In the book With Love Man Is God written by Dr. Samuel H. Sandweiss, Dr. Sandweiss says, ". . . Swami waits until the last minute to test patience, faith, and surrender."
I found this to be true for myself with my sinus infection last October in India.
When you are a visitor at the ashram, many people are hopeful of getting a personal interview with Sai Baba. Baba says to desire an "inner" view instead of an interview. He says an inner view is much more important.
For me, the inner views always come as a voice that I hear in my head. I have learned to listen for that voice. I guess you could say that mine are inner talks instead of inner views. I rarely see anything.
As it got closer to time for us to leave India, I started to get concerned because my ears were still stopped up with fluid behind the drums. I have a friend whose ear drums burst from flying to Connecticut for Christmas a few years ago because she had fluid behind her ear drums. She wasn't allowed to fly home at the end of her visit. She had to rent a car and drive home to Arkansas.
I didn't have that option. You can't drive from India to Arkansas. A voice told me that when it was time to fly home, I would be fine. I had to trust that voice instead of listen to my own voice of fear and doubt. I had to fly home.
We left the ashram on the morning of October 14 for our three hour drive back to Bangalore where we would fly out about 2:00 a.m. on the morning of October 15. On the trip to Bangalore, I was feeling better until my friend Sherryl bought some Indian potato chips. She shared them with me and our two drivers. I took one bite, the pepper hit the back of my throat and I swear I coughed non-stop for at least five minutes or more. It seemed like forever. I frightened our two drivers because I couldn't stop. I was concerned because I didn't want to cough during our 22 hour + flight home.
When we got to Bangalore, we checked into our hotel and had a late lunch. Sherryl did Reiki on my head and lungs when I got a migraine and started coughing again. We took showers and slept the afternoon away. I still had fluid behind my ear drums.
We set our clock for 7:00 p.m., got dressed and ordered in a late dinner. We watched a little India TV which is a treat in itself. We were at the airport shortly before 11:00 p.m. to give us plenty of time to get through airport security and immigration with our passports. Our only hassle was when a bus boy wanted much too much money for helping with our luggage. Baba gave me a lesson in being firm about the cost. I was proud of myself that I didn't get taken advantage of.
At 2:00 a.m., we were seated on the plane waiting for takeoff which was late. In India, everybody runs on a different time than in the USA. You get used to it quickly. My ears were stopped up and I knew I still had fluid behind my ear drums. I couldn't hear everything that the airline personel said over the intercom because of it. I didn't get stressed about it. I learned a long time ago that worry does no good. Worry just adds more stress to an already stressful situation so why worry.
I believed what the voice told me. As the plane finally started to take off, a voice told me to Reiki my ears on takeoffs and landings and I would be fine. I know I looked strange to several fellow passengers.
Sherryl later told me that the young girl that was sitting across the isle and slightly ahead of us obviously thought I looked strange. She would stare. I didn't care. I was busy doing what I had been told to do. I Reikied my ears. I still had fluid behind my ear drums and I didn't have the first pain the entire trip. My ears did pop a lot but I had no pain at all.
As I was told the week before the flight home, I was fine and able to fly home. My ear drums did not burst. I did not cough once during the flight home. I did cough for two days after I got home before the cough went away on its own.
So, you could say that I agree with Dr. Sandweiss's statement that Swami does try our patience, faith, and our ability to surrender with challenges that are presented to us by Life and other people. I knew when I read those words that it was time to write about this experience of mine.
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
With Love, Man Is God--- Sathya Sai Baba
The book With Love Man Is God is written by Samuel H. Sandweiss, M. D., Birth Day Publishing Company, San Diego, California, USA, 2004.
"A Word To The Reader
Sai Baba is referred to as Sathya Sai Baba, Sai Baba, Sai, Baba, and Swami. The Sanskrit word Sathya means absolute truth, Sai means divine mother, and Baba mean divine father. Swami is a name of respect and affection."
As Doctor Sandweiss does, most devotees, including me, use these names interchangeably.
page 141, "Swami then asked, 'Do you think I am God?' . . . . . Swami continued, 'Yes, I am God, and so are you! There is no difference.' Swami went on to say, 'I did not come here for you to worship me. Worship God in any form or in the formless, as you choose, but worship Him fully.' . . ."
This is one of the things that I love about Sathya Sai Baba. He doesn't insist that his way is the only way. He doesn't insist that he is God and we are below him. He says we are equals. The difference, as he points out, is that he remembers that he is God and we have forgotten. He wants us to remember. He knows that there is more than one path to God. He says whether we are Christian, Buddhist, Muslem, Mormon or members of any other religion doesn't matter. They are all paths to God. Somewhere I read that Swami says all religions lead to God. He tells us to take whatever path is necessary for us to reach God.
page 24, "I soon learned that in response to his devotees' many questions, he (Sathya Sai Baba) directs us to look inside ourselves for answers. To the most pressing question, 'Who are you?' he answers, 'How can you know who I am when you don't even know who you are? When you know who you are, you will know everything.' When asked if he is God, he gives an extraordinary answer, 'Yes, and so are you; you are also divine! The difference is that I know it and you do not. Look inside and find your divine nature.' "
Most of us do not know who we are. For me, that is the most important searching of my life, to find out who am I. It is an ongoing journey for me. I catch glimpses. On my first trip to India, I had my first three day migraine. Nothing I did or my friends did would make it go away. In desparation, I sat up in the early morning hours and started a conversation in my head with Swami. What he told me was that the headache would go away when he was ready and not before. (Illnesses are usually part of the healing process that goes on for devotees when they first arrive at the ashram. It is a way of releasing karma.) At that point, I stopped struggling and went with the flow. At one point, I asked if the conversation and the voices were just part of my imagination or was the conversation really happening. I am a bit of a sceptic. The voice said, "It does not matter. All voices are mine." All voices are those of God because we are all God. Later, that day the migraine went away. I believe it happened because I stopped resisting the process.
page 32, "In the history of mankind, there have been those glorious moments when God has responded to the prayers of the good and has granted peace and safety to the forlorn. An Avatar appears who protects and saves, as voiced by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 5,000 years ago. 'Whenever disharmony overwhelms the world, the Lord will incarnate in human form to establish the modes of earning peace and to re-educate the human community in the paths of peace.' It has happened again."
My understanding of the word Avatar is that it means that God comes to earth in human form to remind us of who we are. Krishna, Rama and Sai Baba are all known as Avatars in India. My first experience of Krishna was during my first visit to India. We were at Kodaikanal, a mountain station south of Bangalore. Swami often goes there during the hottest days of the Indian summers. At the time, Swami did not have an ashram built in Kodaikanal. We sat outside of his residence for darshan twice a day. Usually you sit in line for one to three hours waiting for Swami to come out of his residence for darshan. I like to do two activities while I am waiting. I love to watch the women and children surrounding me. I have always been an avid people watcher.
The other activity is to meditate. During one of those meditations, this figure with a huge, swirling, black cape was suddenly surrounding me completely in his energy. I immediately decided that the dark energy must mean that doom and gloom were coming my way in the near future. I told Swami that with his help, I would handle whatever came my way. I didn't tell anyone about this disturbing meditation until a few days later.
We were blessed on this trip to have an older Indian friend with us on this trip. Ma, as she asked all of us to call her, had been a devotee of Krishna before she became a Sai devotee. As she shared her experiences with Krishna, she mentioned his black energy. That is when I told her about my meditation experience. She told me that I was also a Krishna devotee and that he was back in my life. After a sigh of relief (no doom and gloom), I was happy to be open to more experiences with Krishna. The next day, Swami even gave his approval. He was talking to a lady who had a black eye. She had been stung by a bee. Swami asks her, "Bee Black?" What I heard him say was "Be black." He was telling me, through his conversation with another woman that it was ok and not to be afraid to be open to the Krishna energy. Swami often has conversations like this one where he is talking to all who hear his words. We each get what we need out of the overheard conversations. This is part of his magic. He truly speaks to all of us if we would only listen.
"A Word To The Reader
Sai Baba is referred to as Sathya Sai Baba, Sai Baba, Sai, Baba, and Swami. The Sanskrit word Sathya means absolute truth, Sai means divine mother, and Baba mean divine father. Swami is a name of respect and affection."
As Doctor Sandweiss does, most devotees, including me, use these names interchangeably.
page 141, "Swami then asked, 'Do you think I am God?' . . . . . Swami continued, 'Yes, I am God, and so are you! There is no difference.' Swami went on to say, 'I did not come here for you to worship me. Worship God in any form or in the formless, as you choose, but worship Him fully.' . . ."
This is one of the things that I love about Sathya Sai Baba. He doesn't insist that his way is the only way. He doesn't insist that he is God and we are below him. He says we are equals. The difference, as he points out, is that he remembers that he is God and we have forgotten. He wants us to remember. He knows that there is more than one path to God. He says whether we are Christian, Buddhist, Muslem, Mormon or members of any other religion doesn't matter. They are all paths to God. Somewhere I read that Swami says all religions lead to God. He tells us to take whatever path is necessary for us to reach God.
page 24, "I soon learned that in response to his devotees' many questions, he (Sathya Sai Baba) directs us to look inside ourselves for answers. To the most pressing question, 'Who are you?' he answers, 'How can you know who I am when you don't even know who you are? When you know who you are, you will know everything.' When asked if he is God, he gives an extraordinary answer, 'Yes, and so are you; you are also divine! The difference is that I know it and you do not. Look inside and find your divine nature.' "
Most of us do not know who we are. For me, that is the most important searching of my life, to find out who am I. It is an ongoing journey for me. I catch glimpses. On my first trip to India, I had my first three day migraine. Nothing I did or my friends did would make it go away. In desparation, I sat up in the early morning hours and started a conversation in my head with Swami. What he told me was that the headache would go away when he was ready and not before. (Illnesses are usually part of the healing process that goes on for devotees when they first arrive at the ashram. It is a way of releasing karma.) At that point, I stopped struggling and went with the flow. At one point, I asked if the conversation and the voices were just part of my imagination or was the conversation really happening. I am a bit of a sceptic. The voice said, "It does not matter. All voices are mine." All voices are those of God because we are all God. Later, that day the migraine went away. I believe it happened because I stopped resisting the process.
page 32, "In the history of mankind, there have been those glorious moments when God has responded to the prayers of the good and has granted peace and safety to the forlorn. An Avatar appears who protects and saves, as voiced by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 5,000 years ago. 'Whenever disharmony overwhelms the world, the Lord will incarnate in human form to establish the modes of earning peace and to re-educate the human community in the paths of peace.' It has happened again."
My understanding of the word Avatar is that it means that God comes to earth in human form to remind us of who we are. Krishna, Rama and Sai Baba are all known as Avatars in India. My first experience of Krishna was during my first visit to India. We were at Kodaikanal, a mountain station south of Bangalore. Swami often goes there during the hottest days of the Indian summers. At the time, Swami did not have an ashram built in Kodaikanal. We sat outside of his residence for darshan twice a day. Usually you sit in line for one to three hours waiting for Swami to come out of his residence for darshan. I like to do two activities while I am waiting. I love to watch the women and children surrounding me. I have always been an avid people watcher.
The other activity is to meditate. During one of those meditations, this figure with a huge, swirling, black cape was suddenly surrounding me completely in his energy. I immediately decided that the dark energy must mean that doom and gloom were coming my way in the near future. I told Swami that with his help, I would handle whatever came my way. I didn't tell anyone about this disturbing meditation until a few days later.
We were blessed on this trip to have an older Indian friend with us on this trip. Ma, as she asked all of us to call her, had been a devotee of Krishna before she became a Sai devotee. As she shared her experiences with Krishna, she mentioned his black energy. That is when I told her about my meditation experience. She told me that I was also a Krishna devotee and that he was back in my life. After a sigh of relief (no doom and gloom), I was happy to be open to more experiences with Krishna. The next day, Swami even gave his approval. He was talking to a lady who had a black eye. She had been stung by a bee. Swami asks her, "Bee Black?" What I heard him say was "Be black." He was telling me, through his conversation with another woman that it was ok and not to be afraid to be open to the Krishna energy. Swami often has conversations like this one where he is talking to all who hear his words. We each get what we need out of the overheard conversations. This is part of his magic. He truly speaks to all of us if we would only listen.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
2007 In Review
I have been thinking about this article for a couple of days deciding exactly what I wanted to include. 2007 has been such a wonderful/difficult year full of emotions and challenges, full of new friendships and letting go of old friendships, moving forward and looking backward.
If I had to come up with one word to envelope the entire year, it would have to be compassion. I ended the year with joining a meme on Survivor Needs inspired by Marj aka Thriver over at http://survivorscanthrive.blogspot.com/ . I also wrote a recent article called Compassion, The Ultimate Act of Love as a part of the Spread the Love Now! Group Writing Project sponsored by The Three Monks. You can check out their blogs by going to my article at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/12/compassion-ultimate-act-of-love.html . You can also check out my other two articles that I wrote about compassion by clicking on the word Compassion under Categories on the right side of the blog page. For those of you who are receiving this as an email, you will need to visit my blog at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/ . If you haven't actually visited my blog, please do so.
What have I written about on my blog this year?
The categories with the most included in them are Influencial People which has six articles, each written about someone special in my life. If you haven't read any of these articles, you are missing out by not meeting these people who have played a very important part in me becoming who I am today.
Another category which has the most number of articles is that of gratitude. Again, click on the word Gratitude under Categories on the right side of the blog page. Gratitude is a very important subject to me. It is one of the things that keeps me grounded, connected and humble. There has always been something that I could find to be grateful for in my life even at the lowest points. An Attitude of Gratitude is a great way to live your life. Nothing can keep you down for long when you are in a place of feeling grateful. Why look at what you don't have, when you can be grateful for what you do have. I believe it is especially important to acknowledge the people that you are grateful to. People are the ones that make the difference. Gratitude is a much more joyful place to be than the victim role. Even when I am in the middle of emotional turmoil, as I have been for the past two months, I can still find that I am grateful for the challenges of life because their presence means that I am growing.
