October 14, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Imagine a World Without Hatred and Filled With Love

Despite how it may feel some days, we can make this a better world. Each of us, within our circle of family, friends, and acquaintances. It is something that must begin to grow within us. We must plant the seed, if you will. Create the belief and be determined that you will create the world we all need and want. Imagine it.

I realize it feels as if it were an impossible dream, but it really isn’t. Do we actually want it enough? Do we want it and care about making it happen enough to really make creating a peaceful world a priority in our lives? We say we do, but that is the talk, where is the action? How do we go from the platitudes to the actions which make it a reality?

We need to begin and to start within ourselves. Inner retrospection is a good way to evaluate if peace is a concept you say you believe in because you should or if it is an actual desire of your soul. If it is a real desire, then feed it with meditation and prayer. Care about what is happening in our world. Be informed. Then, take action. Go out and volunteer in the community. You can write a newsletter for the Domestic Violence shelter, or volunteer for Hospice, or usher at the theatre and help spread beauty and creativity. You can be a Big Brother or Big Sister; or be the shoulder people can use when they are facing life’s difficult times.

You can also talk to your kids, grandchildren, nieces and nephews about your life view. Heaven knows, enough people are out there talking hate, bigotry, racism and war. You can encourage yourself and those around you to think optimistically and to not put negativity out there. You can support Peace and Justice Organizations in your communities or help to start one if none is available. Yes, everyone is busy making a living, trying to get the kids into college, balancing the family budget, however, if every day you spoke once about peace or did a peaceful, gentle, loving thing for another, we would be making much progress towards the kind of world John Lennon sang about and we need to create.

It must start with us and it must grow with us. Don’t be afraid that there will be people who disagree. They are the hate mongers and those spreading negative energy. Your personal power is as strong as yours and Peace is a goal the Universe blesses. Take the first step today. However little, you will have begun.

October 13, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

3CHICSPOLITICO

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dumb are back on the campaign trail with their trailmix of LIES.

Romney’s Company Forces U.S. Flag to Be Lowered in Illinois

If Mitt Romney is elected president, the American flag itself may actually be restricted from flying in the United States. That word comes from employees losing their jobs in Freeport, Illinois.

The Presidential Candidate holds major stock in a company called Sensata. The company recently made factory officials take down the American flag when they were forced to train their Chinese replacement workers, according to Tom Gaulrapp, with the United Steelworkers Union.

Right now in Freeport, Illinois, some 170 workers at an auto sensor plant are sleeping in tents to protest Bain-owned Sensata Technology’s decision to ship their jobs to China.

Romney claims he knows nothing about this.

OH REALLY, NOW?

But the New York Times explains: “[Mitt Romney] owns about $8 million worth…

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October 13, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Kinds of Love

“Thanks be to God, the very world that birthed us
now is bathed by wondrous nature
in a rapture, of her glorious light;
the splendor of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, now revealed.
And Humankind, highest of creatures,
endowed with Intellect’s might
so that all beasts,
winged and hoofed,
are placed under his command
And Adam’s veins are
with Art, Science, Faith;
he knows the sciences are clear
—but the music is weightiest
as a surging ocean
outweighs the very world through which it flows.

If he whose heart’s been moved
by the science of Music’s whole effect
were offered the pleasure of emperorship,
he‘d certainly ignore it
—for Man is not alone in his delight
at that sweet sound
since even animals have sacrificed themselves for it.

More stubborn than a donkey,
he who holds that Music’s “impure”;
Ignorant of beauty,
how claim acquaintance with the Lord?

Creator!
the Ocean Surges!
Permit my skiff to reach the shore
–King!
I beg what kindness
-Inayat-
thou canst afford.

—-Translated by Pir Zia Inayat-Khan from the Urdu

Beach House, Fairview Photo by Barbara Mattio

Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together;
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

—-From The Prophet, Khabil Gibran

Untitled by Keith Haring. 1985. Lithograph

“The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for Love.”

—-Margaret Atwood

October 12, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

3CHICSPOLITICO

Vice President Biden won tonight’s debate. It was a clash between forthright facts and authentic conviction on one side and glib lines and empty promises on the other. It exposed the extreme risk Romney-Ryan economics pose for American middle class and to our leadership in the world. This debate showed that facts and details matter – and it’s clear tonight that with their total disregard for both, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan know they can’t defend their indefensible plans. On issue after issue, their plans would hurt the middle class.

