Time for a Prayer Box

In the past week, three different channels have recommended the creation of a prayer box of one sort or another. Three’s the charm.

First, I read August Gold’s and Joel Fotinos’ delicious new book, The Prayer Chest. It’s about a family that is blessed for generations by an oft lost and oft found prayer chest.

Second, Abraham recommended creating a box with these words on it:

Whatever is in this box—is!

Third, last night a dear, dear friend brought me a Christmas gift of a necklace of blue crystals with sterling silver beads. At the bottom of the length is a prayer box inscribed with the Sanskrit symbol of Om on both sides.

Time to consider a prayer box, wouldn’t you say?

One of my latest policies for organizing my life is to wait for a triple mention of anything before I act. There’s too much information flying toward me always to discern what’s best for me and what to leave behind. Three mentions of anything tell me I need to pay attention to whatever has been drawn to my attention.

The most important thing about a prayer box is not its size, shape or color, although it’s best to use something that appeals to your senses. No, the most important thing is what you put in it! And why.

I am posting this on New Year’s Eve, that hopeful day when the promise of letting go and starting anew is tangible to most of us. Is there some issue in your life—something that’s bugging you because it won’t go away or something that’s bugging you because it won’t come to you?

Put THAT in your new prayer box! The real magic of prayer boxes is the magic that comes from letting go, and letting the Universe do what it does to make real magic of your prayers.

Happy 2008!

A Charmed Life

Seeds IX, 52

Seed: A Charmed Life

Once the Satisfaction Factor is in play, you have the option to lead a charmed life. The third OED definition is below.

3. Of persons or lives: fortified, protected, rendered invulnerable, etc. by a spell or charm

Do you lead a fortified, protected, rendered invulnerable life? You can.

The first two definitions of charm are:
1. Influenced by magic power, bewitched, under a spell.
2. Affected with a magic spell; enchanted.
The Latin root is carmen and it means a song, an incantation.

What song are you singing about your own life, dear one? What incantation are you using? Do you realize that prayerwork and spellwork are both incantation?

Do you want to lead a charmed life? By all means, go ahead, charm us all.

Happy New Year!

Be serene,

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at SeedsDrCorso@comcast.net and please visit my blog Ode Magazine.

Relationship Glitches & The In Between

Everything was set. All the gifts bought, wrapped, under the tree. The tree was a masterpiece—even if I say so myself. A silly misunderstanding over the television on Christmas Eve almost ruined everything.

The misunderstanding was so silly that I won’t tell you what it concerned, but it did cause us to go to bed angry, feeling separated and not okay with each other. There is tension at Christmas time unlike any other. We repaired to our separate corners, licking our wounded egos, and sulked the night away.

In the morning, we were tentative with one another, aware of the delicacy of both ourselves and the other. Like a neck with a kinked muscle.

Slowly, over the course of the morning, through tea and breakfast, and presents the kink unkinked itself. How?

We returned to the love we have for one another. The way we did it was to assume the love was there. Hiding perhaps, but there, between us. We repaired to the space in between our egos, the space in the middle, where our true relationship lives.

May I paraphrase the marvelous Rainer Maria Rilke? I’ve substituted the word glitches for his questions.

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the glitches themselves... Do not now seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them and the point is to live everything. Live the glitches now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

Glitches are usually about me, me, me or you, you, you. The place where solutions to glitches are found is the place in between. The place of us. If you’ve encountered some glitches this Christmas Day, consider a gift you give yourself—a ticket to the place in between . . . glitches no more.

A Young Country

We just saw the new movie Charlie Wilson’s War. Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman were stellar. If you get a chance, do see it.

The movie left me with a question about the United States, the country where I live. It’s not even three hundred years old. There are countries with millennia more history than the U. S. Could this explain our foreign policy to date? Go with me.

It has been said that U. S. practices are “benevolently predatory.” We go in at the beginning, supply all the guns and butter that are needed to keep our interests handled but don’t do the things required to finish the job. Could it be that it’s just that we’re a young country?

