The Arms Of Aphrodite

She was discovered in 1820 by a Greek peasant named Yorgos
Kentrotas on the Aegean island of Melos in an underground cavern near the ruins of an ancient theatre.

She had a broken heart, a broken nose and was broken in two pieces. She looked as if she had really been through the ringer. Her temperature was as cold as marble. The pedestal in which she had fallen was near and there was a piece of her upper left arm, and a left hand holding an apple, along with an inscribed plinth.

It is not certain how long she had been there waiting to be discovered. How her heart must have cried to see human flesh again, to feel the warmth of a touch, to hear how people saw beauty in her, to smell the fragrances of life and to taste love.

Her name was Aphrodite of Melos. Though she was battered and bruised, Yorgos took this fragile creature under his wing like a lost Soul. He nurtured her. He opened his heart to her. He dusted her off, giving her hope, faith, and love. He made her smile from the inside as she made him smile.
What Yorgos treasured would soon change and Aphrodite would find herself in the hands of another.

When French naval officer, Olivier Voutier was exploring the ruins and got wind of Yorgos’ treasure, he informed fellow officer, Jules Dumont d'Urville. It was Jules who recognized its significance and arranged for a purchase by the French ambassador to Turkey, Charles-François de Riffardeau, marquis, later duc de Rivière.

Before he could take delivery, French sailors had to fight Greek brigands for possession. In the mêlée the statue was roughly dragged across rocks to the ship, breaking off both arms, and the sailors refused to go back to search for them.

The French ambassador to Turkey bought the statue and after it was repaired, presented it in 1821 to King Louis XVIII of France. Subsequently the King had the sculpture placed in the Louvre Museum in Paris where it has remained on display to this day.

Aphrodite of Melos is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch, based upon an inscription on the missing piece of what may have been its original pedestal. It is believed to have been created around 150 BC.

Aphrodite has passed through many hands, survived a name change and became Venus de Milo. She is one of the most recognizable works of art from the ancient world.

She is composed of highly prized white parian marble, elegantly stands slightly over six feet in a curved pose with her weight resting upon one leg, clothed only by a loose drape about her hips that falls to the ground.

Many people think that she represents physical beauty, love and fertility, but she represents a deeper truth. Though she has no visible arms, her symbolism still reaches out to us and around us.

She IS love telling us that she needs us. She is telling us that she completes us as we complete her. Our arms are her arms. We are one. More important, she represents the sheer beauty of imperfection.

She explains to us that beauty and love reaches out to us, but we can’t see it. Love wants to wrap its arms around us, but we push it away. It speaks to us, but we can’t hear it.

You see, we ARE the arms of Venus. We ARE the love that she says we are. We are because we ARE.

Though Venus resides in The Louvre in Paris, she really resides in our heart. We can’t keep her locked away. We must let her out. She needs to breathe. No matter what we go through, we survive and are survived by love.

It’s all in our arms - and hands.

Does Unconditional Love Exist?

Unconditional love is a phrase that is thrown around often. It sounds good, it feels good and for all intents and purposes it IS good, but does it exist?

It is thrown around so much that it knocks us back a few paces when we hear it. Often times it catches us off guard, but is it more than a catch phrase?

Is there a magical existence - a place between our feelings and faith - called unconditional love? Can we experience that place or is it just ignis fatuus?

I have a friend who does not believe unconditional love exists; in fact he thinks that it is just a phrase people toss out when they don’t know what to say?

He thinks everyone (whether they admit it or not) only loves conditionally and they peruse offers of love and decide according to the pleasure ratio. He thinks that we gravitate to the highest bidder and that we love as much as we receive.

I think my friend has to much time on his hands and just likes tossing these concepts to hear what I have to say? He says that unconditional love is couched in the lofty beliefs of the spiritualists and he says that they don’t even know what it is.

He is just asking for a debate. The onus is on me to prove that unconditional love does exist. I have to have a preponderance of evidence.

I will start at the top. The only reason we exist is because God loves us - unconditionally. God already knows the kind of life we are going to lead before we lead it.

God knows exactly how we were going to use our bodies, minds, and time on earth. God knows that some of us will be in precarious situations where we question our faith, love and capacity as human beings.

God knows that for everything we do that is against God and in which there are spiritual consequences, God still loves us. It’s when we don’t feel a connection to this magnificent life force that we don’t feel love.

