Jo Davidson | Diary

February 26 2008

Things you have to believe in to vote Republican
Submitted by Jimmy Whitlock, Lexington, KY

1.) Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary.

2.) Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

3.) Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

4.) The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

5.) A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

6.) The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

7.) If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

8.) A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

9.) Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism. HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

10.) Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

11.) A president lying about an extra-marital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

12.) Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

13.) The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

14.) Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

15.) What Bill Clinton did in the 1960's is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80's is irrelevant.

February 21 2008

"When it comes to sheer neurological processing abilities, the subconscious mind is millions of times more powerful than the conscious mind. If the desires of the conscious mind conflict with the programs in the subconsious mind, which "mind" do you think will win out?
- Bruce Lipton

"The human brain's ability to learn perceptions is so advanced that we can actually acquire perceptions indirectly from teachers. Once we accept the perceptions of others as "truths," their perceptions become hardwired into our own brains, becoming our "truths." Here's where the problem arises. What if our teachers perceptions are inaccurate?"
-Bruce Lipton

Hello- hope you are having a great week!

Check out my new interview with Bruce Lipton, cell biologist and author of THE BIOLOGY OF BELIEF for Zentertainment Talk Radio.

I am fascinated by the subconsious. What information and what memories does it hold there? What behaviours and choices does it control? Where did I get these downloads? Where did you get yours? And do we continue to get "downloaded" our whole life?

I think it is so true that much of the time we try to change things consciously, but the problems are in the subconsious! So how do we access that place and rewrite the script? Listen in to this interview with Bruce Lipton and discover some new possibilities. Here is the DIRECT LINK: http://www.zentertainment.org/podcasts.html

I think teachers come in many forms. As children, our first teachers are our parents, then also friends, the culture and the teachings that come from various religions and spiritual practices. If you are into this sort of thing, many times you might also be influenced greatly by "psychics" and various "healers."

I sometimes wonder if ANY of my thoughts are truly my own. Who would I be if I was born and lived in, say, Africa?

Consider the message you have received during your lifetime. What if some of the messages you swallowed were not true? Then what?

In this interview Bruce and I talk about all of this and more. Find out about some new ways to rewrite those subconscious tapes that might be wreaking havoc in your life!

Now to get more personal-

I have to be honest, in spite of work I have been doing, I am not certain that my subconscious beliefs are changing all that much yet. If the state of my physical health is the measurement of my beliefs, then it must mean I have some beliefs not working for me. But is this always true? Can we really say that all illness, all relationship problems, are hardships whatever they are, are a result of negative thinking? I don't think it is that black and white.

My doctor said something to me that I loved. He said, "Jo, you are an exquisitely made fine Swiss watch. If you put a grain of sand in Big Ben, it will still work. But if you put a grain of sand in a Swiss watch, it will stop."

Now what a compliment that is. If you are reading this and are one of those people who feel things more deeply, you are a swiss watch!

Why are some of us more sensitive? Why do some of us face illness in our lives? For some people, it is directly related to their thoughts. For others, I think It has to be more than a matter of one's thoughts. For look around. How many people do you know whose biology is fine, yet they are not especially conscious or even nice!

I love the book of Job in the Bible. Job had everything. Successful business, healthy kids, great wife, money and great health. He had solid strong beliefs and strong faith. Then came along these tests. One by one, things crumbled. His children were killed, his empire collapsed, and he got a physical illness. His friends thought that the only way these things could have happened is if he did something wrong to deserve punishment, or that his faith and beliefs were weak.

In the end, God comes along and says that Job did nothing wrong that brought these struggles on. Everyone is trying to figure out why bad things could happen to good people. And God says to everyone, basically, who are you to think you control the universe? Where were you when I made the stars? Do you make the sun rise and set and make the lightning strike?

This shows me that there is great mystery in life, and we are better to honor that than to think we can be perfect. (Or that only those who are perfect in their lives deserve health and blessings).

Bruce Lipton is a cell biologist, and has studied cells his whole life.

"Genes are not destiny! Environmental influences, nutrition, stress, and emotions can modify genes without changing their basic blueprint. These modifications can be passed down to future generations as surely as DNA blueprints can be passed on.."

I wish I would have asked him- Can we be influenced sometimes by the environment regardless of our beliefs? (Pollution, etc)

Is faulty thinking ALWAYS the culprit (I don't think so).

What is the difference then between what is genetic and what is a "modification?" Either way, it is still something that is passed down. Perhaps he is saying that these modifications can be changed and rewritten. Maybe genes cannot change so much?

He said that when people are exposed to high power lines, the people who have side effects are those who are stressed out. Makes sense.

But it's also not true. Everyone I know in NYC is stressed to the max, and many people don't have reactions in the form of physical illness. There is more to it than stress.

Just an FYI, Mercury toxicity seems to be one things that is at the root of many illnesses, however, from my research, it is hard to detect if it is bound up in brain or organ tissues.

He said that someone's belief is what makes something work or not work. Which is true but also not true. When my friend was switched to a generic version of a brand name drug she takes for MS symptoms, she had the total belief it was the same thing, but it did not work at all. Her belief had nothing to do with it.

I know for myself, there have been times when I was convinced that something was the right thing for me and would give me healing. Yet it did not.

I totally believe in what bruce said in this interview 100%. There are lots of ideas and tips and advice, and things that can help us all! But everything that I agree with, I also think is not for every single situation for every person all the time.

I don't think that in bringing up these things I am denying the wonderful possibilities that exist in exploring our subconsious thoughts. We ARE more powerful than we know, and we CAN make changes.

Also, it is important to be gentle on ourselves when we don't understand why things are as they are.

As for the subconsious beliefs, I think it is true that they DO sabotage me at times, and they do probably sabotage your efforts at times, too.

"THE BIOLOGY OF BELIEF" is a very interesting read. I recommend it. I'm just now sure if it is the whole picture....or maybe that's just my belief......

Jo

December 6 2007

Don't drink glasses from Hotel Rooms! Check this out:
http://www.bestviral.com/video/6629/dont_ever_drink_from_hotel_glasses

December 1 2007

Is Gardasil Safe for women and young girls?
There is alot of publicity swirling around the vaccine GARDASIL which is being used to prevent cervical cancer.

What do you think about it?
I have seen ads for it in so many magazine from O MAGAZINE to MORE and others.

The research I have done shows that is actually only protects a woman/young girl from a few strains of HPV which can cause cancer. Most of the strains of HPV clear up on their own, and/or are unaffected by this vaccine.

This is a copy of the letter I wrote to MORE MAGAZINE the other day after reading a very pro vaccine article in their new issue, Nov 2007. Attn:
Letter to the Editor at MORE Magazine regarding Nov 2007 issue
from Jo Davidson

I don’t expect magazines to give us the facts about drug companies, since most magazines these days are in part funded by them through advertising. However, I would hope that you might reconsider your viewpoint or at least share another perspective. I read your article on “Five reasons to get the HPV shot” and could not believe what I was reading.

According to Judicial Watch, in June of 2007, a 17 year old female was found unconscious after receiving her first dose of Gardasil. She subsequently died. In August of 2007, a healthy 13 year old was vaccinated with her first and second doses of Gardasil. She experienced paralysis from the chest down and as of now, has not recovered.

