From the Publisher
Creating a Compassionate Child
Yet soon after being exposed to the elements of our culture and starting school, many modern children begin to develop callousness toward nature, losing the ability to feel connected to the natural world. What can we as parents do to keep the compassion alive in our children?
Dying with God:
"If people really knew what happened after the moment of one's death, they'd throw parties. They'd have huge celebrations," Walsch said. "The next expression of life outside the body is one of enormous freedom. Freedom from whatever the pains — physical or psychological — we've been experiencing in this body. It's a return to the essential essence of who we really are."
A Warrior Dog's Last Dance
Zeke is about 100 pounds of rottweiler, German shepherd, and Doberman. He actually lives with John's mom, Sally-Giovine Kerr, but everyone — including Sally — knows that Zeke is completely devoted to John.
StarWatch
Conscious Consumption and the Middle Way I recently heard the Buddhist concept of "middle way" being used to rationalize the typical American consumer lifestyle. The notion of getting rid of one’s car, in recognition of its pollution and wasteful use of nonrenewable resources, was characterized as "extreme" and thus not following the middle way. It’s better to be "practical," so keep your automobile (or so the argument went).
Making Organic Sexy
Miracles and Wonders:
If you haven’t heard about the Maitreya story, which has been circulating since 1977, is that an extraordinary, enlightened being — an ascended master, if you will — is in human form, traveling the globe along with a few other masters, performing miracles and affecting all aspects of human life, religion, politics and international diplomacy included. This story was introduced to the culture by Benjamin Creme, a British metaphysician, who claims to be in a kind of telepathic rapport with one of the masters working with Maitreya.
Changing Careers:
Like many people who invested much of my time and finances in going to college, I found out that I had never really taken time to truly research, let alone experience, the careers for which my degree was training me. There were and are career services on most, if not all, college campuses. As an undergraduate, however, I never knew this. Not until I went back to graduate school did I explore such services, actually interning at the career center in my school.
The Celtic Spiral:
The Astrology of Relocation
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Most of my small staff and I attended the Prophet’s Conference in beautiful Victoria, B.C. in mid-August. The facility was filled nearly to capacity, and the air was charged with optimism and high energy, even when problems of a global magnitude were being discussed. Many of the speakers talked about where we are in our planetary evolution, and offered exciting perspectives on where we’re headed. My "inner scientist" enjoyed learning about new work in quantum physics, new discoveries about ancient wisdom, and ways that both are linked to contemporary spirituality. This was, for me, a great opportunity to step back from my day-to-day life and look at a bigger picture.
Since the dawn of time, children have intuitively known that we are all a dynamic part of nature, participants in a wonderful web of life, not masters over it. They accept everything, talk to animals, and can find hours of fascination by staring at air.
Death is to life as night is to day. Without death, there would be no passion to life, and thus life as we define it would not exist. Still, by and large, we choose to ignore death, pretending in most cases that it's not there. According to Neale Donald Walsch, however, it need not be cause for despair.
In 1994, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek article for The New Times called "I Love John Because He Treats Me Like a Dog." It was written in honor of my longtime partner, John Giovine, and his special dog friend, Zeke. In that essay, I introduced Zeke in this passage:
By adding the universal year 2001 (2+0+0+1=3) to the 9th month of September, we come up with the vibration of 12/3. The 3 month is a time for tapping into joy through creative self-expression. What aspect of your creativity wants to come out this month? Are you a closet painter, writer, dancer, or musician? Is there something that you are really passionate about that you would like to share with others but have been holding back? Use this month to discover your own form of creative expression. Let yourself be like a child and really get down and play this month!
I’m passionate about natural food. Adamantly opposed to chemical-based factory farming. Militant in my belief that plants should not be genetically modified and unleashed to the four winds. I support land reclamation efforts and take hope in movements like community supported agriculture (subscription farming), permaculture (a design system for creating sustainable human environments in balance and harmony with nature), and biodynamics (Rudolf Steiner’s agricultural approach, with a goal of achieving balance and healing through the principles of nature). So why am I afraid I’ll bore you with my ode to organics for Celebrate Organics month?
A flyer inserted in the April 2001 issue of The New Times announced the then-upcoming speaking engagement of Wayne S. Peterson, a recently retired American diplomat and former executive of the Fulbright Scholarship Program. Peterson, who had authored Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary People, was in Seattle to talk on "The Emergence of the Maitreya."
What do you do when going to work no longer has any meaning for you, when you realize that you are not living your life’s purpose? As a woman who has worked for the last ten years as a crisis and career counselor, as well as having gone through my own career change, I feel qualified and experienced enough to give some suggestions that can make this period of transition much easier and more insightful for you.
Are ancient traditions irrelevant to today’s world? Or can they help us cope with the stresses and worries of our busy lives? In my own life, which has veered — sometimes wildly — from crisis worker to psychotherapist to author and workshop presenter, plus a husband or two, I’ve found that the earth-based culture and society of the ancient Celts has helped me to connect to the rhythms of the natural world. As I hike along the seashore or in the forest, as I work in my garden, I see how the flowers and trees, birds and animals, the tides, the light, and the weather all change with the passing seasons in the great wheel of life. I find that the physical exercise relaxes and recharges me. The time spent in and with nature calms the whirl of my thoughts and helps me gain perspective on my everyday life. It’s the real world, the one that’s all around us, yet we so often lose sight of it amid the concrete and asphalt that enclose most of our days.
The relocation branch of astrology seeks to find the best place for a person to express all of his or her potentials and to find personal happiness: love, friendship, romance, career success, etc. When an astrologer "relocates" a chart, she or he is attempting to find a location where the person can have a fulfilling home life, personal life, and professional life. It can be challenging to find one place that fits all of these categories. Sometimes in relocating a chart, the astrologer is simply looking for fulfilling places for a person to travel.