The only time when dark energies, which personify as hate-filled agendas, crime, and evil take place, is when enough good people do nothing.
There is much that you can do in your everyday life to help this world and where you live to lower the temperature of ego-filled and hostile attitudes. Be the first to find the missing empathy, compassion, Love and Light it takes to create a new healing path forward.
You can do this.
It is not about being right or wrong. It is about the gentle touch of your perspective about what all sides of the situation is going through, especially in complicated situations. No amount of retribution, threats, and negative options quells the insanity of perpetual violence. That only creates more, because what you focus on GROWS.
Now in the time to join to find more peaceful solutions to everyday family, work and social life. It is time to lower the hostile temperature that is increasingly spilling out into the world.
It all begins with you.
The wars of the world are only a side effect of the attitudes that each of us fuel every time we chose thought, words, and actions of the lower vibrational frequencies, such as fighting and not repairing all kinds of relationships when humanly possible.
It is so much easier to blame the other guy, but that solves nothing. Every person has the responsibility to create a better world in which to live.
All energy from moods, feelings, thoughts, words, and actions result from the fuel you ignite them with. They can change in the blink of an eye, but first you must be willing to try, or try again, or try again for the hundredth time.
I challenge every human being who reads this post, regardless of where you live in the world, to join me in purposefully choosing to make more empathetic, sympathetic, understanding, and compassionate thoughts words and actions from now on in every decision we make.
This is one way to stop the hate that appears to be running like the wild stallions across the plains. Be the impetus for change, change for a better tomorrow for everyone in the entire world.
The following is an important message on CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM by James Talarico, seminary student:
Our pastor, Dr. Jim Rigby, is on his writing leave but I don’t know how much writing is getting done. I sent him a text asking for some inspiration for this sermon, and he gave me this. It’s “The Top Reasons Beer is Better than Religion.”
Number One: when you have beer, you don’t knock on people’s doors trying to give it away.
Number Two: there are laws against forcing beer on minors who can’t think for themselves.
Number Three: nobody’s ever been burned at the stake because of their favorite brand of beer.
Number Four: you don’t have to wait more than two thousand years for a second beer.
Number Five: and last, if you’ve devoted your life to beer, there are groups to help you.
My granddad was a Baptist preacher. I’ve been a member of this church since I was two years old. And now I’m in seminary studying to become a minister myself. My faith means more to me than anything. But if I’m being very honest, sometimes I hesitate for telling someone I’m Christian.
There is a cancer on our religion. Until we confess the sin that is Christian Nationalism and exorcize it from our churches, our religion can do a lot more damage than a six-pack of Lone Star.
There is nothing Christian about Christian Nationalism. It is the worship of power, social power, economic power, political power in the name of Christ. And it is a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth.
He told us we would know them by their fruits. Jesus includes, Christian Nationalism excludes.
Jesus liberates, Christian Nationalism controls.
Jesus saves, Christian Nationalism kills.
Jesus started a universal movement, based on love. Christian Nationalism is a sectarian movement, based on mutual hate.
Jesus came to transform the world. Christian Nationalism is here to maintain the status quo.
They have co-opted the Son of God.
They’ve turned this humble rabbi into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fear-mongering fascist.
And it is incumbent upon all Christians to confront it and denounce it.
Christian Nationalism is on the rise.
Two years ago, Christian Nationalists stormed the Capitol, killing police officers while carrying crosses, and signs reading “Jesus Saves.”
Last year, Christian Nationalists on the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, allowing states like ours to outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
And as we speak, two Christian Nationalist billionaires are trying to replace public schools in Texas with private, Christian schooling.
We are closer than we think to a Christian Theocracy.
How did this happen?
The first followers of Jesus didn’t call themselves ‘Christians.’
They called themselves ‘The Way.’
Their crucified teacher taught them a different way of being human.
And they intended to follow it.
The early church was a revolutionary community built on radical love, a ‘peculiar people’ who shared all their possessions and refused to participate in the economy, the military, or the culture.
The Book of Acts tells us that the first Christians were persecuted for ‘turning the world upside down.’
But three hundred years after Jesus was executed by the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official state religion of that very same empire.
Constantine was the first Christian Nationalist.
And ever since, the powers that be have been taming Christianity, domesticating it, diluting it into something more palatable.
Pro-war, pro-wealth, pro-white supremacy.
That original counter-cultural movement became a tranquilized, privatized, weaponized religion the official sponsor of western civilization.
A religion of sharing became a religion of greed.
A religion of peace became a religion of violence.
A religion of forgiveness became a religion of judgment.
A religion of ego transformation became a religion of ego affirmation.
Today, Christian Nationalists obsess over people’s private parts while the planet burns.
Eight men own as much wealth as 3.6 billion people and Christian Nationalists are boycotting Barbie.
The Bible doesn’t mention abortion or gay marriage.
But it goes on and on about forgiving debt, liberating the poor and healing the sick.
Christian Nationalists like to say this is a Christian nation.
Not only is that historically inaccurate.
Not only is that theologically blasphemous, but it is just not true.
Look around us.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would forgive student debt.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would guarantee healthcare to every single person.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would love all of our LGBTQ neighbors.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would make sure every child in this state and in this country was housed, fed, clothed, educated, and insured.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would never make it a Christian nation, because we know the table of fellowship is open to everybody, including our Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and atheist neighbors.
Jesus could have started a Christian theocracy. But love would never do that.
The closest thing we have to the kingdom of heaven is a multi-racial, multicultural democracy where power is truly shared among all people, something that’s yet to exist in human history.
Christan Nationalism is not only a threat to the American experiment in democracy. It’s also a threat to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When someone asked Jesus to name his most important commandment, he cheats and gives two – two that he says are related. The first is to love God. The second, he said, is like it: “love thy neighbor as thyself.”
It’s like it because when I recognize the divine image in myself, I can’t help but recognize it in my neighbor; whether they’re Christian or not, whether they’re religious or not.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus specifically defines neighbor as someone different from us, racially, economically, politically, religiously.
God loves diversity.
God loves variety. Just look around this big, beautiful planet of ours.
Do we really think that God would make all these beautiful people with all their beautiful traditions for no reason at all?
There are so many pathways to the sacred.
The Islamic mystic Rumi said, “Every religion has love, but love has no religion.”
God is so much bigger than our human categories.
God is not a Presbyterian. God is not a Christian. God is not a noun at all. God is a verb.
God is not a being. God is being Itself.
God is love.
And that’s why Jesus is against anything that gets in the way of that love between neighbors, including religion.
That’s why he’s always breaking religious rules.
That’s why he’s always getting in trouble with the religious authorities.
That’s why he says sinners will see the kingdom of heaven before religious people do.
Sorry to everyone here. (parishioners laugh)
I knew you came all this way.
Religious supremacy is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus didn’t come to establish a Christian nation.
He came to reveal ultimate reality, which he called the kingdom of God.
But it’s not like any kingdom we’ve ever known.
Instead of a throne, Jesus sits at a table.
Instead of a warhorse, Jesus rides a donkey.
Instead of a sword, Jesus picks up a cross.
The kingdom of God inverts the power dynamics of “all the kingdoms in the world.”
True strength is vulnerability.
True stature is equality.
True wealth is sharing.
And we as Christians are called to realize that kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven,” not by force, but by faith.
Jesus asked us to have the faith of a mustard seed, trusting that by living and dying for love we give birth to a better world.
That’s not easy to do.
In a world full of fear, Jesus knew we would put our trust in something other than God, something other than love.
As a Jewish rabbi, he called those things idols: money, status, and the most dangerous idol of all, power.
When Jesus was tempted by the devil, when he was in the wilderness, one of the things the devil offered was power, “all the kingdoms of the world,” and Jesus rejected it.
When his disciples ask who will be the most powerful in the kingdom of God, Jesus said, you know the lords of the earth push their people around, “but among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be a servant.
And when they still didn’t get it, and they ask who will be the greatest in the kingdom of God? Jesus said, “Little children,” the least powerful, but most trusting members of any human community.
That’s the kingdom of God.
I think Chance the Rapper said it best, “Don’t believe in kings. Believe in the kingdom.”
Jesus knew, in the words of Dorothy Soelle, “There is only one legitimation of power and that is to share it with others. Power that is not shared, that is not turned into love, is pure domination and oppression.”
Christian Nationalists are more committed to the love of power than to the power of love.
And it exposes a lack of faith because the opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt is a healthy part of any faith. The opposite of faith is control.
When we stop trusting God, when we stop trusting love, we start taking control ourselves.
Christian Nationalists want to control what we read, who we marry, where we travel, when we have children.
They want to control our minds and our bodies.
“O Ye of little faith.”
Christian Nationalists trust domination because they think domination is what works.
But Jesus revealed that the true power of the universe is not domination, but love.
In Daoism, they teach that over time the soft overcomes the hard.
The water wears down the rock. The wind takes out the mountain. The grass upends the concrete. “The meek … inherit the earth.”
Violence may win in the short run, but in the end, love always wins.
Jesus said this kingdom of God is in our midst. It’s hiding in plain sight. Heaven is already here inside of us. Above us. All around us.
On my mom’s side my granddad was a Baptist preacher. But on my dad’s side, my Grandpa Talarico never went to church, but he was one of the most generous, compassionate, moral people I’ve ever met.
He was an immigrant from Italy whose family saw firsthand the dangers of mixing church and state.
He settled in the Texas hill country, and on Sunday mornings he would take these long walks through the wildflowers and the live oaks, and he would take me with him.
He said it was the best chance to see G.O.D., the Great Out Doors.
Biologists tell us that everything in nature is connected and evolving toward greater union.
Anthropologists tell us that our ability to share and corporate is humanity’s superpower.
And astrophysicists tell us that the universe is just gentle enough to make our existence possible.
This universe of ours is nothing but gratuitous grace.
Teilhard wrote that the very physical universe is love.
We see it in the harmonies of music, the principles of mathematics, the patterns of nature.
We are all expressions of that creative power.
We are the universe becoming aware of itself.
As children of God, children of the cosmos, we are loved unconditionally, indiscriminately, infinitely.
No achievement can add to it.
No mistake can take from it.
No amount of church going or church missing can change it.
