Advent Calendar: 19 and 20 Dec-Simply More Christmas Fun! :)

Have some more fun at Meady's Musings Production House this weekend by viewing the lovely album created by the grand D.K. Matai and his ACTA Open group something he calls the E8 Album as part of his Holistic Quantum Relativity (HQR) Initiative! Now D.K. is too smart for the little mouse and even the large brained purple elephant but for sure we gather enough to know that he believes many of the same things as our blogs here echo...on Meady's Musings and UCP-Universal Collective Prayer for sure! My understanding of him is he believes in the one in the all and the all in the one! And even if some of the concepts are too grand to grasp the pics are awesome so check them! :) And enjoy! By clicking on this link:

http://ow.ly/kGJj

According to ATCA Open "The E8 Album images are visual intersections of Spirituality, Science, Art and Sustainability!"

So for sure sounds a lot like things explored on these here blogs! :)

Also as you know the Meady's Musings Production House is filled with guests...some of the most rambunctious guests you will ever find especially them bears...so we just had to share this most heart warming moment two of our grizzly bear cubs had courtesy of Nat Geo! :)

And well on the whole this weekend we are simply having a Wonderful Christmas time!

Should be seeing the movie 'Avatar' and will come back here and review it perhaps on the Books and Films Corner blog ...or perhaps mix it up with one of the 'Avatars' over on the UCP blog! :)

But for now let's dance with Paul Mc Cartney!

Advent Calendar: 17 and 18 Dec 2009-The gift of EFT-Emotional Freedom Techiques and The Infinite Divine!

Excuses...excuses...no gift on Thurs now...because...because...but...blah...blah...blah...!

But as much as I know you won't believe this...guess what happened yesterday???

I was in the kitchen having my breakfast...happy to be on a break from my vegan diet until the new year and so I had made quite the bowl of porridge...lots of milk and sweetened condensed one too...a bit too sweet and a bit too milky but at least I hadn't burnt the oats and so it was just right for me! Then as I was about to put another spoonful into my mouth...there was a knock at the door...not just once but three sharp knocks quickly in a row!...

Tap! Tap! Tap!

When I opened it...I didn't believe it either but three shepherds! All with flocks of sheep! Now my house is already filled with mice, some elephants graze nearby to my house as well as they can't fit in it...as I only have one specially sized room for my Purple Elephant of course! So where would all of them fit?...And there were already three bears to each of my spare rooms! Shepherds would not stay with bears would they? Could they?

So I asked them...but in the end...the bears agreed that they would be all part of the Christmas cheer! So they helped construct a manger! All in the course of one day!

So I was there supervising the sheep...it was where I was busy all of Thurs you see! :) In the end the three shepherds agreed it was the most comfy tricked out manager they have ever seen! (they even had computers to follow this blog!) And some of the baby sheep...lambs really...are sleeping in it with them as we speak! (time differences so they are catching up on some sleep)The rest of the flock are making friends with the elephants...dunno??? Well at least I hope so!

So was busy as any bee in my bee colony yesterday and so again did not post! But today I will be doing some big making up as the host! As I am pleased to present a blog written by my beautiful Irish friend-Noreen Barron! :) as she outlines the gift of EFT-Emotional Freedom Techniques.

But before I post Noreen's blog...here is a little bit about my additional gift for today to make up for yesterday...my explanation about what I call 'The Infinite Divine'

THE INFINITE DIVINE

Every time I look at large bodies of water all stretched out before me as far as my eyes can see...I feel the awesomeness of 'The Infinite Divine'! Some must feel it when they look at the sky...but for me it's the sea! Perhaps it is because I live on an island or I pass by a creek every day to and from work ...I don't know...but it just occurred to me that...well to my eyes this water appears infinite...and at the same time the fact that it can over power me but at the same time I can't live without it...it is a basic human need...and I'm 80% made up or it...yet I can also drown in it...well just a few days ago the words 'The Infinite Divine' came to me as an explanation for it! And I thought I'd shared that with you today...dunno...I've blogged about water before...twice already to close off the Hindu calendar year with the festival of Kartik Snan, Snaan or Nahan...either way an ode to water. So here it is again the links to those two blogs so that perhaps you might again reflect on this in terms of 'The Infinite Divine'!

-A pilgrimage in the month of Kartik

-Kartik Snan, Kartik Snaan or Karik Nahan? Either Way an Ode to the Great Element Water!