Washington DC-based Judicial watch has reported over 3000 adverse events involving Gardasil, including as many as 11 deaths, seizures, paralysis more. In a news release, Judicial Watch reported that “Of the 42 women who received the vaccine while pregnant, 18 experienced side effects ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormalities.”

Even the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has questioned its safety. In the February 28th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Eileen F. Dunne and her colleagues found that 90% of HPV infections clear up on their own. The study also found that of the HPV infections detected, only 3.4% were of the strains that Gardasil provides protection from.

This vaccine has not been tested for long term safety. Are women and now young girls suppose to offer themselves up as guinea pigs for drug companies? Merck is the company who covered up the fact that Vioxx increased the risk of cardiovascular disease. Thousands of deaths were allegedly caused by the painkiller Vioxx. They knew the dangers and hid the facts. Could it be that Merck is now trying to make money to cover their Vioxx losses by promoting this dangerous new vaccine?

Another interesting note is that all of the public studies of the drug were funded by the manufacturer. This alone is enough to make any of us pause.

As if that is not enough, Merck continued to supply the infant hepatitis B vaccine, which was contaminated with thimerosal, a mercury preservative, for two years after announcing that it had eliminated the toxin from the vaccine. Thimerosal is composed of 50% ethyl mercury, which is a neurotoxin. A memo written back in 1991 disclosed the fact that 6 month old children receiving their shots on schedule would be receiving a mercury dose nearly 87 times higher than guidelines for the maximum daity consumption of mercury from fish.

The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program received over 4,200 vaccine-related complaints by parents reporting their children experienced side effects such as autism or other neuro-developmental disorders from the mercury in vaccines.

We hear the buzz phrase “The War on Terror.” The real war on terror is corporate greed. I worry that your magazine would promote and endorse a vaccine that is still unproven in the big picture, especially in light of the many reported side effects girls have had after taking this vaccine. If I had a child, I would not let Gardasil anywhere near her. Girls have died from this vaccine. Is this a risk you would take with your daughter?

Women were told that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was safe, and look how well that turned out.

Getting the gardasil vaccine should be a choice that is made by informed people who have explored both sides of the issue.

If Merck is able to convince us that we all need the Gardasil vaccine to treat an illness that only 3700 people in the entire country will die from, they will make 3 billion dollars a year. The vaccines are not covered by most insurance companies.

It costs $360 or more for all three shots.

October 16 2007

Today our family dog died. There have been many tears shed today. It has been a grueling, emotional day.

Fritz we miss you!

September 12 2007

Poem and Photo ©Jo Davidson, Sept 12 2007

Bliss
is an east coast September
on the water
It is riding my bike as the sun sets
and the herons and egrets play

It is watching 50 ducks fly off into the sunset
and wild geese glide by

It is the beaver that crosses the street and the two rabbits that hop away

It is the scent of autumn teasing me in the wind
and the crisp air running its hands through my hair
and over my body like a sexy slooooow song

It is the voice in my soul that says
yes
yes
yes

this is
Bliss.

mmmmm.

September 12 2007

September is such a beautiful month to be on the water....
All photos copyright Jo Davidson September 2007

August 14 2007

Tonite I had a talk with the moon. I told her that I hate how I look when I am covered in clouds.

She told me that she has different sides of her too, and anyway, people usually see what they want to see.

She slid into the night clouds and shadows like she was slipping into a silky nightgown. I watched her disappear. When she came back, she was in a playful mood. She told me I was beautiful. She said, You are seductive, and intriguing. Then she added, You stimulate, you sharpen, you seduce, you kill, you penetrate, you touch, you provide enigmas and intrigues, an odd form of tantalizing, and much more

I told her she had a way with words.

I asked her how she feels when she is behind clouds, or when she spends hours every day invisible to most people. I asked her how it felt to be invisible.

She told me that the darkness gets a bad rap. She said, How do you know that I am not secretly making love to the stars when noone can see us? Then she winked.

I was jealous. I loved the idea of touching a star, twinkling with it in a mysterious dance, veiled and unveiled.

She became thoughtful, and she said, I am still who I am even when you cannot see me. Just as the stars still shine even when nobody can see them shining. It is not being noticed that makes us beautiful. It is beauty that makes us beautiful. I suddenly felt sad. How sad to be beautiful and not appreciated! She sensed my feelings, and said, Think of how sad the creator of the universe feels when everyday her masterpieces go unnoticed! All of the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets she paints, the plants, the sea, the earth and sky, the mountains and forests, the miracle of birth and death and livingThink how the great creator must feel- giving the show of the universe and yet people are busy on cell phones and computers and in their lives, whining and complaining and worrying. They are missing it! Each painting comes only once, and every one is numbered, a limited edition! When will they stop and gasp in wonder at what surrounds them?

I decided she was not only beautiful, but smart.

Then I was thinking about what she said. How does the creator respond to our neglect but to keep creating and keep loving! What a response!

I doubt I could do so without a few grudges along the way. I want to be wise, but so often fail to do be what I want to be.

I decided to start noticing all the beauty around me. To not take the show for granted. I felt better when I saw my place in things, and how small I am in this vast universe. It comforted me and reduced my problems from mountains into crumbs.

She saw that the darkness scared me. She told me never to fear darkness, for true beauty shines there. I had not thought of that.

I could not take my eyes off of her. I took her picture about 200 times while she posed. She had so many looks! She was a chameleon changing form, mood, color, in the blink of an eye. She drew me in, and I loved never knowing what to expect.

Her reflection bounced off of the water, and I fell in love with her. She made me come alive.

She didnt tell me to feel anything in particular. She just said, Feel.

Then she blew a kiss towards me, and the salty summer night air dropped it on my lips.

I could taste it.

August 9 2007

Lets make a memory. Thats my new thing. Everyday I do something cool even if I feel like- and I say, I am making a memory.

It makes you stop and slow down. It makes you focus on something good that you will remember. Its building a life that is more than struggle, more than the challenges we face

Memories dont have to be big things, its the little things. Just like the small details make the music great. Its not always the notes, its how you play them. Sometimes one note can be played more beautifully by a pro than an entire piece by an amateur show off. Play that one note with all youve got, and it will sing.

If I dont consciously say, I am making a memory, then I am left with the mess of feeling ill everyday and all that this brings with it. Then days become a blur of suffering. I am left with nothing more than the feeling that so much has been taken away from me. As Laura Hillenbrand wrote to me, this illness is a thief, isnt it? Perhaps that is why she wrote Seabiscuit, and why I cried when I saw it.

But there is this hope inside, there is this persistence, what Erin Brokovitch calls Stick-to-it-ive-ness. And look at what Seabiscuit did in spite of such handicaps!

Last week I was at the farmers market in Westport. I bought some vegetables from a stand, and then as I was leaving, noticed a bunch of gorgeous sunflowers. It was such a beautiful warm summer day, and the colors were vibrant like a painting. I was full of gratitude and appreciation that I could be there in that place, feeling sort of OK that day.