That’s truly deserving of the title, “Good News.”
We are made by love, with love, to love.
I call that love God. You may use a different word, and that’s okay.
“There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
We can cure the disease of Christian Nationalism.
We can protect against the virus of religious extremism with healthy religion.
The great faith traditions of the world have so much to offer us in this time of global crisis.
Hinduism’s ahimsa provides an alternative to the logic of violence.
Buddhist meditation provides an alternative to the abuse of our attention.
Judaism’s Sabbath provides an alternative to the demands of capitalism.
And in a world where everything can be bought and sold including the earth itself, Native American traditions provide an alternative to ecological extraction.
It’s hard. It is so hard to protect your spirit in a world trying to kill it.
That’s why we need faith communities like this one.
That’s why we need stories and traditions and practices that heal our soul and transform our mind.
Every time on this sanctuary that we say the prayers, sing the hymns, sprinkle the water, eat the bread, drink the wine, we’re tuning our hearts.
Our Buddhist friends tell us that it takes practice.
Neuroscientists tell us that we can become kinder, more empathetic if we work at it.
Things like love, peace, and hope, they require strength training, a gym for the heart.
So every week we gather here to sing our songs and tell our stories just for the opportunity in the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, “dwell in the ultimate.” Together. Just for a moment.
And that’s almost better than a cold glass of beer.
I invite you now to your own reflection on these words.
The following is an important message on CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM by James Talarico, seminary student:
Our pastor, Dr. Jim Rigby, is on his writing leave but I don’t know how much writing is getting done. I sent him a text asking for some inspiration for this sermon, and he gave me this. It’s “The Top Reasons Beer is Better than Religion.”
Number One: when you have beer, you don’t knock on people’s doors trying to give it away.
Number Two: there are laws against forcing beer on minors who can’t think for themselves.
Number Three: nobody’s ever been burned at the stake because of their favorite brand of beer.
Number Four: you don’t have to wait more than two thousand years for a second beer.
Number Five: and last, if you’ve devoted your life to beer, there are groups to help you.
My granddad was a Baptist preacher. I’ve been a member of this church since I was two years old. And now I’m in seminary studying to become a minister myself. My faith means more to me than anything. But if I’m being very honest, sometimes I hesitate for telling someone I’m Christian.
There is a cancer on our religion. Until we confess the sin that is Christian Nationalism and exorcize it from our churches, our religion can do a lot more damage than a six-pack of Lone Star.
There is nothing Christian about Christian Nationalism. It is the worship of power, social power, economic power, political power in the name of Christ. And it is a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth.
He told us we would know them by their fruits. Jesus includes, Christian Nationalism excludes.
Jesus liberates, Christian Nationalism controls.
Jesus saves, Christian Nationalism kills.
Jesus started a universal movement, based on love. Christian Nationalism is a sectarian movement, based on mutual hate.
Jesus came to transform the world. Christian Nationalism is here to maintain the status quo.
They have co-opted the Son of God.
They’ve turned this humble rabbi into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fear-mongering fascist.
And it is incumbent upon all Christians to confront it and denounce it.
Christian Nationalism is on the rise.
Two years ago, Christian Nationalists stormed the Capitol, killing police officers while carrying crosses, and signs reading “Jesus Saves.”
Last year, Christian Nationalists on the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, allowing states like ours to outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
And as we speak, two Christian Nationalist billionaires are trying to replace public schools in Texas with private, Christian schooling.
We are closer than we think to a Christian Theocracy.
How did this happen?
The first followers of Jesus didn’t call themselves ‘Christians.’
They called themselves ‘The Way.’
Their crucified teacher taught them a different way of being human.
And they intended to follow it.
The early church was a revolutionary community built on radical love, a ‘peculiar people’ who shared all their possessions and refused to participate in the economy, the military, or the culture.
The Book of Acts tells us that the first Christians were persecuted for ‘turning the world upside down.’
But three hundred years after Jesus was executed by the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official state religion of that very same empire.
Constantine was the first Christian Nationalist.
And ever since, the powers that be have been taming Christianity, domesticating it, diluting it into something more palatable.
Pro-war, pro-wealth, pro-white supremacy.
That original counter-cultural movement became a tranquilized, privatized, weaponized religion the official sponsor of western civilization.
A religion of sharing became a religion of greed.
A religion of peace became a religion of violence.
A religion of forgiveness became a religion of judgment.
A religion of ego transformation became a religion of ego affirmation.
Today, Christian Nationalists obsess over people’s private parts while the planet burns.
Eight men own as much wealth as 3.6 billion people and Christian Nationalists are boycotting Barbie.
The Bible doesn’t mention abortion or gay marriage.
But it goes on and on about forgiving debt, liberating the poor and healing the sick.
Christian Nationalists like to say this is a Christian nation.
Not only is that historically inaccurate.
Not only is that theologically blasphemous, but it is just not true.
Look around us.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would forgive student debt.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would guarantee healthcare to every single person.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would love all of our LGBTQ neighbors.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would make sure every child in this state and in this country was housed, fed, clothed, educated, and insured.
If this was truly a Christian nation, we would never make it a Christian nation, because we know the table of fellowship is open to everybody, including our Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and atheist neighbors.
Jesus could have started a Christian theocracy. But love would never do that.
The closest thing we have to the kingdom of heaven is a multi-racial, multicultural democracy where power is truly shared among all people, something that’s yet to exist in human history.
Christan Nationalism is not only a threat to the American experiment in democracy. It’s also a threat to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When someone asked Jesus to name his most important commandment, he cheats and gives two – two that he says are related. The first is to love God. The second, he said, is like it: “love thy neighbor as thyself.”
It’s like it because when I recognize the divine image in myself, I can’t help but recognize it in my neighbor; whether they’re Christian or not, whether they’re religious or not.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus specifically defines neighbor as someone different from us, racially, economically, politically, religiously.
God loves diversity.
God loves variety. Just look around this big, beautiful planet of ours.
Do we really think that God would make all these beautiful people with all their beautiful traditions for no reason at all?
There are so many pathways to the sacred.
The Islamic mystic Rumi said, “Every religion has love, but love has no religion.”
God is so much bigger than our human categories.
God is not a Presbyterian. God is not a Christian. God is not a noun at all. God is a verb.
God is not a being. God is being Itself.
God is love.
And that’s why Jesus is against anything that gets in the way of that love between neighbors, including religion.
That’s why he’s always breaking religious rules.
That’s why he’s always getting in trouble with the religious authorities.
That’s why he says sinners will see the kingdom of heaven before religious people do.
Sorry to everyone here. (parishioners laugh)
I knew you came all this way.
Religious supremacy is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus didn’t come to establish a Christian nation.
He came to reveal ultimate reality, which he called the kingdom of God.
But it’s not like any kingdom we’ve ever known.
Instead of a throne, Jesus sits at a table.
Instead of a warhorse, Jesus rides a donkey.
Instead of a sword, Jesus picks up a cross.
The kingdom of God inverts the power dynamics of “all the kingdoms in the world.”
True strength is vulnerability.
True stature is equality.
True wealth is sharing.
And we as Christians are called to realize that kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven,” not by force, but by faith.
Jesus asked us to have the faith of a mustard seed, trusting that by living and dying for love we give birth to a better world.
That’s not easy to do.
In a world full of fear, Jesus knew we would put our trust in something other than God, something other than love.
As a Jewish rabbi, he called those things idols: money, status, and the most dangerous idol of all, power.
When Jesus was tempted by the devil, when he was in the wilderness, one of the things the devil offered was power, “all the kingdoms of the world,” and Jesus rejected it.
When his disciples ask who will be the most powerful in the kingdom of God, Jesus said, you know the lords of the earth push their people around, “but among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be a servant.
And when they still didn’t get it, and they ask who will be the greatest in the kingdom of God? Jesus said, “Little children,” the least powerful, but most trusting members of any human community.
That’s the kingdom of God.
I think Chance the Rapper said it best, “Don’t believe in kings. Believe in the kingdom.”
Jesus knew, in the words of Dorothy Soelle, “There is only one legitimation of power and that is to share it with others. Power that is not shared, that is not turned into love, is pure domination and oppression.”
Christian Nationalists are more committed to the love of power than to the power of love.
And it exposes a lack of faith because the opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt is a healthy part of any faith. The opposite of faith is control.
When we stop trusting God, when we stop trusting love, we start taking control ourselves.
Christian Nationalists want to control what we read, who we marry, where we travel, when we have children.
They want to control our minds and our bodies.
“O Ye of little faith.”
Christian Nationalists trust domination because they think domination is what works.
But Jesus revealed that the true power of the universe is not domination, but love.
In Daoism, they teach that over time the soft overcomes the hard.
The water wears down the rock. The wind takes out the mountain. The grass upends the concrete. “The meek … inherit the earth.”
Violence may win in the short run, but in the end, love always wins.
Jesus said this kingdom of God is in our midst. It’s hiding in plain sight. Heaven is already here inside of us. Above us. All around us.
On my mom’s side my granddad was a Baptist preacher. But on my dad’s side, my Grandpa Talarico never went to church, but he was one of the most generous, compassionate, moral people I’ve ever met.
He was an immigrant from Italy whose family saw firsthand the dangers of mixing church and state.
He settled in the Texas hill country, and on Sunday mornings he would take these long walks through the wildflowers and the live oaks, and he would take me with him.
He said it was the best chance to see G.O.D., the Great Out Doors.
Biologists tell us that everything in nature is connected and evolving toward greater union.
Anthropologists tell us that our ability to share and corporate is humanity’s superpower.
And astrophysicists tell us that the universe is just gentle enough to make our existence possible.
This universe of ours is nothing but gratuitous grace.
Teilhard wrote that the very physical universe is love.
We see it in the harmonies of music, the principles of mathematics, the patterns of nature.
We are all expressions of that creative power.
We are the universe becoming aware of itself.
As children of God, children of the cosmos, we are loved unconditionally, indiscriminately, infinitely.
No achievement can add to it.
No mistake can take from it.
No amount of church going or church missing can change it.
That’s truly deserving of the title, “Good News.”
We are made by love, with love, to love.
I call that love God. You may use a different word, and that’s okay.
“There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
We can cure the disease of Christian Nationalism.
