HAPPY OCTOBER!
October 2003
Welcome to the thirteenth 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.
" Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." - Dale Carnegie
A MESSAGE FROM DEIRDRE
Happy Fall! I hope that you all had a beautiful Columbus Day weekend. This issue comes very late. Some of you may not have even noticed, while others may have been waiting patiently. Whatever the situation is, I hope you will forgive me and want to thank you all for your dear patience.
While traveling to New Hampshire to celebrate our grandson’s third birthday this weekend, I noticed a sign that said, "Welcome to Peterborough – A nice place to live." I had passed that sign many times, and each time it had instilled the same feeling. It really made me sit up and take notice. It aroused my curiosity. "Why is Peterborough a nice place to live? What is there about it that is so appealing?" I always thought to myself. Yet, we had never taken the time to stop and wander around to see, because it was always on the way to our destination.
What is so extra-ordinary about this sign is that it makes an additional statement – A nice place to live. Not a great place to live – a nice place to live. Understatement. That’s what makes it real. Now, whether this was originally one person’s opinion, the local town council, or the whole town, it matters not. It makes you want to know why it is a nice place to live. And, it describes a "feeling."
For me, it conjured up pictures of apple pie steaming in a window, a nice little community church, people gathering on a winter’s night around a fire in a central meeting place, kids out in the snow building snowmen and ice skating on the nearby pond, neighbors walking down the street greeting each other because they know everyone who lives in Peterborough, and a county fair with toffee apples and candy floss.
This was what came to mind – a true sense of community. Yet, it is also brilliant advertising to those with a skewed sense of salesmanship. Ever the cockeyed optimist, it said to me, "Come hither." Is that what we all crave deep down inside? A real sense of community?
It occurred to me that this is what the tradition of Halloween has become in this country. Despite its dark and seemingly perverse sense of humor, this time of year brings some of that sense of community out in us. After all, who can resist a little child dressed up in that special costume with squeals of delight and "Trick or Treat" ringing in our ears at Halloween? This is a time when we have the chance to see the kids in the neighborhood – well not really "see" them, as their faces are usually covered – but this is the time when we realize how much they have grown since last year, or get to welcome the new wee ones into the neighborhood. We also enjoy a little fun with the parents, as they go door to door with their witches and goblins.
It got me thinking about when was the last time I had the chance to actively watch my community grow and thrive? It is often said that the things we write about are the things that we need to learn ourselves. So, I take this little message to heart. My community has missed me and I know that I have missed them.
Is your next door neighbor missing you? Do you know the kids three doors down? How about the retired couple around the corner, or the single mom up the road?
Funny, how a little sign can make you think! A simple statement – A nice place to live. Is your home in a nice place to live? If not, could you make it so?
Here’s to community.
Sending blessing to you all and wishes for a radiant fall. Enjoy your All Hallow’s Eve!
Light and love, as always
Deirdre
"In a sense, each of us is an island. In another sense, however, we are all one. For though islands appear separate, and may even be situated at great distances from one another, they are only extrusions of the same planet, Earth." – J. Donald Walters, American Author, Lecturer & Playwright
Halloween
is one of the oldest holidays with origins going back thousands
of years. It has had many influences from many cultures over the
centuries -- from the Celtic festival of Samhain to the Christian
holidays of All Saints and All Souls Days.
Upon morning,
they gave an ember from their fires to each family who then took
them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the
homes warm and free from evil spirits. However, on the eve of All Hallows, Oct. 31,
people continued to celebrate the festival of Samhain. Over the
years, the customs from these holidays began to mix. October 31st
became known as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow's Eve,
Hallowe'en, and then - Halloween. The Halloween we celebrate
today includes these influences. The Festival of Samhain's black
cats, magic, evil spirits and death, and the ghosts, skeletons
and skulls from All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day.
Source: http://www.holidays.net/halloween/
"Sometimes a neighbor whom we have disliked a lifetime for his arrogance and conceit lets fall a single commonplace remark that shows us another side, another man, really; a man uncertain, and puzzled, and in the dark like ourselves." – Willa Cather
NEW PAGES
Our new site SpiritLight Works is up and running. Please visit at: http://www.spiritlightworks.com
And speaking of new pages! It is my honor and pride to invite you to the Grand Opening of our new Reiki Studio on Sunday, October 26, 2003 from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. If you are local, please do come and have a glass of wine (or coffee and tea) to celebrate with us. Here’s the invitation: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/WorksInvite.html
If you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by!
