Be it ever so humble…here’s our New Year’s Eve in Redwood City, CA – complete with interesting neighbors, mariachi (which unfortunately you can’t quite hear thru the Flip’s limited mike), a gen-u-wine Radar Range, gunfire, rockets, Dick Clark, brother Johannes on the FaceBook, @andrealee and other darlings on TweetDeck, shrimp & assorted sauces (only a fraction of the truly decadent parade of food we had during the evening – oh yes), Piper Heidsieck champagne and the much-beloved JBear…
Do you know about Kwanzaa? It is celebrated to honor the first fruits of Harvest and happens this week, December 26th – January 1st as a festival of African-American culture, beauty and unity. I didn’t know about this beautiful festival until just a few years ago, though it was begun in America in 1966 by black studies professor, Maulana Karenga.
Below is a primer from BeliefNet.com to enjoy. There is a space between the early December holy days of Hanukkah and Solstice, this year on the 21st, then between Solstice and Christmas on the 25th and Christmas and New Year’s on January 1st. Kwanzaa wonderfully carries on the holy days festival calendar with its timeless Seven Principles.
This year, I am taking as a personal motto and charge:
Principle of Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility
You might say 2010 is the Year of Ujima for all conscious people to rise and together, swing this world away from destruction the prophets of doom predict and slew our collective Bliss Compass around so the wind’s at our backs this time ~ towards a kind land where Presence, equanimity and good faith exist among all.
For a start.
Check out what else Kwanzaa means and follow the links back to BeliefNet for more info:
KWANZAA: The First Fruits of the Harvest
When It Falls
Kwanzaa is an annual festival that lasts seven days, from December 26 to January 1.
Meaning
The word Kwanzaa comes from the phrase, ‘matunda ya kwanza,’ which means ‘first fruits of the harvest’ in Swahili. Kwanzaa is modeled on the first fruit celebrations of ancient Africa. It is now a celebration of African-American family, community, and self-improvement.
History
Kwanzaa was created as a cultural festival in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, now a black studies professor. The festival was created to encourage African-Americans to think about their African roots and develop a higher African-American consciousness.
Seven Principles (Nguzo Saba)
Umoja — Unity
Kujichagulia — Self-Determination
Ujima — Collective Work and Responsibility
Ujamaa — Cooperative Economics
Nia — Purpose
Kuumba — Creativity
Imani — Faith
Ritual Objects & Symbols
Mkeka — straw table mat, on which all other objects are placed
Mazao — crops, symbols of the fruits of collective labor
Muhindi — one ear of corn for each child, symbolizing fertility
Kikombe cha umoja — the unity cup, used to perform the libation ritual
Zawadi — gifts, traditional items that encourage success
Kinara — candleholder, a symbol of ancestry
Mishumaa saba — seven candles, one for each of the seven Kwanzaa principles
Customs
Each night, the family gathers to light the candles of the kinara, adding one candle for each day of the holiday. A traditional feast is held on the night of December 31.
Gifts
Gifts are usually opened on the last day of Kwanzaa, January 1. Gifts are considered part of the “kuumba,” or creativity, principle and are encouraged. Traditional presents are books and heritage symbols.
Traditional Greeting
“Habari gani?”, to which one replies with the Kwanzaa principle of the day.
Traditional Meal
Most celebrants have a feast, called a karamu, on December 31.
CONTENTS * Holiday Gratitude & New Direction
* Solstice (OMG!) Call Replay, Gifts & Rocky Roads
* French Ingenuity, Transparency Redux & My Motley Past
* Busy Women: Freebies For The Tired & Time-Starved Family
* Transformation Tool: EVOLUTIONARY ENVIRONMENTS
* Availability Pledge, Jaw Surgery & Are We Connected?
* Old Family Recipes: Organic, Gluten-Free Yuletide Wassail Bowl
Welcome To The Party…
This is my WHACKIN’ HUGE LOAD OF PRIMO CONTENT, tons’a prezzies, and catch-up letter for the year.
There’s some interesting stuff in here – teeth video, mom’s meal planners, transformers, my motley past, a commentary on gurus and a whole basket of yuletide g’ifts & goodness. Check the index above for juice-factor!
