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I just finished reading the latest book in M. B. Tosi's wonderful The Indian Path Series - it's The Crimson Path of Honor and I absolutely loved it. My review sums it up:
"The Crimson Path of Honor, the third of The Indian Path Series by M. B. Tosi, takes us back in time where a spoiled young woman raised in Boston discovers her fearless courage and life signature through learning the ways of a squaw while being known as 'Morning Star'.
"A white woman assimilating within a Native American culture, while the destruction of the Indian way of life was happening across the continent, is a theme of The Indian Path Series and is of interest to many Americans. As one who has traced his heritage back to the marriage of a Mohawk woman and a Dutchman in the 1600s, I especially appreciate these cultural-clashing stories that M. B. Tosi weaves."
~John G. Agno, certified executive & business coach and president of Signature, Inc., a leadership development firm located in Ann Arbor, MI.
The language is beautiful, her descriptions perfection, the plot is exciting and enduring and the characters unfold before you like enchanting flowers. You'll thrill at the forbidden love that blossoms between the beautiful blond woman and the handsome Indian chief - a can't miss - read it now! And when you order the book, you'll download as a bonus her previous in the series, The Secret Path of Destiny. What a gift! http://bit.ly/CrPath
In order to rediscover our natural confidence and live a fearless life, we must examine the challenge: we must "recognize fear."
Fear, for the neurophysiologists, is a stimulus to investigate, discern and resolve. Taking a Buddhist perspective on fear, however, requires that we make a simple, yet somewhat outrageous, observation: fear does not exist. This is not to say we don't experience fear and its many forms. Of course, we are afraid of death and pain, afraid that we can't handle life. We fear new situations and the unknown. Yet, while we may want to define fear, explore fear, and possibly even resolve it, we first must acknowledge that we cannot actually find such a solid thing as "fear" at all.
Our ability to suddenly discover a powerful seat of fearless abundance may not be all that fantastic. In fact, rediscovering this fearless abundance is considered more likely than we think and is traditionally often referred to as "discovering the wish-fulfilling gem." Discovering the gem is said to happen abruptly, like winning a lottery, thus opening up a sudden physical and spiritual energy similar to that of riding a mighty horse. This frees the mind of impoverishment and revels the natural state of fearless abundance.
I have written about spiritual enlightenment for many years, exploring its remarkable nature, revelations and effects.
Called by countless names (like satori, mystical experience, or cosmic consciousness) depending on one's philosophy and theology, it's that unpredictable and timeless moment when the mind's chatter stops, perception and consciousness intensify incredibly, identity and ego boundaries may dissolve, and a divine and loving Presence seems to engulf or permeate everything, evoking a feeling of ecstasy and often providing profound insights about the spiritual nature of life.
What I never anticipated, however, was how the enlightenment experience would also creep up on me as I aged. I now believe that aging is enlightenment in slow motion, if we pay attention.
Subtle changes in consciousness appear naturally and spontaneously in the aging experience. Released from the tyranny of clock, calendar and career, we slow down to "smell the roses" and often notice fascinating shifts in awareness. See if you can identify some of these changes:
A gradual fading of identity as if who you were or think you are is no longer very important or even that real.
Unexpected experiences of a silent and thoughtless consciousness in which there is no sense of purpose, effort, agenda, point of view or even a thinker.
Unusually intense and vivid sensory perceptions revealing the nearly indescribable beauty of the world around you.
Moments of unexplained joy, wonder and childlike innocence.
Loss of interest in or attachment to material things that once seemed so important.
Feelings of unconditional love and compassion for the world and all living things.
Subtle awareness of a larger consciousness all around you, as if consciousness were no longer in you but you were in it.
Spontaneous spiritual insights that surprise you with their depth and significance.
These kinds of experiences may signal a growing awareness of enlightenment consciousness breaking into everyday life. What is their purpose? With the unprecedented longevity gifted us by science, medicine and nutrition, we boomers again have a chance to change the world - not by heroic means, but by a change in consciousness. As we integrate more awakened consciousness into our lives, values and activities, Enlightened Elders will subtly change the consciousness of humanity - away from the warrior model of western civilization to a more loving, inclusive, and enlightened way of life. Will join us?
Bio: John C. Robinson, Ph.D., D.Min. is a clinical psychologist with a second doctorate in ministry, an ordained interfaith minister, and the author of seven books on the interface of psychology and spirituality. His recent works include The Three Secrets of Aging, Bedtime Stories for Elders: What Fairy Tales Can Teach Us About the New Aging, and the forthcoming What Aging Men Want: Homer's Odyssey as a Parable of Male Aging. You can learn more about John at http://www.johnrobinson.org/
While people may express gratitude when they gather at Thanksgiving, showing appreciation is far from traditional at the office.
