Seeds for Sanctuary, the personal blog of www.susancorso.com

The Last Blogger

2009-01-05T08:55:00.001-05:00

Oops.

www.susancorso.com/seedsforsanctuary/

We're Moving!

2009-01-01T09:01:00.002-05:00

Seeds for Sanctuary,

The personal blog of

http://www.susancorso.com/

is moving as of today!

http://www.susancorso.com/wordpress/

Happy New Year!

My #1 Idea for America and the world is . . .

2008-12-31T07:28:00.004-05:00

Peace.

No surprise there, right?

Then I got the email you see below, and I got to take action on my desire.

Vote for Peace at Change.org and Help Spread the Word

The website http://www.change.org/ is holding an online event through Jan 15, 2009 calling for the "Top 10 Ideas for America," which they will present to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day. Change.org says, "We will then build a national campaign to advance each idea in Congress, marshaling the resources of Change.org, MySpace, and our dozens of partner organizations and millions of combined members." Imagine our campaign with expanded support like that!

The idea to "Appoint Secretary of Peace in Department of Peace and Nonviolence" is currently in FIRST PLACE in the category "Other" and second place overall. We need your help to keep it there all the way through January 15. Visit the site today and vote for peace, then use their "Email a Friend" link to spread the word.

Peace is the only umbrella I’ve ever found that encompasses the desires of all beings in all the world. Really.

Won’t you join me in the vote for peace?

Happy, peaceful 2009.

P. S. This is my last post on Blogger: I thank the team and I wish you all well. Starting 1/1/09, Seeds for Sanctuary will be posted only on Wordpress with the same URL. Thanks, Blogger!

Approaching the Season of Reproach

2008-12-29T08:48:00.003-05:00

Here they come, dear one, just as we expected, just as they do every year, just as many of us dread every year. You must know I’m talking about New Year’s Resolutions.

Let’s create a new page in the book of New Year’s Resolutions this year. Let’s work at what I call “the umbrella level.” Here’s what I mean: give up reproach this new year, give up goals or resolutions that measure you or your accomplishments, and instead switch to resolutions that, as you make choices which support them, will change your WHOLE LIFE not just one aspect of it.

Let me give you some examples:

Instead of deciding to lose twenty pounds, choose the umbrella of healthy living.
Instead of deciding to get a new job, choose the umbrella of world service.
Instead of deciding to quit smoking, choose the umbrella of free breathing.

These are not “positive thinking” ideas, dear one. Instead they’re the biggest concepts I can wrap my mind around which will make the farthest-reaching changes in a life.

Let me make this very personal. Since you follow this blog, you know I’ve decided to be a bestselling author. My first novel came out as an audiobook this fall; it should be on Amazon, iTunes and Audible this very week.

I got some very strange guidance about this bestselling author business this week. It was LET GO. Let go into asking simply that my books serve humanity. In fact, I need just to give thanks that my books serve humankind every time I think of it, and take the actions I’m guided to take, that’s all.

The thing about working at the umbrella level is that it transforms everything. How do I know what path my writing will take toward serving humanity? I haven’t a clue, so instead of stressing about my cluelessness, I can let the Universe, which is never clueless, help me serve on a worldwide level.

So when I pick up my umbrella, and you pick up yours, we will all be working toward transformation at the highest levels we can conceive, and the changes that we all want can come to be.

One of my favorite fictional characters is a lady who made all sorts of umbrella level visions come true; it just so happens that she carried a parrot-headed umbrella. Any guesses?

Mary Poppins, that magical nanny, who knew just how to transform anything for the best. So no more reproach at the New Year, beloved. Pick up your umbrella, transform everything, and fly!

Hiding Out in the Present

2008-12-26T08:16:00.002-05:00

Seeds X, 52

Seed: Hiding Out in the Present

This phrase came tripping of my beloved’s tongue two days ago and stopped me in my tracks. I’d just read Mike Dooley’s More Notes from the Universe. (If you’re not on his subscription list, click and give yourself that gift.)

One of Mike’s Notes really touched me:

Always, the best remedy for dealing with a troubling past is living in the present.

Yeah, I know. You know this, but . . . did you know that you can HIDE OUT in the present? I’d never thought of it that way. We’re approaching the “reproach season” of the year when we review who we think we are. If you don’t like everything you’ve been, done or had in the past, consider hiding out in the present.

Soon enough you’ll discover that there was indeed a present hiding in your past and that now it’s safe to take it out, show it off and enjoy it in front of everyone.

Happy New Year to you and yours.

Be content,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

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

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

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 website www.susancorso.com and my blogs
Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Couldn't Resist!

2008-12-25T10:39:00.001-05:00

An electronic Christmas gift from my sweetie! I had to post it.

Happy, merry, joyous, peaceful . . . Susan

Inconceivable!

2008-12-24T08:08:00.008-05:00

I hear the word of my title in Wally Shawn’s famous delivery from The Princess Bride.

Of all the files. I mean it. Of all the files. Yesterday ONE FILE turned up corrupted in my computer, and none of the Help suggestions helped.

It was a big file that I’d been working on for months—a little book of all my blog posts on Peace from Ode Magazine for the past year and half. I’d searched and found wonderful illustrations in Google Images to make just the words on peace more interesting. It was almost done, too. Just two more weeks of posts.

And it was corrupted. Irreparably. I closed my computer down to see if it would restore itself. Got back on it after dinner, and no dice. Then I put it aside. Nothing to do till morning. I told myself I had offsite back-up. It would be no big deal to reclaim the next day.

I got in prayer that somehow I’d get it back. I let go. Good thing.

Morning appointments kept me busy till 2. A dear friend suggested I look in the Trash. I don’t use a Mac but there is a Recycle Bin on a PC. I found it! Not whole, or not as it had been, but closer than starting at zero.

Then I got on the phone with the back-up peeps. Oh, yes, it would be a piece of cake to retrieve it. No problem. I was sailing—for a moment. Then we discovered that the guy who had set up my back-up on this new computer had not included that particular set of files! Dashed to the rocks! HOWEVER, and here is looking on the bright side, we got everything backed up now that needs to be!! And that’s quite a Christmas gift.

Then, I decided to brave Microsoft for Windows Vista. They were no help at all. My software was installed by my computer’s manufacturer so Microsoft wasn’t responsible.

I called Dell. Their people told me to reinstall Microsoft Office. No can do. It came on my computer. And besides, they only dealt with hardware not software! Wait, I said, wait just a cotton pickin’ minute, that’s not what Microsoft says!

Eventually (25 minutes later) they transferred me to their software department, which, after asking me another 25 minutes of interminable (and often repetitive) questions tell me that they can offer me a one-time attempt for $69 plus taxes, etc., or a $269 one-year software service contract.

I let go again, thanked the lady, and hung up.

One file, dear one. One file, and tomorrow’s Christmas Eve.

I’ll reconstruct it over the holidays.

And if this hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have known that all the rest of the “missed” files weren’t being backed up.

Cloud. Silver lining. It’s all in the view we take.

Happy, merry to you and yours.

The Light Returns

2008-12-22T08:05:00.002-05:00

Ah yes. We can’t see it, but yesterday, in the Northern Hemisphere, the light returned to Earth. At 7:04 AM, we passed the point of the darkest dark. Starting today, the day is minutes longer than the night. Day by day those minutes grow till we meet the longest day at Midsummer once more.

What does it mean to face this darkness? What does it mean to face darkness no matter the time of year?

Darkness, dear one, is. There are all sorts of things that cause darkness in a human being. Confusion, unwillingness, fear, worry, thwarting of our wills. The issue isn’t whether there will be darkness. The issue is when there is darkness, how do you respond to it?

Some people respond in anger.
Others get sad, or depressed.
Some lash out.
Others turn inward.
Some act.
Others are paralyzed.

Over many years of working with my own darkness and that of others, I have learned to let darkness in myself be, and to be with it. Still, calm (mostly), unafraid. Let the darkness happen. (It will anyway.) Know that Annie was right, the sun’ll come up tomorrow. It does every day.

And wait, trusting the darkness, knowing that something is happening within it, something that could be good for us if we’ll just wait instead of reacting in an unconscious way.

Making friends with darkness means not resisting it or denying its existence. Darkness will come and darkness will go. Trust in the light within you for it is that light which even allows you to perceive the darkness. Make friends with darkness trusting that it is for your highest good, and watch the miracles come as the light dawns once again.

Little Pleasures

2008-12-19T08:32:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 51

Seed: Little Pleasures

I know, I know, spiritual teachers since the beginning of time have recommended that we appreciate the small things in life. It’s a good idea. Really.

I’d like to put a slightly different spin on it. From today until Christmas is seven days. Consider your six senses—one day at a time—as a path for appreciating the little pleasures. Friday: sight. Look for things that please your eyes. Saturday: sound. Listen for things that please your ears. Sunday: taste. Let your tongue be your guide. Monday: touch. Let your skin speak to you. Tuesday: scent. Follow your nose. Wednesday: intuition. You can view it one of two ways—either as a combination of the preceding five or ignoring the five and raising your awareness to your inner knowing.

Even though I’m writing this over July 4th weekend, I can tell you some of the little pleasures I’m anticipating . . . red, carols played by baroque trumpets, cinnamon buns, chenille sweaters, vanilla, and a revelation of a greater sense of who I am meant to be in the world.

Merry Christmas—what a pleasure.

Be content,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

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

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at susan@susancorso.com and please visit my website www.susancorso.com and my blogs,
Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Ode's Intelligent Optimists' Issue

2008-12-17T07:50:00.004-05:00

Ode Magazine’s January/February 2009 Intelligent Optimists issue is fascinating, especially so for me since I was nominated to be one of them!

The assignment was:

This year Ode launches its first annual Intelligent Optimists Issue where we will feature people who are not famous yet but should be because of the work they are doing to bring positive change to their communities, their countries, and the world. As part of this special issue, we would like to hear your nominations, too: tales of ordinary people who do extraordinary things.

Just tell us who your nominee is and write a few lines explaining why this person is special and why their work is important.

I thank everyone who took the time to register and comment. It was an honor to be nominated and the comments people left on my nomination made me blush in secret delight! To read them visit, http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/intelligent_optimists/3849/dr_susan_corso.

To be included in this list is thrilling. People really do work to make a difference on this planet. Personally, I think the only ways to be in the world are intelligent and optimistic!

Thanks again, everyone! I start the holy-days with a heart brimming with joy.

To Change!

2008-12-15T08:43:00.004-05:00

I have been a big fan of the work and person of Barbara Winter and her Winning Ways newsletter for many years. I even had the joy of dining with her on one of her many visits to New York City.

If you are an entrepreneur or a wannabe entrepreneur or a I-might-want-to-be-an-entrepreneur-when-I-grow-up, Barbara’s work is for you!

Go to http://www.joyfullyjobless.com/ to learn about all her marvelous classes, tools and ideas for a joyfully jobless journey!

What appears below is from her e-newsletter. Her wisdom about different kinds of change grabbed my attention big time.

As you read this issue, think about these insightful words from Zora Neale Hurston:

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

CARE FOR SOME CHANGE?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Doug is a transplanted Iowan who has kept his Midwest sensibilities and friendliness. He's also my favorite clerk at the post office which I visit every day, but it had been weeks since I'd managed to connect. This morning, however, I won the postal line lottery and had a chance to catch up. I asked him how he'd been and he sighed and said, "This has been our most difficult year ever." Then he added with a smile, "I know 2009 is going to be much better."

Plenty of people will be looking back at 2008 and coming to the same conclusion as Doug. It has been a year full of challenges and change. I happen to believe that many people are going to look back at 2008 and realize it was the year they began laying the foundation for living an amazing and creative life.

Why don't we all know that as it's happening? Changing times are often chaotic times causing many to feel confused and powerless. Those who resist surrender any hope of serenity, while those who understand and embrace change are seeing abundant opportunities. Since change is a constant, whether we approve or not, which position makes the most sense?

If you'd like to change the world or change your life or even change one tiny aspect of it, then you need to understand that change comes in two different packages and it's important to tell them apart.

There's Imposed Change which is the kind we can do nothing about. Taxes get raised, fashion designers insist we stop wearing willow green, or road construction slows down our travel plans. Imposed Change is most difficult to handle if you don't allow yourself to have options or insist on being inflexible or are committed to preserving the status quo.

On the other hand, there's Instigated Change. That's the kind that we think of as improving our lives because we have chosen it. Instigated Change happens after we pass through the preliminary steps that get us ready to take action. It's not necessarily any easier to adjust to Instigated Change than it is to Imposed Change, but it's ultimately more satisfying when we do adjust.

"I was always waiting around for someone to fix the world," confessed singer John Denver. "And then I realized that if the world was going to work, it was up to me." The day that you take responsibility for instigating positive change is the jumping off point for self-liberation. It's the day when a shift for the better happens and you discover that Embraced Change comes bearing gifts.

Imposed Change—we all know about that kind and our own acceptance of or resistance to it.
Instigated Change—still, at its core, change! How we handle it is up to us.
Ah, but Embraced Change! I consider this sort of change an email to the Universe.

I’ve decided.
I’m changing.
That’s it!

That’s when the Universal Conspiracy for Good kicks in. You take one step and the Universe takes five to meet you where and how you want to be met. In my experience, the Universe always, always, always delivers much more and better than my original request.

To change!

Tradition

2008-12-12T08:47:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 50

Seed: Tradition

I never hear this word without the three notes from the song in Fiddler on the Roof coming to mind. Tevye sings, “Tradition! Tradition! . . . Tradition!” In the song, Tevye argues for traditional family roles for papa, mama, son and daughter. Tevye wasn’t living in the 21st century.

The OED says that tradition comes from Latin roots meaning a saying handed down. It surprised me a little because I’d always associated the word tradition with the word trade. And that’s my real recommendation to us all for this Season of Light.

Are there traditions in your family? Good. Now, get conscious about them. Do you like them? Do you want to keep them? If so, excellent, but if not, trade your old traditions for new ones. Things are going so fast in our world these days that traditions of any kind are of some value, except those that no longer suit who we are.

Consider putting a new tradition in place of an old one that no longer serves, dear one, and enjoy the holy-days.

Be content,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark. Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

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 website www.susancorso.com and my blogs
Ode Magazine. and The Huffington Post.

The First Public Reading

2008-12-10T07:13:00.003-05:00

To quote Elle Woods, “Omigod, you guys!” I have just been invited to do the first public reading of Oklahoma! Hex—this Friday night!

So here’s the story. I posted my Monday post on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception as usual. In it, I put out into the Universe that I am a best-selling author including the notion that I am invited to do readings. That same day I had also promised to call my book editor to catch up. I didn’t get him, but I did leave a message.

He called me back today (Tuesday) with an invitation to a gathering place called The Center for New Words in Cambridge, MA on, believe it or not, Temple Street! (How appropriate!) They do a monthly open mic night on the second Friday of each month called Mouthful.

The Center for New Words has a delicious tagline . . .

where women’s words matter

The Center for New Words is dedicated to a simple mission: To use the power and creativity of words and ideas to strengthen the voice of progressive and marginalized women in society.

There’s no question in my mind. Words have power—otherwise, why would I be a writer? Certainly, I believe in the creativity of words—otherwise, why would I write fiction?
And, progressive? Marginalized? Yep, no problem.

So I’m going to meet my editor for dinner, actually catch up, and give the first of many readings from my novels. How cool is that?

Remember what I said on Monday? I have no idea how any of the events will string together to create myself as a best-selling author. Except one. It’s the one I cling to when things seem to be slow, or not happening at all.

Here it is: If I want to be a best-selling author, then God wants the same thing for me. I simply get out of the way, and let Her show me how to get it done!

How’s your new pregnancy coming along?

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception

2008-12-08T07:39:00.004-05:00

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Catholic calendar. It celebrates the notion that Mary, mother of Jesus, was herself conceived in a state of grace.

I’d like to offer this feast day an upgrade as an example to all of us of how to change old associations connected to our traditions in order to create new associations for old traditions. You can consider this a lesson in how not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.

So let us start with a question.

What are you currently conceiving in your life?

This is, after all, a day celebrating getting pregnant with something wonderful. What might that wonderful thing be for you? What would you like to carry within yourself like the best secret in the whole wide world for nine months all the while nurturing it, helping it grow, refining it, participating in its new life until nine months from now you give birth to it? (The week of Labor Day—no mistakes!—when school starts.)

Here are some of the pregnancies I know are being conceived today . . .

A dear friend with metastatic disease is conceiving her total health today—
A client is conceiving a brand new website today—
Another client is conceiving the beginning of a thrilling acting career—
A writer friend is conceiving the completion and sale of his first novel—
A close friend is conceiving the growth of her real estate empire—
A neighbor is conceiving a proposal and wedding plans—

You get the drift.

The thing is, on this particular feast day, we are reminded that we each, alone, can create what we choose immaculately (it means without stain) if we will take the process inside ourselves and allow it to grow us as we grow it.

I’ll give you the example of my own process, and if you feel moved to pray and hold this with me, go for it.

It’s taken me years to be able to boil down to one sentence what I want in life right now. That is:

I am a bestselling author.

Can’t be clearer than that, can it?

