Happy Mother's Day
May 2004
Welcome to the 19th issue of Messages from SpiritLight at Home offering monthly inspirational thoughts, insights into new, useful, fun, sometimes unusual and interesting ideas and some of my favorite links on the Internet.
A MESSAGE FROM DEIRDRE
Some might feel sad on Mother's Day because their mothers are no longer with them on the physical plane. Though we may be mothers ourselves and we are lucky enough to be with our children, we are happy and delighted. However, there is still that part of us which will continue to feel the loss. It does not matter how old we become. We are forever linked to our birthright and the many stages in our lives where our mothers are the only ones to whom we can relate and from whom we can learn. I expect to continu e to miss my mother's physical presence if I live to be 100. Although, I have to say that if I should be lucky enough to live that long, I could probably end up teaching her a thing or two because I would have had 36 more years of earthly experience on her. Then I'm thinking, "What an ego! Mum knows all now."
It's true! One summer (Mum had been gone quite some time by then), I was feeling glum and was in an ugly mood. I really did not know why. Eventually, I decided to get out in the garden thinking that pe rhaps throwing around some dirt might do me some good -- get out my frustrations a bit. So, I threw myself into the challenge. As I was pulling up a huge great weed that I had neglected all spring, it came out suddenly and dirt sprayed up into my face and over my head. The dirt hit my perspiration and immediately turned to mud. As I wiped my face making it even muddier from my dirt-caked hands, I swore out loud.
Suddenly, I heard my mother's lilting voice whispering in my ear, "Mary, Mary quite contrary. How does your garden grow?"
I stopped dead and actually turned around expecting to see her there. I surely do believe in life after death. I have been reading for others for years. But this time it was for me and it threw me for a loop. After I regained my composure, I began to howl with laughter. It was exactly what my mother would have said -- and the way she would have expressed it. From that moment on, my mood lifted and I had my proof that she was still with me. I spent the rest of the day chuckling to myself and having a grand time without a care in the world.
In retrospect, I guess there is a little inequity in this situation. I couldn't see her, but I could surely hear her! Now Mum can see what I am up to. This is what she had wanted to do her whole life and never could!
Once we leave this place we lovingly call Mother Earth, we graduate like children leaving home to get our advanced learning. How can we look at it any other way? Do we not face every challenge imaginable on this planet? How we get through and how much we learn from our lessons is dependent upon how we perceive them. Do we perceive them as threats? Do we retreat from them? Probably. Sometimes.
Conversely, those challenges we face head on with heads held high and chins out front are usually the times on which we looked back, knowing with certainty that we passed with flying colors. If you can remember how you felt after it was all over, can you agree that those were the times that you learned something very important and that the resolution of it provided you with the ability to move forward?
And so it is. The loss of our mothers is our life lesson to move forward, to become independent and blossom into the individuals we were meant to be. And when it is our time to graduate, we will meet again and be joyously taken back into the fold again. Only this time, we will have the "knowing" too. Our love will live on forever. And we can watch over our children in first row seats.
Light and Love to you All,
Deirdre
INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS:
Brought to you from various resources around the Globe. We embrace all religions at SpiritLight at Home and will endeavor to bring to you inspirational stories that can be applied to your own beliefs.
Shibli entered a profound mystical state and was placed in an asylum as a madman. As soon as they heard, his shocked disciples come to visit him.
Shibli asked, "Who are you?"
"We are some of those who love and follow you."
Shibli began throwing stones at his students. They began to run away, crying, "It's true. Shibli really has gone crazy."
Then Shibli called out to them, "Didn't I hear you say that you loved me? You could not even bear a stone or two before running away. What became of that sincere love you claimed you had for me? Did your love fly away with a couple of stones? If you had really loved me, you would have patiently endured the little bit of discomfort I caused you."
Shibli, From Essential Sufism. Essential Sufism by James Fadiman (Editor), Robert Frager (Editor), Huston Smith, Clifton Fadiman, Harper SanFrancisco; (November 17, 1999) http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/TeachingStories.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two traveling monks reached a river where they met a young woman. Wary of the current, she asked if they could carry her across. One of the monks hesitated, but the other quickly picked her up onto his shoulders, transported her across the water, and put her down on the other bank. She thanked him and departed.
As the monks continued on their way, the one was brooding and preoccupied. Unable to hold his silence, he spoke out. "Brother, our spiritual training teaches us to avoid any contact with women, but you picked that one up on your shoulders and carried her!"
"Brother," the second monk replied, "I set her down on the other side, while you are still carrying her."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zen Story
There was one great master, a Buddhist master, Nagarjuna. A thief came to him. The thief had fallen in love with the master because he had never seen such a beautiful person, such infinite grace. He asked Nagarjuna, "Is there some possibility of my growth also? But one thing I must make clear to you: I am a thief. And another thing: I cannot leave it, so please don't make it a condition. I will do whatsoever you say, but I cannot stop being a thief. That I have tried many times--it never works, so I have left the whole sport. I have accepted my destiny, that I am going to be a thief and remain a thief, so don't talk about it. From the very beginning let it be clear."
Nagarjuna said, "Why are you afraid? Who is going to talk about your being a thief?"
The thief said, "But whenever I go to a monk, to a religious priest, or to a religious saint, they always say, 'First stop stealing.'"
Nagarjuna laughed and said, "Then you must have gone to thieves; otherwise, why? Why should they be concerned? I am not concerned!"
The thief was very happy. He said, "Then it is okay. It seems that now I can become a disciple. You are the right master."
Nagarjuna accepted him and said, "Now you can go and do whatsoever you like. Only one condition has to be followed: be aware! Go, break into houses, enter, take things, steal; do whatsoever you like, that is of no concern to me, I am not a thief--but do it with full awareness."
