March 17, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Who Heals the Creative Person

I am a child of the Universe

” Nature is the common, universal language, understood by all, meanings, moods, the whole scale of our inner experience, finds in nature the’ correspondences’ through which we many know our boundless selves.” —Kathleen Raine

Many people believe that as sentient beings, we are affected by the weather. The Weather Channel can affect my moods with their forecasts.I hate to admit that, but it is true. I think it is true for many and especially for the creative souls who respond emotionally to temperatures, sunlight, moonlight, wind, thunder and lightening. We are all creative in varying degrees and I know that Mother Nature can heal us if we allow it.

Here is a question for you, my readers. Does the sun heal our hearts and souls or do we make the sun smile because we are happy? There is a definite connection between mysticism and Mother Earth.

There is an old story about a woman whose heart had been bruised and maybe even broken. A friend took her on a trip. She shed the few tears she could. She was lost in pain. Halfway through the trip with her friend, a lovely blue sky began turning into a dark, grey, ominous one. Rumbles of thunder began to be heard by the two friends.

Then the bright light of lightning began to flash through the sky to accompany the thunder. Next, the Heavens open up and the rain was so very thick and when added to the dark sky, they found themselves in total pitch black darkness. Both friends were terrified and especially because they were out in the car.

The friend watched another bolt of lightning and a thought came to her as she tried to keep the car on the road despite the high winds. She declared, ” It is as if Mother Nature is angry about the way you have been hurt. And the angels are weeping for and with you. ”

The woman looked at her friend and realized that she was loved. She was loved by the Universe that made up her world and the friend who let her cry. The empathy she experienced through nature slowed her tears and gently brougnt them to a stop. As the skies cleared and the sun came out again, she realized that she had been the kind of love she needed at that moment.

The experience shows us that healing can come from many places through many experiences including nature.

Georgia O;Keefe painting.

The angels throw gold on the water to make us happy and content. Photography copyrighted by Barbara Mattio 2013

February 22, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

We are connected to the Universe

Quantum Physics is proving that many of the basic spiritual beliefs are true. I suppose that is why I love it so much. This is a video from a different perspective. It was compiled by astronauts who have been to outer space. Their revelations and the effect of what they discovered has changed their outlook. We are children of the Universe and we are connected to Mother Earth. We are all One, interconnected and dependent upon our planet as she is on us. In this video you will see a lot of what the astronauts saw on their virgin flight to space. It changed them. Change is what we need to do for ourselves and our beautiful planet. She is alive, breathing, feeling pain, moving and sustaining us.

I remember the moon landing and going outside and looking up at that beautiful orb and thinking that there was one tiny man walking up there. He was having the most magical experience of his life. I found it humbling and still do. The magic of the Universe is always there, beautiful, amazing, overwhelming and real. We are real. We are star dust. It is my hope that everyone will enjoy this video as much as the astronauts did who made it. Blessings to everyone around our Mother Earth. May we always love and care for her.

January 5, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Dear Mother Earth

Autumn blooming clematis

Autumn blooming clematis

Cleveland Metropolitan Zoo

Botanical gardens

Raptor center, Charlotte, NC

Blue Ridge Mountains

” Life has always seemed to me

Like a plant that lives on its

Rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome.

The part that appears above ground

Lasts only a single summer.

Then it withers away–an ephemeral apparition.

When we think of the unending growth and decay and life and civilization,

We cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity.

Yet I have never lost a sense of something that lives and endures

Underneath the eternal flux.

What we see is the blossom, which passes, the rhizome remains.”

————————C.G. Jung

“The soul of the whole of creation is one, the life behind all these ever-moving phantoms is one. Meditation on this truth and the awakening to it will harmonize the condition of the World.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan

December 20, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

The Winter Solstice

Traditionally, the solstice is a time of quiet, dreaming, and the light and warmth of fire. The sounds all have a cold primitive purity as they ring out. The rivers are still and the land waits patiently for spring to come. Walking at night this time of year yields a pure silence which I think of as Divine. The sky is full of stars and planets which seem brighter and larger than usual.

During the season of the Solstice, try to atune yourself to Mother Earth and honor the four directions, the land you are standing upon. Allow yourself to become aware of the wind as it sweeps around you. Come into contact with the Universe inside and outside yourself.