The workplace ranks dead last among the places people express gratitude, from homes and neighborhoods to places of worship. Only 10% of adults say thanks to a colleague every day, and just 7% express gratitude daily to a boss, according to a survey this year of 2,007 people for the John Templeton Foundation of West Conshohocken, Pa., a nonprofit organization that sponsors research on creativity, gratitude, freedom and other topics. Spouses, partners, children, parents, friends and mere acquaintances are up to four times more likely to get a thank-you, participants said.
That is why Blogging Boomer Carnival #287 is focused on giving thanks to the people we care about and to what we have received in our lifetime. Thanksgiving is a significant cultural meme that goes back deep into our history:
By the time fall arrived in 1621, things were going much better for the Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1620 to what today we call Plymouth, MA within the United States of America, thanks to the help they had received. The corn they planted had grown well. There was enough food to last the winter. They were living comfortably in their Indian-style wigwams and had also managed to build one European-style building out of squared logs. This was their church. They were now in better health, and they knew more about surviving in this new land. The Pilgrims decided to have a thanksgiving feast to celebrate their good fortune. They had observed thanksgiving feasts in November as religious obligations in England for many years before coming to the New World.
Rita R. Robison, consumer journalist blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, is thankful for her family and having a house to live in and a car to drive. Rita also is thankful she has health care insurance.
Tom Sightings knows plenty of people who decided not to get married, who decide not even to get roommates. They choose to live the solo lifestyle, which does offer its advantages. But he is thankful for the people he lives with -- his Significant Other, as well as various children who occasionally stop by for a visit, all people who love him, support him, dine and sleep with him, and occasionally annoy the hell out of him.
As Baby Boomers retire (or move into another career as dictated by finances), they reconsider life's meaning as they move closer to the end of their lives.
Today, American corporations are seemingly more interested in spirituality at work. Downsizing, reengineering, and current layoffs have demoralized employees. The workplace has been perceived more as a primary source of community due to a lack of communal activity outside of work.. There also seems to be an increased access and curiosity about other cultures and philosophies which has promoted a kind of spiritual revival across North America.
Spirituality in the workplace focuses on the recognition of the “soul” of a person at the organizational level; interpersonal caring, relationship building, participatory management, employee empowerment, employee wellness, work-life balance initiatives, and training development or potential ways of revitalizing the “soul” at work.
While offering constructs that seemingly unite a myriad of positive workplace values and behaviors, religiosity and spirituality provide descriptions that represent psychological phenomenon which can be discretely measured. That is the subject of a new research paper to be presented next month at the 2010 Academy of Management Conference in Montreal by Dr. Daniel E. Martin, vice president of Alinea Group SF and associate professor in the management department at California State University, East Bay.
A growing body of evidence suggests that humans have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life. With the help of well-designed experiments, you can see glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling even in the first year of life.
Morality, for instance, is closely related to notions of praise and blame: we want to reward what we see as good and punish what we see as bad. Morality is also closely connected to the ideal of impartiality — if it’s immoral for you to do something to me, then, all else being equal, it is immoral for me to do the same thing to you. In addition, moral principles are different from other types of rules or laws: they cannot, for instance, be overruled solely by virtue of authority. (Even a 4-year-old knows not only that unprovoked hitting is wrong but also that it would continue to be wrong even if a teacher said that it was O.K.) And we tend to associate morality with the possibility of free and rational choice; people choose to do good or evil. To hold someone responsible for an act means that we believe that he could have chosen to act otherwise.
To have a genuinely moral system, some things first have to matter, and what we see in babies is the development of mattering. So, what do babies really understand about morality? Let's begin by investigating what babies think about two particular kinds of action: helping and hindering.
Marlene, a mother, was raising Hannah, a very strong-willed seven-year-old, and the two were having a bad day.
Finally, Hannah put her hands on her hips in exasperation and said, "You know, Mom, this just isn't working out. I want a new mother."
Marlene, a very bright woman, knew exactly how to handle the situation. Without flinching, she said, "Well, I think we can arrange that, I know someone who would love to have another child."
She went to the telephone and pretended to call a neighbor. After faking a greeting, she said, "Hannah has decided she doesn't want to live here anymore, and I was wondering if you would like to have her come be your little girl?"
Hannah's bluff had backfired. She immediately ran to her mother and said, "No, no, no, Mom! Let's give it another shot."
You know that clashes like this between mothers and daughters are standard fare, even when the kids are young. Raising a tough-as-nails child is no easy task, and at times you need the wisdom of Solomon to keep her on track.
And yes, it is more difficult now than in the past because of cultural intrusions. Yet, staying in touch with each child emotionally should be a matter of the highest priority. You have to hang in there until the upheaval passes.
A new book by Dr. James Dobson, America's foremost authority on parenting, tackles questions mothers have, offering wisdom and encouragement based on a firm foundation of biblical principles. Perhaps, boomer grandparents might consider giving this gift to their favorite young mothers for Mother's Day to be celebrated on Sunday, May 9th...
For more on what's happening now in the life of Baby Boomers, consider visiting Barbara Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels for this week's Blogging Boomer Carnival #159.