I have no idea what that looks like, even less idea what the path is to get me there, even less what purpose of God’s that might serve, but I am clear that I do want it more than anything else. I have been writing novels for many years and have a cache of them ready to go.

I was guided to record Oklahoma! Hex, the first one, over the summer. It ought to be released on Amazon.com very soon. (Yippee!) I listen for daily guidance in service to my dream and I take the actions I am guided to take. Can’t do more than that, right?

Not exactly. The other thing I’m doing in this pregnancy just like I did in my last one is dreaming it into being. I’m creating the felt sensations that I think a best-selling author experiences. I’m imagining calls from Oprah, Larry King, Terry Gross, Charlie Rose and their teams asking me to be a guest on their shows. I’m imagining book readings and signings, opportunities to give speeches and sermons, conversations with book club folk. Contracts with publishers for printed copies of the books. Answering the Proust Questionnaire in the back of Vanity Fair. A profile in The New Yorker.

And remember, I have no idea HOW this might happen. None. That’s what makes this conception immaculate—without stain. Because I have no idea how, I don’t have to, and therefore don’t consider how, so I am free to imagine it exactly as I’d like it to be—immaculately, perfectly, clearly in my own consciousness womb.

On this Feast of the Immaculate Conception, you too have this same freedom. C’mon, I double dare you. Get pregnant, and see what you bring forth.

Advent Adventures

2008-12-05T07:13:00.002-05:00

Seeds X, 49

Seed: Advent Adventures

This weekend marks the second Sunday of Advent in the Christian calendar, and even though we are not all Christians, we can all take on the spirit of Adventure during this Season of Light which includes Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Advent comes from Latin roots meaning coming. On its way. It traditionally anticipates the birth of Jesus. What’s coming your way right now?

One of the manifestations of Advent that I find enchanting is the Advent Calendar. They usually begin on December 1st and have 24 tiny windows to open, one a day. The first known Advent Calendar was handmade in 1851.

Whether you use a physical calendar or a digital one, grab yours right now. Make a special Advent note to yourself starting last Monday. Decide what you want to be coming into your life and countdown to its advent with children celebrating the Nativity all over the world.

Be content,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

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

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

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 website www.susancorso.com and my blogs Ode Magazine and The Huffington Post.

MILK

2008-12-03T08:20:00.004-05:00

On November 27, 1978, I was a student at the National Theatre Institute in Waterford, Connecticut. It was my semester away from my alma mater where I lived, ate, and breathed theatre 24/7.

That same day, three thousand miles away, in San Francisco, Harvey Milk was assassinated along with then-Mayor George Moscone. I remember hearing about it, but its significance was lost on me in the whirlwind of booking the tour for our NTI roadshow.

Thirty years later, almost to the day, we went to see the new biopic, Milk.

Oh what a difference three decades make. Or, do they?

The film, let it be said, is brilliant. No defensiveness. No edge. No sentimentalism. The story is riveting. Sean Penn’s performance took my breath away. One of the major actions in the movie is the grassroots work on a California referendum known as Proposition Six. It proposed that gay people should not be allowed to be public school teachers.

The elation and the despair of the characters in the film seemed to me quite clearly echoed in the recent California Proposition 8 mess. This proposition was a definition of marriage that precluded LGBTQ folk from claiming that right for ourselves.

The subjects of the two propositions were different but the energy, the care, the hatred, the antipathy were identical. Don’t you think we ought to have learned something in those intervening 30 years besides Excel?

Milk interweaves footage of the time with its current portrayals. The two weld seamlessly. Anita Bryant was just as hateful as politicians I heard talk about Prop 8.

With all the challenges that face our world today—interwoven global fortunes, climate change, nuclear threat, to name just three—I say it’s time we stopped trying to legislate matters of the heart and started working together toward solutions for all of us.

Oh, and go see Milk. It’s extraordinary theatre.

People Living with AIDS

2008-12-01T08:59:00.004-05:00

I was gainfully employed in the Broadway theatre when HIV/AIDS hit our community. I knew more than a hundred young men who manifested it and died in the early 80s. It’s almost 30 years later as I write these words to participate in Bloggers Unite’s World AIDS Day. Bloggers all over the world are writing about HIV/AIDS today.

One of the major moments I remember in HIV history was when the then-current acronym switched from PWAs (people with AIDS) to PLWAs. People LIVING with AIDS. It was a big switch. In fact, it transformed the collective consciousness around HIV from dying to living.

The thing is: an HIV diagnosis today isn’t a death sentence, especially in Western nations where health insurance makes the outrageous cost of pharmaceutical cocktails workable. HIV has manifested everywhere on Earth now. A full 33 million people have HIV or AIDS. For most of us, HIV/AIDS has become about statistics.

Unless, or until . . . we get a phone call like the one I got recently. One of my closest friends called in a panic.

“I’m HIV,” he said.

“HIV what?”

“HIV Positive!” He burst into tears.

“Whoa!” I said. “Wait, you’re not HIV. You’ve tested HIV Positive.”

Does it seem a flimsy distinction?

I have lived with a chronic disease for almost twenty years. One of the first things I did for myself in the process of learning to live with it was to refuse to identify myself as the disease. I did the same thing for my friend automatically.

Diseases are diseases, dear one, and persons are persons. The two ought not to be confused. Not in the 80s, not now, not ever.

A person who has HIV, who has seroconverted, HAS HIV. That person isn’t HIV itself.

My friend is very blessed. His body is dealing well with the virus. In fact, through some spiritual work he’s doing, he’s actually reduced his viral load.

I remember AIDS before it had a permanent name. For a while, it was called GRID—Gay-Related Immune Disease. I forget why they changed the name.

The thing is: it’s not a mystical mistake that the acronym AIDS ended up what it is. It’s also a word in English: aids, helps, assists, abets.

Personally, I think that gay men made an agreement to act as avatars to our world to prove to humankind once and for all that we need to aid one another. There is no me or you, only me and you.

So what did my friend need after his diagnosis? Aid. Help. To navigate the medical system around HIV. To find information on the disease. To learn where there was appropriate support for his process.

What did I need after his diagnosis? Aid. Help. To deal with my own helplessness and anger. To stop taking personally what didn’t really touch me personally except through my friend. To bless those scientific minds that ever seek a cure for it.

You see, AIDS reminds us that if one person is affected by it, we all are. Having a diagnosis come close to home takes it out of the realm of statistics and into the realm of the personal. My friend is a person living with AIDS, and so, because I too live on Earth, am I.

National Sorry Day

2008-11-28T09:24:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 48

Seed: National Sorry Day

Hearing about this unofficial Australian holiday made me cry. It was started as an apology to the aboriginal peoples of Australia in 1995 and is held on May 26th annually. The history of the day documents a wrong done to the indigenous of that continent—their children were taken from them. It was called the Stolen Generation.

What do you think of every country of the world creating a National Sorry Day? For apologies to indigenous peoples, for apologies to other nations, for apologies within states, cities, counties, towns. Apology is one of the major tools in the kit of human relating. Rather than carry unresolved social or historical guilt or its correlate, anger, why not just apologize?

I realize that apology doesn’t undo the wrongs. Often it can’t. But what apology does do is acknowledge the hurt. Apology says, “Yes, I see you. I see the hurt, and I’m sorry for my part in it.”

This Seed arrives on the day after American Thanksgiving. Take a sec, and see if there are any apologies that might increase your gratitude.

Be content,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark. Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

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 blogs Ode Magazine and The Huffington Post.

Vows of Poverty: No, Thank You

2008-11-26T07:44:00.006-05:00

I’ve written about vows of poverty before. Usually I encounter them in the past lives of people I counsel when they come to work on prosperity issues. A vow of poverty is usually taken in a monastic lifetime along with the other two: chastity and obedience.

I recently discovered the work of Drunvalo Melchizedek. One of his projects is an ezine called The Spirit of Ma’at. In searching the archives, my eyes fell upon an article called “Releasing Your Vows of Poverty,” a message from Quan Yin, channeled by Gillian MacBeth-Louthan. Quan Yin is the Mother of Mercy. Her name means: She Who Hears the Cries of the World.

It was these two paragraphs that grabbed my consciousness:

The reason that you took a vow of poverty to begin with was because you were about to embark into a spiritual field or a spiritual endeavor. This could have taken the form of a priest, a holy person, a shaman, a nun, a minister, or any other form.

When you walk into any type of spirituality, automatically all ''vows of poverty'' are reactivated and initiated. In many lifetimes, you believed that to be Godly you must be poor, you must do without. You believed this wholeheartedly, and took a vow of poverty to prove that belief.

To quote Elle Woods of Legally Blonde fame, “Whoa!”

Is it only me, or has anyone else noticed that spirituality is becoming a bigger and bigger part of people’s lives these days? More people are turning to the seeking of spiritual answers, and some of us are even finding!

Now, think. The pundits say that our economy is in as big a pot of hot water as it was during the Great Depression.

Do you see the juxtaposition I’m seeing?

Quan Yin continues:

Any time new levels of Light, of energy, of God declarations come to your earth, you automatically step into the DNA remembrance of your vows of poverty. Every time a new, expanded form of awareness comes to humanity, you stop creating money! You have done it over and over and over again. That is the fear of most of you when you walk fully into your spiritual position: that you will not have a cent to your name. You fear you will have to rely upon the good nature of other people to feed you, to clothe you, to give you love offerings or pay penance.

Aha! We, as a species, are walking more and more toward the light of new realization and understanding. Could it be that our economic “crisis” is a result of those vows of poverty being reactivated? I think so.

So how, I hear you asking, can I break these vows?

It’s really quite simple. Tell ALL the vows of poverty you have sworn in all the lifetimes you have lived, are living and will live that you are through with them. Be polite, and tell them, no, thank you. I have learned the lesson. Poverty is now no longer coupled with enlightenment.

Enlightenment comes with riches beyond measure—both in tangibles and in intangibles—if we’ll embrace this as the Truth.

We are made in the image and likeness of the Creator, no? Is God poor? No! God is Riches Itself. Accept who you are, dear one, and carry your riches into the world. They will bless you, and God, and all the rest of us, too.

No Drama Obama and Me

2008-11-24T08:09:00.002-05:00

I love the theatre and it has a small consciousness hazard connected to it—I know how to do drama in my own life. So here it is . . . long story short.

A friend recommended that a friend of his meet with me. We did so and hit it off. I then recommended an old friend of mine to my new friend. New friend was inappropriate with old friend and I BLEW MY STACK.

I called my original friend to see if I could figure out how to deal with our mutual (my new) friend. I was raging, furious, a fierce Mama bear in all aspects. Very tough. DO NOT MESS WITH ME, DEAR ONE, when I am in that mode. It doesn’t bode well for anyone who crosses my path.

Fortunately, my original friend was delighted at my ferocity, the clarity of my emotion and my brutal honesty in owning my own reaction. He, bless him, helped me to get clear that my reaction was actually an over-reaction, connected to childhood events around betrayal. I chilled out.

Now I can call the person in question and make clear my feelings about his behavior without separating his head from his body. I plan to give myself Sunday to continue to relax over the issue, make space for myself, and be sure I am completely calm before I call.

All that put me in mind of No Drama Obama, and the silly IV drips of information about his new cabinet picks. It’s taken me many years to figure out that drama belongs on the stage and not necessarily in my life. In fact, I prefer it on the stage and I prefer it out of my life. It is, however, my default position.

The cool thing is that I was able to connect to a friend who totally appreciated my passion and saw it for what it was—my own reaction, and not really connected to the other players at all. That sent me back to No Drama Obama. He could have fussed at the media this week about the so-called leaks, but he just let it go, and kept on purpose.

That’s what I have to do, too. Keep on my purpose, speak my truth in love, and let my yea be yea and my nay be nay, and return, return, return, once, forever and always to peace. Obama is a great example.

Disarrange

2008-11-21T07:31:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 47

Thank you to everyone who made the time to comment on my nomination as an Intelligent Optimist for Ode Magazine. Be especially blest, SFC

Seed: Disarrange

When we arrange things, we put them in order, usually an order that makes sense to us. Alphabetical. By size. By color. By item. When we try to arrange ourselves, I think sometimes the Universe responds by disarranging us.

“It is necessary for things to disarrange you,” wrote French essayist and poet, Francis Ponge. “We cannot truly see something until we approach it, not as a superior but as an equal that has the power to startle us with the marvel of its selfhood.”

Be on the alert for disarrangement, dear one. It usually happens when we ourselves our clamoring to grow but can’t see how to get it done. A new relationship will disarrange us. A new job. A move. Endings. Beginnings. A new book. A new course. A new route to work.

The trick isn’t to attempt to arrange the disarrangement. (Disarrangement isn’t always disarray.) It’s to look at the disarrangement and see where you’re called to expand who you are so the new arrangement makes sense to you.

Be content,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

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

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

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 website www.susancorso.com and my blogs Ode Magazine and The Huffington Post.

Who Are You Waiting For?

2008-11-19T09:26:00.004-05:00

I had a sad thing happen yesterday. A client chose to terminate our relationship. There are all sorts of reasons he chose to do this—not the least of which being that I was the wrong guide for the process he wanted. Truly, I was.

That’s sad for me, but it’s great for my client. It’s great because I’m hoping that by “firing” me, he’ll be able to make the space to find what he really needs.

My new assistant sent me the quote below. It goes with what happened yesterday.

"There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate.

At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for."

—The Elders OraibiArizona Hopi Nation

In my own case, in my client’s case, in your own case, dear one, we are indeed the ones we’ve been waiting for. Everyone’s path to that realization is different. Trust yourself, like my former client did, and fire the people, thoughts, experiences that don’t get you to where you want to go.

Several Cool Responses To Seeds

2008-11-17T08:02:00.003-05:00

I always like it when Seeds readers write back to me in response to that particular week’s Seed. I even have a file in my computer called “Cool Responses to Seeds.”

Several of you wrote about this possible history of ps & qs:

The etymology and evolution of the phrase, in my experience, was found in connection to the earliest revolutionary days.

The command to mind your p's and q's was an admonishment when the pub got too loud and rowdy. Or for the servers to push more ale.

They served pints and quarts of ale. As the customers became more inebriated, the pub owner would shout to mind your p's and q's, in an attempt to lower the volume and rambunctiousness of his clientele and of course to save his establishment from the damage caused by drunken brawls.

If he was not making enough money for the night, he would command his 'ladies' to mind your p's and q's, of course meaning that they should sell more pints and quarts.

Since then, the phrase has been adapted to a more civil meaning to attend to peace and quiet.

I always enjoy reading your Seeds. Thank you for taking the time.

Another reader offered this explanation:

One of the explanations I’ve heard for the Ps and Qs comes from the printing trade.
In a type tray all the letters are backwards, and a printers assistant (known as a ‘devil’) could easily confuse a p/q!

Overall, most of the responses I received were glad about the reminder to allow for a little peace and quiet as the weekend began.

Peace and quiet are what let each one of us connect to the deepest truth of ourselves, dear one. Peace, quiet and inspiration—a.k.a. a deep breath—turn the Divine Spark into a Divine Flame, and that’s really what we’re doing here on Earth.

ps & qs

2008-11-14T07:43:00.000-05:00

Seeds X, 46

Seed: ps & qs

Ode Magazine recently published their Silence Issue. Much of it was about noise and its less-than-healthful effect on our minds and bodies. A headline in that issue using the words peace and quiet made me think of my maternal grandmother. She used to tell us grandkids to mind our ps and qs. Did yours?

I own a words and phrases dictionary so I looked up that phrase. What is it to mind your ps and qs? No one is totally certain, but the overall consensus is that it means: be very careful, be precise most especially in terms of your penmanship—don’t confuse the loops of a p and a q. That works for me.

But what works more for me is minding my peace and quiet. Things are getting busier for me these days. Lots of clients. Writing. My audiobook is out and there are more to come. I’m doing interviews, writing, monitoring comments on various blogs, writing, even coming into the 21st century on Facebook. When I get cranky because of too much input, minding my peace and quiet works every time.

Be content,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark. Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

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 website http://www.susancorso.com/ and my blogs
Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Afterglow

2008-11-12T08:39:00.002-05:00

http://change.gov/

True to the spirit of his campaign, Barack Obama's website has a link whereby you can make suggestions: how cool is that!

http://change.gov/

(Actually, just "change.gov" will get you there.)

Then click on "Tell Us Your Story."

Here’s what I’m worried about:

That we’ll get over the euphoria of electing Obama and that all the energy that went toward electing him will dissipate. That’s why I wrote to our President-Elect: utilize the energy that elected you! Challenge Americans to pick one issue and work on it every day for a year.

The other one I’m urging is the establishment of a cabinet-level Department of Peace.

What’s bugging you?

Tell the Obama folks. I did.

Keith Olbermann on Prop 8

2008-11-11T12:01:00.002-05:00

I don't usually post on Tuesdays but Keith Olbermann had me in tears with this Special Comment on the defeat of Proposition 8 in California.

God Bless Newsweek

2008-11-10T08:28:00.005-05:00

Their post-election Special Edition arrived on Friday and I spent my Saturday night reading it word for word. Even the ads. What appears below in italics are quoted in order of appearance from Newsweek. The non-italic type is my thought process as I read.

First, let me say that I was thrilled that Obama won. I cried, tears of relief more than any other kind. I felt brimming with hope, a chance for true change.

