Ubuntu

Seeds XII, 5

Seed: Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a word from Ghana with a humanistic bent. Its literal translation is “I am because you are.” Ever thought of life that way?

The banker teller is because you are. The grocery checker is because you are. You are because of the bank teller and the grocery checker.

Traditional Christian thought supports this idea. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. A good guide for choosing behavior. But there’s a deeper metaphysics here. Truth is, you cannot do unto others any better than you can do unto yourself.

We all need and want the same things, my friend. Food, warmth, shelter, meaningful work, love. Cars that go if we have cars. And the occasional chocolate. (Had to add that.)

I am because you are. You are because I am. May I always behave as though I am you.

Be passion,

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, God’s Dictionary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post

and

join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter: @PeaceCorso.

Jigsaw Puzzle Wisdom

Did your family do jigsaw puzzles over the holidays? Mine didn’t, but a lot of people I know did. So Santa brought us a jigsaw puzzle for Christmas, and did we have fun. The thing is … Christmas is long past, and I’ve gotten used to the Zen of having a puzzle in process.

You know that at this point, I’m in a serious process of reclamation of my body. I’ve been ill for a long time—decades—and now I’ve figured out how not to be ill, but I’ve got some serious spiritual work to do before I get there.

Enter the jigsaw puzzle.

At the moment, I’m doing one of flags of the world. They’re beautiful. I find the meditative process very easy when my conscious brain is busy. I’ve been breathing in pink light. Reciting the Prayer of St. Francis. Even praying my own rewrite of The Pattern Prayer. Doing a jigsaw is a meditation for me. It also taught me some lessons:

You remember how to do a jigsaw puzzle, right?

First, you sort the edge pieces out of the mass of the entire puzzle.

Isn’t that how you approach a problem as well? Give it parameters. At least to start. They might grow, but at least you start with a feeling of control however minimal.

Then, you put together the perimeter. That’s the space in which you’re going to solve the problem.

Then you sort a second time. In this case, I looked for all the pieces with words on them. (Each flag has the name of its country in this puzzle.) In problem-solving, you start with what you can name, no?

Then I sorted the names I’d found by continent. For a problem, sort the issues into categories. You might discover a pattern.

Then I started to compare the picture on the box with the names I had so I could place the names in their proper places in the puzzle. Isn’t that part of problem-solving? Moving things around till you understand them in a new way?

Then I sorted again—for the pieces I’d missed, and there were plenty of them! And problems work the same way. You sort, and then you sort deeper.

Interestingly, as I did that, I realized that the continents each had a different background color: I saw pattern! And voila! The puzzle is going much faster (although that’s not the goal.)

Anyway, consider a jigsaw puzzle if you’re trying to work out something that tangled up in your brain. It works for me.

More Traffic Light Wisdom

Readers of this blog will know that I use the image of a traffic light as a way to discern guidance sometimes. The three lights represent my head, my heart and my gut. The usual suggestion is that until all three lights are green, don’t go. Or, put positively, when all three turn green, go!

Last week, I had to go have some blood tests and I needed to be fasting, so I was out in morning rush hour traffic. It was congested enough that I got caught by red light after red light so I had some time to contemplate the traffic lights.

A traditional traffic light has three differently colored lights that are illuminated to indicate a driver’s course of action, right?

The top is the red light or head.

The middle is the yellow light or heart.

The bottom is the green light or gut.

Aha!

Let’s extrapolate …

When guidance comes from your head, STOP.

When guidance comes from your heart, BE CAUTIOUS.

When guidance comes from your gut, GO.

Get still. See where in your body the message is coming from.

Head messages can be confusing, flip-flopping, second-guessing.

Heart messages, purer than those from the head, can be misleading; feelings change.

Body messages are indubitably clear.

The reason for this is simple. Bodies can’t lie. Hearts can mislead us. Heads are all over the map at times.

Listen for your gut response and go with that.

Love Going Around

Seeds XII, 4

Seed: Love Going Around

This Seed was inspired by the words of Larissa, age 4, in Science of Mind Magazine. “We are here to keep the love going around.” How’s that for a clear statement of purpose?

I read another quote recently. “There is no problem that cannot be solved with two words: More love.”

Can it be more clear? I don’t think so.

Consider adding a new question into your daily practice, dear one. How can I keep the love going around? Or, how can I add more love to this situation?