We have to experience it first to know that it does exist, but how do we experience such a phenomenon? To start with, everyone who is born has already experienced unconditional love.

When we start to think of the miracle of life, it is pretty mind boggling. It is more profound that the fertilization of an egg. It’s about our place in the cycle of life, the stars, and the universe.

So is unconditional love tied into our belief system? Our upbringing? Our experiences? Our expectations?

An abused/abandoned child may never feel unconditional love and always feel that they have brought on the abuse/abandonment in some way. They may never know that feeling unless they experience it. And they may never experience it because they feel defective in some way.

When someone gives them love, they may feel such a connection that it restores their faith in life. It is the continual connection to that love that may even turn their life around. So could it be that a defining act makes us believe in unconditional love?

How could a mass murderer's parents still have unconditional love for them when they have committed such horrific acts? Is unconditional love defined differently according to our perception of it?

A common belief is that animals have unconditional love, however are they loving unconditionally or are they reacting to the love they receive? If we ignored our animals, would they still love us unconditionally?

Although some people need hard evidence to prove that unconditional love exists, I have experienced it. The time we would spend trying to disprove that it doesn't exist would be futile. The subject matter is too vast to explain in one sentence or even one lifetime.

Have you experienced unconditional love? How do you know it is unconditional? I would love to know.

7 Quick Tips To Bliss

Variety is usually thought to be the spice of life, however that is not always the case. Too much variety can lead to too much, where we don’t exercise temperance.

Too much variety can stop us from committing. We will never be happy with what we have because we will always seek more. So how can we be happy with what we have and maintain a comfortable equilibrium between what we desire and what we pursue?

Getting familiar with the following tips can help to create an acceptable balance in our spiritual livelihood.

Drive - We can’t drive if we have no drive. When we take the road to anything worth pursuing and we approach a curve, we must hold on to the steering wheel and negotiate that turn. Do we accelerate through it or stop?

If we stop, we won’t see what’s around the bend. If we go into a skid, we are going too fast. We must slow down, take our foot off of the accelerator and brakes and turn the steering wheel in the direction that we want the front of the car to go. Specifically, this means aligning our tires with the direction of our intended travel. As the vehicle turns back in the right direction, we must counter steer in time to stop the turning and stay on our desired path.

Harmony - to achieve overall harmony, we must achieve harmonious moments. Major musical scales are made up of a series of tones or pitches placed in relationship to each other.

The perception of harmony is also very dependent on the timbre of a sound. If we confine ourselves to thinking about the relative consonance and dissonance between certain sounds, we can reveal a relationship between a sound's timbre and the pitches of that sound that produce harmony when heard simultaneously.

When dealing with people, we must be aware of our tone (our sound) - our ability to harmonize with them. Dissonance is caused when frequencies in one sound are only slightly different from the frequencies of another. When songs are sung in harmony, there is a rich smoothness to the sound of music. Let that harmony play in your heart.

Kindness - handle everything with care - people we come in contact with on the phone, or in person. It’s nice to have a little love in our heart. Love can travel to the furthest destinations. If the post office can use a sticker that reads, “Handle With Care,” for its delicate packages, then it’s good enough for human beings - also delicate packages.

Negotiation - negotiating is not only for shopping, it’s for creating our employment, relationships, enjoyment and anything that we want in life. The law of attraction is the law of negotiation along with knowing how to compromise. Often times we get more than we expect when we surrender.

Opinions - too many cooks spoil the soup. If we ask too many people for their opinion, we are not taking responsibility for deciding what is best for us. We have to assess our needs and act accordingly. It’s fine to listen to some opinions to get feedback on our own, but the ultimate decision is up to us.

Humility - there is nothing more beautiful than an inactive ego. It doesn’t offend, hurt or clash with the world of matter and emotion. It serves a higher purpose of being.

Gratitude - be grateful for everything. It’s really as simple as that. Start and end each day with a thank you. Kiss your spouse. Hug your kids. Open your heart. Gratitude makes the heart grow fonder.

The Law Of Animal Attraction

The mating dance is a fierce tango that gives our heart a good workout and leaves us breathless. It is a dance that we all wish to perform with masterful steps without stepping on anyone’s toes.

It is also the most coveted dances because of how it presses our will against the will of another. And when two wills meet in the heat of passion and combust into a thousand stars - it is the most elegant dance.

Mating leaves many astray. Man is an animal that craves companionship and tactility, not only physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We need to interact with others, to exchange ideas, knowingness and fill the loneliness divide.