We know about big beginnings. Being born. Setting things up to work. But we don’t know much about reconstruction. Setting up workable infrastructures. Getting the day-to-day to work after destruction. Look at what’s happened with New Orleans.

We’ll spend a billion dollars to protect our interests, but we won’t add a million in to protect the interests of those who have done our bidding.

Hold an idea with me in prayer? Let the U. S. finish what it’s birthed.

Happy 10th Birthday, Sanctuary!

Beloved Sanctuary Member,

Ten years ago today, on the Winter Solstice, thirteen people met in a living room on the upper west side of Manhattan on a sunny, wintry Sunday afternoon. That day Sanctuary was born.

In those ten years, Sanctuary has done and been different things. For a while, we met monthly in members’ homes. Eventually someone loaned us their office space, and we met weekly. Someone created a website. Time passed, things changed.

For all these years, one thing has remained constant: Seeds. Seeds has been written and sent weekly for ten years. Some people have been on the list the entire time; others, for just weeks.

This year, thanks to the magical assistance of our members, Sanctuary has taken a big techno-leap forward.

Constant Contact

The member list—now numbering in the hundreds and never shared with anyone—is registered with Constant Contact, an email delivery service. It allows for simple management of member information. As a member of Sanctuary, you are always encouraged to invite your friends! If anyone is interested in the service, let me refer you to Constant Contact. Sanctuary earns credits toward its fees that way.

Seeds for Sanctuary: omnifaith spiritual insights for seekers and finders

Through the good offices and coaching of a patient Sanctuarian, we now have a blog called Seeds for Sanctuary: omnifaith spiritual insights for seekers and finders. Another member helped add a free, invisible, statistics counter this month. In the first week of counting, we had visitors from five of seven continents. It’ll be a big day when we hear from Africa and Antarctica! Sanctuary will be worldwide.

Guest Blogging Opportunities

ANNOUNCEMENT: Guest blogging opportunities are available to all Sanctuary members. Regular posts are Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you are interested in writing a guest blog post please contact me at seedsdrcorso@comcast.net and details will be provided.

Beliefnet.com

This year a great connection happened with a lovely editor at beliefnet.com. She gave Sanctuary some marvelous opportunities. She commissioned and published a Gallery called “10 Spiritual Ways to Deal with Money.” She created a great chance to stand in for a week as a substitute blogger on Amy Cunningham’s wildly popular blog, Chattering Mind. At the time, Beliefnet was in the process of building their Preachers & Teachers library as well. When they sent a crew to Boston to tape the segments, we had a blast. Web addresses for all these goodies appear below.

New York House & Ode Magazine

The opportunity to do some fun freelance writing for a magazine called New York House came through another member. The back page contributions were fun to write. Ode Magazine proposed a great writing gig as well. I’m a Charter Member of their Readers Blog. Every Monday, our wonderful editor posts a new blog—always on the subject of Peace. These are just a few of this past year’s opportunities to highlight and publicize Sanctuary. None of this can be done without your support! Sanctuarians are what Sanctuary is all about.

Of course, we still do all those ministerial things that call: weddings, funerals, christenings, ceremony, healing, counseling. Lately requests from writers for coaching and Chief Spiritual Officer consulting for businesses have been knocking upon the door.

One of Sanctuary’s initial supporters insisted we apply for federal not-for-profit status. It was quite a process. After eighteen months, we did it! Sanctuary has its own 501(c)3 status. Lots of not-for-profits write year-end appeals, but that’s not what this is. It’s a . . .

Happy Birthday, Sanctuary Appeal!

Here’s a promise: one letter like this per year. That’s it. If Sanctuary’s Seeds or other services have nourished or sustained you over the years, would you consider making a tax-deductible gift? The particulars appear below for financial contributions, but the opportunity isn’t limited to money. If you are moved to help advance Sanctuary, consider gifts of your time and your talent as well as your treasure, Beloved.

Contribution Particulars

Should you choose to make a financial contribution, please make checks payable to Sanctuary, and mail to Sanctuary, c/o Dr. Susan Corso, 101 School Street #3, Somerville, MA 02143. In January 2008, you will receive an official letter to document your tax deduction.