A Litany for the Winter Solstice

For the return of the sun—blessing and praise!
For the gifts we give–and receive–blessing and praise!
For all of the gift givers—blessing and praise!
For the Children of Wonder—blessings and praise!
For children everywhere—blessing and praise!
For sunsets and starlight–blessings and praise!
For fabulous feast days—blessings and praise!
For those who cook them—blessings and praise!
For the tree in the corner—blessings and praise!
For the candles in the window—blessings and praise!
For the icicles on the trees—blessings and praise!
For light on the snowfields—blessings and praise!
For the gifts of friendship—blessings and praise!
For hand-bell ringers—blessings and praise!
For the robin and wren—blessings and praise!
For animals everywhere—blessing and praise!

Winter beach

Blessings to all as they celebrate this holy season for so many people on our planet. Committing random acts of kindness is a way to bless yourself and others in your life.

December 4, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Peace is Important to Saving Mother Earth

A Peaceful Picnic Among the Water Lotus

Hello, everyone. Have you ever noticed how you can look at something over and over and not really see it? I have and I have realized something. What I have realized is that we need peace and we need to heal our planet. We must do them together if we are going to have any success. The concepts need to be interwoven for strength and workability.

If we work hard and accomplish healing the planet, and we end up in another World War, it won’t do much good. If we learn to live peacefully with each other. To love others as we love ourselves. If we manage not to fear the differences in cultures,skin color, or beliefs and we haven’t healed the planet, well, we will not survive either. So we must all work together to make this entire plan work. The full commitment of every person, government and religion is necessary.

We can’t do it without work, love, acceptance and honoring all that is sacred. What is sacred? Everything is sacred because Divinity is found within everything which breathes and lives. This includes our planet. So we need to find a way to weave the threads of the lives of all sentient beings together to form a strong yet beautiful tapestry that will reflect the love and holiness that is here among us..

The Beuaty of Nature in our World is something that we must preserve

Peace

Peace flows into me

As the tide to the pool by the shore;

It is mine forevermore,

It will not ebb like the sea.

I am the pool of blue

That worships the vivid sky;

My hopes were heaven-high,

They are all fulfilled in you.

I am the pool of gold

When sunset burns and dies-

You are my deepening skies;

Give me your stars to hold.”

——Sara Teasdale

Teasdale won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1918

Lake Erie Sunset; Huntington Beach, OH; Photo by Barbara Mattio

November 7, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

And Now Looking to the Future

To the Ancients, as well as to many contemporary seekers, the world is alive with spirit. The surrounding landscape is infused with creativity and meaning and each place speaks to us of the divine.

‘Every day is a god, each day is a god
And holiness holds forth in time…’

—Anne Dillard

The notion of a sacralized world may seem strange to the mainstream Western world. We live in a secular landscape. We have been taught to identify the sacred primarily with cathedrals, churches and temples. The rest of the earth is real estate. It is there for us to buy and sell and make money, .We have commercialized the earth and many don’t see the earth as sacred at all. We are wrong, of course. We have used this philosophy to plunder the earth of its rich bounty. We have dispelled our planets sacred aura.

The Holy Book of Nature

“It is written on the arched sky,
It looks out from every star….
It is spread out like a legible language upon the broad face of an unsleeping ocean.
It is the poetry of Nature,
It is that which uplifts the spirit within us.”
—John Ruskin

“The beauty of the trees,
The softness of the air, The fragrance of the grass, speaks to me.

The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, the rhythm of the sea, speaks to me.

The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning, the dewdrop on the flower, speaks to me.

The strength of fire, the taste of salmon, the trail of the sun, and the life that never goes away, they speak to me.

And my heart soars.
—Chief Dan George

Today, we need more jobs and more energy. We need more affordable energy. We have more resources here in America and actually all over our planet. What is the problem? It is that we cannot kill our Mother Earth retrieving these resources. We can’t plunder our planet and strip her of all of her treasures. Treasures which have taken billions of years to form. We have to find a way to take care of the living planet under our feet and have the energy we need. It will take many wise people to work together to figure out how to accomplish this. But it must be done. We need to listen to what scientists tell us and not to the politicians who have their own agendas. If our planet dies, this planet we walk on, drive on, build on, we will die. So let us not commit environmental suicide. There is global warming. The North Pole is an island. I am 62 and this is not right. This means that the oceans and seas are higher and they will flood land areas more easily.

