I Really Like That!!

All shall be well,

All shall be well,

And all manner of things shall be well. - Julian of Norwich

Very inspiring!

Julian of Norwich

I saw this page out of a six-minute reflection booklet distributed at church and I really liked it so I thought I'd share with you all -

'A cheerful giver does not count the cost of what he gives. His heart is set on pleasing and cheering him to whom the gift is given.' - Julian of Norwich

Julian of Norwich

Julian of Norwich was a laywoman who lived in solitude for many years within St. Julian Church (hence, her attributed name) in Norwich, England. She is considered to be one of the greatest English mystics.

Julian's life was devoted to prayer. Her writings testify to hope within a turbulent world fragmented by war and crisis in the Church. Even in the midst of suffering, her affirmation of creation and her understanding of a loving God led her to see that:

All shall be well,

all shall be well,

and all manner of things shall be well.

While the precise dates of her birth and death are unknown, it is believed Julian was born about November 8, 1342, and died about 1443.

Julian of Norwich was never formally beatified but is considered "blessed" because of popular devotion.

John Paul II Closer to Sainthood

Cause for Beatification and Canonization of The Servant of God John

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!!!

I feel like playing the piano...

Here's me for a very special season, enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Nm4-NVsUg

Free

I'm free

Free Spirit

I can be

What I want to be

This is me -

Free!

"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter"

On my way home, I was listening to Dave Grusin's "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" on my iPod. This got to be the saddest song he's ever written. It's so intense, so passionate, so powerful you'd really think that the heart is simply that, a lonely hunter!! It just makes you cry out for someone you love, someone you're in love with or someone you're searching for to love and on and on and on...WOW!!

Dave Grusin is the musician of all musicians! He's my hero, he's my icon!!

I love you, Dave Grusin. It's my wish to play the piano and perform with you on stage, (world stage, I dream big!), record with you, do a project or 2 together and everything else a musician can dream of! I look forward to meeting you one day. Soon!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! It's midnight, December 25, 2009!

Icons, Legends, Phenomena...

The other night, I was watching the Biography channel and saw the BEATLES and STEVIE WONDER back to back. What a treat! I enjoyed tremendously.

I remember months back when Norman was watching "A Hard Day's Night" movie on TV in the other room while we were here, and of course, being a musician, I wanted to say something about the Beatles when the breaking news about Michael Jackson' funeral was announced and at that moment I just had to talk about Michael.

But what can one say about an icon, a phenomenon, a legend? The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson - they're all that!! What can you say, what do you say, how do you say it? Those words say it all. I remember we were speechless when we heard the news about Michael. All we could do was share a moment of silence.

Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand. At the level they're at, they're everything they ever wanted to be and more... There's nothing more to say.

Pope Seeks to Beatify John Paul

I saw this article on BBC NEWS on December 19, 2009 and it's such great news for us, Catholics, so I thought I'd share it with you all -

Pope seeks to beatify John Paul

Pilgrims at the Pope's funeral called for his immediate sainthood Pope Benedict XVI has begun the process of beatifying his predecessor John Paul II, the first step to sainthood. "The cause for the beatification of John Paul II is open," the new Roman Catholic leader told priests meeting at Rome's Basilica of St John in Lateran. The Pope waived the usual rules which require a five-year wait before the Church begins to make someone a saint. John Paul II died on 2 April, leading to widespread calls from Catholics worldwide for him to be made a saint. Standing ovation BEATIFICATION PROCESS Beatification requires that a miracle has occurred Group approaches local bishop After Rome's approval an investigation is launched Findings are sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints Case is presented to the Pope Blessed may be accorded a feast day Relics of the candidate may be venerated Canonisation (actual sainthood) requires proof of a second miracle Reasons for the fast track "And now I have a very joyous piece of news for you," Pope Benedict XVI said in Italian before making the announcement in Latin. The Pope read out a letter from Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, the official in charge of sainthood, in which it said that Benedict XVI himself had authorised the start of the beatification process. The news was met with a standing ovation from the priests attending the meeting. It comes on the anniversary of an assassination attempt on John Paul II in 1981, when he was shot in St Peter's Square by a Turkish gunman. Life examined Information will now be gathered on the former pope's life and teachings, including all private writings from the period before he became pope, and checked for orthodoxy to ensure that he expressed no heretical views. Pope John Paul II abandoned the five-year rule when he beatified Mother Teresa A commission of historians will be appointed to gather all of the documents together, which will then be examined by panels of theologians, and cardinals and bishops. If a two-thirds majority agree with John Paul II's beatification Pope Benedict XVI will then be called upon to give his own approval. But Vatican expert Michael Walsh told the BBC that for the process to be complete the Vatican authorities will then have to establish that a miracle has been ascribed to Pope John Paul II. "They have to prove someone has been miraculously healed... by his intercession, by praying to John Paul II, he or she has recovered from cancer or something of that sort," he said. Miracle needed In the days following his death Italian media carried a number of reports of alleged miracles attributed to Pope John Paul II, including one claim that an American man suffering from a brain tumour was cured after receiving communion from the late pontiff. But the alleged miracles occurred during the Pope's lifetime, and the beatification process studies those occurring after the candidate's death. Beatification allows public veneration of the person and for the person to be known as "Blessed". For actual sainthood, proof of at least two miracles is required. Beatification allows public veneration of the blessed person In normal circumstances five years must pass between the death of the person proposed for beatification and the start of the procedure, to avoid emotion playing a part. However, John Paul II dispensed with this rule himself when in 2003 he beatified Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The entire process was completed just six years after her death. On Friday Pope Benedict XVI also announced who would succeed him as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Sixty-eight-year-old William Levada, Archbishop of San Francisco, is the first American to hold the post as the Vatican's chief watchdog of orthodoxy.

