Judgment

To judge or not to judge? Is that even an appropriate question?

To judge connotes disregarding the flaws, the weakness, the humanity in others.

To not judge, may suggest, to those struggling to survive, allowing others to take advantage.

Is there a bright line rule?

Is it possible to live in the spirit of pure love, whose necessary components are a lack of judgment and forgiveness?

Filed under: Uncategorized , A better world, Humanity, judgment, love

Children

When I think of the word, children, I feel a warmth of hope and love. My mind’s eye visualizes sunshine, light, meadows of flowers, playgrounds, health and wellness. Sadly, as we all know in so many different ways, the greatest treasure of this Earth, children, do not always get to enjoy what I have described.

There are many, many organizations that help children. Many people silently helping children, whether it is a kind smile, a laugh, anonymous donations. The source of helping children is endless, and in so doing, we help ourselves.

Today, I want to feature one Organization, Hagar

Take some time and look at what they have achieved and the stories there are to be shared, through the misery came hope, courage and amazing, amazing heartfelt action.

Peace.

S.E.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Children, Hagar Organization, help, volunteer

Hot water from the well

Filed under: People, Philosophy, Spirituality, Thoughts , awareness, Collective Consciousness, Consciousness, healing, Humanity, Kindness, Life, love, Spirituality, surface earth, Thoughts, Writing

Precious

Precious, defined conventionally according to Urban Dictionary, in part, as follows:

Something that means more to you than anyone could understand. It’s value and worth can’t be defined and you’d do anything to keep it. Beautiful and delicate.

Now, I understand. Something, someone worth more than can be defined. And that is the courageous young woman protrayed in Sapphire’s novel, Push, and now converted for a major motion picture, “Precious”. Not sure I like the entire definition linked hereto, we here at surface earth don’t like the word “obese”, it seems like a silly definition for those that weigh more than some others.

Regardless, I read the N.Y. Times Magazine article, “The Audacity of Precious“. The article asked if America was ready to hear this story, why, because it is true in many different ways and a large percentage of us walk by with eyes closed? Also, to be noted, a play on President Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope“. (Don’t get us started, at least for the moment, when people, news organizations, refer to our President as “Mr”. Come on, bitter grapes? He holds the highest office, can’t be that hard to address the gentleman as President.).

Is America ready to wake up? That’s what I wonder. I also wonder at my own perpetual sleep. Where was I, when Precious (fictional, but please, so many like her), was battling such odds? Where am I today and where is she?

We can sit and blame, point fingers, watch Fox News and hear supposed intellectuals scream at each other, but what happens as a result? Not much.

Aren’t we all part of the same web, the same consciousness, the same universal heart?

Should not my heart have broken when Precious or a young lady like her character lived through these moments? Should I not have been unable to breath as I was otherwise engaged in my daily living? If so, that would be conscious living, an inability to ignore when others suffer.

I am rambling my friends, but what are we doing? As a society, we should be able to do better at the beginning levels, if we see a child on the outside, jump in. Doesn’t mean we have to have an overreaching arm, it means in our moments involved, we don’t let a child sit in the back, we don’t let other kids in “our group” dis another, we don’t subscribe to it, we don’t breath it, we don’t allow it. In doing so, can’t we weave a safety net and pick up more than we would if our eyes were closed and we sat on our hands?

I had a hard time reading this book, almost put it down several times, but you know what? I struggled with reading the truth, the truth, I was not the one that had to endure living it.

Don’t give me any gods, any religious institutions, any walls or parameters where I can sit and ignore this happens to children who become adults and are ignored by their fellow man. Well not by all, read the book, there are those that ultimately, were not asleep at the wheel, and continue to be awake and pull the load for the rest of us.

May God bless them, and my I someday evolve to have 1/100 of the heart and courage of the young lady portrayed.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Author Sapphire, Humanity, New York Times, Precious, Push, Spirituality

Shattered Glass

I am the glass shattered
On a clear
Winter day
Appearing as ice
On an otherwise
Unbroken surface

I am the dove
Holding her sound
Against
The weight
Of the gray sky

I am the mountain
Beneath the sun
Holding the tendrils
Of winter
To not unleash
My power
Upon the plains

I am the air
You breath
Whether or not
You call me
She

*image credit: Adobe

Filed under: Blogroll, People, Philosophy, Thoughts, blogging , blog, Life, People, Philosophy, Poetry, Thoughts, words

Reads……

Here are two recommended “reads”.

Obviously, the world is chockful of books recommend to read, but today, I want to share two:

1. Half the Sky

Why? Because the book “is”.

How many times do you spend a moment asking what can I do? This book is replete with organizations we can help. The book is a must read, but as you go through, you can see what resonates, and choose what works for you. The only thing we ask is that you don’t think too much and you do jump in and act. Most of the time, we (me) are drawn to these stories because on some level, we know as we get ready for the day, wave at the yellow school bus, pack lunches, have meetings, have lunch, agree as to what is ever so important, there are things on invisible levels that are occurring and because we don’t see them does not mean they don’t exist. Again, jump in, this book provides more than enough avenues for us to help each other.

