Friday the 13th Is A Scam

Hey I just realized we had two Friday the 13ths this year so far, in both February and March. Made me think of a particular 13th I posted about, so have at this from April 2007:

Friday the 13th? Pshaw!

So this is the day we're supposed to be so a'feared of, eh? A "bad luck" day, is that it? HA! I laugh at such things! Hear that? HA!

So what if I woke up at 4 in the morning with a monster headache and in the dark swallowed vitamins instead? So what if I sat awake for hours waiting for my headache to cease before finally getting it right. A mere nothing.

So what if I made the world's most perfect cup of coffee then dropped it in the sink? HA! Coincidence, nothing more.

The water I spilled on my computer keyboard? A mere bag of shells, as The Great One once mis-spoke. And speaking of mis-speaking, big deal if I said "Corpus Crispy" instead of "Corpus Christi" when referring to a church in our area. I doubt my sister noticed over the very bad phone connection - another coincidence. I'm sure all that laughing was just because she was being tickled. The fact that she was at work means nothing, I tell you. Rich bankers tickle their employees all the time, don't they? Of course!

So WHAT if I deleted ALL my cookies, forgetting I need about a dozen. An accident, nothing more. HA!

Now, the piece of paper that flew into my face as I took my daily walk I can't really explain, especially how it just WOULD NOT GET OFF ME!! (Calm down Cath) N'ertheless? HA! Bad luck? I laugh in your face - hahaha. ha.....ha.

Is...is that a clump of my hair that just came off in my hand? Hmm. Interesting.

These glasses, they always worked so well - why can't I see the keyboard clearly? Odd ....

There's that friend with the SNEEZE for a Buddy Sound!! WHY did she PICK THAT ONE?!? I've been MEANING to have a word with her - I keep saying "God bless you" it drives me NUTS!! Okay, deep breath here ... it's only another day, nothing more. Bad luck, my Aunt Fanny.

Why do people say that? Does everyone have an Aunt Fanny? I feel nauseous ... ok, ok. This is crazy.

Who said that?

Did someone call me crazy? Oh no I just heard a mirror break, I know I did! Was it mine? Should I check the place out? Do I want to KNOW if I'm in for 7 years of....wait a minute, bad luck? HA! Again, I LAUGH IN YOUR FACE!

MY FACE! It feels like leather! What's happening to me, where's the moisturizer?!?

It's only 2:34 P.M., I better just lock the door and climb into bed. Wait. My bed. They say everyone has dustmites in their mattress ... I can always just sit in my favorite chair - yeah! That's it! Ok, now I can move my computer over to my easy chair. Why do they call it that anyway, there's nothing EASY about that chair! My favorite chair? I don't HAVE a favorite chair! What the heck?? I feel even more nauseous ...

Windows is beeping at me. Morse e-code. What do they know? It's a Microsoft conspiracy, I know it. They can probably see me on the other side of this screen. Yeah, that's it, that's how they do it. Should I wave? I better turn this off. WAIT! No, they'll know I turned it off, and hide behind my mirror - my mirror!! It broke, didn't it? Wait, I have another one. Ok, ok, deep breathing, easy does it Cath you'll be fine. Just another day, nothing to fear, all will be well .... I laugh in your face. ha...ha...ha.

I'M NOT OPENING THE DOOR FOR LOVE OR MONEY!!!

The Pleasure of Permanence

Hardy greetings, my Constant Reader. I've finished my sojourn to the outer reaches of the galaxy on a mission of mercy. One dear friend of an alien persuasion was in need of what you humans call compassion, and having more than plenty, I offered all. There's nothing quite as moving as being in the presence of gratitude from a living thing. So now that I'm safely back upon earth with no one the wiser, I notice with great clarity nothing much has changed. Yet this is a dear comfort in times of uncertainty, would you not agree? Surely to find your old books and papers still lying about in heaps just as you left them gives one a final feeling of permanence. And who can't use more of that, eh? A firm hold, a solid foundation. Permanence. The state of matter remaining as it always was, and hoping it always will. Having lived among humans for many years now, I've developed this habit of seeking it, and it suits me.

I was, dare I say it - thinking - and in pursuit of ways to make life more meaningful, find that all it takes is a firm grip on what other life forms need. I'm serious, think about how empty living would seem if we did only what was needed for ourselves. If we didn't water plants or feed birds or brush our grandmother's hair. Pretty ... sad.

To get the best results from life, seek fervently the intentions of others, and carry their burdens for a spell. It's a sure bet you'll never find reason to complain about your own silliness again!
I bid you goodness, until our next communion. "vigilo astrum"

Daily Pain In A Different Light

Repost of July 30, 2006: I got a little "flack" for this post awhile back, can you tell me honestly how you feel about my ideas here, concerning pain? I still believe that people in pain don't always have to be in a state of suffering. Please read as much as you can, it explains how I attempt to use the energy of pain for something else. THANK you my Constant Reader!

Are you the parent of your pain?

It's a beautiful hot morning and I'm finishing my yoga breathing and stretching, to help me deal with physical pain. I know there is a group of us who live with chronic, exhaustive pain daily, and we all have our rituals and habits we perform because of what is hurting us. This includes emotional pain as well, it's just as hurtful and at times more oppressive. I want to address something about that. Energy.

Everything, every situation, every sound or thought or act is composed of energy. Our high school physics reminds us that energy cannot be destroyed, only changed. Not one single atom has come into being or died out since the birth of time and space. Only changed - mutated, reformed, refracted, revamped, refined.

I believe the state of painfulness weakens our energy sources. When we exist in pain, we create a state of energy with particular qualities. Do you ever notice when first meeting someone online who you cannot see, that they introduce themselves by listing their ailments? It soothes the human need to be assured that those listening to us know our hurtful condition - I just did it at the start of this entry. But soon a person can easily become what acts upon their bodies, they become their disability and that's sad, indeed. I know pain is energy and I cannot destroy it, but there is something I can do.

