Nancy Owens: News/Topics

"My life is not an apology, but a life. It is for itself and not for a spectacle."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you must be sad and mourn what I am not,
please experience joy knowing I know what you are not,
and what you are,
and I loved you before I knew either,
and after I knew both.

When only silence came from you to me,
and the reflection in your glaring eyes was absent but for despair,
I felt no grief for you or me because I do not dwell on images.

Should I have been relieved
when you identified the cause of your unhappiness?
I felt no guilt so you lifted no burden;
but, damn, how I hurt with the knowledge of your pain.
YOU WANTED ME TO BE BETTER THAN YOU!
I tense and stiffen and quake with the thought.

Momentarily, I wish to be eternally barren
for the fear that your desire might be hereditary.
Somewhere I may have a gene so harsh and so judgmental
that no post-natal enlightenment could erase its mark.

But the fear passes, as I place my true faith in my own heart.
A truer song I'll never hear than this which tells me we are all divine.
As sure as I know my face and my name and my blood,
I know there is no one better than I,
and not a soul, living or dead, better than you.

So you are stuck with your judgment that you could be improved upon
and left with your disappointment that you didn't spawn the one to do it.
I am left with my uncompromising acceptance of all of us,
shining and flawless.
I challenge you to judge my love.

Nancy Jackendoff, 1977

I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape having ill health.
I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.
Everything that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.
(Lest we forget the obvious.)

from
Awakening the Budddhist Heart by Lama Surya Das :
"May this day of right speech bring gentle blessings to those around me; may the blessings extend throughout the world."

We start this practice be designating a day that will be devoted to using our words to fulfill our highest spiritual aspirations. It might be easiest to begin with a weekend, when there is likely to be less work-related stress and fewer deadlines or office politics. Here are some suggestions from Lama Surya Das for things you can do:

* Put a Post-it note beside your bed the night before to remind yourself that this will be a day of "Impeccable Speech."

* Start the day with a heartfelt prayer that reaffirms your intention to always speak with compassion and love.

* Center and collect yourself each time you speak. Be mindful of all your words. Even if you want to say something as banal as "please pass the mashed potatoes," be conscious of your tone of voice, and whether you are saying what you really want to say.

* Find ways to keep your words gentle, loving, accurate and positive. Do this even if you are annoyed or upset.

* See if you can discover better ways to talk to others that will open up new channels of communication.

* Don't lie and don't use words to manipulate and control others.

* Don't gossip.

* Don't say anything about anyone that you would not say if the person were present.

* Use your words to encourage those around you.

* Express your most positive thoughts and feelings. Tell others that you care about them.

* Don't chatter. Don't use words to just fill empty spaces with noise.

* Don't become nervous about the absence of speech; allow yourself and others to be silent.

* Cultivate a way of speaking that is simple and spare.

* Don't interrupt others; let the people around you finish their sentences and express their thoughts.

* Use your words to convey patience.

* Use your words to help your loved ones feel nourished and supported.

*Use your words to express gentleness and kindness.

* Try to make at least one person feel better because of something you say.

* Use your words to convey friendship, encouragement and support.

* Try to phone and connect with one loved one with whom you have lost touch.

* Write a note to someone you care about, expressing your positive feelings.

* Take time to express support for someone else's work or personal project.

* Think about the people you know who have suffered losses. Take the time today to write notes expressing your sympathy and empathy.

A Day of Right Speech can only help your karma. Keep up the good word.

Today is a day of remembrance.

I choose to light a candle to honor and to represent all of those who have passed on.

I realize that many people have died at the exact moment that I have lit this candle; I bless them and offer them the peace in my heart.

I realize that men and women have died in wars since our race evolved on this planet. I choose to acknowledge their suffering and the continuing suffering caused by violence. I choose to accept the hungry ghost in my own heart whose greedy nature is the cause of all conflict and to make an effort to sit quietly when craving arises that I may watch it pass away rather than act upon it.

I choose to honor my ancestors, my mother and father, my grandparents and great grandparents back into time, back into far away places, back to the beginning. I especially wish to remember: (insert whatever comes up for you.)

I choose to spend time with my family and friends in celebration of our lives and of all sacrifices that have made this day possible for us.

I choose to let my life be of service in small way today by sharing my material blessings. I will pay tribute to all who have contributed to my well-being by making a donation to a charitable agency of my choice.