Mmmm...

Hot chocolate, anyone??

Comment on - A Smile from God

A one in a million shot!

A Smile From God

Comment on - A Conversation with MMY

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation, an enlightened man! Small in physique but unbounded in consciousness! One of the world's greatest gifts to humanity in this generation, his knowledge and wisdom has brought us all from the bondage of the impossible to a field of all possibilities including enlightenment in our lifetime here and now... 

Jai Guru Dev.

A Conversation with Maharishi

Full Version

"Bring the Knowledge to the Children"

Conversation of RAJA DEAN with MAHARISHI
Excerpt from 6 April 08 Global Family Chat
April 6, 2008
Raja Dean:
"I thought today that I would talk about some comments that Maharishi made regarding the movement going forward, that I thought would be helpful to share with everyone, as I think it is a message that is important for everyone to hear. I had a private conversation with Maharishi, as many of the Rajas had the opportunity to do over the years, and I asked Maharishi what would be important to remember going forward. And he knew what I was asking at the time. And he said, the most important for people to remember going forward was that practice makes perfect. And he went on to explain that simply doing the program, simply practicing our meditation every day, was of the utmost importance. And it was through practice that we perfect those deeper levels of consciousness within ourself.

And Maharishi went on to explain that it's a matter of becoming familiar with these deeper levels of consciousness through our practice. That it's a matter of becoming at home with it, a matter of absorbing that level and becoming that. And then all that was necessary was practice. And he said slowly, slowly, slowly, and then all the sudden, one becomes enlightened. And he used the analogy of going into the cave as we often talk when we go into our meditative practice -- we're going to the cave -- and he mentioned that as we enter the cave we're not always aware of the features of the cave because we haven't fully transitioned to adjust to its subtlety, to its softness, to that quality of silence in the cave. And so just by giving time to it, just by practicing, we give ourselves a chance to become adjusted to the subtleties of the cave; and that there are some finer values, there is some granularity to that silence, there are some very subtle, very soft features to it. And as we begin to become much more aware of these finer values, we begin to bring those values fully into our awareness and our consciousness, and then we begin to be at home with them. And so this is the process. And then at some level it's complete. And once it's complete, it's done. And so this was what Maharishi wanted everyone to remember going forward, was that practice makes perfect."

And I asked Maharishi, was there anything else that that he had wished for everyone to remember. And he said, remember to bring the knowledge to the children. He said that the children, particularly those now coming in, now that the grip of Kali Yuga has been broken, and we now have this sort of island or oasis within Kali Yuga of Sat Yuga that Maharishi and all of us have contributed to bringing to reality. That this is now providing an opportunity for very advanced souls to come in and to be born, particularly to meditative families and to Sidhas and Governors, but also as well to others now that the environment has changed, the consciousness has been risen, and that all of what Maharishi has done has had such a tremendous effect, with the pandits and everything. And so these children coming in will be of very fine nervous systems, some that were not able to be here earlier because of the grossness, the roughness of the environment, the roughness of the level of consciousness of the world. And now that that has softened, these very advanced souls now can incarnate to receive Maharishi's knowledge. And he said all that is necessary is that we bring the knowledge to the children. He said they will instantly know what to do with it. They will instantly understand it because they will be of that level so once they are given the Transcendental Meditation technique, they will then be on the road to their own enlightenment, which will happen very rapidly. And the knowledge that Maharishi has provided and the legacy and the tapes and everything that we have they will understand, they will understand. So we just need to continue to make the knowledge available, particularly to the young people that are coming in. And we saw a lot of this emphasis, I think, with Maharishi with the schools that have been developed, particularly in India, in his emphasis on development throughout the world, just to bring this knowledge to the children.

And I asked Maharishi, I said, well Maharishi, is it necessary that we have teachers who are fully enlightened to offer this knowledge to the children? And he said, no, no, no, the children will know it, just that we provide the knowledge in its pure form, that's all that is needed. He said now those teachers who are practicing and perfecting the knowledge within themselves, who are perfecting their program --and that was his first point -- they will become enlightened, and as they do it will accelerate everything. It will make everything go faster, but it wasn't a requirement to the development to the children coming in. And Maharishi's legacy will last for hundreds and hundreds of years, and many many generations into the future, and as it unfolds it will provide the basis for Sat Yuga for thousands of years, and the enlightenment of us, of all of us. The meditators, the Sidhas, the Governors, the teachers, will accelerate it and bring it forth in its fullness sooner.
And then as we spoke further, I had this feeling and this notion that consciousness is unbounded, something Maharishi has always said, but in a different sense. Maharishi's consciousness was unbounded, we all felt that, we all knew that. And it knows no boundary, no boundaries whatsoever. And in this way Maharishi is stronger now than he ever was, and I think we all feel that in our hearts. And so with this I ask you, remember -- practice makes perfect, bring the knowledge to the children, enlightenment accelerates it, and consciousness is unbounded.
Jai Guru Dev"

DECEMBER

Chilly

Winter comin'

Holidays in the air

Lively

Festive

Alive

Christmas is here

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Kwanza

Happy Holidays

LOVE PEACE AND JOY

TO ONE AND ALL!!