As I was about to leave, I asked the teenage boy working the stand about the flowers, and he said, Oh those, here, you can just have them. He went over and grabbed the whole bunch, and gave them to me.

I told him, Wow. You made my day.

Then I walked away with 5 giant sunflowers in hand and grocery bags overflowing with fresh organic produce and honey.

When someone does something nice for us, free, without any strings attached, it inspires us to pay it forward. That small act put a smile on my face.

It was a memory.

That night, my friend Sarah came in from the city. I put the flowers in a vase. We talked and sat on my dock with our feet in the water. We ate in the evening on my table under a huge pine tree overlooking the water. I talked about how one part of me cannot get enough nature, I just want to bury myself in it because I am so exhausted. The other me misses NYC and being around artists and being a part of an artist community. I sang her a new song I wrote last week.

The song gave me hope again. It gave me back a huge part of myself that I ache for. I dont work without music. I just dont. But I have felt so far away from what I would like to be doing- touring, recording etc etc and I often feel like I am on the sidelines of my life, trying to get well, to cure this thing, so I can get back in the the land of the living, again.

It seems like I am being forced to create a new type of life from the bench. So we take what we have, and work with it.

Create where you are. Bloom where you are planted. Let the rest go. Oh how I love to preach to myself.

I am not giving up.

So I sang Sarah my song. It felt so good. I was alive, and was affirming that in me!

I am sitting outside right now as I write this. Somehow writing is also a way to affirm life, for me. I feel less alone when I write. I am able to put things into words instead of just feelings, and that brings clarity.

Theoretically.

Today it is humid and sticky like chewing gum on the side of a hot car tire. Even the water is hot. But there is a breeze.

I made lemonade an hour ago. Since I am out of sugar literally and metaphorically, I used Agave Nectar. Its really good, even better than sugar. Just 1/4 of a lemon with 6 oz or so of water and a few tablespoons of agave nectar to sweeten it. Pretty great.

Who says you cant make lemonade without sugar? You see- we discover new possibilities, new roads, when the ones we had counted on, close. Yeah this one is unpaved and bumpy and full of scary bugs. But its a road, and I am creating it. The scenery is raw and undeveloped. It not a journey for anyone but the strong willed. No one else could survive it.

So I sit here in the 90 degree humidity, in the shade drinking my alternative lemonade, and I smile.

Its a memory.

Lets Make a Memory
© jo davidson August 8 2007

July 27 2007

These are a few photos I took tonite- it was so beautiful outside

July 23 2007

The Picture

The picture is getting blurry
The rain has drenched the former image of her and the ink has bled into itself
She no longer recognizes her life and its corners and edges
Who is she now?

She is the rain blowing sideways through the misty grey covered clouds
The seagull's flight
The rose dripping under the water's weight
And the reed bending back in order not to break.
She is on the ride of a great storm
One moment the wave is an orgasm, a bliss, and then the moment blows away evaporating into the wind's low alto hum
A fever and a wild downpour
She sits on the broken rocks and waits for what is to come....

Or as May Sarton says, "It is not so much trying to keep alive
As trying to keep from blowing apart..."

- jo davidson

July 3 2007

Tonite I celebrate:
All I have survived.
How far I have come.
The good choices I have made for myself.
A new lifestyle and a new life.
New ways of seeing and living and being.
Hope and possibility.
Letting go and surrendering.
Blessings.
Gratitude.
The way suffering has made me appreciate everything beyond words.
I celebrate myself.
The people who have touched my life
The gift of life.
Love.

Happy July 4
(Fireworks were here tonite on the 3rd)!
photos copyright July 2007 Jo Davidson

June 28 2007

Why is everyone in such a darn hurry?

What is the THERE that everyone wants to get to?

And when they arrive, what do they find?

I never knew I was a turtle until life changed everything.

Then I looked in the mirror. I was different.

They say the turtle wins the race.

But maybe there is no race. Maybe the turtle knows this.

What if I never accomplished another thing other than breathing?

That would be weird.

What would that mean?

Who would I be?

What am I really trying to say here? I have no idea. Its a thought and a question I am asking, and it will fly away like the wind into another day.

June 26 2007

My God I am certainly going through some sort of storm!

I keep running outside and taking pictures. I could just lie down and bury myself in the dirt and the sand and the sky. Refusing to get up until I was healed. Sometimes I want to do that as weird as it sounds. I feel very sick right now, blazing hot with the strongest internal fire, fighting CFIDS, which I have had for a long time. The symptoms of it are intense and severe, and there is nothing like it to plunge one deep into the underworld. Today I wrote and wrote and wrote in my journal. I stood outside and prayed some strange prayer to the wind. I felt myself connecting with nature in the most profound way. Who knows if this is making me crazy or making me sane.

It is not a time of hearing what I want to become. It is a time of hearing what I feel. It is not a time of production, accomplishment and output. It is a time of deep inner reflection and doubt and work and struggle. It is not the time for having it all together, it is the time for falling apart. I am living in my own myth, going deep into death in order to face the dragons and come back with some new healing to offer. And in some ways, the death is also literal. I feel this illness trying to kill me everyday. I just dont feel like its my time to go yet. I think CFIDS does this, it puts one through the unimagineable. It has put me on this path, and all I can do is give up control. The ego cannot ever accept these lessons. But it has no choice. So I surrender to this path and where it is taking me. I have suffered much. There is a fine line between having a breakdown and having a breakthrough. Sometimes we teeter on the edge. It is the courage to go to this place, that shapes me. I love life. I am full of hope and appreciation. I am also miserable in this illness. I know suffering beyond words, intimately.

The sky is getting darker. I dont know what is next. I wait, and listen.

Im not afraid of storms, for Im learning how to sail my ship.
Louisa May Alcott

[photo c jo davidson ]

June 22 2007

June 16 2007

[photo c jo davidson ]

Is this what relaxing feels like? I feel totally spaced out. I am not projecting any wants or desires onto the future. I am just sort of here. I am not really thinking about what I want to be or do or become. I just am. And Im not sure right now what that is!!!! hahaha

Where did I go????

I have a new friend named Chatty. If youd like to read about her, check out my hear the show page at www.zentertainment.org

I picked up a rock the other day. I hear messages in rocks sometimes- just every once in awhile. I put this little rock on top of a huge rock by the water.

Its message to me was Expect the Unexpected. I wasnt sure what that meant, but I thought Id better keep my eyes and ears open.

So 10 minutes ago, I grab my camera and head out to my rocks, and what do I see but a couch in the water.

LOL

June 12 2007

"The Changing Light" - June 2007 ©Jo Davidson

April 20 2007

April 7 2007

Most of the stuff
I say is true because
I saw it in a dream
&
I don't have the
presence of mind
to make up lies
when I'm asleep.

- Brian Andreas -

March 26 2007

"THE SECRET"
Hey All- this is something I wrote for my diaries. I finally decided to share it online..

"THE SECRET"
from the diaries of a fragile tough girl
copyright 2007 Jo Davidson
Zentertainment Talk Radio
www.zentertainment.org

As long as human beings have lived, we have been trying to explain suffering. We strive to give meaning to it, interpret it, get rid of it by all means, and then when it doesn't seem to go away, we cast blame. Who do we blame? Ourselves. Others. Circumstances beyond our control. Some say that everything is in our control. In a nutshell, this is the message of the movie THE SECRET. This is the basis of what it calls spirituality.