We can protect against the virus of religious extremism with healthy religion.
The great faith traditions of the world have so much to offer us in this time of global crisis.
Hinduism’s ahimsa provides an alternative to the logic of violence.
Buddhist meditation provides an alternative to the abuse of our attention.
Judaism’s Sabbath provides an alternative to the demands of capitalism.
And in a world where everything can be bought and sold including the earth itself, Native American traditions provide an alternative to ecological extraction.
It’s hard. It is so hard to protect your spirit in a world trying to kill it.
That’s why we need faith communities like this one.
That’s why we need stories and traditions and practices that heal our soul and transform our mind.
Every time on this sanctuary that we say the prayers, sing the hymns, sprinkle the water, eat the bread, drink the wine, we’re tuning our hearts.
Our Buddhist friends tell us that it takes practice.
Neuroscientists tell us that we can become kinder, more empathetic if we work at it.
Things like love, peace, and hope, they require strength training, a gym for the heart.
So every week we gather here to sing our songs and tell our stories just for the opportunity in the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, “dwell in the ultimate.” Together. Just for a moment.
And that’s almost better than a cold glass of beer.
I invite you now to your own reflection on these words.
Everyone should take 5 minutes to read this. It may save your life or a loved one’s life. In daylight hours, refresh yourself of these things to do in an emergency situation… This is for you, and for you to share with your wife, your children, & everyone you know. After reading these 9 crucial tips, forward them to someone you care about. It never hurts to be careful in this crazy world we live in.
1. Tip from Tae Kwon Do :The elbow is the strongest point on your body. If you are close enough to use it, do!
2. Learned this from a tourist guide. If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse,……. DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM.
Toss it away from you… Chances are that he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you, and he will go for the wallet/purse.
AND RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!
3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy.. The driver won’t see you, but everybody else will. This has saved lives.
4. Women have a tendency to get into their cars after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit (doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc.)… DON’T DO THIS!
The predator will be watching you, and this is the perfect opportunity for him to get in on the passenger side, put a gun to your HEAD and tell you where to go.
AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR, LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE..
If someone is in the car with a gun to your head
DO NOT DRIVE OFF……. Repeat: DO NOT DRIVE OFF!!!!
Instead gun the engine and speed into anything, wrecking the car. Your Air Bag will save you. If the person is in the back seat they will get the worst of it.
As soon as the car crashes……BAIL OUT AND RUN!!!!
It is better than having them find your body in a remote location.
5. A few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot, or parking garage:
A.) BE AWARE… look around you, look into your car, at the passenger side floor and in the back seat.
B.) If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door.
Most serial killers attack their victims by pulling them into their vans while the women are attempting to get into their cars.
C.) Look at the car parked on the driver’s side of your vehicle, and the passenger side.. If a male is sitting alone in the seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back into the mall, or work, and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out.
IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY.
(And better paranoid than dead.)
6. ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs. Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot.
This is especially true at NIGHT!)
7. If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, ALWAYS RUN!
The predator will only hit you (a running target) 4 in 100 times; and even then,
it most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ. RUN!!!!
Preferably in a zig -zag pattern!
8. As women, we are always trying to be sympathetic: STOP!!!
It may get you raped or killed.
(Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking, well educated man, who ALWAYS played on the sympathies of unsuspecting women. He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often asked ‘for help’ into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which is when he abducted his next VICTIM).
9. Another Safety Point:
Someone just told me that her friend heard a crying baby on her porch the night before last and because it was late and she thought it was weird..She called the police.
The police told her ‘Whatever you do, DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR!
The lady then said that it sounded like the baby had crawled near a windrow and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over. The policeman said, ‘We already have a unit on the way, whatever you do, do not open the door.’ He told her that they think a serial killer has a baby’s cry recorded and uses it to coax women out of their homes thinking that someone dropped off a baby.. He said they have not verified it, but have had several calls by women saying that they hear baby’s cries outside their doors when they’re home alone at night.
10. Water scam!
If you wake up in the middle of the night to hear all your taps outside running or what you think is a burst pipe…..
DO NOT GO OUT TO INVESTIGATE!
These people turn on all your outside taps full blast so that you will go out to investigate and then attack.
Stay alert, keep safe, and look out for your neighbors!
I’d like you to forward this to all the women you know.
It may save a life.
I was going to send this to the ladies only but guys, if you love your mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, etc…. You may want to pass it onto them.
Everyone should take 5 minutes to read this. It may save your life or a loved one’s life.
The Age of Aquarius will bring chaos as it changes from authoritarian rule via egocentric concepts as well as the enlightenment of the Age of Aquarius shining better humanitarian peace and loving values as life-giving options dawn upon humanity.
These paradoxes are certain to clash like the irreconcilable differences of hot and cold clashes of thunder and lightning due to the unsustainable and relentless opposition, until nature finds a way to calm itself down. Notice that weather does not have to prove itself “right.”
Despite the roar of the lions, humanity is at the first baby steps into the promise of a more humane life, which will certainly cause disruptions to the status quo now visible on the world’s stage.
The promise of the Age of Aquarius will subdue the mad dog mentality in its rabid unquenchable thirst, but this will take some time to realize that that which has not served the highest good of all people on the entire Earth will continue to not work until the day of enlightenment dawns that finding paths forward to peace and mutual benefit is the only way to sustain all life upon this beautiful Earth.
The overview on Barnes & Noble about this book says, “Step into a new era of enlightenment with Transition into the Age of Aquarius: An Enlightening Journey. This thought-provoking book explores the spiritual, philosophical, and cosmic significance of humanity’s shift into the Age of Aquarius.
“Author Linda Hourihan, HHCP, delves deep into astrological cycles, metaphysical concepts, and universal truths that define this transformation. With a blend of historical insights, religious perspectives, and modern interpretations, the book offers guidance for embracing higher consciousness, fostering virtues, and navigating the transition from the Age of Pisces.
“For seekers of wisdom, spiritual growth, and self-discovery, this book serves as an illuminating roadmap toward balance, love, and a higher vibrational way of life.”
Fearless King Lion Portrait Painting by Elena Francis
” … and to reassess their motives to be better role models for themselves, the youth, and humanity worldwide. Courage does not mean having no fear. Rather, courage is feeling fear, but peacefully doing the right thing, the moral thing, with integrity, despite the presence of fear. Cults use fear as their fuel, keeping their flocks in submission. It is important to stand up for yourself. In political, social, and religious fear’s face, take on the courage of a fearless lion.
“Technically, fear is not a “thing.” Fear is what resides in the void, in the lack, in the worry, the ignorant forecast of gloom and doom, considering only the worst that can happen. No wonder there is fear taking up space where the presence of courage and knowledge ought to be in just about every religious belief system in the world. Even people without any belief system choose to fill themselves with fear, not realizing that having courage in such moments is the way to move forward.
“Fear is also being stoked within the political scene these days, as in the cult mentality fueling racism, xenophobia, prejudice, ultra-nationalism, and violence to be used as methods of intimidation as communication tools. Manipulation by money buys the conscience of lobbyists and politicians as if money and fear of the lack of it is the bottom line. Money and fear are not the bottom line. Ignorance of truth is the fodder of human sheep following greedy leaders who say and do anything to remain in power, fame, and fortune.
“One of the most recent fear-based political power-plays born out obstruction and greed, is demonstrated and written about in the 2012 book, Do Not Ask What Good They Do by Robert Draper,[1] outlining a plan to not work together politically for the common good of Americans, thereby marrying the power-hungry Tea Party and the Republican Party agendas.
“This spawned the current mission of those claiming to be the political party of law and order, while paradoxically and simultaneously giving voice to the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, white nationalists, racist skinheads, Neo-Confederate, Black separatists, general hate groups,[2] and Christian identity, who are usually prejudiced against various God-given genders and who only see Pro-Life as anti-abortion while voting for candidates who seek to take away food, and financial assistance programs for the homeless, as well as for veterans. The Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Project keeps track of these groups attempting to hijack the Republican Party, currently a political cult to my understanding of a cult.”
Focusing on positive outcomes attracts positive outcomes to you.
Focusing on what is not working brings more of what is not working to you.
We all know this but get caught in the addictive negative loop of negative thinking, speaking and acting.
Focusing on kindness helps to spread more kindness in the world, even when the nay-sayers gossip about you declaring that you aren’t really kind or loving.
This is merely a reflection of themselves and their depraved state of mind and ignoring their own sins of omission, commission, and manipulation.
The world is the way it is today because of sabotage and self-sabotage.
Will this stop all people and countries from hurting themselves and others?
No.
But the more times sane people focus on the good of all rather than retaliation, the more wholesome and positive outcomes will be transformed from previous negative seeds sown.
Back in the late 1970s and early 80s, television and movies were going through a time of putting more sex and violence on the air, then coming up with various ratings to caution viewers of what is age appropriate. In the process, innocence was traded for the thirst of taking in more sex and violence. This has spawned today’s rampant addiction to blood, death, and gore.
Do you remember the time when human beings had a repulsion to seeing blood and gore on TV?
Humanity has traded the innate repulsion at the sight of blood for bloodthirst and gore.
Yes, that is all in the world. But focusing on more of what humanity does not want to promote only serves to whet the appetite for escalating crime, hostile takeovers, and more of the same.
Perhaps it is time to begin promoting what we do want as a person, family, and nation, over what we do not want and always speaking about the worst of the day.
This is how to promote healing and the restoration of a healthy society.
Rule #1: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. National Domestic Violence Hotline 800-799-7233
Rule #2: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. National Domestic Violence TTY Hotline 800-787-3224
Rule #3: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. Abuse Victim Hotline by state www.avhotline.org
Do you feel safe? Do you feel safe in all your relationships? Do feel safe in your home? Do you feel safe at your employment? Do you feel safe in your social circles, friendships, affiliations, clubs, including social media? Do you feel safe when you are alone?
Do you feel unsafe in some situations? Do you feel unsafe around certain people? Do you feel threatened or intimidated by anyone legally, physically, financially, morally, or even spiritually?
It is most important to feel safe in your own skin, safe in your own mind, and safe in your own soul.
Much has been written about promoting tolerance, getting along, defusing situations, and compromising for the greater good that can be experienced in this beautiful and amazing life.