" God bless us, everyone." Tiny Tim

Kuan Yin's Prayer for the Abuser


To those who withhold refuge,
I cradle you in safety at the core of my Being.
To those that cause a child to cry out,
I grant you the freedom to express your own choked agony.
To those that inflict terror,
I remind you that you shine with the purity of a thousand suns.
To those who would confine, suppress, or deny,
I offer the limitless expanse of the sky.
To those who need to cut, slash, or burn,
I remind you of the invincibility of Spring.
To those who cling and grasp,
I promise more abundance than you could ever hold onto.
To those who vent their rage on small children,
I return to you your deepest innocence.
To those who must frighten into submission,
I hold you in the bosom of your original mother.
To those who cause agony to others,
I give the gift of free flowing tears.
To those that deny another's right to be,
I remind you that the angels sang in celebration of you on the day of your birth.
To those who see only division and separateness,
I remind you that a part is born only by bisecting a whole.
For those who have forgotten the tender mercy of a mother's embrace,
I send a gentle breeze to caress your brow.
To those who still feel somehow incomplete,
I offer the perfect sanctity of this very moment.

Commentary: You may wonder why I chose Kuan Yin's Prayer for the Abuser as our Mother's Day Message. I believe it gives each of us the opportunity to honor our mothers by embodying what is best in ourselves. After all, isn't that all that any mother ever hopes for?

We can use the prompt of "Mother's Day" to take time to get in touch with the divine energy of the feminine, whether we are men or women, and to be open to the message of the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Feeling compassion for a victim comes easily. But in fact, if we are to end violence within ourselves and within our world, we need to begin to accept and address the needs of the perpetrators.

We may perpetrate violence against ourselves, others, or our planet through our thoughts, words or deeds. Perhaps it is because of our mindlessness, our greed or our conditioning. Acknowledging and making friends with this shadow aspect of ourselves gives us the insight to work with our message this week.

Kuan Yin's Prayer for the Abuser asks us to take a stretch (come on yogis - this is what all the time on the mat is really about!) and extend our compassion to the darker aspects of ourselves and others. I expect that when you read the meditation your heart will be touched deeply, as was mine.

Our 500-hour teacher training program for yoga teachers with 200-hour credentials is an easy-to- attend, pay-as-you-go, and finish-in-your-time-frame course of study.
Students may enroll in this training at any time. It is open-ended and will recycle every 30 months. Students may complete their certification, by obtaining 300 hours as required by Yoga Alliance, through mixing and matching from the options below:
There will always be at least one full day workshop per month taught by LSY staff. There will also be one three hour philosophy class once a month on Fridays from 7-10 pm.

There are additional opportunities to study together with LSY staff and other experts brought in such as the Thai Yoga Massage Program we will sponsor.
There are opportunites several times per year for weekend retreats.
There are monthly half day workshops with a variety of teachers in Farmingdale, NY where our students can earn non-c0ntact hours and receive instruction from a variety of excellent teachers.

• Students may choose any combination above that fulfills the Yoga Alliance requirements. Less Stress Yoga will keep accurate records of attendance as well as issuing certificates of completion at each workshop and retreat.
• Credit hours will cost $10 each and you pay as you go after an initial registration fee, so, a 7 hour workshop would be $70. There will be no “accommodations” cost at retreats sponsored by LSY – bring your sleeping bag/air mattress and just pay for credit hours.
E-mail us for an application!

Some of this year's workshop dates are already on the calendar. The complete year will be up within the week.

Our personal philosophy at Less Stress Yoga, which underpins this training, is that teaching is an act of love.  If you can hold your students in your heart and feel what they are feeling, the teaching you offer in that moment will be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.  Loving your subject makes you a good student; loving your student makes you a good teacher.
The requirements for taking this teacher training are:
A willingness to be present from moment to moment with an open heart.
A promise to fulfill all requirements to the VERY best of your personal ability and to the highest standards of a loving teacher who will accept no less than everything you have to offer.
A personal interview before being accepted, if you have not previously taken class at Less Stress Yoga.
Eighteen months previous yoga experience.
You need not wish to teach yoga to take this training.
The cost of the LSYTT 200 hour programs is $10 per hour for all contact and non-contact hours. The total program cost is therefore $2,000. Textbooks are an additional expense of between $200 and $300 dollars. Payment plans are available.
Classes are held Friday evenings from 7-10, Saturdays from 9-5, and Sundays from 12-5.