This longing to rid ourselves of suffering has been going on forever. We all want to feel good. Why do so many magazines sell over and over again when they are basically recycling the same articles? It is because the headlines start with "The Secret"….to weight loss, to great sex, to sleeping better, to being happy, to a more fulfilling career, to making more time for ourselves, and the list goes on. We rarely learn anything we don't already know, yet we keep buying magazines. The real problem is that we don't do what we already know how to do. Do you want to lose weight? As a wise 92 year old friend of mine recently announced, "Eat less and exercise everyday!"

About a year ago, I picked up a copy of a book by Esther and Jerry Hicks called "Ask and It Is Given." I became fascinated by their ideas of using emotions to heal. In the book "Ask and It is Given," they claimed that negative emotions always attract negative experiences, and higher ones which are positive, always attract positive experiences. There is some truth to this! When we feel happy, we feel more confident, more alive, and more able to draw happy experiences into our lives. On the other side of the coin, sometimes we mistake charisma for character. Not only that, we mistake true suffering as a failure.

As I read this book "Ask and It Is Given," I began to strive to feel only my "higher" emotions. I asked myself if anger, grief, fear, or despair were negative emotions that had little value in the life of someone who was happy, healthy and "evolved." I spent many nights before bed transcribing paragraphs from the book so that they would sink in. I felt uplifted and inspired.

I began to wrap myself up in a tidy if somewhat judgmental blanket of "I create everything that is in my reality." I was determined to take the driver's seat, and I finally had the illusion of being in control of some situations in my life that had left me feeling out of control for quite some time. There was however, a blaring red flag. Not only did Esther claim to be channeling "Abraham," but as I absorbed this book's message, I sensed myself disowning the "darker" aspects of myself and my contradictions, or feelings that might embarrass me. I also couldn't help but note that I began to judge others who were suffering. I began to feel pride, feeling that somehow I was becoming more enlightened than others. I was going to come through and conquer all, through the power of my thinking!

Soon after reading the book, an experience with illness blew a hole right through my pride. If there is one thing I have learned it is this; In the world of the so called law of attraction, illness is thought to be a massive failure. Soon pride was replaced by compassion not only for myself, but for others. If there is any gift at all in illness, it is humility. Illness cures arrogance, spiritual or otherwise. This is where I feel that The SECRET is actually cruel and pompous in its "religion."

I began to realize that this whole notion of telling ourselves that some emotions are bad while others are good is false. ALL of our emotions are a part of our healing. They all have a place and a purpose for us. Imagine all of the wonderful art and music that would not exist if artists only created when they felt happy! I realized that without fear there would be no such thing as courage. I saw that anger helped me create boundaries. I realized that expressing grief helped me to heal and that even tears released toxins. There are no negative emotions. There are only stuck emotions. Anger, fear and sadness are not a problem unless those are the predominant emotions that fuel our lives.

I decided to take the good I learned from this book by Esther and Jerry Hicks and throw out the rest. I realized that I could appreciate positive emotions and positive thinking without denying all of my emotions healthy expression.

A few months after working with the book "Ask & It Is Given," I picked up a copy of a movie called "The Secret." This was a year ago, long before the hoopla from Larry King to Oprah. It was circulating underground among the new age thought and metaphysical circles. (Esther Hicks was involved in the original movie but was cut out after a dispute between her and the creator over unresolved differences of opinion).

After shelling out over $30 for a DVD, I was expecting a fast paced movie dripping with "Da Vinci Code like scenes" such as the ones the movie's trailer suggested. I had no idea that the movie would basically be a collection of interviews touting the exact same principles I had read in "Ask & It is Given." In one of the first scenes, there was a huge "genie in the sky" saying "YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND." I thought to myself, are you kidding me? Sometimes I had found that to be true in my life, but not always, and thank God! After that, I heard Joe Vitale proclaiming that "everything that's in your life, including the things you're complaining about, you've attracted."

So much for the idea that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.

If everything in our lives is there because we have personally attracted it, then I suppose we are to believe that every single person with an illness has attracted it through negative thinking. Each person who was killed in Rwanda and raped in Darfur attracted it. Each little girl or boy who has been molested has attracted it. Every child who has cancer has attracted it. The two auxiliary cops who were just shot and murdered here in NYC this week were attracting it. This proclamation coming from a man who has used the "the law of attraction" to go from being homeless to buying himself 300 luxury cars. He and other teachers of "The Secret" are getting rich by telling others that they too can get rich, and large numbers of people will always pay to hear that, so the cycle feeds itself! Is anyone else getting a glimpse of what is going on here?

Bob Proctor said, "We can dictate exactly what we want to come into our life. And with absolute certainty, it will come into our life."

That can be an inspiring belief, and a part of me holds onto it, because I want to believe I can create my reality. Another part of me wants to leave some room for the unanswered questions. What about all of the children in third world countries who dictate their wish for something so simple as food and water? I once spent a week in the slums of Haiti, and what passes off as spirituality in America is often nothing more than gross materialism.

It is not that I believe there is anything wrong with being wealthy or having things we want. Although this will sound like a contradiction, I believe in what Joe Vitale said as well as Bob Proctor. To a degree. In this country we are blessed with many options. If we want to achieve something and we make the choices to support and do the work, chances are we can achieve many of our goals. This movie focused a great deal on material things. But is material wealth the path to true happiness? I have known wealthy people who feel as unhappy as anyone can be.

One good thing that this movie teaches is the value of gratitude. As a child in church, I remember hearing that one of the best ways to pray was to start by thanking God for our blessings before making our requests. That gratitude brings a balance to our hearts and minds and bodies. Gratitude is something we can do even through trials and life challenges. Through anger and grief, confusion and tears, through joy and clarity, laughter and smiles, gratitude is what opens up a space for blessings and joy to flow in.

All of us who are overachievers tend to apply our overachieving tendencies in our quest for healing and fulfilling our destiny. I remember once hearing Oprah say that her biggest fear is that she won't live up to her potential. If Oprah can say that after all she has done, then it goes to show that overachievers are rarely satisfied with themselves. It is the same with our desires. They can never be satisfied for long. When we are always focused on what we want to have, we forget to look at what is already here.

Even as you hold onto dreams for your future, It is wonderful to look at which ones HAVE come true. Take that in and truly feel it! This place right now where you are, just might be the "there" you were hoping for in the past.

I use vision Maps regularly. They mention them in THE SECRET as well as other books. This is one of the best things I learned from these teachings on the law of attraction. I collect random words and images that I am drawn to, and glue them onto poster boards and place them where I see them everyday. I use to put the images in notebooks, but I have found they are even more powerful when placed on a large poster board. Many things have manifested in my life from what I have put onto these maps. I love how they have inspired me and brought about changes in my life. Beach scenes not only preceded my week long vacation to a Caribbean island, but a move to a waterfront property.

