shaman's thoughts

When nearly everyone dear to you is on the opposite camp, when nothing seems to make any sense any more and insanity is dressed in "winning colors"; Tell me my child how would you find solice and balance?

In the Bible Jobe was perhaps God's way of saying "you could be the best of servants and still get the raw end of the deal in life, just because I want to test your devotion and faith!" Yes indeed children, it is not always clear to our pea size brains why good things happen to bad people and horrible things happen to seemingly inocent ones, FAITH then is the sum total of all the unquestionable trust we can muster as humans placed in our Father in heaven unseen by anyone, yet present in every molecule of life!

NO REGRETS! IF THERE WAS EVER A LESSON I COULD PASS ON TO MY CHILDREN AND FRIENDS, THIS WOULD BE IT. TODAY IS GOOD ENOUGH FULL OF ITS OWN POSSIBILITIES FOR MISTAKES, YESTERDAYS ARE BUT MERE IMAGES IN THE BACK OF MY MIND OR SOME ONE ELSE I ONCE KNEW, TOMORROW TOO HAS ITS OWN, NO REGRETS FOR TODAY!

On the pieces of papers which I carry around as "ID" today is listed as the day I was brought into this world. But I know and my aunt knows full well the date has been lost in translation from a lunar calender to the solar calender, and for all practical purposes I could be much younger or much older. In either case I shall never know my Zodiac sign!

We need to unlearn so much about our true identity and place in the universe, habitual being as we are, our time seems to be passed going from the performance of one habit to another as unconscious as a rock! Change one habit and watch the degree to which you become AWARE and AWAKENED!

We had a conflict in our midst, words were uttered which cannot be taken back; feelings were hurt. To this old shaman however, the lesson of gracefulness and eloquence of speech was once again repeated for learning. Life seems to use any and all tools at its disposal in order to teach us what we need to learn and learning is never easy or painless, and emotion is but one tool among many. If I can come out of any situation having learned patience, grace, compassion and such, then the pain was well worth the lesson, now all I have to do is REMEMBER!!

Almost every time I work with a vegetable or fruit, I nearly start to cry with overwhelming awe! I am a chef and an herbalist, working with tastes and textures of foods and herbs has been a way of life with me for over 19 years, yet I, nor anyone else I know in my trade, has ever been able to make, put together, create, or even come close to God's wonder works. I have also gained knowledge of computers in the last three years, even got a degree, yet again, my love I do not see any program or prephrial carry a code like an electron does in any given molecule of God's creation!!

In all situations we find ourselves in life the best course of action has been proven beyond any doubt to be one of moderation and optimism. Never going too high on joyous occasions and not get too down in times of trouble. Despair is after all an extra burdon and so is overconfidance.

Perhaps memories are what keep the connectivity between birth and death, not time. At my age I have so much of them yet feel disconnected just the same. Sure I hear a song, see an object or picture, taste a food or sense an aroma and boom! I am back with that moment with which my brain has kept the related data, but myself, the SPIRIT, has never fully felt at home here on this planet. So I wait patiently for the end of this dream!! and all the while do my duties, fetch water and mend broken things, and write.

We learn from history that we have not learned from history. The battle of good against evil seems endless in our heedless ways and God, is ever so patient with us kids. After all the years of the conflict in Northern Ireland and all the blood shed, the resolution was to give the so called "terrorists" (really the little guys standing up to the big brother/sister U.K.) their land back and stop trying to run the lives of those who wished to be left alone. When, I wonder will the time come for the big brother U.S. to give the folks in Palestine their land back and stop supporting the terror!

In the Bible Jobe was perhaps God's way of saying "you could be the best of servants and still get the raw end of the deal in life, just because I want to test your devotion and faith!" Yes indeed children, it is not always clear to our pea size brains why good things happen to bad people and horrible things happen to seemingly inocent ones, FAITH then is the sum total of all the unquestionable trust we can muster as humans placed in our Father in heaven unseen by anyone, yet present in every molecule of life!

We are a combine product of what we do every moment of every day, excelance therefor is not an act but a habbit, says Aristotle. what is this excelance this great man refers to? Our daily thoughts and actions.

I am really trying to keep my usual positive and hopeful attitude towards our humanity and mankind in general, but recent events have brought the old anger back in me which is really frustration and anxiety about Politicians and the money mongers of the world about which I can take no real action of any significance. I see hunger and destitude in the masses of this U.S. of A, the richest country on earth, I see the very weak and the elderly, the homeless and the hard working class suffer while the political will of some nuts is runnning amock! God help me to accept what I can change and that over which I have no control, and please God give me the wisdom to know the difference. It is nothing new, just different land, different time in the history of the ignorant man and the greed of the fools!

Truely friends, Home is what we make of any sphere within which we spend our time in, with no masks on and no hat is needed. Make it so by caring for the travellers of time who share this abode with you by giving of your time and doing for the comforts made available therein.

In our daily contacts with other humans we tend to be more like a shop keeper trying to keep every customer happy; It can't be done. There will always be customers we cannot satisfy or make happy. Interpersonal relationships at their most valuable to our personal growth are and ought to be more than a bargain store's attempt at keeping a customer, yet acceptance of other's short comings and idiosicracies is a graceful compromise of the wise. NO ONE IS PERFECT! No relationship therefore is ever going to be the perfect one, lest we loose sight of our own idios!

Resolves in any internal conflict most usually come from taking actions which promote paience and grace; actions taken under the weight of fears or fixed attachments always promote anxiety and unrest.

Most of us would be basically content and feel happiness with simpler things of life, If we only knew how to be at peace with who we are. Looking for happiness in wealth, prestige, importance, and outwardly "sings" of it so far has proven futile, why then do we not see the wisdom of the old and the wise who's advice has consistantly been "inner peace"?

Let this old shaman suggest again, God has created, is himself beyond our "understading", yet he is as close to us as the veins on our necks. Let no man say results and consequences are one and the same, we choose the former and fall into the latter soley based on our choices!

All through the history it seems that the "white man" has called every other race they have come in contact with as "savages". This happened when the race came into the Americas and found the native Indians, the Blacks sure have had their share of being treated as such savages, and now it is the people of the Middle East. Sad when I see flags of patriotism in the face of the ignorant tyrants dressed in business suits rampaging the world. All the while using "freedom &democracy" as reasons for the SAVAGE acts they unleash upon incocent people, all for a buck!!!

Some folks nowadays refer to "old fashioned" type men like myself as dinasors. That is just fine by me, let everyone know that this old shaman is not interested in being politcally correct, God is not my mother in heaven but my Father in heaven (wherever the hell this heaven is!), and I do not believe that we are all equals, not by a long shot. Mountains and flat lands are not equals nor a man honest and virtous is equal to a charlatan. Is one educated and experienced equal to an uneducated ignorant? What is equality any way? in what ways can all be equal? Are we ever really equal?

Greetings Earthans! I come in peace and have good news and bad news. let us start by just saying that for every action there is a equal reaction, rather a reaction for a reaction, for in reality my love very very very few ever truely act. Another way of saying this is that there are no objective humans. In these series of talks this old shaman hopes to guide any who read these lines and who are interested in plain talk about whys and hows of what is LIFE on this blue planet, to a whole new level of understanding. In the meantime DO WELL, SAY WELL, ACT WELL, FOR in reality my love this is how we create our world daily.