And now onto Noreen Barron's blog about EFT-Emotional Freedom Techniques for which she no doubt taps into the 'The Infinite Divine' to perfect!

EFT-EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUES BY NOREEN BARRON

Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease ~ Hippocrates

Throughout the ages, the energy or force that animates all life has been referred to as Prana, Qi (Chi), Ki, Ka, Pneuma, Ashe, Ha, Life Force and Spirit. Ancient healing systems such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine have studied and documented the effects of how this energy influences and directs the body and mind. Today we are building on this solid foundation with the developing fields of mindbody medicine, energy medicine, energy psychology and energy healing. Holistic psychiatrist Dr John Diamond refers to this animating life force as Life Energy. Life Energy is “the innate healing power of the body, and it is intimately connected with health in that whatever the symptoms of any particular illness, underneath we will always find a diminution of Life Energy. It is the Healing Power within us, the restorative powers of our own body, and the only true healing comes by raising the Life Energy.”

Some day the medical profession will wake up and realize that unresolved emotional issues are the main cause of 85% of all illnesses. When they do, EFT will be one of their primary healing tools ... as it is for me ~ Eric Robins, MD

Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT, simply stated, is emotional or psychological acupressure. Acupressure is the act of applying manual pressure, or tapping, usually with the fingertips, on various meridians located on the surface of the body, the same meridians used in acupuncture. Meridians are the channels through which energy flows, much the same as veins and capillaries are the channels through which blood flows. Energy needs to flow freely and unimpeded through these channels, otherwise it stagnates and becomes blocked, this congested and clogged energy can eventually become so dense that it results in emotional and physical dis-ease. EFT helps to dissolve and release the energetic blocks and restores the natural flow to our Life Energy. As Dr John Diamond states “Holistic Healing always starts with the actuation of the Life Energy, the Spirit—the Healing Power Within. Only then can there be the full appreciation and joyful acceptance of the beauty and wonder of life. This and nothing less than this is True Health.”

The visible world is the invisible organisation of energy ~ Heinz Pagels, Physicist

EFT is a very elegant technique, it can be used on issues such as headaches, pain, fear of public speaking, dyslexia and it may also be employed to treat more complex, serious and chronic issues such as Multiple Sclerosis and Cancer. Very often, in treating an emotional issue successfully with EFT, a related physical ailment will disappear or diminish and the same is true when working on a physical issue, related emotional issues melt away. We all know the effect emotions can have on our physiology, when we're afraid or nervous for example, our stomachs may tense up and become knotted, our hearts may beat faster, we start to sweat and our breathing becomes shallow and fast as we take shorter breaths. As the founder of EFT, Gary Craig, states in the discovery statement of EFT “All negative emotions are caused by a disruption in the body's energy system.” EFT works on this simple, but profound, truth.

The latest discoveries in physics and cell research are forging new links between the worlds of Science and Spirit. The latest science leads us to a worldview not unlike that held by the earliest civilizations, in which every material object in Nature was thought to possess a spirit. This is the world of quantum physics, in which matter and energy are completely entangled ~ Bruce Lipton, Ph.D author of Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles

Much research has shown us that the mind and body are inextricably linked, if not one and the same. Dr Candace Pert, author of Molecules of Emotion, Why you Feel the Way you Feel, states that the body is the “outward manifestation of the mind”, and what influences and directs the mind more than the beliefs we hold about our self, others and life? These beliefs create the filter through which we view, perceive and live life. As Bruce Lipton states in Biology of Belief, "When cells band together in creating multicellular communities, they follow the 'collective voice' of the organism, even if that voice dictates self-destructive behaviour. Our physiology and behaviour patterns conform to the 'truths' of the central voice, be they constructive or destructive beliefs." Skilled use of Emotional Freedom Techniques unveils core beliefs, which can then be tapped on to help dissolve and release them. Just like poet William Blake wrote “When the doors of perception are cleansed, everything will appear to man as it is, infinite”. When we dissolve beliefs that do not serve our highest good, we too will see that we are infinite and therefore have infinite potential, possibility and power.