The most important and most difficult articles that I have written this year are those from my Incest May Be A Part Of My Life Series. There are eight articles posted in that series. Those eight plus eight others are also included under the Category Incest. These are the articles that I have used to revisit my past, my childhood with all of its emotional turmoil of fear, rage, sadness and tears.
Why would I choose to revisit and stir up all of that?
Revisiting that gives me the opportunity to share all of the ways that I have healed from the childhood of abuse. Revisiting that gives me the opportunity to open the eyes of others that might be closed to the abuse of a child that they know. I also get the opportunity to share with other survivors the hope for their own healing and a compassion that can only come from someone who has been there. When you know that someone else has shared your journey, the words of compassion and caring mean so much more. Some people will tell you to just get over it without realizing, if it were that easy, we would have done it long ago.
That brings me to my next group of articles that you will find under the Category of Forgiveness. You will find six articles listed under Forgiveness that I wrote in 2007. I am so grateful that I have reached a point in my life that I could actually do true forgiveness. Some people never reach that point. For them, they are ok with not doing forgiveness. I hope that by sharing my own journey through to forgiveness that maybe someone else can reach that step. I recently read an article written by another sexual abuse survivor that was still in that "I am too rageful to want to do anything except hurt (KILL) my abusers." I remember being in that place myself. Then I was in a place of not knowing how to forgive and beating myself up for not being able to do it. Don't abuse yourself because you aren't there yet. It took me over thiry years to get there. Hopefully by sharing my journey to forgiveness, someone else can get there in less time than I did.
My highlight of the year, you will find written about in the articles under the Category of India. I was blessed with the abundance to financially be able to take a trip to India September 24-October 15, 2007. This was my third trip to India to visit Sathya Sai Baba. Some time in 2008, I will write some more articles on my visit and some background about Sai Baba for my readers that know nothing about this great spiritual teacher. Some of you will say, but you call yourself a Christian. Yes, I do. I don't see any conflict of interest there. Being a Sai Baba devotee enhances my Christian beliefs. Sai Baba himself says for us to stay home and worship God in whatever form we are comfortable with. He says we are all God. He remembers more about being God than we do. We all have the same ability to live life to its fullest, if we just remember Who we are.
Looking back through the year that this blog has been in existence, I have decided to choose some of my favorite articles to share with you. You will find a list of your favorites listed to the right on the blog page listed under Most Popular Posts. These are my favorites from each month.
My very first article that I posted on this blog was on June 1, 2007. The title of my favorite article for June 2007 was Three Of My Past Life Experiences. You will find it posted at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/06/three-of-my-past-life-experiences.html . This one is your least favorite. I know it really stretches the beliefs of a lot of people. When I wrote the article, I knew it would. I even said as much in the article. All I ask is that you be willing to be open to the possibility of past lives and reincarnation. That is all any of us can do with new experiences. I didn't always believe in reincarnation. My views over the past ten years have changed.
During July, I built on my Favorite People series of articles with writing articles 2-5. It would be difficult for me to choose which of those is my favorite. I love them all. Your favorite was #4 which I called The Most Influencial Person---#4---Birth Of A Dream which I wrote as a tribute to my friend Slade Roberson who gave me the encouragement and know how to start this blog in the first place. The book, The Secret, was very popular at this time also because it touched on The Law Of Attraction which is still very popular on the internet. I wrote several articles on The Secret during July. The first of those articles and probably my favorite for July was The Secret---Loving Yourself which you will find at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/07/secret-loving-yourself.html .
August started with the article What Good Will You Allow God To Do Through You? which you will find at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-good-will-you-allow-god-to-do.html . This was the month that I started writing my Incest May Be A Part Of My Life Series. This series started out with a warning. Warning: Reading the following series may be injurious to your peace of mind. They are intended to be. Without knowledge, we cannot prevent child abuse from happening. Go beyond this point at your own risk. Join me for the painful, frightening, emotional, freeing journey. I am very appreciative of your response to all of these articles. Your comments have told me that my purpose in writing these is being accomplished. How many more articles will be included in this series? At this point, I don't know. You will know as soon as I do. As long as the words continue to flow, the articles will come. Of course, that is true for the whole blog, isn't it?
In August, Priscilla Palmer started a monumental task of posting the names of the personal development blogs that existed on the internet. You will find her list posted at http://www.priscillapalmer.com/priscillapalmer/ . I have found some really great blogs by going through her list.
Probably my favorite article that I wrote in August came from the inspiration of Carol Ann Meadows, a dear friend whose death on December 1, 2005, I was still grieving this December. The article is called What Other People Think About You Is None Of Your Business. You will find this article at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/08/what-other-people-think-about-you-is.html .
In September, I was up to Part 5 of my Incest May Be A Part Of My Life Series writing about the effects of Family Secrets. I wrote Part 6 which was Mixed Emotions Keep The Hurt Alive and then didn't write any thing else until a week later. I had been posting articles on Wednesdays and Sundays before September 16. I wanted the next article to be about forgiveness. Forgiven Is For You, Not The Other Person is the most difficult post that I have written so far so I will call that my favorite for September. You will find this article at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/09/forgiveness-is-for-you-not-other-person.html . The next article that I wrote practically wrote itself. I could hardly get the words typed fast enough after struggling so much with the first article on forgiveness. This article I called Prelude To Forgiveness. You can find it at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/09/prelude-to-forgiveness.html . These two articles should probably be reversed in the order that they were written but the emotions needed to be felt by me in Forgiveness Is For You, Not The Other Person before I could write either article.
September ended in pre-travel jitters which I expressed in my first four articles about India and Sathya Sai Baba.
October began with me being in India with no assess to a computer. My first article for October was posted on October 20 less than a week after I got home from India. My favorite article in October was called Expectations---India Trip found at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/10/expectations-india-trip.html . For this article, I borrowed a journal article that I wrote on the 22-hour airplane flight to Bangalore, India on September 24. I wanted to share with my readers what my expectations of the trip were before hand and how much better was what the Universe created for me during the trip. You would be amazed at how many blessings can come from the most severe sinus infection that I have ever had. You will have to read my articles listed under the India Category to find out.
November was a month of revelation after revelation for me. Most of them I wrote about in my November articles. For those articles, you can click on November 2007 under Blog Archives on the right side of the page of my blog. It is a difficult decision to decide which is my favorite from First Darshan In The Ashram---India Trip, Let's Talk About Spirit Guides Teleconference With Andrea Hess and Slade Roberson, and Compassion Begins With Me. Just click on November 2007 and you can read all three. If you haven't checked out the blogs of Slade Roberson found at http://sladeroberson.com/ and Andrea Hess at http://www.empoweredsould/blog/ , please do. They are just two of the wonderful new friends that I have made online this year through blogging.
December brought me back to writing about my incest issues and back in touch with my feelings which I talked about in Cry When You Need To and Feelings. In December I won a drawing that Paula Kawal had on her blog http://www.paulakawal.com/ . I wrote about that free session in the article Journey Within Coaching Session With Paula Kawal. That article gave me some relief from the emotional rollercoaster that I was experiencing in December. You will find that article at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/12/journey-within-coaching-session-with.html . Probably my favorite article that I wrote in December would probably be my shortest also. Are You Judging Others As Less Spiritual Than You? is found at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/12/are-you-judging-others-as-less.html . This is about a very valuable lesson that my husband and my higher self taught me several years ago.
I have completed 2007 with 3,246 views by readers of the 69 articles that I have written in the past six months of blogging. I have between 60-76 subscribers daily to my blog. I thank each and every one of you for subscribing or just visiting my blog. I know my figures are small and for the time that I have been blogging, I am pleased with the audience that I have slowly and steadily built around my blog. For me, 2007 has been a challenging year of completion. A friend of mine who is into numerology says that the year 2007 was a year of completion for everybody and that 2008 is a year of new beginnings. I look forward to 2008 with anticipation for what will come. I know that we will all have a glorious 2008. Thanks for sharing my journey.
If I had to come up with one word to envelope the entire year, it would have to be compassion. I ended the year with joining a meme on Survivor Needs inspired by Marj aka Thriver over at http://survivorscanthrive.blogspot.com/ . I also wrote a recent article called Compassion, The Ultimate Act of Love as a part of the Spread the Love Now! Group Writing Project sponsored by The Three Monks. You can check out their blogs by going to my article at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/12/compassion-ultimate-act-of-love.html . You can also check out my other two articles that I wrote about compassion by clicking on the word Compassion under Categories on the right side of the blog page. For those of you who are receiving this as an email, you will need to visit my blog at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/ . If you haven't actually visited my blog, please do so.
What have I written about on my blog this year?
The categories with the most included in them are Influencial People which has six articles, each written about someone special in my life. If you haven't read any of these articles, you are missing out by not meeting these people who have played a very important part in me becoming who I am today.
Another category which has the most number of articles is that of gratitude. Again, click on the word Gratitude under Categories on the right side of the blog page. Gratitude is a very important subject to me. It is one of the things that keeps me grounded, connected and humble. There has always been something that I could find to be grateful for in my life even at the lowest points. An Attitude of Gratitude is a great way to live your life. Nothing can keep you down for long when you are in a place of feeling grateful. Why look at what you don't have, when you can be grateful for what you do have. I believe it is especially important to acknowledge the people that you are grateful to. People are the ones that make the difference. Gratitude is a much more joyful place to be than the victim role. Even when I am in the middle of emotional turmoil, as I have been for the past two months, I can still find that I am grateful for the challenges of life because their presence means that I am growing.
The most important and most difficult articles that I have written this year are those from my Incest May Be A Part Of My Life Series. There are eight articles posted in that series. Those eight plus eight others are also included under the Category Incest. These are the articles that I have used to revisit my past, my childhood with all of its emotional turmoil of fear, rage, sadness and tears.
Why would I choose to revisit and stir up all of that?
Revisiting that gives me the opportunity to share all of the ways that I have healed from the childhood of abuse. Revisiting that gives me the opportunity to open the eyes of others that might be closed to the abuse of a child that they know. I also get the opportunity to share with other survivors the hope for their own healing and a compassion that can only come from someone who has been there. When you know that someone else has shared your journey, the words of compassion and caring mean so much more. Some people will tell you to just get over it without realizing, if it were that easy, we would have done it long ago.
That brings me to my next group of articles that you will find under the Category of Forgiveness. You will find six articles listed under Forgiveness that I wrote in 2007. I am so grateful that I have reached a point in my life that I could actually do true forgiveness. Some people never reach that point. For them, they are ok with not doing forgiveness. I hope that by sharing my own journey through to forgiveness that maybe someone else can reach that step. I recently read an article written by another sexual abuse survivor that was still in that "I am too rageful to want to do anything except hurt (KILL) my abusers." I remember being in that place myself. Then I was in a place of not knowing how to forgive and beating myself up for not being able to do it. Don't abuse yourself because you aren't there yet. It took me over thiry years to get there. Hopefully by sharing my journey to forgiveness, someone else can get there in less time than I did.
My highlight of the year, you will find written about in the articles under the Category of India. I was blessed with the abundance to financially be able to take a trip to India September 24-October 15, 2007. This was my third trip to India to visit Sathya Sai Baba. Some time in 2008, I will write some more articles on my visit and some background about Sai Baba for my readers that know nothing about this great spiritual teacher. Some of you will say, but you call yourself a Christian. Yes, I do. I don't see any conflict of interest there. Being a Sai Baba devotee enhances my Christian beliefs. Sai Baba himself says for us to stay home and worship God in whatever form we are comfortable with. He says we are all God. He remembers more about being God than we do. We all have the same ability to live life to its fullest, if we just remember Who we are.
Looking back through the year that this blog has been in existence, I have decided to choose some of my favorite articles to share with you. You will find a list of your favorites listed to the right on the blog page listed under Most Popular Posts. These are my favorites from each month.
My very first article that I posted on this blog was on June 1, 2007. The title of my favorite article for June 2007 was Three Of My Past Life Experiences. You will find it posted at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/06/three-of-my-past-life-experiences.html . This one is your least favorite. I know it really stretches the beliefs of a lot of people. When I wrote the article, I knew it would. I even said as much in the article. All I ask is that you be willing to be open to the possibility of past lives and reincarnation. That is all any of us can do with new experiences. I didn't always believe in reincarnation. My views over the past ten years have changed.
During July, I built on my Favorite People series of articles with writing articles 2-5. It would be difficult for me to choose which of those is my favorite. I love them all. Your favorite was #4 which I called The Most Influencial Person---#4---Birth Of A Dream which I wrote as a tribute to my friend Slade Roberson who gave me the encouragement and know how to start this blog in the first place. The book, The Secret, was very popular at this time also because it touched on The Law Of Attraction which is still very popular on the internet. I wrote several articles on The Secret during July. The first of those articles and probably my favorite for July was The Secret---Loving Yourself which you will find at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/07/secret-loving-yourself.html .
August started with the article What Good Will You Allow God To Do Through You? which you will find at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-good-will-you-allow-god-to-do.html . This was the month that I started writing my Incest May Be A Part Of My Life Series. This series started out with a warning. Warning: Reading the following series may be injurious to your peace of mind. They are intended to be. Without knowledge, we cannot prevent child abuse from happening. Go beyond this point at your own risk. Join me for the painful, frightening, emotional, freeing journey. I am very appreciative of your response to all of these articles. Your comments have told me that my purpose in writing these is being accomplished. How many more articles will be included in this series? At this point, I don't know. You will know as soon as I do. As long as the words continue to flow, the articles will come. Of course, that is true for the whole blog, isn't it?
In August, Priscilla Palmer started a monumental task of posting the names of the personal development blogs that existed on the internet. You will find her list posted at http://www.priscillapalmer.com/priscillapalmer/ . I have found some really great blogs by going through her list.
Probably my favorite article that I wrote in August came from the inspiration of Carol Ann Meadows, a dear friend whose death on December 1, 2005, I was still grieving this December. The article is called What Other People Think About You Is None Of Your Business. You will find this article at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/08/what-other-people-think-about-you-is.html .