But people who have more tender mental constitutions, and weaker willed individuals can be bullied beyond belief by strong personalities, by louder and more demonstrative characters, bowling over all attempts that might possibly arrive at a healed and more whole relationship. This even happens in political and religious circles and can suck tolerant unsuspecting individuals who get their freewill hijacked down into the sewer drain of manipulation.
School children are taught tolerance, but tolerance toward a bully must never be allowed by the victim, the teacher, the school, the employer, nor online, or the opposite lesson is learned, and the bully rewarded. While children and adults alike benefit from tolerance, no one benefits from allowing the bully to go free, emboldening them to attempt more ruthless self-serving feats. Equally unfair is punishing both the bully and the victim of bullying, as if it is all the same. This is the cowards way out and particularly rewarding to the bully.
Sometimes attempt at normalizing bullying goes too far, trying to apply tolerance and compromise to abusive and dysfunctional relationships, when running for the hills should be in order.
Be honest with yourself.
Your feelings and emotions are your accurate, internal measure of what you should do next. Emotional abuse feels bad, makes you nauseous, gives you anxiety attacks, with a generalized feeling of malaise, depression, and low energy. The intensity of your feelings and emotions is a signal that things need to change if you are going to re-gain your mental, physical, and spiritual health.
There is never any reason to tolerate physical, mental/emotional abuse, or bullying as a normal behavior. Physical, mental, emotional abuse and bullying is not a sign of a strong person. It is the sign a of very weak person who thinks he or she cannot get their way by any other means.
This seems like it is common sense, but it is not that easy to the person who is being physically abused, emotionally blackmailed, and threatened by lawsuits or any other kind of fear, obligation, guilt, and/or manipulation. The longer bullies bully their victims, the more debilitating fear cripples the victims. Domestic violence, violence in the classroom, violence in the workplace, or threats of violence online is never OK under any circumstance.
SILENCE IS AGREEMENT.
Freedom comes when you gather your courage and PEACEFULLY STAND UP. Stand up for yourself, speak out to someone you can trust. Do not remain silent. Silence is not golden. Silence is deadly, literally. Bullies do not go away. Bullies get stronger the longer they stay at it. The longer a bully stays a bully, the more brazen they get, and the more their bullying tactics escalate.
An important point to make here is to realize that people with destructive personality disorders most often look just the same as you and me. Mass murderers do not look like mass murderers. They look like regular people, for the most part. Abusive partners also dress in expensive clothing, can be financially successful, and have no tell-tale marks that make them stand out from no-abusive partners. They might even appear to have wide circles of “friends” around them, but the truth is, these are usually superficial trophies. Do not be intimated by any of this. This presentation of how bullies portray themselves is a facade. However, the vengeance the bully feels is very real, and must be dealt with, not ignored.
The question is how to stand up and deal with bullies, emotional blackmail, and threats of mental, emotional, and physical abuse. Again, go by how you feel. You need to get to a safe place on all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, and spiritually. If you feel unsafe addressing these problems yourself, seek immediate help from a counselor, police, fire personnel, or shelter. Do not wait. Your health and well-being depend on getting help not only for yourself, but also for the abuser.
Manipulating behaviors tend to show up ever so subtly in the earlier days of the relationship but can also manifest later in the relationship if stressors change. Pay attention. Pay attention to how you feel when certain things happen. You might even keep a journal of your feelings if you feel safe to do so.
The important thing to know is there is no tolerance for abusive behaviors. Verbal abuse can be even more detrimental to the health and well-being of children, spouses, and everyone living or working under the same roof.
Sometimes abusive behaviors manifest over time, after the relationship is well-established. The person being abused knows that even the abusing person has a good side from time to time, and at the good times, has earned their love. The person being abused wonders if they have done or said something to trigger the abuse. Most often the person receiving the abuse is told it is their fault that the abuser is abusing.
Know this is not true.
Everyone is in charge of their own feelings, emotions, and actions. There is no way you are ever in charge of the abuser’s feelings, emotions, or actions no matter what has happened.
You count.
You matter.
You are a gift from God.
You are beautiful, and I am so very glad you are here.
How does a country heal from gun violence, COVID-19, physical and mental assault, relationship dysfunction, and even self-sabotage? How does anyone heal anything? Love is the only answer for every problem, every time.
The answer is simple, yet profoundly difficult to achieve, like most worthwhile endeavors, such as alcoholism – stop drinking, weight loss – stop over eating, quit smoking – stop smoking.
What does it take for some police to stop killing black and all non-white people in the streets of our nation? What does it take to competently address addictions in this country? What does it take to get rid of COVID-19, not just live with it forever? Is there a common denominator that will heal self-sabotage we are all victim of from time to time?
LOVE IS THE ANSWER.
It is a simple, yet profound principle that makes for the best motivation in any kind of healing. Right now, we are a grieving nation from blatant cruelty from the trigger of guns, drug and alcohol addictions, and millions of deaths of our loved ones who died from the deadly pandemic sweeping the world. We are still trying to solve the best way to help asylum seekers seeking safety at our borders, reuniting children with their parents.
Calling things what they are, rather than hype up language with a cause, such as calling asylum seekers violent criminals, will defuse many situations. Uniting, rather than dividing, is the suggestion here.
Individually we can tackle each problem with a different set of solutions. Yet the bottom line for all these problems is love. The kind of love I am addressing here is agape love, brotherly love.
This is different from the selfish love, me-first love, only taking care of me and my-own love.
Genuine empathy, compassion, and love needs to infiltrate our hearts. This requires love without measure.
We are all in this life together, regardless of personality likes and dislikes, abilities and disabilities, class distinctions, and personal gifts and attributes. A deeper understanding of our shared human condition will lead the way out of the dark, self-serving and self-sabotaging agendas of political and religious leaders.
Now is the time to begin again applying the Gold Rule foundation for decision making in all areas. This works in the arenas of justice, immigration, and every other area of life we can think of. Acting in fair and equitable ways is not a push over. It just makes things more human. Let us all begin again, right where we are, to treat others the way we wish to be treated.
No one person or group is better than any other group. We have pride in our heritage, but ours is not the only heritage there is, obviously. We can get along with our neighbors, even globally. There is a way to communicate with those who do not agree with us without violence.
War is not a communication skill.
If we all chose the path of least resistance, we would find our problems would be solved easier. Ramping up violence, ramps up violence. We see this in the world, our politics, and even our families.
Creative problem solving requires innovative minds. Get more sleep. Eat good food. Exercise the body. These sound like simple things to start with, but they work. Many problems do go away with a good night’s rest.
When Jesus taught us to pray, he taught us to pray for God’s kingdom, not a physical, man-made kingdom on earth. The kingdom of God we are to pray for is not brought on by ego, pride, guns, nor strife. Those are the dark tools of sinister forces whose insatiable appetites for power, money, and domination blind the brains of would-be good people, even Christians, who through misguided allegiance to God find themselves obeying man.
We are not to mix the kingdom of man with the kingdom of God. That is not how this works. We already had the battle of Jericho. Calls sent out today to reenact the battle of Jericho at the United States Capital, as well as all other state Capitol buildings is pure evil, not the will of God.
STAND DOWN.
Do you feel called to act in good faith? Then pray. Pray for the Holy Spirit to enter your heart. Jesus told us all how to think, speak and act. You will find none of his words incite any of us to violence.
If, when you pray, you feel intense anger, frustration, and hatred, then you are listening to and following the wrong god.
This is the time for repentance, humility, and trust of God, not the arrogant boast and folly of humans. This is a time of introspection, considering the roles we are living in our lives, based on the choices we make. Are we living in the love, hope, peace, and truth that the kingdom of God promises? If not, you are promoting the illusion that lies, conspiracies, evil, death and destruction are good.
Jesus said, “Because of the increasing lawlessness, the love of the greater number will grow cold.”
That is what we are seeing today in the belligerent manipulation of man usurping the will of God in place of his own.
The kingdom of God is coming, in fact is already here. The profound peace and love of the kingdom of God is already within us, as Jesus told us in Luke 17:21.
How do you know if the kingdom of God is within you?
The fruits of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit will be abundant in your life. If these fruits are missing from your life, you will know you have chosen the wrong road to follow.
If gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, meekness, peace, joy, love, kindness, patience, goodness, temperance, and faith are missing in your life, stop whatever you are doing and pray. Pray for the love of God, Father of Jesus Christ, to enter your heart.
It seems the Republican political party in the USA has been hijacked by so many hate groups that they fear standing up for the right thing for losing their voters. But now, more than ever before, all citizens of the United States of America need to stand up for facts, not fiction; truth, not conspiracy; and honor and integrity over selling out the country. Truth matters.
There are so many other gods out there today, masking as the One, True God. You will know which god (God) you are following by the fruits of your labor.
When I was co-chairperson of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, I suggested introducing an ethics class to go along with the newly accepted sex-education course that was being taught to that year’s sixth graders. The answer I got back was, “Whose ethics?”
That answer, as if it were a viable one, is what stood between teaching with and without ethics.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ethics as: “the discipline with what is good and bad, and with moral duty and obligation.”
The other answer I got at that same meeting was, “If we teach morality, whose morality should we teach?”
We see this today on the world stage, as if different sides can interpret ethics and morality differently.
We see this in the movie and television world, where each year, we reach certain tolerance levels addressing crime, violence and bloodshed. Once those limits are set, it seems more detailed crime, violence, and bloodshed is required to maintain the status quo of an increasingly bloodthirsty audience.
We see this in the ever-infringement on innocent youth for the invading and decending language, as well as inappropriate dress, as if it is normal to send prepubescent students to school in the same clothing as ladies of the night.
The government of the United States of America is also not unaffected by sweeping away ethics and morality, claiming immorality as morality, unethical behaviors as ethical behaviors, lies as truth, and always claiming that it is “the other guy” who is lying, even when videos and facts prove otherwise.
Remember, even Pilate asked the famous question, “What is truth?” We all ask this same question when we do not like what we are hearing, and have our own agenda.
What do you stand for?
Do you close your eyes to dishonest practices because they serve you in some way?
Do you sell out your integrity for the bottom line?
