Date: Wednesday 01 Jul 2009 - THOUGHTS ROLLING AROUND....

No blogs for ages now! How sad- I bought the computer I am on in September 2008, and it didn't recognize the address for my own website. It sure knows Youtube and Facebook though....

So what is keeping my mind occupied these days? Well, while I am out digging and weeding in the garden, my thoughts wonder to such ideas as: what is the difference between curing and healing?

I read a quote from Jon Kabat Zinn that has stayed with me: “My working definition of healing is coming to terms with things as they are. That’s very different from curing. With curing there is the expectation that things will be restored to the way they were before.”

And also, what about pain vs suffering? Pain seems to describe a physiological process, and suffering implies an emotional aspect.

Pain can be difficult to treat. Of course I deal with physical pain, but I imagine emotional and mental pain is the same way. Luckily, sometimes you don’t need to get rid of the pain to relieve the suffering. Maybe that is part of the difference between curing and healing as well.

Date: Friday 23 May 2008 - UPSTREM/ DOWNSTREAM

UPSTREAM/ DOWNSTREAM
Donald Ardell
From “High Level Wellness: An Alternative to Doctors, Drugs and Disease

It was many years ago that the villagers of Downstream recall spotting the first body in the river. Some old timers remember how Spartan were the facilities and procedures for managing that sort of thing. Sometimes, they say, it would take hours to pull 10 people from the river, and even then only a few would survive.

Though the number of victims in the river has increased greatly in recent years, the good folks of Downstream have responded admirably to the challenge. Their rescue system is clearly second to none: most people discovered in the swirling waters are reached within 20 minutes, many less than 10. Only a small number drown each day before help arrives- a big improvement from the way it used to be.

Talk to the people of Downstream and they’ll speak with pride about the new hospital by the edge of the waters, the flotilla of rescue boats ready for service at a moment’s notice, the comprehensive health plans for coordinating all the manpower involved, and the large numbers of highly trained and dedicated swimmers always ready to risk their lives to save victims from the raging currents. Sure it costs a lot, but, say the Downstreamers, what else can decent people do except to provide whatever is necessary when human lives are at stake.

Oh, a few people in Downstream have raised the question now and again, but most folks show little interest in what’s happening Upstream. It seems there’s so much to do to help those in the river that nobody’s got time to check how all those bodies are getting there in the first place. That’s the way things are, sometimes.

 

Date: Thursday 21 Feb 2008 - GROUNDHOG DAY

So, we watched Groundhog Day the other week for Spiritual Cinema. All about repeating our mistakes over and over till we finally "get it", and make a few changes. Of course the difference in our own lives is that other people remember our mistakes, and they can be hurt over and over again, while in Groundhog world, everyone else forgets and you get a clean slate every day. 

Date: Friday 21 Sep 2007 - SURVIVOR!!

The other evening my room-mate and I settled in to watch some crap TV and luckily Survivor was there to fill the bill. SURVIVOR: CHINA...now that  has definite potential to be some interesting survival reality TV.

We began to suggest possible trials the contestants could look forward to. Faith-Ellen speculated that perhaps they would be whisked away to Tibet and, after first being persecuted and humiliated, they would be forced to escape: the first one to the Nepalese border gets to live!! And what entertaining immunity challenges along the way: swim an icy river at night with all your possessions on your head! Scamper across the Himalayas in sandals travelling only at night! Old potatoes and flour mixed with water and mud for rations! And of course run for the border without being shot!!

Survivor China: Escape from Persecution by a Communist Regime! Brilliant programming….

Date: Tuesday 31 Jul 2007 - THE IMPOSSIBILIST by Sean Beebe

I remember the very first time I saw Spider-Man. He was on a show called “The Electric Company” and he was busy causing problems for a man who had spelled out a word with these huge block letters. While he was explaining the word that he had just spelled, another man in red and blue tights was lurking in the background rearranging the block letters to spell “Spider-Man”. I stood there frozen as if Spider-Man had walked right off the television screen and shook my hand, it’s the kind of astonishment that only a child’s mind can feel. Not long after my introduction to the web-slinger I had a test at school and the first question was, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. My answer made everyone laugh but I was deadly serious as I wrote the name Spider-Man with my big red pencil. I’m not sure how old I was at the time, but I know it was before I stopped believing in impossible things.

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