Give Unto Others

Seeds XI, 5

Seed: Give Unto Others

I know, I know, we all know it’s more blessed to give than to receive. Actually, we also know that both are required.

I want to address how to hasten our receiving. Hasten? Nah, super speed, light charge, make our receiving speed of light velocity. Here’s the secret:

Give unto others what you want for yourself.

You want a soulmate? Great. Begin to pray for all those who want soulmates.

You want a new car? Great. Pray for all those who want new cars.

You want a new attitude in life? Great. Pray for all those who want the same.

One of the secrets of living here in peace is the cellular understanding that no matter what it looks like on the outside, we’re all the same. All. No exceptions. Give to others what you want for yourself with an open heart and as it manifests for them, it will manifest for you.

Be joy,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at susan@susancorso.com.

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com and my blogs Seeds for Sanctuary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Inaugural Purification Rite with urban shaman Queen Mama Donna

Give yourself a HUGE gift and spend 20 minutes with Mama Donna! It’s awesome.

To learn more, go to www.donnahenes.net

I Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself

I received this email from Paul Laughlin forwarded to me.

“At the first inaugural festivity, January 19, at Lincoln Memorial, the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, the openly Gay Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, gave the opening prayer. HBO, which had paid for exclusive rights to the event, chose not to broadcast Bishop Robinson’s prayer. So if you watched there you wouldn’t have caught it or even known that it occurred. NPR didn’t air it either. There’s no record of it in images placed on the sites of Getty Images, New York Times and the Washington Post. It’s a complete erasure of his ever having delivered the prayer.

“Such is the continuing policy of silence and erasure we have to live with from people who should know better. We are used to this. If you know your Gay history this has happened again and again. In fact this little list-serve is really about recovering the truth in our history and celebrating it. So we’re going to celebrate it by providing here the full text of Bishop Robinson’s prayer. I suggest you forward this around so that everyone has a chance to enjoy it.”

Paul Laughlin

Opening Inaugural Event

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC

January 19, 2009

Delivered by the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson:

“Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will . . .

Bless us with tears—for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger—at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort—at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience—and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility—open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance—replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity—remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand—that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.”

I thank Mr. Laughlin for his “little” list-serve, for finding and making the text of this remarkable prayer available. Let’s forgive HBO; it was probably a decision related to broadcast time constraints rather than outright discrimination. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.

That concert performance was thoroughly remarkable. Bono hit the nail on the head when he asked us to think of the Palestinians. Beyoncé, a performer that just doesn’t do it for me, was phenomenal. Jamie Foxx did such a good impression of Obama that I was gasping for breath I laughed so hard. Garth Brooks worked the crowd with such skill that it made me want to see one of his concerts.

And, though I did not know, Bishop V. Gene Robinson prayed a prayer for all people at this time in our national story. God, please bless the bishop!

Marble Dust

I’ve been rereading Zero Limits by Dr. Joe Vitale and Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. It’s a recent book which lays out the practice of ho’oponopono, the Hawaiian art of reconciliation through forgiveness. As my readers know, I’ve been working with the updated process for over a year now, and it’s truly transformational.

One of Dr. Hew Len’s basic premises is that we operate from one of two places in consciousness. Either memory or inspiration. In order to operate from inspiration, we have the ho’oponopono sentences/mantra to clean, clear and cleanse our memories.

Thank You.

I’m sorry.

Please forgive me.

I love you.

I find them transcendent. If ever I am stuck in memory, these ten words clear the memory every time. Sometimes it takes longer than others depending upon how stuck I am in beliefs and reactions to the memory but they’ve never failed me in over a year.

In fact, I’ve just recommitted myself to even deeper, more consistent practice of the words than ever before. Living in reaction to memory, even good memories, isn’t living present to the now which is the only place where inspiration can come calling. The only place!

An email newsletter I receive had this little tidbit of wisdom the other day:

The best memory is that which forgets nothing but injuries. Write kindness in marble and write injuries in the dust. Persian Proverb

And thest. Marble dust is insidious, and so is memory. Despite the wisdom of the Persian proverb, what we truly want is This is not to say that we don’t or can’t learn from the past; we can. It is to say instead: I let the past be the past. I show up here and now. And wow! The excitement and wonder I feel about my life when I live in a constant state of Divine Inspiration. This is the place of miracles, Beloved, and you have a reservation in your name!

Isn’t that delicious!

And then I got to thinking. Have you ever been around an artist who worked in marble? The most significant thing about it is the dust. Marble dust is insidious, and so is memory. Despite the wisdom of the Persian proverb, what we truly want is to relegate memory to Memory Lane, and show up in the present moment for inspiration to flash into our awareness.us!