In September, I was up to Part 5 of my Incest May Be A Part Of My Life Series writing about the effects of Family Secrets. I wrote Part 6 which was Mixed Emotions Keep The Hurt Alive and then didn't write any thing else until a week later. I had been posting articles on Wednesdays and Sundays before September 16. I wanted the next article to be about forgiveness. Forgiven Is For You, Not The Other Person is the most difficult post that I have written so far so I will call that my favorite for September. You will find this article at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/09/forgiveness-is-for-you-not-other-person.html . The next article that I wrote practically wrote itself. I could hardly get the words typed fast enough after struggling so much with the first article on forgiveness. This article I called Prelude To Forgiveness. You can find it at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/09/prelude-to-forgiveness.html . These two articles should probably be reversed in the order that they were written but the emotions needed to be felt by me in Forgiveness Is For You, Not The Other Person before I could write either article.
September ended in pre-travel jitters which I expressed in my first four articles about India and Sathya Sai Baba.
October began with me being in India with no assess to a computer. My first article for October was posted on October 20 less than a week after I got home from India. My favorite article in October was called Expectations---India Trip found at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/10/expectations-india-trip.html . For this article, I borrowed a journal article that I wrote on the 22-hour airplane flight to Bangalore, India on September 24. I wanted to share with my readers what my expectations of the trip were before hand and how much better was what the Universe created for me during the trip. You would be amazed at how many blessings can come from the most severe sinus infection that I have ever had. You will have to read my articles listed under the India Category to find out.
November was a month of revelation after revelation for me. Most of them I wrote about in my November articles. For those articles, you can click on November 2007 under Blog Archives on the right side of the page of my blog. It is a difficult decision to decide which is my favorite from First Darshan In The Ashram---India Trip, Let's Talk About Spirit Guides Teleconference With Andrea Hess and Slade Roberson, and Compassion Begins With Me. Just click on November 2007 and you can read all three. If you haven't checked out the blogs of Slade Roberson found at http://sladeroberson.com/ and Andrea Hess at http://www.empoweredsould/blog/ , please do. They are just two of the wonderful new friends that I have made online this year through blogging.
December brought me back to writing about my incest issues and back in touch with my feelings which I talked about in Cry When You Need To and Feelings. In December I won a drawing that Paula Kawal had on her blog http://www.paulakawal.com/ . I wrote about that free session in the article Journey Within Coaching Session With Paula Kawal. That article gave me some relief from the emotional rollercoaster that I was experiencing in December. You will find that article at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/12/journey-within-coaching-session-with.html . Probably my favorite article that I wrote in December would probably be my shortest also. Are You Judging Others As Less Spiritual Than You? is found at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/12/are-you-judging-others-as-less.html . This is about a very valuable lesson that my husband and my higher self taught me several years ago.
I have completed 2007 with 3,246 views by readers of the 69 articles that I have written in the past six months of blogging. I have between 60-76 subscribers daily to my blog. I thank each and every one of you for subscribing or just visiting my blog. I know my figures are small and for the time that I have been blogging, I am pleased with the audience that I have slowly and steadily built around my blog. For me, 2007 has been a challenging year of completion. A friend of mine who is into numerology says that the year 2007 was a year of completion for everybody and that 2008 is a year of new beginnings. I look forward to 2008 with anticipation for what will come. I know that we will all have a glorious 2008. Thanks for sharing my journey.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Compassion, The Ultimate Act Of Love
I have been intending to write this article for awhile and because of where I was emotionally I did not think that I could do it justice. I did not want any of my emotional upset to effect the story that I want to tell.
This is a story of compassion and love demonstrated by a simple act of kindness and caring by a husband for his wife.
The Three Monks are doing a Spread the Love Now! Group Writing Project. For the rules for submitting an article go to one of their websites.
http://www.urbanmonk.net/233/spread-the-love-now-group-writing-project/
http://kentonwhitman.com/blog/2007/12/21/spread-the-love-now-group-writing-project/
http://themiddleway.net/2007/12/21/spread-the-love-now-group-writing-project
Well, just a few days ago, I did a reading from The Healing Runes written by Ralph H. Blum and Susat Loughan. Of the three Runes that I drew, the second one was Compassion. The other two were Courage and Acceptance.
The following quote from the book may sound familiar to my regular readers because I have used it before. It is appropriate to the sharing of my story. On page 116, the book states, "It has been said that when we have compassion for one another, we shall be of one mind. For in living a compassionate life, we are practicing the Presence of God in a simple and universal way. Drawing this Rune reminds us to take time to show compassion for those we meet on our healing journey." The book goes on to say, ". . . remember to have compassion for yourself." This Rune further reminds us to look at the world through the eyes of compassion.
I drew the Rune for Compassion quite a bit while I was in India and since I have been back home. One of the best examples of compassion that I have ever seen was when I was at the ashram of Sathya Sai Baba in Puttiparthi, India.
My friend Ki does foot reflexology. She was staying near the ashram when my friend Sherryl and I arrived. Ki invited Sherryl and I to go with her to meet a couple from Austria. Ki thought that maybe Sherryl could do some healing work on the wife with her Reiki and Cranio-sacral adjustments that Sherryl is trained to do as well as being a massage therapist. I was too sick to accompany them for the first two visits.
On the third visit, I went with Ki and Sherryl to visit Hans and Marguerite. Marguerite had been paralyzed and not able to move anything except her head for over two months when we met her. She had been diagnosed with Gillian Barre Syndrome. Sherryl has known three other people who had contracted the disease back in the United States so she was able to give Hans and Marguerite some encouraging information about the disease. Two of the three people had complete recoveries from the disease. The third person was Sherryl's elderly uncle who only recovered partially. Because of his advanced age, he still walks with the aid of canes. Sherryl was able to tell Marguerite that since she was in her thirties and did not need mechanical help with breathing that she would probably have a full recovery. When Sherryl was massaging Marguerite's leg muscles, Marguerite felt pain from the muscles cramping. Sherryl was able to tell her that it was good news. Her muscles were beginning to get the feeling back in them so recovery was already beginning.
The most compassionate moment that I was blessed to be able to see was between Marguerite and her husband Hans who was her major caregiver during the entire two months that she had been completely helpless. Hans worked very hard to make sure that Marguerite was as comfortable as he could make her during this whole time. Sherryl's words gave Hans encouragement also. Hans was able to find people who could come in and do reflexology and massage to help keep Marguerite's muscles from atrophying.
As Ki was doing reflexology on Hans' feet and Sherryl was doing a massage on Marguerite's legs, I sat at their dining room table watching and holding the safe space for the healing work of the other two and sending Reiki energy to both Hans and Marguerite.
As tired as Hans was, he was always very gentle and loving towards Marguerite. She would ask a question or make a comment and he would patiently answer her. At one point, Marguerite gave a little cry of pain and then asked Hans a question. Hans gently and lovingly reached out and patted Marguerite's hand as he softly talked to her answering her question and reassuring her.
This simple act of patting Marguerite's hand was the most loving act of compassion that I have ever experienced. This simple act spoke volumes. I felt so blessed to be a part of the love and healing that took place in that small room.
That was the most beautiful experience that I had during my trip to India. I think that I have hesitated to share this experience because it was so personal and I was afraid that I would not do it justice in describing it. Three Monks, thanks for giving me a reason to make the attempt.
What better time than the Christmas season to spread some love.
This is a story of compassion and love demonstrated by a simple act of kindness and caring by a husband for his wife.
The Three Monks are doing a Spread the Love Now! Group Writing Project. For the rules for submitting an article go to one of their websites.
http://www.urbanmonk.net/233/spread-the-love-now-group-writing-project/
http://kentonwhitman.com/blog/2007/12/21/spread-the-love-now-group-writing-project/
http://themiddleway.net/2007/12/21/spread-the-love-now-group-writing-project
Well, just a few days ago, I did a reading from The Healing Runes written by Ralph H. Blum and Susat Loughan. Of the three Runes that I drew, the second one was Compassion. The other two were Courage and Acceptance.
The following quote from the book may sound familiar to my regular readers because I have used it before. It is appropriate to the sharing of my story. On page 116, the book states, "It has been said that when we have compassion for one another, we shall be of one mind. For in living a compassionate life, we are practicing the Presence of God in a simple and universal way. Drawing this Rune reminds us to take time to show compassion for those we meet on our healing journey." The book goes on to say, ". . . remember to have compassion for yourself." This Rune further reminds us to look at the world through the eyes of compassion.
I drew the Rune for Compassion quite a bit while I was in India and since I have been back home. One of the best examples of compassion that I have ever seen was when I was at the ashram of Sathya Sai Baba in Puttiparthi, India.
My friend Ki does foot reflexology. She was staying near the ashram when my friend Sherryl and I arrived. Ki invited Sherryl and I to go with her to meet a couple from Austria. Ki thought that maybe Sherryl could do some healing work on the wife with her Reiki and Cranio-sacral adjustments that Sherryl is trained to do as well as being a massage therapist. I was too sick to accompany them for the first two visits.
On the third visit, I went with Ki and Sherryl to visit Hans and Marguerite. Marguerite had been paralyzed and not able to move anything except her head for over two months when we met her. She had been diagnosed with Gillian Barre Syndrome. Sherryl has known three other people who had contracted the disease back in the United States so she was able to give Hans and Marguerite some encouraging information about the disease. Two of the three people had complete recoveries from the disease. The third person was Sherryl's elderly uncle who only recovered partially. Because of his advanced age, he still walks with the aid of canes. Sherryl was able to tell Marguerite that since she was in her thirties and did not need mechanical help with breathing that she would probably have a full recovery. When Sherryl was massaging Marguerite's leg muscles, Marguerite felt pain from the muscles cramping. Sherryl was able to tell her that it was good news. Her muscles were beginning to get the feeling back in them so recovery was already beginning.
The most compassionate moment that I was blessed to be able to see was between Marguerite and her husband Hans who was her major caregiver during the entire two months that she had been completely helpless. Hans worked very hard to make sure that Marguerite was as comfortable as he could make her during this whole time. Sherryl's words gave Hans encouragement also. Hans was able to find people who could come in and do reflexology and massage to help keep Marguerite's muscles from atrophying.
As Ki was doing reflexology on Hans' feet and Sherryl was doing a massage on Marguerite's legs, I sat at their dining room table watching and holding the safe space for the healing work of the other two and sending Reiki energy to both Hans and Marguerite.
As tired as Hans was, he was always very gentle and loving towards Marguerite. She would ask a question or make a comment and he would patiently answer her. At one point, Marguerite gave a little cry of pain and then asked Hans a question. Hans gently and lovingly reached out and patted Marguerite's hand as he softly talked to her answering her question and reassuring her.
This simple act of patting Marguerite's hand was the most loving act of compassion that I have ever experienced. This simple act spoke volumes. I felt so blessed to be a part of the love and healing that took place in that small room.
That was the most beautiful experience that I had during my trip to India. I think that I have hesitated to share this experience because it was so personal and I was afraid that I would not do it justice in describing it. Three Monks, thanks for giving me a reason to make the attempt.
What better time than the Christmas season to spread some love.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
First Darshan In The Ashram---India Trip
During our first darshan in the ashram, I was sitting and talking with my friend, Ki as we waited for Sathya Sai Baba to appear. A young-looking 40-year-old Indian lady was sitting close enough to overhear our conversation. I was catching Ki up on some of my activities of my life over the last few years since we last saw each other.
I was telling Ki that I got kicked out of the church that I have been a member of for almost 10 years. I was one of the infamous 12 that the minister kicked out of the church because we chose to disagree with her.
I went on to share with Ki that I realized that my anger with this person was way out of character for the situation that I found myself in even before she kicked me out of the church so I looked deeper inside of myself to see where my anger (I really should call it rage.) was coming from. Over a period of a year, I got information from a past life that I had shared with this lady and her husband of this life time. The first information that I got was of him as a river boat captain. In a meditation that he was leading at the church on a Sunday morning, I suddenly saw such a clear image of him in my mind. He had a handlebar mustache from the 1800's. He was in a uniform. A friend gave me the information that he was a river boat captain and that he was my husband in that life time. My inner voice confirmed the information. Over the next year, I received bits and pieces of information about this past life. The final piece came from a vision that I had of me being thrown overboard his ship. I drowned. With this last bit of information, I was able to say that I forgave all three of us for the parts that we played in that past life. I was no longer angry at either of them or at myself for the parts that we each played. My rage was gone almost from one thought to the next. It simply wasn't there. I know that I had probably fed some of her anger at me by my reactions to her.
The young Indian lady was avidly listening to my story as I shared it with Ki. When I finished my story, the Indian lady said that she had read the book Many Masters, Many Lives. I told her that I had also read it and it was written by Brian Weiss. She agreed. The book was written about his study of reincarnation.
The young Indian lady told us that she was at the ashram to enroll her 14-year-old son into Swami's School. She told us that when the Indian government would do nothing to help the area people get clean water, that Swami stepped in and got it done. I have read from other sources that Swami has helped to bring clean water, electricity, free education and free hospitals to parts of India when the government seemed helpless to do much.
The Indian lady told us that in July for two weeks she was very, very sick and in the hospital. She decided that she was going to die. She told us that there was a picture of Sathya Sai Baba high up on the wall at the foot of her hospital bed. She started talking to Swami's picture. He talked back to her and told her that it was not her time to die yet. The picture started making vibhuti (sacred ash which is a signature thing that articles tied to Sai Baba sometimes do, especially pictures). She said that almost overnight, she got well. The doctors did not understand how someone who was as sick as she was made such a quick recovery. She never questioned why. She knew.
The second wonderful story that this kind lady shared with us had to do with the birth of her son. She told us that her son has two birthdays. When she was pregnant with her son, her due date was on November 23 which is also Swami's birthday. Her husband told her that he would not be around on November 23 to take her to the hospital or to bring her home after the delivery on November 23 so she would need to have the baby either before or after that date. She was so upset and stressed by this news. She wanted her son to be born on Swami's birthday and she wanted her husband around for the birth and to take her home afterwards. She became very depressed over the situation. Her mother and aunt told her to write to Swami about the situation and her feelings about it. She did.