A very Merry Christmas and Solstice this week to you. I wanted to give you yuletide greetings while also telling you how very much I appreciate you.
I am deeply grateful for everyone who is tuned into the Now, and interested in raising consciousness on the planet like I know you are. At least, if you’re hip to joining this community, I hope you’re into waking up the planet and spreading a wave of consciousness throughout the world. We’re going to be doing a lot of that in 2010 together, so get ready – fun times ahead!
Oh by the way, I should mention that in this last year I’ve taken off to rest, reflect, refresh and retool, my business has changed a good deal. I’m not ready to say much more until after New Year’s, but Consciousness-bringing is definitely the direction. More later on that
*** FREE Replay of The Solstice World Transformation Ritual & Rocky Roads Ahead ***
We had an amazing time Monday during the exact time of Winter Solstice, doing a ritual of clearing out the old, bringing in the desired and learning how each of our lives is sacred and how we are all priest/esses in our lives. I’m not using that as a religious term, but a spiritual one, for we are all here as teachers and students of each other.
We had five beautiful Priestesses of Dawn attend us with blessings of sacredness & joy which I can’t begin to put into words. You should hear theirs – I’m offering the replay and the TEN different gifts we put together into a “Make 2010 The Year You REALLY SHINE” package.
It’s awesome-sauce! And available for replay to soak up those wonderful lessons & techniques, if you let me know your opinion on some really important issues:
I’m committed to serving you so much better in 2010 than I have in the past. There may be some rocky roads ahead for our planet, and some big changes for us as human beings. I’m stepping up in service of supporting and forearming people like you through those changes, with a magic bag full of easily learnable tools to help you accomplish that Big Mission of yours.
That’s one of my most cherished 2010 goals.
But to do that, I need you to tell me what YOU really want and need to have happen in your life this year.
I know that time is precious and valuable. So I’m willing to make it worth your time – there’s a bunch of goodness waiting for you at the end of this rainbow:
From the Blog: French Ingenuity, Transparency & My Motley Past
An absolutely amazing video of French students doing stop-motion chair dance shows us a new Bliss Key: Cheerful Cooperation. When you engage this Bliss Key, the Bliss Blocker it unlocks is twofold:
1) The Need To Be Right – those who need to be right are rarely happy
2) Self-Isolation, leading to depression
Transparency, Gurus, Gory Details & Telling Secrets – trending topics over at the blog and ’round about the web since the James Arthur Ray sweatlodge deaths. This is part of that discussion:
Transparency, translucence, living a conscious life – or whatever you call it, is not only the birthright and destiny of every human, but also our responsibility to the future. Our choices are essential, each one important, even east or west, choosing paper, plastic or bring-your-own, choosing to remain conscious in the face of frightening and destructive acts of unspeakable evil, or parking a block away.
We bear witness.
We choose with our intention and our energy the best and most evolutionary choices we can possibly make given our individual situation. Only we can make that choice, no one can do it for us. It’s called taking personal responsibility and it’s a Rubicon we all have to cross at some point in adult life to become fully human.
And we know that while (often intensely) impactful, our situation is not personal. Such a situation or lesson, if we choose to see it this way, is given to billions. Lessons are 100% Universal.
Thinking further on this brought me to the universals in how humans encode their experience that created The ETHOS Method.
What else is Universal? Living life asleep. And the ability to wake up, will do for a start. Spread the Wave – Consciousness will set you free. Really.
The post that’s really got folks buzzing, on spiritual abusers in our midst, offer of abuse-prevention how-to and some details of my er, motley past – comment stream is also worth a read:
Head’s Up Moms: FREEBIES For The Tired & Time-Starved Family
Moms especially will love this collection of f’ree downloadable organizer pages for your day, week, month and year. Three whole pages, about eighteen different forms in all to print and help organize the chaos of an active family! There’s a fall cleaning checklist, the “Eat Sheet” for a week’s worth of meals, a weekly family calendar, baby’s schedule, infant babysitter checklist and more. You don’t even have to sign up, just download:
There’s more of the same (only different) over at http://www.cozi.com/ too. Check ‘em both out!
Transformation Tool: EVOLUTIONARY ENVIRONMENTS
One of the evolutionary environments I indulge in frequently is
my back garden. From the covered deck, I can observe wildlife and
rejoice in my fur-daughters’ play. I love it, and it evolves me
uniquely well.