Is your political career more important than the lives you hold in your hand with the swipe of your pen?
Do you have any part of playing God by separating children and babies from their parents, putting all of them in cages, those who are seeking refuge at our borders?
Do you make yourself complicit in human trafficking by selling stolen children from their parents and selling them through adoption agencies?
Do you mandate SARS CoV2 (COVID-19) numbers be sent to the US Health and Human Services, which are said to be manipulated into more palateable numbers for public consumption, rather than mandating they be sent to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for accurate expert, medical opinion and dissemination?
Do you close your eyes to global warming and climate change because you receive some benefit of money or endorsements?
Do you listen to medical doctors or pharmacological companies in your decision making process?
Do you trample upon the Constitution of the United States, and what the Statue of Liberty stands for as imprinted on her base, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
Do you stack the Supreme Court with judges who truly serve justice blindly, remembering Lady Justice wears a blindfold signifying that justice is truly blind when it comes to race, skin color, ethnic background, gender, age, ability, or disability?
Do you stand for equal pay for equal work, regardless of people of different race, skin color, ethnic background, gender, age, ability, or disability?
Do you value people over things?
Where do you spend your money?
Where do you spend your time?
What do you think about?
Where you spend your thoughts, time and money; there is where your heart is.
Each of us, whether we are in public office and have a direct ability to make just laws for all citizens, or whether we are citizens making a living at our life’s work, or even currently without work or home, we can all take in the news of the day and create more just and civil societies right where we are.
The recipe for our life may need to change depending upon the variables at hand. We can always use our free will to uplift rather than put down, heal rather than inflict pain, listen rather than ignore pleas for help, listen without an answer running (which is not listening), and feed the poor rather than close our eyes to the plight of hungry humans.
Giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. Sometimes it seems easier to give than receive. But receiving is necessary for balance of greed running rampant. It is odd that those who truly are in need of receiving have a harder time receiving what they need, as opposed to the wealthiest among us, not in need, who seek to usurp receiving to fill their gluttonous desires.
Bloom where you are planted, even if you are the only one blooming.
This is a call for a Meditation and Prayer Intervention for a peaceful resolution to inner city violence across the United States of America in the wake of the blatant public murder of George Floyd by the hands and knee of a Minneapolis police officer with the publicly witnessed assistance of fellow police officers. Outrage and public demonstrations are needed to shake awake the sleeping giant of justice at the helm of nearly 250 years of prejudice in this country. Progress has been made, but the undercurrent of systemic racism undermines the platitude of progress. Criminal actions on the part of protesters is not the answer.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Obviously remaining quiet using civil disobedience since the days of Martin Luther King, Jr. has only marginaly worked. Justice cannot be reached by arresting protesters nor calling on the military to hush the voices and actions of law-abiding protesters. This would be unconscionable, going against the very fiber of freedom for all people that the Constitution, and Bill of Rights of the United States of America stand for. There is another way we can help in this seemingly helpless time.
Does prayer and meditation reduce crime in inner cities? Yes, according to the 1993 controlled study done in Washington, reducing the crime rate in the District of Columbia by 48 percent. This study has been written about many times before, but given what is happening at the United States of America’s inner cities, as well as cities all over the world, now is a good time to remember this study, and how prayer and meditation can benefit us, and the cities and countries we live in. Washington, D.C. is again sorely in need of meditation and prayer.
Meditation and prayer works, as those of us who have tried know, especially when all else fails. Now is the time to take a moment out of your day to join this effort to raise the consciousness of the inhumane conditions we find ourselves. Given that many of us find ourselves at home during this COVID-19 pandemic, now is a good time to dedicate an hour during the day to prayer and meditation, light a candle and storm heaven with prayer.
Crimes against humanity are not necessary to solve this problem, nor is doing nothing to stop crimes against humanity an answer.
Here is the report called, Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington, DC: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June-July 1993
John S. Hagelin, Maxwell V. Rainforth, David W. Orme-Johnson, Kenneth L. Cavanaugh, Charles N. Alexander, Susan F. Shatkin, John L. Davies, Anne O. Hughes, and Emanuel Ross
This study presented the final results of a two-month prospective experiment to reduce violent crime in Washington, DC. On the basis of previous research it was hypothesized that the level of violent crime in the District of Columbia would drop significantly with the creation of a large group of participants in the Transcendental Meditation® and TM-Sidhi® programs to increase coherence and reduce stress in the District.
This National Demonstration Project to Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness brought approximately 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs to the United States national capital from June 7 to July 30, 1993. A 27-member independent Project Review Board consisting of sociologists and criminologists from leading universities, representatives from the police department and government of the District of Columbia, and civic leaders approved in advance the research protocol for the project and monitored its progress.
The dependent variable in the research was weekly violent crime, as measured by the Uniform Crime Report program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; violent crimes include homicide, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery. This data was obtained from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department for 1993 as well as for the preceding five years (1988-1992). Additional data used for control purposes included weather variables (temperature, precipitation, humidity), daylight hours, changes in police and community anti-crime activities, prior crime trends in the District of Columbia, and concurrent crime trends in neighboring cities. Average weekly temperature was significantly correlated with homicides, rapes and assaults (HRA crimes), as has also been found in previous research; therefore temperature was used as a control variable in the main analysis of HRA crimes. Using time series analysis, violent crimes were analyzed separately in terms of HRA crimes (crimes against the person) and robbery (monetary crimes), as well as together.
Analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, revealed that there was a highly significant decrease in HRA crimes associated with increases in the size of the group during the Demonstration Project. The maximum decrease was 23.3% when the size of the group was largest during the final week of the project. The statistical probability that this result could reflect chance variation in crime levels was less than 2 in 1 billion (p < .000000002). When a longer baseline is used (1988-1993 data), the maximum decrease was 24.6% during this period (p < .00003). When analyzed as a separate variable, robberies did not decrease significantly, but a joint analysis of both HRA crimes and robberies indicated that violent crimes as a whole decreased significantly to a maximum amount of 15.6% during the final week of the project (p = .0008). Analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, revealed that there was a highly significant decrease in HRA crimes associated with increases in the size of the group during the Demonstration Project.
Several additional analyses were performed on HRA crimes to further assess the strength of the main findings. These indicated that the reduction of HRA crimes associated with the group of participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs could not be attributed to changes in police staffing. These secondary analyses also found that the reduction of HRA crimes was highly robust to alternative specifications of the statistical model-that is, the effect is independent of the isolated details of the models used to assess seasonal cycles and trends. No significant decrease was found in any of the prior five years during this period of time, indicating that this effect was not due to the specific time of year. Furthermore, the intervention parameters for the group size revealed that the effect of the group was not only cumulative with the increase in group size, but also continued for some time after the end of the project.
Based on the results of the study, the steady state gain (long-term effect) associated with a permanent group of 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs was calculated as a 48% reduction in HRA crimes in the District of Columbia.
Given the strength of these results, their consistency with the positive results of previous research, the grave human and financial costs of violent crime, and the lack of other effective and scientific methods to reduce crime, policy makers are urged to apply this approach on a large scale for the benefit of society.
It is again time to practice meditation and prayer, this time for the specific goal of reducing racism and prejudice in all its insidious forms of dehumanization in all cities across the United States of America.
We are not alone in suffering from the plaque of systemic racism. People from all over the world are affected by this embarrassing and inhumane treatment of all human beings born with the same God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Caucasian humans are not the only people who deserve the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This blog is read by every country, protectorate and territory worldwide. Please join me in meditation and prayer each day for an end to human cruelty and misery inflicted by inhuman current policies in the United States of America, as well as worldwide.
Reference: Hagelin, J.S., Rainforth, M.V., Orme-Johnson, D.W., Cavanaugh, K. L., Alexander, C.N., Shatkin, S.F., Davies, J.L, Hughes, A.O, and Ross, E. 1999. Effects of group practice of the Transcendental Meditation program on preventing violent crime in Washington D.C.: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June-July, 1993. Social Indicators Research, 47(2): 153-201.
Bullying is dehumanizing, both for the person who bullies, and for the person being
bullied. Unfortunately there is no age limit for bullying. It happens by and to students. It happens by and to prejudiced groups of all ages, sexes, politics and social economics. It happens all too often in today’s work force by employers, who know they can push people more because they know jobs are so hard to come by, to employees who allow themselves to be bullied for fear of losing their jobs. It happens on the political stage when the top political bulldog uses bullying to threaten and manipulate the political underlings to do the bully’s bidding. Bullying happens face to face, while cyberbullying relentlessly continues online. What can we do to stop it?
Stand up to the bully.
First, be smart. This does not mean turning everything into a fist fight. If you are the student being bullied, no matter what the bully is telling you, tell your teachers, your guidance counselors, your principal, your parents and in politics tell the press.
Bullies only continue to bully when they are allowed to keep bullying.
Bullies only continue to bully when no one stands up to them.
Know that you are not alone. It is state law that teachers must report the bullying to their superiors. Schools are improving their programs to address this kind of attack on students. If it keeps happening, keep telling. Never give up. There are some things you can do for yourself, beginning with bolstering your self esteem.
Just because someone says something about you, does not make it true. You are made in the image and likeness of God. God does not make junk. God made you and you are perfect, just they way you are. You will not be perfect if…, or when … you are perfect now.
Second, grow in character. Realize you are a whole person no matter what sexual orientation you are, no matter what gender you are, no matter if you are underweight, no matter if you are overweight, no matter what, you are perfect the way you are, right this very moment. Do not agree with every negative thought, word or idea that comes from a bully’s mouth. Just because someone says something negative does not make it true. Understand that there are people willing to help you.
We may have thought that prejudices were a thing of the past, but unfortunately they are not. We’d like to think we are so advanced these days, but it seems on many issues we are still in the caveman era. There are many kinds of prejudices that play into the hand of bullying. The person bullying decreases in character development by bullying. Seemingly good people, even Christian people, with not so good intent, harm others psychologically by badgering them, instilling them with fear if they are not like-minded people, whether it’s for gay rights, birth control, immigration, wealth equality/inequality or any other difference in belief.
Bullying makes people less human. Bullying makes people less spiritual. No matter what our religious belief system is, bullying is not the way to get the message out. Attacking someone’s character either privately or publically is not a spiritual practice.