She told Swami, in the letter, that she wanted her son to be born on Swami's birthday but that her husband could not be there at that time. She asked if her son could be born on November 7 instead to suit her husband's schedule.
Well, on November 7, her son was born. On November 23, her son got very, very sick. The doctors thought that he would die and told her and her mother that there was nothing else that they could do. Her mother told her to pray to Swami and told the doctors to keep working on the little boy. I am not sure whether the baby actually died or not. In the crowd that we were sitting in, it was sometimes difficult to hear everything being said. What I did hear her say was that her son was born a second time on November 23. According to her, things happened exactly as she had asked Swami in her original letter written before the birth of her son. She told us that her son was born on November 7 and again a second time on November 23.
I thought this was such a wonderful story to be told on one of my first days at the ashram. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Some might even say these were miracles. These are just two examples of the kind of "miracles" that Sai Baba devotees from around the world report from their close association with Swami's love. If you are interested in more stories of this type, check out the list of books written about Sai Baba from my article found at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/09/books-about-sathya-sai-baba-holy-man.html
Each book that I have read about Sai Baba is usually full of stories like the above.
I was telling Ki that I got kicked out of the church that I have been a member of for almost 10 years. I was one of the infamous 12 that the minister kicked out of the church because we chose to disagree with her.
I went on to share with Ki that I realized that my anger with this person was way out of character for the situation that I found myself in even before she kicked me out of the church so I looked deeper inside of myself to see where my anger (I really should call it rage.) was coming from. Over a period of a year, I got information from a past life that I had shared with this lady and her husband of this life time. The first information that I got was of him as a river boat captain. In a meditation that he was leading at the church on a Sunday morning, I suddenly saw such a clear image of him in my mind. He had a handlebar mustache from the 1800's. He was in a uniform. A friend gave me the information that he was a river boat captain and that he was my husband in that life time. My inner voice confirmed the information. Over the next year, I received bits and pieces of information about this past life. The final piece came from a vision that I had of me being thrown overboard his ship. I drowned. With this last bit of information, I was able to say that I forgave all three of us for the parts that we played in that past life. I was no longer angry at either of them or at myself for the parts that we each played. My rage was gone almost from one thought to the next. It simply wasn't there. I know that I had probably fed some of her anger at me by my reactions to her.
The young Indian lady was avidly listening to my story as I shared it with Ki. When I finished my story, the Indian lady said that she had read the book Many Masters, Many Lives. I told her that I had also read it and it was written by Brian Weiss. She agreed. The book was written about his study of reincarnation.
The young Indian lady told us that she was at the ashram to enroll her 14-year-old son into Swami's School. She told us that when the Indian government would do nothing to help the area people get clean water, that Swami stepped in and got it done. I have read from other sources that Swami has helped to bring clean water, electricity, free education and free hospitals to parts of India when the government seemed helpless to do much.
The Indian lady told us that in July for two weeks she was very, very sick and in the hospital. She decided that she was going to die. She told us that there was a picture of Sathya Sai Baba high up on the wall at the foot of her hospital bed. She started talking to Swami's picture. He talked back to her and told her that it was not her time to die yet. The picture started making vibhuti (sacred ash which is a signature thing that articles tied to Sai Baba sometimes do, especially pictures). She said that almost overnight, she got well. The doctors did not understand how someone who was as sick as she was made such a quick recovery. She never questioned why. She knew.
The second wonderful story that this kind lady shared with us had to do with the birth of her son. She told us that her son has two birthdays. When she was pregnant with her son, her due date was on November 23 which is also Swami's birthday. Her husband told her that he would not be around on November 23 to take her to the hospital or to bring her home after the delivery on November 23 so she would need to have the baby either before or after that date. She was so upset and stressed by this news. She wanted her son to be born on Swami's birthday and she wanted her husband around for the birth and to take her home afterwards. She became very depressed over the situation. Her mother and aunt told her to write to Swami about the situation and her feelings about it. She did.
She told Swami, in the letter, that she wanted her son to be born on Swami's birthday but that her husband could not be there at that time. She asked if her son could be born on November 7 instead to suit her husband's schedule.
Well, on November 7, her son was born. On November 23, her son got very, very sick. The doctors thought that he would die and told her and her mother that there was nothing else that they could do. Her mother told her to pray to Swami and told the doctors to keep working on the little boy. I am not sure whether the baby actually died or not. In the crowd that we were sitting in, it was sometimes difficult to hear everything being said. What I did hear her say was that her son was born a second time on November 23. According to her, things happened exactly as she had asked Swami in her original letter written before the birth of her son. She told us that her son was born on November 7 and again a second time on November 23.
I thought this was such a wonderful story to be told on one of my first days at the ashram. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Some might even say these were miracles. These are just two examples of the kind of "miracles" that Sai Baba devotees from around the world report from their close association with Swami's love. If you are interested in more stories of this type, check out the list of books written about Sai Baba from my article found at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/09/books-about-sathya-sai-baba-holy-man.html
Each book that I have read about Sai Baba is usually full of stories like the above.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
A Season Of Gratitude---Home From India
Nneka at Balanced Life Center http://www.balancedlifecenter.com/272-2007-season-of-gratitude-invitation/ has sent out an invitation to write and post articles on the subject of what you are grateful for in your life. She is the inspiration for me writing this article. Thanks, Nneka.
After coming back from each trip to India, this one in Sept./Oct. 2007 and the previous ones in March/April 1998 and July/August 1999, I am always grateful that I was born an American this lifetime. Most Americans have no idea how truly blessed they are by being born in a land of plenty. Believe it or not, but even our poor are rich by India standards. Maybe it is the sheer numbers of beggars that you see on the streets of India but there is a difference. I do know that many Indians looked at my American friend and I and saw "rich" Americans. To begin with, the money that we spent to fly from Arkansas to India and back is much more than the lower class in India makes in probably several years. By American standards, my friend and I are in middle class America, far from being rich, money-wise.
I am rich in so many other ways. Money-wise, I have the money to save and spend on my basic needs and a few luxuries. Basic needs of water, food and shelter, in America, are considered luxuries by some in India. In India, from what I have seen (I have only been to southern India.), there are two classes of people---the very poor and the very rich. There may be other classes in between these two, but they aren't very visable if they exist.
I come back from my India trips extremely grateful for clean, running, hot water and electricity. A warm shower feels so good at the end of a long day. Drinking water out of a faucet is definitely appreciated. Try brushing your teeth with water out of a bottle to see how convenient it is.
Electricity that is always available with a rare interruption of power is wonderful. Electricity is available but goes off at least once a day for 2-10 minutes at a time in the ashram.
In the hotel that we stayed in at Bangalore, we actually had a bathtub which my roommate loved. I prefer a shower. I never have liked sitting in dirty water. The water for showers in the ashram might get to luke warm during the middle of the afternoon. In the early mornings, after a night of sweating from my sinus infection fevers, the water was cold, especially if I still have a fever. After the initial gasp of shock, the water didn't feel so cold. At night if you took a shower before going to bed, the water was back to being cold. It is so nice to have warm water coming from your shower. As I have stated in one of my earlier articles, our room at the Brindavin ashram in Whitefield which is just outside of Bangalore (our first India trip), we had a faucet near the floor, a drain in the floor and a bucket and dipper which was what our shower consisted of.
I am grateful for soft toilet paper that moves with your hand and doesn't stick to the first part of your bottom that it touches. I know you are probably laughing at that one but it is true. I am grateful for toilet paper that didn't just come straight off of the tree with wood fibers that you can actually see still in it. Soft is very, very nice. If you ever go to India, buy the biggest rolls that you can find and take several with you depending upon how long your trip is. You can buy what they call toilet paper in the stores there. You will wish that you had listened when I said buy your own from home and take it with you.
I am grateful for my soft bed. I didn't realize how soft it was until I got back home after my most recent trip. Even in the hotel, the bed was hard as the floor. Actually, the floor might have been softer. I tried two mattresses on my bed in the ashram and my friend who is afraid of bedbugs had us take my husband's two blow up mattresses that he uses for sleeping out on hiking trips. Ever those blow up mattresses didn't make the beds any softer. Do I hear you saying, "She really is a very spoiled American." Hey, I admit it. I am spoiled by the American life style. I had no idea that I was spoiled until my first trip to India. I am also very grateful for this life style, even more so after these trips. That is why I have trouble believing the Indian Astrologer who said I would eventually retire in India at the ashram and just come back to the USA occasionally to visit family. Is he out of his mind? Do he and Swami know something that I don't? We will see what the future brings. It is truly full of possibilities.
I am grateful for hot food that doesn't burn my tongue and my throat and everything else that it touches with pepper. Mexican food is not hot compared to Indian food. What I thought of as hot Mexican food is no problem to eat after a trip to India. Hot and spicy is worse when you have a sore throat from sinus drainage. I love their hot food when I don't have a sore throat. I drink lots of lots of water to cool the fire of each bite.
I love cool weather of the Fall days of October in the USA. Temperatures were in the high 80's to low or mid-90's when we were at Puttiparthi. I love not sweating. Next time I will take a thermometer with me so I will know exactly what the high for each day is.
I am grateful for being back home with my friends and family. Mail moves much slower in India than in the U.S. I got home quicker than some of the post cards that I mailed home on my first week in India. We didn't take my friend's cell phone. She doesn't have international service on it and I don't own a cell phone. My husband thinks it is an expense that we can live without. There was a phone place that we could go to near our room in the ashram. I told this story in one of my other articles. Calling home is difficult because of the time differences. 10:00 a.m. India time was near midnight Arkansas time the one time that I called and spoke to Daniel.
I did have to come home and tell my husband that, "Yes, they do have cell phones in India." As one of my new friends stated in jest, "Why, even the dogs in the ashram have their own cell phones." I saw an article in the newspaper on our second day in the hotel that said that the use of cell phones was beginning to be the cause of auto accidents in Bangalore. Some of the drivers are beginning to be distracted from their driving because of cell phone calls. Believe me, driving in India takes your full attention. You cannot drive intuitively and be distracted by a phone conversation. I don't even want to talk to the driver and possibly distract him from his driving when we are in the taxi or motorized rickshaw. One Indian hotel employee laughingly offered us a ride on his motor scooter. I laughingly refused. No thank you. Not enough protection between me and the other drivers. A rickshaw does offer some protection from dents and bruises. Scooters usually have one-three riders at a time. Not for me. My adventurous spirit does not go for foolhardy.
In case you can't tell already, I AM GRATEFUL TO BE AN AMERICAN. THANK YOU, GOD FOR THE PRIVILEGDE OF BEING BORN AN AMERICAN.
After coming back from each trip to India, this one in Sept./Oct. 2007 and the previous ones in March/April 1998 and July/August 1999, I am always grateful that I was born an American this lifetime. Most Americans have no idea how truly blessed they are by being born in a land of plenty. Believe it or not, but even our poor are rich by India standards. Maybe it is the sheer numbers of beggars that you see on the streets of India but there is a difference. I do know that many Indians looked at my American friend and I and saw "rich" Americans. To begin with, the money that we spent to fly from Arkansas to India and back is much more than the lower class in India makes in probably several years. By American standards, my friend and I are in middle class America, far from being rich, money-wise.
I am rich in so many other ways. Money-wise, I have the money to save and spend on my basic needs and a few luxuries. Basic needs of water, food and shelter, in America, are considered luxuries by some in India. In India, from what I have seen (I have only been to southern India.), there are two classes of people---the very poor and the very rich. There may be other classes in between these two, but they aren't very visable if they exist.
I come back from my India trips extremely grateful for clean, running, hot water and electricity. A warm shower feels so good at the end of a long day. Drinking water out of a faucet is definitely appreciated. Try brushing your teeth with water out of a bottle to see how convenient it is.
Electricity that is always available with a rare interruption of power is wonderful. Electricity is available but goes off at least once a day for 2-10 minutes at a time in the ashram.
In the hotel that we stayed in at Bangalore, we actually had a bathtub which my roommate loved. I prefer a shower. I never have liked sitting in dirty water. The water for showers in the ashram might get to luke warm during the middle of the afternoon. In the early mornings, after a night of sweating from my sinus infection fevers, the water was cold, especially if I still have a fever. After the initial gasp of shock, the water didn't feel so cold. At night if you took a shower before going to bed, the water was back to being cold. It is so nice to have warm water coming from your shower. As I have stated in one of my earlier articles, our room at the Brindavin ashram in Whitefield which is just outside of Bangalore (our first India trip), we had a faucet near the floor, a drain in the floor and a bucket and dipper which was what our shower consisted of.
I am grateful for soft toilet paper that moves with your hand and doesn't stick to the first part of your bottom that it touches. I know you are probably laughing at that one but it is true. I am grateful for toilet paper that didn't just come straight off of the tree with wood fibers that you can actually see still in it. Soft is very, very nice. If you ever go to India, buy the biggest rolls that you can find and take several with you depending upon how long your trip is. You can buy what they call toilet paper in the stores there. You will wish that you had listened when I said buy your own from home and take it with you.
I am grateful for my soft bed. I didn't realize how soft it was until I got back home after my most recent trip. Even in the hotel, the bed was hard as the floor. Actually, the floor might have been softer. I tried two mattresses on my bed in the ashram and my friend who is afraid of bedbugs had us take my husband's two blow up mattresses that he uses for sleeping out on hiking trips. Ever those blow up mattresses didn't make the beds any softer. Do I hear you saying, "She really is a very spoiled American." Hey, I admit it. I am spoiled by the American life style. I had no idea that I was spoiled until my first trip to India. I am also very grateful for this life style, even more so after these trips. That is why I have trouble believing the Indian Astrologer who said I would eventually retire in India at the ashram and just come back to the USA occasionally to visit family. Is he out of his mind? Do he and Swami know something that I don't? We will see what the future brings. It is truly full of possibilities.
I am grateful for hot food that doesn't burn my tongue and my throat and everything else that it touches with pepper. Mexican food is not hot compared to Indian food. What I thought of as hot Mexican food is no problem to eat after a trip to India. Hot and spicy is worse when you have a sore throat from sinus drainage. I love their hot food when I don't have a sore throat. I drink lots of lots of water to cool the fire of each bite.
