Kate Loving Shenk

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.

Om Peace Amen

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Kate Loving And The Collective Wisdom
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Dear God/ess, Today we met an old friend of Tomaso’s and we had a refreshingly honest talk about our lives, especially the lives of this person and Tomaso and what they went through together over the years, especially 35 odd years ago.

The conversation reminded me of the old conscious raising days of the 1970′s: No idle gossip, just an honest assessment of where we used to be and how far we have come, as well as how far we still have to go, in a process of never arriving, simply enjoying wherever we happen to be.

I am also noticing more and more people around me being 60 something and older, sitting face to face with one another, trying to figure out their lives in relationship with each other and all the other relationships in their lives.

You don’t have to die in order to be reborn. We are always in a process of being and doing, of relaxing and producing, of ebbing and flowing.

There is no end in sight.

The day begins, and then it ends.

The dark night of the soul need not last forevermore. We need not hold on to the doubts we have always had about our lives.

Yes, we look back over a long life well lived. And yes we can learn to love all of it no matter what we’ve done or not done. We can change from a miser to a person who experiences new birth and a Life Of Love.

We can learn to lift up the sadness of the world through the eyes of compassion.

There for the grace of God/ess go I.

Om Peace Amen

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Kate Loving And The Collective Wisdom
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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.

Om Peace Amen

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Dear God/ess, What is the process of Letting Go/Letting God physically, mentally and emotionally?

Complete surrender is our greatest teacher if we allow it to be. Surrender is a state of inner alertness to what is happening now, not imposing expectations or assumptions based on past experience.

Complete surrender is Faith that the power of Love can accomplish anything, even when you cannot see the outcome of the situation.

Letting go is a process. You have to know when to apply it, what to let go of, and how to let go. Neither your mind nor your ego is going to show you any of these things. Your ego believes you must hold on in order to survive. Spirit is the only ally we have in letting go to the Higher Power in our lives.

The secret to surrender is to foster Awareness whenever you feel a reaction to any given difficult situation. Any time you are tempted to react in the same old tired way, ask yourself: Do I want to be a prisoner of the past, or a Being who is anchored in the present moment without any thought of past or future?

Spirit has a good outcome for every situation if we open ourselves to it, even in the face of certain death.

Physical Letting Go: Remember to breathe, relax and allow Spirit into your heart.

Mentally Letting Go: Find a mental formula to chant inwardly whenever faced with he reaction to resist, like: “My fears may come true, but outcome will turn out to be go(o)d. I will wait and observe.” Or: “This is just another experience and I am here on Earth (School) to have experiences. Nothing is wrong.”

Emotionally Letting Go: Simply enter any powerful emotion and embrace it, and see it through until the resistance changes to Spiritual Insight.

Learning to surrender is an art form requiring great patience.

The willingness to surrender is often all you need to begin.

Om Peace Amen

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