Several questions abound. Do men have a harder time at dating than women? Do women chase men away by putting them under the gun to marry them? Men and women have a different set of rules and very different perspectives.

Are men and women both too desperate to find love that they settle for anyone, which leaves them miserable and littering divorce courts?

I used to have a coworker who had an interesting set of rules. Kenneth is a 40-something rocker who wants 24 year old tax attorney, Sarah who just moved next door to him. Kenneth has been dating his girlfriend Beverly for 20 years.

They are of similar ages and backgrounds. They get along well together. They have built a history with each other and know each others likes and dislikes, etc. But as soon as Kenneth sees someone younger, he goes into his peacock strut, invites them to his latest show and gives them a guitar pick with his phone number on it (he had them specially made for this.)

He says Beverly is okay with it, they have an open relationship. He is an accomplished musician who has been playing the club circuit for years, but earning a living as a high-end art agent. Music is his calling card for the girls. He loves to play for them. When he strums his Gibson he is really strumming their heart strings.

Beverly probably doesn’t know the amount of girls Kenneth pursues when she is not around. She is just waiting for him to pop the question.

Men and women both speak foreign languages when it comes to love. Even though she may feel love, a woman wants to be reassured that she is loved. A man may not understand this because he feels that it’s obvious that he loves her because he is with her. He may have said, “I love you,” once and he thinks that should serve her for as long as they are together.

After a while, the man may realize that the woman is not like she was in the beginning and then start to resent her for wanting more of him. Some men will even use the language of gifts thinking that nothing says it better than diamonds.

When the woman receives the gift, she resigns the fact that he doesn’t say, “I love you,” everyday. She can live with it until the next time she feels that he doesn’t love her. For now, she can now show the world that he loves her by wearing her new jewelry - and to her - a symbol of love.

It’s not that she necessarily wants to hear him say those three words, she wants the world to know that he says those three words, even if it is ventriloquized by gifts.

Men learn early on to base their self-worth on dollar signs, but it doesn’t stop the fierce competition to find the right partner. Though it is sometimes impossible to merge with someone, I ask you to observe the animal kingdom. If you think we have it hard, you may thank your lucky stars that we are not them.

Next time we will examine love in the animal kingdom.

Imperfectly Perfect

“We come to love not by finding
a perfect person,
but by learning to see
an imperfect person perfectly.”

~Unknown

Sometimes We Just Need To Hear It

You are loved.

No matter how you feel about yourself.
You are loved.

No matter how your day is going.
You are loved.

No matter what your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse said to you to make you feel unworthy and unloved.
You are loved.

No matter if you’ve never met that special someone to make you feel that you are loved - you ARE that special someone and you are loved.

Believe in your ability to love and be loved. You are a divine light and you would not be here if you were not loved.

No matter what is going on in your life right now at this moment -
You are loved.

Invest In Love

What do you do for love? When you think about dating, what ritualistic concepts come to mind? What do you like about it? What do you hate about it? What does it make you do?

Dating is complicated and I can’t even begin to decipher it in its entirety. It changes as we change. People seem to have different views on it from one extreme to another.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the desire to find someone in which we want to spend our lives. That is the core reason for our existence - to love and to be loved.

It’s no wonder we spend most of our lives trying to fulfill that desire - every minute is worth it. Though sometimes we fail miserably and are so preoccupied in NOT failing that we continue to fail, but we still endure the pursuit.

It’s in that failure that we never seem to find ourselves and thus we are failing ourselves. It becomes virtually impossible to strike a chord with someone because of the way we feel about ourselves.

We start focusing on our shortcomings and lack of perfection that it really begins to devalue our stock in ourselves. If this becomes our main focus, then we will end up in a series of dissatisfactory relationships that once left us breathless, but now leaves us lifeless.

That’s when people give up. If at that point, we don’t reevaluate ourselves, then we are more than likely to repeat the pattern. Instead of shying away from all relationships, we can learn from inadequate ones.

Make a note of what we like, what we don’t like, what we want, what we don’t want and what we are willing to compromise. If we think of love as an investment, we must do what any investor does, study the market and ascertain how we can get the biggest return on our investment.

Though the stock market is unpredictable, long term investments usually pay the highest yield. Now how does that relate to love? Love is a long term investment. Even if the market occasionally crashes, people still have a high surplus of love - and that surplus has to circulate around the world.