I love cool weather of the Fall days of October in the USA. Temperatures were in the high 80's to low or mid-90's when we were at Puttiparthi. I love not sweating. Next time I will take a thermometer with me so I will know exactly what the high for each day is.
I am grateful for being back home with my friends and family. Mail moves much slower in India than in the U.S. I got home quicker than some of the post cards that I mailed home on my first week in India. We didn't take my friend's cell phone. She doesn't have international service on it and I don't own a cell phone. My husband thinks it is an expense that we can live without. There was a phone place that we could go to near our room in the ashram. I told this story in one of my other articles. Calling home is difficult because of the time differences. 10:00 a.m. India time was near midnight Arkansas time the one time that I called and spoke to Daniel.
I did have to come home and tell my husband that, "Yes, they do have cell phones in India." As one of my new friends stated in jest, "Why, even the dogs in the ashram have their own cell phones." I saw an article in the newspaper on our second day in the hotel that said that the use of cell phones was beginning to be the cause of auto accidents in Bangalore. Some of the drivers are beginning to be distracted from their driving because of cell phone calls. Believe me, driving in India takes your full attention. You cannot drive intuitively and be distracted by a phone conversation. I don't even want to talk to the driver and possibly distract him from his driving when we are in the taxi or motorized rickshaw. One Indian hotel employee laughingly offered us a ride on his motor scooter. I laughingly refused. No thank you. Not enough protection between me and the other drivers. A rickshaw does offer some protection from dents and bruises. Scooters usually have one-three riders at a time. Not for me. My adventurous spirit does not go for foolhardy.
In case you can't tell already, I AM GRATEFUL TO BE AN AMERICAN. THANK YOU, GOD FOR THE PRIVILEGDE OF BEING BORN AN AMERICAN.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Expectations---India trip
A friend asked me to talk about my India trip to her library group on Wednesday, October 24. I told her that it was too soon to talk about my trip in front of a group yet. I am still processing everything that happened and all of the lessons that I learned, most of which came about because of my illness. I am still not ready to face a crowd of people yet either. The few times that I have gotten out this week have really drained my energy. I feel like I am still on India time. I have been in bed between 9:00-10:00 p.m. every night since I have been home and I wake up between 4:30-6:00 a.m. just like I did in India. Rather than get out of bed that early, I will usually turn on one of my meditation tapes and listen to that until at least 7:00 a.m. before I get up. Before this trip, I would go to bed between midnight and 2:00 a.m. and get up between 10:00-11:00 a.m. every day. I am over jet lag and have been emailing and talking to friends about my India experiences so I decided it is time to start writing about all of those experiences.
Before I started writing, I went back and reread my articles that I wrote about my previous India trips to make sure that I don't repeat what I have already written. So here goes.
From my journal entry on Monday, September 24, 2007, somewhere flying over the Atlantic Ocean. (I don't know how many time zones we have gone through, so it may be early Tuesday, September 25 already.)
"What do I expect from this trip to visit Sai Baba? I feel a bubble of joy go through me when I realize we are really doing this. I want to meditate more and write more while we are in India. (I took extra ink pens, paper and notebooks to have on hand to be able to do all of this extra writing, none of which happened. I did get one article written that I will post at a future date but I was too sick to do any other writing than in my journal each day.)
I want to hear the Universal OM that I experienced on my last trip to Puttaparthi where when I listened even the heavy construction machinery seemed to be saying OM. I want to hear and feel that Universal vibration of creation again. (I didn't hear the OM that I heard my last trip, no matter how much I tried. What I did hear was almost constant chanting. I couldn't tell you the words but I knew it was chanting.)
I want to feel and know that I am God, that we all are God united as One. I want to come home with that inner glow that Ric says I came home with after my first trip. (No one has told me that I am glowing but I "KNOW" that I am different than when I left home on this trip. I also came home at least 10 pounds lighter because of being so sick and not eating much.)
I want to give cheerfully of myself in service at the food cantina helping to dry dishes after meals. (We were too busy doing other things and learning other lessons to do much of this on our first trip to Puttaparthi. I told Swami that when I came back to India on my next trip that I would do more service in the kitchen after meals.) During our first trip to India, when we were working in the kitchens at the Brindavin ashram in Whitefield, I was given the honor of drying Swami's dishes after one of the meals. I wanted to keep it to myself and I wanted to share it with Sherryl and Ki and the rest of the world that I was chosen for that honor from a whole room of women. (Swami had other plans for us this trip too. We only ate in the cantina 3 times and the only time we helped dry dishes, Sherryl's fingers started to bleed from being in the hot water. This wasn't the form of service that Swami had in mind for us.)
I want to experience the joy of meeting new friends from all corners of the planet. In KodaiKanal in 1998, we sang bhajans (songs of worship to God) with ladies from Russia who had beautiful voices but didn't speak any English and we didn't speak any Russian.
On a roadside in the middle of nowhere, I sang bhajans with a black man from Jamaica who was my teacher at the time and a beautiful spirit of a lady from Romania who spoke more with her heart and her beautiful, loving eyes than she did with her broken English. We sang while we watched the sun rise and everyone else was asleep in our broken down, rented van while we waited to be rescued. That was an experience that I will always cherish because we were three hearts touching and becoming One heart beat as we watched the beauty of Nature unfold for us in the quiet of an early morning."
These were my expectations of what I thought would happen on this trip to India. These were the things that I wanted to happen this trip. As you can tell from my added comments, Swami often had other plans for us.
Before I started writing, I went back and reread my articles that I wrote about my previous India trips to make sure that I don't repeat what I have already written. So here goes.
From my journal entry on Monday, September 24, 2007, somewhere flying over the Atlantic Ocean. (I don't know how many time zones we have gone through, so it may be early Tuesday, September 25 already.)
"What do I expect from this trip to visit Sai Baba? I feel a bubble of joy go through me when I realize we are really doing this. I want to meditate more and write more while we are in India. (I took extra ink pens, paper and notebooks to have on hand to be able to do all of this extra writing, none of which happened. I did get one article written that I will post at a future date but I was too sick to do any other writing than in my journal each day.)
I want to hear the Universal OM that I experienced on my last trip to Puttaparthi where when I listened even the heavy construction machinery seemed to be saying OM. I want to hear and feel that Universal vibration of creation again. (I didn't hear the OM that I heard my last trip, no matter how much I tried. What I did hear was almost constant chanting. I couldn't tell you the words but I knew it was chanting.)
I want to feel and know that I am God, that we all are God united as One. I want to come home with that inner glow that Ric says I came home with after my first trip. (No one has told me that I am glowing but I "KNOW" that I am different than when I left home on this trip. I also came home at least 10 pounds lighter because of being so sick and not eating much.)
I want to give cheerfully of myself in service at the food cantina helping to dry dishes after meals. (We were too busy doing other things and learning other lessons to do much of this on our first trip to Puttaparthi. I told Swami that when I came back to India on my next trip that I would do more service in the kitchen after meals.) During our first trip to India, when we were working in the kitchens at the Brindavin ashram in Whitefield, I was given the honor of drying Swami's dishes after one of the meals. I wanted to keep it to myself and I wanted to share it with Sherryl and Ki and the rest of the world that I was chosen for that honor from a whole room of women. (Swami had other plans for us this trip too. We only ate in the cantina 3 times and the only time we helped dry dishes, Sherryl's fingers started to bleed from being in the hot water. This wasn't the form of service that Swami had in mind for us.)
I want to experience the joy of meeting new friends from all corners of the planet. In KodaiKanal in 1998, we sang bhajans (songs of worship to God) with ladies from Russia who had beautiful voices but didn't speak any English and we didn't speak any Russian.
On a roadside in the middle of nowhere, I sang bhajans with a black man from Jamaica who was my teacher at the time and a beautiful spirit of a lady from Romania who spoke more with her heart and her beautiful, loving eyes than she did with her broken English. We sang while we watched the sun rise and everyone else was asleep in our broken down, rented van while we waited to be rescued. That was an experience that I will always cherish because we were three hearts touching and becoming One heart beat as we watched the beauty of Nature unfold for us in the quiet of an early morning."
These were my expectations of what I thought would happen on this trip to India. These were the things that I wanted to happen this trip. As you can tell from my added comments, Swami often had other plans for us.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
A Tribute To My Traveling Companion---India Trip---Sept./Oct. 2007
I am home from India. I got home around 8:30 p.m., Central Standard Time, Monday, October 15, 2007 as scheduled. I am back in Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA, feeling spoiled and enjoying every minute of it. I appreciate being born an American more each time that I visit India and all of its hardships.
In this first article about my trip, I want to tell you about my traveling buddy. I could not have asked for a better traveling companion than my friend Sherryl. You met Sherryl very briefly in my article The Most Influencial Person---#5---Best Friends.
Before I made this trip, I knew that Sherryl is a great healer. I tell her that a lot. She is very humble about her healing abilities. Sherryl is my Reiki teacher. I have taken Level I and II from her and plan in the next few years to take Levels III, IV, and V from her and also become a Reiki Master like she is. Sherryl has incredible power in her hands. She is also an extremely caring person.
Sherryl sees things that I miss. She sees auras and has wonderfully detailed dreams most nights. She is a deeply spiritual person.
One day while we were walking through the ashram, she pointed out an older Indian lady who was having problems getting her walker down the stairs. Sherryl and I both rushed over to help the lady down the last few stairs. I happened to get there a little ahead of Sherryl. I moved the walker down the last two stairs and offered my hand to the lady. She thanked me and told us that she had been praying to Swami that he would send help to her. I told her that it was my friend Sherryl who saw her. I would have walked by and never seen her if not for Sherryl pointing her out to me. Because of my illness, I was more focused inward than usual and did not even see that the lady needed help.
I am writing this article to say, Thank You Sherryl for being such a good friend and for taking care of me when I was too sick to take care of myself. You being there with me made the trip much easier when I was too sick to cope on my own. Thank You Swami for having Sherryl come with me.
Sherryl and I have known each other since we met in a meditation class sometime in 1997. Each of our three trips have bought us closer together as friends.
On the second or third day in the ashram at Puttiparthi, I got sick with the worst sinus infection and cough that I have ever had. Not only my head and face hurt but my top teeth were very sore from the infection. I have never had my teeth hurt with a sinus infection. I usually get at least one sinus infection a year so I knew what it was that was wrong with me. My ears were also stopped up, especially the left one which is still filled with fluid.
Another story will be about the healing lessons that I received during my almost sleepless nights with this illness. I coughed really hard during the day and more so at night when I would try to go to sleep. The only way that Sherryl got any sleep was by using ear plugs and taking sleeping pills. I still managed to wake her up a few times when the coughing was especially bad. The last three nights in the ashram, I tried sleeping partially sitting up. It didn't make much difference. I still coughed. Another friend bought me cough medicine which didn't help either.
Before this trip, for several months, I have been experiencing pain across my back where my kidneys are. Sherryl and I both did Reiki on each other's kidneys three to four times during our stay in the ashram.
One evening, my chest started hurting with the coughs. Sherryl asked if I wanted her to cup her hands and beat on my back. I told her if she thought it would help, then yes. She would cup her hands and hit on both sides of the spinal cord but not on the spinal cord itself. She hit pretty hard. The cough did not turn into bronchitis. My chest quit hurting when I coughed. She did this about four times during the trip.
There were three or four different days that I didn't have the energy to leave our room. Sherryl kept me company on the two worst days. She bought me food and water when we were out. I lost over 10 pounds during this trip.
Sherryl, in addition to being a Reiki Master from the Usui Shiki Ryoho school, is a licensed massage therapist, and is trained to do Cranio-Sacral healing work. I will have to ask Sherryl to explain to me exactly what Cranio-Sacral work consists of. I know she works on my head and moves my neck very gently and it feels wonderful. I always feel better later. I know some Chiropractors do Cranio-Sacral work in their practices. Most do not.
Sherryl and I were in what felt like total harmony on this trip. We had a reading done for each of us by an Indian Astrologer who said we were soul mates and have many past lives together. At one point during our stay in the ashram, Sherryl asked me if I was aware that we were reading each other's thoughts and finishing each other's sentences. I wasn't aware of it. I was so sick that I don't think that I was aware of much of anything outside of my own body and mind.
Is this our last trip to India together? If you had asked me when I was so sick, I would have said that I was never going back to India. When I shared that with Sherryl, she said she knew that was what I was thinking. According to Sherryl and her dreams, we are going at least two more times. The next trip is scheduled for three years from now. She dreamed this trip into reality. I didn't. When she told me about the dream, I told her if it was supposed to happen, Swami would work out the details. He did and we went. If he calls, we will go again.
According to the Indian Astrologer, we have many more trips to come in the future. He told me that I would actually live there semi-permanently in the future with just family visits to the states. I smiled and thought, "Only if Swami knows something that I don't." It is in Swami's hands. If he plans it, it will happen.
Again, Thank you, Sherryl for the wonderful care that you took of me while I was sick. Without you, this trip would have been much worse. I hate being sick away from home. And, yes, I know that and the healing lessons that I learned are the reason that I attracted the whole illness. It is good to be home.
In this first article about my trip, I want to tell you about my traveling buddy. I could not have asked for a better traveling companion than my friend Sherryl. You met Sherryl very briefly in my article The Most Influencial Person---#5---Best Friends.
Before I made this trip, I knew that Sherryl is a great healer. I tell her that a lot. She is very humble about her healing abilities. Sherryl is my Reiki teacher. I have taken Level I and II from her and plan in the next few years to take Levels III, IV, and V from her and also become a Reiki Master like she is. Sherryl has incredible power in her hands. She is also an extremely caring person.
Sherryl sees things that I miss. She sees auras and has wonderfully detailed dreams most nights. She is a deeply spiritual person.
One day while we were walking through the ashram, she pointed out an older Indian lady who was having problems getting her walker down the stairs. Sherryl and I both rushed over to help the lady down the last few stairs. I happened to get there a little ahead of Sherryl. I moved the walker down the last two stairs and offered my hand to the lady. She thanked me and told us that she had been praying to Swami that he would send help to her. I told her that it was my friend Sherryl who saw her. I would have walked by and never seen her if not for Sherryl pointing her out to me. Because of my illness, I was more focused inward than usual and did not even see that the lady needed help.
