A Trip to the Hospital

There are few things more unnerving than having your beloved in the hospital.  For me this always triggers fears--of loss, of carrying on with some additional burden, of having to change plans suddenly in an unhappy way, of not having enough resources.  A true test of faith in the goodness of the Universe.

Rick is home and is doing well now, and I won't share all the details, except to say that in a few weeks he will have to have a long (ten hours, I'm told) surgery to repair a previous hernia repair (this will be the seventh such surgery).  Let us hope that the power of seven means an excellent outcome and we won't have to endure this again.  Rick, as always, is cheerful, laughing, joking and busy reassuring me that he isn't leaving this planet just yet. 

I just want to share some photos taken on the two drives to Iowa City to the University of Iowa hospital (took Rick in on Friday, and picked him up on Sunday).

I thought this row of farm implements looked like ducklings.

Looking up from the ground floor

Can you find the photographer in this picture?

This looks like spot lights on an empty stage.

This blue glass bowl is just one of many beautiful works of art throughout the hospital.

The same bowl but I loved the slashes of light that look like knives.

Everywhere in the hospital are these great lines and bones of the building.  This is outside the main entrance.

More art work.  The lobby and main hallways look more like a big airport than a hospital.

Of course, there is more to life than health concerns. There are family and celebration and love and laughter.

Here are Grandpa Rick and Kyle enjoying fireworks on the 4th of July. I love the silhouettes.

Embracing the Woo-Woo: Spiritual Freedom

One of the things that has been on my mind lately is the idea of spiritual freedom.

And indeed it is this idea that led me to the concept of “embrace the woo-woo.”

It was triggered by a story I heard from a friend.  Wendy is a spiritual medium, and a very good one.  Her connection to Spirit is very pure and refined and her reading for me a few weeks ago has made a big difference in my own gifts.

Wendy was doing regular readings at a spa near her home.  She has known the owners for years and has been doing this for some time.  That is, until one of the patrons of the spa—an influential Christian pastor in an evangelical church—threatened to ruin the business if they didn’t rid themselves of this woman who was clearly doing the Devil’s work.  The owners caved and asked my friend to kindly stop her practice—which was the sole means of income for this single mother.

I was outraged.  First of all, this kind of ignorance of spirituality that does not follow an organized institutionalized form of religion as being “of the Devil” is a dangerous superstition directly out of the Dark Ages.  It is right up there with the idea that women are the source of original sin and are therefore evil and inferior. 

And second, no other practitioner of a “recognized” religion could be forced out of work based solely on their religious convictions.  It is clearly a case of discrimination.  And a virulent one at that.

The United States is supposed to be a nation of religious freedom—but it seems that it is only a nation of religious freedom for those who belong to organized religions like Christianity or Judaism.  Buddhism is recognized.  Native American religions had to fight for recognition not too many years ago.  Jainism and the Ba’hai faith are viewed with little suspicion.  Current prejudice against Moslems is at the very least protected under the law, but the prejudice against sole practitioners of direct experiential spirituality is rampant and tolerated.  In fact, New Agers, Wiccans, Druids, shamanic practitioners and others are often mocked, derided, and scorned.

Express a belief in reincarnation at the office, or admit to the checkout girl at the grocery store that you practice astrology, and you will be given the cold shoulder, subjected to eye-rolling and whispers behind hands to co-workers.  Freak.  Nut.  What, you believe in all that woo-woo stuff?

So, following the example of the homosexual community in the 1970s and 80s who embraced the derisive epithet “gay” and made it their banner, I openly declare that I now embrace the woo-woo. 

It is time for those of us in the New Age community (we could use a better term than New Age—a more inclusive term) to stand up for our spiritual freedom, and demand the same respect for our beliefs and our rights to dignity as anyone else.  I exhort all persons who follow a personal and direct spiritual relationship to the Divine to consider that they must begin to stand up for their rights.  (One friend called it coming out of the broom closet.)

Embrace the woo-woo!

(If you want to tell the world that you are in favor of personal spiritual freedom, T-shirts are available at this link:  http://woo-woo.propellshops.com).

About 2012 and the "End of the World"

 

These people who think that 2012 is the end of the world are clearly disconnected from any Spirit truth. It is (most likely) not the end of the world.  It is a pivot point that will mark a shift in human history. 

This idea that some folks have that they need to create a “colony” for survival is ludicrous.  If it is the end of the world, there is nowhere to hide.  If it is not, you have wasted a lot of fear, anxiety, money and energy to avoid something that is NOT going to happen. 

It is the end of the Mayan long-cycle calendar.  But nowhere does it say that the world will come to an end.  There is nothing in the long-cycle that proves the world “ended” 26,000 year ago!  There is no evidence whatsoever that supports the world has ended before.  Certainly the world has experienced shifts--the end of the last Ice Age, for instance.  But the world itself and the people and animals and plants and insects and other spirits who inhabit it continue on.  Life persists.

I’m a real psychic and I want to tell them they are all idiots.

Ask the Jehovah’s witnesses.  Ask the Heaven’s Gate.  Ask the other silly eschatological cults who wait obediently for the end, only to find that in the end, they have only their own power to make their lives mean something. 

I believe in the Grand Divine.  I believe that the Mayan calendar has significance.  I believe that after December of this year, my message will be better received.  Because we will have to acknowledge that we are stuck with making the world a better place on our own.  We are divine expressions of God.  And God knows what he is doing. 

And we can never, no matter how much of a prophet one thinks one is, know the ultimate truth.  We can know glimpses, but as Jesus admonished—Do not believe them, those who tell you salvation is in the mountains or in the desert.  Jesus gains more of my respect every day.  Jesus knew what he was talking about. Jesus eschewed anyone profiting from worship.  He overturned the money-changers tables in the Temple. 

I have no “survival site.”  My survival site is here, on Earth.  If it is the end, then let me be found doing what I am called by Spirit to do. Don’t people know how foolish it is to try to hide from God?  There is no survival shelter that will protect you if it is the end of the world.  There is no preparation one can make—if it is the judgment day—other than to offer up one’s life of caring, believing, being the best person one can be.   No gas mask, no volume of canned goods, no amount of guns or gold, will save you.

What did Jesus say?  About amassing treasure?   Your treasure is in Heaven (i.e., in Spirit).  Anything else will rust, rot, fade away.  I want to say, “Grow up!”  It matters not if you survive physically—what matters is who you are, what you believe, what good you do in the world.  Anything else is a waste of time, energy, and hope.

So, blessed be and bless the world as you go.