Jon Meacham writes, “His voters share convictions, not experiences.”

Now we need to wade in, make some serious choices and share experiences. Government, too. For us citizens, we need to consider where we’re going to put all that energy we created through the election season. In my Huffington post this week, I suggest that we each pick one—one issue that we care about and start now to take action to change it the way we think it ought to be changed.

A Liberty Mutual ad read, “For one Tuesday each November, the chores, duties and errands can all wait. Because democracy can’t.”

Democracy, that crazy ideal foisted upon us by the Founders of our nation really does involve a government of the people, by the people and for the people. People isn’t just a generic term, dear one. People is made up of persons, individuals, who by their choices make a difference.

Raina Kelley, writing to her four-month-old son, writes, “He did not simply dream of being president, he summoned the discipline to get there.”

This is what’s called for now, in all of us. Discipline. The slow, tiny action steps that make for both eventual and overnight success. Pick one, one issue and act. What’s the thing that bugs you the most about where our universe is right now? Global warming, global cooling? Polar bears? Panda bears? No arts education in our schools? Diminished athletic programs in schools? Do something about that thing, whatever it is.

T Rowe Price’s ad said, “Re-evaluating your investment choices?”

I’ll say. I’m taking every single penny of my consciousness out of the ‘we have a terrible government’ account and putting it into the ‘yes, we can and yes, we did’ account. And I’m asking myself seriously, what do I want to invest in for our country’s future? For me, trees are important—very important, and so is, as always, peace.

Rick Perlstein writes, “What can Barack Obama do? He’ll need help.”

Duh. Duh. Duh. Yet I worry that the energy and the euphoria of the election cycle will give way to the lethargy and carelessness of past years. What do you care about? DO SOMETHING about it. Now. While you/we still have the energy.

Newsweek goes on, “Obama used to send listeners out of his stump speech with five words: Let’s go change the world.”

Notice the little pronoun in there? It’s not “me.” It’s “us.” Let US go change the world. Obama can’t do it alone, dear one. Even if he is the President of the United States.

A U. S. Bank ad made me laugh out loud: Fly high. Go far. Yes, the future looks brighter with us.

Now they, of course, meant U. S. Bank, but I saw us. The future does look bright for us, as a people, as a nation, but only if we DO what’s ours to do.

Oprah Winfrey is quoted, “Winfrey spoke of reading ‘The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,’ how the enslaved Pittman was searching for ‘the One,’ the child savior who would lead her people to freedom. Well, I believe, in ’08, I have found the answer to Ms. Pittman’s question. I fo-o-u-und the answer! It is the same question our nation is asking: ‘are you the one? Are you the one? I’m here to tell y’all, he is the one. He is the one. . . Barack Obama!!”

Oh, dear one. Yes, he is the one, the one we elected to be our president, but Barack Obama, no matter all the things he definitely is, is NO savior. In fact, God help him if he or we think he is. Barack Obama is a good man, connected to his ideals, and aware that he needs a team to get done what needs to be done. Are you on his team? Good, because that means you’ve picked one issue and gone to work in its behalf.

A Royal Bank of Scotland ad: Commitment. Make it happen.

And that’s it in a nutshell. We have to commit. Now. To making the changes we want to see in the world.

On November 3rd, speaking in Florida, then-Senator Obama said, “We have a righteous wind at our backs.”

We do. We have the tremendous momentum of the election season. We have the joy, the hope, the release into faith in our country. Let’s harness that energy and commit. Pick one issue, dear one. One, and do something.

Anna Quindlen has been a favorite writer of mine for decades. She sums up Newsweek’s issue stunningly. Citing Barack Obama’s race speech, she writes, “He made the political spiritual.”

And that, blessed one, is my whole point. Everything is spiritual from our votes, to our country, to our president, to our commitments, to the air we breathe, to the issue we commit to changing.

So I say, God bless Newsweek. May each of us pick one issue and go at it.

Synaesthesia

2008-11-07T08:09:00.002-05:00

Seeds X, 45

Seed: Synaesthesia

Here’s a fancy word! I read it in Joe Vitale’s wondrous marketing book about P. T. Barnum called There’s a Customer Born Every Minute. If you’re into marketing, run and get it!

Mr. Vitale used synaesthesia to turn himself into a dynamic public speaker on an occasion when he was scared out of his socks. The word itself means a merging of the senses. It’s Greek and it denotes the condition of dreaming into reality. Here’s how Joe Vitale applied it.

He asked himself questions about the speech he planned to give. “If this speech were a piece of music, how would it sound?” His answer was: like Melissa Etheridge. “If it were a color, what would it be?” He saw fiery red with white streaks in it. For weeks before his speech, he dreamed it into being. Weeks after the event, he got the highest rating the group had ever given.

We are dreaming creatures, beloved. We literally dream ourselves and our lives into existence. Why not use your senses to dream the dream you want?

Be content,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark. Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

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 website www.susancorso.com and my blogs
Ode Magazine and The Huffington Post.

The Suspense [Was] Terrible

2008-11-05T07:39:00.003-05:00

I first heard those words of Oscar Wilde in the mouth of Willy Wonka. The rest of the phrase is: “I hope it will last.”

We just got home from voting and the autumn leaves on the trees are crackling . . . yes, with dryness, but also with the tension in the air. There were no lines, although we ran into our neighbor who said he had tried to vote early this morning and the middle school that is our polling place was mobbed.

The suspense is heavy, pregnant, dark, brooding, alternately light, birthing, exploding. We have waited almost two years for this day and this day, as days do, finally arrived. I have every expectation that tomorrow morning there will be a new President-Elect of the United States of America.

Whew! Campaign season over. Dial down the pundits, but wait, what are you saying to me?!?! The work has just begun? Not even, dear ones.

The election is indeed over. The work has not quite begun, but we are in the enviable position of having had two years of seeds sown in our minds. Seeds of peace, seeds of hope, seeds of a renewed America. What normally happens with seeds, dear one?

Not that I am one, but I know that most seeds need gardeners or farmers or Dolly Gallagher Levi to do what needs to be done to encourage them to yield fruit. All we have is a President-Elect. Better stated, we ALL have a President-Elect.

Now that we’ve elected him, what are we going to do about it? Let me assure you of one thing. His work has just begun, and he can’t do it without us. C-A-N-N-O-T. Our President-Elect needs us—starting right now—to hold with him the vision of the America we want our America to be.

We can’t toss the responsibility onto him and the government. Nosirree, we, the people, have to start to work NOW to help our country restore itself economically and in the world.

I challenge you to pick ONE issue that you care about, just one—the environment, health care, education, political reform—it doesn’t matter which one and begin to pray and work for it to become what we need it to become.

The suspense is almost over. What are you going to do now?

(So you know, my one issue will be the establishment of a cabinet-level Department of Peace.)

Breathless in Boston

2008-11-03T07:50:00.004-05:00

This weekend turned out to be all about the theatre for me. We saw the opening of a college production of Madwoman of Chaillot on Thursday, nearly had to drive to Maine for an audition for my sweetie on Saturday, and I went to the Boston Opera House to see Legally Blonde on Sunday. The theatre has been a part of my life since I was a very little girl. It’s part of the way I view the world.

Madwoman is about how the street people save Paris from corporate greed. It’s a wonderful metaphor for our current time. The way the show was performed, however, was an uncomfortable metaphor for our time. It ran long, too long for the young actors to sustain the arc of the story. In the end, the powers that were (in that situation) told these youthful performers to a/ hurry and b/ shout. Hence the uncomfortable metaphor for our time.

We are often in a hurry and, as a result, we often shout at ourselves and at others. We got home very late that night and went to bed. In the morning, I wakened anxious and edgy. It took me two hours to figure out that I couldn’t get a deep breath because my body had picked up the anxiety of the cast! I had to slow down just to make enough space for me to breathe.

The audition was postponed so we got to stay warm and cozy at home rather than drive to Maine, but we did get a chance to reconnect with our friends the director and producer of The Public Theatre in Lewiston/Auburn, Maine. A truly magical company, it’s an Equity theatre in a most unlikely place that sells its seasons out consistently by insisting upon experienced actors who show up and create wonderful theatre.

Things are slower in Maine than in our bigger metropoli. There is both the time and the space in which to breathe. Breathing’s good, dear one—at least four or five times daily! If you can’t “catch your breath,” here’s the fastest way to get it back. Exhale! Breathe out. Hard. Even if you have to force the air from your lungs. What you’ll find is that you’ll catch right up to your breath because the exhale is what causes the inhale—not the other way around.

The Boston Opera House is a stunning theatre. Originally created as a vaudeville house, it became a legit theatre when Sara Caldwell, the opera director, took it over for her opera seasons, and my, is it grand! Legally Blonde is in the queue of musicals I’m planning for The Healing Mysteries of Mex Stone.

I just got back from the performance and wow! It was so fun. Interestingly, several of the scenes were slower than the ones in the MTV version. Not only were the actors able to breathe but so was I despite the high energy of the show.

This brings me to my point about breathlessness. The U. S. election is tomorrow, and a lot of us are holding our breath and crossing our fingers for our favorite candidate to win. Here’s my advice: let go, breathe out, and let the inhale sustain your faith. By November 5th, we will have a new President-elect.

"Are you a . . . ?

2008-10-31T07:47:00.002-05:00

Seeds X, 44

Seed: “Are you a . . .

. . . good witch or a bad witch?” It’s Halloween. I couldn’t resist. You know, I’ve probably seen The Wizard of Oz a hundred times, and I had to rewatch Dorothy’s arrival in Munchkinland to be sure that this line belonged to Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. In fact, it’s her first line.

What she’s really doing is qualifying her prospect. Her pitch will change based on whether Dorothy, her newly arrived prospect considers herself a good witch or a bad witch. Dorothy, of course, denies that she’s any kind of witch at all. Glinda—f.y.i. Billie Burke at age 53, widow of Florenz Ziegfeld—made me think.

You see, Dorothy refuses to be identified by the label offered to her, and each one of us has that right as well. The point is that WE get to decide how we’ll think of ourselves.

At All Hallow’s Eve, the veil to the Spiritside of the world is very thin. If there’s an idea of yourself that you don’t yet embody, reach for it. It’s, once again, up to you.

So. Are you a . . . ?

Be content,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.
Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

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 website SusanCorso.com and my blogs , Ode Magazine. and The Huffington Post.

Spiritual Leaders for Change

2008-10-29T06:53:00.003-05:00

spiritualleadersforchange.org

Deepak Chopra

Jack Kornfield

Roshi Joan Halifax

Barbara Marx Hubbard

Rabbi Michael Lerner

Stephan Rechtschaffen

Sister Jenna

Lama Drolma Palden

Dean Ornish MD

Reggie Ray

Krishna Das

Sylvia Boorstein

Jean Houston

Pema Chödrön

Marianne Williamson

Barbara De Angelis

Alex & Allyson Grey

Ed & Deb Shapiro

Oscar & Cindy Miro-Quesada

Swami Beyondananda

Peter Fenner

Robert Thurman

Jai Uttal

H.H. Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi

Lama Surya Das

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jack Canfield

Julia Butterfly Hill

Gay & Katie HendricksP

ir Elias Amidon

Richard Moss

Eli Jaxson-Bear

Corinne McLaughlin

Gordon Davidson

Reb Zalman Shachter-Shalomi

Sharon SalzbergGangaji

Joan Borysenko

Judith Ansara & Robert Gass

Christian de la Huerta

Rev. Dr. Susan Corso

*************************************************************************************
As spiritual leaders signing this letter we are stepping forward to say: “We can make a difference.” As our spiritual practice empties, opens and strengthens us, we are naturally moved to engage in the world with compassion, equanimity, and the dedication to live our values.
We know many of you are already both concerned and involved in this year’s Presidential election. Yet, in the past weeks, many of us have heard friends in the spiritual community expressing ambivalence about voting. When asked why they wouldn't vote we heard things like: “It doesn’t make any difference”; “I’m more interested in spiritual practice than politics”.
Humanity is at a crossroads. We can no-longer afford to sit on the sidelines. We are asking you to get engaged.

The 2000 presidential election was decided by just 500 votes and this November appears to be just as close. Every vote matters. Your vote and the votes in your community could make the difference.

Please make a heart-felt inquiry and look at the candidates. Ask yourself who best reflects the values you want to live by – those of spirituality in action.

Who do you believe will lead this country and the world in the direction you would like to see it move?

Which candidate will foster security through international cooperation rather than wars of aggression?

Which candidate will move policy most quickly toward a sustainable habitable planet for future generations?

Which candidate will most support our commitment to human rights and equal opportunity for all people?

...and then Vote. Let your voice be heard.

Together there is nothing we cannot do.

TAKE ACTION NOW
1. REGISTER TO VOTE & Detailed Voter Information

2. VOLUNTEER Find out how you can help!

3. FORWARD THIS MESSAGE

Visit our site for fliers, email resources (optimized for forwarding) and more information on how to get the message out.

Let’s bring the benefits of our practice into our lives. The world needs us.

Please help us Spread the Word.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

2008-10-27T07:30:00.002-05:00

I needed my hand held this week, and my friend, Court, came to my rescue.

First, on the subject of holding hands at all, it’s a nice thing to do. I love holding out my hand when someone else needs their hand held. It assures me that when I need mine held, someone will show up to do it. Thanks, Court!

Second, I needed my hand held in a cyber way. I needed to (finally) learn how to post videos on my blog. I’d tried and tried and failed and failed. Someone I knew had to know how. I put a request out to my friend having seen videos on his blog.

Third, in the process of having my hand held, I learned several more bits of blog trivia and so did he. So we were both blessed.

When you want your hand held, there’s a reason for it. Accept the reason and reach out—you just might be surprised and delighted at who reaches back.

I'm learning video posting

2008-10-26T13:08:00.003-05:00

This is a great idea!

Hilarious!

2008-10-26T12:53:00.001-05:00

http://www.aarpvote08.com/?d=U3VzYW4gQ29yc28

I already have one vote!

Helper/Helpee

2008-10-24T07:50:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 43

Seed: Helper/Helpee

I quit helping people years ago. Does that surprise you? At the time, it surprised me. I had a client, a dear one, who I’d gone out of my way to help turn on me in rage and resentment. It took me a couple of years to process what happened.

Finally, I got it. I’d helped her and that made me “better than” her in her eyes. My intentions were good, don’t get me wrong, but the way I offered help to her, she felt “less than.” I wrote her an amends letter out of my new understanding.

Helper/Helpee relationships often mean that one person is up, and one person is down. It’s not always a pretty scenario. The thing I learned, and it might shock you, is this: Every situation which involves more than myself must serve both (or all) persons involved.

When I realized that I learn as much from my client as he or she does from me, we are both served. We both grow. We both heal. So, I gave up helping a lot time ago, and instead, walk parallel with people when they ask me to do so.

Be content,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness,
they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.
Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

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 website SusanCorso.com and my blogs
Ode Magazine and The Huffington Post.

The Overrated Mind

2008-10-22T07:40:00.006-05:00

I’m a thinker—I admit it. I think, not because I am, but because I like to think. Thought fascinates me. Mine and that of others.

Since I turned 50 though, my thought has been systematically heading south. What do I mean by that? I’m learning to think with my heart. I think it’s a natural aspect of getting older. Consider this:

As we age, life tends to become simpler, more clear. We know what we want and we know what we’re willing to do to get it. Many years ago, I decided that the Prime Directive of my life would be Peace. This means that I measure every choice I make by this question: Does this (whatever this is) contribute to or diminish Peace? It makes my choices simple.

We all need a Prime Directive. It doesn’t really matter what it is. I have a client whose primary value (same as Prime Directive) is Love. He measures every choice as to whether it’s loving or not. A friend of mine uses Compassion as his standard. I know someone who is all fired up for Justice; another who values Freedom above all.

Do you see a pattern here? I sure do. All of these primary value notions are intangibles. If you think about it, they almost have to be in order to be big enough to encompass any circumstance. These sorts of ideas are umbrellas.

The thing is, one’s Prime Directive isn’t available in the mind. It’s not something we can decide upon and implement like a goal or a strategy. Nope, a Prime Directive has to come from the heart. Has to. Because that’s where individual prime directives live.

I laughed this week at a Google quote from Joss Whedon (the creator of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer) and friends, “It’s not enough to bash in heads. You’ve got to bash in minds.” Well, maybe not bash. That definitely doesn’t contribute to peace.

But we do have to question our minds. The mind is a wholly overrated commodity in our logic-addicted civilization. And, if you think about, you probably can’t even say where the mind is. The brain? Sure, we all know that brains live in our skulls. But minds? Where do they live?

Here’s a secret: the best aspects of our minds live in our hearts. That’s why my thinking has gone south. When I feel peace in my heart, I know I’m making the right choices. When I don’t, I know I’m stuck in that elusive mind-space that wants results based on intellect. Intellectual results get caught in polarity, and don’t give me a peaceful heart.

Try an experiment with me. Spend a whole day thinking with your heart. The process is: have your thought, then check in with your heart. Does that particular thought support the ideals that you hold most dear? If so, good. If not, think again.

Vote for, or Hush

2008-10-20T07:57:00.003-05:00

I watched Bill Maher’s latest Real Time over the weekend and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) made a huge impression on me. He calls himself a Social Democrat. His words made a great deal of sense.