I am writing this article to say, Thank You Sherryl for being such a good friend and for taking care of me when I was too sick to take care of myself. You being there with me made the trip much easier when I was too sick to cope on my own. Thank You Swami for having Sherryl come with me.
Sherryl and I have known each other since we met in a meditation class sometime in 1997. Each of our three trips have bought us closer together as friends.
On the second or third day in the ashram at Puttiparthi, I got sick with the worst sinus infection and cough that I have ever had. Not only my head and face hurt but my top teeth were very sore from the infection. I have never had my teeth hurt with a sinus infection. I usually get at least one sinus infection a year so I knew what it was that was wrong with me. My ears were also stopped up, especially the left one which is still filled with fluid.
Another story will be about the healing lessons that I received during my almost sleepless nights with this illness. I coughed really hard during the day and more so at night when I would try to go to sleep. The only way that Sherryl got any sleep was by using ear plugs and taking sleeping pills. I still managed to wake her up a few times when the coughing was especially bad. The last three nights in the ashram, I tried sleeping partially sitting up. It didn't make much difference. I still coughed. Another friend bought me cough medicine which didn't help either.
Before this trip, for several months, I have been experiencing pain across my back where my kidneys are. Sherryl and I both did Reiki on each other's kidneys three to four times during our stay in the ashram.
One evening, my chest started hurting with the coughs. Sherryl asked if I wanted her to cup her hands and beat on my back. I told her if she thought it would help, then yes. She would cup her hands and hit on both sides of the spinal cord but not on the spinal cord itself. She hit pretty hard. The cough did not turn into bronchitis. My chest quit hurting when I coughed. She did this about four times during the trip.
There were three or four different days that I didn't have the energy to leave our room. Sherryl kept me company on the two worst days. She bought me food and water when we were out. I lost over 10 pounds during this trip.
Sherryl, in addition to being a Reiki Master from the Usui Shiki Ryoho school, is a licensed massage therapist, and is trained to do Cranio-Sacral healing work. I will have to ask Sherryl to explain to me exactly what Cranio-Sacral work consists of. I know she works on my head and moves my neck very gently and it feels wonderful. I always feel better later. I know some Chiropractors do Cranio-Sacral work in their practices. Most do not.
Sherryl and I were in what felt like total harmony on this trip. We had a reading done for each of us by an Indian Astrologer who said we were soul mates and have many past lives together. At one point during our stay in the ashram, Sherryl asked me if I was aware that we were reading each other's thoughts and finishing each other's sentences. I wasn't aware of it. I was so sick that I don't think that I was aware of much of anything outside of my own body and mind.
Is this our last trip to India together? If you had asked me when I was so sick, I would have said that I was never going back to India. When I shared that with Sherryl, she said she knew that was what I was thinking. According to Sherryl and her dreams, we are going at least two more times. The next trip is scheduled for three years from now. She dreamed this trip into reality. I didn't. When she told me about the dream, I told her if it was supposed to happen, Swami would work out the details. He did and we went. If he calls, we will go again.
According to the Indian Astrologer, we have many more trips to come in the future. He told me that I would actually live there semi-permanently in the future with just family visits to the states. I smiled and thought, "Only if Swami knows something that I don't." It is in Swami's hands. If he plans it, it will happen.
Again, Thank you, Sherryl for the wonderful care that you took of me while I was sick. Without you, this trip would have been much worse. I hate being sick away from home. And, yes, I know that and the healing lessons that I learned are the reason that I attracted the whole illness. It is good to be home.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Trip to India
To my subscribers, I am on the airplane flying to India, as you read this. My friend and I are scheduled to fly out of the Little Rock, Arkansas airport a little after noon on Monday, September 24, 2007. We will fly to Atlanta, Georgia. After a layover in Atlanta, we will fly to Paris, France. We will get into Paris, France in time for breakfast on September 25. I have never been to France before. If we get in on time, we hope to see some of Paris but it will depend upon where the airport is located and how much time we have before we fly on to Bangalore, India. We will spend a few days in Bangalore before traveling by taxi to Puttaparthi, India. If you don't know, Bangalore is in southern India. Puttaparthi is about 70 something miles north of Bangalore.
To anyone visiting the blog for the first time. Welcome. Stay and look around. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe.
I will be offline from Monday, September 24 until I get back home on Monday, October 15. I don't get home until late on October 15. It will take me a few days to get settled back in so I am not sure when my next article will be posted. I will be journaling about my trip and intend to do future articles about my experiences in India and at the main ashram of Satya Sai Baba, a Holy Man in India. Have a glorious time while I am gone. I sure intend to.
To anyone visiting the blog for the first time. Welcome. Stay and look around. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe.
I will be offline from Monday, September 24 until I get back home on Monday, October 15. I don't get home until late on October 15. It will take me a few days to get settled back in so I am not sure when my next article will be posted. I will be journaling about my trip and intend to do future articles about my experiences in India and at the main ashram of Satya Sai Baba, a Holy Man in India. Have a glorious time while I am gone. I sure intend to.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Pre-India Trip Feelings
Here I am less than 24 hours from leaving for India. I went to church this morning and one of my friends announced to everyone that I was leaving for India tomorrow. Another friend came to visit a short time ago to give me a hug good bye and to give me $20.00 to bring her back some souvenirs. I have told my son where my passwords to the computer are, just in case. No I am not expecting any problems and I do have a practical side that likes to cover all the bases.
I have emailed everybody that I will be gone and asked those that email me a lot to hold back on everything but what they consider the essential emails so that I don't spend a month sorting through emails. I canceled some of my subscriptions to things that I no longer read anyway and started a "Sites to Resubscribe To" for those that I am interested in subscribing to after my trip. I have run across some great sites in the past week that I want to remember to check out when I get home so those are in that folder too.
I am excited. I am tired. I am ready to go. I don't want to wait until tomorrow to leave. Did I say, I am impatient???
I have packed and reduced the stuff in my big suitcase 3 times this week. It is so hard for me to not pack everything that I might possibly need for the next 3 weeks. The big suitcase can't be over 50 pounds or I get taxed more. I think it weighs 46 pounds. I have taken everything out of boxes and put the contents in loose which goes against my sense of organization. It also cut down the weight of the suitcase. I took out my little bag that has all of my bathroom things so well organized because it weighed quite a bit by itself. I haven't gone any where without that bag in at least 5 years. Like I said, I like being organized.
This is the first Sunday that I haven't posted an article since June 1. I feel unsettled, restless, excited, scared (just a little). I am being honest here.
I am bored because I want to get going. I am ready to be active, moving forward, not sitting, waiting. Did I say, I am impatient. My husband will tell you that I get a little crazy when it comes to traveling. Well, not actually traveling, it is the getting ready stage that I tend to lose it. I really do become a shrew trying to get everyone out the door on time. Once we are in the car, actually traveling, I am ok, back to my usual, calm self. Then I have to apologize for my behavior of the few hours before. I try to control myself and I still lose it. Maybe that is why Daniel is staying home instead of going with me to India. All he has to do is drive us to the airport at 7:30 in the morning. I would like him to go with me to share the experience and then I am glad he is staying home because he won't like all of the sitting that is involved in the trip and at the ashram.
I think I will go see if something is on TV or meditate or read a book to pass some time.
Or I might do some writing. As I find myself getting ready to leave my computer and blog behind for 3 weeks, things that I want to write about are just flying through my mind. I am taking my journal and a second notebook to do any writing for future articles that come to mind. I am going to spend more time meditating while I am gone also. I will have plenty of time on the plane and on layovers to either read or write over the next two days.
Well, I am running out of steam and words so I will just say, "Miss me, just a little bit while I am gone. I know I will miss you. Have a glorious day, week, month, year, life."
I have emailed everybody that I will be gone and asked those that email me a lot to hold back on everything but what they consider the essential emails so that I don't spend a month sorting through emails. I canceled some of my subscriptions to things that I no longer read anyway and started a "Sites to Resubscribe To" for those that I am interested in subscribing to after my trip. I have run across some great sites in the past week that I want to remember to check out when I get home so those are in that folder too.
I am excited. I am tired. I am ready to go. I don't want to wait until tomorrow to leave. Did I say, I am impatient???
I have packed and reduced the stuff in my big suitcase 3 times this week. It is so hard for me to not pack everything that I might possibly need for the next 3 weeks. The big suitcase can't be over 50 pounds or I get taxed more. I think it weighs 46 pounds. I have taken everything out of boxes and put the contents in loose which goes against my sense of organization. It also cut down the weight of the suitcase. I took out my little bag that has all of my bathroom things so well organized because it weighed quite a bit by itself. I haven't gone any where without that bag in at least 5 years. Like I said, I like being organized.
This is the first Sunday that I haven't posted an article since June 1. I feel unsettled, restless, excited, scared (just a little). I am being honest here.
I am bored because I want to get going. I am ready to be active, moving forward, not sitting, waiting. Did I say, I am impatient. My husband will tell you that I get a little crazy when it comes to traveling. Well, not actually traveling, it is the getting ready stage that I tend to lose it. I really do become a shrew trying to get everyone out the door on time. Once we are in the car, actually traveling, I am ok, back to my usual, calm self. Then I have to apologize for my behavior of the few hours before. I try to control myself and I still lose it. Maybe that is why Daniel is staying home instead of going with me to India. All he has to do is drive us to the airport at 7:30 in the morning. I would like him to go with me to share the experience and then I am glad he is staying home because he won't like all of the sitting that is involved in the trip and at the ashram.
I think I will go see if something is on TV or meditate or read a book to pass some time.
Or I might do some writing. As I find myself getting ready to leave my computer and blog behind for 3 weeks, things that I want to write about are just flying through my mind. I am taking my journal and a second notebook to do any writing for future articles that come to mind. I am going to spend more time meditating while I am gone also. I will have plenty of time on the plane and on layovers to either read or write over the next two days.
Well, I am running out of steam and words so I will just say, "Miss me, just a little bit while I am gone. I know I will miss you. Have a glorious day, week, month, year, life."
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Why Am I Going To India Again?
"Why are you going to India again? You have been twice already. Isn't that enough?" These are the questions that my husband asked me when I first told him that I was going to India again. These are the same questions he asked again, when the trip became a reality, instead of just something that my friend and I were talking about doing. Several friends and family members have also asked these questions.
Why am I going to India? I ask, "Why not?" It is a wonderful adventure. My first flight to India I had never been on an airplane before that trip. My first flight on an airplane took 22 hours to get to our final destination of Bangalore, India. We flew out of Little Rock, Arkansas. My husband assured me that if I didn't like flying, I could get off of the plane and fly home from either of our first two stops---Atlanta, Georgia and JFK in New York. For a month before we left, my husband made sure that I knew about every plane that crashed any where in the world. He was really afraid of my flying, especially since it was to several foreign countries. This was in pre-911 days. Security was different then. From what I have seen, I don't know that it is any better but the restrictions are a lot more complicated. I forgave him because I know his fear comes from his love for me. When I went on my first cruise a few years ago, he reminded me about the movie The Posedon Aventure. You know the one where the ship gets hit by a tidal wive and turns upside down. It is a good thing that I love him too. I would think that he really doesn't want me to go. I have invited him along for each trip. He has his own things he wants to do, going to India isn't one of them.
My friend Sherryl and I are going to fly to Bangalore, India where we will spend two days in a hotel before hiring a taxi to drive us to the small village of Puttaparthi north of Bangalore. The main ashram of Satya Sai Baba is located in Puttaparthi, the small village that Sai Baba was born and raised in.
The main ashram, Prasanthi Nilayam, which means Abode of the Highest Peace, is located there. Puttaparthi is located 180 kilometers north of Bangalore. I don't know how many miles that converts too. Sai Baba's mission is "to help humanity wake up to the innate divinity within themselves and all creation and to see that the principles of Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Love and Nonviolence govern all human relations and activities." This information and quote came from the book, JOURNEY to Sathya Sai Baba, A Visitor's Guide written by Valmai Worthington, Leela Press, Inc. Faber, VA, U. S. A., 1995.
My friend and I will be gone from September 24- October 15, 2007. Three weeks seems like a long time and it is, but I am never ready to leave when the time comes. I miss my family while I am gone. I don't usually call more than once or twice while I am gone. Because of the time difference, it is difficult to find a time to call my husband Daniel when he is awake and not working. Also, southern India is 11 1/2 hours ahead of Arkansas time. Calling home isn't a simple matter of picking up a phone and calling. There is one place in the ashram that has phones for calling out. You wait in line until your turn. The operator connects you and then you put in the phone number. You talk to whoever you called and then you pay for your call and it is someone else's turn to use the phone.
Being in the presence of Sai Baba is wonderful. I don't see auras on a conscious level but people who do say that his extends outward a long, long way. Most of us have auras of just a few inches out from our bodies. Sai Baba tells us that he is God and so are we. He says the difference between him and us is that he remembers who he is and we have forgotten our Divinity. He tells us to stay home and worship the God of our choice. He says something that I have always felt in my heart and that is that we are all God. The Divine is in each of us, not "out there" some place. If I don't have to visit him, why do I, and so many others, travel every year to see him? Being in his presence reminds me of my own Divinity and that connection feels wonderful. A friend from church saw me soon after I got home from my first trip and he told me I was glowing. How could I be around that purity of energy and not be glowing. It is very difficult to come back into the fast paced life of an American after spending 3 weeks in India.
I see these trips as Spiritual Retreats for me. I come home rejuvenated and refreshed. I come back home to green salads, a soft bed and a hot shower. In India, you drink bottled water to keep from getting sick. You don't eat any food that has been sitting out for the flies to get to. If it isn't hot, don't eat or drink it. At the ashram, you do a lot of walking. Showers are luke warm, at best. There are two types of bathrooms. The India bathrooms you squat over a hole in the floor and you clean yourself with water and your left hand. You do not extend your left hand to anyone to shake hands. (My friend is left-handed and she forgets this rule occasionally.) There are also English bathrooms where you have regular commodes. You take your own toilet paper with you to India. I buy the biggest rolls of toilet paper that I can find and take three rolls since we are there for three weeks. On our first trip, our bathroom shower came from a bucket and a dipper. We had a faucet in the wall and a drain in the floor for the water to drain away. Man, do I look forward to a hot shower when I get home. I do not like cold showers. I appreciate my creature comforts more when I get back home.
