It's not always easy for parents to teach kids the things you want them to know.  Sometimes, when you just come out and say it, they don't listen.  One way to get them to listen is to make up stories that teach the lesson.  For example, telling kids to eat their vegetables so they will grow up big and strong may work with some kids but not with others, but if you tell an interesting story that says the same thing, they are more likely to lesson and get the messages.  So tell them a fantasy tale about a kid who wouldn't eat his vegetables, so he shriveled up and turned to sand and was now part of a sand dune in the desert.  This is not lying, it's telling the truth in a way that makes it interesting to the kids.  
    This also works the other way around.  When something is bothering a child, it is often difficult to get them to open up and tell you about it.  But if you ask them to tell you a story - insist if they say they don't want to tell a story - the story they tell you will usually reveal what is bothering them.

        

We all know that Labor Day is a day to celebrate the hard working people who have made, and continue to make, America great.  But do you know how is started?  It was really an attempt by President Cleveland to appease the labor movement after a conflict between US. Marshalls, soldiers and the striking workers resulted in the death of some workers involved in the Pullman strike.

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This blog has now been in operation for three years.  It has over 1400 posts for a total of over 310 thousand words and nearly 500 comments.   The most popular post is "Spiritual Symbols:Butterflies and Dragonflies" which has been read nearly 19,000 times and commented on more than any other.

  I will be in Reno for the next week attending the annual convocation.  As usual, I'll set up some articles to auto-post while I'm away and I may add a few live updates from Reno.



"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started  and to know the place for the first time" ~T. S. Eliot


I trust my inner being to lead me in the right path.



The Yaohnanen tribe of the South Pacific believe Britain's Prince Philip is their ancestral god.

One more rich pet: Gail Posner left $3 million and run of her mansion to her chihuahua.  Her son, who got only one million is contesting.

A 19 year old driver in New York state hit a tree when he became dizzy and passed out while having a hold-your-breath contest with his passengers.

A young man in Montana had a hard time convincing police he was not the guy they were looking for.  Probably because of his name being tattooed on the back of his neck.

Among the many wealthy "farmers" who get subsidies from the U.S. government are billionaires David Rockefeller and Leonard Lauder.  When you're very wealthy, you just have to buy a big chunk of land that could potentially be farmland, then promise not to grow anything on it to qualify.

        

Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.

Wisdom is not the same as intellegence.  You can have a great education, yet lack wisdom.  I find it interesting that this chapter of the Bible refers to wisdom as "her" which is a Gnostic thing.

        

I've briefly written about corporations on this blog before.  Mostly, what I don't like about them.  Here are my major complaints:

• They come up with a new product or service and then spend millions convincing us to buy it
• They sell the products and services at the maximum amount the market will bear rather than at a fair markup
• They pay lower level workers as little as possible while the guys at the top are raking in millions a year

Of course, they are not all like that, but that is typical.

The good news is that I believe it will get better in the future.  The changing world is going to force them to.  What the new corporation will be like is very different.  First, they will start marketing what people actually need rather than trying to convince people to buy whatever they want to sell.  Second, the trick of selling new products at very high prices until competition forces the price down will end.  The prices, right from the beginning, will be reasonable.  And, finally, when the corporation does well, the workers will benefit as much as the executives in the ivory towers.  And, maybe, they will even create jobs that take advantage of an individual workers talents and strengths, rather than sending the workers off for training to make them fit the job.

        

    We all know the old saying about too many cooks being a problem in the kitchen.   This is especially true when the cooks have very different ideas about what the dish should taste like.  If one cook is adding Cajun seasoning and another is adding Chinese spices and a third is adding Indian curry flavor who knows what the stew will end up being.  
    This saying is often invoked in a business environment to indicate that, while everyone can discuss and give suggestions, there has to be one boss or recognized authority to make the final decision.  The same is true of spiritual matters and the world we live in.  I have said before that the world exists as it is largely because of our thoughts, beliefs and emotions.  Many self-help gurus today believe that also, but they teach their followers that they can therefore fix the world by consciously controlling what they think about and believe about the world changing it in anyway they desire.  They seem to thin that is is just fine if you mess up in doing so because you are just creating thought-forms that are temporary so easily fixed.  If you just think a little, you will realize that this philosophy is just the same as the too-many-cooks thing.  With everybody trying to change the world into his own personal idea of a perfect world, we get just as much of a confused mish-mosh as that stew with all the different types of spices.  That is just exchanging one confused mess for another one.  So, like the business people who have to accept a final authority to make the decisions, we need to rely on the ultimate authority of God to know what the world shold be and what we should be doing and thinking to change it.  That is why we need to obey the will of God.  Not because he is a bossy parent who gets angry when we don't do as we're told, but because we all need to be heading in the same direction if we want to accomplish anything.

