a few more finishing touches such as paint and curtains about to happen it will be as beautiful a home as ever we have had.
Toby has a job he loves just 15 minutes away. He comes home at lunch to jog on the wooded trail that runs in front of our door. Sophie has transfered to a more traditional Montessori only 5 minutes from home, loves her teachers and is making friends. And my business has taken off beyond my dreams!
I guess even though it feels like the year has flown by, we have accomplished a lot. But the list above isn't what I am talking about.
This year, my beloved husband and I have lived through some very difficult times. Major shifts and transitions can be hard on a couple, especially when health issues complicate matters. Yet the fires we have walked through have not burned us. Rather they have strengthened us. They have melted away the dross while leaving the core of us more pure and true than ever. We have both embraced deep soul learning in the every day and in books, retreats, nature and more. We have moved ever closer to living in and from the Essence of our Being.
We have re-committed to ourselves and our relationship at a deeper level. We have grown as parents and as people. We have found ways to bless our world and we have been blessed by it - as it must be.
There can be no other response to this than great joy and gratitude. "Pinch me, I must be dreaming!" No, I am awake. I AM Awake.
Love and gratitude to all of you who have supported us so lovingly on our journey.
It was February 10th of this year that we arrived in Overland Park, Kansas with a tiny U-haul trailer filled mostly with clothes and toys. We did have a mattress, but not yet a box spring. Neither Toby nor I had work, although I had a budding business with great potential. Sophie was enrolled in a Montessori and we had an apartment and the love and warmth from our friends at our church that would grow into a loving spiritual community for us. We had the loving prayers and well wishes from people scattered across the country. And of course we had each other.
The apartment is just about completely furnished now (our new couch arrives on the 17th) and with a few more finishing touches such as paint and curtains about to happen it will be as beautiful a home as ever we have had.
Toby has a job he loves just 15 minutes away. He comes home at lunch to jog on the wooded trail that runs in front of our door. Sophie has transfered to a more traditional Montessori only 5 minutes from home, loves her teachers and is making friends. And my business has taken off beyond my dreams!
I guess even though it feels like the year has flown by, we have accomplished a lot. But the list above isn't what I am talking about.
This year, my beloved husband and I have lived through some very difficult times. Major shifts and transitions can be hard on a couple, especially when health issues complicate matters. Yet the fires we have walked through have not burned us. Rather they have strengthened us. They have melted away the dross while leaving the core of us more pure and true than ever. We have both embraced deep soul learning in the every day and in books, retreats, nature and more. We have moved ever closer to living in and from the Essence of our Being.
We have re-committed to ourselves and our relationship at a deeper level. We have grown as parents and as people. We have found ways to bless our world and we have been blessed by it - as it must be.
There can be no other response to this than great joy and gratitude. "Pinch me, I must be dreaming!" No, I am awake. I AM Awake.
Love and gratitude to all of you who have supported us so lovingly on our journey.
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