I believe in the power of intention. This is one of the main ideas promoted by this movie- the idea that we create our reality through our intention. It is a wonderful thing to hold in our minds the vision of us succeeding at what we desire to do and be! It is motivating and inspiring! However, this act should not be confused with always being a spiritual one. If we do not include God in our vision, then our intentions might manifest but not be for the greater good. "The Secret" fails to mention that intention is not necessarily equivalent to spirituality. I am sure Hitler intended to massacre millions of Jews. I am sure that Osama Bin Laden intended to fly planes into the twin towers. I witnessed that act of intention with my own eyes from my window in NYC. Just because someone sets an intention and makes it come true does not mean that they are "enlightened."

Not every single thing from my maps have manifested. This teaches me that I do not know everything. (As if I needed a reminder). This also shows me that if I become too attached to the things I want, I am not living fully now with what I already have. I have become aware that there is no end to my wish list. The funny thing about desire is that it usually creates more desire. Have you ever noticed that a newspaper is much more interesting when someone else is reading it next to you? Sometimes I get the things I wished for and find out they aren't all I thought they would be!

Can we feel complete in this moment right here and now? Complete with all the messiness and imperfections of life? It is much easier to chase after something else that we think will give us the high we need to feel good. The entire advertising business is based upon the concept that we will be happier and more complete if only we buy whatever product is being advertised.

While I have liked some of the messages from "The Secret", upon closer inspection, I believe this movie is equally promoting some dangerous beliefs and dressing them up as spirituality. A wise friend of mine referred to some of these teachings as "psychological malpractice." You will never have a bad day when you master the art of being spiritually evolved! No matter what has happened in your life, you have attracted it through your thoughts and desires! You can have your 20,000 square foot dream home, make 15 million dollars a year, and have a perfect marriage! If you feel sad, you are feeling a bad emotion! If you don't get everything you want, you are not thinking right! If you have an illness, you are not as enlightened as others who are healthy! Spirituality equals bliss!

Helloooooooooooooooo aliens. Welcome to another planet.

There is a very cult like energy around this movie. If you disagree with with any of it and write publicly about this, you are likely to be criticized or even accused of being negative. There seems to be little room for diversity in opinion. Even religions offer us that! While we can extract the beautiful truths from this movie, we have to be careful we don't buy into everything being promoted here. What is that line about "beware of a wolves in sheep's clothing?" One night several of the teachers from the movie including Jack Canfield, were on Larry King Live, and when Larry asked them if they ever have a bad day, every one of them said "No." Perhaps Larry should have replaced with word bad with the word "challenging."

I wonder what Jesus would have thought of this when he was hanging on a cross suffering in agony with nails piercing his body. Would he have said, "I am having a fun day! I feel fantastic! " I wonder if he would have thought that spiritual people should never feel despair when while in a garden, he plunged into agonizing sorrow and prayed "This sorrow is crushing my life out." I wonder if Buddha would have thought that through his low energy field vibrations he had attracted the food poisoning that killed him. If every single prophet and saint to ever live (operating on the highest levels of consciousness) has died of something eventually, then why would we assume we are immortal? Why do we think that we can ever attain perfection in our lives? And what exactly IS perfection? If this is the only goal we have, then we, all of us, fall short. How about appreciating life's perfect moments in all their beauty, rather than thinking that every moment must be one in which we are filled with ecstasy and bliss?

Is this moment, now, ever enough?

It is so easy to feel good when we feel in good health. When that goes, the challenge of feeling good emotionally becomes one of the greatest challenges we ever face. Perhaps the secret to surviving a life challenge is in focusing on what we are grateful for even amidst the thorns. It is also letting ourselves cry when one of them cuts us.

If this law of attraction theory was so perfect, spiritually mature people would never have illnesses. (Are we to believe that the only people who deserve to have health are those who do and think perfectly?) If The Secret" was telling the full truth, then people who run around on speaking tours proclaiming these theories would never yell at their spouses or snap at their children or flip out on their friends or even feel sad or cry. People who smoke, drink, lie and eat junk food would never live wealthy and healthy to the ripe old age of 100.

We can attract material things into our lives without being particularly spiritual. Miracles and healings happen to people who deserve them as well as those who don't. You won't hear that in this movie.

I believe in in possibilities. I believe words are powerful and can be as the Bible says, "our salvation or our damnation." I believe in the power of our intention especially when it is based upon a desire for the greater good. I believe that IMPOSSIBLE= I AM POSSIBLE. Did I mention I am a work in progress?

But the real source of our strength, happiness and our true purpose cannot be found in ourselves alone or even in manifesting every desire we have. And it is certainly not found in shutting down half of our emotions in order to only feel some of them. Our true happiness is found in our connection to the Divine whether we are in the shadows and valleys or standing on top of the mountain. Sometimes happiness means just being content no matter what our circumstances or feelings. Keeping a gratitude journal can help us with this. Sometimes we just have to hang on for the ride and remember that this too shall pass. Whatever it is, it always does. When Oprah recently did a show on this movie which brought it into the mainstream, one of the speakers said that when asked how we are, we should always answer "FANTASTIC!" But what if we don't feel fantastic? Is it ever permissible to just reply, "Ok?" After-all, if we are always pretending to be on 10, we don't have anywhere to go when we really DO feel fantastic.

When we think we control every single thing, we become addicted to being in control. When we let go and honor the mysteries of life, we have space for compassion and kindness and for embracing our imperfections as part of our beautiful selves. We also find it easier to accept other people's weaknesses once we are aware of our own. The world is full of people spouting off their programs and formulas. We are all thirsty, and many people will buy into whatever they think will fill their emptiness. Go to the root of where the true water comes from!

The Secret that this movie touts as the full truth, does not honor mystery. Its conclusions are as black and white as the most fundamental of religions. And black and white scares me. The Secret is full of imperfections just like all of us. We all seem to get some things right, and some things wrong. So we keep learning. True spirituality goes beyond the grasping of the ego, and I heard a lot of ego in this movie. There is a place and a space inside all of us where we can be free right here and now, even in this strange paradox of embracing suffering and happiness at times, simultaneously.

There is no perfection, just perfect moments and the journey. The goal is not that we never become discouraged. The goal is that we take those times of feeling discouraged and utterly broken by life, and in them, allow our courage and strengths to shine through. What we focus on does indeed expand. This is one of the phrases I liked from both the book by Esther Hicks and he movie. However, we are not failures or somehow less enlightened when we suffer as we face challenges that test us beyond what we ever imagined we could bear.

I read somewhere that the average child laughs 300 hundred times a day and the average adult laughs only 17 times per day! Laughter is one of the things I go to first when I need to shift something in my body. It always helps! On a metaphysical level, I believe that contrasting values and beliefs and a mind or heart at war with itself can aggravate illnesses and create imbalance in the body. For some this imbalance might manifest as an illness. For others, it might manifest in their relationships with others, or lack of fulfillment in work or life in general. This work of integrating all of the aspects of ourselves seems to be a life long process rather than an overnight one. I am a gemini, so perhaps my challenges are greater when I have each twin whispering something different in my ear! I am listening to find out what each one wants for me and why. Do we ever truly arrive at the perfect anything? We have moments of bliss. But if we never truly and deeply felt our darkness, surely our light would not shine so brightly. How boring the spring would be without the winter.