I reviewed the site for “Half the Sky”, I tried to capture the endorsements, Angelina Jolie, because we like her, despite society’s attempt to bring her down, I mean really, what’s the point? She’s real. George Clooney, and more importantly, sorry George, Greg Mortensen, the author of Three Cups of Tea, the story, the book that has rocked this nation and has made it REQUIRED reading in high schools. Short: the endorsements bear witness to the enormity of what they speak: EQUALITY, RESPECT, KINDNESS, COMPASSION, LOVE.

Is it really so hard to comprehend?

I throw down my hat, I am a litigation attorney in the U.S. that can only tell you this, aside from the ones we protect on humanitarian and civil liberty issues, the rest is garbage, the stuff we should be able to figure out ourselves, peaceably, without the use of middle-people. The day may come though, when enough voices raise, when we don’t need attorneys (including me) and we trust and care for one another.

2. Girl Mary, by Petru Popescu

…because he portrays Mary as a female, as a beating heart, as one heck of a contender.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Girl Mary, Greg Mortenson, Half the Sky, Humanitarian, Petru Popescu, Petru Pospescu]

Choking the Matrix

I think it’s time for a bit of a rambling post.

Let’s take two different and yet somehow related issues:

1. Streaks of misfortune; and
2. Decision to maybe stop reading/watching any mainstream media.

You may ask, as I did, what could these two things possibly have in common? Well, it’s a long meandering discussion, not quite a conclusion.

Let’s say for instance you believe, on what basis doesn’t matter, that the space around us is becoming choked with negativity.

The TV signals, the cable signals, the phone signals, the texting, the twitting tweeters, the emails, the blogs, the constant pouring out of media, media, media and advertisement into the vortex which surrounds. Do we really think it is invisible and without effect?

The signals pass by us when we are awake and asleep, passing geographical boundaries drawn on an ever changing map, passing gender boundaries, cultural and religious boundaries also. Passing over, intersecting, overlapping belief systems centuries old. Yet, we only think of it as communication. (What we can’t see, can’t hurt us, right?)

Yet, as I drive down the street, how do I not know that someone’s email transmission is hurtling straight through me and altering my own energetic path?

Whether we agree or don’t agree as to the form of negative thought, emotions, intent, etc., the reality is, negativity exists. If I hurt, I know it is true, because I feel it. If I am angry, I know it is true, because I feel it. If I am negative, I know it is true because I feel it. Yet, I don’t look for proof of it, I don’t require a statistical analysis, I don’t require to hold it in my hand, because I know it to be true.

So also do I know that the information we send through invisible networks is true. It appears on my t.v., it appears on my phone, it appears on my computer. Where then, is the substance?

Where do the moments of grief, sadness, anger, frustration, loss, negativity, the sum total of the mass of those emotions, reside? Do they all get delivered into the inbox? Does only a fraction of the emotion get delivered and part remain with the sender and the other diffused particles scatter catching others unaware, an unintended and unexpected blue moment? (p.s. never understood why we insult the word blue in such a way).

I think we are choking the air around us. When CNN or FoxNews blares, Alert! Alert! Alert! and then you find it is just another piece on Dave Letterman, you have to wonder, what are we receiving? 1. The intention to create sensation; and 2. the hopes and dreams of the staff that created the piece, bringing in their own liFe stories, needs, desires and frustrations; and 3. a willingness to disregard where else we maybe should be heading as society. That is a short list, but I ask you, where does the essence, the energy, of numbers 1, 2 and 3 land?

If I have a day, when the oven starts to malfunction, the washer broke, the windows are leaking and walls disintegrating and then the microwave inexplicitaly begins to smoke, do I say: 1. hmm, guess they are all at their life expectancy; or 2. I’m receiving some bad energy and need to re-balance? (Do we dare mention buying the microwave, bringing it home, only to find out it is defective? No, let’s just skip that for now.)

At the expense of sounding mad, I’m going with #2. There’s too much bad energy being drawn in.

I believe the air around us is becoming dense, the emotions we are flinging into the invisible realm are starting to reflect back, after all, even if we can’t see it, our words are going somewhere, they are disrupting and altering space on their travels, how can we possibly believe otherwise?

Filed under: Uncategorized , Collective Consciousness, Energy, HUMANTITY, Life, matrix, Thoughts

Zathura & Me

There is a particular scene in the movie, Zathura, that came as close as anything has to my mental wanderings of what it would be like if my soul and my human self were to meet each other in the same moment.

At the end of the film, the “older”, (I say that gently, older compared to an adolescent), male character that has been battling the forces with the children, reaches out and touches the one brother on the shoulder, his younger, shadow self.