Classes at LSY will be held the following thirteen weekends:
2008:
September 5-7 and 19-21
October 3-5 and 24-26
November 14-16
December 12-14
2009:
January 16-18 and 23-25
February 6-8 and February27,28 & March 1
March 20-22
April 3-5 and 24-26
Graduation: May 3

In addition, students will be expected to attend, at their own expense, one weekend retreat, either November 7-9, 2008 or April 17-19, 2009. Students will also be expected to attend 5 Saturday workshops, with various yoga teachers, from 10-2 in Farmingdale, NY, also at their own expense. Those dates are: 9/13, 10/11, 1/10, 2/14, 3/14.

Please contact me to arrange a personal consultation to answer any questions you may have.

From Pema Chodron:

"We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us and we do it with political systems, with all kinds of things that we don't like about our associates or our society. It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better. Blame others. Blaming is a way to protect your heart, trying to protect what is soft and open and tender in yourself. Rather than own that pain, we scramble to find some comfortable ground.
Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live."

From Rumi:
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there."

Commentary:

When we find ourselves annoyed or angry, hurt or confused, and it seems like it must be someone's fault; there are some steps we can take to interupt the process of blame.

The most radical step is to begin to use the mantra: "It doesn't have to be anyone's fault." That statement is really in conflict with the way that most of us have been conditioned, but in fact it's true. Nothing is really anyONE's fault - ever. When we begin to look back into the history of the situation or the person - what we call the co-arising conditions (which may be multi-generational) - we see clearly all that contributed to the issue at hand. Sometimes we are able to say, "Stuff happens," and let it go at that.

Sometimes things affect us more deeply and we get stuck. We want an answer. We want to know why stuff happened but we can't always get an answer. At these times, we can ask ourselves:

1. How am I thinking about this situation or person?
2. What am I feeling and needing right now?
3. What is the other person feeling and needing right now?

There may indeed be a conflict but it needn't be anyone's fault. There may or may not be a resolution to the conflict but - as Rumi says - "there is a field" and Pema Chodron tells us that field may be "a shaky place."

Try just sitting in that field, that shaky place, the next time you want to assign blame.

By Galway Kinnell

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and to retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and the slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering,
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath
them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.


Commentary: In this most beautiful week of blooming and budding all around us, please realize your own perfect loveliness. Look at the plants and trees which we regard as so magnificent as they return to us again from the barren winter. Look more closely. Is each a perfect specimen? Do you care? Is the beauty apparent through the imperfections? This is part and parcel of last week's message of discovering basic goodness. Bless yourself and everyone with whom you come into contact. Remember your loveliness and theirs; it is independent of EVERYTHING else and completely unrelated to perfection.

In his famous text, Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior, ChogyamTrungpa, tells us that: "The essence of warriorship, or the essence of human bravery, is refusing to give up on anyone or anything. We can never say that we are simply falling to pieces or that anyone else is, and we can never say that about the world either."

Trungpa explains that it is the discovery of basic goodness in ourselves, in the world, in others, that lets us see our shortcomings without feeling guilty or inadequate. We can see the problems of the world in the same way. We can stop complaining and see our potential for extending goodness to others. We can see that accepting things just as they are is the first step on the path of appreciating our own lives and the lives of others.

Trungpa reminds us that:

"This is possible when you realize that you do not posess basic goodness but that you are the basic goodness itself."

"To be a warrior is to learn to be genuine in every moment of your life."

The basic wisdom of Shambala is that: "in this world, as it is, we can find a good and meaningful human life that will also serve others. This is our true richness."

I know many of you love Pema Chodron's teachings. Chogyam Trungpa was her teacher. You might enjoy reading his book.

By Thich Nhat Hanh

Take my hand.
We will walk.
We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk
without thinking of arriving anywhere.
Walk peacefully.
Walk happily.
Our walk is a peace walk.
Our walk is a happiness walk.

Then we learn
that there is no peace walk;
that peace is the walk;
that there is no happiness walk;
that happiness is the walk.
We walk for ourselves.
We walk for everyone
always hand in hand.

Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom under our feet.
Kiss the earth with your feet.
Print on the earth your love and happiness.

Earth will be safe
when we feel in us enough safety.

(From The Essential Rumi translation by Coleman Barks with John Moyne)


There are two kinds of intelligence: One acquired,
as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts
from books and from what the teacher says,
collecting information from the traditional sciences
as well as from new sciences.

With such intelligence you rise in the world.
You get ranked ahead or behind others
in regard to your competence in retaining information.
You stroll with this intelligence
in and out of fields of knowledge,
getting always more marks on your preserving tablets.

