The Global Conversation

Tag: old cultural story

  • Happily ever after?

    “I, Tina, take you, Tony, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.” 

    Couples around the world, thousands of them, on the threshold of entering into life partnerships with each other, commonly recite these traditional vows. And while there is nothing “wrong” with these particular words, or their meaning, I wonder how much thought or consideration is given to whether or not these declarations actually reflect the highest level of their commitment, the deepest expression of their love, and the clearest intent and very purpose for entering into the relationship to begin with.

    I don’t think I would be too far off the mark by making this perhaps bold statement: These same couples, thousands of them, have no idea why they are entering into their relationships to begin with, nor do they have any understanding of where they are going. The fallout is demonstrable and inarguable as we continue to witness growing numbers of painful divorces and separations – or, for that matter, perhaps even a larger number of people staying in relationships that either no longer serve them well or have become downright harmful. That is not to say that longevity is the sole indicator of the value or worthiness of a relationship.  We could probably all share an experience where in a fleeting relation with another we were provided us some of our most profound remembrances and realizations, demonstrating the idea that ALL relationships create a context within which we are given an opportunity to choose and decide Who We Really Are.

    However, as our world gently transitions out of its Old Cultural Story and into its New Cultural Story, we are given another opportunity, perhaps an even grander opportunity, the opportunity to redefine and recreate our relationships with each other not only on a global scale — politically, socially, and economically — but individually, within our most intimate relations and interactions. This shift holds within it the gift of change and the awareness to create. And the most beneficial place to begin is, quite frankly, at the beginning.

    This change is not always obvious or easy. We are constantly barraged with mind-numbing television programs which degrade the holiest of unions by exploiting brides who behave poorly or by aggrandizing extraordinarily decadent and over-the-top weddings or whom offer us the advice of “relationship experts” who tell us the way our relationships “should” be. As a result, for so many, more energy and thought is expended on the pomp and circumstance of the wedding event than is given to the actual commitment.

    People spend more money on multi-tiered designer wedding cakes than they are able to practically afford in order to please their guests, a large majority of whom they don’t even know. Women starve their bodies for weeks in an effort to fit into a wedding dress one size smaller than they naturally and comfortably fit into. We smash cake in each other’s faces, we pollute ourselves with so much alcohol that we can barely even remember what took place, and we, as I earlier mentioned, allow the very first words that we utter as an expression of Who We Are to be something we cut-and-pasted from Google.

    If we are going to change everything, and reconnect to the intended purpose for our relationships, where do we begin? What kind of an experience would a “ceremony of commitment” or a “declaration of unity” under The New Spirituality present itself as? What would a couple in love, being love, expressing love offer at the dawn of their relationship as a declaration and demonstration of a spiritual partnership that would exemplify the very reason they have chosen to unite in the first place?

    Conversations with God, Book 1, Chapter 8, offers to us the following:

    “If you both agree at a conscious level that the purpose of your relationship is to create an opportunity, not an obligation—an opportunity for growth, for full Self expression, for lifting your lives to their highest potential, for healing every false thought or small idea you ever had about you, and for ultimate reunion with God through the communion of your two souls—if you take that vow instead of the vows you’ve been taking—the relationship has begun on a very good note. It’s gotten off on the right foot. That’s a very good beginning.”

    What would you, from within the framework of your own understanding and your own experience, offer to someone who has come to you seeking a new definition and a new experience of “happily ever after”?

    (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • Yoga in schools: helpful or harmful?

    The parents of two California grade school students have sued to block the teaching of yoga classes in their children’s physical education class, complaining it promotes eastern religions.  The action was filed by The National Center for Law & Policy, an Escondido, California-based nonprofit “legal defense organization” focusing on “protection and promotion of religious freedom, the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, parental rights and other civil liberties.”

    NCLP attorney Dean R. Broyles filed the lawsuit against the Encinitas Union School District in San Diego County on behalf of plaintiffs Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock, claiming “The program is extremely divisive and has unfortunately led to the harassment, discrimination, bullying and segregation of children who, for good reasons, opt out of the program.”