Wish List

This tenth year of Sanctuary, we have a wish list—another quantum techno-leap. Won’t you hold these ideas with me in consciousness? Together, it ought to be easy to manifest them.

We want to create a new website for Sanctuary so that . . .

All Seeds can be posted and visited online at your leisure
Including special editions, that’s 446 so far!
Prayer requests can be posted and answered.
The Site can host Seeds for Sanctuary blog.
And, dream of dreams we want to begin podcasting!

We are thick in the season of light. This day is the day that the light, metaphorically speaking, returns to the world. Technically, even though we can’t see it, it means that day begins to be longer than night.

May your days, through the holy days and every day, be merry and bright!

In joyous world service,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso
for Sanctuary

Contribution particulars: Should you choose to make a financial contribution, please make checks payable to Sanctuary, and mail to Sanctuary, c/o Dr. Susan Corso, 101 School Street #3, Somerville, MA 02143. In January 2008, you will receive an official letter to document your tax deduction.

URL Adventures

Seeds for Sanctuary, my blog: http://seedsforsanctuary.com
Money Gallery: http://www.beliefnet.com/index/index_200.html
Chattering Mind starting 5/18/07 through 6/7/07: http://blog.beliefnet.com/chatteringmind/2007/05/dr-susan-corso-sits-in-next-week.html
Preachers & Teachers (right after Deepak Chopra—not bad!): http://video.beliefnet.com/av/PreachersAndTeachers.aspx?v=jl1f878l
New York House: October 2007 issue http://www.nyhouse-digital.com/nyhouse/200710/?pg=134&search=Susan%20Corso&per_page=5&results_page=1&doc_id=-1
Ode Magazine Readers Blog: http://www.odemagazine.com/people/Susan%20Corso/blogs

Satisfaction

Seeds IX, 51

Seed: Satisfaction

Poor Mick Jagger. He’s famous in part because he “can’t get no satisfaction.” What I wonder is: can you?

What would be required for you to have a life of satisfaction? In 25 years of doing spiritual counseling with people, I’ve listened to problems for a long time. After the litany, I often ask, “Okay, if you could have your life any way you wanted it, how would you have it be?” I’ve not yet had a client who could answer that question. Not one.

Part of the reason is because we tend to share a collective guilt that we’re not doing enough. How that can be I don’t know. People are, as I’m sure you know, so over-scheduled that they can’t think much of the time, let alone do.

May I make a suggestion as we approach the end of this year? Consider what I call the Satisfaction Factor. Satisfaction comes from Latin roots; satis- means enough, and facere means to do. The Satisfaction Factor means that what you’re doing is enough.

Ask yourself, what would satisfy me in each arena of my life? Spiritual. Health. Wealth. Relationship. Work. Society. Planet. Do you know what would satisfy you? Excellent. Do it, and please, let the rest go.

Be serene,

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at SeedsDrCorso@comcast.net and please visit my peace blog at Ode Magazine.

Name That Character

Many of you know that I write spiritual adventure stories about a character named Mex Stone. I’m in the midst of writing the sixth one. (They will be published this year—I’m determined!)

I’ve just spent two hours researching names. Their actual meanings. Their implied meanings. Their associative meanings. Their emotional meanings. Names, especially when it comes to characters, matter.

I can probably never have a character in one of my books named Buffy. It has too clear an association.

I can probably never have a Romeo either.
Or an Eloise. Or a Clark, as in Kent. Or Dopey, or Snoopy.

In every fairy tale I’ve ever read, the ability to name someone or something gives one power over that thing.

Naming characters can be challenging. I haunt my own bookshelves considering author names. I put surnames as given names. I try odd spellings. In my latest novel, an exotic dancer is murdered. One night when I was writing, I named her Shelley in the early evening. By the end of the evening, she’d become Shelby. In the morning, after sleeping on it, I knew. Sheba.

That’s the way it goes sometimes. When you’re naming things in your life, don’t hurry. Take your time. When you do, you’ll get the exact right one, and that should make all the difference.