Calm the Storm

Seeds XI, 4

Seed: Calm the Storm

Since 9/11/01, it has seemed to me that the storms of life have increased. Does it seem that way to you? Perhaps it’s just our instantaneous communication satellites that make it seem this way, but I don’t think so.

Imagine hearing this . . . “I’m praying up a storm!”

The sentence burst fiercely from a client of mine in a dire situation. Yes, it was life and death, fatal illness. She was desperate, and so was her family.

Enter Divine Inspiration . . . I exhaled when I felt the ferocity of the emotion in her words, and said a prayer asking for the right words.

Moments passed.

I answered her, “Dearest, let’s pray up a calm instead, shall we?” *

Be joy,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

*Today, the dire illness has left her, and she’s calmer than ever.

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at susan@susancorso.com.

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com and my blogs Seeds for Sanctuary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Did You Cry?

Okay, I’m a minister so I’ll cop to loving pageantry, and the Inauguration had plenty of it. Aretha wowed me. Yo-yo Ma and co. were stellar. Obama, of course, was bright and shining and real.

But the star of the show, for me, was Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, the preacher who closed the ceremony. Part of his prayer appears below:

REV. LOWERY Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around — (laughter) — when yellow will be mellow — (laughter) — when the red man can get ahead, man — (laughter) — and when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen!

REV. LOWERY: Say amen –

AUDIENCE: Amen!

REV. LOWERY: — and amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen! (Cheers, applause.)

Whether your politics agrees with the Right Reverend’s or not, he made a powerful point about prayer. Real prayer.

Real prayer is about real things, real needs, real desires, real feelings, real dreams, real hopes. It can be funny, like his, or painful, like his, or loving, but it is about a real relationship with the Divine, as real as if you and I were to sit down together over a cup of tea.

Beloved, when you get real with the Divine, the Divine gets real with you.

As Michelle Bernard’s five year old son said to her when she left to be a part of MSNBC’s full day of live coverage, “Barack on!”

Deep Listening

So magic happened last week . . . magic that had been a long time coming. On October 3, 2008, I sent an email to Jeff Bezos, the man who owns Amazon.com explaining my saga with his company and their subsidiaries in my attempt to get my audiobook on Amazon. It was not pretty, and you can find my extremely successful letter on this blog.

By morning, I had an email from the president of Mobipocket to arrange for the first ten years of Seeds to be listed as a Kindle product—it now is. Then I had communiqués from their Special Customer Service Group who put me on to Audible.com which eventually made a contract with me and this week my latest book, Oklahoma! Hex, is on Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.

AND . . . wait for it . . . ever since I heard of podcasting, I knew I would take to it like a duck to water. The Universe conspired to send me sound wizard Sam Adelman. I got the equipment, did the podcasts, and they too were uploaded to iTunes!

The name of the program is Deep Listening; the graphic designed by Suzanne Rhodes, is above.  Sam asked me to name the program as he was preparing the intro and the outro for the episodes. I hadn’t a clue.

I was reading Science of Mind magazine later that day, and a subtitle from an article leaped off the page at me. Deep Listening! Of course.

It means two things: first, that when you listen to the podcasts, they will be about “deep” things, spiritual things, and second, they will be a result of me going deep within. Because of the natural ratio provided by human physiology, i. e. two ears, one mouth, I do a lot more listening than talking.

 The first two episodes were inspired by an article in Spirit of Ma’at magazine. Dr. Michael Abrams wrote an article on “The 12 Conditions of a Miracle.” I read each one and riff on what it means. Each episode is about 15 minutes. They’re designed to feel like a chat with me.

I’m already on the hunt for the subjects for the next two episodes. Our goal is to post two new ones around the 15^th of each month.

Of course, questions and suggestions are invited! So welcome, beloved, to Deep Listening—may it become one more source of nourishment for your soul.

P. S. Google Alerts let me know Saturday morning that my novel is on Audible.com all over the world! International—part of my vision all along!

A Blessing

Seeds XI, 3

Seed: A Blessing

You are receiving this Seed four days before the Inauguration of the 44^th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama. If you have read these words over the years, you know that all names have meanings.

Try this on for Mr. Obama . . .

Barack = Barak (from the Arabic) = Blessing

Hussein = Husayn, diminutive of Hasan (from the Arabic) = To be good

Obama = Opeyemi (from the Yoruba) = I should give praise

His first name means Blessing.

His middle name means To be good.

His surname means I should give praise.

No matter your political orientation, consider this metaphysical spin on this man is who will lead all Americans:

He is meant to be a blessing to our nation, and all nations.

He is meant to be good for our nation, and all nations.

He is in need of our praise, and the praise of all nations.

Names are never mistakes. We have our assignment. Let’s get to praising Mr. Obama’s ability to be a good blessing for the whole world.

