Tag Archives: light

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The End of 2012


I picked this version of Auld Lang Syne for today because it has always been a favorite tune. My favorite lyric is “We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to now.”  We are standing on the line–the line between the old and the new. The old, oft remembered song of innocence and yet one foot starting to move into now.

There are interesting centuries old traditions from the British Isles that we don’t necessarily follow here in America now. They are worth a look, however.

In England, any gifts brought into the house on New Year’s Eve should be welcomed with ceremony, as they will bring good fortune to the house. The cleaning of the house before New Year’s Eve is a way of clearing out unfinished business, of any kind; clearing out the dust and cobwebs of the old year, so you can start out fresh and new.

In Scotland, people burned Juniper branches and carried them throughout the house to clear it of negative energy. This dates back to the time when Juniper branches were burned in the fireplace to ensure the gifts of the New Year.  By 1893, toward evening the thoroughfares become thronged with the youth of the city.

Another tradition — today, championed by “pagans” — is to make a list of what you need and really want. This was also the time to give yourself one of the items on your list; traditionally, you wrapped it up and made a true gift of it to yourself, perhaps accompanied by this Blessing:

Blessing on Giving a Gift

Take, and welcome joy within you;

Showers, flowers, powers,

Hatfuls, capfuls, lapfuls,

Treasures, measures, pleasures,

All be yours to enjoy!

             —-Caitlin Matthews: A Celtic Devotional

Solitary watch

Solitary watch

The celtic traditions energize Gaia, Mother Earth.

The Celtic traditions energize Gaia, Mother Earth.

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Do We Heal or do We Listen to the Dollars Spread Around by the Gun Lobby


babymemories

As a nation, there is unbearable pain and shock. Babies killed purposely by a troubled child. A troubled child who shot his Mother four times in the head and killed 20 little angels. Each day, while doing normal activities of life, suddenly I remember the tragedy. I have nine grandchildren and I want to throw up.

I think it is important to honor every hero. The teachers and other staff members. Whoever turned the PA system on to warn the other teachers and children. The first responders who will carry such horror within their hearts for the rest of their lives. Each one of these is a hero/heroine. I know that there are heroes we aren’t aware of but the Divinity in the Universe knows of your kind and compassionate behavior.

The violence and anger and hatred that is filling our society will not win. Those of us who are spiritual will not let that happen. We will continue to put light and love into the world. We will pray and meditate for peace and love and acceptance. We will not judge those who are different.

Our country needs to control violent video games and guns. Assault guns and huge magazines are insane. Who needs 30 rounds to kill a deer? What mother needs six guns in the house to feel safe? Therapy is a much better choice, a very necessary choice. Don’t listen to them. Listen to the cries and weeping of the people of Newton, Conn.

If you watch the memorials taking place in Newton, you will see the raw emotion of people whose lives have been touched by violence and guns. I don’t understand how the NRA can say anything. They will though and we need to use all of our emotional strength and every ounce of love in our hearts to turn away from them and think about our country’s loss and pain.

I pray, I honor the people of Newton, the victims, angels all. I pray for the parents who can’t tuck them into bed at night anymore. I pray for the first responders who are having nightmares. I pray for the children who went back to school today. Can you imagine who frightened these babies must have felt this morning? I pray that sanity and love will fill our society and we will put children in the priority they deserve.

Rest In Peace, sweet angels. You will never be forgotten.

Grief is often solitary and always full of pain. May the loving Beloved heal all hearts that are grieving and in pain.

Grief is often solitary and always full of pain. May the loving Beloved heal all hearts that are grieving and in pain.

The rainbow is a promise to Noah and to all of us.

The rainbow is a promise to all of us.

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Kinds of Light and Their Purpose


Light is a quality which allows us to see the details of a situation and to examine it completely.  With light there is shadow. Shadow can be elusive and mysterious. Shadow can create comfort or hide wickedness.