For our beds, we go and watch some Indian man put straw into a mattress that he then sews together. When you leave the ashram, men come and collect the mattresses to be taken apart, refilled with a new cover and resold to the next person. The beds weren't too bad if you piled two mattresses on top of each other. All you need for cover is a sheet and mosquito net. Don't forget your mosquito repellent. I make my own or buy those made from essential oils. I don't like the regular store bought kinds.
Travel in India is much more difficult than in the U. S. Most people when they find out that we are going to India want to know if we are going to visit the Taj Mahal. No, that is in northern India and we are way down south just above Bangalore. It just isn't that easy to travel the distance from southern India to northern. We would spend a lot more money and take a much longer trip to do that.
Every where we travel is by either taxi or motorized rickshaws. Traveling the streets and roads of India is an adventure all its own. Everyone drives by using their intuition and their horns. You have air pollution and noise pollution combined. In the U. S., I would be terrified to drive the way they do in India. It is a highly evolved skill to drive solely by your instincts. Instead of frightened, I felt exhilerated. It truly is incredible the way that they drive. In both of our first trips, we only saw one minor accident. A motorized rickshaw had lost a wheel. Traffic consists of big trucks, buses, taxis of all shapes and sizes, motorized rickshaws, motor scooters with one-three people on them, bicycles and pedestrians all moving in every direction at the same time. That is where horns come into the picture. They honk "hello", "good-bye", "I'm coming through." "Look out." "Get out of my way." and probably a little cussing through in for good measure. It really is exciting. Americans couldn't begin to think about driving this way. Sometimes you find yourself holding your breath. Sometimes you have to gasp. Sometimes you just have to laugh at the thrill of some of their seemingly narrow escapes.
Do not think that I am making fun of anything Indian. I am not. I have mixed feelings about what I have seen of the country. It is a harsh looking land. Our first trip was in the summer and I don't remember seeing any green, not even grass. Everything was shades of brown. That trip we followed Sai Baba to KodaiKanal, a small mountainside village that was cooler during the summer months.
I have at least two past lives in India. One I got from a dream. In the dream, I was an Indian man from a rich family. I know this from the clothes that I was getting dressed in. I was on my way to a party wearing heavy, rich, brocade like material with a turbine on my head. I had this dream during my first week of my first trip to India.
The other Indian lifetime, I was a very sick little girl who was healed by Krishna and became one of his devotees. That is all of the information that I have about that lifetime. It came from an acquantance who is a psychic.
I have mixed emotions about the country but not about the people of India. I loved the people that I met. Some of them were quiet and shy. Some of them are loud and boisterous, especially the young boys who want you to buy their wares. I had one man who insisted upon selling me a bracelet. I said no. He actually put it on my wrist as I was walking away. I laughed and removed it and put it back on his table. Another man tried following me on to a bus to sell me a dress that I wanted but thought his price was a little too high. He was still trying to get me to buy the dress as the bus drove off. Some of the children just capture your heart. Some of the beggars will break your heart if you let them. Before you get off the plane, you are told do not give money to the beggars. We gave them food occasionally but no money. Our first trip to Bangalore, I cried as we drove along because of a beggar lady and her baby. You want to help them but giving them money just perpetuates the beggar businesses. Sai Baba and the Indian government want the beggars to find other ways to make a living. I had to close off a part of my heart in order to deal with this part of India.
Well, I guess if I am going to have anything left to write about when I return then I should stop writing. I didn't know that I was going to tell you all of this when I sat down to write today. I ask that you envision my friend and I having a wonderful adventure and learning whatever lessons come our way from this visit. You will hear all about them when we return from India. In the mean time, while I am away, have a glorious three weeks. I know I will. Namaste.
Why am I going to India? I ask, "Why not?" It is a wonderful adventure. My first flight to India I had never been on an airplane before that trip. My first flight on an airplane took 22 hours to get to our final destination of Bangalore, India. We flew out of Little Rock, Arkansas. My husband assured me that if I didn't like flying, I could get off of the plane and fly home from either of our first two stops---Atlanta, Georgia and JFK in New York. For a month before we left, my husband made sure that I knew about every plane that crashed any where in the world. He was really afraid of my flying, especially since it was to several foreign countries. This was in pre-911 days. Security was different then. From what I have seen, I don't know that it is any better but the restrictions are a lot more complicated. I forgave him because I know his fear comes from his love for me. When I went on my first cruise a few years ago, he reminded me about the movie The Posedon Aventure. You know the one where the ship gets hit by a tidal wive and turns upside down. It is a good thing that I love him too. I would think that he really doesn't want me to go. I have invited him along for each trip. He has his own things he wants to do, going to India isn't one of them.
My friend Sherryl and I are going to fly to Bangalore, India where we will spend two days in a hotel before hiring a taxi to drive us to the small village of Puttaparthi north of Bangalore. The main ashram of Satya Sai Baba is located in Puttaparthi, the small village that Sai Baba was born and raised in.
The main ashram, Prasanthi Nilayam, which means Abode of the Highest Peace, is located there. Puttaparthi is located 180 kilometers north of Bangalore. I don't know how many miles that converts too. Sai Baba's mission is "to help humanity wake up to the innate divinity within themselves and all creation and to see that the principles of Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Love and Nonviolence govern all human relations and activities." This information and quote came from the book, JOURNEY to Sathya Sai Baba, A Visitor's Guide written by Valmai Worthington, Leela Press, Inc. Faber, VA, U. S. A., 1995.
My friend and I will be gone from September 24- October 15, 2007. Three weeks seems like a long time and it is, but I am never ready to leave when the time comes. I miss my family while I am gone. I don't usually call more than once or twice while I am gone. Because of the time difference, it is difficult to find a time to call my husband Daniel when he is awake and not working. Also, southern India is 11 1/2 hours ahead of Arkansas time. Calling home isn't a simple matter of picking up a phone and calling. There is one place in the ashram that has phones for calling out. You wait in line until your turn. The operator connects you and then you put in the phone number. You talk to whoever you called and then you pay for your call and it is someone else's turn to use the phone.
Being in the presence of Sai Baba is wonderful. I don't see auras on a conscious level but people who do say that his extends outward a long, long way. Most of us have auras of just a few inches out from our bodies. Sai Baba tells us that he is God and so are we. He says the difference between him and us is that he remembers who he is and we have forgotten our Divinity. He tells us to stay home and worship the God of our choice. He says something that I have always felt in my heart and that is that we are all God. The Divine is in each of us, not "out there" some place. If I don't have to visit him, why do I, and so many others, travel every year to see him? Being in his presence reminds me of my own Divinity and that connection feels wonderful. A friend from church saw me soon after I got home from my first trip and he told me I was glowing. How could I be around that purity of energy and not be glowing. It is very difficult to come back into the fast paced life of an American after spending 3 weeks in India.
I see these trips as Spiritual Retreats for me. I come home rejuvenated and refreshed. I come back home to green salads, a soft bed and a hot shower. In India, you drink bottled water to keep from getting sick. You don't eat any food that has been sitting out for the flies to get to. If it isn't hot, don't eat or drink it. At the ashram, you do a lot of walking. Showers are luke warm, at best. There are two types of bathrooms. The India bathrooms you squat over a hole in the floor and you clean yourself with water and your left hand. You do not extend your left hand to anyone to shake hands. (My friend is left-handed and she forgets this rule occasionally.) There are also English bathrooms where you have regular commodes. You take your own toilet paper with you to India. I buy the biggest rolls of toilet paper that I can find and take three rolls since we are there for three weeks. On our first trip, our bathroom shower came from a bucket and a dipper. We had a faucet in the wall and a drain in the floor for the water to drain away. Man, do I look forward to a hot shower when I get home. I do not like cold showers. I appreciate my creature comforts more when I get back home.
For our beds, we go and watch some Indian man put straw into a mattress that he then sews together. When you leave the ashram, men come and collect the mattresses to be taken apart, refilled with a new cover and resold to the next person. The beds weren't too bad if you piled two mattresses on top of each other. All you need for cover is a sheet and mosquito net. Don't forget your mosquito repellent. I make my own or buy those made from essential oils. I don't like the regular store bought kinds.
Travel in India is much more difficult than in the U. S. Most people when they find out that we are going to India want to know if we are going to visit the Taj Mahal. No, that is in northern India and we are way down south just above Bangalore. It just isn't that easy to travel the distance from southern India to northern. We would spend a lot more money and take a much longer trip to do that.
Every where we travel is by either taxi or motorized rickshaws. Traveling the streets and roads of India is an adventure all its own. Everyone drives by using their intuition and their horns. You have air pollution and noise pollution combined. In the U. S., I would be terrified to drive the way they do in India. It is a highly evolved skill to drive solely by your instincts. Instead of frightened, I felt exhilerated. It truly is incredible the way that they drive. In both of our first trips, we only saw one minor accident. A motorized rickshaw had lost a wheel. Traffic consists of big trucks, buses, taxis of all shapes and sizes, motorized rickshaws, motor scooters with one-three people on them, bicycles and pedestrians all moving in every direction at the same time. That is where horns come into the picture. They honk "hello", "good-bye", "I'm coming through." "Look out." "Get out of my way." and probably a little cussing through in for good measure. It really is exciting. Americans couldn't begin to think about driving this way. Sometimes you find yourself holding your breath. Sometimes you have to gasp. Sometimes you just have to laugh at the thrill of some of their seemingly narrow escapes.
Do not think that I am making fun of anything Indian. I am not. I have mixed feelings about what I have seen of the country. It is a harsh looking land. Our first trip was in the summer and I don't remember seeing any green, not even grass. Everything was shades of brown. That trip we followed Sai Baba to KodaiKanal, a small mountainside village that was cooler during the summer months.
I have at least two past lives in India. One I got from a dream. In the dream, I was an Indian man from a rich family. I know this from the clothes that I was getting dressed in. I was on my way to a party wearing heavy, rich, brocade like material with a turbine on my head. I had this dream during my first week of my first trip to India.
The other Indian lifetime, I was a very sick little girl who was healed by Krishna and became one of his devotees. That is all of the information that I have about that lifetime. It came from an acquantance who is a psychic.
I have mixed emotions about the country but not about the people of India. I loved the people that I met. Some of them were quiet and shy. Some of them are loud and boisterous, especially the young boys who want you to buy their wares. I had one man who insisted upon selling me a bracelet. I said no. He actually put it on my wrist as I was walking away. I laughed and removed it and put it back on his table. Another man tried following me on to a bus to sell me a dress that I wanted but thought his price was a little too high. He was still trying to get me to buy the dress as the bus drove off. Some of the children just capture your heart. Some of the beggars will break your heart if you let them. Before you get off the plane, you are told do not give money to the beggars. We gave them food occasionally but no money. Our first trip to Bangalore, I cried as we drove along because of a beggar lady and her baby. You want to help them but giving them money just perpetuates the beggar businesses. Sai Baba and the Indian government want the beggars to find other ways to make a living. I had to close off a part of my heart in order to deal with this part of India.
Well, I guess if I am going to have anything left to write about when I return then I should stop writing. I didn't know that I was going to tell you all of this when I sat down to write today. I ask that you envision my friend and I having a wonderful adventure and learning whatever lessons come our way from this visit. You will hear all about them when we return from India. In the mean time, while I am away, have a glorious three weeks. I know I will. Namaste.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
The Most Influencial Person---#5---Best Friends
My life has been so very blessed by having several people in it that I call my best friends. One of them died a year and a half ago. This article is to let them know that I love them and feel very blessed to have them in my life. Thanks to all of you. All of my gratitude articles have been inspired by Damian Carr whose blog you will find at http://soulterminal.com/ . Check out his site. It is called Be The Change. Damian very much lives and writes from that standpoint.
Carol died a little after midnight in the early morning hours of December 1, 2005. I miss her still. Some days I feel her presence close by. Some days, I still want her physical presence to talk to, to cry with, to be angry with. Sometimes, I hear her voice in my head or I hear her talking to me through a song on the radio or TV. She loved music. She had a beautiful singing voice. She believed that her angels spoke to her through the words of songs. The week after she died of a heart attack, I heard her talking to me so clearly through the words of a song in a TV commercial. I knew it was Carol. I had to laugh out loud because it was so surprising and so clear of a message that I couldn't be mistaken. The message was from her. One of her favorite song was You Are The Wind Beneath My Wings. It is one of my favorites too. Carol was my best friend and spiritual mentor and teacher. I love you, Carol.
Pamela and I met Carol at the same time when we attended a class on spirituality that she was teaching at Christway Unity Church in Hot Springs. Pamela had attended a Unity church in Tucson, Arizona before moving to Hot Springs. This was my first experience of a New Thought church. Pamela and I took several more of Carol's classes before we started attending church on Sundays. Carol taught me about Unity teachings, about angels and about myself. Carol had regular conversations with her angels. She did an angel reading and told me that I had 8 of them helping me at that time. Several years later, she told me that I had just gotten a whole other crew of 8 new angels to help guide me on my path. I would imagine that I could wear out more than one team with my spiritual growth spurts. Carol has been one of my favorite teachers. Through Spirit, she still teaches me today.
Pamela and I have been best friends almost from the first day we met over 10 years ago. She is the friend that told me that we were twins in a past life. I was just beginning to explore the possibility of re-incarnation when I met Pamela. Pamela and I went for a psychic reading once and we were told that we were triplets with another person in one lifetime. I shocked Pamela when I told her that we were con-joined twins in a past life. During a meditation, Pamela and I were sitting side by side. I suddenly felt our energy entwining on my left side. I suddenly saw a vision of us as con-joined twins. I can't tell you when we lived. I know that we were literally joined at the hip and that the family that we were born into loved and cared for us until we died sometime in our teens. I can't tell you how I know this. I just do. I sometimes get images and sometimes just a knowing about things. With this lifetime information, I got both. Pamela and I have had many lifetimes together. All I know for certain is that I have never felt an instant connection to another person like I did with Pamela when we first met.
