October 30, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

Intentions

It is true that many of us have been traumatized by life. Some a few times and others many times. There are times that a person feels like they just can’t get up again. Some commit suicide and some soldier on. Some go through life broken, perhaps bandaged up and some having buttons that when pushed, trigger violent verbal responses that you are amazed are coming out of the person.

Trauma leaves very deep scars. Physical trauma leaves exterior scars, but the emotional scars leave deep scars. Therapy helps. Medication may help.Some scars keep you from loving and committing another because you feel vulnerable. Some scars keep you from loving yourself.

” Love is the way messengers from the mystery tell us things.

Love is the mother.

We are her children.

She shines inside us,

visible-invisible, as we trust

lost trust, or feel it start to grow again.”

—Rumi

Do You Love Me

“A lover asked his beloved,

Do you love yourself more

than you love me?

The Beloved replied,

I have died to myself

and I live for you.

I’ve disappeared from myself

and my attributes.

I am present only for you.

I have forgotten all my learnings,

but from knowing you

I have become a scholar.

I have lost all my strength,

but from your power

I am able.

If I love myself

I love you.

If I love you

I love myself.”

—Rumi

Love is not easy. No matter how long you know a spouse, partner, friend or even children. It can be the most joyous thing to ever happen to us and it can be the most mistaken and destructive. A doctor once told me that a broken heart can be really broken and he meant it the physical sense. I am not sure but I think he is right. When my husband died, my heart broke and I could feel it.

There are so many people and situations which can hurt us temporarily or for a long time. Turning our minds and hearts to meditation, positive thinking, forgiveness mixed with gentleness, compassion, kindness and caring can repair the mental and emotional damage.

It takes work to convince a person you care for them and you are there for them, but it is worth the effort. In America, in the twenty first century many people live alone. Trust issues, a lack of love and terrible fear of being vulnerable can stop the circle. The broken heart, trusting a person or God (however, you think of God ) is one of the important life lessons.

Just one more thing, deciding to stay alone, you don’t need people, you don’t want people around very often enforces the buttons and issues from the past. Neurologists are working on the parts of the mind that hold on to those past hurts, pains and suffering.

” When the effort passing step by step,

Experiencing stages, recognizing states, ‘

Becomes so filled with love and

light and compassion,

Then it recognizes this love and light

and compassion on every side.

And there is nothing to which one is unattached,

When the love transcending self recognizes

self no longer,

When the compassion transcending self feels

equally the pain of all,

When the mercy transcending self sends

blessing and healing everywhere,

When self becomes love and there is nothing

left to love…

O that transforming wonder of redeeming light!

O that bliss of transcendental bathing!

O that wondrous calm of the life of life!

When time is gone and bodies are no longer,

The dark night of sleep is ended,

The dark sleep of night is gone;

The eye perceiving pierces all veils

And only suffering is dead.”

—excerpt from In the Garden by Sufi Ahmed Murad

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My religion is LOVE

October 21, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

Working Together for Peace

Israelis and Palestinians Join Forces to March for Peace Together

by John Vibes, October 20,2015 on thefreethoughtproject.com.

In recent months, news of violence between Israelis and Palestinians has become more frequent than ever. However, last week hundreds of Israelis, Palestinians, and other nationalities joined together to march for peace in Jerusalem and Washington.

The protests were associated with a three-day BDS solidarity wave with other demonstrations that were held at Israeli embassies in cities across Europe and South America.

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The protests in Washington were primarily directed at the massive military aid packages that Israel receives from the US.

Nejwa Ali, a Palestinian-American from Buffalo, New York told reporters, “I’ve been to Palestine before and witnessed occupation, intentional discrimination and murder of Palestinians by the Israeli military, the U.S. Government supports Israel with $3 billion a year and the Americans need to know.”

Although there is still an unfortunate amount of racism in the Middle East, most of the hate is generally fueled and stirred up by the politicians who benefit from and thrive on it, and this hateful sentiment is not shared by the vast majority of the general population.

While the politicians and military leaders continue to promote hate and violence, there are more and more situations popping up that are showing the path towards a more peaceful future. Many groups and individuals are stepping up, risking their public reputations and their lives to speak out for what they believe is right. What is even better is that average people are working to apply their own skills and talents towards bringing the Palestinians and Israelis together.