I, myself, love the play of light and shadow across a landscape or a person’s face. I love the lines it can create as well as the greys it gives birth to.

The sun gives us the light and shadow in life. That big orb in the sky which helps all the sentient beings on Mother earth to grow and thrive.  Human beings cling to the sun and its radiant light which is why we will risk much to live on a warm sun drenched beach.

Our Mother Moon also brings light into our nights. And with the light comes shadows. These shadows don’t have the same lines of definition as the lines of day light. Lunar light is soft as the first gentle brush of lips against lips. the shadows are deeper and dense with magic and the hint of intrigue.

Palm leaves, Madagascar desert; Photo by Barbara Mattio

The light which is most important to each of us as human beings is the light of truth and honesty and ethics. The light that sweeps away the shadows of oppression, hatred and violence are important to our well-being as members of the human family. We are all children of the Universe. We all live in light and shadow and both are gifts from the Source.

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Life and the Tree


Costa Rican Rainforest, Cleveland Botanical Gardens.
Photo by Barbara Mattio

A while ago, I wrote a blog called “For She is the Tree of Life” and it was dedicated to my grandmothers and all of the grandmas, nanas, bubes and the gifts they gave us as we shared their wisdom while at play with them, or while finishing a chore or just talking together. Their stories were magical and took some of us to other countries, for some the stories were pictures of love and loss. Other stories showed us how much strength and courage we could find inside of ourselves if we looked for it. They made us feel important and unique and cherished.

Well, now we are the grandparents. We are the ones who have lived long enough to be wise crones. We have watched wars and famine. We have seen oppression and tyranny. It is our turn to share our visions, stories and to encouraged them to be deeply rooted in our Mother Earth.

Our grandchildren will face many storms and will know fear as well as joy. They will sob with grief and they will cheer with jubilation. We need to make sure all of them — I have nine — will know how to draw strength and wisdom and courage up from the earth when it is needed. They will need to know it is the love we share, the compassion we show, the forgiveness we give to others that really counts. Not which job we have, or where the kids go to school. As grandparents, we can teach them to care, to vote, to accept responsibility for their actions. We can help expose them to the events in life that will sculpt their own lives. We need to teach them to stop injustice, help to feed the poor, work to help the world’s refugees, for among them, there could be the next Mozart, or John Lennon, or Bob Marley or Monet. We need to teach them never to settle, to reach for the stars and grasp a hold on their favorite and never let go!

I celebrate my opportunity to be a tree of life for the little ones. I celebrate your opportunity whether it is now or later on. It is a gift.

Marblehead Lighthouse, Ohio, Photo by Barbara Mattio

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Mellow yellow Monday with Light


 

“Seek refuge in the True Illumination! For the light of His Wisdom in infinite. Seek refuge in That which is beyond understanding.”
Take refuge in the ultimate Strength, for His pure radiance is above all things. He who perceiveth this Light is set free.”

—Wisdom of the East Buddhist Psalms

In this writings, Buddha did not ever refer to himself as God. He also never mentioned miracles. He showed no interest in being revered . He saw himself as a person who is awake. He did spend his life trying to awaken other people.
He is quoted as saying, ” Whoever sees me sees the teaching, and whoever sees the teaching sees me.”

He was mortal as we are, yet he attained enlightenment and was raised to the rank of an immortal. Today, Buddhism teaches that we can overcome challenges or problems with a positive or peaceful mind. Buddha taught that the mind has the power to create all positive and negative objects in our lives.

Buddhism is the practice of Buddha’s teachings. These are also called Dharma which means protection. Buddha gave human beings eighty-four thousand teachings and Buddhism developed from these teachings. This is the path of compassion and wisdom.

