September 20, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Severe Weather

Today, my friends has been the kind of day we read about but don’t usually experience. We have had severe weather and my WiFi was out. It is on again. My phone died. My IPad updated and nothing was working. I will stop here. I am dedicating Jim Morrison’s song to my day because it is making it the day better already. I also received a book of prayers in the mail and that also helps. Tomorrow will be a bright new day and I have a drumming circle to attend in the afternoon. So I am sending all of you my best wishes and many blessings. Hugs, Barbara

September 19, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The Only Being

I am a child of the Universe

There are many religions and paths to journey in this lifetime. Everyone is certain that their way is the right way. I would like to put forth the theory that everyone is right. There is one Divine Being and it makes no difference what we call him/her/it. It doesn’t matter how we contact Divinity.

There is no God of any people who is not his God, no spiritual teacher of any creed who is not his teacher.There is no sacred scripture that he does not accept, since he is a worshipper of light and a follower of love. Yet he is free from all the world’s distinctions and differences.

The diversity of names in the universe to him is a veil of illusion which covers unity, the one life. Only One lives, and all manifestations are to him the phenomenon of that one life.

Sufi’s call their concept of God, the Beloved. They also call this Divinity Buddha, Mohammend and Jesus and Zoraster. Sufi’s are mystics and have contact with the One during meditation and certain practices. This Divine Being is all that is good and ideal in this universe. It is Beauty in its perfection.

Sufi’s believe that as high as is the ideal of a person, so high he rises in life. Then in the end he sees the Ideal was made by himself.

A Sufi does not withdraw from the world, but instead participates in life both by viewing it from above and from below. His holy book is nature and his community is the entire of mankind. So we are all united in love and adoration of the beauty of the Divinity of this Universe.

The Love of the Universe

Raise the level of your life with thinking good thoughts.

September 18, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The Danger of Reading the Newspapers

Caribbean sunset. Photo taken and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio.

I have been a news hound my entire life. I want to know what is happening. There are times when I am almost sickened. Yet I watch and try to understand why we humans commit the deeds that we do. I have friends who no longer watch the news or read the papers. I accept their right to make this choice. However, from my point of view, the deeds will happen anyway. But that is for each person to decide. I know that I have allowed pain into my heart that I could have escaped.

I have been unable to close my eyes to events, to chemical bombs, mass shootings, police shooting unarmed men. My soul prays and my heart hurts. I think if we turn away, we are giving into evil, to a dirty vile world.

So my remedy is to seek beauty. There is so much which surrounds us and we have but to look. Beauty is the antidote to evil and hatred. It might be a sunset, the fragrance of a flower, or a surprise email from a dear friend.

Courage is required to walk this journey through life. Some people are stronger than others. We can only do the best we can at the present moment. The gift of beauty does help us journey with bravery, strength, and dignity. I strongly depend on beauty. I surround myself with it and I metaphorically breathe it in.

I don’t say I don’t cry for victims because I do. But I hold on to my truth. I hold on to the memories which lift me up. I rejoice in the people who give me strength. Friends are such a rich resource in our lives and are worth more than gold.

It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers

While I was building neat
castles in the sandbox,
the hasty pits were
filling with bulldozed corpses.

and so I walked to the school
washed and combed, my feet
stepping on the cracks in the cement
detonated red bombs.

Now I am grownup
and literate, and I sit in my chair
as quietly as a fuse

and the jungles are flaming, the underbrush
is charged with soldiers,
the names on the difficult
maps go up in smoke

I am the cause, I am a stockpile of chemical
toys, my body
is a deadly gadget,
I reach out in love,my hands are guns,
my good intentions are completely lethal.

Even my
passive eyes transmute
everything I look at to the pocked
black and white of a war photo,
how
can I stop myself.”
——Margaret Atwood, feminist writer
Author of The Handmaid’s Tale

Cleveland Botanical Gardens. Photo taken and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio 2011

“Glory be to God for dappled things—-
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow,
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim,
Fresh-firecoal chestnut falls, finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced–fold, fallow, and plough,
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled ( who knows how? )
With swift, slow, sweet, sour, adazzle, dim,
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.”
——–Gerard Manley Hopkins

Garden grown and photographed by Barbara Mattio. Copyright 2009

September 7, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The Path of the Heart

The meaning of Namaste

Of all the paths to God, there is one called the path of the heart. The thing of primary importance is to seek God in the heart of mankind. There are three ways of seeking God in the heart of mankind.

The first way of seeking is to recognize the divine in everyone; then to be considerate towards every person with whom we come in contact in our thought, speech and action. The second way is to think of the feelings of someone who is not with one at the moment. Humans often think of those who are present but often neglect to feel for someone who is out of sight. The third way of seeking the Divine is to recognize in one’s own feeling the feeling of God, to realize every impulse of love that rises in one’s heart as a direction from God, to realize that love is a divine spark in one’s heart, and to blow on that spark until a flame may rise to illuminate the path of one’s life.