After many months of meditating on whatever expanded, evolved, almighty Power that controls this Universe, God by any name you can think of, I found that I could transform my energy of pain into the energy of non-pain, hopefully nothingness. Then I could throw it out. Period. The power of the mind over everything. It doesn't mean I am out of pain. It means I've taken steps to regain my power over it, of how I chose to live, which pain is trying to rob me of. Again, it's all energy, which can be changed - I can change how I view and maintain this anguish thereby adjusting the fullness of my life and throwing out anything that bars my way to a happier, more giving existence.

Unless I reshape what hurts me I cannot deal with it and will always be hurting, uncomfortable, unable to partake of life's bounty, unable to give of myself. So I use the incredible energy of my chronic pain to motivate me into transforming it into something I don't need, I don't want, and I mentally toss it out.

What really happens, however, is that these thoughts, which are actions, become part of the complete Universe, each molecule being sent out into the cosmos still existing as energy but in a form that doesn't fall on me. I do not own this pain, I am not it's parent.

Many of us are forced to medicate ourselves daily. We do this because we have to live, and in the most complete way we know. Chemicals work, since we are mostly made of chemicals, and the ones we take for our ailments co-exist and act in accord with our natural endorphins, or morphine, which keeps us from feeling pain from even a slight breeze. Humans are so vulnerable to their environs, but don't always think to change them. They find it simpler to accept what is given them, to adapt to it as it is. And who can blame them, it's extremely difficult to maintain a semblance of normalcy when your every nerve is screaming at you.

Have you adapted to life as it is, or do you seek to change certain parts of it that stifle you? It's so easy to medicate, relax and do only what is possible. That's acceptance, good or bad it's acceptance of a condition which impacts the way we live. Many of us work through our pain, we have jobs or children and other responsibilities. Many cannot, they have _________(fill in disease). See how it becomes who you are if you see it that way?

But whatever our condition, we have the power within us to change this energy, not adapt to it by accepting it. We can adapt in other ways that are positive, that don't make the pain energy too strong, hence making us more weakened.

Why do we bother to take our medicines if we have no care for a good life, to heal? If you're doing things to help yourself then it means you want to change your situation. So we already know we care for ourselves, we look to make a decent life possible, but we only go just so far.

When you fight against something it only exhausts you and expends wasted energy. When you try to harmonize with something, it then adapts to you, not the other way round. Why not transform unwanted states of energy into unbound molecules and send them out into the universe? It's not easy, it's not hard. It's just another way to live. YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO RELIEVE YOUR PAIN, BUT YOU CAN RELIEVE YOUR SUFFERING. I believe this. I wanted you to know.

No Single Creed

The majority of all peoples of the world choose to have a spiritual base from which they make their decisions in life. Be it Jewish, Hindi, Christian, Protestant, Muslim, Methodist, Catholic, Buddhist, there is a plethora of "faith" bases to study and eventually, belong to. Even the lack of faith is a belief in itself.Life seems more empowering when you know there's something far better, finer, more wise and loving than anything human. And we tend to believe in a reward. Something that will make the trials and sorrows of life more valuable. My Mother used to say: "Offer it up." She meant, if anything hurt us, to offer our pain to a suffering soul. The belief in a God simply seems to round out and form a life based in humane and kind acts, forgiveness, mercy, care, love.
It's not the belief in God by any name that ever caused a problem, like war. It's religion. Organized religion proscribes that the many must conform to the beliefs of the few or risk damnation, as defined by their particular faith. And most disturbingly, you must believe that their "one" is the ONLY one.

No single creed has a monopoly on spiritual truths.
The word religion derived from the latin actually means "to bind in fear" or "bound with fright". The old latin base is religio which means "fear of God" and I realize this is part of the dogma in several organized states of worship. On closer examination I realized I was raised - not to fear God - but hell.

Now here we are, free to worship our God in the traditions and rituals of the faith we chose. When someone quotes Biblical scripture I am open and anxious to absorb their opinion. When someone quotes Koran teachings I am just as open to it, same as the Book of Mormon. I feel as open to all spiritual opinions and tenets as I hope others are to mine.When the beauty of faith is dusty with the film of personal prejudice, i.e. "believe or burn" then I know I'm in the presence of an organized, ingrained and very inaccurate representative of purity in faith. Even Satanism doesn't teach eternal suffering.
Recently I was in need of good wishes from any corner, and I came here to you, my Constant Reader, for balm. I don't know if I received Christian prayers, Jewish songs, incantations, chants, whispers in the wind, or the fierce powers of healing on the smoke - what's the difference?? I knew I'd be protected so I was. By using such good and loving wishes I was able to help myself out of despair. My old pain is a useless memory - my gratitude is eternal.

I am here to offer a thought: If you speak of your God with unforgiving blind self-righteousness that you have the only God that matters, if you pray with your personal self in mind, how praying will make YOU stronger in YOUR faith, more assured in YOUR beliefs, this is the ego that will guide your spirit. That is, YOU will be your own spirit. I can't respect that. I'll hear it, try to understand, but can't abide it. I believe my spirit is finer than me, and speaking to my God is not to further a stronger faith but to raise the intentions of my brothers and sisters to that God, for whom sincere selfless prayer is its own end. If however, you offer solace by prayer, meditation or ANY healing means you firmly believe, and do it with the recipient in mind, the person you're offering this for, if you SEE your brother's need reflected in your own need, without looking through him, I believe your life will need no further guide but intuition, for you are already on the gentle, loving and self-less path you seek - no matter its name.
NAMASTE