Can you see Jesus or Buddha now, diminishing a person by personal attacks? That would be a twisted and perverted belief system.
Lady Gaga said on twitter, “Bullying must become illegal. It is a hate crime.”
Young people are not alone on the bullying front. Adults are also bullies and are victims of bullies. As sad as it is when young people get bullied, it is pathetic when adults get into the bullying game. It is pathetic because we should know better. It is particularly sad because we know what we say to our children when they get bullied. We tell them, “STAND UP TO THE BULLY!” But it seems as adults, we have become poor role models for our children when we show them how to cave in to the whims and wiles of the bully.
Why do adults cave in to the whims and wiles of adult bullies? We want to keep our jobs. We want to put food on the tables for our children. We want to advance in our careers. We want to be re-elected to public service, supposedly for the greater good of our nation. However, if we do not stand up for injustice and bullying when it happens to us, we will never be able to stop greater injustices and bullying tactics within and without our families, neighborhoods, states, nation as well as internationally. We are now seeing this playing out on the world stage.
Anytime we act out in ways that are beneath human dignity, we diminish our growth, mentally and spiritually. The first thing to do is the same first thing to do for a young person. Tell someone. If it is a prejudice hate crime, tell a police officer. If you are being bullied at work, go to your human resources department. If you are being bullied in your political party, tell the press. Do not remain silent.
You have a right not to be bullied.
Bullies only win if we let them.
Bullies don’t really want to fight. They want to get their way. They have ulterior motives. They only want to torment, as a diversion and cause fear, in order that they get their own way, much like a two-year old. Pure motives have nothing to do with bullying. Bullies are weak. They are vulnerable. As more and more people, young and old, stand up and refuse to be tongue whipped by inferior, manipulating mortals, it will become easier to stand up for truth.
Standing up for truth, honor, and integrity does not have to be done viciously. Anger and hostility do not need to be present. We simply need to say what we need to say. Bullies know how to push emotional buttons. That’s part of the game. But if we can stay level emotionally, that will be one less battle they will have won.
As more and more of us stand up to private and public bullies, the growing consensus of truth, integrity and honor will finally be able to hail freedom and liberty as once intended for all of us in this great country, extending to all human beings in our human family throughout the world.
You are a wonder-filled creation of God. You are filled with God’s spirit by the very breath you breathe. Stand up for truth. Stand up for integrity. Stand up for peaceful solutions and peaceful resolutions. You are not alone. We are all One.
There is nothing you ever did that deserves you being abused, violated nor bullied.
Do you feel safe? Do you feel safe in all your relationships? Do you feel safe in your home? Do you feel safe in your school? Do you feel safe at your employment? Do you feel safe in your social circles, friendships, neighborhoods, affiliations, clubs, including social media? Do you feel safe when you are alone?
Do you feel unsafe in some situations? Do you feel unsafe around certain people? Do you feel threatened or intimidated by anyone legally, physically, emotionally, financially, politically, morally, or even religiously and/or spiritually?
It is most important to feel safe in your own skin, safe in your own mind, and safe in your own soul.
Much has been written about promoting tolerance, getting along, defusing situations, and compromising for the greater good that can be experienced in this beautiful and amazing life. But those of us who have more tender mental constitutions, and weaker willed individuals can be bullied beyond belief by strong personalities, louder and more demonstrative characters, bowling over any and all attempts that might possibly arrive at a healed and more whole relationship.
These are lessons school children learn, how to get along. But sometimes we carry this attempt at normal too far, but trying to apply tolerance and compromise to abusive and dysfunctional relationships, when we really should be running for the hills.
Your feelings and emotions are your accurate, internal measure of what you should do next. Emotional abuse feels bad, makes you nauseous, gives you anxiety attacks, with a generalized feeling of malaise, depression and low energy. The intensity of your feelings and emotions is a signal that things need to change if you are going to re-gain your mental, physical and spiritual health.
There is never any reason to tolerate physical, mental/emotional abuse, or bullying as a normal behavior. This seems like it is common sense, but it is not that easy to the person who is being physically abused, emotionally blackmailed, and threatened by law suits or any other kind of manipulation and/or blackmail. The longer bullies bully their victim, the more debilitating fear cripples the victim. Domestic violence and abuse of any kind, which bullying is a part, is never OK under any circumstance in civil society.
Freedom comes when you gather your courage, and STAND UP. Stand up for yourself, speak out to someone you can trust. Do not remain silent. Silence is not golden. Silence is deadly, literally. Bullies do not go away. Bullies get stronger the longer they stay at it. The longer bullies stay bullies, the more brazen they get, and the more their bullying tactics escalate.
An important point to make here is to realize that people with destructive personality disorders most often look just the same as you and me. Mass murderers do not look like mass murderers. They look like regular people, for the most part. Abusive partners also dress in expensive clothing, can be financially successful, and have no tell-tale marks that make them stand out from no-abusive partners. They might even appear to have wide circles of “friends” around them, but the truth is, these are usually superficial trophies. Do not be intimated by any of this. This presentation of how bullies portray themselves is a facade. However, the vengeance the bully feels is very real, and must be dealt with, not ignored.
The question is how to stand up and deal with bullies, emotional blackmail, and threats of mental, emotional and physical abuse. Again, go by how you feel. You need to get to a safe place on all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, and spiritually. If you feel unsafe addressing these problems yourself, seek immediate help from a counselor, police and/or fire personnel or a shelter. Do not wait. Your health and well-being depend on getting help for yourself and the innocent ones around you.
Abusers need psychological help. Bullies need psychological help. Abuse and bullying is a sickness not a positive psychological trait to teach our children or anyone else, or let people off the hook thinking they will get better on their own. This type of behavior is a type of addiction. There is never a time to tolerate abuse.
Manipulating behaviors tend to show up ever so subtly in the earlier days of the relationship, but can also manifest later in the relationship if stressors change. Pay attention. Pay attention to how you feel when certain things happen. You might even keep a journal of your feelings, if you feel safe to do so.
The important thing to know is there is no tolerance for abusive behaviors. Verbal abuse can be even more detrimental to the health and well-being of children, spouses, and everyone living or working under the same roof.
Sometimes abusive behaviors manifest over time, after the relationship is well-established. The person being abused knows that even the abusing person has a good side from time to time, and at the good times, has earned their love. The person being abused wonders if they have done or said something to trigger the abuse. Most often the person receiving the abuse is told it is their fault that the abuser is abusing. Know this is not true.
Everyone is in charge of their own feelings, emotions and actions. There is no way you are ever in charge of the abuser’s feelings, emotions or actions no matter what has happened.
You count.
You matter.
You are a gift from God.
You are beautiful, and I am so very glad you are here.
To heal the problem outside of us, we need to heal the inside of us.
Why are we shooting each other? Have shootings become a communication skill? What is stopping us from listening, truly listening to the plight of others? Yes, it is a complex problem, but it is not impossible to solve. The question is, do we really want to solve this problem?
We have the tools to fix this. These tools come from within us. These tools do not cost us anything, except for maybe our pride and our ego. It is critical to let go of the crutch of our justifications, and the iron fist of failure.
It is possible to mend our country, and the world, if only we want to. This is the start of the solution to mend any division between individual people, or groups of people.
Follow the energy. Some people interpret this as, follow the money, or follow the power. But money and power are merely forms of energy. A snowball rolling down a snow laden hill will continue to get bigger until the momentum of energy changes. You and I are the beginning of this change, in understanding the problems we face in our cities.
It begins with you and me, no matter who you are, you matter. No matter how old or young you are, you matter. Black lives matter. Blue lives matter. And yes, all lives matter. But in understanding that all lives matter, we come to realize that white lives have always mattered. Black lives have not always mattered. No matter if you are police, your lives matter. No matter if you are innocent citizens, your lives matter.
We can be a positive and healing change. How? It begins with our thoughts. Before healing ideas can take hold outside of us, healing ideas must take root inside of us. Before our words can come up with creative and positive solutions, we must heal our thoughts of separation, from each other and from God. Before we can heal our actions, we must heal our words. Why is this important? It is important because you matter.
It is not the other guy’s fault. It is not just a problem for adults. It is not just a problem for our country’s youth. It is not just a problem for black people. It is not just a problem for white people, or any other group of human beings we can target and isolate as different from ourselves, no matter what our race, color, creed, gender, weight, height, hair color, eye color, or any other difference is.
In a world damaged by tunnel vision, warped attitudes, crippled thinking, outrageous actions, fears, hate-based actions, and the need to be right whether we are right or not; it is a time to examine ourselves closely to see if our thoughts, words and actions are manifesting the integrity necessary to listen, in order to heal the God-given right to life of all people, especially those most oppressed among us.
Whether we are discussing the differences in race, color, ethnicity, creed, financial status or gender, we must realize that on this planet, there is only one race, the human race.
Sometimes we try to hide our prejudices behind other reasons, to justify the positions we take politically, socially, environmentally, religiously, or any other way we human beings use to suppress the voice of others. We are more alike than any difference we profess.
The root cause of prejudice is fear, not hatred. While certain groups may be extremely angry about an issue, the underlying cause of anger is fear. Why are we so afraid of other people, their belief system, their culture, their gender? Think of how we respond to someone expressing a different viewpoint, or addressing uncomfortable issues such as immigration, homelessness and hungry children in our country and the world.
Fear promotes radical groups in any of the human categories mentioned. If we are truly serious about fixing our world, before we can build any bridges to repair the damage we have caused, we must eradicate the root cause of fear. War, murder and killing are not communication skills.
We have made great progress in this country and in the world. We should celebrate the strides we have made. But there is more to do, more to share, more to learn, more to understand, more to forgive, more to let go. It is not about being right, or wrong, or making others right or wrong. There is no way to make up for the loss of life through war, violence, bloodshed, or retaliation. Two wrongs do not make a right. We need to build bridges to and for all people everywhere.
Despite all our unique differences, we all share this one beautiful planet. We are all born in the same way, we all breathe air while we are here, and we all die. We are all having a shared human experience. Our life is in our blood, without which we would cease to be. No one soul is better than any other soul on this planet, no matter what our pride (insane ego) might be telling us.