And Rumi said

“All that comes from God is for all souls. If they are worthy, they deserve it; it is their reward; if they are unworthy, they are the more entitled to it. Verily, blessing is for every soul; for every soul, whatever be his faith, or belief , belongs to God.” —excerpted from Hazarat Inayat Khan

“The heart is a receptacle on earth of the divine spirit, and when it holds the divine Spirit, it soars heavenward; the wings picture its rising. The crescent in the heart symbolizes responsiveness. The crescent is a symbol of responsiveness because it grows fuller as the moon grows fuller by responding more and more to the sun as it progresses. The light one sees in the crescent is the light of the sun. As it gets more light with its increasing response, so it becomes fuller of the light of the sun. The star in the heart of the crescent represents the divine spark which is reflected in the human heart as love, and which helps the crescent towards its fullness.”—-excerpted from The Unity of Religious Ideals.

The Heart and Wings

The living thing in the heart is love. It may come forth as kindness, as friendship, as sympathy, as tolerance, as forgiveness, but in whatever form this living water rises from the heart, it proves the heart to be a divine spring. True religion lies in the opening of the heart, in widening the outlook, and in living that religion which is the one religion.

God and the god ideal may be explained as the sun and the light. As there are times when the sun becomes covered by materialism. But if for a moment the cloud covers the sun, that does not mean that the sun is lost; and so the God-ideal may seem to have disappeared in the reign of materialism, yet God is there just the same. The condition of the world is like the ever rising and falling of waves. Sometimes it seems to rise and sometimes to fall, but as with every rising and falling wave the sea is the same, so, with all its changes, life is the same. Thus we can’t give up on this world because the God-ideal is ever present and ever changing.

The Carribean Ocean Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio

Waves in ocean Photo and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2013

September 6, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Racism and Equality

What one determined woman can accomplish

There must come a day when we see each other as brothers and sisters. We are all created the same way. If you take away the differences in culture, gender, and possibly religion, we are all, each and every one of us, the same. The color of our skin is the difference. I think perhaps it could be said that we make a beautiful bouquet of human beings. As I look at people I can see how beautiful we are. If you take a rose garden and wait till all the blooms are flowers, It is so beautiful that it hurts the heart. People are like that. We are beautiful as individuals and in a wonderful group. The beauty comes from being different colors. The reaction comes from fear of what is different.

Maps of slaverry and racism

The differences between White people, Asian people, Brown people, Black people and Native peoples is so minute. We have different colored skins. Who made this decision. Why are we all different colors? Why don’t we all look the same? Whatever is Divine in your life is the energy that created us all. No differences but our skin color. There are scientific reasons for some of our color differences. Melalin in the skin in different amounts makes for different colors.

Deep down there are no differences

This hatred we have developed for people different than us is a great sorrow. I think Divinity would be very sad, if it feels and thinks as humans do, that the creativity with which we were made must suffer because of all of our choices to hate different people. We were not created to be toy solders to make war on each other and to think we are better than some. All of this inequality and suffering is man made. It is not something we should be proud of. No one group of human beings are better or superior to others. Where did human beings got the concept of superiority? The Universe has not started that idea, the vicious rumor that one kind of human being is better than another.

All religious paths teach love, kindness, compassion and acceptance. It is one of the common threads that hold us together as a species. We cannot go to our churches, temples, mosques and temples and expect that Divinity will bless us when it knows who we really are, what we really think and what we really do. It is time for change and only we, the combined human family can change this. It starts with each and every one of us. A single light can cause a wildfire. It is time for us all to light our lights and to walk away from racism and inequality.

Color can’t hurt anyone.
People can hurt others.

Let’s work for equality for all human beings.

September 5, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

We are now Talking About War and Peace

We honor and desire peace

” The next dreadful thing to a battle lost is a battle one.” —-Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington

“I think that people want peace so much that one of these days the government had better get out of their way and let them have it.” —-Dwight D. Eisenhower

“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objectors enjoy the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.” —-John F. Kennedy

“Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous” —George Bernard Shaw

“Never think that war, no matter how justified, is not a crime.” —-Ernest Hemmingway

“Peace, shalom,

is not

the absence of difficulties but

the handling of difficulties without

loss of balance.

Shalom is not the absence of tension

but the acceptance of it as part of the Way.

Shalom is not the absence of war

but the careful waging of war

without losing one’s balance.

Shalom, is not passive non-violence,

but active confrontation with truth. Shalom is the ablitity to see the

grain of life

and act in accord with it;

to discover that effortless effort,

action in tune with the Way of Universe,

is the secret of both peace and power.” —Rabbi Bami Shapiro

Peace is the Way

“It is not how much we do that is important; rather, it is the love with which our actions are performed that is most important. The smallest action, done with love, will lead us toward peace.: —-Mother Teresa

One of the most brilliant minds in the world

enbracing the cause of peace.

