Rainmaker's Prayers blog

Carrot Therapy

 

 

Oregon’s coastal mist rolls in, darkening the tree line. Shapes of Douglas fir, Sitka spruce and alder fade as rain pounds on the barn’s tin roof. Its another gray morning at Ocean Ridge Stables, where my neighbors have given me an open invitation to visit, pitch hay, muck the stalls or engage in any other desire of my heart.

 The air is cold on my cheeks, reddening my hands. I zip my jacket, pulling the collar around my neck. It’s early, 6 a.m. Only the horses stir, assuming I’m the person who’ll dump grain into their buckets, throw sections of alfalfa into their stalls. But today, I’m not here to feed them, but to nourish myself.

All week, I've sandwiched my writing, early morning, late at night, around the twelve-hours each day of a care-giving job. Stressed and exhausted, I need to renew myself, not with a beach walk, a mountain hike, nor a hot bath or gardening but with carrot therapy—offering vegetable treats to these four-legged friends.

As I lift the metal lid on the feed barrel, the horses whinny and neigh, trying to get my attention. Feed me! Feed me! I scoop a handful of grain and carry a shoulder sack full of the sweet, orange roots from my garden. Strolling from stall to stall, I nod at Curly, Smokey, Tinker, Choctaw, Flower, Star and Woodchuck. The horses paw and stomp in their beds of straw.

 

Curly reaches toward me with his muzzle. Stretching his  lips like a chimpanzee, he begs and I offer the grain. Choctaw, a colorful brown and white Appaloosa with black spots, whinnies with his head high. He’s looking for breakfast and snorts at the orange appetizer, but munches it down anyway. I run my cold hand down the warm hairs on his neck.

 
Offering carrots, I savor the musical crunch and chomp of each horse. Woodchuck, a coffee brown Arabian, stretches his neck toward me for another treat and I oblige. These animals have shown me a giving and receiving of sensual pleasure, similar to chemistry with the opposite sex. Their sounds, smells and textures satisfy a primal part of myself. Perhaps that’s because I was born in the Chinese year of the horse.

 
I delight in their neighing and the smells of hay. I love their warm breaths on my hand. In feeding them, my soul is

 nourished, my body grounded. I return home, refreshed and present.

 

Fractal Time: the Secret of 2012

and a New World Age

By Gregg Braden, Hay House, Carlsbad, 2009

 

 

The winter solstice of December 12, 2012 brings planet Earth into an extraordinary alignment with the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Historically, ancient seers predicted this date as the end of one age and the birth of a new Eden. Our planet, in its solar system orbit, is at the end of two cycles, maybe more—the end of a galactic cycle and the end of a geologic cycle. [Drunvalo Melchizedek in

Serpent of Light, Beyond 2012 writes about the end of Earth’s Kundalini cycle in India and Tibet and its movement to the Andes in Peru.]

Since 1980, our planet has been experiencing end-time effects—natural disasters, hurricanes,

floods, droughts, tidal waves and fire. Braden compares where we are in our world cycle to past

cycles; the most recent geologic cycle was 1155 BC, the decline of Egypt.

Fractal Time

is rich with facts and information. The inside dust jacket states the essence of this book: "The key to our future lies in the wisdom of the past." Gregg Braden spent twenty years researching Mayan, Hopi and Tibetan wisdom as well as biblical and oral traditions. Multi-cultural wisdom, coupled with recent scientific findings, bring the author to the conclusion that 2012 may be a process rather than an event.

Braden writes about two scientific discoveries that open the process of a new Eden. 1)Scientists have documented that the human heart generates a doughnut shaped magnetic field that is five thousand times stronger than the field of the human brain. 2) A Global Coherence Monitoring System senses changes in the earth’s magnetosphere. Two extraordinary changes in the Earth’s magnetic field were recorded on different days and different years – one on the day Princess Diana died and the other on 9/11, the terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York. Braden’s book states that . . ."strong collective emotion has a measurable impact on the earth’s geomagnetic field." [Pg. 195] Heart based living will have a direct effect on how six point five billion people

experience 2012.