    The integration of yoga into the physical education program has been highly effective in reducing hyperactivity and stress.  In schools around the nation who are implementing yoga into their health and wellness programs, they are seeing a marked decrease in the number of students who harm others and/or themselves and a reduction in aggressive behaviors which are commonly associated with violence and drug use.  The yoga classes, which incorporate breathing techniques to alleviate stress, promote relaxation, and increase body circulation, have been proven to increase students’ confidence and overall well-being.

    So with all these demonstrated obvious benefits, why would anyone resist such an advantageous program, one that has a proven track record in schools and communities around the world of noticeably enhancing lives in both a physical and emotional way?

    The complaint in this case is citing that the introduction of yoga in the school unlawfully promotes religious beliefs.  The lawsuit objects to eight-limbed tree posters they say are derived from Hindu beliefs, the “Namaste” greeting, and several of the yoga poses that they say represent the worship of Hindu deities.  The plaintiffs are not seeking monetary damages; they are asking for the removal of the program in its entirety from the school’s physical education program.

    In this particular situation, once again, deeply rooted fear-based religious beliefs (ironically, the very thing being protested against) are attempting to crowd out change, an example of inflexible belief systems clinging desperately and fearfully to an Old Cultural Story which embraces an idea that “THEIR way is THE way.”   Or it could be entirely possible that they have NO idea what “their” way even is and just simply believe that “another” way is arbitrarily wrong.

    But why do stories like this continue to exist where the fear that holds this Old Story together is so enmeshed in its antiquated concepts that it prevents those who hold it as true from being able to welcome change, even when such a change has been demonstrated to be beneficial and life-enhancing for so many people?

    Could it be possible that Old Cultural Stories continue to exist because the concepts held within them actually are best?

    If that is so, perhaps there is no place in schools for yoga, and our children should only move their bodies in largely approved and unmistakably pragmatic ways, such as doing jumping jacks or kicking a ball on the playground or, better yet, throwing balls at each other.  Perhaps unruly children who have not learned how to quiet their minds enough to sit in class and pay attention for any length of time should continue to be medicated with mind-numbing drugs and/or sent to the principal’s office repeatedly to be punished for “acting out” in class.  Perhaps children would be better off not knowing how to control their breathing and utilize it as a holistic tool with which to calm themselves in moments of anxiety or pressure.  Maybe, if we wait long enough, the dysfunctional system that we have in place will one day eventually demonstrate itself to be beneficial.  And in the meantime, we should just shelf all these crazy new alternatives that are currently available — and working — for our children.

    The way I see it, if we still did things in alignment with what they thought was “best” when I went to school years ago, our administrators today would be liberally spanking our children with a wooden paddle.  Fortunately, that belief system has changed.  And fortunately, for the students who attend the Encinitas Union School District, they have someone like Superintendent Timothy Baird who is standing behind the yoga program and will continue to offer it to their students because of its health benefits.

    What do you think?

    I say:  Bring on the yoga.

    (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation.  She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • Food fight!!!
    Are you ready to get your hands dirty?

    Joining the progressive movement of environmental stewards who are zealously embracing and actively stepping more fully into the concept of sustainable living, Jennifer and Jason Helvenston, Orlando, Florida, set an impressive goal of producing 75% of the food they consume on the property they own and live on.  And what a bountiful and lush edible oasis they have cultivated with their own two hands, a 25×25 foot vegetable garden in their front yard, brimming with succulent tomatoes, mouthwatering leafy greens, and a wide variety of other colorful and nutrient-dense produce.  Their garden has grown to be so plentiful and robust that they generously share it with neighbors and friends, educating passers-by with gardening techniques and sharing the gift of their wisdom and experience freely.

    Sounds wonderful, right?

    Not to everyone, unfortunately.

    This health-boosting, life-sustaining, crafted-with-love patch of vegetation, affectionately named the “Patriot Garden” by the Helvenstons, is on the chopping block by the City of Orlando officials for not being in compliance with the City’s code.  Fines of up to $500 a day will begin to accrue if the young couple does not uproot their garden and replace it with code-appropriate traditional grass.