Photo by Barbara Mattio

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A Promise


“A promise is beauty kept secure
The exquisiteness of knowing what is to come
The soft laugh that rumble through the rooms
Caress each wall hiding the thoughts of departure
Covering it with Check In instead of Check Out
The guitars streaming through
the tightened brains of thinkers whose creations
Just won’t speak of a world no one but they can imagine
Running through the darkness where fire burns deep
lighting our smiles
Tickling our hearts
Dancing to songs sung by beauty
Relaxing our minds conquered by stress
Admiration flows deep, like creaking beds
Shh, don’t wake everyone up
“Breakfast time!”
Whoever is so eager, needs
to write to express their thoughts
To allow their words on paper to become freedom
To listen to our leaders say,
“Wanna feel like you belong? Join a gang.”
They too laugh, moving the grass like wind.
——Lashaun Noel

This poem was written at Rena’s Promise International Creative Writing Camp, where the mission is to further the vision of Holocaust survivor
Rena Kornreich Gelissen to create a more ecumenical world unhindered by prejudice, racism or hatred by bring young people together from all walks of life and providing them a place to develop the cultural voices of Generation NEXT.

Racism, hatred, differences, religion, judging others, oppression are what we fight today in our world. We also fought it during the Holocaust. We fought it in Africa and Yugoslavia. Violence and war are what turn our worlds dark with fear and an obsession with power. It makes our world dark with its negative emotions. The pain we humans cause each other is overwhelming.

The answer is light and love and this is what is happening in pockets around the world. The scars remain, but we can’t stop adding our light to the world. For those Holocaust survivors who carry the Nazi numbers tattooed to their arms the dark never completely recedes, but we can light the love which will keep it pushed back so they know they are loved and their courage recognized.

hatred, violence, rape are happening now, 2012 and we must protect those who are oppressed and frightened. We must protect the vulnerable and weak. As human beings, we have the power to stop the darkness and bring light and love into the world of those who suffer. 
It is a beginning. Each of us, letting the love in our hearts and souls to remove the darkness.

I dedicate this blog to all those who have suffered oppression. I promise I will try every day to bring light and love into the world’s dark areas.

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The Heart of the Divine


The heart is a receptacle on earth of the divine Spirit. When it holds the divine spirit it soars heavenward. The divine spark which is reflected in the human heart is love.

We need to seek God in the heart of mankind. When we recognize the divine in everyone, we have taken the first step. We also need to be considerate to everyone with our thoughts, actions, and speech.

As you meditate, and visit the inner landscapes, recognize in your own feeling the feeling of God. Know that every impulse of love that rises in your heart is a divine direction from God. This love is the divine spark in your heart which will ignite a flame to rise to illuminate your life’s path.

The living thing in the heart is love. It may show itself as kindness, friendship, sympathy, tolerance or forgiveness.

True spirituality lies in opening the heart, in widening the outlook, and in living your own spiritual path. Every sentient being on earth loves life above all else. The smallest insect, whose life lasts only an instant, tries to escape any danger in order to live a moment longer.

So if we now look at the world and the wars and hatred, bigotry and violence, we have to understand that the heart of humankind is created to be filled with the loving ecstasy of Divinity. Everyone has the same loving connection to Divine love within the heart.

“Because of the beloved my heart is happy,
my soul illuminated.
From the beloved’s greenery hundreds of
blessed rivers are flowing to the rose gardens.

In order to enter into your rose
garden,
the soul makes peace with the thorns.

Choose love. Choose love.
Without this beautiful love,
life is nothing but a burden.”
—-Rumi

photo by Barbara Mattio

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Women’s Quest for Her Own Story


Photo by Barbara Mattio

I have a secret passion. I love to read the journals that have been published hundreds of years ago. Especially, before women’s rights and our obtaining the vote with the passage of the nineteenth amendment. This is where you hear the truth in women’s stories, uncensored and unfiltered. In these  journals and diaries are the words the tears couldn’t express. Women’s lives so often are filled with silent screams. Feminism means to be able to articulate a self-consciousness about women’s identity.  An Identity not defined by the man, husband or father in her life. Not identified by how clean her house is or how quiet and well-scrubbed her children are.
In these journals I have found women’s stories to be presented only as  they relate to the events of men’s lives. In truth, these stories are tales of courage and strength we can only imagine since things have changed since the 1890’s.