From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other - above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labours of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received ~ Albert Einstein

The phenomenon in which EFT often works best when we tap with others rather than alone, is evidence to many of us that we are all energetically connected. We shift more blocked energy, we perceive things differently, we don't feel so alone, we feel connected, what’s really happening in my opinion is that we are HEALING our spirits. I believe this energetic or spiritual connection is also why distance healing and surrogate EFT works. I think this quote sums it up beautifully "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The founder of EFT, Gary Craig, has always held the vision of Emotional Freedom Techniques bringing us closer to who we truly are: spiritual beings having a human experience, not the other way around. He is also a minister for A Course in Miracles and its philosophy is embedded in the very spirit of EFT: to love and accept ourselves unconditionally EVEN THOUGH we have issues. As mentioned previously, energy is also known as spirit, so, it is in raising our Life Energy, our Spirit, with the help of EFT that we will realise what Gary Craig wrote in his recent blog announcing his retirement “the exquisite beauty that is our birthright”. Thank you Gary for your beautiful gift of spirit and peace to the world.

www.cmbm.org

Advent Calendar: 15 and 16 Dec 09-The Gift of The Christmas Spirit!

We apologize for faltering on placing a gift yesterday on the Advent calendar. The bears are still with us and we had to deal with a protest from one of our bee colonies. They have been making more than twice the quota outlined in their agreement for no extra pay! So I said to them but where is the Christmas cheer?

That was before the attack of the killer bees! That one was a real disaster as one of my visiting bears decided to steal their honey…when I asked him what was with that…after all wasn’t I as host providing enough? He said to me he forgot he was just a normal Canadian Black Bear and for a second had a vision that he was a modern day Winnie the Pooh….he quickly got over that notion when the actual Winnie the Pooh showed up and said…

“Oh bother…I think I have an impersonator out here!”

It’s how it is when you have a menagerie of animals as your house guests! But hey it’s all in keeping with the Christmas spirit.

So to make up for it hopefully today’s installation with be in double dose and cover well both days of the calendar! Today’s post will be as sometimes is… identical on all three blogs as this blog post in its entirety seems to cover aspects of life normally explored on each of them. So today I speak to cover both Tue 15 and Wed 16 Dec when I present the gift of:

The Christmas Spirit!

And explain what it is for me and how I feel connected to it in song through …The Cherry Tree Carol!

Do you have a favourite Christmas Carol or thing that connects you to the Christmas Spirit?

The purple elephant would like to know. Check the little Christmas poll we’ve launched to find out by looking to the top left side bar of the Meady’s Musings blog.

Now here’s what Meady’s Musings Production considers to be the Christmas spirit…

Now there is comfort…there is joy…and love…the sense of warmth…the sense of familiarity…the need to feel accepted and loved…and on and on and on…it goes! All of these are things most people feel from time to time a need for…or either feel all fulfilled because they have it if only momentarily. And when they don’t have it they have hope to one day find it and some then well they pray for it…

Some people look for it in its pure and natural state while others look for it cloaked as something else...food…sex…toys…money…cars…house…the next big thrill…an adrenaline rush…fame…who knows really…
For many ‘Christmas’ and ‘The Christmas Spirit’ is about searching and focusing a little bit more excitedly and steadfastly on fulfilling these needs…but these are needs we have not only all year through but all life through! However ‘Christmas’ for some is like a great big magnifying glass! So people go about buying, fixing, organizing, inviting…doing all the things they do on a mini scale all year long on a much grander scale to fulfill these needful longings whatever they may be…or as Stephen King once phrased it in a title of a book…we try to acquire the “Needful Things”.


So for us here at Meady’s Musings Production house (overflowing with our animal muses as we are) really ‘The Christmas Spirit’ if analyzed boils down to the need to find this something out there…ourselves…the One…the Universe…our connection…our life purpose even? Perhaps everything in life in the end can be boiled down to the need to find out a few key things:

Who are we?

How did we come to exist?

Do we ever cease to exist?

What are we here for?

Most of us however give up asking those questions when we realize the truth is we don’t know for sure…and either (or in some combination of it depending on our mood) give in to a search for pleasure or surrender to prayer…or lose ourselves in seva (the Hindu term for service to mankind) or this or that…no matter how good or bad any of it sounds…it’s no different in the sense that all of us are clueless in the end if we admit it to each other!

After all we are just this stream of energy flowing forward (or expanding perhaps) and we don’t even know where…but I feel most people eventually come to the realization we are ourselves just spirit and so indeed we are ‘The Christmas Spirit’ too! It flows through us…it is light…or perhaps love and its pure, clear light!