Be forewarned: love is the energy of miracles.

Be passion,

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, God’s Dictionary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post

and

join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter: @PeaceCorso.

Grief, the Great Equalizer

We just returned, as you know, from a quick trip to New Mexico where we attended a memorial service for my sweetie’s dear old mother. The whole family were there and what a ride.

And now comes the actual work for my darling:

Forging an identity without parents.

The thing is, dear one, (and you’ll know this if you’ve ever done it), there is no way to know who she’ll become. She has no idea. I have no idea.

All we can do is show up, and keep showing up. Through missing, through anger, through slogging sadness. Through upset, through emotional snow/rain/sleet, through whatever shows up as a result of the grieving process.

Grief is really a great equalizer despite the fact that grieving is individual to each soul. Truly, there are as many kinds of grief as there are souls. No one of us is alike, and no one will have a grieving pattern like another.

The key is to remember that you are grieving.

Otherwise what happens is that you’ll look to your current life to find a cause for your unhappiness. It’s not here, in this day, really. It’s in the past brought like a caul over your everyday life.

We have to remember grief in order to honor grief, and that’s all grief is really asking for. Honor. A salute. A nod. An oh-yeah-I-haven’t-forgotten-you acknowledgment.

My darling has to go full-tilt into a rehearsal process for a show she is directing, a brand new semester and all its concomitant craziness, as well as processing her own feelings. I can promise you that it’s not easy, and I can also promise you that the process is worth it.

Several benefits accrue from conscious grieving.

The first is a deep appreciation for what the missing loved one has meant and will continue to mean in your life.

The second is a huge opportunity to forgive oneself for what one did with that person and what one neglected to do.

The third is a sweep through all sorts of unsorted and unacknowledged emotions that then get worked through whilst you’re grieving.

I could go on, but you take my meaning, I’m sure.

So, yeah, grief, I’m here. I’m willing. I’m showing up.

Let grief have its way with you, dear one. It will anyway. By letting it happen, you will emerge from it like the Phoenix: cleansed, restored, and ready to live another 500 years.

What Are You Doing? Traveling

My assistant is posting this for me because I’m nowhere near a computer. In truth, I’m on a plane returning to Boston from the memorial service for my mother-in-law in Albuquerque. She died the week before Christmas at age 92 having lived “too long” by her own report. I loved her dearly, and that’s not what I’m writing about today.

What I want to address is the conundrum of being neither here nor there. My sweetie calls air travel being in The Bardo. Wikipedia says, “The Tibetan word Bardo means literally “intermediate state”—also translated as ‘transitional state’ or ‘in-between state’ or ‘liminal state’.” See what I mean? Neither here nor there.

No, where I am on an airplane is in transition. What am I doing? Likely reading, but, for sure, traveling. I’m not leaving somewhere. I’ve already left Albuquerque. I’m not arriving somewhere. We’re not in Boston yet. Nope, we’re on a jet plane. Traveling.

I am reminded of Molly Weasley’s magical clock in the Harry Potter books. There’s a hand for each family member. One of them says, “Traveling.”

The OED says its etymology is the word travail. Which usually implies some sort of suffering to me. Here’s the whole thang:

*trepāliāre, deriv. of trepālium (582 a.d. in Du Cange), an instrument or engine of torture (prob. f. L. trēs, tria three + pālus stake, being so named from its structure). The etymological sense was thus ‘to put to torture, torment’, passing at an early stage into those of ‘afflict, vex, trouble, harass, weary’. Through the refl. sense ‘to trouble, afflict, or weary oneself’, came the intrans. ‘to toil, work hard, labour’. Thence also (as is generally thought) the verbal ns. OF. travail m. and travaille f., ME. travail, -aile: see travail n.1

Aha! Travail comes from an instrument or engine of torture, to torment, to afflict, vex, trouble, harass, weary. No wonder we are so antsy on an airplane.

Here’s how I manage to make traveling more palatable to me. I always bring too much to read. I want choices.

I break down the trip into ‘legs.’ First, the cab to the airport. Then, security. Tiny legs, so I feel a sense of accomplishment.

I never wear a watch anyway, but I don’t check the time.

I drink A LOT of water.

I try not to eat the food, but instead supply my own.

Eventually, I live my way out of being/feeling neither here nor there to being home, or away, as the case may be.

When I’m traveling, dear one, I’m traveling. And that’s all.

