This gallery contains 1 photo.
That seems to be one of the findings of a recent study published on Monday, March 4, 2013, by two University of Wisconsin researchers, David Kindig and Erika Cheng. It used to be common knowledge that women outlived men by several years, but that gap seems to be narrowing. Mike Stobbe of the Associated Press […]
This gallery contains 1 photo.
With the arrival of the New Year, everyone has a heightened awareness of time. People are making all sorts of resolutions with deadlines on how and when to accomplish those goals. I have all kinds of opinions about time because of my ambiguous relationship with it now. But more than those ambivalent connections, I still […]
This gallery contains 1 photo.
As school ends and my academic obligations with it, I am so relaxed that I feel compelled to finish what I started: the journal of my meditations with Dr. Deepak Chopra. Here are the last entries in that journal. Entry 17: Today’s meditation starts out with tears, the left eye cascading down my face while […]
Anyone who knows me or who has been through this way (my blog) knows how intensely passionate I feel about writing. To sharpen my heightened interest in it, I participated in the National Writing Project, which has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a recipient of one of its i3 ”Validation” awards. According […]
Once in a while, I “drive” around to other blogs and never know what I will encounter. November, my birth month, filled me with gratitude for many things. I am grateful for my daughter, my brothers, my sister, my wonderful parents and all they gave me before they left me, and many uncountable reasons and people. This month I am hopeful for humanity. The blog has proven more than an outlet for writing. It is an outlet for us to link our arms around the globe and share our commonality, our oneness as occupants of this amazing universe that gives back so abundantly.
During my recent journey, I came across several posts that made me feel very good; hope sprung anew in me: http://professionsforpeace.com/, http://themysteryofchrist.wordpress.com/, http://godisabrowngirltoo.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/fifty-ways-to-love-yourself-by-cecilia-b-loving/, http://candidpresence.wordpress.com/ (Unity in Diversity), http://www.lynnewatts.blogspot.com/, http://hashhs.blogspot.com/2010/09/andrea-beland.html, and others that made me feel that we are all in “this” together. I truly have hope for humanity.
This gallery contains 3 photos.
This week of Thanksgiving, this entry is centered around gratitude. I am thankful for many, many things and to many, many people. My daughter serenaded me with many birthday gifts and events on my birthday yesterday. I have thanked her for my wonderful gifts and for her abundant love. I thank God everyday for bringing […]
I found myself stressed beyond words. Using the cliché that my plate is full does not do justice to the number of commitments I have entangled myself: pursuing a specialist degree (Ed. S.), writing for Yahoo! Voices, maintaining this blog, maintaining my poetry blog, maintaining the blog in memory of my amazing mother, teaching at two universities that are at the extreme end of each other, trying to live a life, trying (and failing pitifully) to fulfill my religious obligations in several ministries, meeting with my numerous literary groups, writing offline daily (in my notebooks and in Word), and latching on to NaNoWriMo to finish a novel between November 1 and November 30.
Feel free to ask, “How are all those going?” Let’s just say that the word “stressed” found a new meaning and a new height in my body and was taking an unrestricted toll on it. Therefore, I had to save me from my obsession to overload. Hence I joined Deepak Chopra’s 21-Day Meditation Challenge, which began on November 5, 2012. I am so HAPPY that I did. It is proving to be the most sane thing I have done. It truly centers me, restores me from within, and has allowed me to discover magic. I have kept a diary of my daily journeys, just vignettes of my experience. I will post these weekly in addition to my regular postings.
Day 1 Entry: I have meditated before, but I am still trying to understand what happened to me today. Deepak rang the bell and asked me to open my eyes gently; I did without expecting anything really. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I had not realized that my eyes were holding tears until I opened them gently. I am in awe. Namaste, Deepak.
Day 2 Entry: I went further in today and touched my soul’s inside but my body tried to make me aware of it for several minutes. I tried again and succeeded. Yay! Today, the tears hung inside my eyelids and did not cascade down as they did on the first day. I wonder if the magic is diminishing. I certainly hope not because I feel magical. Namaste.
Day 3 Entry: I have come to accept that tears are part of my peace on this journey. I guess it is the measure of my arrival within, touching my core, leaving my body/matter, and connecting with my mind and spirit. The left eye released a long one today, giving the right eye a run for its money (no pun intended). By the time the bell rang for release and conclusion, another set of tears ran down both cheeks. I feel so content. Thank you, Deepak. Namaste.
Day 4 Entry: I did not reach deep into my spirit today. There was noise in the house, and I was very much aware of the outer sphere. I tried to avoid the external influences and hone in so that I can reach within. I almost succeeded when the bell dinged. Namaste.
Day 5 Entry: Today I went deeper than the day before, but there was no tear today, which was kind of disappointing. I don’t know if this means that I did not go further in than I had been able before today’s own meditation. Anyway, it is a journey in which I am still developing and still trying to grasp the many facets of getting in touch with my spirit. At one point, I had an image/sensation of floating and looking down on something. I could not identify the something. I am still growing and embracing my potential to be, do, and have whatever I can dream. Namaste.
Day 6 Entry: The magic has returned! Yes, yes, yes! The tears came today reversing the last time I experienced them. This time, the right eye released the tear first streaming down that cheek. The left eye followed hesitantly and released its own. I am still bashing in the luxury of peace and calm. It took me awhile to let go of the body because my pants held on to my waist, and I was aware of that contact with the flesh. As soon as I was able to let go of the skin and focus on the spirit, I was able to focus on the purpose of my journey today. I arrived there and produced the result (tears) that I did not know if they would come since they did not come the last two sessions. I am so happy that everything I desire is within me. I have known this all my life. It is so refreshing to have it affirmed. Thank you, Deepak. Namaste.