This is a Mellowvision vid for you to relax to. I like making panoramas as turning in place is fun. Now you see what I see every afternoon. I’m out there rain or shine, it’s a must for mental health.
Enjoy!
Availability Pledge, Jaw Surgery & Are We Connected?
I pledge to be more available to you in 2010. For one thing, I’ll be making lots of videos from now on. I’ve gone a bit video nutty really, as I’ve used my Flip Mino to exhaustion and happen to know Santa is dropping off a Kodak zi8.
(will it be aqua or raspberry? dunno…the Bear wouldn’t tell)
Of interest is the fact that in the new year I’ll be having jaw surgery. Not cosmetic, apparently I have really strong bones (a good thing since Mom had osteoporosis) and they’re crowding my teeth too much – several teeth need to be reseated in the jaw. Yuck, yuck, yuck. It’ll be gnarly, but I’ll be documenting this and how I’m dealing with discomfort. We’ll be doing a pain management class next year.
Interested in learning to get rid of pain? Again, let me know here:
And I’m going to be offering ways in which we can easily talk together about what’s important in 2010. A few are available right now, and the team is hard at work developing more. Are we connected? I’d love it if you’d Friend me on:
“Wassail and wassail all over the town,
Our Cup it is white and your ale it is brown…”
– Gloucester Wassail, arr. English Traditional
Wassail is a contraction of the old Anglo-Saxon phrase “wes thu hal” meaning “To Your Health”. And of course, the traditional toasting beverage of this “best time of the year” ~ which in this case is a non-alcoholic hot apple cider punch we serve for the winter holidays. It is never served any other time of the year. You can twiddle the ingredients about a bit, Graines of Paradise may be hard to come by but you can substitute pink or green peppercorns or just leave it out.
Want to up the octane? Add a full bottle of mead (honey wine), barleywine or even a crisp chardonnay to the mix, or a shot of Applejack to each mug.
To two gallons apple cider add:
15 dried dates
20 dried apple rings
1 orange cut into thin slices w/peel left on
1 lemon cut into thin slices w/peel left on
3 cinnamon sticks, whole
1tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1″ fresh ginger, sliced thin
Handful each:
Mixed dried fruit bits
Dried Cranberries
Dried Cherries
Large pinch each:
Whole coriander seed
Whole cardmom pod, well crushed
Whole cloves
Cinnamon chips or small pieces
Small pinch each:
Allspice berries
Damascena rose petals or 1tbsp rose water
Dried barberries (can substitute 1tsp lemon juice + tbsp raisins)
Graines of paradise (or pink or green peppercorns)
Add:
1/4 – 1/2 cup brown sugar or blue agave or maple syrup, to taste
Crush all the spices and add to the cider and fruits in a large stainless steel or enameled pan. Simmer until volume is reduced by a third. When cooked down to your taste, strain through coffee filter or paper towel to remove pulp and spices. Replace a few fresh lemon, orange and apple rings and add 2 new cinnamon sticks to serve. Serve piping hot.
How DOES it get any better…?
I’ll be back to you just before New Year’s with some more juice for your joyous life and ways for you to live in ease, grace and joy.
For now, just keep asking: “How does it get any better than this?” Don’t wait for an answer, just let it be out there, so it can return to you in wondrous ways!
There are so many lessons in Presence, in Community, Leadership and Cooperation we can learn from animals. Here’s just one more for the holidays. Before you roast that Christmas goose (if that’s your thing) check out what these community-minded fowl can teach us all.
Leadership Lessons We can Learn From Geese
Geese Fact: As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an “uplift” for the other birds to follow. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 70% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.
Our Lesson: People who share a common direction and a sense of community get where they are going quicker and easier — because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.
Geese Fact: When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.
Our Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose, we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.
Geese Fact: When a goose tires, it rotates to the back of the formation as another goose flies to the point opposite.
Our Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other’s skills, capabilities and unique arrangement of gifts, talents or resources.
Geese Fact: The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Our Lesson: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups — where there is encouragement to stand by one’s heart or core values and encourage the same in others — is the sort of honking we seek.
Geese Fact: When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then they launch out in formation and try to catch the flock.