There is another kind of tablet,
one already completed and preserved inside you.
A spring overflowing its springbox.
A freshness in the center of your chest.
This other intelligence does not turn yellow or stagnate.
It's fluid, and it doesn't move from outside to inside
through the conduits of plumbing-learning.

This second knowing is a fountainhead
from within you, moving out.



Commentary: That which is "A freshness in the center of your chest" cannot be compared with others; it is uniquely you. It cannot be tested, graded, or judged in any way. It is YOUR heart's song, your fountainhead. Note that Rumi says,"from within you, moving out." It is our responsibility to share our heart's song with the world; each of us is a note in the symphony of the universe. Sing on!

As translated by Thich Nhat Hanh:

"Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am
committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for
myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating,
drinking and consuming. I will ingest only items that preserve peace,
well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the
collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am
determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest
foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs,
magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage
my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my
ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations. I will
work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and
in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society. I
understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and
for the transformation of society."

Commentary: We travel this path as individuals, at our own pace,
always in the direction in which this training points us. We bring
our awareness to the topic and we begin to note when things that were
comfortable for us in the past, no longer are. The journey is without
judgment, without force. Keeping the awareness from moment to moment
of what we are consuming, physically, mentally and emotionally, will
slowly, over time, create great change in ourselves, our families and
our world. Listen to your inner wisdom and choose the path with
heart. That's all!

As translated by Thich Nhat Hanh

"Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability
to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and
deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and
relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create
happiness or suffering, I am determined to speak truthfully, with
words that inspire self-confidence, joy and hope. I will not spread
news that I do not know to be certain and will not criticize or
condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering
words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family
or community to break. I am determined to make all efforts to
reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small."

Commentary: Rather than taking your time to read any commentary I
might make, I ask you to reread the above passage -- as many times as
necessary, everyday if necessary, as a prompt to make the attempt to
become more skillful in this area. Please include the internet stuff
you forward in this process. It only takes a minute to check the
veracity of internet stories before you forward them -- Google
"Snopes" or "Urban Legends" to find out the truth before you click and
send.


Happy Holiday: As Christians celebrate the Easter Holiday, all of us
together can celebrate the message of rebirth and possibility that
comes with the spring season. It comes to us all regardless of our
religious orientation. The miracle remains the same and appears
everywhere: in every daffodil that has lain dormant and breaks ground
this week, in every act of forgiveness we offer or accept, and in
every moment that arises permitting us to be reborn again, releasing
the past, and standing steady and grounded in the present moment where
everything is possible.

As translated by Thich Nhat Hahn:

"Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed
to cultivating responsibility and learning ways to protect the safety
and integrity of individuals, couples, families and society. I am
determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a long
term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am
determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others. I
will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse
and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual
misconduct."

Commentary: Isn't it interesting that the third mindfulness training
from the Buddha 2,500 years ago and our current events this past week
are so deeply intertwined? As well as newspaper headlines, I had our
district's biannual Sexual Harassment Seminar this week -- something
with which those of you who work for large corporations or
institutions are very familiar with as well.

I believe that Thich Nhat Hanh has found a way to phrase this
instruction in mindfulness so that all of us single, married, in
relationship or celibate can reflect deeply and find the place within
this training where we can rededicate ourselves to having a positive
effect on the world we live in by making an effort to support this
third mindfulness training in any number of ways. Sexual energy is a
very powerful energy; it can be misused even within relationships. We
are bombarded with reports of misconduct among the rich, famous and
powerful. It has certainly been abused even in the world of yoga and
meditation. We all know the tales of the fallen gurus and of our own
friends and families who have suffered from sexual misconduct.

If we feel this is not our personal issue, then perhaps we want to
give support to an organization which helps in the world in some way
to educate others about sexually related matters or treat those
victims of sexually related matters. This is inclusive of supporting
any of the many foundations involved in working to stop the spread of
AIDS in Africa and other third world locations through programs of
education and medical treatment.

All of the mindfulness trainings require some action on our part in
addition to deep soul searching. Action can be going on line and
making a $10 donation to an organization such as Global Aids Alliance.
The Better Business Bureau's Charities Watch confirms that 81% of all
donations given to this organization go directly to their programs.
12% is used for fundraising; 7% for administrative costs. This is a
decent report and this is an accredited charity by the BBB. (For
those of you who do not know this, you can log on to BBB Charities and
find out the bottom line about any charity to which you are
considering making donations, including what their CEOs are paid. You
may find some surprises. I always check before donating.)