So every year I feel connected to ‘The Christmas Spirit’ or ‘Self’ based on my just explained definition by some Christmas carol or the other. This year I was reminded of ‘The Christmas Spirit’ by this carol the most…the Cherry Tree carol. Here is why…

-One of the centers of focus in the song is a Cherry Tree
Trees…they ground me…I always feel centered in the Universe to be under the shade of their love…and just looking at their great, steady buttresses…well who wouldn’t feel centered? I also feel further centered when I walk under their shade with my feet touching the soil…toes digging into it…

-A pregnant woman (with child in womb)
I think most will agree that we often wish we could return to the womb…the comfort and warmth of it and the love that many are filled with from the mother while in it. And on the whole after birth…the mother-child love bond…

-A universal spirit connection
From the womb a baby’s spirit reaches out and connects with that of a tree based on the request of another spirit…its mother…and lo and behold the great and mighty tree bends and into the hand of the mother she has cherries by command! WOW! Doesn’t get anymore profound than that…and in that moment as the cherries touch the mother’s hand…three great spirits connect! WOW! Awesome!

“Oh! Look thou Joseph...I have cherries by command!”

Now let’s listen to it sung by Joan Baez who just adds to ‘The Christmas Sprit’ of it for me as she sings it straight from her spirit to mines!

Advent Calendar:Mon 14 Dec-The Gift that are Bears!

Canadian Black Bear, Marineland, CANADA 2005
Copyright Meady's Musings Production


The bears have finally arrived here on Meadys' Musings Production's Advent calendar. The purple elephant and little mouse did finish the house keeping on time but then fell asleep not awaking in time to pick the bears up from the airport! The host of bears were so diverse in their nature and temperaments it made for quite an array of tricks and treats at the airport. Unfortunately while some were 'with little brain' there were others who felt they were 'smarter than the average bear' and ended up re-boarding outbound flights etc. However we are pleased to say at the end of this very long day all the bears are finally with us! And hopefully here to stay for the holidays! With the purple elephant and the little mouse! OLE!

Now on to exploring their gifts...

-On Meady's Musings we will talk a bit about their nature as studied in science! And also talk about some close encounters with bears of amazing kind!

-On UCP we will explore the famous bear of Hindu fame...Jambavan-The King of Bears of the Ramayan! And take a look at the entire bear army along with one of monkeys and other animals and fish as they build the Ram Setu...Ram's Bridge.

-On Books and Films Corner it was so tough to choose one bear over another as so many fine bears have populated books and films...filling the imagination of children as they clutch their teddy bears looking on...but we hope you enjoy some of our fav bear moments!

SCIENTIFIC TIDBITS

On earlier gifts we delve in the social behaviour of elephants as studied in science. In the case of bears we have a lifetime expert! So I'll leave it to the experts and you can check out Ben Kilham's controversial and interesting mean bear journey on Nat Geo:


Meady's Musings has not had much real life bear interaction but we have been exploring imaginations with bears earlier this year. Here are some pictures we collected as we lined up with other three year olds (we were founded in 2006)to Build a Bear this year! We'll never forget the little girl in the line next to us telling us that they were giving away free hearts that day and so we could have put in extra hearts into the bear if we liked! :) We in the end felt that one heart would be sufficient...and named it Meady and then took him for a trek out in the woods with a certain four year old. Meady's Musings Production plans to make Meady-the reading bear an inspiration to children everywhere to explore the world of make believe through reading in the coming years...so look for Meady the Reading Bear in a starring role!

The Tent and the Woods



Meady the Reading Bear in Tent



Meady the Reading Bear on the Bookshelf


Writing Bear- a close relative to the Reading Bear


Copyright Meady's Musings Production

Advent Calendar:Sat 12 and Sun 13 Dec-Christmas Fun and Games with a bit of Housekeeping!

It's another weekend on the Advent calendar but yep the Purple Elephant and the little mouse are hard at work helping the carpenter get the roof ready and on the whole cleaning up after all the mice and elephants that visited the house for the gift of Friendship last Mon. They are determined to have the house ready for the bears on this coming Monday morning! They are even putting up a Nativity scene!

However in between they are still running off to have some Christmas fun and games and have also cued some tunes to keep them merry while they are at work!:) So here is the fun they have compiled with some help from the carpenter even! :)

Alvin and the Chipmunks


How to Make a Nativity Scene


Free online games with Christmas themes...the Purple elephant likes to play the Arctic Antics one where penguins help Santas into a pool of water by use of a trampoline but you might have your own favourite...check the site out here!