Our Lesson: If we had as much sense as geese, we would stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.
Note: Though many others have been credited, Dr Robert McNeish of Baltimore, MD is the author of this piece, which was written in 1972 as a lay sermon delivered to Northminster Presbyterian Church in Reisterstown, MD. Dr McNeish was a biology teacher who enjoyed observing the geese on the eastern Atlantic shores of Maryland. Thanks to the exhaustive research of Sue Widemark for the provenance of this article.
Friendship and love, even across species. This is what it looks like. Check your heart when you look at this picture…that’s what it feels like. (see below for more)
It always amazes me when I meet people who won’t cosy up to another human being, who won’t accept help, whose stiff-necked pride depends on being “completely, totally independent”. I used to see that a lot back when I was a social worker. And even today, in some who would consider it beneath them to accept a helping hand, or others who won’t reach out to their networks when they really need to.
Now I enjoy my financial independence, being an independent thinker and things like that, but will I accept a hug, a friendly nuzzle or a helping hand? Oh, you betcha! And revel in the close-knit communities I enjoy being part of.
Come on, folks. It’s the holidays. If you really need to, and even if you don’t – reach out, please. You’ll be doing someone else the immense favor of allowing them the extreme blessing of giving, and yourself the equal blessing of receiving. No perps, no victims – it’s an equal exchange. Think about it.
Ask your mom or maiden aunt for a hug. Get your dad to help you check your tires or change a lightbulb. Sincerely ask a colleague’s opinion on your latest product or business thought. ‘Tis the season of giving, so give that blessing to others.
In that, we can all stand to learn a thing or two from our animal friends. The first thing we can all do with more of that this pair of buddies has down: friendship and love – even across different species. Thanks to Certified Energy Coach Carol Sanderell for sending this beautiful photo essay and heartwarming story of the fawn Finchen and her wild rabbit companion seen above.
The full essay (in both German and English) with loads of pictures can be found here: http://www.tanja-askani.de/ Talk about magic, communication and inspiration! If you’re a big softie like me, you’ll cry tears of joy. Check out her other photos of interspecies communication. Warm your cockles for darn sure.
Join Our Festive and Transformative Holiday Party!
This call was held: Friday, December 19, 2008 at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern, 10pm UK. Replay is below…
We learned a technique my husband taught me on our first date…and worked with “chakra lights” in a brand new way…
This technique is a blend you’ve never experienced before – and it will be yours from now on.
During this call, we also covered points from the upcoming Magic of Consciousness and 12 Keys to Bliss programs that you can use to make your holidays sane havens of peaceful living including:
• The Stop Stress Side-Step
• Lost Key To Bliss – The Law Of Allowance
• Regaining time & Solving Problems through POC/POD Collapse
But there was also a higher purpose to this telegathering.
“The opportunity for us to grow exponentially as individuals and community is already present.”
Many people are feeling the pull towards a new dimension of being, thought, and freedom from limitation.
Consciousness. It’s in the air, it’s being talked about all over.
There is an unprecedented opportunity at this time of year to use the magic of the season and the increased goodwill to create even more consciousness in yourself and in the world around you.
How will you leverage this opportunity as an individual? As a member of a community?
Together, we are much more powerful that we are individually.
In this call we discovered just how powerful we are together, using what we learned.
We learned how to remain Present when all around you dissolves in chaos – particularly when family members and stress are present in the same gathering.
Got Sanity? (particularly at the holidays)
No? Then listen again below…it’s totally no obligation, and my gift to you. Oh and speaking of GIFTS, there was a RAFFLE. The prizes are:
1) THREE Amazon gift cards (will you choose books, appliances, gourmet food…or something else?)
2) TWO of my Everyday Bliss For Busy Women books
3) ONE personal 30 minute ETHOS Session for a helping professional (with the snag that s/he has to get ETHOS out to their clients)
We’ll see who won those tomorrow, after we go through all the many entries!
We’d like to remind all our clients and friends in the United States to turn your clocks back ONE HOUR on Saturday night, November 1st as the U.S. returns to “standard time” for the winter months.
For those receiving this outside the United States, we have a quaint habit here of colluding in a bit of mass self-hypnosis to constrain time in aid of squeezing more hours out of the workforce. We “fall back” to normal time on the first day of November.