Pomegranate Wisdom

My beloved has been away a lot this year. One of our habits is that she fixes breakfast. That’s my prayer time so I appreciate it. With her absence, I get to fix my own breakfast. This time of year we eat pomegranates. One quarter each day for each of us.

Have you ever had to divest a pomegranate of its luscious seeds? It takes dedication. You have to really want those seeds. Really want. This morning I was doing pomegranate duty in my own behalf when it dawned on me that pomegranates make a wonderful metaphor for a dream-come-true process.

First you have to decide you want them. Then you cut open the hard, protective shell. Choose your dream, dear one, then cut open all the hard shells of your disbeliefs.

Peel back the shell. You can see the fruit but you really have no idea how to get to it until you begin to excavate for fruit. Scrumptious flavorful fruits. We see indications of dreams come true as we begin a manifestation process but they don’t come to us until we begin. Begin something, anything. Action forms the path for the energy to manifest.

There are surface seeds, the obvious ones, but if you’ll look deeply into a pomegranate you’ll see many more delicious fruits. These are the one you get to dig for, and you don’t know how to get to them till you’re in the digging. Dig deep. With dreams come true, we can’t possibly know the path until we’re on it. A wonderful irony, no?

Pomegranates require perseverance. Like I said, you have to want those seeds. Dreams come true? Same thing. Follow the energy and watch the stepping stones of your particular path to that particular dream come true appear before your very feet.

The final triumph with a pomegranate is a small dish of ruby ripe fruit bristling with life force. There by the grace of your own effort, and good for you besides. Dreams come true follow the same winding paths.

According to the OED, pomegranate comes from a long etymological lineage boiling down to an apple with many seeds. Aren’t seeds what germinate in our souls that cause us to know that we have dreams which can come true? The next time you consider the pomegranate use it as a spiritual lesson to follow the wisdom paths which fulfill your soul.

Acts of Peace

Dear Readers, this is a special post. Some of you know that I am a charter member of the Ode Magazine Readers Blog. This is the post that will run on Ode tomorrow. If you're a blogger, dash one off for Kindness, will you please? Susan

Acts of Peace

Sometimes just thinking about world peace is enough to make me want to take a nap. It’s such a big job and, I know this is an illusion, but sometimes I feel like I’m carrying the ball all by myself. Anyone else feel that way?

Enter Blog Catalog on my Sunday morning email telling me that there’s a movement in the blogosphere called Bloggers Unite: blogging for hope. http://unite.blogcatalog.com/ Its purpose is to use the sheer numbers of the blogging world for good works. The latest date we are invited to join together is today, December 17th, 2007 to do some Act of Kindness and write about it. All of us, on the same day.

What, I asked myself and the universe, might be a good work, an act of kindness, an act of peace?

What I heard might surprise you. It did me:

Take that nap you want.

Naps for peace?

Not really, just do the things you do with peace in mind.

My teacup, really more a bowl, sits to my left right now, even as I type. I have a cup of Earl Grey tea every morning liberally laced with hazelnut cream. It’s divine. I don’t know exactly how many sips I get out of each bowl, but I’d bet at least fifty.

What if, with every sip, I held a thought for peace?

May peace prevail on earth.
May there be peace in the Middle East.
May there be peace between my fighting next door neighbors.
May there be peace in the middle school down the street.
May there be peace in City Hall at the top of the hill.
May my brother, David, find peace in his soul.
May my mother be at peace wherever her soul took her when she died.
May I be at peace within my body.
May my sweetheart be at peace within her job.
May all financial need be met everywhere with supply.

That’s ten. 20% of my tea sips.

Thoughts, dear one, specifically your thoughts are actions. Dedicate your thoughts to whatever you choose. I’ll do peace seven days a week. Just like I do tea seven days a week. Do the math: 50 x 7 = 350 thoughts per week x 52 weeks = 18,200 thoughts per year radiating from me alone, and that only during tea time!

Think of what we could do if every time we swallowed, or chewed, or exhaled, or inhaled, or scratched, or smiled, or stepped or whatever, we added a thought for peace! I propose an act of kindness, an act of peace for every one of the over six billion souls with whom we share this planet. Take one activity in your day—one you do every day—and tilt your thoughts peace-ward during that activity.