So I started thinking about my own voting record. It’s stellar, really, in that whenever I have a chance to vote, I do. I take it as a civic duty and a privilege. I have even voted when I don’t know the candidates; I vote the party line.

But this election has changed the vote for me because I’ve realized that in many presidential elections, since I was old enough to vote, I’ve voted against a candidate not for one. Because of my deep commitment to creating peace on this planet, I can’t vote against any more.

Later I was reading This Week in Peace History (which is much more about war than peace) and came across this quote from labor leader Eugene V. Debs (1865-1926), “I’d rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don’t want, and get it.”

So I took my usual trek to the OED and looked up the verb to vote. Words are amazing. Vote comes from Medieval Latin roots meaning to vow to devote. When we vote, we make a vow, a vow to devote ourselves to communicating with those we elect so that they can actually, truly represent us.

My friend Donna Henes posted a wonderful essay on her MySpace page today called, “Say Something.” In it, one sentence struck me right in the third eye, “Silence forgives violence.” Of course, I loved the rhyme, but more, I loved what it says about our electoral process. If we aren’t saying something to our elected representatives, how can we possibly expect them to represent us?

I’ve added my senators and my representative to my address book in my cellphone. I have their email addresses in my email address book now too. I even know their snail mail addresses if I need them. Do you know yours?

I don’t need to tell you that the presidential election is just around the corner, but I do need to remind you that a vote for what you want is a powerful message. Unless you’re voting for, hush—and let the rest of us get on with the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Unknown Blessings

2008-10-17T07:46:00.002-05:00

Seeds X, 42

Seed: Unknown Blessings

I can’t remember where I read these words, on beliefnet maybe. Regardless, indigenous wisdom reminds us: Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.

We all know about the giving thanks thing already. Robert Schuller coined it as an “attitude of gratitude,” and we know that gratitude is the energy that greases the wheels of our personal cosmos.

The thing that caught me this time was Unknown Blessings. Reflect a moment, if you would. Have you ever had a blessing arrive in your life unexpectedly? Maybe one of those famous blessings in disguise?

These words made me think of gazillions of blessings I’ve received that I had no idea were coming. It asks a far deeper question:

Do you believe the Universe is benevolent? If you do, then giving thanks for unknown blessings even when you can’t see them will feel natural to you. If you don’t, unknown will equate to scary for you.

The thing is, the Unknown we have always with us. Benevolent is up to you.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 website www.susancorso.com and my blogs
Ode Magazine. and The Huffington Post.

Blog Action Day: Poverty

2008-10-15T06:46:00.003-05:00

Today is Blog Catalogue’s annual bloganza and this year’s subject is poverty. I want to address it from the place I return to over and over again in my life experience: the mirror.

It is a basic principle of metaphysics that whatever I perceive, I do so because that whatever is in my consciousness. Another way to say this is: everything is our mirror. Everything. No exceptions.

This means that the hate video I saw on a friend’s blog this morning showed me my own inner hate. (Ouch!) This also means that the meeting I had at noon which turned out so well showed me my own inner gladness. It’s ALL a mirror. All, all, all, all, all. (Do I need to be clearer?)

When Blog Catalogue proposed poverty as a subject, I groaned a little. Of course what they wanted was to bring poverty to the foreground of consciousness, to have us all remember that we see poverty. There was a homeless man outside the restaurant where we went for my birthday dinner on Sunday night asking for leftovers. Yet another mirror.

So what are you and I to do about poverty when we see it?

First, acknowledge it. Ignoring it isn’t going to make it disappear.

Second, know that it’s reflecting some sort of poverty in yourself. Your poverty doesn’t have to LOOK LIKE the next person’s. It is, however, still poverty.

Third, ask within yourself if there is some action that you are to take in the face of this particular poverty. You will be guided. Sometimes, there’s action and sometimes there’s not. Ask, be still, listen. If it’s yours to do something about, it will be made clear. For the homeless man asking for leftovers, we stopped, really looked at him and apologized. It was what we were guided to do, and he thanked us.

Fourth, add the poverty in the world, all over the world, into your everyday prayers. The metaphysicians of old would have said, “If there is any one who is poor, then all are poor.” On varying levels, it’s true.

Give of your abundance, whatever form it may take, and that abundance will grow. The fastest cure for poverty on earth is a consciousness of abundant supply for everyone—no exceptions.

Steve Pavlina: Personal Development for Smart People: The Practices

2008-10-13T07:54:00.007-05:00

I know I promised to review the second half of Steve Pavlina’s ever-better book, Personal Development for Smart People, a week ago or so but it’s so jammed packed that in order to do it justice, I had to slow down.

In fact, if I have any criticism for this wonderful self-development system, it’s for Steve’s publisher. I know many of us are used to reading online, and that means faster than fast, but reading a good old-fashioned book ought to be a sensory experience. This book needed a serif typeface. Serif type slows the eye, giving it little places of rest, and assimilation time.

This book is so full of clear and practicable ideas that I couldn’t hurry through its second half, and do it or myself justice. It’s the second half of this book that makes it outstanding. Haven’t you read plenty of self-help books wherein the theories are terrific, and the practices that make them useful aren’t so hot? I sure have.

Pavlina is first and foremost his own guinea pig. His sincerity and his experience beam off the pages. I’d venture to say that if he hasn’t tried it, whatever it is, it isn’t in the book. That’s a great way to test the efficacy of any practice. Test it yourself!

What I especially like about Pavlina’s personal development system is that, even though his final chapter is on spirituality, he doesn’t require that God be in anyone’s personal mix. I, a minister, saying that! (I know, I’m weird.) Truth is, I think if a person needs God (and I do) that one will find a God that works for him or her. Personal growth and development aren’t always about God. They’re about persons.

I so appreciated the application of the seven principles to major life areas: habits, career, money, health, relationships, and spirituality. This is where the elegance and the simplicity of his personal development system shine. In his closing, Steve talks about values systems and how they must be universal in order to be efficacious. He’s done his homework, and thought through every detail before writing this book.

Toward the end, he speaks to the driving light of my own life mission.

“Only when we all learn to align ourselves with truth, love, and power at the individual level will we be able to achieve peace at the global level.”

It’s so nice to know there is another conscious peaceworker on planet earth. Thanks, Steve Pavlina!

I’ll close with Steve’s solid reminder: Live consciously.

P.S. For Part One, go to http://seedsforsanctuary.blogspot.com/2008/09/steve-pavlina-personal-development-for.html.

If You Could Have It Any Way

2008-10-10T07:53:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 41

Seed: If You Could Have It Any Way

A client comes to see me as many have come to see me for 25 years. I usually start with a question like, How may I serve you? Then comes the deep listening part of our time together. Occasionally, I ask for clarification, but mostly I listen.

Then I ask the $64,000 question. If you could have your life be any way you wanted it, how would it be? In 25 years, I’ve had one client who could answer me immediately. One! I can’t, of course, reveal one in how many clients, but you can imagine that in 25 years the number is plenty high.

Strange, isn’t that? Very. Especially given that the only task here, the ONLY one, is to envision our lives the way we want them to be, and then act as guided.

You can have it any way you want it, IF you’ll dream it and then do what’s in front of you.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

To Know or Not To Know

2008-10-08T07:34:00.002-05:00

Very similar to Hamlet’s $64,000 question, no? So I’m copping to it right now. There are some things I don’t want to know. No, that’s not right. Not don’t want to know, but don’t care whether I know or not.

Take plumbing. There are wizards who do plumbing in our homes. They know how sinks, toilets, disposals, dishwashers, washing machines, showers work. Bless them, I’m thrilled that there are people who know these things, but do I want to know them? Nope, not really, unless or until the day comes when the shower doesn’t turn on or the toilet won’t flush or I can’t wash my clothes when I want to wash them. Then, I’m fascinated, but otherwise not.

I used to feel terribly guilty about this. Information is power, right? Anything can be fascinating so I should want to know everything. Well, at 50, dear heart, I don’t want to know everything. What I want is to know deeply what I know and to let others have their own expertise.

A friend of mine held my hand and coached me through figuring out how to make live Amazon Affiliates links recently. This added another layer to my experience of knowledge. In that case, I didn’t feel like learning how to do it, I wanted just to magically know how. That particular byte of information was one I needed to know. But, truth to tell, I don’t know how Amazon’s Affiliate program works, and it doesn’t really matter whether I do or not.

Now lest you are worried that I don’t know enough, believe me when I tell you that I know tons of information that I’ll never use, and I’m fascinated by all things related to the human spirit which encompasses a great many things. Still, asking me about your plumbing probably isn’t wise. On the other hand, I can help you decide whether or not to take a loved one off life support quite easily.

So here’s what I’ve learned about knowing and not knowing. It isn’t mine to know everything. Just not mine to do. Plain. Simple. That’s it. What’s mine to know is about things of the human spirit. What’s also mine to know is that when I don’t know something, someone somewhere not only knows that thing I need, but loves knowing it.

If I am an expert in my field, am I not blessed by engaging and using the expertise of others in their fields? Absolutely. It makes my plumbing run smoothly.

Sue Katz: Sarah Palin's Maverick Biographer

2008-10-06T07:55:00.002-05:00

I know Sue Katz. She’s what my grandmother would have called a pistol. Bright, funny, passionate, argumentative, rabidly political, one of the best ballroom dancers alive on this planet and a gifted, generous writer.

This weekend I set myself the task of reading her first book, Thanks But No Thanks: The Voter’s Guide to Sarah Palin. It gave me chills. No, I mean it. I had to plug in and lean against a heating pad for most of the afternoon because Katz’ prose made me shiver in my Uggs. So, let me cop to the fact that I love the way she writes. I subscribe to her blog, Consenting Adult, and if you’re an adult over 50 interested in all things, or anything sexual, then you should too, but back to Sarah Palin.

Beloved, Sarah Palin scares me because of how she understands and relates to God, and that’s saying something because mostly God things of any kind thrill me. She truly believes that a Kenyan pastor who has been praying for her to “go national” is responsible for this nomination to the Vice Presidency.

Sarah’s god isn’t mine at all, and that means, as a committed omnifaith person, that I need to check hers out lest I be caught in the same kind of judgment that dear Sarah is. She thinks the war in Iraq is God’s war. No really. I suppose, on some level, it is, but it has to do with Islam, and I’m pretty sure Sarah’s God has nothing to do with Islam in her book.

I’m appalled that this woman has been nominated for the second highest post in the land, and Katz’s book only increased that feeling. Despite her own democratic leanings, Katz searched source after source both nationally and internationally to find the facts for her book, written in just four weeks. She reports the facts, ma’am, and for the ma’ams who are reading this post, we have to look out!

If we live in Alaska, we have to pay for our own rape test kits!
If we live anywhere in America, we will not be entitled to have an abortion.
Or marry whom we love, unless we are one man and one woman.
Or expect our schools to teach sex education.
Or count on the support of our government against violence against women.

We’ll have to put up with creationism in schools.
We might have to suffer her arbitrary edit of our school library shelves.
We might have a loved one who loses a job because he or she offends the new veep.
We might have to live with a Vice President who is more Vice than Virtue because she lies and considers it cute, folksy, allowable!

Katz ends her Palin whirlwind with a chapter called “Mavericks to Nowhere.” If you’ve read my God’s Dictionary, you know that another way to look at the word nowhere is now + here. Well, Beloved, look at where our country is now and here. Do you want it to stay that way? I sure don’t.

This is why everyone who even mentions politics in discussion between now and November 4th ought to read Sue Katz’s trenchant, chilling book.

Get it here: http://palinvoterguide.blogspot.com/ or at Amazon.com’s Kindle.

The Gift of Contentment

2008-10-03T07:20:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 40

Seed: The Gift of Contentment

Another Seed inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. Have you gifted yourself with this book yet?

I’ve been a student of contentment for thirty years. In my twenties, I realized that striving was good but that contentment was better. To me, and someday I’ll write that book I’ve worked on for so long called Secrets of Contentment, contentment means I am at peace with what I am and that I have a dream which calls more to me.

Ms. Gilbert writes, “The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world.” Wow. Wow. Wow.

Ever thought of contentment that way? Of course it’s self-preserving and self-benefiting, but a gift to the world? That makes sense to me.

If I am content, I will radiate it to others, and contentment is virally contagious. Just think, what a world we would have if each one of us made the search for and FOUND contentment. (Consider this year’s Seeds sign off below.)

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Complaint Department

2008-10-01T07:56:00.007-05:00

Well, well, have I had a rollercoaster with Amazon.com. My website was just about ready to launch save the e-commerce part of it when I realized that I needed to get on the horn to Amazon about selling my ebook and my audiobook.

Great, I thought, Amazon has amazing customer service—this ought to be a piece of cake. Au contraire!

In between emails to their Digital Services Department that went unanswered (not even so much as an autoreply) for three weeks, calls to their Help Line which took me to Seattle and India and all sorts of places in between, as well as all sorts of Customer Service workers who really did try to help me despite their ignorance of their own systems, I ended up exactly nowhere on the e-commerce front with Amazon.

So I did what I always do when Customer Service is a nightmare. I wrote a letter. It appears below.

Sanctuary
101 School Street, Suite Three
Somerville, MA 02143
617-764-0344
SeedsDrCorso@comcast.net

26th September 2008

Mr. Steve Kessel, Senior Vice President
Amazon Digital Services
605 Fifth Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98104

Dear Mr. Kessel,

I write to tell you how thoroughly dismayed I am at the alleged digital service that Amazon has, in fact, not provided to me in the past three weeks. It has been so unlike the Amazon I know and repeatedly patronize that when I, by some miracle, landed upon your address, I decided I had to write to you.

Given my usually stellar experience with Amazon Customer Service of any kind, when it came time for me to publish and distribute my new e-book, Dr. Susan Corso’s Seeds I-X, and my new audiobook, Oklahoma! Hex, I thought immediately and first of Amazon. Isn’t that what you want? I should think so.

After climbing around on Amazon’s Seller pages, and becoming thoroughly bamboozled (truthfully, unless one already knows how to sell on Amazon, there’s no finding it out from your Seller pages), I hired someone far more techno-adept than I to figure out how to sell my ebook and my audiobook.

Over three weeks ago, Mary van den Berg wrote to digitalrights@amazon.com in my behalf to inquire as to how to sell both projects on Amazon. Then she wrote again three days after hearing nothing from the first inquiry. Three days after that, I wrote to the same address. I also called Seller Support, spoke to a terrific young woman named Krystal who went to her team leader Tony to find out why I had heard nothing from digital rights, not even so much as an auto-response. Whilst they couldn’t answer that, they did provide me with the information that ebooks needed to go through a new Amazon company called Mobipocket. Great, I thought, I can start the process myself! Her email is included herein. {Give the woman a raise for excellent customer service!}

Little could I know. Mobipocket is unnavigable without prior knowledge of how it works. There is appreciably no tech support whatsoever. Their forums page bears a note stating that we may ask our questions in the fora, and that they “will do [thei]r best” to answer our queries within a week. A week is a lifetime in technology, and you know it! Furthermore, there is no phone support at all, so even if I did want to invest my valuable time in figuring out the time difference and calling France, I couldn’t.

It is no mistake that their homepage lists “affiliates” who do the work of converting any format of ebook into Amazon’s ONLY ebook format, Mobipocket. (Not only is it the only format, but it cannot duplicate exactly the intent of the author because any desired layout or formatting is not available whatsoever!) When I finally hired someone to do what I couldn’t do, I asked her for guidance on how I could learn to do the process myself. She told me, “Oh, it’s way too complicated to bother teaching you.”

This is not the kind of Customer Service I have grown to respect and rely on from Amazon, not by a long shot. What’s happened?

Wait, it gets even better. Determined as I am to have my books on Amazon.com, I tried Seller Support once again to see if I could get anywhere with Digital Rights. An earlier call with a team member whose name I did not capture told me that Digital Rights only deals with finding out IF one has the digital rights. I know I do because I wrote the books. But never mind. A responsible team leader named Jenny H. spoke to me and agreed that waiting thirteen days for a response to an email from any Amazon department was deplorable. She volunteered to find out what she could for me, and to email me back within 24 hours.

After two further calls to make sure things were progressing, I finally received an email from Jenny H. in the nick of the 24-hour time period. Her email to me is attached. The gist is that Digital Rights is no longer accepting digital content. It sounded a little odd to me, but who am I to argue with Jenny who got the answer from inside?

Imagine my surprise when I received an email from Digital Rights three days later telling me how delighted Digital Rights is to welcome my ebook to their catalogue. This email is also attached. I faxed them the form they asked for immediately but have heard nothing further.

Then a techno-savvy friend turned me on to Create Space for the audiobook. Excellent, I thought, I can do that. I registered, but the form wouldn’t let me upload a zipfile for the audiobook. I wrote to Customer Support because, once again, there is no phone support. To be honest, I think it’s ridiculous. Anyway, no answer for two days. Then I got the bright idea of writing to Create Space on their query form. Sure enough, even though I asked for a telephone call, I got an email within 24 hours expressing excitement that I wanted to do an audiobook with them and informing me that they are not able to assist me.

Mr. Kessel, who is able to assist me to sell my digital content at Amazon?