Pamela used to get so angry with the people at our small church because, for the first few years, we were often called Pam and Pam. I used to laugh. Pamela would get angry and tell them we were Pam and Pat. Pamela left Hot Springs for 2 years and moved to New Mexico. It was a time of learning for both of us. Pamela needed to leave Hot Springs to realize that it truly had become her home. For me, it was a time of connecting with who I was without Pamela around. People began to call me Pat instead of Pam. Then when Pamela moved back to Hot Springs, we became Pat and Pat. Again, I had to laugh. People still seem to have trouble telling us apart. We really don't look that much alike. I think people have this problem because of our connection to each other. People just seem to feel that twin energy.
Until recently, we were such close friends that we did everything together. That has begun to change in the past year. Pamela seems to be gathering her energy close to herself as I am going through another growing spurt with my spirituality. When I am growing, I am sometimes difficult to keep up with. It is nobody's fault. It is simply a trait that I recognize in myself. I am like a sponge absorbing every bit of knowledge that comes my way until I am so full. Then I become a hermit and begin the processing stage where I turn inward to decide what to do with the information that I have absorbed. What fits becomes a part of my belief system. What doesn't fit gets discarded. To some, during this stage, I seem to not be growing. The reality is that this is the most important stage of my development. I am quiet until the next growing spurt starts. Then the race through life starts all over again.
Where this growing spurt will take me, only the Universe knows. I don't. At this time, I just have to go with the flow of the Universe.
Sherryl is also my best friend. She and I have grown together spiritually for over 10 years. We have been to India together twice and we are going again sometime this year. Sherryl was with me when we were both told to look inward for our spiritual teacher. She is a massage therapist and one of the most talented healers that I have been priviledged to know. I hope that if I tell her that often enough that she will begin to see herself as I see her. I have a lot to learn from Sherryl. She is my Reiki teacher. Sherryl is the friend that I travel the world with. Our first India trip in 1998 was the first time that I had ever been on an airplane. Our flight from Little Rock, Arkansas to Bangalore, India was 22 hours long. My husband told me that I could change my mind anytime before I got on the airplane in New York. Sherryl is a good traveling buddy. On the other hand, the suitcase that she took to India with us on that first trip was not. Sherryl's suitcase got lost. We shared what we could of my clothes and toiletries until Sherryl got her suitcase the fourth day that we were in Bangalore. Our next trip to India in 1999, that suitcase stayed at home. Our trips to India will be a future article. The friendship between Sherryl and I grew very strong in India. It has continued to grow stronger over the years since that last trip.
I love you, Carol, Pamela and Sherryl. You have all 3 blessed my life with your knowledge and your love.
I have 2 more friends to tell you about before I close this article. Both of them are people that I also consider my best friends. I told you that I have been very blessed when it comes to my friends. Both of these friends, Mary and Chris, come and go in my life. When we touch base with each other, sometimes after long absenses, it is as if we have never been apart. Our paths wind and circle and come back together for awhile before they separate again for a period of time.
Mary and I have known each other since around 1990 or 1991. We met through our mutual friend Kathy. We became best friends through our grieving together when Kathy was murdered in 1992. We were all living in Hot Springs, Arkansas at the time that we met. When Kathy was murdered, her family and friends had a memorial service for Kathy here in Hot Springs. When the family took Kathy's body back to Minneapolis, Minnesota to be buried, Mary and I asked if we could go with the family. Mary and I were roommates during this whole experience. We gave support to the family members and each other during that week of travel and mourning. By the time that we returned to Hot Springs after the funeral, Mary and I were best friends. Several years later, Mary and I both found God and religion again. Mary found Him before I did. I almost followed her but something about her church just didn't fit me. I know and like some of the people that Mary goes to church with. I will forever be thankful to Mary's church for giving her the peace and direction and love that she has found with them. They are good to Mary. They suit her need for God.
Soon after, I met Pamela and she and I started attending Christway Unity Church in Hot Springs. I found my church home and a relationship with the God of my understanding. I found a home just as Mary did with her Baptist church. Both of us have grown in our relationship with God. Mary and I will go for months without talking. When one of us reaches out to the other, it is like we haven't spent any time apart. We both still love each other. We just individually tend to get caught up in our lives with our families and churches. We occasionally get together for lunch to catch up on each others lives.
Chris is my last friend that I want to add to this list. He is my only close male friend. Chris and I are buddies on a soul level. He and I have had many past lives together in which we were soldiers togethers. We have a deep friendship. When I first met Chris, I started dreaming that I was fighting in battles each night, sometimes as many as 3 different dreams in one night. I never remembered details. I would wake up tired and know that I had spent the night fighting for my life. I didn't tell any body about my dreams until another friend and teacher told Chris and I both that we were soldiers together in many past lives. It made perfect sense to both of us and explained our connection. Chris has since told me that he felt that in my dreams, we were both fighting to save his life in this lifetime. When I first met him, he was just beginning to come out of post-traumatic stress syndrone from being in Vietnam years before. All I know for sure is that those dreams went on for month after month before they finally stopped and I could sleep peacefully through the night again.
Chris and I will go for months without seeing each other. When we do, it is like we are traveling parallel paths, each doing the same spiritual practices with slight differences. Recently, when we reconnected, we found out that we are both writing. Chris is writing a book on helping young soldiers returning from war to recover from post-traumatic stress syndrone. Since he is experienced with it himself, he understands where these young soldiers are. Chris is excited that I am writing articles for this blog.
Don't let anybody tell you that a man and woman cannot have a platonic friendship without sex involved. They don't know what they are talking about or they are just jealous.
My friendship with Chris, like my friendships with Carol, Pamela, Sherryl and Mary have all enriched my life so very much. I could not ask for a better support group than I have with these friends. They know who I really am and love me any way, just as I love them. Thanks, guys or should I say, Thanks, ya'll, since we are in the deep South.
Carol died a little after midnight in the early morning hours of December 1, 2005. I miss her still. Some days I feel her presence close by. Some days, I still want her physical presence to talk to, to cry with, to be angry with. Sometimes, I hear her voice in my head or I hear her talking to me through a song on the radio or TV. She loved music. She had a beautiful singing voice. She believed that her angels spoke to her through the words of songs. The week after she died of a heart attack, I heard her talking to me so clearly through the words of a song in a TV commercial. I knew it was Carol. I had to laugh out loud because it was so surprising and so clear of a message that I couldn't be mistaken. The message was from her. One of her favorite song was You Are The Wind Beneath My Wings. It is one of my favorites too. Carol was my best friend and spiritual mentor and teacher. I love you, Carol.
Pamela and I met Carol at the same time when we attended a class on spirituality that she was teaching at Christway Unity Church in Hot Springs. Pamela had attended a Unity church in Tucson, Arizona before moving to Hot Springs. This was my first experience of a New Thought church. Pamela and I took several more of Carol's classes before we started attending church on Sundays. Carol taught me about Unity teachings, about angels and about myself. Carol had regular conversations with her angels. She did an angel reading and told me that I had 8 of them helping me at that time. Several years later, she told me that I had just gotten a whole other crew of 8 new angels to help guide me on my path. I would imagine that I could wear out more than one team with my spiritual growth spurts. Carol has been one of my favorite teachers. Through Spirit, she still teaches me today.
Pamela and I have been best friends almost from the first day we met over 10 years ago. She is the friend that told me that we were twins in a past life. I was just beginning to explore the possibility of re-incarnation when I met Pamela. Pamela and I went for a psychic reading once and we were told that we were triplets with another person in one lifetime. I shocked Pamela when I told her that we were con-joined twins in a past life. During a meditation, Pamela and I were sitting side by side. I suddenly felt our energy entwining on my left side. I suddenly saw a vision of us as con-joined twins. I can't tell you when we lived. I know that we were literally joined at the hip and that the family that we were born into loved and cared for us until we died sometime in our teens. I can't tell you how I know this. I just do. I sometimes get images and sometimes just a knowing about things. With this lifetime information, I got both. Pamela and I have had many lifetimes together. All I know for certain is that I have never felt an instant connection to another person like I did with Pamela when we first met.
Pamela used to get so angry with the people at our small church because, for the first few years, we were often called Pam and Pam. I used to laugh. Pamela would get angry and tell them we were Pam and Pat. Pamela left Hot Springs for 2 years and moved to New Mexico. It was a time of learning for both of us. Pamela needed to leave Hot Springs to realize that it truly had become her home. For me, it was a time of connecting with who I was without Pamela around. People began to call me Pat instead of Pam. Then when Pamela moved back to Hot Springs, we became Pat and Pat. Again, I had to laugh. People still seem to have trouble telling us apart. We really don't look that much alike. I think people have this problem because of our connection to each other. People just seem to feel that twin energy.
Until recently, we were such close friends that we did everything together. That has begun to change in the past year. Pamela seems to be gathering her energy close to herself as I am going through another growing spurt with my spirituality. When I am growing, I am sometimes difficult to keep up with. It is nobody's fault. It is simply a trait that I recognize in myself. I am like a sponge absorbing every bit of knowledge that comes my way until I am so full. Then I become a hermit and begin the processing stage where I turn inward to decide what to do with the information that I have absorbed. What fits becomes a part of my belief system. What doesn't fit gets discarded. To some, during this stage, I seem to not be growing. The reality is that this is the most important stage of my development. I am quiet until the next growing spurt starts. Then the race through life starts all over again.
Where this growing spurt will take me, only the Universe knows. I don't. At this time, I just have to go with the flow of the Universe.
Sherryl is also my best friend. She and I have grown together spiritually for over 10 years. We have been to India together twice and we are going again sometime this year. Sherryl was with me when we were both told to look inward for our spiritual teacher. She is a massage therapist and one of the most talented healers that I have been priviledged to know. I hope that if I tell her that often enough that she will begin to see herself as I see her. I have a lot to learn from Sherryl. She is my Reiki teacher. Sherryl is the friend that I travel the world with. Our first India trip in 1998 was the first time that I had ever been on an airplane. Our flight from Little Rock, Arkansas to Bangalore, India was 22 hours long. My husband told me that I could change my mind anytime before I got on the airplane in New York. Sherryl is a good traveling buddy. On the other hand, the suitcase that she took to India with us on that first trip was not. Sherryl's suitcase got lost. We shared what we could of my clothes and toiletries until Sherryl got her suitcase the fourth day that we were in Bangalore. Our next trip to India in 1999, that suitcase stayed at home. Our trips to India will be a future article. The friendship between Sherryl and I grew very strong in India. It has continued to grow stronger over the years since that last trip.
I love you, Carol, Pamela and Sherryl. You have all 3 blessed my life with your knowledge and your love.
I have 2 more friends to tell you about before I close this article. Both of them are people that I also consider my best friends. I told you that I have been very blessed when it comes to my friends. Both of these friends, Mary and Chris, come and go in my life. When we touch base with each other, sometimes after long absenses, it is as if we have never been apart. Our paths wind and circle and come back together for awhile before they separate again for a period of time.
Mary and I have known each other since around 1990 or 1991. We met through our mutual friend Kathy. We became best friends through our grieving together when Kathy was murdered in 1992. We were all living in Hot Springs, Arkansas at the time that we met. When Kathy was murdered, her family and friends had a memorial service for Kathy here in Hot Springs. When the family took Kathy's body back to Minneapolis, Minnesota to be buried, Mary and I asked if we could go with the family. Mary and I were roommates during this whole experience. We gave support to the family members and each other during that week of travel and mourning. By the time that we returned to Hot Springs after the funeral, Mary and I were best friends. Several years later, Mary and I both found God and religion again. Mary found Him before I did. I almost followed her but something about her church just didn't fit me. I know and like some of the people that Mary goes to church with. I will forever be thankful to Mary's church for giving her the peace and direction and love that she has found with them. They are good to Mary. They suit her need for God.
Soon after, I met Pamela and she and I started attending Christway Unity Church in Hot Springs. I found my church home and a relationship with the God of my understanding. I found a home just as Mary did with her Baptist church. Both of us have grown in our relationship with God. Mary and I will go for months without talking. When one of us reaches out to the other, it is like we haven't spent any time apart. We both still love each other. We just individually tend to get caught up in our lives with our families and churches. We occasionally get together for lunch to catch up on each others lives.
Chris is my last friend that I want to add to this list. He is my only close male friend. Chris and I are buddies on a soul level. He and I have had many past lives together in which we were soldiers togethers. We have a deep friendship. When I first met Chris, I started dreaming that I was fighting in battles each night, sometimes as many as 3 different dreams in one night. I never remembered details. I would wake up tired and know that I had spent the night fighting for my life. I didn't tell any body about my dreams until another friend and teacher told Chris and I both that we were soldiers together in many past lives. It made perfect sense to both of us and explained our connection. Chris has since told me that he felt that in my dreams, we were both fighting to save his life in this lifetime. When I first met him, he was just beginning to come out of post-traumatic stress syndrone from being in Vietnam years before. All I know for sure is that those dreams went on for month after month before they finally stopped and I could sleep peacefully through the night again.
Chris and I will go for months without seeing each other. When we do, it is like we are traveling parallel paths, each doing the same spiritual practices with slight differences. Recently, when we reconnected, we found out that we are both writing. Chris is writing a book on helping young soldiers returning from war to recover from post-traumatic stress syndrone. Since he is experienced with it himself, he understands where these young soldiers are. Chris is excited that I am writing articles for this blog.
Don't let anybody tell you that a man and woman cannot have a platonic friendship without sex involved. They don't know what they are talking about or they are just jealous.
My friendship with Chris, like my friendships with Carol, Pamela, Sherryl and Mary have all enriched my life so very much. I could not ask for a better support group than I have with these friends. They know who I really am and love me any way, just as I love them. Thanks, guys or should I say, Thanks, ya'll, since we are in the deep South.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)