May this make your air travel more peaceful.

Do Solutions

Seeds XII, 3

Seed: Do Solutions

Many years ago, I had a smart assistant—a really smart assistant. We got ourselves into a serious bollix with an airplane ticket, and she felt completely defeated. She brought me the problem in spades along with sighs, complaints and the general malaise of failure.

I looked at her carefully for a long moment of silence, and said, “You are no longer allowed to bring me problems. Or, if you must, you must also bring me a solution.” Then I turned back to my work.

She sat in stunned silence for a moment. After all, I’m known for my gentleness most of the time. Then, although she didn’t know I was watching her, I saw her grin. Her energy was restored, renewed, and revitalized. Within the next 20 minutes, she returned to me with the solution. It’s been a laugh between us ever since. (And I think she’s used it on her own assistants since then.)

Amory Lovins is an outside the box environmental thinker. His quote inspired this Seed, “I don’t do problems, I do solutions.”

Me, too.

Be passion,

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, God’s Dictionary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post

and

join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter: @PeaceCorso.

One Foot in the Abyss

What to do? What to do? Most of my life experience at the moment is just lovely, no complaints. There is, however, one area where I’m struggling, and struggling mightily. With my own unconsciousness, really.

What to do?

It’s really very simple, dear one.

Show up.

That’s it. Just show up.

And keep showing up.

Here’s what I’ve been doing. Living my life, and asking questions based on Caroline Myss’ new book, Defy Gravity. One of the things she says is that truth is the only thing that heals.

So all my questions are all formatted as:

What is the truth about X for me?

As soon as I get an answer—usually a word or a phrase—then I ask a new question based on that answer. I’ve been through about five levels.

Here they are:

What is the truth about diabetes for me?
Pride.

What is the truth about pride for me?

Alienation about having a body.

What is the truth about alienation about having a body for me?

Never belonging.

What is the truth about belonging for me?

Special.

What is the truth about special for me?

Here’s where I’ve got to. No answer yet, but I looked up special in the OED. I wasn’t satisfied with their etymology (as I’m often not) so I’ve been hanging out with the word special. Showing up, doing my life, hanging in there, and visiting the abyss when it dawns on me during my days, and, of course, my nights.

What I came to from the OED is that special could have arisen from the word species. I am, without question, a member of the species of human beings. In order to belong to a species, I have to have qualities like the rest of the species. In this case, it means I have a body.

As I write, I’m making more associations: I feel ashamed that I have a body, as though I need to apologize both for it, and to it. Look at that! It—for a body. My body isn’t an it; she’s a she.

I have my next step: to do forgiveness work within myself about my body.

The abyss doesn’t have to take over your life, dear one. You just have to/get to keep showing up and not resisting the abyss. Then it doesn’t take you over.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

P.S. This morning I wakened with the idea that I need to do H’oponopono with my precious body for at least a week. I’m on it.

The Life & Death of Mary Daly

Mary Daly was a radical feminist who took on the patriarchy like a dog with a bone. I read her book, Websters’     First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language, Conjured in Cahoots with Jane Caputi, just before I sold my God’s Dictionary. Her folk etymologies inspired mine.

Here is a stunning video about her life and her ideas.

Long live the pirates!

Boomerang

Seeds XII, 2

Seed: Boomerang

The OED says that the word boomerang is from Australian aboriginal roots and indicates a curved wooden weapon. I’m less interested in the weapon aspect and more interested in the idea that our thoughts boomerang.

You’ve seen it, I’m sure. You think of someone you haven’t thought of in a while and later the phone rings and it’s that person. Or, you think of something you’d really like, and not only do you find it, but you find it on sale.

Thoughts really do boomerang. The verb boomerang means to fly back to the starting point.

The results or facts of our lives are the effects of our thoughts which are causative. Does this mean that the citizenry of the United States is creating the war in Afghanistan with our thoughts? Yes, on a collective level.

I’d like to invite all of us to check out the boomerang effects of our thoughts in this new decade. Are you thinking judgments or criticisms of the people and things you encounter? Judgments and criticisms will return to you. Are you thinking blessings for the people and things you encounter? Good, blessings will return to you.

It’s easier on you, dear one, to throw positive boomerangs. Positivity returns.

Be passion,

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, God’s Dictionary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post

and

join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter: @PeaceCorso.