On this fine day I always think of freedom and what it means to me. This year I asked some neighbors I don’t normally find at home during the day. "Freedom," said my neighbor Leonard, a proud Texan, "is being able to sit in my back yard and eat hotdogs and stay drunk all damned day and no one can say a thing about it." Mrs. Leonard hands him another cold one. His fourth, if we count the crushed empties scattered around him.
Leonard has a further epiphany: "Naw, seriously, being free is all about the gub’mint can’t tell you how to worship and the church isn’t supposed to get any gub’mint support….aw hell…I mean dangit! Freedom don’t mean what it did once."
Leonard, you said a mouthful. Thanks for sharing your fine hickory smoked brisket, and a Happy 4th to you and the missus.
"I think independance for people of color should have been left in the constitution." said elderly Annalee through a mouthful of her daughter’s strawberry-rhubard pie. "They took it out you know. Jefferson was for leaving it in but of course now we know he was seeing his maid on the side. Poor Mrs. Jefferson. Bless her heart." Annalee and her daughter Ruth live together in a tiny Craftsman with eight cats. She has me thinking about all those not free today because of the color of their skin.
God bless, Annalee, enjoy that pie.
"Freedom is in the mind." said neighbor Akane, a Japanese decorator "it is personally created. Either you have it or you don’t, what the government does or does not do is immaterial." Well said, Akane. Very Buddhist and very true.
I was thinking about this question myself. Are people free? And whatever the answer is, is that true?
Appropos to the last post being partially about Byron Katie, I dialogued with myself: "People are not free, that is why we place so much emphasis on freedom." and then: "Is that true? How can I know that’s true?" And turning this around on its ear I thought: "Freedom is an illusion…lack of freedom is an illusion".
Agree with this? Disagree? Feel free to leave a comment.
Or simply think within yourself…what is the one thing that I am saying NO to, that I really want to say YES to? And what is the one thing I am embracing that I need to let go of?
I love the Everything Yoga blog. Diane had a great quotation for the Winter Solstice:
Take time to do yoga and meditation on the Winter Solstice,
A moment of time in the midst of your busy holiday schedule,
To acknowledge healing and the possibility of a miracle in every moment.
I’ve revamped my Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Tutorial "EFT In A Nutshell: The Quickstart" to make it even easier to understand. For the "knowledge of healing and possibility of a miracle" using only your hands and mind check it out here:
We all decided that it would be a sumptuous holiday gift to offer the audio of our last Everyday Bliss Party as a Holiday Gift to bring Joy To the World. I am so pleased that the Breathing Peace Process has been so well received. You can see just a few of the comments that have come in from people here on how this went for them. Feel free to post your own comments, too!
Feel free to copy this WHOLE thing as free content for your blog and a nice giveaway to your readers!
Free MP3 To END Holiday Stress FOR GOOD
SUMMARY:
Hate the thought of visiting family at the holidays? Does the idea of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year’s leave you stressed and in a tizzy? Well, worry no more, stress management help is here and uncharacteristically at this time of year, that help is absolutely free. In a holiday gift to the world, The Maryam Webster Group and Energy Coach Institute offer a complimentary MP3 audio to help YOU completely END holiday stress – for good.
(PRLEAP.COM) December 21, 2007. San Francisco, CA – In a free holiday gift to the world, Maryam Webster, CEO of The Maryam Webster Group and Director of The Energy Coach Institute, offers an MP3 audio of her master class to help END holiday stress, in one hour – for good.
For the investment of a mere hour of your time with no prior knowledge needed, this gentle mental exercise brings uplifting change that will leave you feeling energized and refreshed, and even help you cultivate daily Bliss as a lifelong state of being.
Maryam, an accomplished therapist, trainer and author of the upcoming New Harbinger book "Everyday Bliss For Busy Women" (May, 2008) says of this free class:
"I become dismayed at hearing both clients and friends saying they dreaded going home for the holidays…or for whom the holiday season meant a month or more of depression and unhappiness. With the quick and simple techniques we have today, this is just so unnecessary. I hope everyone who reads this will take the time to give a listen to the audio and work this "Breathing Peace" method to their benefit. It’s wonderfully relaxing and changes relationships, perspective and events like magic!"
