Karma

The more I learn about how the world operates, the more I realize I know nothing. But I also realize that God gives you plenty of opportunities to master the lessons you need the most. Karma. Learn the first time and be done with it. Don't quite learn it? Doomed to repeat it. But Doomed may not be the choicest word, for it is sometimes a real blessing to have the chance to keep learning. Few things are fatal. 

All this is a very cryptic way of saying, I think I'm getting the hang of realizing when I'm in the midst of a lesson, even if I'm not all that keen on resolving the situation in the best way. 

Today, I had a confrontation at the gym where I teach yoga. Once upon a time, I enjoyed getting into somebody's face when they annoyed me. But I've been operating on a different vibe and working pretty hard at changing my automatic responses to situations. So today, as this event was unfolding, I did my level best to stay calm, to project love, to see the argument from all sides, and to attempt to diffuse the anger being thrown at me. 

When all was said and done, it took me a really long time to bring my attention back to the present moment. The energy I was giving off was so affected that I couldn't get my music to work, I couldn't keep track of my yoga flow, I had my rights and lefts totally mixed up. But soon enough, I remembered to stop, take a few deep breaths, center myself on the thoughts that I breathe in love, breathe out peace, and I carried OM. 

I'm sure this whole incident will somehow turn into a yoga lesson, or two or three. Isn't everything a yoga lesson now? :)

I walked into a Hallmark store this afternoon and the first display I saw was a frame that had a "... days til I'm a grama" sign. The number was 108 - the number of beads on my mala. I immediately touched my wrist, breathed love and light into my body, smiled and continued shopping. 

The universe keeps giving me confirmation that I'm moving in the direction of my Dharma! 

What kind of lessons do you find yourself repeating?

Facebook Wisdom of the day #3

okay, so this one isn't exactly a wisdom, but for anyone that knows my family, you will admit that it is perfectly apropos!

Emily Dickinson on the Individual

Most of Emily Dickinson’s poems champion the importance of the individual over that of the group. She seemed to have had an immense disdain for those who blithely followed the conventions of society with little thought of their own. The reclusive life she preferred for herself was greatly reflected in her works. She disagreed with her family’s views of culture and religion leading her toward transcendental reflections of what she thought to be a better way to connect spiritually to the world. Ms. Dickinson’s poems demonstrate an opinion against the ridiculousness of the achievement of recognition and status, she wrote of the need and the right of the individual to maintain its integrity.

In “I’m Nobody, Who Are You?” perhaps one of Ms. Dickinson’s most famous poems, she bemoans the inclination of most people to want recognition. In the first stanza she warns of the dangers of voicing one’s interest in remaining anonymous, cautioning that one will be ridiculed if “they,” meaning the majority, find out. She mocks those who go around constantly boasting of themselves, vainly attempting to keep their names in popular circulation. She quite cleverly compares them to croaking frogs, ever noisily reminding the world of their existences.

Her poem, “Much Madness is Divinest Sense” further demonstrates her perspectives on society’s intent to squash the individual. The speaker intimates that it is always up to the collective to decide what is sane and what isn’t, “Assent and you are sane, Demur you’re straight way dangerous.” And once they decide you are insane, you will be “Handled with a Chain.” The speaker is not implying that the majority is right all the time, but still, as an individual, you cannot be accepted unless you agree with them. The world can sometimes be so brutal to individuals as to subdue them.

In keeping with her theme of the rights of the individual over the group, Ms. Dickinson’s “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church” can be viewed as a commentary on how a person should live their spiritual life. Here the speaker asks the reader to consider the transcendental ideal that God “transcends” the physical world and should be experiences by the individual through their experiences with the natural world. It mocks the very idea that God can be experienced in a group setting after all.

In “What Soft Cherubic Creatures” Ms. Dickinson reveals the hypocrisy of the group versus the individual. She exemplifies women, who are expected to put on a made-up “face” for society, yet reveals that upon closer inspection, the “freckled human nature” can be seen. The speaker is commenting on the pressure of society to behave a certain way, while hiding one’s true passions, yet another way the collective subdues the individual. In her article “Writing Poetry Like a Woman” Corinne Blackmer discusses how conventional “feminine verse” of Ms. Dickinson’s era usually touched on domestic topics while Ms. Dickinson “wrote poetry that defied all conventional gendered norms” and “ridiculed the pretensions to virtue and self-righteous piety of these “angelic” creatures. Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay entitled Self Reliance said, “It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after one's own. But great is the man who in midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

In “Alone, I Cannot Be” Ms. Dickinson writes in defense of keeping one’s own company. The speaker is telling the reader of the “recordless company” she keeps in her solitude. One can imagine the countless hours the poet spent alone writing her poems. It can be inferred that Ms. Dickinson was plagued by a constant companionship of voices, either imagined or conjured by her creative endeavors. Either way it would seem she is happier for their company, than for that of their warm-blooded counterparts.