The thief couldn't understand that he was falling into the trap. He said, "Then everything is okay. I will try."
After three weeks he came back and said, "You are tricky--because if I become aware, I cannot steal. If I steal, awareness disappears. I am in a fix."
Nagarjuna said, "No more talk about your being a thief and stealing. I am not concerned; I am not a thief. Now, you decide! If you want awareness, then you decide. If you don't want it, then too you decide."
The man said, "But now it is difficult. I have tasted it a little, and it is so beautiful--I will leave anything, whatsoever you say. Just the other night for the first time I was able to enter the palace of the king. I opened the treasure. I could have become the richest man in the world--but you were following me and I had to be aware. When I became aware, diamonds looked just like stones, ordinary stones. When I lost awareness, the treasure was there. And I waited and did this many times. I would become aware and I became like a buddha, and I could not even touch it because the whole thing looked foolish, stupid--just stones, what am I doing? Losing myself over stones? But then I would lose awareness; they would become again beautiful, the whole illusion. But finally I decided that they were not worth it."
From Awareness: The Key to Living In Balance by Osho, Griffin Trade Paperback; (December 2001). Amazon.com or http://www.osho.com/
NOT SO NEW PAGES
* Read all about the history of Reiki here: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/ReikiHistory.html
* Learn about energy healing here: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/EnergyHealing.html
* See pictures of our Reiki Studio here: http://spiritlightworks.photosite.com/SpiritLightWorks/
Continue to access the newsletter now directly on our site. Every month, the newsletter will be published at SpiritLight at Home and you can find this month's issue by clicking on: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/NewsletterMay.html
Each month, you can find it by typing in the appropriate month. For example: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/NewsletterMay.html and so on. The October, November, December/January, February, March and April issues are now active.
* Deirdre's Poetry: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/Poetry.html
* Our Service Page: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/ServicePage.html Free social resources.
DEIRDRE'S FAVORITE LINKS - just two today -- I'm taking the day off :-)
(Just favorites in my bookmarks - no profits made here. Any advertising (if any) is placed at the end of the newsletter.)
1. McAffee Stinger by Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT) - Free download virus scanner and cleaner for all the latest viruses. Network Associate Technologies, Inc. - Click here: http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger
2. Urban Legends - A comprehensive list of all urban legends. Check out those "true" stories you get over the internet. Click here: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blhoax.htm
HUMOR OF THE DAY
Out of the mouths of babes. (Thanks Deb and Happy Birthday!)
Children's Versions of History
The following excerpts are actual answers given on history tests and in Sunday school quizzes by children between 5th and 6th grade ages in Ohio. They were collected over a period of three years by two teachers. Read carefully for grammar, misplaced modifiers, and of course, spelling! Kids should rule the world, as it would be a laugh a minute for us adults and therefore no time to war or argue. If these don't make you laugh nothing will!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ancient Egypt was old. It was inhabited by gypsies and mummies who all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah Dessert. The climate Of the Sarah is such that all the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandos. He died before he ever reached Canada but the commandos made it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Solomon had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines. He was a actual hysterical figure as well as being in the bible. It sounds Like he was sort of busy too.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn't have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a young female moth.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Socrates was a famous old Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. He later died from an overdose of wedlock, which is apparently poisonous. After his death, his career suffered a Dramatic decline.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
In the first Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled biscuits, and threw the java. The games were messier then, than they show on TV now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Dying, he gasped out "Same to you, Brutus."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Joan of Arc was burnt to a steak and was canonized by Bernard Shaw for reasons I don't really understand. The English and French still have problems.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen," As a queen she was a success. When she exposed herself before her troops they all shouted "hurrah!" and that was the end of the fighting for a long while.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented removable type and the Bible. Another important invention was the circulation of blood.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented Cigarettes and started smoking.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100 foot clipper which was very dangerous to all his men.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespeare. He was born in the year 1564, supposedly on his birthday. He never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and hysterectomies, all in Islamic pentameter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Writing at the same time as Shakespeare was Miguel Cervantes. He Wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Since then no one ever found it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Delegates from the original 13 states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin discovered electricity by Rubbing two cats backward and also declared, "A horse divided against itself cannot stand." He was a naturalist for sure. Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's Mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got Shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. They believe the assassinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposingly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Johann Bach wrote a great many musical compositions and had a large number of children. In between he practiced on an old spinster which he kept up in his attic. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Bach was the most famous composer in the world and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf that he wrote loud music and became the father of rock and roll. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The nineteenth century was a time of a great many thoughts and inventions. People stopped reproducing by hand and started reproducing by machine. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick raper, which did the work of a hundred men.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbits, but I don't know why.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Darwin was a naturalist. He wrote the Organ of the Species. It was very long, people got upset about it, and had trials to see if it was really true. He sort of said God's days were not just 24 hours, but without watches who knew anyhow? I don't get it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Madman Curie discovered radio. She was the first woman to do what she did. Other women have become scientists since her but they didn't get to find radios because they were already taken.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Karl Marx was one of the Marx Brothers. The other three were in the movies. Karl made speeches and started revolutions. Someone in the family had to have a job, I guess.
SUBSCRIBERS' SITES
Many of our subscribers have fascinating web sites. Please let us know about yours so that we might mention it in this section. Write to: deirdre@spiritlighthome.com
Bless you all and have a great month. Happy Mother's Day and see you in June!
http://www.spiritlighthome.com
http://www.spiritlightworks.com
Please send this newsletter to a friend so they can sign up for our FREE newsletter too:
If you would like to donate to help defray costs of the newsletter, please click on the button below. If it does not load to a page that says, "SpiritLight" please click the button again.
Thank you.
Newsletter Archives
Or see the archive link on our Subscribe Page at: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/Subscribe.html