When we want to shift our consciousness to another channel, sometimes it helps to think of illness or any challenge as just a dream. I like to ask myself, what is the meaning of it? I ask myself, what is my wise inner mind telling me about this situation I find myself in? Of course, sometimes it is not so deep and maybe we just got stung by a bee or bitten by a snake and we need some medicine! We can really over-think and over analyze ourselves in our quest to understand suffering. This is where "the secret" can be taken too far. Give yourself a break!

I have also known many people who have extreme imbalances emotionally and spiritually and yet are not facing an illness. What is that about? This mystery fascinates me. I am beginning to conclude that the most sensitive, intuitive people pick up on more of the vibrations that surround us all. Canaries were once used in coal mines to detect poisonous gases that the men could not. When the canaries got sick, then the men knew it was not safe for them to go in and work there. Some of us are canaries! have been known to feel in my body and thoughts what someone else is feeling when they are sitting behind me or near me. I daydreamed I was having a heart attack before a woman behind me collapsed. On a perfectly lovely day, I broke out in violent daydreams in my mind only to hear the man behind me suddenly cause a disruption on the downtown bus. Who knew he was mentally ill when he had been quiet up until then? Obviously my body did. Once he left the bus, my violent daydreams completely evaporated. When I am around people who have had drug addictions, sometimes I sense arrows and spikes in their energy fields that feel defensive and hard. When I was a little girl, I would walk into a room and feel if it was closed or open, warm or cold, forgiving or judgmental, safe or unsafe. This might all sound crazy to the average person. But I know it to be true. This degree of sensitivity has no doubt been something I am being asked to see as a gift rather than a curse. I am in the process of figuring out how to make it work for me rather than against me.

Those who go through major challenges and illnesses are sometimes meant to go through these things in order to emerge as great healers. To say that these initiation periods are failures, is to dishonor the soul journey of individuals who are bravely forgiving paths through a wilderness that others might never survive.

I also wonder about those who do not heal physically. Can we really cast blame? Do we truly have all the answers? I don't think so. We are wise, but only God is all knowing. Yes the kingdom of God might be within me, but it is also bigger than me and outside of me, in the same way that the songs I write are a part of my life force and energy and yet are not all of me. I am not God. I was created by God. This is my belief.

There are some things we are attracting to ourselves as a culture and as a planet. I do not believe that individually we alone create every single thing in our personal world. There are far too many variables (including environmental, genetic factors and personality traits) for it to be so simple.

We are here to love ourselves and love others. It is in appreciating all of our emotions, (contradictions and all), staying connected to gratitude, and embracing rather than trying to solve this great thing called mystery that we develop maturity. Perhaps suffering is not always meant to be understood. Perhaps it is the journey itself of seeking to understand, that is this beautiful thing called life.

Now we see in part, but there will come a time when we see in full.

©Jo Davidson March 2007

March 2 2007

October 10 2006

She has been honored by Paul McCartney and Laura Bush, and TEEN People featured her as one of "20 teens who could change the world."

My guest this week is 19 year old Farah Ahmedi, author of "The Other Side of the Sky." Farah grew up in Afghanistan and lost most of her family by the age of 14. Listen in to hear what it was like the day the Taliban entered Kabul, and hear a story of courage and hope that will inspire you. Farah is an example of what IS possible through the hardest of circumstances.

You can listen to this episode of Zentertainment Talk Radio right from your computer speaker. It's even better with headphones! If you have an ipod, make sure to subscribe via itunes on the site at www.zentertainment.org

And.....drumroll.......this is a special contest only for newsletter subscribers. (If you are receiving this and are not yet subscribed to the newsletter, please take a second to do so at www.zentertainment.org) Farah has offered to send one FREE signed book to a lucky winner! To be entered, just send an email to ftgrecords@aol.com and say ENTER ME!

The winner will be announced next week.

July 15 2006

I have been in the Turks and Caicos, just got back! The water was GORGEOUS. Here are just a few random pics out of the 800 I took (Yes 800!)






		I love this bird with her leg straight up in the air, like she is shooting for the stars! Like me!
		All photos ©July 2006 Jo Davidson

July 5 2006

June 30 2006

"I am sometimes asked, Why do you spend so much of your time and money talking about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men? I answer, I am working at the roots."
- George T. Angell, founder of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

June 11 2006

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." - Henry David Thoreau

June 7 2006

I got back to NYC last night. Man is it LOUD here or what?? Where are my birds, my trees, my grass? As I type, someone is laying on their horn and not letting up. Ok and now another car started too and they won't quit. Unbelieveable.

People are yelling, and there is alot of construction going on. It's raining.

Do you ever think of all the different lifestyles you could lead and who you would be in each of them? strange.

Maybe I just like variety. Variety is the spice of life.

One of the people in the window across from me is putting up white christmas lights. Earlier there was a guy window washing. OH THAT MAKES ME NERVOUS! On the outside, strapped into something, 12 floors up.... there are two women sitting at a desk having a meeting. I get the feeling one is being interviewed for a job. Sirens are blasting. A fire engine right outside my window is trying to get through the crowded street. Good luck.

I slept a long time last night. Now that's a miracle! I have noticed a lift in my energy and overall better sleeping. I put myself on astragulus, royal jelly and a combination of Bach Flower Remedies that I muscle tested myself for.

Unpacking is one of my least favorite things to do. I have been known to take weeks finishing. I am going to try and actually do alot today. I also came back with more than I took, including books, magazines, and a bunch of cool birthday presents I got. Pajamas, photo albums, jewelry, etc

On our radio show Let's Get Metaphysical, Alice and I spoke with Dr. Judith Orloff, psychiatrist and author of "Positive Energy." Check it out!

Her booked helped me to understand more about what it means to be an empath, and how that affects me and affects my body. If you are also extraordinarily sensitive to the things around you, there is a gift in that. But it also can be tough to handle at times. Judith gives some prescriptions in her book for dealing with energy around us so that it doesn't shut us down.

I am noticing more about the things around me that I (in the past would unconsciously) absorb, the energies, whether it be environmental, or in situations with people, or anything else. It is really fascinating to me as I start to realize how much I take in. How much I notice. I would highly recommend her book. For more info, check out our show this week. Link is from my main page.