If you were in my position, what would you do? Would you give up on Amazon Digital Services? I don’t want to do this. Would you do as I have had to do and find another way to sell your digital content? I didn’t want to, but had to, do this.

So, here is what I’m asking you, the Senior Vice President of Digital Services for Amazon.com, because, quite frankly, sir, if you can’t get this done, then no one can.

Would you please assign a special, gifted, gentle, kind, knowledgeable troubleshooting wizard with a lot of patience and a sense of humor, and a direct dial telephone number and an email that both receives and responds to the needs of your customer, to hold my very pretty hand and enable me throughout the entire, unintelligible, A-to-Z process to sell my digital content at Amazon?

I know I’ll be glad you did, and I’m sure you will be too since you won’t get another letter like this one from me or, hopefully, anyone else.

If you got this far, thanks for reading this.

Yours most sincerely,

Dr. Susan Corso

Enclosures:
Emails from Krystal P.
Jenny H.
Digital Rights
Create Space

e-cc: Jeffrey P. Bezos
Roxy Caraway
Suzanne Rhodes

Imagine my total delight when I got up this morning to find a letter from the CEO (!) of Mobipocket—Amazon’s new ebook partner. Mr. Martin Gorner answered each and every question, and gave value-added service. He understands his own product.

Turns out that unless one knows HTML one oughtn’t to know how to use Mobipocket!

Further delight? Oh yes, I got an email from a David Keyes in Amazon’s Executive Customer Relations Department. I’ll write him back in a little bit. He’s willing to solve my every problem with Amazon.

I have yet to hear from the poor senior vice president to whom I sent the snail mail letter, but I will. Why? Look carefully at the e-ccs I sent. I included the Chairman of Amazon, Jeffrey P. Bezos, and Mr. Bezos, or his staff, have a Forward Button in their email program.

Voila! Solutions. Amazon Customer Service falling all over itself to assist me.

It’s the same principle one uses to stop a swinging pendulum, or a severe problem in one’s life. Grab the pendulum from the top to stop the momentum! For a severe problem, go to the topmost point of what you know about it and make the change from there. At the very least, the momentum will slow. At best, you’ll end up with your ebook on Amazon.

Ask, blessed one, and you shall receive.

Steve Pavlina: Personal Development for Smart People

2008-09-29T09:39:00.008-05:00

He sold me on page xvi of the introduction. I quote, “These principles should lend themselves to a structure that is both simple and elegant.” Some of my readers will already know that I took a motto for myself many years ago against which I measure every choice I make:

An Elegant Simplicity

Or, conversely,

A Simple Elegance

And do these three words sum up the delicious new book Personal Development for Smart People by personal development expert Steve Pavlina! His website is a goldmine—when you are in need of reminders about who you truly are, go, go, go!

I need to cop to something up front here: I’ve only read the first half of the book which lays out the seven principles by which anyone anywhere any time may guide a life. The pages are so dense with wisdom that I want to take more time with the Practical Applications in Part II so I’m writing this review based on Pavlina’s Theories, not his Practices today. (You can expect a follow-up within a few days.)

Personal Development theories are rampant in this day and age as we all know, but rarely, except in older metaphysics books have I seen such simple, elegant instructions for the human psyche. There are three primary principles are Truth, Love, and Power. Various combinations lead to the three secondary principles which are Oneness, Authority, and Courage. Putting all three of the primaries together yields the seventh overarching principle in his system: Intelligence.

Here’s a telling fact: I’ve read the first 136 pages of the book, and I didn’t have to look up his major points as I’m writing this. That tells me that Pavlina’s points are clear, concise, thought through thoroughly, and well-expressed. True, all true, but the most exciting part of the book is the author’s motivation. He was very nearly a jailbird until he got real about his life.

It is so often true that we need to face the rock and the hard place before we’ll let go of how we think life ought to be and get grounded in how life really is. Mr. Pavlina knows how life really is. One of the great boons of his book is that he doesn’t avoid the hard stuff.

I’m one of the best positive thinkers around, but I’m also a realist. When someone hurts, I address it, I don’t ignore it. Positive thinking was never meant to be a gloss-over of reality; it was meant to be a way to guide living. Mr. Pavlina addresses both his own challenges, and his raw truth is fiercely comforting, as well as those of any conscious being. Yeah, we can get into struggling, resistance, defense, angst, you name it, and his three fundamentals, IF we will align with them, will, over time, get us out of these difficulties.

I really enjoyed some of his practical suggestions—in the theoretical part of the book no less. Try these on for size.

Consider a Media Fast: 30 days with no television, radio, newspapers, magazines. Think of the time you’ll free up to grow!

Consider Progressive Training: to “build power and especially self-discipline is to progressively train yourself to tackle bigger challenges.” He suggests an increasing raising of the bar for whatever you want to accomplish. What a relief!

Consider his Worst First: I loved this one! Start your day and do the worst things first. Get them over with, so that as your day progresses you become more and more successful. I learned this one years ago.

Two of the major ideas in this personal development bible have been the cornerstone of my spiritual counseling practice for more than 25 years:

You will have to face whatever you fear.
You will be so much closer to healing if you’ll take full responsibility for the way things are now.

As if I hadn’t already fallen in love with the simplicity and elegance of Mr. Pavlina’s systematic program for personal development, when I hit the pages on Honor, my heart bloomed like a lotus flower. It’s an old-fashioned concept, honor, but one I think needs reviving.

“Honor recognizes that service to self and service to others are the same thing. They cannot be otherwise.”

Amen! Hallelujah! Glory to be God! It is so true, and we, in the Western world anyway, have this bizarre concept that service to others has to cost us or it isn’t service. Nothing could be further from the truth, and Mr. Pavlina nails this one on the head.

I wholeheartedly recommend this simple elegant structure for personal growth. Click here to go direct to Amazon, so you can read it for yourself. Steve Pavlina is a personal development genius, and his book is as simple and elegant as the atom.

P.S. For Part Two, go to http://seedsforsanctuary.blogspot.com/2008/10/steve-pavlina-personal-development-for_13.html

Poetic Anatomy

2008-09-26T07:09:00.003-05:00

Seeds X, 39

Seed: Poetic Anatomy

Many of you have read Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, I’m sure. If you haven’t, give it to yourself as a gift. It’s transcendent. This Seed comes from her book. At one point, she writes, “There exists in each human being a literal anatomy and a poetic anatomy.” I love this idea.

All able-bodied folk have the standard human inventory. I don’t have to list the items. But what of a poetic anatomy? What might that be? For my 5’4” self, part of that poetry is a me that is 5’10” tall. Another part of that poetry is the totally healthy me. Another line in that poem of my anatomy declares that I can eat anything and my metabolism will handle it.

Poetry doesn’t always top our lists in terms of artistic expression. We think it takes a rarified talent to create poetry and an even more rarified one to enjoy it. But what if you were to consider your body and its anatomy as a poem for a moment? Would you be a sonnet? Haiku? Free verse? Iambic pentameter? Dr. Seussian? Twas the Night Before Christmas-like? A combination?

There would probably be as many poetic anatomies as there are literal anatomies. If you get a second this weekend, grab an unlined sheet of paper, and write the poem of your current anatomy. A couple days later, try the poem of your ideal anatomy. Oh what a difference a vision makes!

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Service Industry

2008-09-24T07:05:00.001-05:00

There is, of course, a whole industry called the Service Industry. It has to do with supplying services rather than goods, but what I’m wondering is: isn’t every industry ultimately a service industry? More, shouldn’t every industry be a service industry? I think so.

Reading the latest issue of Ode Magazine, I came across a wonderful article about the healthy masculine by Father Matthew Fox, that reprobate, formerly Catholic priest who writes so winningly about Original Blessing. In it, Father Fox writes, “Service is love of strangers.”

I’ll write it again so you have a chance to be with it.

Service is love of strangers.

Well, ain’t it the truth? It is! Living a life of service really doesn’t allow for discrimination of any kind. Service to humanity is service to all of humanity, or it isn’t service at all. A life of service makes humankind one’s master or mistress.

One needs a master or mistress in order to service. This raises another question for me. What in humanity am I desirous of serving? The highest and best in humanity would be my answer. The Divine Spark in each one of us. I see my service as turning Divine Sparks into Divine Flames. It doesn’t matter whose Divine Spark—we all have one and every single one of us deserves the experience of living from the heart of a Divine Flame.

What this means is that no one is a stranger to me. No one. Will Rogers wrote that “strangers are just friends I haven’t met yet.” I’m with Will.

Pakistan, of All Places

2008-09-22T07:41:00.002-05:00

Americans are notoriously amero-centric, myself included, so imagine my delight when I got a letter from a gentleman in Pakistan who had read last week’s Seed, called “Coexist.” His name is Muhammad Tahir Tabassum; he is an Ambassador for Peace and the Founder/Executive Director of INSPAD, the Institute of Peace and Development. It has offices in Belgium and Pakistan.

On Saturday, the worst terrorist attack ever committed in Pakistan happened in Islamabad near the Marriott Hotel. A truck bomb detonated killing forty and injuring many hundreds more. It was a few hundred yards from the Prime Minister’s home where all the leaders of the country were dining just after their new President’s first address to Parliament.

Normally, I would have read this headline with a sigh, said a prayer and let it go, except that my new correspondent is based in Islamabad. My first answer to Muhammad’s email was about his safety! One man, one spirit, one soul dedicated to peace (as am I) in the midst of a terrorist attack put a human face on what had happened halfway around the world from me! One!

And that’s the point. Those numbers in the story: the forty killed and the many hundreds wounded are human beings, individuals, spirits, souls, bodies who will be touched beyond imagination by this terrorist action. Ambassador Tabassum is safe—thank God—he wrote me a quickie response to my original email assuring me he was.

Of note: the Ambassador had spent the day at a meeting for the International Day of Peace—today, Sunday, September 21, 2008. He sent me an article about the ceremony during which they signed an agreement with the Coordinator of IBHI (Independent Bureau for Humanitarian Issues) to establish an International Commission on Kashmir Issue.

Perhaps my peace ambassador, because he spent his day working toward peace, was spared this time. His email to me closed, “Thanks again I am safe, but the country is in danger really.”

No one deserves to live under this sort of threat! No one. We’re all individuals, doing the best we can with what we have at any given moment. Please, please, won’t you pray for peace with me? For Ambassador Tabassum, his country and yourself and me and our world?

Coexist

2008-09-19T07:47:00.003-05:00

Seeds X, 38

Seed: Coexist

I drove past a car with a bumpersticker bearing an image similar to the one above for almost a year before I figured out what it said. And, of course, when I went looking on Google images for the exact bumpersticker that had confused me, I could only find images that were as clear as the one above!

Anyway, I can’t find whoever designed this but it’s allegedly a lesson on Coexistence for all beings. Track the symbols with me. First, the Muslim crescent; then, the peace symbol; the astrological symbols for male and female (and I’d add, all the genders along the spectrum); the Star of David; the Baha’i Star; the Taoist Yin/Yang; the Christian cross. From what I’ve read, the creator of this image intended it to be a recommendation to humanity that we are all dependent upon one another and the major religions of the world.

That works for me, but the more important statement in my mind is this: we have no choice, dear one, we all are coexisting whether we like it or not, and we can choose to like it if we want to so choose. Or not, and suffer the consequences. Me, I pick peaceful coexistence.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

100% of Reality

2008-09-17T06:52:00.003-05:00

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the ever-quotable, said, “Perception is one hundred percent of reality.” What appears below is a testament to his inimitable wisdom. It came to me several times in the past two days via the Internet.

I'm a little confused.Let me see if I have this straight:

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic', 'different.' but grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim. But name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School, you are unstable. But attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a state senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment, Public Works, and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

But if your total resume is: Local weather girl, 4 years on the city council, 6 years as mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second-highest ranking executive.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian. But if you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age-appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society. But if, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system, while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

But if your husband is nicknamed 'First Dude,’ with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25, and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

Whether you agree with my politics or not, you have to agree that it’s all a matter of perception. The spin doctors are working overtime.

Can you allow your OWN perception to filter that of the media so that you make an informed, conscious choice about whom to support? You bet. Listen to your heart.

Dirty Pool Online

2008-09-15T07:39:00.003-05:00

An amazing thing happened this week. I had my first post in Politics on Huffington Post. I wrote about Sarah Palin and consciousness. Over the weekend, I sent announcements and various emails about the piece, and got some stellar responses.

Saturday afternoon the Obama Campaign called to ask me if I would volunteer for them, canvassing and voter registration. I said no. Too many timelines right now, but I am doing something for Obama (besides giving money). I told her about my piece.

When we hung up, the Obama folks called for Sheriden on the other phone line. She’d just signed up for a training so she could go help the Obama campaign in New Hampshire.

Here’s the dirty pool. It turned out that the site was a training to assist the Republican ticket.
She had clicked on an Obama button, and got redirected to help the Republicans. There’s something mean here. Illegitimate. An Internet bait and switch.

So when you’re volunteering and especially in signing up and donating online to do so be sure you’re dealing with the real thing before you commit your time, energy and focus.

Some people will do anything to get elected.

P.S. After I wrote this piece, I discovered that the Republican Party is seriously investigating foreclosures in the swing states of Michigan and Ohio. The reason? Most foreclosures in those swing states affect black person who would be voting for Obama. Word is that the Republicans will claim that they are not really voters -- because they don't really live there!

I'll say it again: some people will do anything to get elected.

Fast Horses

2008-09-12T07:40:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 37

Seed: Fast Horses

I can’t remember where we were going but we were driving on a highway up a hill. That, I do remember. Oh, and the sign on the trailer in front of us:

Fast Horses
Slow Truck

We burst out laughing, and the idea stayed with me. Isn’t that what’s so about the human mind? Our thoughts go lickety-split just like fast horses, and our hearts and bodies can feel like slow trucks a lot of the time.

Do you know why? Thoughts travel, quite literally, at the speed of light. Emotions travel at the speed of water. And bodies, those dear vessels, travel at the speed of earth.

The next time your thoughts are out-stripping your feelings and your body, remember the sign on the back of the trailer and give yourself a break.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine and The Huffington Post.

The Shift—The Movie

2008-09-10T06:07:00.003-05:00

This video trailer may just say it all. Here’s the URL:

http://theshiftmovie.com/index.html

Go! And send your friends!

I’m in!

Telling the Truth

2008-09-08T07:38:00.002-05:00

As you know, I’m in the midst of working with a {marvelous!}web wizard to create susancorso.com—something I’ve been meaning to do for years. We’ve found a good working rhythm, my designer and me.

The process is fascinating. First, we created a Web Map. We decided on Navigation Buttons, and sub-categories for the items that would go under the major buttons. Then I took the Nav Map, and created one document called Web Copy ALL. On that I laid out, page by page, what visuals and text went on what pages. It was crystal clear, or so I thought.

You can imagine that much of our communication is via email, and it struck me this morning when there was a total misunderstanding about one page that I am doing a spiritual practice by telling my designer the truth. Don’t get me wrong, either. I do my best to tell the truth all the time, but this case made me look differently at truth telling.

This website is my website. It needs to reflect my work and my energy. That’s a no-brainer. What isn’t a no-brainer is that I’m suddenly aware of how I can fall into a pattern of allowing others to have “their way” in the name of making peace so that sometimes when I ought to insist upon what I want, I don’t.

So here’s the key. First, I HAVE TO TELL MYSELF THE TRUTH about what I want. My designer totally misunderstood something that was perfectly clear to me. I wanted a special, separate page for the current Seed of the Week. She did the whole of the Seeds pages and left this thing out.

Instead of immediately insisting on what I wanted, I spent some time pondering whether I could/should let this go! Ridiculous! I’m known for writing Seeds, and there ought to be a page for the current Seed. What caused me to do this? It doesn’t bother my designer if I need her to redo something.

I’ll tell you. It’s an overarching desire to “just get along” with everyone that makes me lie down and say yes when I need to say no. When I tell myself the truth, it’s easy to share that same truth with others.

And, here’s a bonus. If I can be unattached to the outcome, over and over again a newer, better iteration has arisen!

Truth creates.

Big Dreams

2008-09-05T07:31:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 36

Seed: Big Dreams

Do you subscribe to Mike Dooley’s Notes from the Universe? If not, consider it. His weekday emails are pithy and hilarious. You can do so by clicking here: www.tut.com (It stands for Totally Unique Thoughts.)

Anyway, he’s a HUGE proponent of Big Dreams. Dreams, of course, for our lives, come in all sizes and shapes. It doesn’t matter how big or small they are—they’re still dreams, our dreams, and that’s all that matters really.

Writing in the September 2007 Science of Mind Magazine, Tama J. Kieves writes, “Big dreams deserve big love.” That sentence gave me pause. Big pause. Are you gifting your dreams no matter how big or small with big love?

I am. Now. But I wasn’t when I read that sentence. Think on it. It’s the same feeling that takes over when one first falls in love. Everything exists in relation to that beloved. Everything. Sometimes big dreams come true faster when we enlarge our hearts to receive them.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

The Secret Practice of Solitaire

2008-09-03T07:32:00.003-05:00

Okay, I’m about to cop to it. Listen up. I use Solitaire on my computer as a spiritual practice. Really. Think I’m going to get into a huge theological explanation? Think again. It’s real simple.