Day 7 Entry: The tears came today, running down both cheeks. I have come to look forward to them as an outlet of my inner cleansing. My body made me aware of it today as I tried to let go of it. What can you say about a bloated stomach when you are trying to ignore it and focus? It appears that focusing is impossible. I tried to let go of the body, but it did not want to be ignored; so, so disapointing. Namaste.
Day 8 Entry: today’s tears did not run down; they let go as drops and fell into my blouse. Today tried to prove a difficult one, trying to make me aware of my skin, the physical. I could not seem to find detachment from it from within. Therefore, I shed the pants whose elasticity was making me aware of my stomach and draped a loose garment instead, which is why I now understand why Mahatma Gandhi wore loose wraps instead of pants that call attention to them. Today I let go of the physical, things that demand attachment to the world and demand attention from me. I must have reached some semblance of spirituality because the tears greeted me when I opened my eyes. Still, I am going to try to meditate a second time today since I did not achieve the level of potential I seek. “I can create anything, anytime, anywhere,” so here I go creating. Namaste.
Day 9 Entry: Beautifu
l, just beautiful, was what rang through my mind as I opened my eyes. I have found five new senses: the sense of abundance, the sense of magic, the sense of fulfillment, the sense of bliss, and the sense of giving. Gone are the five physical senses (touch, taste, sight, feel/touch, and smell). Today I give that which I want to receive. Needless to say, the beauty that I mentioned and the magic both came in the form of those welcoming and cleansing tears that came three times in one day. Wow! Can you say, “Bliss?” Today was the height of my meditation. I arrived at beauty, abundance, magic, fulfillment, bliss, and generosity. I am so content and confident right now that it is possible to conquer anything, which is truly my frame of mind: I can conquer/achieve anything to which I set my mind. Thank you, Deepak. Namaste.
Tonight, one of the major networks is exploring the unsavory issue of how the social media is costing life, time, family, money, and a long list of other losses.
I posted a teaser on this same topic on my poetry blog: http://paperisnotsilent.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html with the indication that readers should visit this site for a hashing out of that issue.
The questions I posed over there were: Does life happening outside this page (social media and Web 2.0) prevent my scheduled postings? Does it mean that when I post or stay here or elsewhere online that I have no life?
First, thanks to Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (World Wide Web), Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates (Facebook), Thomas Anderson and Chris DeWolfe (MySpace), and thousands of other internet-connected and Web 2.0 inventors for extreme inventiveness and generosity to humanity. What would life be without the cables (or wireless) tying us to the internet?
Like most things in life (food, television, gaming, texting, telephone, alcohol, coffee, soda, etc.), moderation is the key. With a sizeable online presence, I exercise the self-control that prevents contraptions from swallowing me. I truly do not heave and break out in sweats at the thought of not getting on line. Real life activities bind me to living. Living online does not bind me to life. Following the Weight Watcher philosophy, portions is the way to control overindulgence.
In addition to moderation—but more important–is budgeting: time management. Twenty-four hours exist in a day, undisputed for now (if science does not alter time continuum). Ration the hours wisely. As much as we want to control time by falling back one hour and springing forward during the spring season, we cannot overcome the mandatory restriction on time.
Does life happening outside this page mean that I have no online life? Does it mean that when I stay hooked online for several hours that I have no life outside of it? These two questions are worth considering objectively. I have much to do on and outside the internet.
However, I give so much to my life in the real realm that I try to avoid giving much of my life to the virtual realm. I refuse to deal with addiction in any of its extreme negativity and ensnaring domination. The control freak in me balks at the frightening thought of giving up power over myself to anything outwardly and depriving.
The Department of Family and Children Services is snatching children and charging their parents with endangerment of minors for neglecting their children. Before the internet dominated our lives, TV was the obsession. I once gave my language art students the assignment of turning off the TV for one week and writing about the alternative life they observed and lived.
One child broke down and shook as tears rolled down her face. Operating from shock and disappointment, I spoke with her mother and suggested ways to distract the student from the clutches of the television. Abundant life exists outside the internet or TV or whatever the next ensnaring man-made contraption will come forth. Please get a life and save your time.
This gallery contains 1 photo.
After years of using the Writing Process to teach students how to organize their writing for maximum effect, the time has come for me to rejuvenate my own look at the Writing Process. Therefore, what unfolds is an adherence to the old but with a fresh look for those who already have a firm grip […]
I am going into the deep end of the writing journey on November 1. This year, I will commit to a soulful call, a yearn that has tugged at my heart for a few years now. I am going to join the thousands of NaNoWriMos in Atlanta to pen that novel. What genre? What characters? What inspiration? I admit that I have unfinished novels scattered like the leaves on my yard, but I want a fresh voice, a fresh idea, and a fresh challenge.
I am going to give in to that “Butt in the chair/seat” (B.I.T.C. or B.I.T.S.) philosophy, right-wing advocates, for the first time in my life. I guess you could call me a left-winger. A believer in when the juice flows, I have always written for creativity. When the honey well drips with more than enough of that nectar, I write joyfully, plentifully, creatively. (Don’t tell me not to use adverbs. I am a left-winging writer.) I have never wanted for words or inspiration. This NaNoWriMo is different!
Ha, ha! Let’s see how much honey will remain in that well when I keep going to fetch from it daily. Scary thoughts are made of these! Thirty days of writing continuously, pounding the keys, forcing them to obey me. To obey or not to obey, that is the question I will answer in 30 days. Will the honey well run dry after I milk it day in, day out? I fret!