"There is no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential to keep the question alive. To return the sense of dignity and honor to manhood, we have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that is trivial or destructive and still have sense of legitimate self-worth. A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls." - Sam Keen, American Philosopher, Author
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.
This is reprinted in whole from an article in The Center Post (an occasional journal of Rowe Camp and Conference Center http://www.rowecenter.org), Fall 2003 issue (reprinted by permission from Genesis Meditations: A Shared Practice of Peace for Jews, Christians and Muslims), which can be accessed at: http://www.genesismeditations.com/index.html.
The story Jews, Christians and Muslims Share by Neil Douglas-Klotz
The stories that a culture tells itself weave its destiny. Most of our stories come from headlines and two-minute television news spots, which seem to change from day to day but quickly blur into one another, numbing the senses.
Today there is greater yearning than ever to find a common ground of peace upon which Jews, Christians and Muslims can all stand, without violence and with compassion. Yet, most of the images that fill our television screens do little to cultivate this common ground. One murder or act of violence may be offset by one act of kindness or compassion, yet there would be no way of knowing it from the mass media.
There are many people working behind the headlines – in schools, churches, synagogues, and mosques – to help maintain the very practical realization that we are all much more alike than different. We breathe the same air, need the same water and food, and are vulnerable in the same ways.
It may seem the old religious stories and myths keep us apart, but the three religions share the most important story: the story of the creation of the world and the first human beings. Our early ancestors did not live with life divided into religion, psychology and politics; these stories provided their worldview, prayer, meditation, and ethical code all rolled into one.
It is the stories of our "beginnings" that hold the real power of spiritual devotion in all three Western traditions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This meditation on cosmic creation lies behind the awe and wonder of Christians at the rebirth of [the] Christ child each midwinter. It fuels the intense, heartfelt hope Jews experience each fall in the New Year celebrations of Rosh Hashanah. It roots the devotion of Muslims each year during the fast of Ramadan, preparing for the "night of power," when blessing flows freely, just as it did when Muhammad first received the Quran. These are all celebrations of hope, not fear, of love, not hate.
By experiencing the creation story as our own personal story, rather than as a description of what "really" happened, we could still have – as Jews, Christians, and Muslims – the same opportunity to recreate and renew ourselves as our ancestors did. By contrast, the stories that these three traditions tell of "endings," including the judgment of those who seem to be "other" at the end of time, are not shared. We seem to share a common origin, but not a common destiny.
Yet, the people who first told these creation stories did not distinguish past from future the way we do today. We know this from the way that the ancient forms of Hebrew, Aramaic (the native language of Jesus) and Arabic look at time. For them, the "beginnings" of creation continued into the present moment and would continue into an unbounded future. Likewise, the "ending" or "day of judgment" was not far off, but present now. For Jesus, who understood the old Hebrew creation story in Aramaic, every moment was judgment day.
Figuratively speaking, we could look at this view of time, so different from ours, in the following way: the front of the "caravan of creation," of which we are a part, set out before us and is still moving ahead of us, receding in the distance. We help create the future according to what we leave for those who come along behind us in the same, continually moving, caravan.
When these old Semitic stories were converted into a Western notion of time and space, they lent themselves to being taken as Western objective fact rather than as symbolic wisdom, as logos rather than mythos. Ends began to dominate beginnings. Apocalypse became more important than Creation. This newer version helped fuel the separation of humanity from nature and, ultimately, from the divine.
While a rich, symbolic tradition of interpreting the stories of beginnings remained the province of mystics in all traditions, the more rigid and literalistic interpretations fueled the separations between people. Down this road lay the development of fundamentalism in all the traditions, as well as the justification for colonialization and racism.
Fundamentalism as we know it tended to reserve the mythic energy of the stories for itself. Instead of the sense of a shared story, fundamentalism promoted the idea that each tradition was the "true" holder or inheritor of the Biblical or prophetic traditions of old. Secularism, which rejected any kind of spirituality, was stamped out of the same end-dominated mold as religious fundamentalism. The "ends" were simply displaced from spiritual rewards to material ones. Fast food on earth replaced pie in the sky.