In further examining her continued struggle to champion the rights of the individual, it is imperative to examine Ms. Dickinson as an unpublished poet. Her advisor, mentor, and publisher, Thomas Higginson, continually counseled against the publishing of her poems, citing that her poetry would be misrepresented in print form. Ms. Dickinson’s style of writing so defied the conventional forms as to render it nearly impossible to adequately reveal its original intent. She exemplified her feelings about this in the poem, “Fame is a Bee.” Over the course of her lifetime Dickinson maintained control and ownership in order to write, as Sharon Cameron states, "in public while effectively exempting her writing from public legislation" (Cameron, "Amplified Contexts", 241). Writing in this way, perhaps Dickinson felt she was protecting herself against the sting of the bee.

She's got the "look"

Okay, so you know that look you give to the sweet-faced little "mentally challenged" girl when she coyly turns her cherubic face to you, bats her eyelashes, grins and waves? You know the one...the one that says, "Awe, what a cute little retarded girl. Isn't she precious?" (yes, I realize that is not very PC, but we all think it anyway!) Yeah, well, I got that look three times today. What's up with that?

Okay, the first one I admit, I probably deserved...I was driving north on Groesbeck at 4:45pm today. It was warmish and sunny and I had the windows down when Human League's "Don't You Want Me, Baby?" came on. That song practically defines my teen years! I can't help getting all dramatic and emotional and singing alomg with that one.

So there I am, driving down the road and singing along with Susan Sulley, "...I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, that much is true..." when this truck in the next lane slows to my pace. I look over and the driver is giving me that look! If it were practically any other song, I would've been embarassed, but I defy you to resist singing along with that iconic 80's tune.

Well, actually, to be perfectly honest, there's actually a plethora of songs I will sing along to with no regard for my appearance, much to the chagrin of my 17 year old son. But can I really be blamed? The 80s where rife with ballads that spoke to my angst-filled adolescent psyche, I just can't help myself! After all, I am a big dork!

The other two occurences, however, were completely unprovoked. I was compelled to seek out my reflection just to see if I had a booger hanging from my nose or something. I know, right?

Chick Lit

I'm not sure if it's my age, my marital status, my employment status or what, but I've really been getting into Chick Lit lately. I am especially fond of UK Chick Lit. Something about a bunch of girls sitting around all day smoking fags, eating biscuits and calling all their old boyfriends WANKERS really appeals to me!

If you read any good chick lit, let me know - I'd appreciate the info. I've got a list of requests in to my library for the Jen Lancaster set. Looking forward to attending her book signing in Birmingham. Check out her website if you get a chance:

http://www.jennsylvania.com/

Welfare Reform?

Read this:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/01/brave-new-welfare

The article is a bit long, but it reveals the ugly other side of the welfare story. I know most people get their feathers up about the whole welfare issue, but after reading this, I'm hoping you may at least see the human side of why these programs exist and understand that when you say nobody in their right mind would want to live like that, you are correct. Most of these people are NOT in their right minds. What we really need is Mental Health reforms. We need to rid the world of the dark taboos attached to mental illness and recognize the assistance that is needed to get these people to a place in their lives where they can function.

I just watched an episode of Cold Case where the victim was a young mom on welfare. She and her daughter had been thrown from a 3rd story window. The little girl died and the mom was in a coma for 2 years. When she awakes, the detectives are finally able to investigate the incident.

Sadly, it turned out the mom was responsible for the accident. She threw herself and her daughter out the window to escape the social worker her threatened to take the child away from the mother because the mother caught him making advances on the little girl.

I was so enraged watching this drama unfold.

Please say a prayer for all of those unfortunate souls whom are lost to the system. May God watch over the children and protect them from the predators that seek to do them harm. Amen.