We have to invest in love. It’s the only commodity that gives us real value. Real love carries high stakes, and various risks. We risk our comfort for the unknown. If we put our heart on the line, what is our guarantee that it won’t get stampeded?

Worse yet, what if we show that we care and love is not returned? How will we handle that? So the question is, do we stay seated in the stands or venture forward into the arena?

Real love can make us feel like we have never felt before. It can change our life. It can make us sing. It can punctuate our sentences. It can add years to our life and life to our years. It can fire up our wow factor.

It’s elixir is so sweet that sometimes it has a bitter aftertaste. It can make people unbalanced, showing jealousy, possessiveness and violence, where the substance of love is disfigured. We have all heard the stories. It is an unfortunate dark side of love in which many have to cope.

I can’t do it justice by trying to decode why it happens. I can only hypothesize that the wrong elements were in place or the right elements were not in place.

Whatever the reasons, we can’t let the dark side rule how love is defined because the benefits of real love ascends the brightest heaven of invention.

One aspect is certain in love’s golden rule - we have to love ourselves before we can love anyone else.

Are You On This List?

I can’t remember where I saw this, but I thought it was worth sharing.

The most destructive habit -
Worry.

The greatest Joy -
Giving.

The greatest loss -
Loss of self-respect.

The most satisfying work -
Helping others.

The ugliest personality trait -
Selfishness.

The most endangered species -
Dedicated leaders.

Our greatest natural resources -
Our youth.

The greatest "shot in the arm" -
Encouragement.

The greatest problem to overcome -
Fear.

The most effective sleeping pill -
Peace of mind.

The most crippling failure disease -
Excuses.

The most powerful force in life -
Love.

The most dangerous pariah -
A gossiper.

The world's most incredible computer -
The brain.

The worst thing to be without -
Hope.

The deadliest weapon -
The tongue.

The two most powerful words -
"I Can."

The greatest asset -
Faith.

The most worthless emotion -
Self-pity.

The most beautiful attire -
Smile.

The most prized possession -
Integrity.

The most powerful channel of communication -
Prayer.

The most contagious spirit -
Enthusiasm.

The most important force in life -
GOD!

The Ice Ax Cometh

After reading about Mount Everest, I started to wonder what it would be like to actually climb it? I saw myself in full climbing gear;
double plastic climbing boots with liners covering my wool socks, holding my ice ax, being held by my climbing harness while wearing pile pants with side zippers, a down parka, synthetic gloves, balaclava (I love these, brings out the real cat burglar in a person), 100% UV glacier glasses, and lipscreen.

That’s a lot of equipment to carry, not to mention the toll it would have on my back from hanging vertically, looking up to the open mouth of sky and slowly climbing inside. I know how Michelangelo must have felt when he painted the Sistine Ceiling.

The spontaneous vein in me would love to do it, but the pragmatist
handles this mental Supreme Court decision with caution, which I cannot disagree.

The boundless spirit in me says, “I can do it.”

The pragmatist says, “If you know you can do it, why do you have to prove to yourself what you already know?”

The boundless spirit enthuses, “But I want the world to see that I can do it?”

The pragmatist explains, “The world doesn’t care if you can or cannot do it. The world has enough on its plate.”

The boundless spirit adds, “But what if I want them to care?”

The pragmatist clarifies, “You shouldn’t worry about what the world thinks of you. Their thoughts don’t carry any weight in your Soul. You don’t have to prove that you can climb a mountain, swim across the ocean, set a world record, or try to win any accolades from what others deem is worthy - you’ve already done that by being here. You have won. You were born.”

The boundless spirit reflects and continues, “You mean, I don’t have to compete with anyone. I don’t have to feel inadequate when I don’t compare with anyone. I don’t have to...."

The pragmatist finishes, “All you have to do is feed your Soul. Care for it. Love yourself. Love what you do. Love how you do it. Love where you live in your heart. Love what you say - and say everything with tender loving care. Be aware of your tone, your language, your intent, your effect. Love all of life and all of live will love you.”

The boundless spirit adds, “That’s why I keep you around. You make a lot of sense. I must admit, being an Angeleno (native to Los Angeles), I don't do well in the cold. Certain things belong in the cold and I am not one of them. I am used to sweltering days of summer all year long, people in shorts, t-shirts, roller blades and kids wearing Heelys (shoes with wheels.)