Find your focus within this mindfulness training. It applies to all
of us.

As translated by Thich Nhat Hanh:

"Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice,
stealing, and oppression, I am committed to cultivating loving
kindness and learning ways to work for the wellbeing of people,
animals, plants, and minerals. I will practice generosity by sharing
time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real need.
I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should
belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will
prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of
other species on Earth."

Commentary: Of course, I realize who receives this message every
week and in fact, most of us are probably doing a decent job living in
alignment with the spirit of this training. But, I also know that if
our reading of the second mindfulness training is cursory, it is easy
for us to believe we don't need to work harder at bringing our lives,
our households, and our hearts in closer alignment with the deepest
spirit of the training.
The trick is to search a little deeper beneath the surface of our
daily lives. Find one area where you can make change in your life.
There is no guilt, no self-condemnation involved -- just a desire to
do more in one little area.

Can we do a better job recycling? Can we always buy our own copy of
a video or CD we want to own or at least pay the appropriate rental
fee and never copy anyone else's without paying the artist his due?
Can we limit our investments to green and/or socially responsible
funds even though that may not maximize our profit? Can we look at
our relationship to generosity in our close relationships and in our
relationships with those whom we have never met but who are in dire
need? Can we choose a "Fair Trade" product? Can we be aware of our
footprint in the world -- What can we choose to do without? How can
we share what we have? How can we stand up for someone who is being
exploited?

Can we do just a little something without any feeling of guilt or
pride? Just rest in the awareness of the grace that envelopes us
when we are awake and aware of what is actually going on around us and
we respond appropriately. It is a miracle each time it happens.

First: In this little weekly message we move around through various
philosophies and styles and authors. This week I would like to begin
to either introduce you to the first of "the Five Mindfulness
Trainings"or if you are familiar with them or have taken a vow to
support the trainings, share with you the opportunity to look at them
again with fresh eyes, an open heart and a new level of commitment.


I will use Thich Nhat Hanhn's translation of the trainings as I have
studied and accepted them.

A little story: For many years I had studied Buddhism, sat with my
sangha, gone to see famous teachers and been on silent retreats for up
to eight days. But, I never took the vows. My reasoning was always
that I was not ready to keep these enormous promises with perfection.
I thought, "How can I take these vows knowing full well I will break
one before the week is out?" Then I went on retreat with Thay (Thich
Nhat Hann) and he explained it all in such a way that I was eager to
begin the challenge.

Thay explained that we just accept the vows; after all, I did know
them to be valuable truths. Then do our best every day to say them,
remember them, let them guide our decisions but to always be gentle
with ourselves and remember that we will not be perfect -- ever. In
fact, to take the vows and try even though we miss the mark again and
again is so much more than not taking the vows at all because we are
guided by the mistaken idea that that it is either "this" or "that" --
either we take a vow and never break it or we never take the vow at
all. My understanding now is that we set the Mindfulness Training up
as our target, our goal. And then, day by day we move ourselves
closer the mark in our words and deeds.

The First Mindfulness Training is:

Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am
committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the
lives of people, animals, plants and minerals. I am determined not to
kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in
the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.

Commentary: How does this show up in our lives? Plants are included
here with animals -- so -- we are not asked to starve and eat nothing.
We are asked to be mindful stewards of the planet, to look at our
consumption and at our politics. We are asked to practice "ahimsa"
non-harming and to reexamine our understanding of the world with which
we are interconnected. We can each do something to bring ourselves
slightly more in alignment with this training every day. That's a
beginning.

There are five trainings -- I will offer another next week.

#16: HEYAM DUHKHAM ANAGATAM
Pain that has not yet come is avoidable.

#32: SAMTOSAD ANUTTAMAH SUKHA LABHAH
By contentment, supreme joy is gained.

Commentary: It's late in the evening and this message will be short
and sweet. I have had a long and wonderful day with friends and
family. I have been to yoga class in the morning, a birthday party at
my daughter's in the afternoon and Carnegie Hall in the evening as
well as a mini-family reunion before and after the concert. It has
been a wonderful birthday for me from 8:30 this morning till now,
midnight.

I have been working with the two sutras above this week. Somehow
they jumped out at me as I thumbed through Patanjali and they seemed
linked and connected in way that made so much sense. For me, each
explained how the other was attainable, how it could be so for me,
right now, today, in my life, in this moment. It is my hope that
perhaps they will have some meaning for you as well. Be with them
quietly, again and again -- use them as a mantra. See what opens up
for you. Let me know what you're thinking. I enjoy your commentaries
so much.