I am going to make a piano solo CD of some of my new songs. Not sure when yet, but hopefully in the next few months. My friend Heather Eatman, (heathereatman.com) sent me a link for inspiration. I thought I would share this with you all:

Amazon.com
If the listener did not have the CD cover handy, it would be difficult to guess who this artist is or where she hails from. Emahoy TseguÈ-Maryam GuÈbrou was born into a prominent literary Ethiopian family in 1923 and partly educated in Europe. The lovely young girl studied piano and violin but political vicissitudes in her homeland led to an unsettled and peripatetic youth. Dispirited by events in her life, she found consolation in religion and became a nun. Although dedicated to teaching at an orphanage, she nonetheless found time to create a series of slightly jazz-influenced, neo-classical pieces, many of which are showcased here. The material is culled from two LPs that were released in 1963, when she was 40 years of age. Meditations on bible themes and the beauties of nature were her favorite subjects and her compositions were often built around recognizably Ethiopian melodic structures. But they also reveal refracted shards of what would certainly be cited as influences if only it could be established she had ever heard the works of Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett, Abdullah Ibrahim and especially, Eric Satie. But ultimately, Sister GuÈbrou seems to be a lone reed -- but a very beautiful one. --Christina Roden
http://www.amazon.com/

June 1 2006

I'm in Ohio. Loving the green grass and the old, wise trees that surround me. Birds singing. Beautiful. I have been driving alot which is easier than walking. I told Alice I have been driving and she burst out laughing. All of my friends go absolutely nuts when I tell them I drive. For some reason, they can't picture me driving. hahaha

I had a dream last night that when I got back to NYC all of my stuff had been moved out of Manhattan and into a loft in Jersey City. How strange! I was freaking out and sad because I missed my downtown loft, but then I also was glad to have a little more space, like a small yard. But it wasn't really Jersey City, it was only one stop from Westport CT. It was a strange dream. I think it came from me feeling like I really do need more green space and views, more light, more nature. Yet I do love the city. But I need more calm, more peace, less noise. I was irritated when I woke up and got onto the computer on Craigs List to see what places are like in different parts of New Jersey. Jersey City. Then other places like Montclair, etc. The dream seemed so REAL.

Back to the real world. There was a heavy storm here a few hours ago. I love the summer rain. It also cooled things down just a little bit. The other day it was 93 degrees and VERY humid. My sister and I sat on her porch, and there wasn't so much as a leaf moving. I felt like we were in the south.

Tomorrow night my niece (5 years old) and I are having a slumber party, just the two of us. We are going to paint our nails pink and then she wants to add yellow polka dots and glitter over that. Funny! Then we are getting our hair wet and putting these wacky things in them to make our hair dry wavy. Watching some of her DVDs and listening to her "High School Musical" CD. Playing with my eyeshadows and lipsticks. She also wants to play Uno, and go for ice cream. She says she is going to wake me up early in the morning on Saturday. She gets the look in her eye, and I know I'm in trouble. I am definately going to make sure she is in bed by 9PM! Ok 10PM. Saturday morning I promised I would make her french toast with this swirly cinnamon bread I bought.

Speaking of french, I was going through some old tapes and I found a song I wrote several years ago called "French Boys." I like it. Maybe some day I will share it with the world.

May 22 2006

May 20 2006

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

e.e. cummings

May 18 2006

When I was growing up I did not like poetry. We had to read all this stuff in school that at the time did not appeal to me. It was full of words I did not understand, and written in ways that did not move me to feel much of anything at all except impatience. Then as I got a little bit older, I started discovering poems that I liked. And I realized that writing a great song lyric was also poetry.

Today I got an email that I wanted to share. Oh does this poetry affect me! It is always wonderful to discover someone whose creative work makes an impact on you and moves your spirit, your soul, your everything. I think Marge Piercy has a new fan in me. This email came from my friend Melissa.

----------------

I wanted to share with you a few stanzas from a poem I heard yesterday evening that really impacted me.

It's from a poem called "What Are Big Girls Made Of?" by Marge Piercy. It is beautiful to hear audibly. You can view Piercy's site at www.margepiercy.com

There are a few places in this poem that are really striking about how we as women, and I believe men too, live in an unnatural way in order to be admired by others, especially the opposite sex. We really can be so inhumane to our bodies.

I'll let you read for yourself. And if you desire to read the whole poem, do a search for the title. Let me know what you think.

Look at pictures in French fashion
magazines of the 18th century:
century of the ultimate lady
fantasy wrought of silk and corseting.
Paniers bring her hips out three feet
each way, while the waist is pinched
and the belly flattened under wood.
The breasts are stuffed up and out
offered like apples in a bowl.
The tiny foot is encased in a slipper
never meant for walking.
On top is a grandiose headache:
hair like a museum piece, daily
ornamented with ribbons, vases,
grottoes, mountains, frigates in full
sail, balloons, baboons, the fancy
of a hairdresser turned loose.
The hats were rococo wedding cakes
that would dim the Las Vegas strip.
Here is a woman forced into shape
rigid exoskeleton torturing flesh:
a woman made of pain.

How superior we are now: see the modern woman
thin as a blade of scissors.
She runs on a treadmill every morning,
fits herself into machines of weights
and pulleys to heave and grunt,
an image in her mind she can never
approximate, a body of rosy
glass that never wrinkles,
never grows, never fades. She
sits at the table closing her eyes to food
hungry, always hungry:
a woman made of pain.

If only we could like each other raw.
If only we could love ourselves
like healthy babies burbling in our arms.
If only we were not programmed and reprogrammed
to need what is sold us.
Why should we want to live inside ads?
Why should we want to scourge our softness
to straight lines like a Mondrian painting?
Why should we punish each other with scorn
as if to have a large ass
were worse than being greedy or mean?

When will women not be compelled
to view their bodies as science projects,
gardens to be weeded,
dogs to be trained?
When will a woman cease
to be made of pain?

I love you all. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. If you would like to talk to someone about your body image and your relationship with food, please don't hesitate to set-up an appointment with me. You will be so glad you did!

I always love hearing from readers, so please tell me how the newsletters inspire you, or make you think.

xoxo
Melissa
www.myheartdances.com

May 17 2006

Overcoming what feels like overwhelming adversity.
It seems to be the theme this week.
Personally and professionally.

I just found a picture of a heron I took several years ago in Islamorada, Florida.
It is over the water, just taking off in flight.
I called the photo "Courage."

Today I put it in a 5X7 frame and put it on the fireplace mantle where I can see it every moment.

Courage. Courage. Courage. In the face of the uncertain, the unknown, sometimes the intolerable. Overcoming the odds, going through this place, this space, this mystery.

Laura Hillenbrand wrote the book SEABISCUIT which became a movie a few years ago, starring Jeff Bridges. She has struggled with severe CFS for 20 years. I spoke with her the other day. She is drawn to stories of overcoming adversity, maybe in the way I am drawn to songs about the same thing. I feel like Red Pollard. I feel like Seabiscuit.

Courage, Courage.
Peek in on the conversation I had with my friend and co-host Alice Marie, and Laura Hillenbrand.

http://www.letsgetmetaphysical.net/LGM/Podcast.html

May 11 2006

May 6 2006

Ok Beware, this is crude, but so funny! Not your typical bedtime story. I don't know who wrote it.
-------------------
My Colonoscopy

All the organs of the body were having a meeting, trying to decide who was the one in charge.

"I should be in charge," said the brain , "Because I run all the body's systems, so without me nothing would happen."

"I should be in charge," said the blood , "Because I circulate oxygen all over so without me you'd all waste away."

"I should be in charge," said the stomach," Because I process food and give all of you energy."

"I should be in charge," said the legs, "because I carry the body wherever it needs to go."

"I should be in charge," said the eyes, "Because I allow the body to see where it goes."

"I should be in charge," said the rectum, "Because I'm responsible for waste removal."

All the other body parts laughed at the rectum And insulted him, so in a huff, he shut down tight.

Within a few days, the brain had a terrible headache, the stomach was bloated, the legs got wobbly, the eyes got watery, and the blood Was toxic. They all decided that the rectum should be the boss.