Although I have climbed many Mount Everests in my mind, I could never do it outside the realm of imagination, it’s just not practical. I can’t imagine how I would feel stepping over dead bodies perfectly preserved in ice - that perished trying to accomplish greatness in reaching the goddess of the sky.

I would hate staring into their frozen faces, imagining what they were thinking - who they left behind - seeing their dreams stopped in mid stream - just to end up on top of a 60 million year old formation of rock - it’s just not practical.

The pragmatist says, “Touché!”

The Face Of Love

I am not a big flower fan. I like their fragrance, design and pure beauty, but as far as I am concerned, they die too quickly. While I enjoy and appreciate joy that they bring, I wish they lasted longer.

I had a friend who used to be a florist and occasionally when I went into the shop, I would see various people excitedly buying flowers; roses, carnations, tulips, gladiolas and pansies.

Surprisingly the most popular flower was the sunflower. People seemed to be snapping them up like crazy. The shop could never keep them in stock. When the shop closed for the day, I stayed and helped my friend clean up.

On the floor was a sunflower that had gotten trampled in the rush to buy his relatives. When I picked it up, it seem to emanate a warmth, a peaceful presence, a life energy, a spiritual vibration, a love, if you will.

Sunflowers are not petite like roses, or fluffy like carnations, not even particularly attractive, but very alluring. As I stared at it, I got a sense of peace. It was almost like I was holding a live presence in my hand.

I felt drawn into this unusual looking flower. Something had to be inside that flower. The energy pulled me in like a force of nature. As I looked deeper into it’s center, it looked like a face and I’m sure it was winking at me.

I had to know more about these magical flowers. The scientific name of sunflowers is Helianthus, Helia for sun and Anthus for flower.

Sunflowers are one of the fastest growing plants. They can grow 8 to 12 feet tall in rich soil within six months.

The tallest sunflower was grown in The Netherlands (25' 5.5" tall) grown in 1986 by M. Heijmf.

The largest sunflower head on record measured 32 1/2 inches across its widest point and was grown in Canada.

The shortest mature sunflower on record was just over 2 inches tall and was grown in Oregon using the Bonsai technique.

Sunflowers requires only 90 to 100 days from planting to maturity.

The sunflower is native to North America and was used by the Indians for food and oil. Some farmers use it to feed their livestock.

We use sunflower seeds to make oil, bird seed and for snacking. They have lots of calcium and 11 other important minerals. They do have 50% fat, but it is mostly polyunsaturated linoleic acid.

Wild sunflower is highly branched with small heads and small seeds, in contrast to the single-stem and large seed head of domesticated sunflower.

Sunflower heads consist of 1,000 to 2,000 individual flowers joined together by a receptacle base. The large petals around the edge of a sunflower head are individual ray flowers which do not develop into seed.

A well-known sunflower characteristic is that the flowering heads track the sun's movement, a phenomenon known as heliotropism.

The daily orientation of the flower to the sun is a direct result of differential growth of the stem. A plant-growth regulator, or auxin, accumulates on the shaded side of a plant when conditions of unequal light prevail. Because of this accumulation, the darker side grows faster than the sunlit side. Thus, the stem bends toward the sun.

Most people think a sunflower "follows the sun," but that actually happens when sunflower are very young plants, long before they are ready to bloom. A field full of sunflower looks beautiful first thing in the morning, as they point their faces toward the east. By noon they're pointing straight up, and by evening, to the west. If you check back the next morning, they'll be facing east again.

The French word for sunflower is tournesol, which literally means "turn with the sun."

Sunflowers date back to ancient times? Carbon dating of seeds found in North American clay date back nearly 3,000 years.

Early American natives used the sunflower long before corn and beans were brought to America. They ate the seeds, ground the small kernels into flour, extracted oil from seeds for their hair, and used the seeds, flower petals, and pollen to make dyes for face paint, cloths and baskets.

In Peru, the Aztecs worshiped sunflowers, they placed sunflower images made of gold in their temples and crowned princesses in the bright yellow flowers.

Sunflowers made their way to Europe in the early 1500’s. They were used for gifts carried by Spanish settlers returning home.

The great Russian ruler Peter the Great liked sunflowers so much when he saw them in Holland he took seeds back to Russia. By the 1700’s sunflower seeds were being eaten all over Russia. The former Soviet Union grows the most sunflowers and is the national flower of Russia.

Sunflowers are the state flower of Kansas, USA.