For years, peace activists in Palestine have been teaming up with other peace activists in Israel as well as the United States and Iran to spread a message of love and unity among people of all geographical locations…..regardless of what all the crazy politicians say.

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Some of the most popular of these efforts is the Palestine loves Israel and Israel loves Palestine campaigns, which started out as a viral Facebook phenomena where Palestinians and Israelis would send messages of love to one another and reassure each other that the hateful rhetoric put forward by governments and media outlets are totally out of line with the true feelings of the average person.

Also, just last year an Israeli metal band called Orphaned Land joined forces with the Palestinian band Khalas for an 18 gig tour that visited 6 different countries. The purpose of the tour was to promote peace and unity between the Palestinian and Israeli people. The bands even lived together and shared a tour bus throughout the duration of their travels.

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As most of you know I am 100% for peace. WWII was the only righteous war. I am always advocating for peace and my heart is full tonight with thoughts for peace.We need peace in our own hearts and peace in our families. We need to stop all abuse in our families. We need peace in America and Congress needs to actually do what they were elected for. We need peace in the world.

Peace in palestine and Israel would be a defining moment in the history of our world. I encourage you to follow what is happening in the Middle East. We must all put a halt on revenge, hatred, and judgment.

I can no more understand the suspicion of those who are different now than when I was a child. One of the great strengths of humankind is that we are different. People of different nationalities make a beautiful picture. We don’t need to all worship alike, or look alike. We don’t need to speak alike.We are all children of the Universe and as such we do have a responsibility to make peace as often as we can. We need to get out of our own heads and find the similarities between us and use them to understand one another better, to love one another better. We need to know that we may be writers, photographers, musicians, painters and mimes but we can speak through our work. We need to show how much that love, gentleness, compassion, kindness and concern can change our lives and the lives of those around.

Whether, you have a spiritual path or are an atheist, we take care of each other, we must care about the lives and trials of the other people in the world. When the hatred of some humans, explodes one day, we will lose many material things and people that we love and care about. It will be too late then. I do not have the personality to run a country, and yet I know that our Congress is not performing their job descriptions and are therefore, letting American citizens down.

Many good men and women laid down their lives during the Revolutionary War to give us freedom. The Constitution needs to be respected and honored as well as the memories of those who fought and designed our Bill of Rights and our Constitution.

Some times, while watching the news, and they are interviewing Congress, I wonder what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams among others would think about what is happening and often not happening in Congress. The Founding Fathers had their own differences but they worked through them and designed a country that is the greatest democracy ever. So work for peace, work for good communications, accept what is different and cherish this planet that we were given. As I have said before, there is no Planet B.

Namaste

Barbara

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Mountain stream
Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2015

September 18, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

The Divine in Me and the Divine in You

The Head of the year

The moon is dark tonight, a new

moon for a new year.

It is hollow and hungers to be full.

It is the black zero of beginning.

Now you must void yourself

of injuries, insults, incursions.

Go with empty hands to those

you have hurt and make amends.

It is not too late. It is early

and about to grow. Now

is the time to do what you

know you must and have feared

to begin. Your face is dark

too as you turn inward to face

yourself. the hidden twin of all you must grow to be.

Forgive the dead year.

Forgive yourself. What will be wants

to push through your fingers.

The light you seek hides

in your belly. The light you

crave longs to stream from

your eyes. You are the moon

that will wax in new goodness.

—Marge Piercy; novelist and poet

When I write to you, it is the Divinity within me singing to the Divinity within you.

We all have Divinity within us. We never lose it.

Life is Divine; my life and yours.

Divinity is the shimmer in the sky, it is the colors of the trees.

My Divinity bows to the Divinity in you. —Barbara Mattio

“We still don’t know how to put morality ahead of politics,

science and economics. We are still incapable of understanding

that the only genuine backbone of all our actions—if they are to

be moral—is responsibility. Responsibility to something higher

than my family, my country, my company, my success.

Responsibility to the order of Being, where all our actions are

indelibly recorded and where, and only where, they will be

properly judged.”

—Vaclav Havel

” All celestial harmony is

a mirror of Divinity

and

man

is a mirror of all

the miracles of God.”

