Deepak Chopra

Well I'm watching Ellen Degeneres and Deepak Chopra is on. She asked him if he had a New Year's Resolution, and he said "to embrace uncertainty". I thought in light of my previous post on the movie Doubt, that this was so uncanny!

He is also asking people to make a vow of nonviolence in their thoughts, speech and action. This includes not complaining or criticizing...wow! Can you imagine how our planet would shift if everyone did this? If you want to know more or want to join in and make the vow, go to the website: http://itakethevow.com/

Part of the vow is getting more people to join in the vow. If you are joining, leave a comment here and let me know.

Doubt

Even though it is called Doubt, the new movie with Meryl Streep is more a movie about the dangers of “certainty”.

The word doubt means to be undecided or skeptical. One might think that being certain about something would be admirable, at least that’s what my husband used to tell me. He was frustrated that it took me so long to make up my mind. Often it is beneficial to be certain…there is tremendous power in Intention and clarity. However, what I have found is that there can also be great wisdom in uncertainty, especially when it involves others.

Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) began to have some doubts about Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) when he paid personal attention to a student. In and of itself, having doubts is not a bad thing, yet she didn’t act like a person who simply doubted. She acted like a person who had her mind already made up. She didn’t have any proof, but she had her certainty!

When we are certain we are locked into a position, and then we look for evidence to support our entrenched position. If we are uncertain, then we remain open to exploration and to discovery. In certainty we are invested in being right. In uncertainty we are not attached to any outcome.

I admire Meryl Streep and think she is a great actress, although her character in this movie is not easy to like. She does a great job here of playing a stodgy nun who seems to find her purpose in making others miserable. She also has a history. She has had an experience with a priest in the past and so she brings that to her current situation.

All of us do that. We bring our past into the present and it influences our choices. Sometimes that is beneficial, and sometimes it isn’t. When is it right to move forward in certainty, and when is it important to do nothing and remain in doubt? That is the question this movie explores.

I really haven’t given away anything that wasn’t shown in the trailers. You will have to watch the movie to find out how it ends….I was a little surprised, but then again I really wasn’t. The ending made perfect sense to me. This movie is one that leaves you pondering. There is one thing I was not in doubt about: I loved this movie!!

Here’s the trailer in case you haven’t seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpa37qaOp80

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I don’t know of anyone who likes growing old. Oh, most of us have made peace with it. Many of us, myself included, would not dream of going back to those unenlightened teen years. I rather like the person I have become; yet there are times…today for example with spasms in my back and joint pain, when I’d love to have a much younger body.

What if there was a clock that went backwards?

It has some appeal. I could go back to that younger body. I could go back to when my husband was still alive. Who wouldn’t like that scenario? However, the clock would keep turning and eventually it would revert back to before I even met him and then there I’d be without him again.

What if the clock only went backwards for you while the rest of the world kept going forward? What if you were born old, wrinkled and feeble and then proceeded to age backwards? It’s an interesting and intriguing thought and one that the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button explores.

Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) was born with the body of an eighty year old. He was raised in a nursing home and his first steps were taken from a wheelchair. Yet even with an old body, he still had the innocence of a child. He doesn’t come into the world with the maturity or wisdom of one who has lived those eighty years. He must still learn to speak and to walk and to read and to write.

This movie isn’t about wishing one were younger or longing for the past. It really isn’t even about living life backwards. If Benjamin had really been living life backwards then he would have gone back through the birth canal and become a fetus again. If you saw the movie, then you know that is not what happened.

No, this film did not make me want to live my life backwards, but what it did was give me a greater appreciation for aging and the elderly. Everyone loves babies and we ooh and aah whenever we see them. The old, it sadly seems, we mostly ignore. Maybe that is because babies remind us of possibility and joyous times, while the elderly remind us of where we are headed and don’t want to go.

In this movie, however, the elderly are treated with loving respect. Benjamin is raised with the elderly and we quickly see that the very old and the very young have quite a lot in common. They both need diapers. They both need help walking and eating. They both speak without monitoring or even caring whether the other person is interested. There is an elderly man in the film who had been hit by lightening 7 times during his life, and he tells people over and over and over again.

Except for aches and pains, and more life experience, the elderly are very much like infants. Perhaps that is because they are both so close to Spirit. Babies have just emerged from this other Spirit world and still remember who they are and where they came from. You can see it when you look in their eyes. The elderly know that they are almost there too, and perhaps are already hanging out sometimes in that other dimension.

While I’m not always happy with my aching, changing body, I am learning to embrace this process we call aging. I think after this movie, I will never look at the elderly quite the same again…

Yes Man

I have a talk I give when I’m trying out at a church entitled “Just Say Yes”, so I’m no stranger to the idea of saying yes to life. While I believe it is important to say yes to our dreams and to those “calls” of spirit, I also know that sometimes it is just as important to be able to say no.