 

Fractals are repeating patterns found in nature—the spirals in atoms, DNA, pea tendrils, sunflowers, whirlpools,

hurricanes and galaxies. Antarctic and Arctic ice samples also show patterns. Previous planetary cycles reveal both global warming and the melting of polar ice. Our planet is changing, and change is a catalyst for spiritual growth. Braden suggests that if we shift the way we experience our selves and our world by seeing 2012 as a window of possibility and a choice point, we can shift into an age of love and cooperation. The Hopi say, "When prayer and

meditation are used rather than relying on new inventions to create more imbalance, they [the people of Earth] will also find the true path." [Pg. 187] (Using heart, prayer and ceremony is also the message of Rainmaker’s Prayers, Align with Global Harmony.)

Through his book, Fractal Time, Gregg Braden offers us hope as well as a recipe for the future. By accessing the silent language of the heart, human beings can solve the problems of our changing planet. Imagine living, thinking and acting as a world-wide family.

 

I am honored to have the man and book that inspired me to compile

Rainmaker's Prayers. Eric Maisel PhD, creativity guru is here visiting us and discussing his newly released book: The Van Gogh Blues, the creative person's path through depression.

 

 

 

Shinan: In the face of global warming/global cooling, The Van Gogh Blues
inspired me to compile an anthology entitled “Rainmaker’s Prayers,
 Align with Global Harmony.”  How do I encourage clients and contributors
 to find and create meaning in their life?
 

Eric: By helping them make the paradigm shift from finding meaning to
 making meaning. There is no meaning to find; it is not lost. There is only
 meaning to make; meaning is a choice. Once people really understand
 this distinction, they realize that they know enough already to make these
 choices and they can begin to stand behind their own meaning
 decisions.

Shinan: With climate change and the extinction of thousands of species, many
 people feel hopeless and helpless. How do you encourage people to find
 meaning among the uncertainty and confusion of environmental
 upheavals?
 
Eric: By reminding them that they have a life to lead and they can lead it
 authentically or inauthentically. They are not in charge of the
 universe—no one is. They are in charge of only and precisely their own
 life. They can make their life a thing of moral beauty by their choices or
 they can watch more television. Until the world actually ends, we have
 the obligation to take charge of our life and aim it in the direction
 of our choosing; that is what “making ethics” means.

Shinan: Some data says that major corporations control the media, i.e.
 television, newspapers and magazine, and that the American population is
 spoon-fed and numbed by “corporate propaganda.” How can we create
 meaning in an inauthentic world?
 
Eric: Only with great difficulty—but life is difficulty. There never was
 a guarantee that life would be easy. You think through what would
 amount to right action in this kind of environment—where you can make the
 most difference or any difference—and then you step in that
 direction, recognizing that you can’t alter the world’s configuration, All
 you can do is make yourself proud by your own efforts. You heroically
 try; that’s it, period.

Shinan: Often, the endless details of this multi-level project bog me down.
 How do we bring meaning to minutiae?

 

Eric: Great question. By reminding ourselves that meaningless-feeling
 things serve our meaning aims and ends. The best way is to do something
 meaningful for at least the first hour or two of one’s day—the actual
 writing, the actual painting—and then, having built up some meaning
 capital, turn to the “meaningless things” that nevertheless support
 our meaning efforts. By reminding ourselves that we do not have to make
 meaning every single minute and that meaningless-feeling things are a
 necessary part of meaning-making, we manage to deal with the minutiae.

 

                                                        www.ericmaisel.com

 

 

 

 

 

For more interview questions and dialog with Eric,

click this link and join shinan's pottery blog.

http://shinanpottery.vox.com

 

 

THREE CUPS OF TEA
One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations . . .One School at a Time

Mountain climber Greg Mortenson failed to summit K2, the second highest mountain in the world, and became separated from his climbing partner and his guide. Lost and without supplies in the Himalayas, he found his way to an impoverished mountain village. The people there nursed him back to health, offering their best food and blankets. One day while walking around the village with an elder, Greg noticed children writing their alphabet in the mud with sticks. there was no school.
Greg promised to return and build a school. But how and where would he find the money? Back in Berkley, he lived in his old Buick. Often broke and homeless, Greg returned again and again to the land of the Taliban and Al Qaeda to build schools. Building materials were stolen. He was kidnapped and held prisoner, Yet he continued.