—St. Hildegard of Bingen

Kwan Yin is a Buddhist goddess. She is the goddess of compassion. She is only one of

the images of the Divine in our world. We all have our favorites. She is one of mine because

compassion is so important and needed in our world. Namaste, Barbara

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September 2, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

Compassion – Another View

I watched this TED talk and laughed and cried. I want us all to live in a world where enemies become friends and where compassion is more important than being right. I want there to be no marginalized people. I like the idea of kinship. I hope you all enjoy this talk and take the spirit of the talk to heart. Be blessed. Hugs, Barbara

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April 15, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

Life is Important

A few days ago, I posted a piece about ISIS deliberately impregnated a nine year old girl. This little girl experienced rape and trauma to her little body. Today, ISIS is surrounding another Iraqi city. I want to thank you all for your comments on my initial post. Please add your prayers to your comments.

There are many people in the world who have lost their respect for human life. All life is created by Divinity. All life, human or otherwise, is precious and does not deserve ill-treatment. Impregnating a woman or a girl is power and control. It is humiliating the female and wanting her family to shun her. This is a way to destroy the life of the female and to devastate her family. It also raises a new generation that would be damaged emotionally by the circumstances of their lives and families.

Now that ISIS is surrounding another Iraqi city, the city may collapse. If it does, there are thousands of lives at risk. Men and women captured and tortured and possibly killed as so many others have been. Women and girls raped or gang raped. Why? Because they are different, they call their God a different name.

Yet, down through history, the different names of a Divine Being have separated human beings from each other. These Divine Names are the reason for wars, atrocities, rapes, and mass murders. Hundreds of humans have died throughout the centuries because civilizations and countries have at times lost their respect for human life. WWII is one example. Millions of people were killed because of who they were but also because of who and what they weren’t.

For people to rape and impregnate children, there is a disconnect between their minds and their emotions. Many are psychopaths and feel no emotion. Not just people in ISIS but even some American citizens. The elderly have no use or meaning to these people and neither do women of any age. A world where life has no meaning is a terrifying and devastating place for us to be in.

Life is important. It has meaning that many don’t want to acknowledge. The meaning of life carries us to kindness, compassion, love and joy. These attributes carry us to peace. A lack of these attributes carries us to war. What is war good for? NOTHING.

February 19, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

The Power of Words Award

I have designed this award because so many feel they can’t change the world. They can. You can. Your words, your blog can educate, raise awareness, change opinions and raise spirits. Through your blog you are reaching people you may never have effected any other way.

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So this is for all who click away on the computer with a heart full of love, kindness, compassion and caring. For all of you who write to correct wrongs and injustices. For all of you who work to bring light into our world and hope to people’s lives. You are all heroes in my book. Please accept this heart-felt award and pass it on to those in your WordPress family who deserve it. Let’s keep it going for the entire year. May it inspire all with light, words, and love for the human family.

You all know how much I hate rules, so please just:

post the award on your blog
thank the person who gave it to you
pass it on to those whom you deem worthy
let your nominees know

The first ever nominees of the Power of Words Award are:

January 23, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

Poverty

A few days ago, I wrote about the 1% of the world’s richest people having one half of the world’s money. Definitely doesn’t seem fair. There are a lot of middle class people in the world and they really work hard to be in this niche. Most are poor and/or extremely poor. They live through hopelessness and despair. Some are destroyed by these emotions.

What is poverty anyway? It is more than not being able to buy your child an ice cream cone in June. It is putting cardboard in the bottom of their too small shoes. It is wondering how you will feed your family through the end of the paycheck, and wondering if you can afford needed medication.

What is abject poverty? It is not having clean water so that you gamble with each drop not to get Cholera. It is dressing children in rags the rich wouldn’t use to dust their houses. Abject poverty is a mother that is so malnourished she can’t suckle her babies. Babies die from hunger. Is is neglect? It is horrifying to see a baby die from dehydration and malnutrition. The mother still has to go on to do what she can for the rest of her children.

Abject poverty is having no education, so you cannot have hope. Hope is what kept the prisoners in the concentration camps alive…at least until their number was up. Hope is what you wear when your country is at war, or there is a civil war. Can you take your family and run? No, not really. Many tried during WWII and were executed. In the nineties, the Baltic War robbed citizens of food, water, and even lives.

