We all want connection. We don't want to feel alone and lonely and we have many addictions to avoid these feelings. Yet the moment we connect with Spirit and with ourselves, we do not feel alone, and then we can manage the loneliness when we are not connected with others. Today, do not leave your inner child alone. Bring the love of Spirit to your Self so that you can manage the times of loneliness.

Dr. Margaret Paul

When I am with you, we stay up all night. 

When you're not here, I can't go to sleep. 

Praise God for these two insomnias! 

And the difference between them. 

The minute I heard my first love story 

I started looking for you, not knowing 

how blind that was. 

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. 

They're in each other all along. 

We are the mirror as well as the face in it. 

We are tasting the taste this minute 

of eternity. We are pain 

and what cures pain, both. We are 

the sweet cold water and the jar that pours. 

I want to hold you close like a lute, so we can cry out with loving. 

You would rather throw stones at a mirror? 

I am your mirror, and here are the stones. 

Rumi

Faithful Lover  

The moon came to me last night

With a sweet question.

She said,

"The sun has been my faithful lover

For millions of years.

Whenever I offer my body to him

Brilliant light pours from his heart.

Thousands then notice my happiness

And delight in pointing

Toward my beauty.

Hafiz,

Is it true that our destiny

Is to turn into Light

Itself?"

And I replied,

Dear moon,

Now that your love is maturing,

We need to sit together

Close like this more often

So I might instruct you

How to become

Who you

Are!

Hafiz

To love is not to possess, 

To own or imprison, 

Nor to lose one's self in another. 

Love is to join and separate, 

To walk alone and together, 

To find a laughing freedom 

That lonely isolation does not permit. 

It is finally to be able 

To be who we really are 

No longer clinging in childish dependency 

Nor docilely living separate lives in silence, 

It is to be perfectly one's self 

And perfectly joined in permanent commitment 

To another--and to one's inner self. 

Love only endures when it moves like waves, 

Receding and returning gently or passionately, 

Or moving lovingly like the tide 

In the moon's own predictable harmony, 

Because finally, despite a child's scars 

Or an adult's deepest wounds, 

They are openly free to be 

Who they really are--and always secretly were, 

In the very core of their being 

Where true and lasting love can alone abide.

James Kavanaugh

It Felt Love

How

Did the rose

Ever open its heart

And give to this world

All its

Beauty?

It felt the encouragement of light

Against its

Being,

Otherwise,

We all remain

Too

Frightened.

Hafiz

Meditation and Brain Rot 

By: Amrito MD

RECENT RESEARCH HAS NOW ESTABLISHED that thinking too much can rot the brain. What they have yet to discover is that meditation is the key to the "off" button. 

The Economist puts it perfectly: "Just as hard labor leaves marks on the hands, hard thinking leaves marks on the brain." 

And medical research has known for some time that the brain is a malleable organ: the brains of sportsmen look different from computer users. 

In the 1960's, research at University of California at Berkeley showed that rats brought up in a stimulating environment had denser, more complex brains than those in boring environments. Even old rats put in a more interesting cage show the same changes in their brains, with more synaptic connections between the cells supporting the old adage of "use it or lose it." 

Not only do the brain cells increase, but the blood supply which brings the needed energy sources increase too. So, not only do "young interested rats develop 20-25 more synapses per nerve cell than do their bored contemporaries," but also they have "80% more capillaries" to supply the energy-bearing blood. 

Recent research by William Greenough and his colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign subjected three sets of rats --"acrobats," "jocks," and "couch potatoes" to different environments--with the acrobats challenged by tasks that required coordination, the jocks just challenged physically, and the couch potatoes not challenged at all. The acrobats showed dramatic changes to the parts of the brain involved with coordination. 

But what about overdoing it? It is also known that thinking too much can kill brain cells. It appears that chemicals excreted by thinking cells may not be cleared away quickly enough and may poison and kill the brain cells. 

When Ruben Gur at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia asked men he was studying to relax, they could not -- their brains kept banging away at whatever they had been doing before without their being aware of it. Essentially this means, like all non-meditators, they were unaware of their thinking. 

By contrast, women shifted to thinking about something completely different, using a different part of their brain. This difference, he believes, may explain his other main finding, which is that men's brains rot a lot faster than women's. Despite their big head start, by the age of 45, with their attention span and memory failing, the front of the men's brains which is responsible for "complex thinking" has shrunk to same size as "the frontal lobes of women of the same age." Alzheimer Lite all round for the boys. 

So, not surprisingly, the brain works very much like the rest of our biological system. Rest between periods of exertion -- is the natural way of functioning. Lack of rest will cause over-training in athletes and reduce their function...the same is obviously true of the brain. And there is an intriguing relationship between awareness of breath and the fatigue that precedes heart attacks in stressed patients, over-training in athletes, and the chronic fatigue syndrome in others.... And while at least the athletes muscles rest while he or she sleeps, our multimedia brains do not. They switch over to a picture show called dreams, which in stressed, tense people can be quite a horror show. 

Similarly it is not surprising that other investigators are increasingly recognizing a connection between alertness and function on the one hand, and relaxation on the other. 

The key to reducing brain loss with age is the ability to relax the brain -- which means allowing the mind to stop and rest. The first essential step is to become aware of our thoughts. This is the knack of meditation. Then you can experience a real surprise. Thoughts are very shy. The moment you become aware of them, they begin to dissolve, leaving behind, "the peace that passeth all understanding."

Remember To Smile o Smile 

      

credit Lisa Frances Judd

To become aware of the human unity that we can create - and of the loving support that we can give each other - is the core of real sisterhood and brotherhood. As we lovingly begin to accept people and things as they are, we open a way for unity and harmony to be wonderfully synchronized, bringing the best situations for us and everyone around.

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

Henri Bergson

Stop worrying so much about what you’re trying to say, and listen for a while. Though it may seem strange, one very effective way to express yourself is by listening.

Listen, carefully, lovingly and attentively to the world around you. Listen to others and listen to life.

Let go of your assumptions about what you expect to hear. Listen not only with your ears, but also with your heart and spirit.

Pay attention to what life has to say to you. There is no end to the valuable lessons you can learn.

When you think you know it all, you deny yourself the opportunity to learn new things. When you interact with others only to impress them with how much you know, they’ll soon understand that you know very little.

The more you listen, observe and learn, the more powerfully you’ll be able to express yourself. Take heed of what life has to say, and what you learn will carry you far.

Ralph Marston