Many blessings for a peaceful week and love to all,
Nancy

When we acknowledge that suffering, all suffering, is due entirely to clinging or resisting then we must also acknowledge that this
suffering is a sign of unwillingness to move on, to flow with life.

There are always moments when we feel empty and estranged. Can we look at these moments as desirable? Yes, we can. Perhaps it means we
are in the process of moving on. We may just be in the space where
the old is over and the new hasn't yet shown itself. If we allow ourselves to let this time be colored by fear, then this momentary
emptiness may in fact cause us deep distress and suffering. We can choose to realize there is really nothing to be afraid of. A key to letting go of the fear is to let go of expectations. What are we really afraid of? That things won't turn out the way we would like
them to?

The truth is: sometimes they will and sometimes they won't. So what? This week's message is really: DIVE IN! Dive in to the joy;
dive in to the emptiness. Don't hold back. If you notice that your
purpose is self-seeking, let it go at once. The truth will find you, if you make yourself available. Love will find you if you make
yourself available. Pain will find us all -- no matter how we try to hide from it -- so -- we might as well be available for all that our
brief spin on this planet has to offer us. Open your heart!

Dive in to today and tomorrow and the day after as if they were your
last. (It's possible that they might be. OOOOOuch! I hate to be the one to say that!)
Much love to all of you and a big HURRAY for Washington and Lincoln
-- they dove right into the thick of it!

February 14th is this week. Let's look at it from a different perspective. There are lots of red hearts everywhere and whether we
have a romantic valentine or not, it's hard to ignore the fact the
western world is ablaze with the manifestations of this idealized
romantic love. Let's just borrow the love part and run with it...

If we work from the seven chakra way of looking at ourselves and our
world, we note that our heart chakra is the fourth chakra -- right in
the center -- mediating between the lower three and upper three
chakras. So this week, let's give our power over to the heart chakra
and let it rule. How will that feel? What will it look like?

1.If we allow our heart to influence strongly our first chakra -- our
survival chakra -- then perhaps it might show up as taking only what
we actually need for our survival this week and giving some of our
excess to someone who needs it more. Pass up the most expensive
groceries and make a donation to a charity that supports feeding
others.

2. If we allow our heart chakra to influence strongly our second
chakra -- our relationship/family/tribe chakra -- then perhaps it
might show up as sending a card or giving a call to a friend or
relative whom you've not contacted or who could benefit from a message
of love from you this week -- use the phone, the email, the snail mail
-- give in to Hallmark -- whatever -- make a move. Make four or five
moves if you have the energy. Every act of kindness blesses all
participants equally -- givers and receivers.

3. If we allow our heart chakra to influence strongly our third
chakra -- our power center -- then we must use our power and our
strength to create some love in the world through ACTION. Do
something kind for someone; don't just read this message.

4. If we stay in tune with our heart chakra all week, if we remember
to go there every time we see a commercial reminder of the heart, we
will increase the chances that we will operate from the heart in all
we do. So use the commercial money machine of our culture in a
positive way to prompt your own heart to open every time you see an ad
for a Valentine's anything just open your heart -- much more important
than opening the pocketbook.

5. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THIS WEEK: If we let our heart chakra
rise and fill our throats and get control of our speech and if our
words can be loving and do no harm -- if we can refrain from a harsh
tone of voice, from words that cut the heart of another, then we will
truly be the saints of Valentine's Day -- one and all.

6. If we let our sixth chakra -- our intuition -- hear our heart's
song, we will strengthen our sixth chakra and intuitively we will know
where and how to send the love this week and every week. Our intuitive
mind knows exactly to whom we should send our energy, our time our
money -- whatever will help the most.

7. If we open through the chakras and let the energy rise to fulfill
the promise of our seventh chakra reality, which permits us to be part
of and not separate from everything and everyone else, then in fact
all that we do and all that we say, can only come from our hearts and
the secure knowledge that we are, in fact, one with all. We inter-are
and we can only inter-be. No one is ever alone. And that is truly
the message of love for Valentine's Day.

Be that love in all you do. It's not easy. Love yourself; forgive
yourself when you slip-up. You can't forgive anyone or love anyone if
you can't forgive and love yourself.

Sending all of you all of my open hearted love - moving through the
internet to fill your inbox.

Hugs and kisses
Nancy