From the Publisher
The Power of Unreasonable Giving
The Online Humanitarian We all want to help others, but in today's fast-paced world, giving can seem overwhelming, so many charities have gone online in an effort to make philanthropy easier for us. If you are interested in volunteer service, remember to "follow your passions." You're more likely to follow through with your volunteer work if you find something that fits your interests and/or abilities. That's just what the online databases listed below can help you do. Whether you want to build houses for Habitat For Humanity, teach people to read or tutor them in your language, or clean up a lake or river near you, you can search these databases from your home for one of literally thousands of volunteer opportunities. Find the one (or ones) that fit your available time, your pocketbook, your interests, and are within driving distance of your home — or anywhere around the world, if you'd prefer to combine world travel with your volunteer work. To become a cybervolunteer, search these sites:
More than Just Indigos:
StarWatch
Circumcision in America:
Looking back to that first glimpse of a whole penis, I'm not even sure I realized what I was looking at. I remember being very intrigued. However, that particular penis belonged to a friend instead of a lover, so I never had the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity beyond a polite visual survey whenever we exchanged massages or took a hot tub together. Since then, I've had other uncircumcised male friends, but never an intact lover, so my explorations were always limited to conversations and visual contact.
The Altar Within;
Personal Finance as Personal Growth
The Masks We Wear
Mayan Calendar Proves Existence of Cosmic Plan
How Can I Love Me?
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I believe that we each come into the world with unique talents and abilities, and that we can and should choose to share them with humanity. Our job is to move past our self-imposed limitations, discover our potential, and manifest it. Of course, that’s much easier said than done. For me, it has so far been a half-century "work in progress." I have been able to do some profound things, and I can hardly guess what potential I may be able to manifest in coming years.
One year for Christmas, my parents bought my older sister the board game she’d always wanted: Monopoly. As is often the case with little sisters, I decreed the gift that she received superior to all my paltry possessions. I yearned for the paper money, the Community Chest. I longed to own Boardwalk. Since my sister owned the game, however, I could play only when Jackie and her friends allowed me. Not surprisingly, the bigger kids always won and I inevitably lost, rarely attaining more than a single motel on the low-rent Connecticut Avenue. I envied their ability to accumulate. Jackie and her buddies always snatched up the most desirable properties: Park Place, Boardwalk, Marvin Gardens.
First of all, let’s have a show of hands: How many here have read the Flower of Life books by Drunvalo Melchizedek? Okay, good. Now, those of you who haven’t, you are strongly encouraged to go check out these two volumes. I am a strong proponent of approaching spiritual growth through a marriage of the left and right sides of the brain, bringing together logic and intuition, science and mystery. That is just the approach that Drunvalo takes. (I know, but he’s so friendly that it seems too formal to call him "Mr. Melchizedek"; I’ve never heard anyone else do so, and he agrees that "Drunvalo" seems more natural.)
By adding the universal year 2001 (2+0+0+1= 3) to the 10th month of October, we come up with the vibration of 13/4. The 13/4 month is a time for grounding and manifesting on the physical plane. The number four is all about producing tangible results in material form. By harnessing your creative energy (3) with a solid plan of action (1), you can make great strides toward manifesting your goals this month. Don’t forget that the number three is about having fun, so let yourself enjoy the process and create tangible, measurable progress.
I grew up in the United States with a circumcised brother and circumcised friends, all my lovers were circumcised, and I didn't even see an intact penis until 1975, when I was 21. During the ’50s and ’60s when I was a child, the rate of circumcision in America was much higher than it is today, and it was extremely uncommon for a boy not to be circumcised.
When you need spiritual guidance or become confused about your life path, where do you turn? If you are like me, you probably seek support from your circle of friends, your community, church, or support networks. Relying on these external sources is a blessing, yet there is an important caveat to keep in mind. If you want counsel, there are many who can offer it, but if you seek the truth of your own inner wisdom, you won’t find it outside of yourself. The most an external source can do is provide you with a mirror, a reflection of your inner landscape, so you can better find your own way to the wisdom that resides within you.
Money and personal growth? What on Earth could those two have in common? A lot. To continue on our individual paths toward spiritual and personal growth, we must eventually deal with personal finance. So many of us neglect the money side of life; however, if we do not address our financial lives, our personal growth and spiritual lives eventually become affected. We begin to experience blockages of our own making that can hinder the very things we wish to accomplish. I strongly believe that undertaking the path to financial health and financial peace will actually aid us in our spiritual and psychological journeys. In fact, working on personal finance itself is a form of intense personal growth.
When I was a boy, Halloween was easily one of my favorite holidays. It was a sanctioned opportunity to dress up and pretend to be someone, or something, else. Masks fascinated me, and I spent endless amounts of time looking at them in costume stores, fantasizing what it would be like to look out through the eyes of a werewolf, pirate, or other fantastic creature. Masks gave the ability to explore all aspects of identity, including age, gender, status, and moral standing.
For the past two decades, and especially since the Harmonic Convergence in 1987, interest in the Mayan calendar has steadily been on the rise. While pioneers such as Frank Waters and Jose Argüelles pointed to possible ways of grasping the nature of this calendar, a systematic comprehensible way of understanding it has, until now, been missing. Thus, while many have a vague sense that the Mayan calendar is very important or that "there is something to it," an awareness that we are dealing with something really tangible and truly important has yet to surface. Previously, the explanations provided by those studying the Mayan calendar have varied between supposed astronomical alignments and esoteric schemes, and it is only now that it is becoming apparent that the Mayan calendar actually reads like a global history book.
"Most people on Earth have made a separation between the Spirit and the Will. They have felt their own Will was not acceptable; that to love the way God loves, they must eliminate their own feelings and opinions and do what they have imagined is the Will of God. An understanding is needed here: the Will of God is not in opposition to the Will of the individual." So says Ceanne Derohan in Right Use of Will (Four Winds Publications, 1984). She goes on to say that as we allow ourselves to fully feel feelings and to fully follow our closely held opinions, we embrace and accept what is there. It is in the embracing and accepting that we become clearer. This allows us to stop attracting uncomfortable and painful experiences to us. As our field clears, our human will then aligns perfectly with divine will.