Happy

The day I realized 

that I didn't need a reason to be happy 

is the day I discovered

what happiness is.

I choose to be happy.

What's Your Hobby?

It's no secret I was profoundly dismayed by the Supreme Court decision today to allow a for-profit company to claim it has greater religious freedom rights than those afforded to persons as their justification to deny women a critical part of their overall health care.  You can stop there to feel good about this ruling or you can look a bit deeper and acknowledge that this is a corporation, started by a man from a family of preachers and his two sons, that is denying women the power of decision making in caring for their own bodies and health in the best way for them and often under the direction of a medical professional.

This got me thinking about why more women aren't outraged at the slope we are beginning to descend. Also, it got me thinking about the women who support these kinds of rulings and how narrow their vision is.

Being schooled as a Catholic, those Ten Commandments often come to mind when I ponder actions, such as this, that are lauded in the name of god.  I mean, I would imagine every Christian woman who claims superiority over others because of their relationship to god would be devout followers of the sacred tablets.  Let's review:

1) You shall have no other gods before me.
What about that glass of wine every night that you can't live without?  Or is it scotch?

2) You shall not make idols.
What would we find if we looked in your bedside table drawer?

3) You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Check your passion! Are you sure you always scream, "Oh! Goodness!"?

4) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Do you always send the gardener back home when he wants to work on Sundays?

5) Honor your father and your mother.
Surely this includes in-laws.

6) You shall not murder.
I have searched for a qualifier that makes this apply only to humans.  I'll keep looking.

7) You shall not commit adultery.
Doesn't that occasional guilty gratitude for a break from the obligation that you have, in between the repressed rage and anger knowing about the late nights at the office, make you a tad complicit?

8) You shall not steal.
Remember that stop at the charming vineyard taken as a business expense deduction on last year's taxes?

9) You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
In modern day interpretation, I'm comfortable applying this to lumping all women who use birth control in the category of dirty-sex-for-pleasure-seekers without bearing the consequences... like you willfully did.

10) You shall not covet.
Let's face it, that new car decision was partly to keep up with the Joneses.

Now, I know I'm rusty on the good book and perhaps I could be corrected here or there, but in wracking my brain, I don't recall reading that we get to run Judgment Day, at least from this earthly life time.  How about we get a new hobby and let people choose their own sins, live with those choices and burn in their own infernos.  

A Glass of Prune Juice Please

Without consciously realizing it, a change of perspective is in order for today. 

When we have something of weight running around in our brain, we often lose sight of the information we can gather if we sat back and let the thought run its course but without haltering it.  Our fight or flight  mode kicks in and our greatest defense, being still, gets trampled.

As I was sitting at my table at the base of this cherished mountain view, I tipped my juice glass all the way up to get the last drops of my unsweetened prune juice.  Aha!  Just as the Ace of Swords card in the spot of my unconscious symbolized, Aha! 

Through the bottom of my glass I could still look out over my deck, above the trees and to the mountains, but with a completely different point of view.  The landscape may be the same, but how I view it, how I think about it, how I'll proceed is all a matter of perspective.

Gently Please

Some weird energy has been creeping around the past week and I'm trying to get in touch with it.  I'm trying to understand my role in it and what it is I am to be learning from it.

After teaching last night and again today, the nag to go inside was too strong to resist.  The sun was just setting and the moon had risen.  I went to my yoga room, turned on my salt lamp, frankincense burning, set out my mat and my folded blanket and went down with the blanket supporting my spine, chest and heart open, arms splayed, soles of my feet together.  Looking out my window, there is the moon, flooding my room with clearing energy.

In anticipation of the next Chopra meditation series, I hit play on The Medicine of Love, one of the guided meditations from a previous series.  Settling in, I tune in.

Word choice is of particular interest to me.  When the speaker said, "Gently, close your eyes."  off I went.

How else would one close their eyes in preparation for meditation?  Is it necessary to request a gentle closing?  What would happen if she just said, "Close your eyes"?  Would the devotees hastily squeeze their eyes tight so much that their nose scrunched up?  

She mentioned surrender.  I'm pretty sure she was talking directly to me.  So I did.