I googled world population just now: 6,602,224,175 (July 2007 estimated)

18,200 thoughts per year x 6,602,224,175 = Plenty to create peace in our world. (And more than my puny calculator could handle!)

To quote the latest Citibank ads: “Let’s get it done.”

Four Square / Disney IV

Seeds IX, 50

Seed: Four Square/Disney IV

I have a file in my computer called Seeds Ideas. I add to it whenever something strikes me as a good idea for a Seed. Reading it this morning, I saw two “fours” that appealed to me.

The first is the work of metaphysician Florence Scovel Shinn. She calls it Four Square. The second is the work of Walt Disney. He calls it The Four Words to the Secret of Life. We’re going to explore Shinn’s and Disney’s four words a week at a time for the next four weeks. I think they link together nicely.

The last two are Self-Expression, and Dare. By self-expression, Mrs. Shinn means work, and work that’s creative, challenging and uses our gifts and talents. How many of us dare this in the world? Instead, I think we talk ourselves out of our own ideal self-expression. We tell ourselves we’ll never make a living that way. I think this habit causes us much grief in this world.

Instead, begin to dare like Walt Disney did, dare to tell, at the very least yourself about your perfect self-expression. Don’t go trying to figure out how. You can’t. Instead, dare to think, believe and dream the what. Dare your perfect self-expression, and then let the universe itself do its wondrous work in your behalf.

We have thought of Florence Scovel Shinn’s words as a square upon which to stand—the fourth and final side of the square is Self-Expression, and we have thought of Walt Disney’s as the actions to take to get to that solid square—in this case, Dare.

Both fours—Shinn & Disney:

Health/Think
Wealth/Believe
Love/Dream
Self-Expression/Dare

As Citibank’s new ads say, “Let’s do it.”

Be serene,

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at SeedsDrCorso@comcast.net and please visit my blog Ode Magazine.

Remind Me

There is a story told of parents who were worried about some classical sibling rivalry between a toddler and a new baby. The toddler insisted on being left alone with the child. Wary, the parents allowed it and spied upon their offspring. The toddler fixed the baby with a pleading look and said, “Remind me what God is like. I’m beginning to forget.”

Nine out of ten clients I speak to are saying the same thing. Remind me . . . of who I am. I’ve forgotten.

It’s easy to forget. It can be hard to remind ourselves let alone remember for ourselves. This is what friends are for. To remind us of who we are.

A particularly conscious friend of mine called me just yesterday and actually said, “Remind me.” He’d lost sight of why he’d made the very good choices he had because the results weren’t coming as fast as his impatience wanted them. So I did. It was easy for me to remember his motivations for his choices. I have no impatience about his results at all. It’s my own that can cause impatience to flare in me.

We all need reminding. Consider that word!

Re-mind.

If ever you’re feeling out of sorts, call a close friend and ask, “Remind me please?” You’ll be astonished at what the people who love you remember in your behalf. And if you know someone who is out of sorts, the coolest thing is that if you’ll remind them about who they are, it will be easier for you to remember who you are.

Holy (Hell) Days

The holidays are upon us, dear one. Are your holidays holy days, as they’re intended to be? Or have they become holy hell days, as they have for so many?

I love the holidays because they let me slow down. Oh, I work and I live but I do my best savoring over the holidays. I enjoy particular movies this time of year. I play hooky. I do my best to get gift-buying, wrapping and giving done quickly and efficiently.

What could you do to slow down the holy hell days into holy days?

Always, always there is ritual. Decorating a tree. Having warm cider. Special foods. Lighting candles. Smells that come at no other time of year. Ritual is a slow-down of time, a be still and know time. Give yourself and those you love the gift of slowed time during this holy days.

Without this we miss the purpose of the holy days. They are days which are meant to remind us of who we are as light. Light started the whole shebang on this planet, and light is at the core of each being, each one, no exceptions. Bringing your own light to the fore by slowing down and looking for it will allow you to see the light in others.

The transformation of holy hell days into holy days hinges on but one thing: choice. No matter your circumstances, you do have a choice about the quality of your days.