    But these forward-thinking, earth-friendly homeowners are not going down without a fight.  “The greatest freedom you can give someone is the freedom to know they will not go hungry,” said Jason Helvenston. “Our Patriot Garden pays for all of its costs in healthy food and lifestyle while having the lowest possible carbon footprint. It supplies valuable food while being attractive. I really do not understand why there is even a discussion. They will take our house before they take our Patriot Garden.”

    It is alarming to me that in a day and age where the natural resources on our planet are being pilfered, the food we consume is laden with chemicals and preservatives, and, perhaps most unimaginable of all, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in our world who die every day because they do not have a morsel of food to put in their mouth, that we would consider placing more importance on maintaining outdated zoning codes or landscape uniformity/conformity than we do to the welfare of our planet and the well-being of all our brothers and sisters.

    We, as a society, are ignoring and destroying one of our most important relationships of all:  Our relationship with Mother Earth.

    At what point in time did it become more important to have a perfectly manicured lawn than to contribute to the vitality and sustainability of life as we know it?  What levels of indifference and negligence and abuse will we allow ourselves to sink to before the results of which will ultimately cause us to agree at least on some basic level that we have got some real work to do and some significant changes to make, both individually and collectively, locally and globally, if we want to continue to rely on our planet to support and sustain us in the way we have come to expect it to?

    With the legal muscle of the Institute for Justice Florida Chapter backing them, Jason and Jennifer Helvenston are launching “Plant a Seed, Change the Law,” a protest of Orlando’s law, which they say violates their constitutional right to peacefully use their property to grow their own food.

    And they just may be putting a dent in some of the City’s antiquated laws as some Orlando planners have proposed changes to the code.  Upon entering office several years ago, the city mayor himself, Buddy Dyer, launched Green Works Orlando with the goal of becoming one of most environmentally friendly cities in the country and established four community vegetable gardens around the city.  But City officials admit the code has fallen behind the rebirth of urban gardening.

    To see a photo of the Helvenston’s front-yard garden and to follow their Patriot Garden blog, click here.  If you would like to support the Helvenstons and their ability to continue to grow their own food, you can sign their petition to the City of Orlando here on the Change.org website.

    After all, this movement is not solely about supporting Jennifer and Jason’s rights to grow and consume their own produce; this is much, much bigger.  We are at a critical juncture at this time on our earth where we all are faced with a choice, an opportunity to decide what is truly important, what truly matters.  And as a natural outgrowth of that choice, if we desire to ensure that our world will continue to be an abundant and peaceful place for us and our children and their children and their children and their children to live and grow and thrive upon, we will do as the Helvenstons did – boldly declare that decision, stand up to the stagnant and rigid beliefs held within the pages of the Old Cultural Story,  and “get our hands dirty” by beginning to co-create the kind of world that we all desire and the kind of world which God intended for us to have.

    (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation.  She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team atwww.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • If I say “I love you,” will you say it back?

    Isn’t it heartwarming and wonderful to watch very young children, two-, three-, four-year-olds, who express and demonstrate their love so spontaneously and unreservedly?  It’s not unusual to hear the collective sound of a harmonious “awww” from observers on a playground witnessing two new young friends sharing in an impromptu hug or unforeseen kiss on the cheek. These children live in pure awareness.  Their love is unfiltered, not yet programmed, authentic, allowing them to exemplify the level and kind of love we all yearn for but have somehow forgotten how to experience.

    But why have we forgotten?

    At some point in our childhood, we are exposed to and told to believe in a different kind of love.  This different kind of love works swiftly to reprogram what we come here already knowing:  that we already ARE love.  This different kind of love then works tirelessly to convince us that if we “do this” or “be that” or “do things in a particular way,” we will finally earn and be rewarded the love of another.  Haven’t we all, at some point or another in our lives, yearned to hear the words “I love you”?

    But what do we really mean when we utter these three words to another with an underlying hope that we will, in turn, hear “I love you” back?   To say nothing of the paralyzing fear that the possibility exists that we may not be the recipient of another’s confirmation of love.  Would it be possible to be in a relationship where the knowing of one’s love was so palpable that the desire and need to hear this verbal affirmation would no longer present itself?