Nationalism always produces war, and the problem is not to be solved by bringing about further nationalism, which is only an avoidance of the fact
Humans all the same. Picture courtesy of J. Krishnamurti.
and an extension of the same poison, but by being free of nationalism, of the sense of belonging to a particular group, to a particular class of society.
The separate spirit of nationalism is spreading like fire all over the world. Patriotism is cultivated and cleverly exploited by those who are seeking further expansion, wider powers, greater enrichment; and each one of us takes part in this process, for we desire these things. Conquering other lands and other people provides new markets for goods as well as for political and religious ideologies.
Nationalism, the patriotic spirit, class and race consciousness, are all ways of the self, and therefore separate. After all, what is a nation but a group of individuals living together for economic and self-protective reasons? Out of fear and acquisitive self-defense arises the idea of “my country”, with its boundaries and tariff walls, rendering brotherhood and the unity of man impossible.
It is because we are nationalists, ready to defend our sovereign States, our beliefs and acquisitions, that we must be perpetually be armed. Property and ideas have become more important to us than human life, so there is constant antagonism and violence between ourselves and others. By maintaining the sovereignty of our country, we are destroying our sons; by worshiping the State, which is but a projection of ourselves, we are sacrificing our children to our own gratification. Nationalism and sovereign governments are the causes and instruments of war
Whether we are discussing the differences in race, color, ethnicity, creed, financial status or gender, we must realize that on this planet, there is only one race, the human race.
Sometimes we try to hide our prejudices behind other reasons, to justify the positions we take politically, socially, environmentally, religiously, or any other way we human beings use to suppress the voice of others. We are more alike than any difference we profess.
The root cause of prejudice is fear, not hatred. While certain groups may be extremely angry about an issue, the underlying cause of anger is fear. Why are we so afraid of other people, their belief system, their culture, their gender? Think of how we respond to someone expressing a different viewpoint, or addressing uncomfortable issues such as immigration, homelessness and hungry children in our country and the world.
Fear promotes radical groups in any of the human categories mentioned. If we are truly serious about fixing our world, before we can build any bridges to repair the damage we have caused, we must eradicate the root cause of fear. War, murder and killing are not communication skills.
We have made great progress in this country and in the world. We should celebrate the strides we have made. But there is more to do, more to share, more to learn, more to understand, more to forgive, more to let go. It is not about being right, or wrong, or making others right or wrong. There is no way to make up for the loss of life through war, violence, bloodshed, or retaliation. Two wrongs do not make a right. We need to build bridges to and for all people everywhere.
Despite all our unique differences, we all share this one beautiful planet. We are all born in the same way, we all breathe air while we are here, and we all die. We are all having a shared human experience. Our life is in our blood, without which we would cease to be. No one soul is better than any other soul on this planet, no matter what our pride (insane ego) might be telling us.
Rule #1: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. National Domestic Violence Hotline 800-799-7233
Rule #2: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. National Domestic Violence TTY Hotline 800-787-3224
Rule #3: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. Abuse Victim Hotline by state avhotline.org
Do you feel safe? Do you feel safe in all your relationships? Do feel safe in your home? Do you feel safe at your employment? Do you feel safe in your social circles, friendships, affiliations, clubs, including social media? Do you feel safe when you are alone?
Do you feel unsafe in some situations? Do you feel unsafe around certain people? Do you feel threatened or intimidated by anyone physically, financially, morally, mentally, legally or even spiritually?
It is most important to feel safe in your own skin, safe in your own mind, and safe in your own soul. It is also important to be safe in this one world we all share.
Much has been written about promoting tolerance, getting along, defusing situations, and compromising for the greater good that can be experienced in this beautiful and amazing life. But those of us who have more tender mental constitutions, and weaker willed individuals can be bullied beyond belief by strong personalities, social outlaws, scams, louder and more demonstrative characters, bowling over any and all attempts that might possibly arrive at a healed and more whole relationship.
Unfortunately we live in a world where we share space with criminally insane people, those who break any and all laws. We need to make sure we are safe. Gone are the days of innocent schools, safe airports, public places, picking up hitchhikers, and trusting strangers. Perhaps with the volume of people on the planet at this time, there are simply more people, making the odds of manipulating con artists, and those who would hurt us exponentially greater.
These are lessons school children learn, how to get along. But sometimes we carry this attempt at normal too far, but trying to apply tolerance and compromise to abusive and dysfunctional relationships, when we really should be running for the hills. We need to learn when to walk away, and when to run.
Your feelings and emotions are your accurate, internal measure of what you should do next. Emotional abuse feels bad, makes you nauseous, gives you anxiety attacks, with a generalized feeling of malaise, depression and low energy. The intensity of your feelings and emotions is a signal that things need to change if you are going to re-gain all areas of your health.
There is never any reason to tolerate physical, mental/emotional abuse, or bullying as a normal behavior. This seems like it is common sense, but it is not that easy to the person who is being physically abused, emotionally blackmailed, and threatened by law suits or any other kind of manipulation. Sometimes we can feel like we do not want to make a public scene in order to make a bad situation stop. The longer bullies bully their victim, the more debilitating fear cripples the victim. Domestic violence, like every other kind of violence, is never OK under any circumstance.
Freedom comes when you gather your courage, and STAND UP. Stand up for yourself, speak out to someone you can trust. Do not remain silent. Silence is not golden. Silence is deadly, literally. Bullies do not go away. Bullies get stronger the longer they stay at it. The longer a bully stays a bully, the more brazen they get, and the more their bullying tactics escalate.
An important point to make here is to realize that people with destructive personality disorders most often look just the same as you and me. Mass murderers do not look like mass murdereers. They look like regular people, for the most part. Abusive partners also dress in expensive clothing, can be financially successful, and have no tell-tale marks that make them stand out from no-abusive partners. They might even appear to have wide circles of “friends” around them, but the truth is, these are usually superficial trophies. Do not be intimated by any of this. This presentation of how bullies portray themselves is a facade. However, the vengeance the bully feels is very real, and must be dealt with, not ignored.
The question is how to stand up and deal with bullies, emotional blackmail, and threats of mental, emotional and physical abuse. Again, go by how you feel. You need to get to a safe place on all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially. If you feel unsafe addressing these problems yourself, seek immediate help from a counselor, police, fire or shelter. Do not wait. Your health and well-being depend on getting help not only for yourself, but also for the abuser.
Manipulating behaviors tend to show up ever so subtly in the earlier days of the relationship, but can also manifest later in the relationship if stressors change. Pay attention. Pay attention to how you feel when certain things happen. You might even keep a journal of your feelings, if you feel safe to do so.
The important thing to know is there is no tolerance for abusive behaviors. Verbal abuse can be even more detrimental to the health and well-being of children, spouses, and everyone living or working under the same roof.
Sometimes abusive behaviors manifest over time, after the relationship is well-established. The person being abused knows that even the abusing person has a good side from time to time, and at the good times, has earned their love. The person being abused wonders if they have done or said something to trigger the abuse. Most often the person receiving the abuse is told it is their fault that the abuser is abusing. Know this is not true.
Everyone is in charge of their own feelings, emotions and actions. There is no way you are ever in charge of the abuser’s feelings, emotions or actions no matter what has happened.
You count.
You matter.
You are beautiful, and I am so very glad you are here.
Let us take a deeper look at human rights in every country in Africa, Russia, the Far East, the Middle East, the Near East, North America, Central America, South America, Europe, and every island and continent everywhere human beings live on the face of the earth.
Every human being in every country is born as a free human being by virtue of his or her birth, prior to enslavement of body, mind and/or spirit. People do not own people. Enslavement of any kind is beneath human dignity.
There is a way to have relationships with other countries in this world that do not involve conflict and war. This way is based on neutrality. But this way of neutrality and non-competition, is based on peaceful and loving living. No man has the human right lord it over any other man, woman or child in any country.
The placebo of a solution does not mean having a manmade war as if you, me, or whoever else, is generating Armageddon by our very own selves. This does not mean that the mightiest among us wins. Might is not right. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the richest among us who wins either, despite what it looks like now.
You and I have a right to our thoughts, opinions, choices and actions.
Women have rights to all of human life.
Women “own” themselves.
No real man can ever “own” any woman.
Abuse is not an option for women.
All women of the world need to know this.
Women in a relationship of any kind sometimes think they must endure abuse because they are in love with the person who is abusing them; or they understand the triggers in the abuser that seem to cause the abuse; or wrongly think they are somehow the problem; when the real problem is that the abusing partner.
Women in an abusive relationship need to get out of the relationship.
Class warfare and all caste systems are manmade.
Women do not need someone else’s permission to be themselves.
This post is directed towards women’s rights, but the same principles apply to children’s rights, and the rights of men. People do not own people. Every human being has the right to be safe from physical and mental abuse. Every human being has a right to freedom of thoughts, words and actions without being dominated and/or manipulated by others.
War is an immature response to social character development. War is a short-circuit in the character building of society. Simply put, war is a refusal to evolve. The best way for bombs to stop killing children is for adults to stop acting like children.
No one is going to like this answer. Rather than look inward to see if there are any grains of truth to these statements, some will point accusing fingers (both sides mind you), at lack of understanding, lack of knowing history, lack of religion; or too much understanding (on one side or the other), knowing too much history (or favoritism), and oddly enough, too much religion.
This post includes all war torn parts of our Earth, not just in Gaza, Palestine and Israel. A Malaysia airliner was shot down by a surface to air missile, killing all 298 passengers from the Netherlands, over Ukraine.
Murder is not a communication skill.
People will not support a cause because people get killed.
War atrocities that hit home, where ever home is, not only hit closest to our hearts, but also everyone with a conscience. War causes pain, clouds the thinking, generates debilitating fear, and finds demons behind every bomb, no matter what side of the issue we find ourselves on. The considerations in this post is out of genuine love for all people of earth, not just for some cultures, races and religions, and not an affront to other cultures, races and religions. There is only one world we presently all live on. Unless NASA informs us that other planets in our galaxy can support human life, this is it folks.
We humans will do just about anything “not to be wrong,” even go to war, which inevitably kills our own children. We get a kind of selective amnesia, one that defies all common sense. We think that we can do one way killing/murder, which is OK in a warped mind, because we think we have a valid point, and “that” will teach “them” a lesson. Every war has these thoughts in the mix.