What happens usually is that people see the homeless and the hungry and many look away. They decide that what they saw wasn’t real. The homeless and the hungry people are lazy and are taking advantage of other people, people will say.

Many years ago I discovered this: people don’t want reality, they want pretty. I decided to begin random acts of kindness. Just doing something kind for someone who doesn’t ask, but it is needed. I have been questioned often, by by-standers.

I have heard, “don’t give your money away, they probably have more than you do”. I answer that that would not matter. What matters is the kindness and gentleness you show.

We as a species are getting a little smarter. We always used to send food. Now we send seeds and volunteers who will show villages how to plant, cultivate and harvest those seeds. Instead of sending money, there are organizations where for a donation of $15-$20, a family receives a cow, sheep or goat. The milk will feed the children and they will go to bed at night with full bellies. Just like we do every night.

The next time you see a person or a family who is obviously poor, meet their eyes. Look into their souls and see a brother or sister, a fellow human being. Just like we are, except we have more money than they do. Does it cost us to care about the poor? No. It makes us better people. People who walk their talk. It also gives us peace and a sense of well-being.

Neuroscientists say that the brain is changed by the traumas and horrors it survives. The brain rewires around the damaged areas. This is oversimplified, but tragedy makes us turn into different people. Love, caring, assistance changes people too and brings them a sense of inner peace.

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The poor suffer in ways we can’t even imagine. They can’t even get medical care when they need it. So the next time you see a poor person, or a person on a fixed income, try a random act of kindness and watch how their eyes light up. It has nothing to do with religion or faith, kindness and compassion are part of a human’s basic character.

Namaste

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Botanical Gardens
Photographed and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio 2013

Texas butterflies. Photographed and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio 2007

No place for anger within us.

January 16, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

Where is Unity and Peace?

Unity, the ability to come together in harmony and compassion. Unity brings with us peace that flowers within us and then flows out into our worlds. Is Peace possible without unity? I don’t really think so. Perhaps this is why peace comes and goes in our lives.

So, let’s look at unity. Unity is not everyone thinking alike. Or as they are told to think. I believe that Unity is a process where we come to really know one another, our deepest selves. Within Unity, we find differences of education, race, religion or no religion. We see people with different dreams. Unity can bring us together despite that I don’t look like you. I possibly don’t think like you. I don’t, perhaps, dream like you.

Unity is people, whoever they are, coming together for a common goal. With all that is happening here and around the world between me, you and the other people, we need to know that each attack, each death brings us together. There have been two recent times of extreme love, compassion, forgiveness and kindness in America. Twice we have recently come together out of shock, horror and unbearable pain. One was Pearl Harbor, which effected my immigrant father more than I realized. The other was 9-11 and I don’t think I have to discuss this one.

Pain, tragedy, suffering pulls people together. Hitler found this out. There have been, there are, and there will be evil in the world. At least until we fix all of the problems humans are dealing with. When there is huge amounts of evil in the world, the events which effect humans are put into their proper importance.

I had a horrific migraine yesterday and it was hard to get past the pain. But today, with the pain mostly gone, what matters to me is sleeper cells, the homeless people, the war on women and the journey to truth and peace.

Focus on the positive

We need to remember that the most terrifying serial killer has a spark of goodness within. Divinity is in there. So suicide bombers, lone terrorists, and Jihadists who decapitate innocent people are barbaric, yet there is that one small drop of Divinity within. Are they harmful? Yes. Do they need to be found and punished? Yes. Does their existence mean we can’t have Unity and Peace? No, it does not. But it may seem that way at times. I think that is why we form connections to people we will never meet. And we become friends and care about them and want them to be happy and safe. Each of us has created a network of people with whom we are safe. Now, let us grow our networks, spilling peace out into the world.

Let’s celebrate every positive act we see. Let’s not take them for granted. Let us be sad for the attack on Charlie Hebdo, and celebrate that no one else was killed and those who are guilty of this barbaric act were caught. It was barbaric. But people around the world are now working together to find these cells and stop the Jihadists from bringing more death to a world that has plenty without any help.

