Creatorship

Finding peace when devastation hits...

 The following excerpts from Sarah Childre's letter (President, Institute of HeartMath) talk about the struggle for balance many of us are experiencing as the news from Haiti rips our hearts open. How do we maintain our inner peace when disaster strikes or the negativity of the news knocks the air out of us?

"Dear Friend, The devastation from the earthquake in Haiti has caused me to feel such compassion in my heart...

[However] At times our attempts at true compassion slip into feelings of gloom, pity and remorse. This often drains our energy and vitality that’s needed to sustain our personal health and well-being. I experienced this throughout my life until I learned the importance of balancing my care. If we employ our heart intelligence, we can feel compassion while deeply caring about what others are going through – yet we learn to do this without experiencing the emotions that drain and devitalize our personal energy....

We cannot change the devastation and human tragedy caused by events like the Haiti earthquake, but we can find peace and compassion by becoming genuinely aware of how we feel. Are you feeling hurt, angry or confused about this event or something else? Focus on your heart area and breathe in love, appreciation and compassion and breathe out the feelings that compromise your balanced care for one to three minutes...Objectivity will help to ease your feelings toward a state of neutral. When you rest in neutral and soak and relax in the compassion of your heart, you gradually dissolve hurt, anger and confusion. Do this daily until you feel you can send a few minutes of compassionate heart to a person, issue or situation. Continue sending heart whenever these feelings surface. In this way, you will begin to re-pattern yourself to become neutral when these feelings arise."

 Learn more about the process of re-patterning by going to Solutions for Stress - Depression in HeartMath’s Free Services section.

To read the rest of Sarah's letter, click here.

If you would like to participate in sending care to the people of Haiti, please join us at the Global Coherence Initiative

Life is like plumbing

One day I went to wash out an "unmentionable" in the bathroom sink, and low and behold the stopper wouldn’t work. I pried it out since it wouldn’t come up and looked down the drain...nothing.  Where did the little lever go?

So I decided "how hard could this be?"  I’d fix it. (My husband, Joseph, went on record saying we could get someone in... but I was determined.)  I went to Home Depot and found a wonderful man in plumbing who showed me the part I needed, as well as how it should fit into the other pipe.  Got it!

I went home and eventually pulled everything out from under the sink. I put Joseph's master tool kit within reach and got ready to start.  BUT WAIT! What is this water here.  Hmmmm...looks like a leak. Darn....

Joseph suggested I look at all the pipes because if one is bad the others are probably wearing out as well.  At this point I thought, "you have to be kidding?"  He wasn't. I took the trap off (the offender it turned out) and the straight pipe going into the wall which looked shabby. I carefully looked at the washers so I knew what went where. The pipe going into the sink seemed ok.  Back to Home Depot with my bag of old parts.

About this time I wondered, "What was I thinking?"  This is way more then I bargained for. OK...I told myself, this didn't involve soldering. Surely I could do this. 

Again the man in plumbing was helpful. I found a kit that had most of what I needed and located the other odd pieces required. Plumber man suggested I tape the threads to ensure a tight fit so I splurged on a $.99 roll of plumbers tape.  

Back home, Joseph was encouraging but left me to it. With some trepidation I started. Once I got into it, I found I was enjoying figuring it all out. Some time later, after a few re-dos, I finished. And, I have to say I was quite full of myself.

Plumbing is Just Like life:

• New ventures always take longer and are more complicated than you think they'll be (like having kids);
• Some place in the middle you panic and want to bail; 
• Then somewhere along the line you realize you are actually having fun;
• And finally, you feel good about accomplishing something you didn't know you could do.
• At any point in time, you can decide what you are doing is awful or an adventure. You can focus on fear or excitement. You can persist or give up.  How we live life is a a lot like plumbing.
  

So how do you think about money?

These days I think about my retirement. If you depend on investments, you know most of us are looking to make money and, because we can shift our money so easily, this encourages the Corporation's focus on short term results... often to the detriment of workers, community and environment.  What is one to do?

I know buying organic affects not just my health but that of the workers who are spared having to live with toxic pesticides. But buying local is also important. What if local is not organic?  What if buying local puts other farmers out of business and next winter I have to rely on those things you can store in a root cellar, the way my mother did when I was growing up. (The reason salads were scarce and always iceburg lettuce). What is one to do?

I just bought a car battery at WalMart because the battery was highly rated by Consumer Reports and cheaper. I know WalMart is a lightening rod for mixed feelings and reviews because of their size, the way they've treated workers, and their mixed impact on the environment and communities. What do you believe? How much change makes a company ethical or green?  What is one to do?

How do we chose?

I have no solutions but I'm interested in hearing what others are saying. There is a series starting that may be of interest in this regard. The Conscious Money Speakers  Series has a range of speakers addressing topics such as our personal attitudes toward money, taking back your time, and alternate economies.

The series runs Mondays 8:15-9:30 pm EST through April 5th. Vicki Robin, author of Your Money or Your Life, is doing the  free introduction tonight (sorry about the late notice).