Abstracted from an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal of March 27, 2010 by Lionel Tiger
At least 80% of human beings, some five billion souls, are affiliated with one or another of the 4,200 religious organizations statisticians have identified. Most are confident of the singular superiority of their group. But where does the basis for religious conviction come from?
Are people religious because they find a particular theology convincing? Some converts might, though they are a tiny number of believers. Far more likely is that their faith emerges from the group with which they are affiliating and in which they are likely to have been born and raised. Religious groups are intensely social, and hitherto unexpected links between social behavior and brain chemistry are now almost routinely identified.
One such connection, identified at UCLA Medical School by Michael Mcquire, is between secretion of the neurotransmitter serotonin and the sense of status an individual possesses—which for well or ill led to psychoactive drugs such as Prozac.
Other researchers, such as USC's Antonio Damasio and former University of Mexico faculty member Jay Feierman, have combined interests in neurophysiology and the sources of social cohesion to explore the fundamental nature of religion.
Any thoughtful answers to questions about the nature of religion must account for the fact that for centuries and everywhere human beings have created and sustained a set of ideas well outside the realm of daily experience—ideas claimed as versions of that supernature that persists in the different flavors and textures of contemporary religions.
The scientific conclusion may be that religion is a natural system that replaces what we can call "brainpain," which everyone experiences, with its antidote, "brainsoothing." This can result from exercise or meditation or perfume or simply chatting with friends. The evidence of millennia is that it also can result from going to a house of worship on a regular basis and communing with the almighty and a group of fellow believers.
The stunning possibility is that religion will find its sturdiest roots in the natural, not the supernatural.
Mr. Tiger, a professor of anthropology at Rutgers, is the author, with Michael McGuire, of "God's Brain," published by Prometheus Books.
My son, Randy Ryan Agno endured a difficult childhood while developing the resilience to survive and prosper.
Randy's childhood wasn't filled with Mommy and Me classes, Gymboree, Little League, ballet, drama club, summer camp, traveling soccer teams, piano lessons, science competitions, SAT prep classes and college visits. In his childhood, he learned quickly how to protect himself...since there were no boomer "helicopter parents" hovering over him so long that their offspring never got a chance to grow up.
Yet, as a successful adult, he felt uneasy because he knew that many other children were not able to follow a similar path. Then one morning he had an epiphany in his parked vehicle on the side of a California freeway. That event is changing his life dramatically.
Painful childhood experiences can either weaken or strengthen a person. Randy's early life struggles have made him strong, perceptive and emotionally intelligent enough to publicly tell his story so that other suffering children might also develop the confidence and faith necessary to survive and prosper as adults.
Every childcare worker and teacher should read Randy's story to better understand what some young people may be enduring silently and painfully at the place they call home. Only through gaining such awareness can we take the appropriate action to save a child.
As parents and grandparents, we would like to help children learn through play. The holidays present an opportunity to provide gifts that allow them to imagine, create and explore. But finding ways to make your holiday gift stand out takes some thought about what would make the young recipient happy.
Merchants in your mailbox or computer help you choose just the right thing by flipping through their catalog or visiting their website. From the MetKids (The Metropolitan Museum of Art Store) to Cricket (Cricket Magazine Group) to Discovery Channel Store to Young Explorers, catalogs may help you find just the right gift to make a difference in a child's life by inspiring him or her to read, make music, draw, build, create, imagine and explore.
Spending parental energy on teaching the child good manners, respect for authority and other practical life skills is important. Knowing right from left and right from wrong matters. How to pay attention to an adult leads to basic manners. Entering a room quietly, knowing how to tie shoes, listening to an adult read a story and patiently wait their turn opens the door to learning.
Helping children develop concentration and task commitment along with a love for work is a cornerstone of the Montessori approach. Montessori fosters creativity, self-confidence and an entrepreneurial spirit according to its graduates. Here is what a couple of successful grads have to say:
When Barbara Walters interviewed Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google, they didn't attribute their remarkable success to universities, like Sanford or Michigan, but give credit to their Montessori schools. According to Brin, the Montessori approach instilled in them self-direction and self-motivation, an inclination to challenge the status quo and to do things differently.
The Internet has become deeply embedded in our daily lives...even for 5-year olds.
My grandson, who was 5 in August, loves to play games on kids' websites. He is beginning to read what's on the computer screen, as well as in his library of children's books. Today, 71 percent of American households have Web access and that is where many children spend their time at play. That's why an online book club for kids may be of interest to the young people in your life. I encourage you to take a moment to check out a sample kid's story and enjoy the holiday spirit in the midst of the busyness around us all at this time of the year.
Take a look atone or both of these sample holiday storiesto get a feel for how they help young people read while at play:The Electric Star Storyor The Greatest Christmas Gift.This online children's book club is the kind of holiday gift that keeps on giving throughout the New Year while making a difference in a child's life.
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