May we choose unity and peace and may we not hate “others”. May we find forgiveness for those who hate and kill. May we live centered and in contact with our inner peace.

Namaste

Bloggers 4 Peace

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Achieve peace with understanding.

January 14, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

Let’s Get Together and Be All Right

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I believe this song is familiar to at least half of us. I love to listen to it while having a bad day. We, the citizens of the world have had a bad week. Mass murders in Nairobi and in Paris. More people were killed in Nairobi and my heart cries for them and their families. May they all RIP and may their families find comfort and freedom.

In Paris, we also had murders. We had a crazy horrible breach of Charlie Hebdo offices and twelve people were dead. Both events left the world shaken and stunned. This is the bad part, the painful part.

The good part is the love shared by the people around all of the victims. It is the love we, the rest of the people in the world feel for all those effected. The good part is also people drawing together to support each other.

We are, after all, one human species. Where we are different is cosmetic. We do not all look alike, but that makes us more interesting. We worship god/goddess in different ways. But there is only one god/goddess. We walk different paths but they lead to the same place–to Divinity. Some people don’t walk a path to Divinity and that is fine also.

We have the same basic needs as human beings. We need sleep, good health, exercise, food and hydration to live our lives here on this one planet with one body. This is it. This is as good as it gets. Sometimes, it is really awful and sometimes life can be the sweetest most beautiful experience we will ever have.

Do we react by adding to the hatred? Do we allow anger and injustice to destroy our lives? We only get one life here on this one planet. It is sad to waste this life on hating and anger.

Change can only come on the wings on love, acceptance, freedom from fear and injustice. Change comes to us who have open arms and will embrace it. Change comes to those of us that want kindness, gentleness, passion, thoughtfulness in our lives. Change comes when those who are exhibiting free speech, understand some may be put off. I see and hear things that are off-putting to me. I bet most of you have had the same experience. People make fun of everything. To have free speech, you can’t control what is said around you.

The camaraderie from the pain of recent events have brought us together, but we don’t stay together. We came together after 9-11, but even with thousands of lives lost, we didn’t stay together.

So One World, One Life, One love is the award for seeing not the differences between us but seeing how we need each other, how we can work together to make the world a better place. We can fight poverty, illiteracy, crime, illness together. Everyone wins when we work together.

Open your heart and keep it open. Forgive, reach out in love, be a friend, be understanding, show compassion and kindness. Know that change is coming and it starts with each of us.

There is no God, but that which is God.

Namaste

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Give our One World a Chance.

Bob Marley quote

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Bob Marley quote

November 15, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

My Message in a Bottle

To whomever finds my message:

I have filled this bottle with Love, Peace, Patience, Compassion, Empathy, Gratitude, Beauty, Forgiveness and Kindness.

I believe that when we sow the seed of these ideas with words and plant them in the soil of life and add water and sunlight, we can grow Peace. Peace is the trunk of the Tree of Life.

If, every day, every person performed one Peaceful act, shared beauty with one other person, shared forgiveness with one who needs it, then we would have the beginnings of the Peace we need.

Everyday that you touch someone else with kindness, with compassion and peace, you make an imprint on their heart and on their soul that will gradual help them find their way to a life lived in peaceful harmony with everyone in the world.

This could erase racism, sexism, ageism, all forms of bigotry and the violence that comes from it.

There are people who are haters, and bullies. These people need our kindness and empathy perhaps more than other people, because bullying comes from insecurity and troubled minds and the inability to know how to be kind.

Statistically, 97% of American families are dysfunctional to some degree. But what I know and have experienced is that with self-compassion, self-understanding, self-love, everyone can learn to grow beyond what traumatized or hurt them, and continue on their way to a life filled with kindness and peace.

You may know someone who has had a very difficult life, and you can make a difference in their life by living your peace, your empathy, your forgiveness, your gratitude, and they can learn from your example and from living within the light of your being.

After a while, someone who carries darkness and hatred and negativity and violence within themselves can be changed by the daily dose of gratitude, love, acceptance, peace, empathy, and kindness that touches their heart and soul even if they don’t want it to. These gifts are much stronger than the negativity within any soul.

Please open my bottle and spread the contents around. You won’t be sorry.

May peace fill all of your lives.

Namaste,

Barbara