The Moral of the story?
The asshole is usually in charge.

May 1 2006

Well this seems to be the week of politics for me. Can't help it though, this stuff is just too important!

A note from Robert Redford...

Please drop what you're doing because here we go again. Senate leaders are again exploiting rising gas prices to rush a bill to the floor that would destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and boost oil industry profits. The vote could come as early as Tuesday.

The Senate front men for Big Oil are doing their damnedest to convince Americans that sacrificing the Arctic and sending each of us a $100 rebate check will solve all our problems at the pump.

There's only one way to expose these lies and prevent the sacrifice of America's greatest wildlife refuge: Help light up the Senate switchboard today!

Please call your two Senators right now:
• Senator Charles Schumer: (202) 224-6542
• Senator Hillary Clinton: (202) 224-4451

Tell them to vote NO on the Gas Price Relief and Rebate Act. Tell them you will not trade the Arctic Refuge for $100 or be fooled by policies that do nothing to solve the real problem of America's dangerous dependence on oil. Urge them to get to work on cutting oil consumption by improving the mileage of our cars and promoting clean and renewable energy.

Here are the facts: the Energy Department says that drilling in the Arctic Refuge would save consumers only one penny per gallon at the pump in 20 years! Meanwhile, anyone who drives will be forced to take the Senate's $100 rebate check -- paid for with our tax dollars -- and sign it over to ExxonMobil for their next two tanks of gas.

Only an oil company could love a bill that picks the taxpayers' wallets for $12 billion in gas money. The Gas Price Relief and Rebate Act should really be called the "Guaranteed Profits for Big Oil Act!"

Remember: these are the same Senators who passed a pro-polluter energy bill last summer that refused to make America's gas-guzzlers more fuel-efficient, but instead doled out billions of tax dollars to oil and coal companies. This latest bill is just more of the same corporate welfare.

Call your Senators right now and tell them you will not surrender the Arctic Refuge or line the pockets of the oil companies with your tax dollars.

And if you want to do even more to expose and defeat this shameless bill, go to https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arctic/donate.asp right now and make a donation so we can escalate this campaign in defense of the Arctic Refuge over the next critical days. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Robert Redford
NRDC Action Fund

April 26 2006

This week on Let's Get Metaphysical, Alice Marie and I have posted up our interview with Immaculee Ilibagiza, author of Left to Tell and survivor of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. It was wonderful to get to speak with her and hear a little bit of her story. I remember that year 1994 because we were all watching the OJ Simpson Trial. Isn't that just ridiculous?

Immaculee inspired me to really think about the meaning of forgiveness. If she can with God's help, forgive the people who murdered her family, surely I can forgive those people in my life who have hurt me in smaller ways. She is also going to be speaking at Marble Collegiate Church in May.

You can hear the interview at www.letsgetmetaphysical.net. This episode is called "The Ultimate Forgiveness."

------------------------------

I got a nice note in an email today that was written sometime ago by Erma Bombeck. I remember my mother had her books and when I was little I liked to look through them. She was so funny.

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck
(written after she found out she was dying from cancer).

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner." There would have been more "I love you's" More "I'm sorry's."

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute...look at it and really see it... live it and never give it back.
STOP SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF!!!

Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more, or who's doing what

Instead, let's cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us.

Let's think about what God HAS blessed us with, and what we are doing each day to promote ourselves mentally,physically, emotionally. I hope you have a blessed day.

April 24 2006

I have something I need to get off my chest so to speak.

I hate the new show "Big Love."

Could any show idea be more ridiculous? Three American women married to and sharing one man because they are "bighearted" enough to share him and he has "big enough love" to marry all three of them. It's hysterical! Give me a break!

I have never met one woman who would want to share her man with other women under one roof. What a mess that would be! And I have never met one man who would want to be in the reverse situation sharing his wife with three other men in one big "happy family." Imagine a show where a woman has three husbands. It's a fun fantasy for a minute, but realistic.... Hardly.

But as women we are suppose to take this show as something even remotely plausible? What a double standard and a load of garbage.

It is hard enough to manage multiple lovers, but to manage multiple wives or in the reverse, husbands? Pretty complicated stuff. Expensive too!

Then there is the hierarchy of the first wife, second wife, third wife. Yeah right. Like any woman in modern day America is going to put up with that. The show likes to hide its delusions under the umbrella of some false sense of "selflessness." Have the people at HBO lost their minds? And anyway, don't they already have enough violent, sexist programming? How many images in the media have we seen as a society where women are objectified, used, or taken advantage of? Do we think this doesn't affect all of us on some deeper level?

I find it pretty strange that a tv series would condone polygamy, since it is illegal. And I think it is irresponsible to try and make it look remotely healthy or normal or even plausible. In real situations in our country where polygamy exists illegally, there have been many reports of emotional and physical child and wife abuse. This show takes a lifetstyle that is dangerous, and makes it the subject of entertainment. The Mormon church outlawed polygamy in 1890 and any church member now who practices it is excommunicated.

This show is empty. It does nothing positive for society and certainly nothing postive for women. It turns out that "Big Love" is just a "Big Lie."

For the first time I am actually thinking about cancelling my HBO subscription. I also watched The Sopranos last night. I use to watch it all the time, and then it started to get to me. I found myself becoming more and more sensitive to the violence and the way the characters talked and treated women. At first I was able to block it out, but the more I have been working with intuition and opening to the feelings and sensations of information I get, the more I find it hard to block out and deal with things that are so dark. I went to a party once several years ago and gave my CD to some of the cast who was there. Then maybe two years ago a bunch of my CDs were ordered and I sent them to the Sopranos lot. So someone over there has my stuff. I think they are all AMAZING actors. But I'm just not sure if I can watch the show often. Do I really want to fill my head with that kind of violence where murder is served up along with lunch, and no one can say one sentence intelligently without saying F---- and of course the strip clubs and nudity and the way the guys talk about women like they're trash.... I hate seeing situations where guys talk about women like they're nothing. That seems to happen alot in strip clubs. That's why I don't like the whole scene.

It didn't feel too good to watch last night.

April 20 2006

April 19 2006

A wonderful Message by George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete... Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

If you don't send this to at least 8 people....Who cares?

George Carlin

April 5 2006

Our third episode of LET'S GET METAPHYSICAL is now up! We promise alot of variety from week to week. We are also going to be having contests and giving away surprises and special gifts so stay tuned.

This week's interview presses the hot button of religion and politics. Alice and I would love to hear from you and get your feedback and comments after you listen to this show.

We're serving up spirituali-tea this week with Dan Wakefield, a journalist, screenwriter (Going All the Way and Starting Over), and author of several spiritual books (Expect a Miracle is one of my favorites).

This week we talk to him about his new book called "The Hijacking of Jesus."

In our talk, Dan discusses the rifts in churches across America and his surprising shift from being a a "post-collegiate intellectual atheist" to a spiritual seeker. To hear the interview, please go to:

http://www.letsgetmetaphysical.net/LGM/Podcast.html

Peace, love, and a pot of tea,
Alice Marie and Jo Davidson
http://www.letsgetmetaphysical.net