Sunflower stems were used to fill lifejackets before the advent of modern materials.

The Sunflower paintings of Vincent Van Gogh show a mental connection not only between the artist's name and the painting, but also between the artist and the influence of Sunflowers on the development of art through these paintings. Van Gogh's Sunflower paintings have altered mankind's perspective of art and life. These Sunflower photos captivate the mind and leave you astounded in their simplistic beauty.

Most of us call them sunflowers with an "s." But according to Mary Lou, whose work in sunflower breeding took her to many parts of the world for 23 years, sunflower never turns into sunflowers - - ever! So, if you have one sunflower or twenty, you still have sunflower. Period.

The large, cheerful heads of sunflowers are associated with goodwill, friendship, and happiness. Beautiful in small groupings in a garden, planted over large plots of land, or growing wild, these flowers native to the Americas give every person who sees them a reason to smile.

So many facts about sunflower(s) that they are making my head spin.
Since that day, I look at sunflowers in a different light. Every time I see one, I look at it with a knowing glance. We have the same goal - we just want to make you smile.

We are like sunflowers. They turn toward the sun for nourishment and growth, while we turn towards love for the same benefits. Let your love turn others into sunflowers.

That day, I took the sunflower home, put it in some water and it lasted much longer than any other flower. I have changed my mind about flowers. They are here for a reason - to give us love - and love changes our perception of love.

Rejection

If you don't reject yourself
then no one else has the
power to do it.
Empower yourself with love
and you won't ever feel rejected.

What Do Monsters Taste Like?

What ingredients make a monster? How do we measure? How much darkness does it embody and how much of that darkness is reflected upon man?

As children we are afraid of monsters. The very essence of the word makes us very uneasy. As adults we have to be careful not to become monsters, otherwise our whole race is in trouble and we would incarnate that in which we hate.

After watching the Mel Brooks classic, Young Frankenstein this weekend, I started to think about monsters in general and our fascination with them.

If you haven’t seen Young Frankenstein yet, it is definitely worth the investment if you like comedy. Yes, Young Frankenstein is a comedy about a monster created by man and technology with an underlying current of morality as it dislocates the bones of mankind.

You will laugh until you feel the alienation of the monster in society and how that monster was created by the very people who ridicule it. The laughs stop just short of the mirror and upon reflection of the creature who inhabits it.

Though released in 1974 and shot in black and white to replicate the cinematic texture of the original Frankenstein films, Young Frankenstein has withstood the test of time in its inventiveness and definition.

In fact, the film was shot with many of the same props and lab equipment as the original Frankenstein in 1931.

The story is about a young neurosurgeon, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) who inherits the castle of his grandfather, the famous Dr. Victor von Frankenstein.

The young Dr. Frankenstein has spent most of his life playing down the legend of his famous grandfather, even changing the pronunciation of his name from Frankenstein to Fronkensteen.

When he is presented the opportunity to go to his grandfather’s castle, he takes his modern day knowledge with him and mixes it with the lore of his heritage.

He finds an unsettled spirit in the castle, through moving bookcases, strange people and errie sounds. He meets his assistant Igor, (Marty Feldman) who once he hears how Fronkensteen is pronounced, pronounces his own name as Ayegor.

When young Frankenstein sees that Ayegor has a hump on his back, he innocently says, “You know, I'm a rather brilliant surgeon. Perhaps I can help you with that hump,” to which Igor replies, “What hump?”

That exchange brings us back to the creation of the monster. Often times we don't see ourselves as we are. Without examination, we see ourselves fully clothed, without even scratching the surface of the skin.

If we venture to the laboratory of self and peer into the microscope of our Soul, we will see a different picture than what we portray on the outside. We may see experiences that turned sour. Instances where we lost our faith and thus turned us into that creature that we keep under wraps - the monster lurking in the closet, fumbling in the dark.

That is not to say that we are all monsters; far from it, but this just serves as an illustration of what some of us can become if we don’t get the love that we so desperately require.

So what makes a monster? Fear? Derision? Lack of compassion? Disillusionment? Lack of kindness? Disappointment? Lack of love? Disloyalty to the true purpose of living? All of the above.

In the film, Dr. Frankenstein tries to reanimate the corpse of a monster by giving him a brain. Through a mix up, the monster gets an abnormal brain that causes him to go haywire.

His speech is impaired and he groans a lot. Through a series of comical mishaps, the monster almost destroys the man who gave him life until Dr. Frankenstein realizes what is missing.

