Storms pass and sun shines......

Feeling very low on energy this morning, D n I both experinced a dream filled night which leaves us feeling like we still need to rest, D was very restless, he says although he can no longer remember the details his was all about loss and distrust - mmmmmm - all I can remember is one dream concerning Nikki and I was concerned about her - ah well here´s hoping I did some good on other levels :)

"What makes the simple act of shaming or blaming people complicated is the knowledge that they each had a specific history, and the more we know about it the easier it becomes to understand why they did what they did." Godless Morality {Richard Holloway}

"The healing ministry is non-judgemental: those involved in it are encouraged to consider and address their own prejudices and strereotyping to avoid projection of their personal internal codes of behaviour" A Time to Heal

"I tell them that some corporations have to be allowed to die. It´s all right as long as people have the opportunity to move from the dying ones to the ones that are growing. The world is not breaking down. Only some things are breaking down........
....there is no such thing as a "windfall profit" unless it´s taken out of somebody else´s pocket or gained at the expemse of the environment or of future generations........" Hazel Henderson

Stronger Than You Know - Getting Ourselves Worked Up
Our capacity to cope successfully with life's challenges far outstrips our capacity to feel nervousness. Yet in the weeks, days, and hours leading up to an event that we believe will test our limits, we can become nervous. While we may have previously regarded ourselves as equal to the trials that lie ahead, we reach a point at which they near and our anxiety begins to mount. We then become increasingly worked up, until the moment of truth arrives and we discover that our worry was all for nothing. We are almost always stronger and more capable than we believe ourselves to be. But anxiety is not rational in nature, which means that in most cases we cannot work through it using logic as our only tool. Reason can help us recognize the relative futility of unwarranted worry but, more often than not, we will find more comfort in patterns of thought and activity that redirect our attention to practical or engaging matters.Most of us find it remarkably difficult to focus on two distinct thoughts or emotions at once, and we can use this natural human limitation to our advantage when trying to stay centered in the period leading up to a potentially tricky experience. When we concentrate on something unrelated to our worry—such as deep breathing, visualizations of success, pleasurable pursuits, or exercise—anxiety dissipates naturally. Meditation is also a useful coping mechanism as it provides us with a means to ground ourselves in the moment. Our guides can aid us by providing us with a focal point wholly outside of our own sphere.The intense emotional flare-up you experience just before you are set to challenge yourself is often a mixture of both excitement and fear. When you take steps to eliminate the fear, you can more fully enjoy the excitement. Though you may find it difficult to avoid getting worked up, your awareness of the forces acting on your feelings will help you return to your center and accept that few hurdles you will face will be as high as they at first appear.

Early start.....

Hope you all saw the *blue Moon* last night, I woke around 3 which was her peak, [next month is Solstice the Triple Goddess Solstice, numerically 3,6,9{21.06.2007}] then woke again at 6 so have been up since, got a buzz on to put some more of Sarah's poems uploaded, so another 3 and finished with putting together a background for another, so feeling pretty spaced now and think I shall go n get on with the shrug I promised Jo, who Del has had to go and collect with Musty [their dog] to take to vets as he has been bleeding from paws n mouth, so poor Jo very upset and Dave is working, so needs a chauffeur, she called in tears last night.....
Del got a call from Sammy last night, she went through a tougher time than we had realised and only got out of hospital on Monday, but all does seem to be OK now, poor girl.....

What We See
Judging Others

Though it is human to evaluate people we encounter based on first impressions, the conclusions we come to are seldom unaffected by our own fears and our own preconceptions. Additionally, our judgments are frequently incomplete. For example, wealth can seem like proof that an individual is spoiled, and poverty can be seen as a signifier of laziness—neither of which may be true. At the heart of the tendency to categorize and criticize, we often find insecurity. Overcoming our need to set ourselves apart from what we fear is a matter of understanding the root of judgment and then reaffirming our commitment to tolerance.

When we catch ourselves thinking or behaving judgmentally, we should ask ourselves where these judgments come from. Traits we hope we do not possess can instigate our criticism when we see them in others because passing judgment distances us from those traits. Once we regain our center, we can reinforce our open-mindedness by putting our feelings into words. To acknowledge to ourselves that we have judged, and that we have identified the root of our judgments, is the first step to a path of compassion. Recognizing that we limit our awareness by assessing others critically can make moving past our initial impressions much easier. Judgments seldom leave room for alternate possibilities.

Mother Teresa said, “If you judge people, you don’t have time to love them.” If we are quick to pass judgment on others, we forget that they, like us, are human beings. As we seldom know what roads people have traveled before a shared encounter or why they have come into our lives, we should always give those we meet the gift of an open heart. Doing so allows us to replace fear-based criticism with appreciation because we can then focus wholeheartedly on the spark of good that burns in all human souls.