    Somewhere along the way, in an attempt to capture the essence of love in a way that makes sense, we boxed it into our language, as we do many of life’s esoteric ideas and concepts, and formulated our own version of love.  We have minimized, twisted, stretched, warped, contorted, and manipulated this small but powerful phrase — “I love you” — to the point that its meaning is almost spiritually unrecognizable.  We hinge or hasten our expression of love upon some need-driven expectation of what we may or may not receive in return.

    Imagine a world where we did not condition our love, or the expression of it, upon an assurance and acknowledgment that we will be loved back, a world where everyone demonstrates their love freely, openly, and unconditionally, where love was not bartered over or bargained for.  I have, on more than one occasion, found myself asking the question:  Are we even capable of experiencing unconditional love for a period of time beyond an occasional moment or two?

    And the answer I receive is that if we fully awakened to who we really are – all of us – we would never place another condition upon our love.  We would not need to prove love’s reciprocity because we would already know and feel its omnipresence.  Fear and doubt would never cause us to hesitate in expressing our deepest gratitude and affection to anyone, as we would no longer buy into a perceived need to self-protect; but rather we would each place into the world our highest intentions and actions, giving freely from the source of our own abundance, understanding that the entire purpose of our being here in the first place has very little, if anything, to do with ourselves…and everything to do with all those with whom we share our path.

    I once saw an interview with Tony Robbins, the well-known motivational speaker, where he was asked if he gets nervous before he walks out on a stage in front of thousands of people.  His answer was (paraphrasing):  “If I thought that going out on that stage had anything to do with me, I would be nervous, tongue-tied, struggling to find my words.  But going out there has nothing to do with me.  It is about those people in the audience.  I am here for them.”

    That, to me, is unconditional love, giving your gifts absent the necessity to receive anything particular in return, a choice and demonstration of your Highest Self which arises out of a deeper understanding of why you are here.   Unconditional love asks, “Who am I in the room to heal?  And how will I let them know I am here?”

    Perhaps as our world continues to shed its Old Cultural Story, the one which carries with it a “different kind of love,” we will collectively begin to once again behold the world as our playground, just as we did when we were children, spontaneously and unreservedly declaring and expressing, returning to Love and a remembrance of Who We Really Are.

    (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation.  She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com)

     

     

  • Are we bigger than our bodies?

    Pope Benedict XVI said, no, we are not in his annual Christmas message to the world, one of his most important speeches of the year, where he once again proclaimed that same-sex marriage is destroying “the essence of humanity.”

    “People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being,” he said at the Vatican. “They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.”

    He further went on to say, “When freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God.”

    Could it be, as Pope Benedict suggests, that life truly is a shallow existence of “what you get is what you get”?

    What would the Pope tell a child born a hermaphrodite, a condition in which someone is born with both female and male sex organs – a body given to him by God, by the way? Too bad? You deserve no one? Or perhaps the contrary: “Lucky you, you can have a relationship with whoever you want”?

    And what about the Pope himself who has been “defined” by God as a male, given a penis, and yet chooses not to fall in line with that “identity” and chooses not to express romantic love to a female and chooses not to enter into intimate relationships? According to his own definition, is he not “denying” his own “nature” that God intended for him to share in intimacy with a woman and to reproduce? Is he not participating in his own freedom and creativity in an effort to self-define who he is and what he believes about why he is here?

    Aren’t we ALL doing that very same thing?

    Why are we being told to feel bound to our physicality when it comes to S-E-X, but celebrated when we demonstrate our capacity for greatness beyond our bodies in other ways?

    My friend, Mark, whose body is partially paralyzed and riddled with unrelenting pain – again, the body given to him by God — climbed 108 floors of the Sears Tower in Chicago…and plans to do it again this year. I imagine it would be quite difficult to find anyone who would say Mark has “stripped himself of his dignity” by creating a new definition of himself that expanded far beyond his physicality.

    But again, I get it. We are talking about the unspeakable, the shameful, the only-talked-about-in-a-whisper topic of S-E-X.