I wonder, is that what it would be like? A fun house mirror reflection looking upon itself?

I’m afraid you will have to watch it to see what I mean….(actually, it is a wonderful film, so I take that back, I’m not afraid to recommend that at all.)

Filed under: Uncategorized , film, rambling, soul, thought, wonder, Writing, Zathura

Putting all that cash in perspective

With all the chatter in the media about Congress spending $500 Billion for this and $500 billion for that, we thought it worthwhile to put all that cash in perspective. I have held a few $20 bills in my hand, so I can imagine what a few hundred dollars would look like, or perhaps even one thousand dollars. But a million dollars? A billion dollars?

This is $10,000 in $100 bills.

Yes we know, it’s a thing of beauty. I considered using a stack of $20 bills, but it just didn’t resonate as well as the $100 bills. Besides which, for the demonstration that follows, this post would be 5 times as long.

This is $1 MILLION in $100 bills at the foot of say … one of the elected officials we sent to Washington DC. For perspective, this person is 6′ tall wearing size 12 sneakers (size is for comfort only). Any similarities that figure shares with Rod Blagojevich, the disgraced former governor of Illinois, is purely coincidental. Besides, Rod Blagojevich is only about 5′5″ and thus too short for this perspective.

That $1 million in $100 bills takes up about the same floor space as a pair of size 12 sneakers, so who in Washington DC is going to miss that?

This is $100 MILLION in $100 bills resting comfortably on a standard shipping pallet, sometimes also called a skid which, coincidently, is also a verb used informally to describe a downward path to ruin, poverty, or depravity.

The cube it forms is approximately 4 feet on all sides. It’s conceivable, however unlikely as it may be to you, that someone in Washington DC could actually NOT notice this amount of money missing. There are a lot of cube heads (a.k.a., block heads) in Congress “we the people” bless with the privilege of representing us so we are going out on a limb and say that even this amount of money may not be missed.

This is ONE BILLION DOLLARS in $100 bills resting comfortably on 10 standard shipping pallets or skids. At this point, the definition of the verb “skid” is beginning to resonate.

Even the block heads we send to Congress will admit that this is now “real money” and will need some help in moving it all about. If you are in Congress, needing help in moving anything about inevitably means some form of compromise or quid pro quo with some other Washington block head – a potentially very risky move, so it may be better to just punt. When you are elected to Congress, you punt a lot.

This is ONE TRILLION DOLLARS in $100 bills resting comfortably on 10,000 standard shipping pallets. The pallets are stacked two high.

The barely distinguishable tiny red spec on the bottom left of the image above is the same 6′ tall square head elected official with bad hair and size 12 sneakers he wears for comfort that we sent to Washington DC.

The current fiscal year ends on September 30th. Just nine months into this fiscal year, the federal deficit had topped ONE TRILLION DOLLARS – the first time that has happened. With one month to go, this year’s actual budget deficit, the net of outlays (spending) vs receipts (taxes) was 1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS – FOR LESS THAN ONE YEAR!

-Surface Earth columnist: CB

Filed under: Bailout, News, Thoughts , Bernanke, congress, Current Events, News, Obama, Politics, Thoughts, treasury

Do No Harm

I reflected today on that simple phrase: Do No Harm.

I realized it would be a lottery ticket for the human race.

If we were to all adopt that mantra, breath and live it, we could re-balance the world.

I had been driving home from a meeting and was thinking of the state of the world. Thinking about the fact that ‘griping’ does little more than add more negativity (believe me, I can ‘gripe’) and I thought of the pure wisdom in the phrase ‘Do No Harm’. Instant winnings.

I of course digressed, suppose we strove to do the right thing only it turned out to be the wrong thing? Where would we go to find a point of reference? Again my mind turned to the phrase: ‘Do No Harm’.

I’m not trying to be redundant, it is occurring naturally. It is so very, very simple. We don’t have to worry about right or wrong if we follow those three little words.

I sometimes am dragged down, beyond my own bent for believing in the positive, and become saddened at the horrendous things that occur against humans, against animals, against the planet. How naive we can be to think we know much of anything. This whole limitless; yet, maybe self-repeating universe beyond us, what is it that we think we know? Can we truly believe we know anything as we sit and breath and live and laugh and love as even one human being, let alone, one child, goes harmed in the same moment?

I’m not much about division. I think that as I lift the fork to my mouth in celebration of a good meal, there is someone, somewhere, that cannot do the same, and to me, it makes no sense.

I find my comfort today in the words: Do No Harm.

If we all believed and lived this, I think, a lot of the ‘bad’ would take care of itself.

Now there are so many ways we could distort this, I don’t think you have the time or the patience for me to go through the variations, so I leave us with the simple import.

Blessings.

Filed under: Uncategorized , be well, blog, Collective Consciousness, Do No Harm, Humanity, Life, live, love, People, rant, writings