We saw this with Hurricane Sandy and now with Winter Storm Athena. Manhattan experienced flooding just as the scientists have predicted. Venice is in danger of flooding and many other places we love on Mother Earth. The time for scoffing at the experts is over. We are already in danger. It is time to remember the sacredness of our planet and to all begin to work together to save our world, its animals and its people. If we want to have a future, we must do this.

Our planet is sacred. It is time to once again revere her.

October 29, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

We Are Being Visited By Sandy

Peace to everyone and to Mother Earth

Hello everyone. I realize that all of my readers are not in harm’s way. Please evacuate if they tell you to. Take no chances with your lives. We are having 60 mile gusts. Be warm and safe. Please pray if you are not in harm’s way. Keep white light and protection around all those who are in danger. Don’t forget the earthquake in BC.

Be safe, you are children of the Universe; Photo by Barbara Mattio

August 31, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Once in a Blue Moon

Blue Moon, August, 2012

Well, “once in a blue moon” is here today. Today is the second full moon in August. It doesn’t happen very often. Many times on a blue moon, you will see it grey and white. Today’s just might be blue due to the forest fires. Historically, there are blue moons after large volcano eruptions.

My first memory of Blue Moon is Frank Sinatra crooning it with style. Today, we will be able to watch the Blue moon from our computers if you wish. In 1945, the term Blue moon appeared in Sky and Telescope magazine.

Historically, there are 3 full moons in any season and each are named. Due to the particles ascending into the atmosphere from our wild fires, some may see a red moon. Whether blue or red, Mother Earth is giving us a beautiful show today and tonight.

August 29, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Our Home Mother Earth

Well, yes I am writing again about our beloved trees and caring for Mother Earth. We have a responsibility to her and yet it is more than responsibility.
Mother Earth gives us our home and amazing beauty. If you love something, you need to care for it. Caring for our home is imperative or else she and we will die. There are a million things each of us can do, one simple thing is to plant a tree somewhere. The energy of trees is so tremendous and we need all of our growing things.

There is a very simple scientific principle which brings home the importance of our trees and flowers and gardens. When humans breathe we exhale carbon dioxide which plants and trees need. The trees and flowers and crops give off oxygen which we need to breath. It is a cycle that happens every second of every day. It takes no effort, except that we not cut down our rainforests and green areas. It is vital though to our existence.

“May our corner of the earth join us
in blessing the Lord
fruit-laden papayas, fig trees in bud
You, guavas, replete with promise,
bougainvillaeas of every color,
beans that twist and clamber,
tomatoes and all green vegetables
and you, fields of rice in the valleys,
O praise the marvels of the Lord!

And you, Bamboo, who own neither flower
nor fruits, sing a song of praise to the Lord,
for you are rich in other ways:
supple and lively, hold your head high,
yield before the storm, but do not break.
Your shoots, hugging to one another all close,
will confront the hurricane.
Then, when it’s passed,
lift up your head!
And if the typhoon sweeps you away,
let it carry you with it.
Someone will find you lying on the road
or maybe you will kindle a poor man’s fire
or be made into a balance pole
to ease Man’s burdens!

If need should arise, let yourself be split
into strips by the hand of a clever craftsman.
Thus you will become a mat or a basket,
a broom or a brush—-again, on demand,
let yourself be used whole, without hesitation,
to support the sail of a sturdy junk
or enable a fisherman to cast his net.

In you, Bamboo, some will seek inspiration
to guide their brush towards lines of beauty,
or make of you a flute or a pipe.
Let yourself be emptied of self that you may
sing a melody new.
Some may try to make of you a barrier
to separate people one from another
Then let your leafage vibrate with the rustle
or a call which will resound near and far
and invite them to live in unity and love!

—Translated from the French by Mary Rogers

August 2, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Praise

Hibiscus by Stephanie and Photo by Barbara Mattio

” Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain,
spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks.
Our peace in his will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother,
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea.
Suffer me not to be separated
And let my cry come unto Thee.”
——–T.S. Eliot