    However, the Pope’s declaration of “Gay marriage, like abortion and euthanasia, is a threat to world peace” appears to be falling upon deaf ears as the Constitutional Court in largely Roman Catholic Spain upheld the law legalizing gay marriage last month, the British government announced it will introduce a bill next year legalizing gay marriage, and in France, President Francois Hollande has said he would enact his “Marriage for Everyone” plan within a year of taking office last May.

    These are the visionaries, the writers of our New Cultural Story, the mold-shatterers and rule-breakers who do not believe in a God that makes mistakes. They are not buying into the twisted idea that God would create something so extraordinary and then make it wrong.

    What these New Cultural Story global authors do believe in is Love. They do not believe same-sex marriage is destroying the essence of humanity, but rather that it IS the essence of humanity. They believe that love transcends everything and is denied to no one, that Love that has no rules and is certainly not reserved for only a select few to be experienced in a select way, and that the biggest continuing threat to world peace is not found, as Pope Benedict suggested, within the loving union of a same-sex partnership, but rather in a belief system that embraces and promotes a vengeful and judgmental God.

    (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team atwww.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • Are we a Godless society?

    We are not a Godless society–that would be impossible. God, as we call the source of which we come, is All, Everything.  Nothing would exist if there were not God/Source (whatever you call your personal belief system of our Creator).  Now, being given Free Will and CHOOSING to forget that we are complete Love because God/Source exists is quite another thing altogether.

    “If a madman wants to kill innocent people, he will find a way.

    Killers don’t need guns to kill people.

    Timothy McVeigh used fertilizer.

    9/11 terrorists used box cutters and planes.

    Nazis used cyanide gas.

    Taking guns from innocent people will not protect innocent people.

    The problem is NOT guns, it’s the Godless in a society.”

    This quote comes from Facebook.  I’ve noticed a number of people posting this since the massacre this last week.  What is surprising to me is a lot of people are acting as if this massacre is the surprise.  We have had so many senseless public murders that I’m losing track of them all.  I know you are, too.   Yet each time one happens, we pretend it’s the first time and are shocked it’s happened.

    We are not living in a world that is Godless, without God.  No, my friends, we are not.  It just appears that way because WE ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE FORGOTTEN WHO AND WHAT WE ARE.  Events like this are our opportunities to show ourselves who we really are.  This is where we get to show that we can love EVERYONE, including the shooter because we hold so much compassion in our hearts.

    God created us with a veil so that we have forgotten what we really are, LOVE AND LIGHT.  We are here experiencing our pure spirituality as humans.  We are not humans having an occasional spiritual experience.  No, it’s the opposite.  We are spiritual beings having a human experience; to feel what duality feels like.  Love/hate, clarity/confusion, black/white, etc.  Without this duality, we don’t know what we are.  If you don’t have a room with objects in it, you have nothing to show you what you are in relationship to anything.

    I know you’re thinking, crap, she’s off on her “love and light” and “God” baloney again.  But keep your mind open, because it’s things like this last week and the multiple other shootings and murders that we think are the problem.  The problem is us, our way of believing and thinking.

    We watch the news over and over and wonder why we feel so exhausted.  We build brick walls around our heart and create grievances against the shooter.  Grieve, for sure, but then what are you going to do about your feelings?  Are you going to volunteer to help the mentally ill?  Are you going to volunteer at schools so those who feel ostracized are given attention?  Are you going to keep your stories that people who are bullies should be bullied by you? Are you going to keep your stories that you don’t have time?  What about the story it’s someone else’s problem to solve for you?  Then you can create even more stories that those people are letting you down, too.  Do you choose to NOT hear the cries for help BEFORE it becomes a national crisis?  Do some soul searching and find out why you keep burying your head in the sand instead of stepping forward and doing something, anything.  Anything but complaining and creating more stories of why you can’t.  Why can’t you?  What is holding you back? I know who:  you.  You are holding YOU back from saving the world.  It takes all of us.  We all helped in this mess and we all need to stand up and do whatever it takes to make it better.

    We are sitting around waiting for our creator to come save us, yet we NEVER LISTEN to the messages that are giving to us continually on how to solve the plight WE CREATED for OURSELVES.