The "Breathing Peace" process is additionally good all year ‘round to take care of stress at its source. Though topically framed around the holidays or whenever families and significant others can make everyday living stressful, you’ll be able to transpose the process to many different situations and environments to achieve personal Peace.
No special skills are needed, just sit back, relax and follow the instructions along with Maryam’s able guidance and plucky volunteer client Sabrina, an intern at The Energy Coach Institute. Written instructions on how to perform the method again, plus invitations to monthly telegatherings where similar information is shared, are also included in this powerful gift.
The work you’ll experience on this audio is a powerful component of Maryam’s Everyday Bliss Coaching process and her Certified Energy Coach Program’s GAP coaching model – known for its lightspeed transformative power and ease of usability.
Beginning in February, The Energy Coach Institute will be offering Maryam’s personal development program:
"The 12 Keys To Blissful Living"
Taught by Maryam and a a stellar cast of Everyday Bliss Experts, participants will uses methods like you’ll learn in this free audio, to clear the 12 common Bliss Blockers and use the 12 Bliss Keys to generate Peace in everyday life. Plus you’ll learn simple, uncomplicated ways to transform relationships, living conditions, job situations and begin to live a life free of limitation.
You can learn more and register for this unique program (be sure to catch the Earlybird Rate through December 24th!) here:
We at The Maryam Webster Group and Energy Coach Institute hope you enjoy this free peace-bringing method, and wish the world the Happiest and Most Peaceful of Holiday Seasons.
Register Now For A FREE Bliss Kit! Learn More You'll get a clickable MindMap to Bliss as a thank-you, plus expert interviews, audios, classes, Energy Coaching and community gatherings.
We had an amazing time Monday during the exact time of Winter Solstice, doing a ritual of clearing out the old, bringing in the desired and learning how each of our lives is sacred and how we are all priest/esses in our lives. I’m not using that as a religious term, but a spiritual one, for we are all here as teachers and students of each other.
An absolutely amazing video of French students doing stop-motion chair dance shows us a new Bliss Key: Cheerful Cooperation. When you engage this Bliss Key, the Bliss Blocker it unlocks is twofold:
Transparency, translucence, living a conscious life – or whatever you call it, is not only the birthright and destiny of every human, but also our responsibility to the future. Our choices are essential, each one important, even east or west, choosing paper, plastic or bring-your-own, choosing to remain conscious in the face of frightening and destructive acts of unspeakable evil, or parking a block away.
Moms especially will love this collection of f’ree downloadable organizer pages for your day, week, month and year. Three whole pages, about eighteen different forms in all to print and help organize the chaos of an active family! There’s a fall cleaning checklist, the “Eat Sheet” for a week’s worth of meals, a weekly family calendar, baby’s schedule, infant babysitter checklist and more. You don’t even have to sign up, just download:
I pledge to be more available to you in 2010. For one thing, I’ll be making lots of videos from now on. I’ve gone a bit video nutty really, as I’ve used my Flip Mino to exhaustion and happen to know Santa is dropping off a Kodak zi8.
Wassail is a contraction of the old Anglo-Saxon phrase “wes thu hal” meaning “To Your Health”. And of course, the traditional toasting beverage of this “best time of the year” ~ which in this case is a non-alcoholic hot apple cider punch we serve for the winter holidays. It is never served any other time of the year. You can twiddle the ingredients about a bit, Graines of Paradise may be hard to come by but you can substitute pink or green peppercorns or just leave it out.
I’ll be back to you just before New Year’s with some more juice for your joyous life and ways for you to live in ease, grace and joy.
Leadership Lessons We can Learn From Geese
On this fine day I always think of freedom and what it means to me. This year I asked some neighbors I don’t normally find at home during the day. "Freedom," said my neighbor Leonard, a proud Texan, "is being able to sit in my back yard and eat hotdogs and stay drunk all damned day and no one can say a thing about it." Mrs. Leonard hands him another cold one. His fourth, if we count the crushed empties scattered around him. 
We all decided that it would be a sumptuous holiday gift to offer the audio of our last Everyday Bliss Party as a Holiday Gift to bring Joy To the World. I am so pleased that the Breathing Peace Process has been so well received. You can see just a few of the 
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