Simplify. Relax. Enjoy. Savor. And let there be ever more light.

Four Square / Disney III

Seeds IX, 49

Seed: Four Square/Disney III

I have a file in my computer called Seeds Ideas. I add to it whenever something strikes me as a good idea for a Seed. Reading it this morning, I saw two “fours” that appealed to me.

The first is the work of metaphysician Florence Scovel Shinn. She calls it Four Square. The second is the work of Walt Disney. He calls it The Four Words to the Secret of Life. We’re going to explore Shinn’s and Disney’s four words a week at a time for the next four weeks. I think they link together nicely.

The third pair are Love, and Dream. Most of you know I’ve had a counseling practice for more than a quarter of a century. You can imagine I’ve heard a lot about love in that time. People often speak to me about wanting their soulmates. They make lists of characteristics they want in their paragon. They dream a soulmate into being. Sometimes it just stops there.

I can always tell when someone has done the true work for a soulmate. Here’s why: they’ve dreamed up this person, and then their focus switches from being loved by this wonder to loving this fallible human. When people are ready to love rather than be loved, a soulmate usually appears.

Think of Florence Scovel Shinn’s words as a square upon which you stand—the third side of the square is Love, and think of Walt Disney’s as the actions to take to get to that solid square—in this case, Dream.

Be serene,

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at SeedsDrCorso@comcast.net and please visit my peace blog Ode Magazine.

I Thought I'd Already Done That!

I had another session with Peruvian healer Elena Radford this morning. Starting with the intention to cover one issue, we ended up working in a very different place in my psyche in order to get to the issue I wanted to work. Wildly to me, I thought I’d already done what I needed to do with the issue from my long ago past.

Instead of giving you the crusty details of the specifics, let me use generalities. I wanted to work on a health thing that I’ve struggled with for a long time. When we started our time together, she told me that we would be preparing to address the health concern at another time.

To my surprise, Elena raised an issue of financial betrayal from my high school days that involved a wicked stepfather and community property laws related to adoption. Now, my friend, I had done my work on this for plenty of years. I was sure I’d forgiven this man, and set him free. Certainly, I felt free of it.

“But I thought I’d already done that!”

What we feel consciously and what our bodies and subconscious minds know are often two vastly different things. Cells are the master encoders of information. There is such a thing as cellular memory. Otherwise how would we “inherit” dis-eases?

What Elena did was tap into encoded memories and set me free of the conclusions I drew about the man who stole from me thirty-three years ago. If you are looking for a fascinating Christmas gift to give your desiring-to-be-conscious friends this year, consider a session with Elena Radford. 435-649-4262. Tell her Susan Corso sent you.

I can’t wait to see what our session on December 15th brings to light.

When To Let Go

Throughout the fall, I have been the project manager for a major renovation in our Victorian home. The porches were falling off our 1889 Grande Dame. As of today, they’re done. Much more solid. Beautifully constructed. Done.

I need to qualify that . . . done, except for the rotten paint job on the decks. The painter hired by our contractor was a little flaky, not too responsible, and delayed too long so the weather got cold and the paint wouldn’t dry. Now we have to wait till spring to have the decks redone properly. That’s the long and the short of it.

What I want to write about is: how do you know when to let go?

Here’s how I know:

When I’ve tried everything I can think of to create resolution, and the situation won’t resolve.
When all signs indicate that pushing isn’t going to resolve it.
When it involves things I can’t control (like weather.)
When I feel my energy flag every time I think about the situation.

Recently a dear friend went to New York City to visit and consider moving back there. I said to him,

“Follow the energy.”

It proved to be exactly what he needed to do. It’s good advice for everything.

Do what you can in any given circumstance, then honestly assess where you are. Things can’t always be resolved when I want them to be. But I can always be resolved when I follow the energy. It’s much less tiresome than pushing, and things get resolved peaceably.

As we approach the ever-stressful holidays, dear one, follow the energy. You will be delighted at how it simplifies your life.

When the weather becomes consistently warm here in Boston, come, say, April or May, we’ll have the porches painted and sealed properly. All is well.