“Love is the only thing that can save this poor creature, and I am going to convince him that he is loved even at the cost of my own life,” Dr. Frankenstein explains.

The doctor tries to save the monster by doing a transference; transferring himself into the monster to give it a chance to live normally.

It’s through this final experiment that the monster becomes a real man. His groaning turns into eloquence as he expounds himself and disengages the monster once and for all. The pain of society erupts in his monologue.

“For as long as I can remember people have hated me. They looked at my face and my body and they ran away in horror. In my loneliness I decided that if I could not inspire love, which is my deepest hope, I would instead cause fear. I live because this poor half-crazed genius, has given me life. He alone held an image of me as something beautiful and then, when it would have been easy enough to stay out of danger, he used his own body as a guinea pig to give me a calmer brain and a somewhat more sophisticated way of expressing myself. I lived in hopes of meeting people who would overlook my outward appearance and respect me for whatever good qualities I had to offer. If anyone had ever shown a little kindness, I would have returned it, I think, at least one hundred times over. And for that one person's sake, I would have made peace with the whole world. Do you understand what it means -- never to see a kind or happy face? You could imagine then, perhaps, how such bitterness led me, at last, to the brink of another kind of life.”

It’s only at the end of the film when we realize that young Frankenstein and the monster are one in the same, not from the transference but from the desire to be better than themselves.

In the midst of the experiment when the doctor yells, “It’s alive,” he is not talking about the monster. He is talking about our spirit, our dreams, our destiny, our existence, the whirling stars of imagination and creation.

Through the doctor’s love of the monster, he shows us how man can eat the monster and turn it into love. And with that love, we create love. There is no need to fear, only love.

“From that fateful day when stinking bits of slime first crawled from the sea and shouted to the cold stars, "I am man," our greatest dread has always been the knowledge of our mortality. But tonight, we shall hurl the gauntlet of science into the frightful face of death itself. Tonight, we shall ascend into the heavens. We shall mock the earthquake. We shall command the thunders, and penetrate into the very womb of impervious nature herself.”

~Dr. Frederick Frankenstein

Remember These Words

You can open a book and read words, open a dictionary and read their meaning, but how often can you open your heart and put those words and meanings into action? How about today?

The six most important words: "I admit I made a mistake."

The five most important words: "You did a great job."

The four most important words: "What is your opinion?”

The three most important words: "If you please."

The two most important words: "Thank You."

The one most important word: "We."

The least important word: "I."

Remember these words today and everyday and see how they will brighten your world and the world around you.

Do It With Love

Did you know that everything we do has a purpose, an energy, a reason, an underlying current? It all starts with what’s in your heart. If we do things with anything other than love, then we cheat ourselves of the full value of that moment.

I am not saying that life doesn’t throw us a curve ball that takes the breath out of us or that we should walk around with a permanent smile affixed to our faces, I am just saying to be more aware of your energy and intent.

The more we do for love, the more love does for us. Following is a short list of things we can do with love. Simple things that will not only impact us, but people around us.

Do It With Love

When you wake up, do it with love.
When you wash your face, do it with love.
When you brush your teeth, do it with love.
When you dress for work, do it with love.

When you eat your breakfast, do it with love.
When you kiss your spouse/kids goodbye, do it with love.
When you drive to work, do it with love.
When you greet your boss, employees, coworkers,
do it with love.
When you are doing your job, do it with love.
When you are talking to your client/customer service,
do it with love.

When you are talking to your neighbor, do it with love.
When you are talking to the man on the street, do it with love.
When you read a child a bedtime story, do it with love.

When you go to bed, do it with love.
When you close your eyes and dream of the stars,
do it with love.

If you don’t have anything to do,
do it with love.
When you love, do it with love.

When you do anything with love, you are putting out such an incredible vibration that you attract love. You are building your reservoir for love and thus increasing your capacity for love.

Happy Birthday To Me - And You

I woke up this morning and the birds broke into a song and dance. As the sun knocked on my window, I saw its countenance hang from the azure sky. Was it trying to tell me something?

Then I looked at the calendar and saw the date. “Oh, it’s my (official) birthday,” I said. “Why am I always the last one to know?,” I add.

Am I the only one who celebrates her birthday everyday? Hmmm, maybe I am?

Then I got some lovely surprises. My friend Max sent me this wonderful birthday card (pictured above.) Isn’t this soooo sweet? It really touched my heart that she took the time and effort to make this just for ME. Thanks Max.