Building schools, educating Muslim children, especially girls in inhospitable villages and heading an international institute, became Greg’s life work and passion. “What motivates me to do this?” Mortenson wrote. “The answer is simple. When I look into the eyes of the children in Pakistan and Afghanistan, I see my own children’s eyes full of wonder—and I hope that we will each do our part to leave them all a legacy of peace instead of the perpetual cycle of violence, war, terrorism, racism, and bigotry that we adults have yet to conquer.”

Greg Mortenson’s story, was written by Oregon writer David Oliver Relin. Despite numerous foreign names, places and descriptions, Relin describes each character.  For instance, Sakina, a Balti woman had “perhaps the kindest face he’d [Mortenson] ever seen. It was wrinkled in a way that suggested smile lines had set up camp at the corners of her mouth and eyes, then marched toward each other . . .”

“In the tribal custom of many indigenous societies,” Greg said, “it is appropriate to either begin or end a meeting with an apology, and request to forgiveness for any ill feelings or transgressions one might have caused in an encounter or relationship. It is important that I honor and respect this tradition . . .”

Heartwarming, inspiring and remarkable, Three Cups of Tea shows the profound difference one human being is capable of creating. Read more on Greg’s Central Asia Institute website: www.ikat.org

Ok, I wrote my piece...if I were president...and submitted it to cnn.com, along with my photo and I encourage ya'll to write your ideas. GO GLOBAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.cnn.com/exchange/submit/success_blip.html

 

Shinan Barclay wrote:
If I were President, I'd mandate that communities and individuals build sustainable, local agricultural and renewable fuel sources, like bamboo. In Cuba, after Russia and the U.S. pulled out and the country was left without fuel, transportation and food, PEOPLE CREATED VEGETABLE GARDENS EVERYWHERE.
With global warming, climate change  and peak oil, I sense we humans are at the tipping point of our planet's health and well being. We need to begin to work together, locally to build sustainable living options--food, water, fuel and community. Nature is intelligent, consider DNA, photosynthesis, an acorn becoming an oak. Indigenous people had the wisdom to work with and honor the natural world. Perhaps we could re-engage that wisdom.
"Rainmaker's Prayers, Align with Global Harmon," is an anthology  of  true stories, people who have re-connected with and partnered with the natural world. Choose to live a more simple life-style, honor the air we breathe and the water we drink. If I were President, I'd mandate going back to basics before we are forced there from fouling our nest.
http://shinanbarclay.vox.com

 

RAINMAKER’S PRAYERS, Align with Global Harmony

 

CHAPTERS:

 

Prayer: “Communion with the divine is a deeply personal and mysterious experience…Some chant their prayers and some dance their prayers and some paint or perform or swim their prayers.” Sherry Ruth Anderson & Patricia Hopkins, The Feminine Face of God.

 

Ceremony: “Ceremony—the harmonious blend of symbols—invites a confluence of spiritual rhythms, universal principles and archetypal forces.”  Mircea Eliade, Dictionary of Symbols.

 

Sacred Space: “The sacred is not the space itself, but what happens there.”

David Morgan, Encyclopedia of Religion II.

 

Grounding: “Forces greater than the intellect guide evolution. When we consciously align with them we harmonize with the process.” J. Lotterhand.

 
Connection:  “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” John Muir.

 

Indigenous Wisdom:  “If you love something enough, it will talk with you.” George Washington Carver.

 

Co-creation: “Co-creative science is the study of reality and how it works by man and nature (nature intelligence) working together in a partnership, as peers. Machaelle Wright www.perelandra-ltd.com

 

Tools: “This earth is a shared adventure. Healing begins with ceremony. Each human has contracted agreements with many others, seen and unseen.” Ariana Houle, Conversations with Nature.

 

Ripples: “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver.

 
Resources: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”  Margaret Mead.

  

 

 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. we ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your Playing small does not serve in the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. we were born to make manifest the Glory of god that is within us. It is not just in some of us. It is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others.

Nelson Mandela

1994 Inaugural Address