ICYMI: Videos of key moments:
· Biden: Facts Matter — Our Sanctions Are Crippling Iran

· Biden: Romney Would Have “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”

· Biden: Commitment to a Responsible Transition to Afghan Control

· Ryan: Romney Would Not Increase Defense Spending

· Biden: Who Do You Trust on Medicare?

· Ryan Can’t Reassure Women

·…

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October 12, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Glimpses of Autumn

Blue Ridge Mountains, NC Photo by Barbara Mattio

” There are countless paths to the mountain’s summit. Yet from it the same moon pours radiance over the landscape.”
—-Ikkyu

Blue Ridge Mountains, NC Photo by Barbara Mattio

“Entering the forest he moves not the grass; entering the water he does not make a ripple.”

Niagara Falls, Ontario Photo by Barbara Mattio

“It is deep autumn. What kind of life is my neighbors I wonder…”

Niagara Falls, Ontario Photo by Barbara Mattio

” One day a monk spoke bitterly to the Buddha about the unbearable sorrows of the world. The Buddha remained silent. Then he pointed at the earth between his feet, and said: ” On this earth I have attained awakening.”
Splendor of the World….no Why.

All quotes excerpted from Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing

Emerald necklace parks, Ohio Photo by Barbara Mattio

Lake Erie Islands, Lake Erie, Photo by Barbara Mattio

” Wherever you are is home
And the earth is paradise
Wherever you set your feet is holy land…
You don’t live off it like a parasite.
You live in it, and it in you,
Or you don’t survive.
And that is the only worship of God there is.”

——-Wilfred Pelletier and Ted Poole

Chautuaqua Institute, NY Photo by Barbara Mattio

October 11, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

The Fifth Column

Think Progress

1. Romney and Ryan would eliminate health care for 31 million people who are poor or disabled. Medicaid, which helps poor Americans, some seniors, and children afford health care, is right in the crosshairs of Paul Ryan’s House budget. He proposed cutting $1.4 trillion from the program, a move that would kick about 11 million people off Medicaid over the course of ten years. The Romney-Ryan plan is even worse, and is estimated to force about 44 million people off the program.

2. Ryan considers Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme.” In the Fall of 2011, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” and Paul Ryan agreed. Ryan wants to privatize the program.

3. 62% of Ryan’s budget cuts come from programs that benefit low-income Americans. Ryan’s budget proposes “$5.3 trillion in nondefense budget cuts.” 62 percent of the reductions would come…

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October 11, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Through Life’s Experiences

” A person who has gone through all experiences and has held his spirit high, not allowing it to be stained, such a person may be said to be pure-minded. The person who could be called pure because he had no knowledge of either good or evil would in reality be merely a simpleton. To go through all that takes away the original purity and yet to rise above everything that seeks to overwhelm it and drag it down, that is spirituality; the light of the spirit held high and burning clear and pure.”

—-Hazrat Inayat Khan

Water garden. Cleveland Botanical Gardens; Photo by Barbara Mattio

God and man are not two; a spiritual person does not consider God separate from him/herself. God is not in heaven alone; The Beloved is everywhere. We see God in the unseen and in the seen; the spiritual person recognizes The Divine within and without. So, in reality there is no name which is not the name of God, and there is no form which is not the form of Divinity.

We need to recognize the imperfect and mortal aspect of our being as well as the perfect, the immortal aspect of our beings. The imperfect self covers the soul and confines it in a limited being, and calls itself “I”, a servant of God, and the calls The One, the Lord of the whole of existence.
–Excerpted from The Unity of Religious Ideals

In our daily lives, if we can grasp the truth that the all-knowing Divine is within us and everywhere we travel or have experiences then we will truly begin to experience the unlimited, infinite aspects of God. How you choose to work on this in your life is your choice. All paths can take you to the experience of the infinite , all encompassing experience of God in the Universe. Simply put, The Beloved is everywhere and within all sentient beings. Being God-conscious gives us the ability to see all people as children of the Universe. Not different, not hateful, not wrong; just other children of the Universe. The spiritual path shows us that God is in the seen and the unseen. There is no name which is not the name of God.