When I know I’m holding on, I use solitaire to let go. It works the same way driving works for me—as a Zen activity.

Solitaire requires that I pay attention in order to play, not to mention win. By entertaining my brain, I am able to loosen the stranglehold of whatever is holding on in my mind or whatever I am holding onto in my mind. It's the same thing!

Let’s get specific:

I was away at the beginning of August, visiting friends in Santa Fe. One of them had a new partner whom I was really looking forward to meeting. Let me simply say delicately that it did not go as well as I had hoped. In fact, it was a disaster, a bona fide disaster.

Weeks elapsed and I received an email apology which I didn’t answer. I had nothing to say. Two more weeks and it began to nag at me. I was not behaving to the standard that I choose for myself. I was in resistance to this email, and did not want to answer it. Argh. I wanted to be a better me.

So I played Solitaire until I got clear. I wanted to teach the little so-and-so a lesson. I was angry. The apology wasn’t sufficient. I told myself stories and played Solitaire till I was storied out, and then I was able to get real.

I wrote the offending partner back. I said I’d received the apology and that now damaged trust would have to be rebuilt through actions. Small, gentle actions. And I felt better, clearer, no longer in resistance, and right with myself again.

Solitaire. A game played alone, against (or for) oneself, and a wonderful spiritual discipline for getting clear.

Go ahead, boot up!

Encore, Encore!

2008-09-01T07:07:00.002-05:00

I’m sure you’ve heard my title before at every concert you’ve ever attended, but I do not refer to a concert here. I refer instead to the wonderful book by Marc Freedman, now out in paperback, called Encore: Finding Work in the Second Half of Life. What a wonder it is.

Mr. Freedman is the Founder and CEO of Civic Ventures—their tagline is “helping society achieve the greatest return on experience.” And that is the core of his message in the book.

Millions of us are approaching the second halves of our lives. We don’t want to stop working but many folk who’ve done their time in corporate America want meaning over money and to contribute to the greater good as well as earn something of an income.

Retirement, it turns out, ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. Truth to tell you, I’ve never witnessed anyone retire particularly well unless they had a passion to do something they couldn’t do whilst they worked. And no one ever thought that people would retire at 65 and then live another 30 to 40 years!

What to do? What to do? Take a page out of Mr. Freedman’s book. Give yourself a “gap year,” to contemplate where you might like to go, what sector you might like to impact, how your experience might apply in other areas, what issues make your blood go. Learn, open yourself to reflection from within and without.

Then, try on a couple of careers for size. Volunteer. Be an adult intern. Get in on the ground floor. The trenches. Check it out. See if it still makes your blood pump. Treat this time like your annual Back-to-School clothes-shopping trip. Try things on! And if you like, excellent, and if you don’t, move on. Work in the second half of life is meant to be fulfilling—both for your cause and for your self, and this, dear one, is the key to it all.

Work, no matter what kind, has to be fulfilling to the worker as well as to the business or else it’s not real, inspired work. This is Spiritual Law.

Mr. Freedman is a visionary, a wise, practical one. He has a vision and a plan of action that anyone can use. The stories he tells of encore career pioneers are heartening. Every one of them listened for and found their heartsong. Then they sang it!

Encore, Encore! Bravo!

Learn? Teach

2008-08-29T07:54:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 35

Seed: Learn? Teach

You probably already know that the fastest way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. I figured this out so long ago that the Universe helps me do it.

I’m in the process of creating and launching a website to promote my new audiobook and my healing mysteries www.susancorso.com, so what happened today? Someone called and asked my help on a website about healing. I looked at it and thought, I know what to do to help them, and I began to teach what I was already learning for my own website.

Sometimes all we need is to hear ourselves explain something in order to know that we truly do know our stuff. Want to learn? Teach whatever it is to someone else.

Welcome back to school!

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Fear-Facers

2008-08-27T07:37:00.003-05:00

My sweetie had her annual physical today. She came home relieved. Here’s why: she’d spent the previous two nights up—fretting. Turning small, aging irritations into mega, aging nightmares. An ache here, a pain there. You know the kind I mean.

In her defense, she’d just spent ten days with her nonagenarian parental unit—and aging though they are, grace on that front seems sadly lacking. At just shy of 60, my spouse is looking at her beliefs about aging. Aren’t we all?

Well, her annual doctor’s visit was to our primary care physician, and care, in her case, is the operative word. In thirty minutes, she faced and calmed Sheriden’s fears. She was a voice of authority over fear and that voice overrode the night frets. Thanks, Doc!

Yesterday a friend called, a cancer survivor, who had convinced herself that she was, once again, riddled with cancer. Feeling sustained tension over more than a few weeks, she reached out for a voice of authority over fear. In this case, it turned out to be mine. I talked her down from the tree limb she’d unwittingly scaled.

There were all sorts of logical reasons for what she was feeling, things that her fear hadn’t let her consider. Fear—so inconsiderate sometimes! We also made a plan that if her symptoms weren’t gone in a month, she’d get a medical opinion. The point is: my friend needed a voice outside herself to speak back to fear enough so she could get her own bearings again. So did my sweetie.

Every once in a while we all need someone to face and speak back to the fear that riding roughshod over our spirits. We need a voice of authority to wrangle the fear so that we ourselves can face what’s really going on.

That’s the kind of friends I have, and I hope with all my heart that you do, too.

Reverse (Spiritual) Economics

2008-08-25T07:46:00.003-05:00

I spent much of the weekend writing copy for my new web portal. When I finished it, I felt like I’d given birth. Code for: expansive but tired. That’s when it dawned on me that this entire exercise of creating my website has been a practical demonstration of spiritual economics. Let me know you what I mean.

Economics as taught by our esteemed institutions of higher learning can be reduced to a simple trio of words:

Supply and Demand

It’s explained like this: I create a supply of widgets. Through advertising, publicity and marketing, I create a demand for that widget supply. You, the demander of widgets, demand my supply and I make a fortune.

Spiritual Economics works in the exact reverse. To wit,

Demand and Supply

First, I demand of the Universe what I need. Someone to design this new website, Mother, and a videographer, and a social networking marketer, and graphic designers, and book cover wizards, and a recording engineer, and you name whatever else. Every single time I had a need, I asked the Universe for what I needed.

Second, if I’ll wait, quietly, patiently, without trying to force things, the demand is supplied so fast that my head spins.

It’s a lot harder, and longer, to create according to traditional economic principles. Spiritual economics are far easier because one takes one’s request to the storehouse of the entire Universe. They’re never out of anything. They don’t require marketing. In fact, the Universe itself IS supply.

Seek ye first . . . in the easiest, most abundant place . . . and all these things shall be added unto you.

Change Coming

2008-08-22T07:34:00.002-05:00

Seeds X, 34

Seed: Change Coming

Some of you know I write a blog for Ode Magazine on peace. I’ve been doing it for over a year now.

Juriaan Kamp, Editor-in-Chief of Ode, wrote in his essay in one issue, “The powers that be never see change coming. It’s not in their interest.” Bless their hearts, the powers that be are seeing a big change coming now and it’s called the presidential election. It’s been coming for a long while now.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter whether the powers that be see the change coming. The powers that aren’t yet are seeing change on the horizon. This works whether one is a nation or a person.

Need change? You are the power that is in your own life. See it coming. Visualize it. Dream it. Let the change change you. I’m pretty sure you’ll be glad you did.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Taking Our Selves for Granted

2008-08-20T07:06:00.003-05:00

Have you ever thought about this expression? Do you take yourself for granted? Most of us do, I think.

We take for granted, or, assume as a given, that we are who we are, but are we?

Ever had a reaction to something or someone that surprised you?

“That’s not like me,” we say.

Oh? What is, then?

Granted comes from Latin roots meaning, believed or entrusted.

This puts a nice spin on the phrase for me. We are entrusted with, granted, our selves.

Taking anything for granted isn’t particularly advisable except for immutable laws: Gravity, Aerodynamics (and the bumblebee gives the lie to these!). You know the kind of laws I mean.

Plenty is granted us as human beings, and a far more appropriate attitude toward what is entrusted to us, or granted us, is gratitude.

Including for our precious selves!

The Amazing Video Weekend

2008-08-18T06:49:00.002-05:00

We planned it a month ago, maybe a little more. My friend Court Stroud was coming to Boston to make some videos for my website. We had four definite projects to complete in less than two days.

It was just the three of us. Me: the “talent.” Sheriden: the director and producer and crew. Court: the videographer and editor and producer, and crew.

What could have been a nightmare of bumping heads, bruised egos and general dissatisfaction turned out to be sheer, unadulterated pleasure as we three found a way of communicating, a rhythm of working (and taking breaks) and a creative groove that left all three of us feeling fulfilled and pleased as punch with ourselves.

How did we do it?

By planning what we wanted to get done, talking just a little in advance, and agreeing to experiment with our creative impulses together. We planned . . . but not much. Instead, we planned a little and showed up a lot.

Each of us took turns leading and following.

We were all considerate of one another.

We used our eyes and ears to tune into one another’s states of being.

We took breaks when one person wanted a rest.

No one made anyone wrong; instead, we practiced making one another right.

We ended up with all the videos we wanted, shot in less than twelve hours.

You’ll see them on the susancorso.com website soon. I’ll keep you posted.

EZ Pass

2008-08-15T07:35:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 33

Seed: EZ Pass

Many years ago now the New York metro transit authority created a system called EZ Pass. The idea was to facilitate traffic through the tolls at bridges and tunnels in and out of the city. An EZ Pass holder kept a balance on the device to make passing in and out of the city faster. To a certain extent, it works, and EZ Pass is now accepted up and down New England.

I got to thinking about the name of the device the other day though and something struck me about it. Often, humans dismiss the things which are easy for us. We, quite literally, pass, don’t notice, don’t value the things which come easy to us.

The strangest part of this phenomenon is that whatever that thing is that allows you to say, “It’s easy for me,” is the thing you were sent here to do, not to take a pass on. We buy an EZ Pass to make our passage easier. We’re here to pass on (as in hand down) what’s easy for us here. The thing that’s easy for you? Look for someone to whom you might pass it on.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Procrastination

2008-08-13T07:04:00.002-05:00

I need a book cover designer for my new audiobook, Oklahoma! Hex, and I’ve contacted several from the Web. I’m supposed to return their emails/calls this morning and it’s already afternoon. What’s going on? I’m procrastinating.

I am not usually a procrastinator. As part of the very process, I opened the OED curious about the etymology of the word. After all, it begins with pro- which means for. I tend to think of procrastination as an against sort of process, don’t you? Its roots are Latin from cras; meaning tomorrow.

So the whole meaning is for tomorrow.

There are plenty of things in my life for tomorrow. I have four appointments with clients for tomorrow, not today.

What’s really going on when we procrastinate?

Usually, we are judging ourselves something fierce. There is an undercurrent of thought about laziness, unreliability, unwillingness to work. None of these things is true of me. I’m disciplined, organized, impeccable about reliability.

Why am I procrastinating?

Over the years I’ve learned that when I indulge in procrastination it often means that something bigger or better is trying to happen. Something feels not quite right about these designers I’ve found, and I don’t know what to do next. The energy in my actions feels logey, until I deliberately decide to release myself from the obligation I’ve set myself.

Once I let go, really let go, it rarely takes more than two days before something I’ve needed comes to me.

The next time you catch yourself procrastinating, consider that something better is on its way to you. Let go, wait two days and see what miracle rings your doorbell.

Official notice: I’m letting go of the book cover designer job right now. Anyone know a good one?

P.S. Thirty minutes after I wrote this, one of them called and they're perfect!

An End to Remorse

2008-08-11T08:06:00.002-05:00

William Butler Yeats was a mystical poet. His words below surprised me because I’d only seen the last three lines before. It was on a Mary Engelbreit page-a-day calendar. Typical affirmative fodder. But the verse is so much more powerful with its first two lines intact.

When such as I cast out remorse,
So great a sweetness flows into the breast.
We must laugh and we must sing,
We are blest by everything.
Everything we look upon is blest.
W. B. Yeats

According to the OED, a wordsmith’s favorite book, remorse means a feeling of deep regret or repentance. It comes from Latin roots meaning biting, as in painful. The key to casting out remorse, and following Poet Yeats’ wise instructions, is revealed in its etymology.

Think of the practice of biting into, say, a brilliant, orange carrot. A happy thing at lunchtime for you; perhaps not so happy for the carrot—I couldn’t say.

Same with remorse. What we do when we indulge in remorse is bite off a memory of an event, or behavior, or choice, or word, or deed that we now wish we’d done differently. Check out the tiny syllable at the beginning of the word: re-. It means again. So not only do we chew on the memory, but we chow down on it, biting again and again and again.

To cast out remorse, beloved, quit biting into it! And letting it bite into you!

As yourself some questions about the experience:

Did I do the best I could with what I knew at the moment?
Could I have done better? Then?
What can I learn from this experience for the future?

Then CAST OUT REMORSE. Let it go. Relax, and let the sweetness of life flow into you.

Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has wishes that things had gone differently. So?

So, cast out remorse, let sweetness arise, then laugh, sing and let the blessings of everything make you blest.

I & Enemy

2008-08-08T08:10:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 32

Seed: I & Enemy

The Tao Te Ching, the classic text by Lao Tse says that one cannot have the words I and Enemy in the same sentence if one wants to be a master of Tao. The concepts of I and Enemy do not relate to one another in a master’s understanding of life.

So let’s look for a moment at ourselves. Do we have enemies? According to the OED, the word comes from Latin roots meaning not friendly. It may sound a bit absolutist but anyone or anything toward whom or which we feel not friendly is an enemy according to this definition. For me, that sheds a new and less yielding light on enemies.

Shall we take it deeper? The Hebrew prophet Micah said that the harshest enemies we can have are those “of our own house.” Are there parts of yourself toward which you are not friendly? Take a page out of Abraham Lincoln’s book, dear one, and ask, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make friends of them?” Mastering our inner enemies by befriending them dissolves the outer ones as well.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine. and The Huffington Post.

George W. Bush—Avatar?

2008-08-06T07:52:00.003-05:00

A P. S. Upfront: This post was rejected by my Huff Post editors as being "too out there!" Here you go!

The quote on my Google home page was from Saki, the Burman-born British poet who was killed during the First World War: He is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death.

I don’t know to whom Saki referred, but I know people who feel this way about G.W.B. and, to be honest, I was tempted to go there for a nanosecond, but I know too much about how the universe works to spend any time there. The most recent issue of Utne Reader had an article about his legacy as, believe it or not, the AIDS president. Legacy, schmegacy. I think his legacy is far greater than anyone yet realizes. Even him.

I’d better cop to it up front: I am a Democrat, and I am also committed to living a consciously spiritual life, the discipline of which asks me to seek and find meaning in the events of my time.

What kind of consciousness in the United States of America chose a president like George W. Bush? I mean it. I’m really asking. Because, to my way of thinking, he reflects something in that famous mass the pols call “the American people.” What is G.W.B. showing us about ourselves?

Let’s see . . . our apathy . . . our thoughtlessness . . . our short-sightedness . . . our hubris . . . our own Teflonned hearts . . . our inconsideration . . . our denial . . . our lack of care for ourselves, others and the planet. I could go on but you catch my drift.

Relationships, dear one, are mirrors. There really is no them, as in them and us; there’s only us. George Walker Bush is showing us something. It’s our task to determine what. Why would a benevolent universe ask us to look at these things?

Because. Because it’s time. Because it’s now. Because it’s now or never. The American people need to see who George W. Bush really is so that we’ll wake up. That’s what I think his true legacy is.

Try this on: George Walker Bush, preincarnate soul, appears in Heaven to meet with his guidance counselor before he arrives in his mother’s arms.

GC: “George, for that will be your name, are you sure?”
GW: “I am, GC. I’ll do it. They need it.”
GC: “It won’t be easy. People will think ill of you.”
GW: “I know, and it’s okay. I’ll be indifferent in order to make a difference.”
GC: “You got it, GW. Now . . . birth!”

What if it’s true? What if George Bush made a soul agreement, one he knows nothing of on a conscious level, to act as cruelly as he has to fulfill the function of an avatar—a human incarnation of an aspect of Divinity—so that we, the American people, would wake up into caring about ourselves, others and our planet.

And isn’t that exactly what has happened during the 2006 midterm elections, the primaries this year, and, hopefully, the 2008 presidential election?

So although Saki’s sentiment tempts me, my spiritual practice asks for something else: gratitude. Thanks, G.W.B., for doing your soul duty!

Airport Bardo

2008-08-04T09:52:00.003-05:00

I wakened this morning thanking God Almighty that I was in my own bed. I’ve just returned from ten days of intense travel: a ho’oponopono workshop in Woodland Hills, California; visits to my in-laws; a sandwich stay in Santa Fe with my ex-husband and best friend.

The trip was, of course, bookended by air travel. By the final taxi ride, I was certain that Murphy’s indubitable law of things going wrong was the ONLY operative one!

The trip to Burbank wasn’t too bad. It could have been because I was so looking forward to seeing my best friend from high school. She’s a friend with whom I don’t need to speak regularly and then, when we see one another again, we’re right back on the same page. Sari’s one of the favorite beings in my life.