Christmas Like a Lullaby by John Denver

ADVENT CALENDAR: THURS 10 and FRI 11 DEC-The Gift of Hope

Meady’s Musings Production apologizes for this late entry to the calendar for Thurs 10 Dec and it covers Fri too. The thing is the house still has not recovered from the mice and elephants that showed up for the friendship blog on Mon and the carpenter has definitely declared that we can’t have the bears over until the full repairs are completed. Something about the structure of the roof and works were delayed due to rains.

So in the interim for this retroactive installation for Thurs 10 Dec (and Fri 11 Dec) we are going down memory lane and retrieve from the archives of last year’s Advent calendar the gift of hope that we had given on all three blogs as well back then. And start the weekend Christmas fun early on Fri! The Purple elephant and little mouse are so apologetic about the damage that this weekend I'm getting the treatment while they help with the repairs. They have compiled a selection of Youtube music vids that we will put up shortly for your enjoyment all weekend long! We will return fully on Mon with the Bears and more exciting gifts!

Hope you enjoy it!

On Meady’s Musings-The Gift of Hope in Words and Song!

On UCP-The Gift of Hope Through Prayer!

On Books and Films Corner-The Gift of Hope in Film!

Advent Calendar:Wed 9 Dec-The Gift of Miracles!

Now it's a bit presumptious of our calendar to think we can give such a gift...the gift of miracles that is...because of course miracles are really gifts from the Universe or God or outer worldy beings or celestial beings or metaphysical ones or angels! So just see us as the channel or the messenger on the internet tonight!

As customary the calendar is going to celebrate this gift from the perspective of the three different Meady's Musings Production's blogs:

*On Meady's Musings-Miracles: Science Vs. Faith?
*On UCP- Miracles as defined in Catholicism
*On Books and Films Corner- Miracles on Film!

And the Bears are coming soon! However the carpenter advised that I should reinforce the roof of my house and do some other finishing touches to re-cover from the fall out of Mon night's blog on my house first! You know...like replace a few wooden beams here or window pane there...it's not easy when a few hundred mice were watching Youtube in your living room...who knows what they could have been gnawing on...Oh dear!

MIRACLES:SCIENCE VS. FAITH?

Well it will always be an ongoing discussion but I think they both work hand in hand. But usually faith comes first...and the wrong thing that we as a society do is to ridicule faith just because science has not yet explained it. Also we tend to no longer attach 'the power' or 'magicalness' to a thing once science can explain it!

So cavemen were all awed by fire but once they realised it could be repeated again and again...no divine intervention needed...just strike them stones together and viola any Tom, Dick and Neandertal could do it! Well fire was no longer miraculous? Except when Moses spoke the burning bush later on of course! But think about it...just because we know how to do things...several things in the 21st century to get a fire started does it make it less magical?

Also before fire was 'accidentally' discovered perhaps and its generation found to be possible by repeating the same act and so making it not a unique one time unexplained event i.e. a miracle! Well if a caveman had a dream where and angel of the Lord say came upon him and said to him "Go forth and strike two rocks together and son you will have a warm, glowing light...when it appears call it fire!" Would anyone have believed him unless and until they saw it happen?

You see the only reason we believe in fire is because we can all make it appear again and again by doing specific and repeatable things...we aren't creating it magically but certain chemical/physical conditions when in existence cause it's generation. Had it been that when the caveman had the dream the angel further said to him "Son this occurance will happen only once and you must do it alone while in your cave and then go forth and tell the world that I showed you fire! I will return one day and make it available to all men!"

Well would anyone have believed the caveman? Well that's what faith is? So some scientists would have laughed at the caveman then and call him a lunatic...while some would have taken to following him perhaps if he was good at convincing them i.e. a good orator etc...perhaps a good story teller and he would have had a following.

However to me the smart way for both scientists and those of faith would be if they then instead met each other half way...have the faith it could happen...and then investigate it...perhaps it's what most smart and successful scientist do anyway...I mean the famous dream Kelkule had...perhaps science and faith always meet each other and the science we practice is a product of divine revelation...miracles from up above flowing through the hands and minds of our scientists?

For some reason creative types like painters, writers, musicians and the like will admit to that quicker...that 'their Art' really comes from up above or they are just challenging some greater force and energy. But you rarely hear scientists say the same thing!

However I'm no genius so let's again look for some more proof in the pudding as all scientists like...we will go to a scientist who perhaps did believe things came through him...that he channeled a higher power...Albert Einstein who 'pop culture' loves to associate with genius!