We can change our way of looking at life. We can focus on what we share, rather than on what separates us. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all share "In the Beginning, God." They disagree at the level of "I believe" (that is, credos and theologies). In our discussions with each other – whether religious, cultural, or political – why not return to this shared beginning rather than emphasize the differences? The latter only reinforces the more egotistical side of human nature, against which the prophets of all the traditions speak.
It is the same choice that goes on within a family, a community, or a nation. Sixty years ago, on the eve of the Second World War, it would have been difficult to predict that the nations of Europe could put aside their differences and emphasize what united them in a shared European Community. One hundred and fifty years ago, on the eve of the American Civil War, it would have been difficult to predict the same thing for the various states of the United States.
Today it may be difficult to imagine a world in which every human being respects the sacred nature of creation and feels responsible for being part of an interlinked human community that shares its resources. In our earliest human awareness, when far fewer humans populated the planet, we grouped together for safety and out of a desire for companionship. We formed communities out of physical and emotional necessity: nature was stronger than any individual.
Today, after less than ten centuries of trying to dominate and control nature, we need to form a different sense of community, again out of physical and emotional necessity. Human individualism has become so strong that we have forgotten our link to nature and to other humans who are not of our tribe. The earth and its ability to support any human community have been seriously damaged. We expend enormous funds to make us more creative, psychologically healthy, and happy. Mostly these efforts focus on acquiring something outside ourselves rather than recovering what was ours in the beginning: a sense of creative purpose in life.
We are still at the beginning phase of our cultural therapy. What "feels right" to us – the centuries of looking at ends over beginnings, of goals over means – particularly in our spiritual and religious lives – may in fact be preventing us from living the compassionate, peaceful and just lives that all the great religious prophets advocated.
We need to look ahead, but not to a fixed future controlled by one monolithic or monocultural "new world order." We need to look ahead to an open, changing past, moving ahead of us – one of diversity, creativity, and inclusion. We need to hear – and begin to live – our creation stories again, as though for the first time."
"To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality." – John Locke (British Philosopher)
DEIRDRE'S FAVORITE LINKS
(Just favorites in my bookmarks - no profits made here. Any advertising (if any) is placed at the end of the newsletter.)
1. Inspiration Peak – Just one this month!
This Week's Inspirational Message from Ron Atchison of Inspiration Peak inspired my message to you, so I copied Ron's inspiration in whole so that you could be inspired also. It adds certain emphasis to the belief that words are definitely things. Thank you Ron!
"A couple of years ago there was a giant billboard in downtown San Francisco that I'll never forget. It was owned by the Yahoo Corporation and it had a marquee on it with big black letters that were changed every few days.
This particular day I just happened to glimpse up and see these words:
"YOU LOOK REALLY NICE TODAY."
Now, the reason I remember this is because, somehow, this silly billboard managed to bring a smile to my face. Even though, I recognized the 'corporate cleverness' at play I have to admit that the message made me 'feel' good.
The sign also made me realize how fragile our human egos are and how much we crave recognition and appreciation. Maybe this is because we don't always take the time to appreciate who we really are.
Today's poem by Rumi is a reminder to all of us that if we look a little deeper, past all those things that are temporary and superficial and past the fears and confusion that are part of being human, we are destined to find a very, very beautiful person. This is who we truly are. And this is the most important person we will ever meet.
Wishing you the moon and the stars!
Ron Atchison, Inspiration Peak http://www.inspirationpeak.com/
"The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains." – Ken Carey
HUMOR OF THE DAY
The minister of a city church enjoyed a drink now and then, but his passion was for peach brandy. One of the members of his congregation made him a special bottle each Christmas. One year, when the minister went to visit his friend, hoping for his usual Christmas present, he was not disappointed, but his friend told him that he had to thank him for the peach brandy from the pulpit the next Sunday.
In his haste to get the bottle, the minister hurriedly agreed and left. The next Sunday, the minister suddenly remembered that he had to make a public announcement that he was being supplied alcohol from a member of the church. That morning, his friend sat in the church with a grin on his face, waiting to see the minister's embarrassment.
The minister climbed into the pulpit and said, "Before we begin, I have an announcement. I would very much like to thank my friend, Joe, for his kind gift of peaches ... and for the spirit in which they were given!"
Clever man!
"I’m an aspiring poet, this inspires me." - Nazareno V. Grech
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
"It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed." – Albert Einstein
Bless you and have a great month. See you in November!
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