I got on an earlier flight than I’d originally planned on Sunday—it should have made my arrival in Albuquerque more than three hours earlier than originally planned. Instead, we flew from Burbank to Phoenix, and there was a mechanical problem with the plane. Mechanical problems happen, I know. Then, US Airways “couldn’t find” (I quote) another plane that was working. Then, when they did, they didn’t have a pilot, so they flew one in from Philadelphia! (And just how Philadelphia is on the way to or from Phoenix, I still haven’t quite figured out!) Even though I paid an additional $65 to get to Albuquerque more than three hours earlier, I arrived ten minutes before I would have had I not made the changes.

Never mind.

The pièce de résistance was the trip from Albuquerque to Boston. We got up at 4 AM, showered and blew into a cab for a 6 AM departure. The flight to Dallas wasn’t bad.

When we got off the plane in Dallas, however, they’d cancelled our flight to Boston. Just summarily. No reason was given. For what it’s worth, if the gate agent had simply said to us, “You know, we at American Airlines are committed to doing everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint; the plane just wasn’t full enough to justify the fuel,” we might have at least felt like we were doing our bit for God and country. But no, she had no excuse, and didn’t seem to need to make one. And I’m not saying she was rude, for she wasn’t, she was charming as all Texas.

She waitlisted us for a 10 AM flight and put us on a 12:45 flight. There was no way we would be put on the 10 AM (we were numbers 15 and 16 on an oversold flight) which I figured out after we schlepped through half the airport and talked to another (more honest?) gate agent. She put us on an 11:35 flight. Why didn’t the first one? So we schlepped some more and got on and took off on time.

Okay . . . we’re on our way home. But are we?

The toilet began to stink almost immediately after take-off and it got worse and worse throughout the trip. As we were nearing our destination, Boston got the weather weirds. We were about to run out of fuel, so we had to put down in Hartford to get more. They kept us locked in the plane with the odoriferous head for 90 minutes. Oh, we’d gotten the fuel we needed but things were iffy in Boston still, or someone needed to clear us or whatever; the pilot was so inept with the microphone that all we heard was buzz-buzz-buzz-Boston-buzz-buzz. Finally, we take off again thinking it’s a spit till we’re in a cab on the way to our happy home.

Oh no. The luggage doesn’t get taken off the plane and put on its delivery spinner for 50 minutes—count ʼem, folks!—five-oh minutes. By the time we get both our suitcases . . . mine was one of the last off-loaded . . . get into a gypsy cab and go tearing through the tunnel to Somerville, we’re toast. No, we’re bread crumbs.

We staggered up the seventeen steps to our front door at 8 PM. Our original ETA had been 3.

Amazingly, this morning I was considering a little cosmic math. If ever we are called to do time in the Bardo, that in-between Heaven and Hell purgatory, we can faithfully point to our Sunday with American Airlines and affirm that we’ve already done it!

People Change

2008-07-24T09:25:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 31

Seed: People Change

People change. They do.

Recently a friend told me a story about the beginning of a new romance in his life. His closest friend took the fifth about the relationship upsetting my friend. It took us a while to figure out that his best friend was simply reacting to the change in my friend’s life. New romances change us.

There’s a line in Lillian Hellman’s play Toys in the Attic. One of the characters says, “People change and forget to tell each other.”

The next time someone dear to you makes a change in his or her life, before you react, reflect. Is your dear one saying, subtextually anyway, “I’m changing and I’m telling you so”?

People change, and we get to change with them.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine. and The Huffington Post.

Micro-Vacations

2008-07-24T09:18:00.002-05:00

Seeds X, 30

Seed: Micro-vacations

This Seed was inspired by Rev. Margaret Storz writing in Science of Mind Magazine. She highly recommends micro-vacations. She lives near one of the coasts of the United States so her micro-vacations are all about the beach. Mine are not. I’m a redhead; I don’t do beach.

A micro-vacation for me might be . . . a weekday afternoon at the movies . . . or thirty minutes reading fiction during the day . . . or a massage. But what Rev. Storz is talking about is even less time-consuming than these. She’s talking about 30 seconds to a minute several times a day.

Most of us have too much to do too much of the time. Do you have a post-it note nearby, dear one? Start a list of places to visit for 30 seconds at a time. Hawaii, if you’re a beach bunny. The Alps, if you’re not. The mind works in images. Create a Favorites folder on your computer full of micro-vacation images and take a minute to go there and relax every day.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine. and The Huffington Post.

Holiday Notice

2008-07-24T09:13:00.003-05:00

Today I’m posting Seeds for the next two weeks. I’ll be out of town in California and Santa Fe and not doing blog posts (except in my mind) until August 4th. You can still read my weekly posts on Ode Magazine’s blog and The Huffington Post. Happy summer!

Susan

Speed Caps

2008-07-23T08:42:00.002-05:00

I want you to know that I’m telling the absolute truth when I say that every single westbound driver on the Mass Pike between 2:30 and 4:30 passed me this weekend. Every single one. I swear it.

In most places, the speed cap is 65 mph. I was going 62. I keep thinking that if we all go 3 mph below the speed cap that we’ll save on carbon footprints.

The point, dear one, to speed limits is that they’re speed caps, not minimums, but most people drive as if the speed limits are minimums. It scares me. People had to be approaching 85 mph at the rates they passed me. What’s the rush? Never mind, don’t answer that.

Speed caps, top speeds, maximum speeds. That 65 mph came through much experimentation, calculation and research. It is derived from the laws of aerodynamics, how cars and tires and velocities interact, weather conditions, road grade, curves, a host of things. And someone smarter than I am—at least about all those things—thought up that 65 mph for a reason.

On the way home, I suggested to my sweetie that there was a very simple solution to everyone speeding like demons eastbound toward Boston. Make cars that can accelerate only up to 65 mph. Full stop.

She answered me, “Yeah. What about freedom?”
Freedom? To what? Hurry? Waste fuel? Endanger others? Waste fuel? Worry others? Waste fuel? Waste fuel? Waste fuel?

WHAT are we doing? Does climate change go out the window when we’re on the road? If it’s important to bring your own bags to the grocery store, isn’t it just as important to slow down and use less gasoline?

I don’t get it that humanity isn’t getting it. What’s not to get? Climate change is one of OUR problems. Ours. Today, and every day we don’t do something to minimize it. It’s not rocket science. Small actions add up to large results.

Ease up on the gas pedal, honey, and at least notice that there are flowers.

A Little Less Effort

2008-07-21T07:58:00.002-05:00

I coined a phrase this morning that I know will live on in the world of our experience:

a little less effort and a little more rock and roll.

Sheriden laughed when I said it to her on the phone, and asked me if I’d thought it up right then. I had.

I was talking about today’s (Saturday’s) New York Times crossword puzzle when I said it.

For those who aren’t puzzle maniacs, puzzles in The New York Times get progressively more complicated as the week goes on and the month goes on thanks to editor Will Shortz. Saturday puzzles can be a bear. The clues get more and more obscure and require further leaps of intuition.

That’s what happened to me over the weekend.

I was stumped. Almost totally. Sheriden was away at a workshop and we were visiting in our usual first thing in the morning wake-up call. I was looking at the puzzle in my computer and instead of locking in with my brain, determined to wrestle the clues into revealing themselves through logic and intellect, I let go.

Whilst we chatted, I was able to finish the whole thing.

Most of my attention was on Sheriden and her experience of the previous evening’s Ko Festival performance. The rest of it was on Will Shortz and his Saturday puzzle.

Consider this as a strategy the next time you feel your brain lock in and prepare to do battle with an intellectual challenge. Put part of your attention on the problem and the other on something, or someone, you love, where you go with the flow easily. (Solitaire works just as well.)

See if the challenge doesn’t reveal itself right before your eyes. A little less effort and a little more rock and roll.

Heffalump Pits

2008-07-18T07:43:00.003-05:00

Seeds X, 29

Seed: Heffalump Pits

Oh my friend, beware of heffalump pits! Do you know what they are? Do you know where they are? Do you know why they are? A heffalump pit is what one uses to catch a heffalump, and the genesis of such an ingenious device is to be found in A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh books.

In the story, Pooh and Piglet dig a heffalump pit to catch a heffalump but succeed only in catching Pooh with a jar of Hunny stuck on his head. Now you and I know that the heffalump is a phantasmagoria, but I want to ask you, is it really?

Isn’t the worst situation you’ve ever found yourself in usually one of your own making to one degree or another? Even if you can’t see it at the time? Well, I’m going to tell you a small secret about heffalump pits.

If ever you fall into one, look at your own hands. That’s right. Inspect each hand, one at a time. I’ll wager a quarter that in one or the other, you’ll find a shovel! The flip side of this is: if you’re unexpectedly holding a shovel, look out! There’s a heffalump pit nearby and you could fall in at any moment!

P.S. The easiest way to avoid Heffalump Pits is to refrain from Digging Them!

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine. and The Huffington Post.

A New Earth (I)

2008-07-16T08:39:00.002-05:00

I’m reading Eckhart Tolle’s latest book, A New Earth, and it’s stellar. Only a third of the way through, it’s remarkable how clearly he explains the human condition. Basically, we’re trapped both in and by our minds which, in his parlance, means our egos.

I’m not sure about the bad rap the ego gets. It doesn’t seem correct to me. But I am sure that when I get in trouble, it’s because my ego isn’t getting what it needs. Egos are like any mania. Stop feeding them and eventually the cravings diminish.

What I really like about the book is that Mr. Tolle suggests that going beyond egoic mind is the next step for humanity. We’ve done the mind thing. Done it to death. Finis. Through. Over. Let’s get on with it—what’s the next level of evolution?

His answer is awareness. In fact, awareness, which is only available in the present moment, is the cure-all for egoic mind. Awareness of the late afternoon light shining through my window and into my left eye, the whirr of the fan in the air conditioner, the cool air on my skin, the words that I write right now.

Egoic mind is a jockeying mind. It wants position, acknowledgment, praise, acceptance. Becoming aware of these wanting, we stop wanting these things. Offering awareness of ourselves and to others improves relationships.

I had occasion to speak to a close friend today on the phone. She was fresh from a workshop experience and cranky about one of the participants who wasn’t participating very well. I got annoyed at my friend. Egoic mind. Her egoic mind, and mine. I returned to the cool air and the glinting sunshine and in a trice, I was perfectly happy to let my friend have her complaint.

Awareness is a discipline for most of us. I sometimes am so caught in words in my mind that I have to report to myself what’s around me. I’m sitting in an Aeron chair. My legs are crossed at the ankles. I tell myself where I am and what’s happening to become aware.

Try it and see if it helps you let go egoic mind.

To be continued . . . as I keep reading.

[title of show] & Vision

2008-07-14T07:34:00.003-05:00

Sunday’s New York Times Arts & Leisure section had a story about a new Broadway show called [title of show]. It’s been around for a while and it tells the story of two writers who enter a theatre festival and write a show about two writers who enter a theatre festival. Here’s the link to the Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/theater/13simo.html?ex=1216612800&en=7248d15125e717a2&ei=5070&emc=eta1

The coolest thing about their Broadway opening this week is that they created it through the vision-to-reality process taught in the movie The Secret and through YouTube. The two authors saw the movie and decided to use YouTube as their pre-Broadway try-out. They put out the “rumor” that [title of show] was opening on Broadway, and they created short videos to get and keep the buzz going.

Thursday, this week, voila! [title of show] opens at the Lyceum Theatre. My point, however, is not that a show is opening on Broadway. My point is that they had and held a vision and then acted upon it as their inner promptings urged.

This is the backbone of the process of manifesting anything. Anything at all, no matter how difficult in our perception. As A Course in Miracles says right up front, “There is no order of difficulty in miracles.” I know, you see, because I’ve been working on one of my own, and pretty soon, I’ll be asking you, who read this blog, to help me. I’ll also be recording a short video for YouTube. I’ll also ask my personal email list.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and be public about my vision. You know I’ve recorded the text of my first novel from the series, The Healing Mysteries of Mex Stone. It’s called Oklahoma! Hex. I heard the first edit this week of just over seven hours and it sounds great to me. And . . .here it comes . . . my goal is to sell 50,000 downloads by 12/31/08. Yep, 50,000! Why not?

When I asked for guidance about how many to set as a sales goal, that’s the first number that came to me. I’m going for it. If two songwriters can create an opening on Broadway, what’s 50,000 clicks?

H.O.P.E.

2008-07-11T06:54:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 28

Seed: H.O.P.E.

Hope is much in the news today. We can’t read a political pundit without hearing of hope. This Seed is about a different kind of hope, no, a different format.

In 2003, eight teenage girls in Cincinnati, Ohio started a charity called H.O.P.E.—help other people endure—to raise money for a village three hours south of Johannesburg in South Africa called Langkloof. Most of the children there are orphans whose parents have died of AIDS. There is rampant unemployment. Visit them: www.southafricanhope.org

Help other people endure. It’s really quite simple, isn’t it? We all need the hope that help gives us. Just today a friend of mine thanked me for being present as he goes through a difficult relationship. What I offered him was hope . . . for the future, for his choices, for his life.

If ever hopelessness comes to call in your life, consider giving hope to another. You won’t know how good it will make you feel until you do it!

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine. and The Huffington Post.

Spindoctoring the Self

2008-07-09T08:09:00.002-05:00

You know I’ve just made a recording of the first of my Healing Mysteries of Mex Stone called Oklahoma! Hex. It should be in the mail to me even as I write. Yesterday, we spent the day driving to Vermont to meet with a web designer so that I can put the audiobook out into the universe and help people heal themselves by reading it.

Between Sunday and Monday, I received three big NO messages in my life. Yikes!

Here’s the NO spin:

The first one was from the first person I asked for an endorsement of the audiobook. I had been certain he’d say yes.

The second one was from a publisher who’d had my book for months. She did write to me, and I quote, “I think Mex Stone is a winner . . . ,” and then she made a request for rewrites that changes the nature of entire series.

The third one came from one of a pair of people with whom I did a very sticky counseling session last week; she just plain chose not to continue our work together.

What happened to me, through these three no messages, is my real subject here. This is how it went down . . . the inner spin, if you will.

The first one bumped my ego. Ouch! I spent half a day utzy—my skin didn’t fit, if you know what I mean. I had to quit working, take a nap in an attempt to sleep it off which didn’t work, and then I repaired to a novel I really wanted to read which scared the bejesus out of me because it turned out to be about something I truly fear. Argh.

The second one made me smile. I recognized it, you see, as a test of my own desire. I don’t believe the universe tests us—I believe we test ourselves. Do I really want what I say I want? Let’s see . . . my novels don’t fit into publishing pigeonholes. The protagonist is a lesbian and an intuitive. The novels are mysteries. The novels are spiritual. Box? What box? Yes, I really believe there is a reading public for my “cross-genre” writing.

The third one was a laugh out loud. I hadn’t enjoyed my session with these two warring siblings. Neither was yielding in any way and a parent had asked them to see me. The desire for healing hadn’t come from the two needing it. Oh bless them, bless them, bless them. And we think God forgets to take care of us?! Ha!

The YES spin:

I’ll get the endorsements that are mine to get.
The right publisher is on its way to me even now.
A new client called yesterday.

The best place to spin is at home. In all senses of spin.

Now Married on a Social Networking Site Near You

2008-07-07T07:34:00.002-05:00

Okay, I’m no longer a Facebook virgin but I may as well be. Things startle me on Facebook all the time. I suppose I could be called a noob, a word I stared at for a long time before I spoke it aloud and heard what it meant. Noob, as in newbie, novice, innocent.

Today I got an email from a former student of my sweetie’s. From India. Maybe I’m showing my age, but it used to take weeks to get a letter from India in the United States. Now, it takes nanoseconds. I’d had no idea he’d gone to India. This sort of surprise thrills me.

The one that really got me going was an email from Facebook asking that I confirm my marriage to Sheriden Thomas. I laughed out loud. Who puts someone they’re not married to in that name slot on Facebook? And why? Or is it to prevent people from publicizing their crushes?

After I confirmed that I was indeed married to Sheriden Thomas, my Profile on the site changed itself. It read:

Susan Corso is now married to Sheriden Thomas.

I laughed again. Now married? Yes, according to Facebook. In fact, we’ve been married for several years and counting. We met four years ago August 10th, had a pagan pre-marriage ceremony with a dear spiritual teacher that October 31st, got our legal “permit” (we live outside of Boston) October 13th the following year, and had a small, private ceremony on our gorgeous porch October 31st of 2005. So, we’ve been married three or four years depending upon which anniversary you pick—always on Halloween.

Facebook’s pronouncement that I was NOW married made me think, as I so often do, about what makes marriage work. I think that NOW is one of the great keys to successful relationships of all kinds.

Can I remember the good stuff from the preceding four years? Forget the “bad” stuff? And stay present to Sheriden? I make a sincere attempt so to do, I promise you that.

One of the reasons we chose Halloween for our wedding was to remind ourselves of a standard pagan practice with regard to marriage. Witches marry for a year and a day, and then they decide whether to re-up or not. I think successful marriage requires the daily, sometimes hourly or minutely, decision to re-up.

In a very real way, Sheriden and I get married every day, so thanks, Facebook, for the reminder.