I have a friend who says yes a lot. I think it is because she has trouble saying no. She is very generous and gives and gives of herself and her resources to friends and family. Some of us have been telling her she needs to say yes less often. So she’s been working with a new statement: “that doesn’t work for me.” It’s a fancy way of saying no without having to actually say the word.

Carl Allen (Jim Carrey) has mastered the art of saying no. He’s a loan officer in a dead end job who had his heart broken in love. He hibernates in his apartment watching videos and comes up with all kinds of excuses to keep from going out with his friends. One friend finally shakes him out of his inertia and invites him to a self-help seminar where he is shamed into making a covenant to say yes to absolutely everything. It is no surprise that his life dramatically changes!

Carl says yes to giving a ride, and then all of his money to a homeless man and ends up having to walk miles when his car runs out of gas. Some of his yes choices seem to get him into trouble, but he continues to say yes, yes, yes. Would you like to pay the entire bar tab…yes. Would you like to drink Red Bull all night...yes. Would you like to go outside and fight…yes.

I remember growing up and being upset because my mom always seemed to say no when all of my friends were saying yes. I can still remember my mother asking me, “If everyone asked you to go jump off of a bridge would you do it?” Well apparently, according to this movie the answer should be yes. (You’ll have to see the movie to see why this works out okay.)

The point of this movie isn’t that we should say yes to everything with no discernment, rather it points out that when you have had a lifetime of saying no, sometimes you have to get a bit radical to break out of that pattern. Sometimes you have to force yourself to say yes even when you think you want to say no. Carl learns that he hasn’t just been saying no to others, he had been saying no to himself, and to a greater life. In the end he learns that saying no can also be a way of saying yes…yes to you.

My friend does not have Carl’s problem. She has a lifetime of saying yes. We could all learn a few things from her. Now, by getting clearer on what works for her, she is learning to say yes to herself.

Music Box Dancer

One of my all time favorite Christmas songs is Music Box Dancer. I used to have it in an album years ago. I went looking for a version online today and found it on youtube. I just love the Internet! I thought I’d share it here in case someone else might enjoy it. Merry Christmas everyone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwQzg3tITT4

The R Word

We’ve been dancing around the R word for quite some time. Finally this week, our president and financial experts admitted that we are in the midst of a recession. Well, just because the country is experiencing financial challenges doesn’t mean we have to plummet into fear. I am currently unemployed, yet I still feel abundant.

I prefer, instead, to focus my attention on another R word…Riches.

I am rich with friends who love me and support me in my spiritual journey. I am rich with time to spend in any way I choose. I am rich with creativity that I can share here in this blog, in my book, or any other way Spirit might direct. I am rich with good health. I am rich with love for my cats, my friends, my neighbors, my relatives, as well as those I have yet to befriend.

I have a wonderful place to live that is decorated just the way I like. I put up my Christmas tree yesterday with my niece Antoinette’s help, and I am thoroughly enjoying this holiday season. My cupboards are filled with wonderful food, and my car is filled with gas, and I have money in my bank account. Even without these things, I would choose to feel rich.

During these “difficult” financial times we can choose to focus on what we have, rather than what the world perceives that we don’t have. If we are experiencing issues with money…we can spend some time appreciating how rich we truly are right now. If money is what we want…we can know that we live in an abundant universe and whatever we need is coming to us.

Which R word are you choosing? Here is a wonderful song and video that might help you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8b2_1It_4k

Appreciating Winter

Well winter is here. While I enjoy a little snow now and then, I have never been a big fan of winter. I was raised in California where the winters were always pretty mild, and yet even so…I never looked forward to those big dips in temperature.

I realize that winter is a very necessary part of our earth’s ecosystem. I was married to a farmer who was always quick to remind me of the balances needed in nature. I have always taught about the need for wholeness and non-duality, so I know about the importance of winter. The dark and cold of winter is but the polar opposite of light and warmth. You can’t have one without the other; they are a part of the whole. Knowing this helps somewhat, yet I usually find myself initially resisting the changes when they come.

However, it doesn’t take me long to start the list of good things to remember about this time of year. There is snowfall, and I am lucky to live now where it snows just the right amount. Even in California I was able to drive to the snow to go downhill skiing. You can’t do that in hot weather! There is sipping hot chocolate while sitting in front of a fire—how I love my fireplace! There is snuggling up with my cats. They seem to want to snuggle more when it’s cold. Callie is leaning against my arm now, making typing a tad bit difficult…LOL.

Then of course there is my favorite part of winter…Christmas! I love Christmas and everything about it. I am going to decorate my tree this week. So, once again I am reminded that winter is a vital part of my life experience, and I am grateful for all of life. How about you?

Click on comments and tell me some of your favorite things about winter.