Dear God/ess, The other day, I walked Ulysses to a popular downtown spot where there is always a water dish for the dogs who pass by. A woman was there, obviously a Lover Of Dogs. I told the Story Of Ulysses, as I do often, because I am gratified that he chose to spend a few more seasons in my adoring company. Our friend Jo-an recently passed due to a ravaging cancer, and for some reason, Ulysses did not die from his own ravaging cancer this past winter. So I tell Ulysses’ story, in order to give hope to people who love their animals.
This woman told me a story about her own dog who passed after 8 short years. She could not figure out why because she fed him only organic foods which she cooked herself every day.
The she realized the sad fact: She “treated” her lawn with chemicals to kill all the weeds, mainly the Beautiful Dandelion.
These chemicals could be killing her, as well. And her grandchildren.
This is not the first time I thought about this problem of chemical lawn treatment. It feels idiotic to me to decry the dangers in our environment when if every single person stopped treating their lawn, we would be much further along in saving Mother Earth than we currently are.
When we bought our beautiful farm 21 years ago, we were told that absolutely no chemicals had been used on the land for at least 10 years. So for at least 30 years, our land is rich in its own natural life force, undeterred by the stranglehold of “better living through chemicals.”
I would love to start a movement to stop the abusive practice of so-called Lawn Care. Dandelions are a powerful spring tonic and the flowers are rich in natural anti-oxidants. Even though I don’t drink alcohol, Dandelion wine is really an all around natural cure for whatever ails you, except, of course, for alcoholism.
Lawn care, after all, is an all out war waged against the beautiful Dandelion.
How crazy is that?
Let us pray for some Common Sense to the way we care for the animals, our children and ourselves as we live out the rest of our lives here on the Mother we call Earth.
Dear God/ess, As I continued to contemplate the passing of our friend today, the Reverend Jo-an Glasse, I realized that Joan Adams and I had Jo-an on our radio show 9/28/10. Soon after, Joan decided to leave the show the beginning of 2011.
The topic of that show was “Death, Dying and Rebirth.” I had not taken the time to hear that show again– until today.
The replay of that show is at the top of today’s post.
The first thing that caught me by surprise was Jo-an’s larger than life laugh. Then I was taken by the expanded nature of the conversation.
I know that the subject matter of that show laid down the brick and mortar for the days and weeks ahead, as Jo-an suddenly fell ill and faced her own mortality.
Jo-an helps me face my own mortality, as I listen to her words.
Joan Adams wrote to me today after hearing the show again, and was blown away, as well. That show perfectly describes our philosophy of what it means to live, grow and flow into the opening at the close of our lives.
Another eye opening revelation came today when I realized that Jo-an’s voice was not recorded widely, if at all. Naturally, those who were married by her or had a funeral done by her may have video-ed those occasions, but they are in private hands.
So this radio show is possibly the only public interview we have of Jo-an. I was divinely guided to have her on the show. Blog Talk Radio did the rest.
Dear God/ess, Our dear friend Reverend Jo-an died early this morning at 0406. Ever since hearing the news, I’ve given up trying to function in the normal way people go about their days.
It has been a growth process for all of us who love her. And there are truly a great number of us who do.
Jo-an loved this Prayer Blog. She had her partner Sheila, Astrology’s Astrologer, read the prayers to her every day, after she got sick. Before that, she’d mull over them and discuss them with me, and I knew she appreciated them.
Jo-an was my mother’s best friend, and I kept feeling Mom’s presence around these last few weeks. This was my sign that Jo-an was readying herself for the passageway in uncharted territory.
This is the passageway that all of us will make.
Jo-an is a mystical soul. She felt and knew a great deal more than she wanted to tell. Her bottomless brown eyes told the rest of the story.
I went with Jo-an when she gave one of her last weddings, in the spring of this year. She managed to perform the wedding with much bravado, befitting the Leo Performer that she was. In fact, she just turned 87 years on July 23.
Jo-an was a feminist in life and now too, as I feel her magnificent presence. She loves her daughters and her female friends. She also loved Tomaso, whose male/ female qualities are well integrated into the Renaissance Human whom he is.
A feeling of emptiness widens in our hearts at times such as these. We fill the emptiness with nothing but love. Jo-an was saying the last few weeks of her life that the Love she was feeling was Huge and Uncontainable.
So we allow the emptiness we feel to be exactly as it is, and we allow it to expand into the Universal Void. As we do so, it transforms into something else. It joins with the wind and the rain and the aurora, the Owl and the Oak as the leaves prepare to make their seasonal change.