Then there is retaliation. I have seen sports games where the first foul was not called, only the second, retaliatory action is penalized. But if the second foul gets a penalty, shouldn’t the first? And then, there is retaliation for retaliation, which of course, spirals into an endless war, which we blame “the other guy” for. So, let’s kill “them” first? Does that make any sense at all? What kind of people have we reduced ourselves to? This is caveman mentality, and every country at one time or another has fallen victim to it. Look at the track record. War kills people. War kills men/fathers. War kills women/mothers. War kills children. War kills life. Is this what we really want for our children, our families, our future?
Let’s grow up. As a society of intelligent human beings, our society is suffering from a short-circuit in social character development. We are stuck at two years old, with temper tantrums and all, only these are not just sick, they are deadly. And we have adult addictions to war, to the drama, to the need to be right at all costs – even death, and perhaps the most common of all addictions, the addiction to the adrenalin rush. All addictions can be healed, but we must address them.
There is another way. Peaceful conflict resolution is possible. Peace talks do not always have to crumble into, “OK, then let’s go to war.” My first suggestion, is that those who declare war, first of all, need to be the first to go. This is not a game. Even if someone did not come from a religious standpoint, stopping war on all sides would stop killing children on all sides, right?
Everyone involved in every war in the world today, and everyone involved in every war that has ever been, everyone who has ever been born, and everyone who ever will be born, we all come from the same origin.
Our society will benefit from more decisions based on peace, love and forgiveness, than it ever will on decisions based on hate, fear, war and retaliation.
Rule #1: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. National Domestic Violence Hotline 800-799-7233
Rule #2: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. National Domestic Violence TTY Hotline 800-787-3224
Rule #3: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. Abuse Victim Hotline by state avhotline.org
Do you feel safe? Do you feel safe in all your relationships? Do feel safe in your home? Do you feel safe at your employment? Do you feel safe in your social circles, friendships, affiliations, clubs, including social media? Do you feel safe when you are alone?
Do you feel unsafe in some situations? Do you feel unsafe around certain people? Do you feel threatened or intimidated by anyone physically, financially, morally, mentally, legally or even spiritually?
It is most important to feel safe in your own skin, safe in your own mind, and safe in your own soul. It is also important to be safe in this one world we all share.
Much has been written about promoting tolerance, getting along, defusing situations, and compromising for the greater good that can be experienced in this beautiful and amazing life. But those of us who have more tender mental constitutions, and weaker willed individuals can be bullied beyond belief by strong personalities, social outlaws, scams, louder and more demonstrative characters, bowling over any and all attempts that might possibly arrive at a healed and more whole relationship.
Unfortunately we live in a world where we share space with criminally insane people, those who break any and all laws. We need to make sure we are safe. Gone are the days of innocent schools, safe airports, public places, picking up hitchhikers, and trusting strangers. Perhaps with the volume of people on the planet at this time, there are simply more people, making the odds of manipulating con artists, and those who would hurt us exponentially greater.
These are lessons school children learn, how to get along. But sometimes we carry this attempt at normal too far, but trying to apply tolerance and compromise to abusive and dysfunctional relationships, when we really should be running for the hills. We need to learn when to walk away, and when to run.
Your feelings and emotions are your accurate, internal measure of what you should do next. Emotional abuse feels bad, makes you nauseous, gives you anxiety attacks, with a generalized feeling of malaise, depression and low energy. The intensity of your feelings and emotions is a signal that things need to change if you are going to re-gain your mental, physical and spiritual health.
There is never any reason to tolerate physical, mental/emotional abuse, or bullying as a normal behavior. This seems like it is common sense, but it is not that easy to the person who is being physically abused, emotionally blackmailed, and threatened by law suits or any other kind of manipulation. Sometimes we can feel like we do not want to make a public scene in order to make a bad situation stop. The longer bullies bully their victim, the more debilitating fear cripples the victim. Domestic violence, like every other kind of violence, is never OK under any circumstance.
Freedom comes when you gather your courage, and STAND UP. Stand up for yourself, speak out to someone you can trust. Do not remain silent. Silence is not golden. Silence is deadly, literally. Bullies do not go away. Bullies get stronger the longer they stay at it. The longer a bully stays a bully, the more brazen they get, and the more their bullying tactics escalate.
An important point to make here is to realize that people with destructive personality disorders most often look just the same as you and me. Mass murderers do not look like mass murdereers. They look like regular people, for the most part. Abusive partners also dress in expensive clothing, can be financially successful, and have no tell-tale marks that make them stand out from no-abusive partners. They might even appear to have wide circles of “friends” around them, but the truth is, these are usually superficial trophies. Do not be intimated by any of this. This presentation of how bullies portray themselves is a facade. However, the vengeance the bully feels is very real, and must be dealt with, not ignored.
The question is how to stand up and deal with bullies, emotional blackmail, and threats of mental, emotional and physical abuse. Again, go by how you feel. You need to get to a safe place on all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, and spiritually. If you feel unsafe addressing these problems yourself, seek immediate help from a counselor, police, fire or shelter. Do not wait. Your health and well-being depend on getting help not only for yourself, but also for the abuser.
Manipulating behaviors tend to show up ever so subtly in the earlier days of the relationship, but can also manifest later in the relationship if stressors change. Pay attention. Pay attention to how you feel when certain things happen. You might even keep a journal of your feelings, if you feel safe to do so.
The important thing to know is there is no tolerance for abusive behaviors. Verbal abuse can be even more detrimental to the health and well-being of children, spouses, and everyone living or working under the same roof.
Sometimes abusive behaviors manifest over time, after the relationship is well-established. The person being abused knows that even the abusing person has a good side from time to time, and at the good times, has earned their love. The person being abused wonders if they have done or said something to trigger the abuse. Most often the person receiving the abuse is told it is their fault that the abuser is abusing. Know this is not true.
Everyone is in charge of their own feelings, emotions and actions. There is no way you are ever in charge of the abuser’s feelings, emotions or actions no matter what has happened.
You count.
You matter.
You are a gift from God.
You are beautiful, and I am so very glad you are here.
Rule #1: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. National Domestic Violence Hotline 800-799-7233
Rule #2: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. National Domestic Violence TTY Hotline 800-787-3224
Rule #3: MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. Abuse Victim Hotline by state www.avhotline.org
Do you feel safe? Do you feel safe in all your relationships? Do feel safe in your home? Do you feel safe at your employment? Do you feel safe in your social circles, friendships, affiliations, clubs, including social media? Do you feel safe when you are alone?
Do you feel unsafe in some situations? Do you feel unsafe around certain people? Do you feel threatened or intimidated by anyone legally, physically, financially, morally, or even spiritually?
It is most important to feel safe in your own skin, safe in your own mind, and safe in your own soul.
Much has been written about promoting tolerance, getting along, defusing situations, and compromising for the greater good that can be experienced in this beautiful and amazing life. But those of us who have more tender mental constitutions, and weaker willed individuals can be bullied beyond belief by strong personalities, louder and more demonstrative characters, bowling over any and all attempts that might possibly arrive at a healed and more whole relationship.
These are lessons school children learn, how to get along. But sometimes we carry this attempt at normal too far, but trying to apply tolerance and compromise to abusive and dysfunctional relationships, when we really should be running for the hills.
Your feelings and emotions are your accurate, internal measure of what you should do next. Emotional abuse feels bad, makes you nauseous, gives you anxiety attacks, with a generalized feeling of malaise, depression and low energy. The intensity of your feelings and emotions is a signal that things need to change if you are going to re-gain your mental, physical and spiritual health.
There is never any reason to tolerate physical, mental/emotional abuse, or bullying as a normal behavior. This seems like it is common sense, but it is not that easy to the person who is being physically abused, emotionally blackmailed, and threatened by law suits or any other kind of manipulation. The longer bullies bully their victim, the more debilitating fear cripples the victim. Domestic violence is never OK under any circumstance.
Freedom comes when you gather your courage, and STAND UP. Stand up for yourself, speak out to someone you can trust. Do not remain silent. Silence is not golden. Silence is deadly, literally. Bullies do not go away. Bullies get stronger the longer they stay at it. The longer a bully stays a bully, the more brazen they get, and the more their bullying tactics escalate.
An important point to make here is to realize that people with destructive personality disorders most often look just the same as you and me. Mass murderers do not look like mass murdereers. They look like regular people, for the most part. Abusive partners also dress in expensive clothing, can be financially successful, and have no tell-tale marks that make them stand out from no-abusive partners. They might even appear to have wide circles of “friends” around them, but the truth is, these are usually superficial trophies. Do not be intimated by any of this. This presentation of how bullies portray themselves is a facade. However, the vengeance the bully feels is very real, and must be dealt with, not ignored.
The question is how to stand up and deal with bullies, emotional blackmail, and threats of mental, emotional and physical abuse. Again, go by how you feel. You need to get to a safe place on all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, and spiritually. If you feel unsafe addressing these problems yourself, seek immediate help from a counselor, police, fire or shelter. Do not wait. Your health and well-being depend on getting help not only for yourself, but also for the abuser.
Manipulating behaviors tend to show up ever so subtly in the earlier days of the relationship, but can also manifest later in the relationship if stressors change. Pay attention. Pay attention to how you feel when certain things happen. You might even keep a journal of your feelings, if you feel safe to do so.
The important thing to know is there is no tolerance for abusive behaviors. Verbal abuse can be even more detrimental to the health and well-being of children, spouses, and everyone living or working under the same roof.
Sometimes abusive behaviors manifest over time, after the relationship is well-established. The person being abused knows that even the abusing person has a good side from time to time, and at the good times, has earned their love. The person being abused wonders if they have done or said something to trigger the abuse. Most often the person receiving the abuse is told it is their fault that the abuser is abusing. Know this is not true.
Everyone is in charge of their own feelings, emotions and actions. There is no way you are ever in charge of the abuser’s feelings, emotions or actions no matter what has happened.
You count.
You matter.
You are a gift from God.
You are beautiful, and I am so very glad you are here.
UNIVERSAL WISDOM ENLIGHTENMENT MASTERY 