August 21, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The Man Who Was Buddha

Sitting in meditation

Buddha was a mortal being, He was a young prince who left his life of ease and a hefty inheritance. He wanted to find his own way in life. He began the journey of his life. A journey that would take him to enlightenment. His human heart and mind was as vulnerable as yours and mine. He gave up everything to find what his life lacked. I am sure in monetary terms, he lacked nothing.

Buddha is now considered an icon of peace and harmony, yet his mortal life was filled with all types of turmoil and love and loss. His journey changed the world forever,the truths he found along the way still influence people all around the world. He went from vagabond monk to an enlightenment for the world. Enlightenment has led many to find themselves and the true meaning of life.

Buddha’s enlightenment was a literal awakening to the fact that you can share in the depths of your own primordial awareness today just as Buddha did during his life. Buddha’s teachings after becoming enlightened engage all the aspects of people’s lives. ” Whoever sees me sees the teaching.” –Buddha. After his enlightenment, he was raised to the rank of immortal. Buddha literally became the truth.

August 15, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Trafficking in People

The organization Trafficking In People, or TIP, evaluates the progress of over 175 nations; progress towards eradicating human trafficking within its borders. Nations are ranked according to Tier’s.

Tier 1 is countries whose governments fully comply with the minimum standards of the TVPA. America is ranked Tier 1.

Tier 2 is countries whose government do not fully comply with the minimum stands. But they are making significant efforts to do so.

Tier 3 is countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making any efforts to do so.

Human slaves are victims and as such they need housing, food, and clothing. They need cash assistance, protection and safety.

Mental health care is needed for the victim and the family and friends. Excellent medical care and education and jobs are needed.

Often when victims are being held they are given drugs to make them compliant, so rehab may be what is needed to get them off of drugs and alcohol.

Many victims need legal assistance, nutritional counseling, and unwavering support and care.

International victims will need help possibly with language, repatriation help or immigration assistance and reunion with their families.

These people are not criminals, but they are victims. They were owned and they were made to do the things they did. They have been used and abused and they need a lot of love, acceptance, and support.

Let’s help all victims up!

This is why I am a feminist. Equality is for everyone.

Severe Human Trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provisioning , or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, which is induced by force, fraud, or coercion or in which the person induced to perform such an act is a minor. The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provisioning or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.

1-888+3737+888 is the number to call if you think someone is being held against their wishes. If you ever meet someone who has been owned by another person, give them support, acceptance and no pity. Rejoice that they got out. But remember, if they are out, someone else is in the process of being taken.

August 13, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Late Summer Garden

I have a small garden. After my last gardens, I have a tiny one. But it is filled with Perennials and Annuals and some shrubs such as a Smoke Bush, Lace-top hydrangea, and some evergreens. I also have a container garden on the front porch. So here is a peek.

Red petunias and hardy Hobiscus

Photo taken and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio 2013

Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2013

Photograph taken and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio; 2013

Photography taken and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio; 2013

Photograph taken and copyrighted by Barbara
Mattio; 2013

I hope you enjoyed your visit to my garden. I would love to see yours too.

July 31, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Planet Earth

Good choices for our planet, effect all of us.

” I love the beautiful world I live in.” The earth is our very wise and amazingly loving mother. She provides everything we need and things we just want. For instance, a diamond engagement ring.

There is water, food, air, companionship. We have millions of species of plants and animals. Mother Earth responds well to our love for her.

If we would be willing to do this we would save the life of our planet

We have treated this planet terribly in the past decades. We are using up our valuable resources without plans to replenish what we have stolen from our Mother.

If we continue to trash the planet, there will be a dead planet and a population of dead plants, animals and fish. Oh by the way, we human beings will be dead too.

We need to focus our thinking on taking care of, respecting and loving our Mother. I spend time imagining our planet as she used to be. Lush, fertile and ripe with all kinds of animals, plants and food. I imagine a clear clean environment where people don’t have to check the weather reports to see what the condition of the air is. I have breathing issues. More days every year are bad for sensitive people to go out. This is scary for us and for our planet.

Penguins in Antartica

We have the power to heal Mother Earth and the power to stop raping her of her resources. The problem is … do we want to stop? Or will we only stop when we have killed this amazing planet. That is my fear. Taking the planets gifts brings much money to the people to live for money. Every day, many millions of people give back the resources and love this planet. It isn’t enough, but if we keep working on it, we may just loose enough selfishness to see how important our choices are for us and for our great grandchildren. We can love Mother Earth enough to stop killing her. We are capable of helping her to heal herself. We just have to want to. Do You?