We rest awhile in our joy and we remember the grief which really is joy’s shadow side. We cry real tears.
We know that life is short, and we will not be far behind.
Dear God/ess, One of the wonderful things I have learned by writing prayers, and this lesson came to me spontaneously and automatically, is that I don’t need to know or have proof of why things happen, like illness, pain or crisis.
Yes, it is human nature to need proof and even statistics for the events and experiences of our lives. And when challenges arise, we all tend to want to find reasons that point to something we did or did not do to make “it” happen. People might think if they “Come To Jesus,” for instance, nothing “bad” will ever happen again. And when it does, God/ess is secretly held up as the Power that let them down.
“God is a Creator, not a custodian,” someone recently told me.
Real healing seldom occurs if we try and reason our way out of a crisis, an illness or a death.
Real healing only happens when we give up the need to know WHY, the ultimate addiction of human-kind.
Surrender to What Is. Surrender to the Universal Intelligence. Surrender to God/ess.
The act of surrendering is not a rational process, but is a mystical and radical transformation. The Leap Of Faith comes to mind, because leaping into the unknown defies our rational mind. We must develop blind courage to undergo such an adventure.
Releasing the need to know immediately brings a cheerful light into our collective heart. It also brings us immediately to this wonderful moment, the only moment there is. In this releasing and letting go, old wounds, resentments and the need to play victim vanish.
Dear God/ess, Old Baxter, friend of Mukunda, who just turned 13 last week, slipped his tether up on the hill and ran for freedom to the river.
Tom woke me up to tell me to bring a lead for Ulysses, who was the one who found Baxter stuck in the mud in the cold water. Then Ulysses picked a fight with him. From Hero to Buffoon in the space of five minute’s time.
I took muddy Uly into the house, prepared some Miracle Drops for Baxter, and went to help Tom hoist the dog up the river embankment to safety.
To the God/ess of Ulysses and Baxter and all the dogs of this world, hear this: we humans are willing to crawl around in the mud to save your lives. And even though Ulysses wanted to pick a fight with you, dear Baxter, in reality he’s the one who saved your life.
Earlier, Tom and G were going to go swimming at the Y, but G called at the last minute and canceled. Did G save your life, dear Baxter?
In reality, a whole orchestration of helpers synchronized to save your precious life.
When Mukunda was in his prime, he’d go visit Baxter on the hill sometimes three times a day. Once in a while, Muki ate Baxter’s food, but mostly he went for the comradery. Then when Ulysses joined our family, Muki and Uly went up to visit Baxter together.
One Easter, Ulysses stole an Easter Bunny toy from Baxter. Six weeks later, Baxter broke his tether and came down to our house looking for his toy. When I saw him running up the lane with bunny in mouth, looking over his shoulder to see if Ulysses was following, I immediately called his mistress.
I said, “Your dog is brilliant! He remembered where his toy bunny was for weeks and when he got away, came down to our house looking for it.
“Never underestimate the memory of a dog for his toy.”
Dear God/ess, On this beautiful Thanksgiving Day, we look back over the year and give thanks for all of our answered prayers. We give thanks for the unanswered prayers, too.
Where were we one year ago? For all of us prayerfully reading Prayer To Heal and commented, you can track your odyssey by looking back over your comments, here.
Read your journals. A journal is a reflection of your unique journey through this lifetime.
This day is the beginning of a season of joyful communion and also is a time to pull inwardly as we track where we’ve been and now envision the next leg of our destiny. The nights grow longer and we can use this “time” to contemplate the moments which expand to encompass all of eternity. The short days and ever lengthening nights are now ours for the creation of inner resilience and courage. These moments in time last until the Solstice when the days grow longer, again. What a miracle!
Use this time for your solitude. Resist the distractions of materialism, and empty yourself of all anticipation of future events.
‘Tis the season to fill yourself with tranquillity by the simple act of prayer and meditation. In these moments, as you expand into the quiet times, you come to know the true meaning of Grace, not by reading about it, not by discussing it, but by experiencing it.
This season IS an exercise in Grace and the quiet contemplation of the Love we have in the here and now.
Dear God/ess, Julia Rogers Hammrick is on our radio show this week, 11/23/2010 at 6 PM/EST. Joan and I have had her on the show before and she is an absolute delight!
Her book, “Choosing Easy World” was published this year and we will be discussing and experiencing the concepts in her book. Julia will teach us how to consciously choose Easy World over the mindset of resistance, struggle and strife. I think Julia would agree that we aspire to Easy World right here on the Pray To Heal Blog, and everyday, we manage to sustain it.