    We either don’t believe in God because of all the negativity we believe is around us or we lament that God is not saving us.  Well, you can’t be given free will and then say, “Nope, not this time, I don’t want free will, I want you to take care of me.  However, when I think it’s convenient, I want the free will back.”  This is just another way of humans creating some bizarre story around God so they can say God is letting them down.  We are nuts.

    Soon as you take that first breath of life, my dear ones, you got free will.  What you CHOOSE to do with that free will is how you either consciously or UN-consciously choose to live your life and show yourself and all others who you really, truly are.

    Are you one who thinks someone else should protect you and take care of you?  Are you the one who offers to assist others without a story attached?  Can you actually really truly do something for another and NOT SAY “except” this or that?

    No, we don’t live in a world that is Godless or where God doesn’t not listen to us. In fact, there are many beings who we are not aware of, other beings that are watching over us with much compassion, love and concern for us and our choices.  We can believe in the devil, but let’s not believe there are beings concerned with our well-being.  That would be totally absurd. Only our old cultural stories are true, there is nothing we are missing or don’t know.  Right.

    Where we are stuck is in our fear.  I read and hear all this talk of how the shooter should still be alive so we can torture that person even more than they were tortured living in their own mind while there were here on earth.  Where is the compassion for how horrible his life must have been?  And where is the compassion for all you who would hate someone in so much more pain than you?  Can you not reach inside and if you feel this much pain?  Imagine how another would hurt so deeply to do something so horrendous. Yes, this is the story that I’m telling myself because I feel so deeply in my heart that as horrific as this is, this is the spot where you, personally, begin your path to open up your heart instead of building a thicker wall from your fear.

    Can you honestly believe that God would not love this person who has done this terrible thing? Do you really think God would not have compassion knowing the complete story that we don’t know? Why do you suppose you believe you can build that armor around your heart and then believe you could possibly understand the reasons why this occurred?  How do you come to your conclusions you understand a loving Creator when you identify with your hate and anger so much?  How can you open you heart to feel God’s messages when you have this wall around your heart?

    Do you really think the hell this person was living here on earth should be punishable by even more hell from God?  No.  I think the God I desire would have so much love for this person because the source of our creation knows all and understands much more than we do, the whys of all this, that there is redemption.  Our Creator has total understanding, love and compassion for this person.  This person does not deserve more anguish, and neither do you.

    We are living behind a veil of forgetfulness of who we are.  And until you stop and face your fears and anger, you won’t be conscious enough to be choosing to love.  You’ll continue in your stories, justifications and grievances that you are right and everyone else who doesn’t say they believe like you are wrong.  The evil is your ego.  Let go of that ego.  Open up to the possibility that our cultural story is wrong.  What you believe and how you justify your negative beliefs isn’t really happening at all.  You are choosing hell on earth, my friends…you.

    This is not for us to lament God is not saving us.  This is not about gun laws.  This is about YOUR CHOICES.  You want a better world?  Stop bringing all these negative thoughts with their stories to us.  Change your words to positive outcomes.  Believe there is love, because once you start looking, it starts growing. . .

    I know these murders are horrific.  My heart just aches for us all.  But on the other hand, I see this as such an opportunity for us to open our hearts with love and change our story.  Change our story in such a way that it isn’t about just the families of the children or the families of the shooter, but to include the shooter and include you, too, for all the pain and walls around your heart.

    There will be many more senseless deaths in the years ahead unless we consciously change our story. . .and we can, person by person, sending love and light and prayers to all:

    Prayer by St. Francis of Assisi:

    Lord, Make me an instrument of they peace,

    Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

    Where there is injury; pardoned;

    Where there is doubt, faith;

    Where there is despair, hope;

    Where there is darkness, light;

    Where there is sadness, joy.

    O Divine Master, grant I may not so much seek

    To be consoled as to console,

    To be understood as to understand,

    To be loved as to love,

    For it is in giving that we receive,

    It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

    It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

    (Trisha lives in Tooele, Utah.  She is an avid reader, enjoys meditation and enjoys the walking on the desert trails in her area.  She writes several blogs. She gets a kick out of sharing what she is learning about why we are here and what and how we are creating together.)