Be joy,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

P. S. I looked up the meaning for Obama online and WikiAnswers provided this:

Obama is a name from the Luo ethnic group of southwestern Kenya, where Barack Obama Sr. was born. It was originally the given name of Barack Obama’s great-grandfather. It is based on the Luo (technically, Dholuo, the name of the language of the Luo) word bam, which means “crooked, slightly bending” . The prefix O- means “he”, and many Luo male names begin with it. Since most traditional Luo names were given by the baby’s mother referring to something about the child’s birth, the best guess is that when Obama’s great-grandfather was born one of his arms or legs looked slightly bent.

Additional Answer

Email rumors have charged that U.S. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is a practing Muslim, a rumor that has since been proven false. However, Senator Obama does have an unusual name which reflects his African Muslim heritage. Senator Obama was reportedly named after his father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.

The Senator’s first name, Barack, is a Swahili name that has its origins in the Arabic language. The original Arabic root of the name (B-R-K) means “blessed.” In Arabic, the root word is used in many other phrases to denote blessings and to describe people who are blessed:

Mabruk! = “Congratulations!”

Barakallah feek = “May God bless you”

Barakah = blessings from God (feminine version of the name)

Senator Obama’s middle name is Hussein, which was his grandfather’s first name. The name, of Arabic origin, means “good” or “handsome one.” It is common in Muslim cultures for children (both boys and girls) to have a middle name which directly connects them to their father or grandfather.

Senator Obama’s surname is not uncommon among the Luo tribe, one of the three largest ethnic groups in Kenya. They speak the Dhoulou language.

The “slightly bending” interpretation intrigues me. Isn’t that what Obama will have to do in Washington? Slightly bend the old ways and means to the will of the American people who elected him?

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at susan@susancorso.com.

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com and my blogs Seeds for Sanctuary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Yoko’s PEACE Email

The Wheel of Life

Robert Anthony, the Executive Producer, of The Wheel of Life DVD, emailed me to say he had been lurking on my blog, and that he thought his topics and mine dovetailed nicely. He also sent me a free link to the DVD which I watched last night.

The DVD and its website begin with a powerful question:

What if everything you believe about life is wrong?

It’s a doozy. Mostly because most of what we believe about life is wrong. There is a quantum leap between belief and knowledge. What we know about life is right, and sadly, what we believe is often wrong. So be it.

Given that, where do we go from here? Mr. Anthony’s DVD, reminiscent of The Secret, attempts to guide us in eight areas of a balanced life as depicted in the wheel of life image above.

Here is some information on each area from their website:  www.wheeloflife.tv

How Are The 8 Areas of Your Wheel Of Life?

Physical Environment: Do you spend time in nature? Is your home environment free from tension and conflict? Is it free from clutter?

Career: Are you in a job that really fulfils you? Do you maintain a positive attitude while working? Are you achieving the goals you set for yourself?

Finances: Are you creating the financial wealth in your life that you desire? Do you have a positive relationship with money? Do you create enough money to live the lifestyle that you want? Do you use your money to contribute to others?

Health: Do you exercise regularly? Does your diet support your wellbeing? Do you spend time with uplifting and positive people?

Friends and Family: Do you make time for friends and family? Do you support them when they need support? Are they there for you? Do you make sure you make time for them even when the pressure is on at work?

Intimate Relationships: Are you in a relationship with your soul mate? Are you actively looking for someone to share your life? Do you have a proven roadmap to close the gap from where you are to where you want to be in your intimate relationships in terms of love, joy passion and excitement?

Personal Growth: Do you do things to expand yourself and grow as a person? Do you actively look to become a better, more balanced person each day? Do you spend time with other people who are passionate about personal growth? All these things will make your life more joyous and complete.

Fun and Recreation: Do you spend time just having fun and enjoying life? Part of living a balanced life is to celebrate and acknowledge your successes. If you don’t play enough in life, when would now be a good time to start?

If you know you need to work on some of these areas, The Wheel Of Life documentary will help you find practical solutions and lead a more balanced life.

I found it somewhat odd that the issues as listed above are not in the order in which they appear on the wheel. The film starts with Health & Wellness and follows its own path around to Spirituality. Fans of this blog know that I believe everything has to start with Spirituality, so it seemed an odd beginning to me.

Nevertheless, Don Tolman’s wisdom grabbed me from the moment he opened his mouth, all the way through the film. So did that of Dave Rogers; his open heart was a beacon to me.

To my surprise, much of the rest of the film appeared as well-meaning talking heads. I’d have preferred fewer, and deeper, teachings. And, remember that this is just one opinion. One.

For anyone who is just beginning to be aware of the challenges and delights of creating work/life balance, this film is a good platter of hors d’oeuvres. Try a little of everything, and then decide where you need to be working in your own behalf.

The Wheel of Life is a great model, and the DVD begins to open it well.