In the process of fixing up this Pray To Heal Blog, which is an exercise in reflection, contemplation and naturally, prayer, I came to the realization that taken as a whole, what is contained here is a stand alone spiritual practice. Each entry is a jewel placed in the heart of all human kind, as well as the trees, beasts and stones.
Yet isn’t that what our kindred souls here on the Internet and elsewhere are all successfully achieving? We reach out to all souls everywhere and encourage a letting go of all that has gone before.
That leaves all of us right here in the Present Moment, the only true reality and preferred place to be.
We are exactly where we are supposed to be. This is exactly what the word and celebration of “Thanksgiving” is all about. We gather together with family and friends and experience the true meaning of communing: communing with Self, with spirit, and the preciousness of those who are with us today.
We cherish the moment and surrender as we move on to the next breath, the next step, the next Holy Peace of the season.
Dear God/ess, Please pray for Ulysses. This evening (last evening by the time you read this), I took him to my favorite Vet of all time, Frank Abel, who found a tumor near his Penis that Frank had never seen before in all his years of practicing as a Veterinarian.
I want you all to send healing prayers to Ulysses, as we do our own praying, healing and meditation for him, and also for ourselves.
There is something reassuring to me that Frank Abel never saw a tumor like this before. Perhaps it’s a blood collection that gathered after Ulysses’ strenuous dog fight the other day 11/11/10, or the mile long swim he insisted on taking that very day in cold Conestoga River water.
Ulysses is back to eating and drinking water again. He also is urinating. I am not convinced he is ready to go, although if he is, I will let him go. These animals have a life of their own. Yes, Ulysses is a Zen Master, and yes, he loves us dearly.
But get him near a body of water or another dog and pure instinct takes over.
The Mechano-Magic is working to help bring peace to Ulysses tonight. The prayerful touch up and down his spine seems to be exactly what he wants and needs. The pure and simple act of doing the Mechano-Magic has released the feeling I had earlier after initially hearing the news and feeling Frank Abel’s concern over Uly’s state of health.
The Mechano-Magic healed my mother of Lymphoma many years ago. If this is Lymphoma, I will draw the energy of my mother to Ulysses and ask for her help and her healing.
Dear Godess, To those of you who know me well, by now you realize one of my greatest passions is Universal Health Care For All, a delivery system that works with out Health Insurance Corporations.
Because President Obama did not exclude the Health Insurance Companies from his Health Care Reform Plan, we cannot call what we have in this country health care reform. Health Insurance Corporations are still denying claims and causing tragedy all over America.
My nursing colleague, for instance, has her husband on the health insurance plan through the hospital where we work. He recently had a $30,000.00 orthopedic surgery with resultant complications which the Insurance Company is refusing to pay. The reason? He is a self-employed Dairy Farmer and he injured himself while caring for his magnificent Jersey Cows. (Aren’t they pretty?)
My friends are just about to become another statistic of the more than 67% of Americans who declare bankruptcy due to an inability to pay for exorbitant health care costs.
Here is my 5 pronged plan to help my friend: 1) Schedule a fund raiser 2) create publicity for the fundraiser and the problem in the context of the fundraiser 3) my friend contacts her State Rep 4) We find a lawyer among our progressive Single Payer friends and ask her/him to write a letter to the Insurance Company 5) alert the Docs who did not bother to find out what my friend’s insurance covers and does not cover.
This is my belief: It is the health care provider’s responsibility to prevent catastrophe in the form of medical bankruptcy, which by the way, is strictly an American phenomenon. Doctors et al need to become better informed about what is covered and help to get coverage when needed.
Wendell Potter, former Cigna CEO and author of the newly published book “Deadly Spin,” was in Philadelphia last night and we took the trek in rush hour traffic to see him. He told his story of his “Road To Damascus” that aha moment when he saw first hand the suffering of the uninsured at a free clinic set up in rural Tennessee. Hundreds of people were lined up for hours, waiting to see a doctor or Nurse practitioner or Physician’s Assistant. Some were undoubtedly turned away at the end of the day.
Wendell took responsibility for the suffering because of the role he played at Cigna, and had to leave the job to free his conscience.
Wendell told the audience to “Speak Your Truth.”
“Do the right thing.”
And Wendell Potter also reads this Pray To Heal Blog, something I did not know until he told me last night!
James Douglass, author of “JFK And The Unspeakable” was on Moon, Moo & You: The Collective Wisdom twice.
Here is the first interview, done 7/3/2010.
This was not an easy interview, because both Joan and I have different approaches to who killed President Kennedy. But we both agree–it wasn’t who the Warren Commission says it is.