Deborah Cameron has written, “What does it mean to be unambiguously a woman?” It means to put a man at the center of one’s story  and to allow only what honors his prime position. At this present time, many men are looking to put women back into this role. It is a role we must not accept, as we have our own stories to write as much as they do.

Autobiographies of women too often show images of denying both accomplishment and suffering. Yet these are the meat of women’s stories. Now that there is a growing wish to silence women once again, and put us in our place, I believe we need to speak up without hesitation. Our words will be the light shining forth to future generations of women and men.

Photo by Barbara Mattio

” The Moon is always female.”—Marge Piercy

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Everyone can have Peace


We all want peace in our world. My hope would be that one day every sentient being will live in peace and light. We hope for it and we pray for it. Doesn’t seem enough. You can’t make people be peaceful.

I believe that creating peace in the world begins with each of us. Yes, I know it sounds like a cliche, but it is true none the less. We all have reasons in our lives that cause us not to have peace.

The past is one set of problems. Statistically, 30% of the average persons’ time is spent thinking about the past. What has happened to us, what we feel guilty about that perhaps we can’t fix. We have old tapes that run from the past and create triggers in the present. People push the triggers and our bodies and minds remember. Meditation is a big help and thousands of us are today using meditation as a means of being centered and balanced. The inner landscape also brings us into communion with the Divine. Quantum scientists now tell us that every cell in our bodies carries all of our memories.
That is staggering to me. They also state that with just 1 human cell that they can recreate the entire Universe. Why? We are all within each other. I am in the butterfly and the butterfly is within me. The Beloved is within me and I am within the Beloved. It is recommended that everyday, you make some silence and with intent give your past to the light. To the Universe, God, Goddess, Divine Energy. Whatever you are comfortable calling it. But doing it does loosen the “ties that bind” us to the past and the negativity which is part of why we lack inner peace.
If each sentient being would do this everyday, we would each have peace within our souls. That peace would radiate outward spreading peace to all who come into our own world. As they feel more peace, it will radiate from them to others in their worlds. The pattern happens millions of times over and over and the result is World Peace.
I don’t mean to make this sound like some easy peasy gimmick The first time I gave my past to the light—just having the intention and saying the words, I felt something loosen in my chest. It was a physical response to what my mind was doing. There is no magic formula for world peace, but each day, it can begin with each of us.

“Dear God,
I won’t spend one more day in fear,
Today I will not be limited by negative thoughts,
I will recognize the beauty you have surrounded me with,
Today I will be free of unrealistic expectations of myself and others.
Today I will stay in the present moment and practice gratitude for all
of my blessings, large and microscopic.”
—-Barbara Mattio
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May Day Festival


 

 

 

 

May Day, or in Pagan religions Beltane, is a holiday historically celebrated for thousands of years as the point of fertility and beauty of the flowering earth. I have never had the opportunity to dance around a May Pole. It is still celebrated in many countries in the world. You may live in one of them. Through hundreds of years, this day was celebrated by the Celts as the feast of the renewal of earth’s reproductive energy in springtime. With the advent of Christianity, the old festival was changed and it became a quiet processional to honor the virgin mother. I feel that she represents the female aspect of God in our modern day. The original festival was not completely eradicated as the virgin was crowned with wreaths of flowers to celebrate the renewal of Mother Earth. The outer meaning has changed, but the inner meaning remains. May Day is also a reminder of the natural cycle of the earth. So we celebrate the end of the dark winter and the coming of the life giving sun.

So raise your face to the sun today, pick flowers, start seeds, and know that whatever it is called, this is a day of celebration.

Irish May Day Song

“Summer! Summer! The cow’s mild milk
and the goddess with summer within her,
and the yellow summer, and the white daisies,
and the goddess with summer within her.”

I am grateful for the return of light!