I invite you all to check out her blog sometimes. She’s a deep thinker with a passion for art and literature. She has traveled the world and she writes in English and Portuguese without losing the passion in the translation.

Then out of the blue, my friend Maithri passed on this great quote that he intuitively knew I would appreciate.

"Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings,
but contemplate their return.
Each separate being in the universe
returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.
If you don't realize the source,
you stumble in confusion and sorrow.”

~Lao Tzu

Isn’t the wisdom in that deafening? Maithri’s mission as a doctor is to provide medicine, awareness and Soul food. He has been on the front lines of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and famine in Swaziland and can tell you stories that will make you cry.

Swaziland is a country with the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world - 42%. As such it has the highest number of AIDS orphans in the world - 10% of the population. 70% of Swazi's earn less than one US dollar a day.

He has a heart the size of jupiter and hands of equal proportion, but he can always use more helping hands and hearts. Thanks Maithri.

Go and check out his site and see if you can help.

Another good friend by the name, Anonymous sent me this joke about writers.

‘There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer.

When asked to define “great” he said, “I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!”

He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.’

You know many people are saddened when they have birthdays. They think that they are getting old, their life is over, their dreams haven’t been fulfilled and their days are numbered.

Our days are numbered anyway we look at it. That’s why we have to fill and fulfill our lives with love everyday.

Our birthday isn't just the day we were born, it's everyday. It's everyday that we are blessed on this earth. It's everyday that we wake up. It's everyday that we give love. It's everyday that we wage peace in our Souls. It's everyday that we forgive ourselves. It's everyday that we love ourselves. It's everyday.

Happy Birthday to everyone everyday. It's a brand new day. It's a new day. It's anew.

That’s what a birthday is - sharing love. Thank you all for the love that you have shared on these pages and in person. I am blessed to be here and I am sharing the blessing with you all.

How To Teach A Bear Respect

I was watching one of those animal nature shows last night about bears; you know those furry giants among men. Every time we hear about bears, it’s either funny or tragic, there is no in between.

We hear how Godzilla-like bears terrorize picnickers and how they vandalize cars to get food. We see how they wind up in a homeowners backyard because they lost their way home and we are amazed at how they get up those trees but somehow can’t find their way down?

Of course from a bear’s perspective, the argument flips. We don’t hear that a bear took his family on a nice picnic in the park and was suddenly interrupted by humans.

We can’t see that a bear just may be in the lotus position meditating before we so rudely interrupted him/her, frightening the bear into the attack mode. (That’s why they meditate, so those little human annoyances won’t catch them off guard.)

Some bears are even are convicts. One bear in Macedonia was found guilty of theft and criminal damage for repeatedly raiding a beekeeper's hives.

Anyway in the show, there was a bear terminator; a diminutive blonde woman who was called out every time a bear was seen in a human area.

Unlike her screen doppelgänger, Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, she wasn’t a cyborg and she wasn’t hunting humans. She was there to protect humans and bears and she did so by terminating the bears proximity to humans.

Though she didn’t have the bulging muscles of a champion body builder, you could see in her eyes that she was fearless. She would get a bear call, jump into her truck and approach the grizzly bear in an incredible act of courage. She then raised her hands over her head and let out a loud (((grrrrroooooowl.)))

The bear reacted like it had seen a ghost and quickly retreated back into the safety of the forest.

When the woman was questioned on why she did this, she replied, “In my mind I become the grizzly. I become bigger than them. I have to teach them some respect.”

The grizzly is the most aggressive of all the bears, it has no enemies or predators. It rarely fights and when he does, it usually wins. That’s why it was amazing to see a bear run away from a little woman.

I realized that bears and people are very similar; we eat the same kind of food (we're both omnivores), bears can eat up to 15% of their body weight in one day, men can drink up to 15% of their body weight in one hour. Bears and people are competitive, curious and can stand on two legs, (that is if we’re not drunk.)

In defining how to teach a bear respect, we first have to define the bear. A bear can be aggressive, stubborn, hungry, angry, violent, deadly, afraid, strong, vulnerable, etc.

A bear can also be a metaphor for something scary, uncomfortable, potentially dangerous, deep-seated emotions, or facing your demons; it represents the unknown and that’s what’s scary for people. It’s not like a bear is a small animal. It is voluminous.

So how can we tackle this beast