A Yale study just concluded that babies already can differ between good and bad behavior. In eighty percent of cases, the baby chose the “good guy” puppet after they had seen a short puppet show.
Exactly what I always thought: We are hard-wired for awe, respect and morals. Unfortunately, we are also hard-wired to follow peer-pressure – and those two forces fight war over our souls. To enforce the knowledge of good and bad, we need a nurturing culture around us, in families, and schools.
Let’s not take morals too narrowly, though. Most morals have very little to do with sex (after all, it is a biological drive and, in all cultures and religions, has been hard to suppress), and very much to do with money and power. (Does not mean that I am a libertine; just means that sniffing out other people’s bedroom habits is not my cup of tea).
Religions often abuse our innate longing for goodness and request obedience to their rules and superiors. I personally think goodness is already undermined if you have somebody paid as a priest/minister/pastor; I hold that people should come together voluntarily and should stay unpaid lay celebrants. Religions that preach to hate, should be out. Spirituality that fosters kindness should be in.
This is what I want to see celebrated: Nature foremost because we would not be here without Good Mother Earth and her water, air and soil, families, nurturing traditions, worldwide community, justice, music, art, education and books. Read More
Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.
De-cluttering Your Home, Your Mind, Your Life
May 6, 2010
Believe it or not: A cluttered home is a severe stress factor in your life – at least, if I believe my patients. An untidy home makes people feel inadequate, ashamed and asocial. Because their homes are so messy, they don’t invite people over and become more and more isolated.
Feng shui, the Chinese art of bringing luck, health and prosperity to your life seems, on first look, rather outlandish – another form of quackery. On second look, feng shui (literally “wind water”) wants you to tidy up your place.
Actually, the “water” part refers to the place where you choose to live: It has to be at an “auspicious” spot - which sounds like weird magic. But in olden times, the perfect dwelling spot was near water; today, without having an inkling of feng shui, what appeals to us – a green neighborhood, a view from a little hill, not much traffic – is also a healthy choice (unless there is an undisclosed toxic dump nearby…).
The “wind” part means – at least in my interpretation – that you have to create space so that the wind can blow freely around in your home - a fancy way of saying you have no clutter around. The Chinese also call this wind “qi” (pronounced chi) - the positive life energy. In your house, is a visitor greeted by a pile of shoes, old newspapers and stacks of plastic bags that long should have been carried out to the garbage? Or is your entrance welcoming?
Now, with my cosmic greed for books, the wind has a bit of a hard time here. BUT those books I do love, they are not a burden on me, and I keep them in order by handing down some, from time to time, to local schools. I am really not the tidiest of persons. But here is a little secret, handed down from my late, beloved mother-in-law Hilde: If you don’t have time for big cleaning, at least keep the table free of clutter. Try it – immediately, the room looks better.
And here is the Ten-Minutes-De-cluttering Program I developed for my patients who are drowning in disorder and depression:
Have an egg timer (I use an egg timer for all sorts or weird things). Put it on ten minutes. Start de-cluttering in a corner – any corner, but preferably at the entrance. For everything you take into your hand, find a final place: file or shelf room, garbage, charity. And one box with "Cannot yet make up my mind." That box you store for one year; then throw it out.
When the egg timer rings, you are done for the day – unless you suddenly find yourself in the mood of doing some more. Next day, you do the same – even if you did over-time the day before. If you do only ten minutes per day, your place can’t but get "windier" – and you can’t but get relief. Read More
Beltane in the Woods
May 3, 2010
Enter the Circle, the holy ring,
Behold what the Goddess of Life will bring.
The Circle of Day—Moon and Sun,
The Circle of Year—summer, fall, winter, spring,
The Circle of Life—babe, maid, mother, crone,
Dust to dust. The circle forms a new beginning.
Prime of year, joy of flowers—
Mystery of spring—of thee we sing.
Hallow the forces of spring and creation,
Leave behind your wintry sedation.
Green wood inspires, friendship blooms,
Fruitfulness soars and health resumes.
Last Friday was Beltane – yes, the night when witches fly around on their brooms. We were driving up to Maine to open our cottage . The sun went under in a pale, pale pink horizon under a spring-blue sky, promising a beautiful next day. Night settled and the evening star, Venus, appeared - the “lovers’ star.” The moon had just peaked two nights ago. It was eerie and lovely.
No, I am not into witchcraft. But I work with the same herbs the people of old tried to understand. Nowadays, science helps me out: You wouldn't believe how much biochemistry is floating around at herbal conferences!
But the renewal in spring is as vital now as it was for the ancient. If Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” would come true, the whole human race would perish. (Don’t worry about Gaia, our Earth - she would survive, repeople herself with a hopefully more gentle, considerate race. If not that, at least the molds and lichens and bacteria would survive, and start the process of evolution all anew).
Beltane has special meaning for me because I am a gardener and herbalist, because I depend on healthy nature all around me – and because a Beltane celebration in the woods opens my “Sebastian” novel (the poem is taken from it).
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