        

Seraphinite is a rare stone found only in the area of Lake Baikal in Siberia.  IT is colored a deep, dark green with silvery patterns throughout.  it's name comes from it's association with the Seraphim, the highest angels. It especially helps one become aware of the feminine aspect of God.   It helps remove energy blockages and aligns and balances the energy flow through all the chakras.  It will aid in evolving spiritually.  It can help you attune to angels and other Light beings.  It heals the physical and the psychic body. It is healing to the nerves and brain cells.  It is said to bring healing Light directly into the cells of the body.   It is especially energizing of the heart center and promotes love, calm and inner peace.  It helps us get over fears and other negative thoughts and emotions.  It breaks down old patterns and imbalances.   It helps us become whole and fully energized on all levels.  It is believed to work best if you wear it or carry it with you. 

        

    A lot of people today are returning to their roots in one way or another.  Some do genealogical research to find out who their ancestors were and are satisfied with that, even though they can usually only go back four or five generations.  Some take a trip to the home of their ancestors.  I know just in the past few years, people I work with have gone to Ireland, Scotland, Germany etc.  to visit the homes of their ancestors in an attempt to get back to their roots.  Other take it even further and try to live for a while like their ancestors.  I get the feeling though, from the few I have talked to, that, while they enjoyed their trip, they didn't quit accomplish what they wanted to, even though they are not certain exactly what it is.  
    The reason many people are feeling an urge to get back to their roots, yet are not feeling satisfied when they do, is that they are not getting back to the correct roots.  Their physical roots in the material world, while interesting, is not what is subconsciously calling out to them in this, the End Times.  What is calling out to them is their inner self, their spirit self that Jung called the archetype.  It is calling us to get back to our spiritual roots, before the fall, and it want's us to do it soon, before it is too late.

        

With so much change going on in the world at an ever increasing pace, what can we hold onto for stability and peace-of-mind?  One thing we hold onto is ourselves, our family and our friends.  Although sometimes they are changing as well, the roller-coaster-ride seems less scary when your sitting next to someone you trust.  You can hold on to your beliefs.   But as human consciousness become more spiritually aware, we may learn that some long-held beliefs simply are not true.  What we can hold on to is our belief and trust in God, even if we don't know exactly what God is, we have to trust that he is always there to help us get over the difficult spots, but only if we are willing to be on His team.  We can hold on to the belief that this period of accelerated change is leading to a great leap forward in the development of the human race.  And we can hold on to the belief that when we all start putting God's Will and God's plan ahead of our own selfish desires, He will work with us to turn our planet back into a world of Light.

        

    The image of a peacock flashing his hugh and colorful tail seems like a perfect symbol for egotism and, in a material sense, it can be, but in spiritual symbolism, it means something very different.  That bright half-circle tail is often a symbol for the sun and for solar dieties.  It also symbolizes longevity, immortality and love.  The tail also is a symbol of the night sky full of stars and therefore, a symbol of heaven.  To a Buddhist, a peacock symbolizes compassion.  To the Chinese, it represents dignity, beauty and high rank.  It is the emblem of the Ming dynasty.  In Christianity, it symbolizes immortality and resurrection.  The "eyes" of the tail can represent the all-seeing Church.  It also symbolizes rising above earthly matters to the more importand spiritual ones.  Two peacocks standing on opposite sides of a Tree of Life symbol represents the duality of man and the material world.  In Islam, a peacock is the Light which "saw Self as a peacock with its tail outspread".  
    Peacocks were believed to have the ability to eat poisonous plants without being harmed so they became a symbol of purification and transformation.
    In feng-shui, the peacock is a symbol of beauty, fidelity, and loyalty.
    In Alchemy - the real kind about soul development -birds were sometimes used to represent different stages of the development of the soul.  The lowest, most materialistic level was represented by a crow or raven.  A swan represented the next stage where one is beginning to awaken the spirit and the peacock represented the third stage.