No Thank You Bite

2008-07-04T08:01:00.002-05:00

Seeds X, 27

Seed: No Thank You Bite

As some of you know, I turned fifty last year. In a Manhattan taxi on the way downtown to have dinner with dear friends, this Seed was born.

Turned out it was a rule in my friend’s family that if one didn’t want to eat something at the dinner table, one had to take a “no thank you bite.” At my childhood dinner table, a “you have to try it bite” was mandatory. What a difference a phrase makes!

The experience of the second option was a thwarting of my will. I was made to do what I didn’t want to do. My friend’s family, on the other hand, honored her will. And accomplished the same goal! To get a kid to try something new.

The next time you find yourself in a power struggle of any kind, see if you can apply the No Thank You Bite rule. Find a way to honor the independence of the will of the person you’re struggling with. You’ll both be freer.

Blessed Fourth of July.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine. and The Huffington Post.

A Customer A Minute

2008-07-02T06:15:00.002-05:00

I just read the most amazing marketing book I’ve ever read, and believe me when I tell you that I have read LOTS of marketing books. Joe Vitale, of The Attractor Factor and The Secret and Ho’oponopono’s Zero Limits fame, wrote it ten years ago. It’s called There’s A Customer Born Every Minute: P. T. Barnum’s Secrets to Business Success, and it’s a true winner, a marketing bible for anyone anywhere who wants to participate in business at any level.

Most people know who Phineas T. Barnum was . . . or, I should say, is. He’s the same Barnum who can be found today associated with Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus. P. T. Barnum died 110 years ago and he’s still a brand name today! The other thing people “know” about Barnum is that he said, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” but it’s not so!

P. T. Barnum had the utmost respect for people. His business dealings were all about generosity, education and sharing. He was a genius at dreaming up wild and crazy marketing to draw the attention of the public to his marvelous displays. He didn’t think of people as suckers, he thought of them, each one, as customers. Vitale’s book title is spot on.

In the book, he details ten Rings of Power. Few of them will surprise you if know anything about marketing at all. What will surprise and delight you, however, is the scale upon which Barnum practiced marketing. If it could be Jumbo, then by Barnum, it would be JUMBO! Barnum even failed on a jumbo scale once upon a time, and dug himself out the same way.

Vitale’s rendering of the showman of showmen is bright, lively and real. His adulation is patent and he wrings the final drops from each of Barnum’s 10 rings. A particular favorite of mine is the visit to Barnum’s grave in East Bridgeport. The long and the short of it is that Joe has a spiritual experience of P. T. Barnum just before he begins to write the book. Barnum, in effect, passes his mantle on to Vitale. It’s beautiful, and it brought tears to my eyes.

The gravestone is simple. It bears his name and a favorite quote of the deceased. “Not my will, but thine, be done.” And that, dear one, is a far greater testament which explains Barnum’s hands-down success in the world.

To Joe Vitale, thanks for accepting the marketing mantle of P. T. Barnum. He’s a genius, and you must be too since you recognized him for what he was . . . and is today.

Here’s the Amazon link to buy the newest edition of this gem:
http://www.amazon.com/Theres-Customer-Born-Every-Minute/dp/0471784621/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214926155&sr=8-1

The greatest marketing on earth!

Ad Nonsense

2008-06-30T08:48:00.002-05:00

Friends have been after me to sign up for Google AdSense. I had no idea what it was, but a dear soul took pity on me and walked me through the process so I did it. You can see the ads to the right of this post.

I don’t get to choose the ads, but there are plenty of rules about how they work. I’m not allowed to click on the ads on my own site. Anyway, after a complicated sign-up and verification process, I was good to go. The ads would be active within 24 hours.

I waited the requisite time and signed on curiously to the blog. The first ad is a list of five options.

Rare Seeds
Flax Seeds
Tomato Seeds
Sesame Seeds
Poppy Seeds

I burst out laughing! Seeds for Sanctuary started out as an homage to metaphysician Emmet Fox. His books were compilations of his brief essays, ideas, thoughts on metaphysics. A group of us starting meeting monthly in New York City for spiritual connection and I wanted something that kept people connected. Weekly Seeds is what that thing became.

AdSense is creating nonsense on the blog for the moment. The second ad on the site right now is for a Zen teacher. They use non-sense to teach sense all the time. Go Google!

Kwatz!

2008-06-27T06:32:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 26

Seed: Kwatz!

Zen masters, masters of all kinds really, can be hilarious. Often humans picture masters as realized beings, tabulae rassae, blank slates, that do not evince personality. The word of today’s Seed disabuses us of that silly notion.

“Kwatz!” is an exclamation used by Zen masters to shock a student out of dualistic thinking. Say it aloud even if you have to do it quietly because you’re in a padded cell of a cubicle. Doesn’t the word itself make you smile?

Consider using it for your practice for a week or so. When you notice that you’re caught in old thoughts or memories of any kind, just say to yourself, “Kwatz!” from your master self.

There is a master self within each of us that knows when we’re just playing out the old. Listen to her/him, and he’ll/she’ll take you right into now. Kwatz!

Be content,

Susan Corso

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.

An Idle Mind

2008-06-25T08:00:00.002-05:00

True confessions. I play solitaire in order to foment my creativity. Lately, it’s been Spider Solitaire. I had an interesting experience when I started out with it.

First, there were no instructions with the game. The computer assumed I knew how to play it. I didn’t. Second, I chose the simplest level of play. Third, I discovered (by accident) that if I pushed the H key, I’d get a hint as to what card to play next.

I’ve been playing it for a while now (about 25 minutes before this blog post came to me) and I hit the H key far less but it came to me that Spider Solitaire makes a great spiritual lesson.

First, spiders are notorious for the webs they weave. They’re about connection metaphysically. I’m weaving a web of creativity when I play Spider. I intend my solitaire games to produce creative results in my life.

Second, the game is about ordering the cards. Isn’t that what I’m doing when I play in order to create? I’m asking that a new order, idea, or something be revealed to me.

Third, I need to make my mind idle whilst I play or else I lose, even against myself. I don’t know about your brain but mine is definitely too busy most of the time. An idle mind is a fertile mind, full of possibilities. If I’m too full up, I need to have an idle mind even more!

Fourth, the H key is the perfect metaphor. Give me a hint, we say, when we’re looking for a particular piece of information. The Universe gives us hints all the time IF we’ll let our minds be idle.

Six Degrees of Connection

2008-06-23T09:02:00.002-05:00

This is an amazing planet. I had a bloggers dream-come-true happen in my life last week. I received an email entitled: Greetings from The Huffington Post with an invitation to blog on Spirituality for their Living Page. The editor and I exchanged a couple of emails and then I called her. I wanted a human, at the very least, voice connection before I committed to her pages.

I also wanted to run some possible post topics by her so that I didn’t shock her when she got my first one. When I told her what I was considering, she said, “Wow, the comments will be amazing!” I guess, as a blog editor, that’s what one wants. Anyway, I felt free to go forward with it after I talked to her.

As you know, here I write about spiritual practice. On my Ode Magazine blog, I write strictly about peace. (For over one year now!) Go to Ode Magazine to view them all. For Huffington Post, since it’s so well known for its liberal politics, I decided to use Spirituality in the World as my theme. I’ll be writing about worldly things with a spiritual spin. My first post on Huffington ought to be this week. I’ll post a link on this page when it’s up.

One of the questions I asked my new editor was how she’d heard of me. She told me that someone on her staff had recommended me to her. Fortuitously, (the universe is a conspiracy, remember?) that staffer walked right by my editor’s desk at that precise moment (Who plans these things?!) and she was able to ask who recommended me.

Well, come to find out, a former acting student from my beloved’s classes at Tufts University with whom I had a chance to connect (we discovered that we are birthday siblings—you know about that, right? People who have the same birthdate, though not the same year) who left Boston after he graduated and moved to Vancouver and then back home to L.A. and who is working in Australia right now suggested his friend from God only knows where who works for Huffington check me out.

The most wonderful part of this is that I also have to credit another connection made for me years ago by the woman I met through a friend I knew in seminary in Kansas City (they’d done summer stock together in college) who sublet her New York City apartment to me (who “happened” to be a bridal consultant so she referred me) when I officiated at the wedding of two wonderful souls. We’ve stayed in touch and I christened their two daughters as well. (It is my sincere hope that I get to officiate at their daughters’ weddings and christen their children as well.) Anyway, he’s a compu-wizard and he’s the one who patiently, lovingly helped me set up this blog a year and a half ago. He didn’t dis me or my computer innocence. He walked parallel with me for as long as I needed him. The one thing I remember majorly from that conversation is: Be consistent. Decide how often you want to post and do it. I did. And now I’m a Huffington invitee.

So, beloved, never let it be said that you have no connections! The greater truth is that the eponymous six degrees of separation are rapidly becoming six degrees of connection and we have no idea where those connections will take us.

Working Miracles

2008-06-20T06:16:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 25

Seed: Working Miracles

Rev. Ron Fox wrote the Daily Guides in Science of Mind Magazine for December 2007. In one of them, he said, “Jesus didn’t call his miracles miracles; he called them his work.” It made me think about being a miracle worker.

Are you one? Annie Sullivan was. She’s the woman who taught Helen Keller to speak. And she too thought it was her work.

Could your work be miracle work and is it possible that you don’t even know it?

When I sit in session with a client, I don’t really intend miracles, but miracles definitely happen. I too think of it as simply my work.

Maybe we’re all miracle workers just doing the work that is ours to do? If that’s the case, then no wonder miracles happen.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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.

Dream Lawsuit

2008-06-18T08:16:00.002-05:00

Ordinarily, I don’t dream about the law even though the people who know me say I have a lawyer’s brain. The other night, though, I had a dream that I started a class action suit for people who have the symptoms of Type II Diabetes against all the food companies that use genetic modifications and or variations on corn syrup in their products.

It was a weird dream. I was the Veronica Hammil character (of course!), the brave, beautiful public defender speaking Truth to the powerful Food Establishment about the damaging effects of their chemical choices on the immune systems of those with Type II.

On a lark, and wide awake, I called my brother, Frank, who is an attorney, just to ask him if such a class action suit was possible. He mumbled to me about statutes of limitations, product liabilities, and rules of discovery. He knows his stuff.

Our conversation got me thinking though—about doing the right thing. Which the companies who messed with the natural chemistry of foods did not. I’m not going to name names because there are too many of them but I ask you to think on this.

Type II Diabetes is a disease of the autoimmune system unlike Type I Diabetes which is caused by a malfunction of the pancreas. In Type I, the carrier has no insulin, and needs it to survive. No one really knows why the pancreas quits sometimes, but it does. In Type II, the carrier usually has plenty of insulin but their blood cells are self-protected against it.

The best explanation I ever heard for Type II was from western-trained and wholistic M.D., Helen Wechsler. She said, “It’s like having a brand new car and a can of gas, and you can’t figure out why the car won’t go.” She went on, “Every single cell you have is wrapped in a sort of saran wrap that keeps the insulin out.”

When, many years ago, I asked her what caused the saran wrap, she asked me if I’d ever drunk diet soda. (Lived on it through high school and college.) Argh. She ranted for a few minutes after that. The list was very long. Basically, the only foods anyone should ever eat are live from the earth, according to her.

Here’s the thing about my dream lawsuit. My subconscious mind was looking for some place to park the blame for this disease in my world and in the world. Blame, dear one? Not so important. The greater question is: now that Type II Diabetes has become epidemic in the west, what are we going to do about it?

How about this? What if every single one of us who has the disease began to communicate to the food companies about why they are losing our patronage? A not-so-small group of citizens could bring about a huge change in the way food is created.

Recording Mex

2008-06-16T07:15:00.002-05:00

Here’s a sneak preview of what’s coming from my latest project. My sweetie and I decided to record my first novel and release it as a “paperless book” on audio. We did the recording in two days! Almost nine hours of book.

The name of the book is Oklahoma! Hex and it’s the first in a series called The Spiritual Adventures of Mex Stone. According to the engineer, we ought to have our first edit from him in two weeks, and are we excited!

You see, I’ve been writing these books for eleven years—with joy. In love with my characters and their plots, my books don’t fit into the pigeonholes that agents and publishers seem to like, bless them.

Here’s the promo paragraph on this first book:

The Spiritual Adventures of Mex Stone

Mex’s Backstory

Based in New York City, Mexicali Rose “You can call me Mex” Stone is above all a human being having a spiritual experience. She’s an intuitive investigator who solves her cases from the inside out. By listening to the inner voice who Mex calls Spirit, she catches her culprit, and always learns something about herself.

U.S. passport in her purse, Mex finds herself summoned in all directions: way south to Tierra del Fuego, up north to the Western Isles of Scotland, east to the Mafiosi underground of Japan, at home on Broadway and up the Hudson to her country home. In between Mex manages to fall in (and out) of love with gifted women from whom she learns and with whom she grows spiritually.

Where has Mex Stone been? (The first six . . . already written, and ready to go.)

Oklahoma! Hex finds Mex on Broadway solving the murder of Oklahoma!’s pore Jud. An old flame and producer calls her into the mix, and she works with her favorite cop, Michael Ryan Kelley. The cast of Oklahoma! is infiltrated with Santería practitioners. She ends up in Tierra del Fuego, the southern-most inhabited point in the world, as she faces down the leader of a worldwide web of evil. She meets her Divine Right Partner, Veronica, and of course, she falls in love.

There are five more in the series and many more planned.

The wildest thing about this is that I’m used to being ahead of my time. When I found the engineer (Keith Richardson is his name and he’s an angel—especially for remote, live recordings. If you need his services, email me, and I’ll send you his number gladly.), I realized that it was time for everything to come together for this project.

In short order . . .

I got the lyric reprint rights
Found the engineer
Found a web designer who spoke my language
Connected with a publicist who wants to play
Made a limited partnership with my sweetie, an angel in the Broadway sense, who funded it
Got the URL http://www.shulamithburton.com/ (not live yet)

You see the trend here, I’m sure. Get clear, Beloved. Stay with your visions till you’re clear. Stick with it. Persevere. Go for it. Once you’re clear, the Universe conspires to put all the people, places and things in your path that you need.

Watch these pages for an announcement that the website is ready to go!

Happiness Happens

2008-06-13T08:30:00.001-05:00

Seeds X, 24

Seed: Happiness Happens

A Chinese proverb attached to an email inspired this Seed.

“If you want happiness for an hour—take a nap. If you want happiness for a day—go fishing. If you want happiness for a month—get married. If you want happiness for a year—inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime—help others.”

First, do you want happiness? Or are you, for the most part, happy already? Usually when I ask this question in a therapy session, people are surprised to discover that they’re pretty happy most of the time.

Second, what kind of happiness do you want? Happiness forever? Reach out to others. Happiness for a stolen hour? Read a novel.

Happiness actually comes from happenstance, circumstances, the events of our lives, and isn’t a goal to be sought but a result to allow. She will come calling if we’ll just live our lives to the fullest.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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 blogs Ode Magazine.

On Simmer

2008-06-11T07:44:00.002-05:00

Boston is a sauna today. One must first move the air in order to walk outside. Our porches are finally stained and attempting to dry in 88% humidity.

Yesterday I had a meeting with my editor about a cozy mystery series I started five years ago at the challenge of a friend who is a book publisher. They’re called The Esther Jackson Eliot Mysteries and they center on a character who is a former art professor. Based in Truth-Or-Consequences, New Mexico, the books are all about community.

At the time of my friend’s challenge, I wrote about 50 pages and let it go. But the books have been on simmer ever since, and something let me know that it was time to turn up the heat on this series so I sent it to my editor. He waxed eloquent and helped show me myself as an author so I’m going back into writing these again.

Those of you who know me know that I write a series I call The Spiritual Adventures of Mex Stone. I’m in the midst of my seventh novel in that series. These novels are designed to act as spiritual teachers. Mex is an intuitive investigator, and she solves her cases by communing with her Inner Voice whom she calls Spirit. Mex travels all over the world for her cases.

And, you know, the books I write about her work on simmer as well. I get a basic idea for the next one, do research, and then let the whole thing simmer on a back burner in my mind. Then, one day, it’s time to move the pot of the book to the front burner and burn up with keyboard because simmer’s over and I’m cooking with gas.

Don’t be surprised at simmer, my friend. More things are created this way than we even realize! I didn’t know that something I started five years ago was ready for cooking till it was ready for cooking. Never doubt that “simmer” is where a lot of projects need to be whilst you grow, heal, change and otherwise get ready for cooking time.

A Politics of Hope

2008-06-09T08:07:00.003-05:00

I’m reading a remarkable book I just happened upon when I sold eleven boxes of spiritual books to a local bookstore. It’s called The Cure Within by Harvard-based Anne Harrington. It’s a history of mind-body medicine and it’s fascinating.

In it, Ms. Harrington tells the story of two doctors involved in a clinical trial for a combination of four drugs they abbreviated with the letters EOHP. One doctor had a 75% success rate with his patients; the other had a 25% success rate.

In discussion it was revealed that the first doc had rearranged the initials of the drugs to spell a word:

HOPE.

Barack Obama is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president as I write this. Part of his political philosophy is hope. He has hope. He offers us hope. Hope is currency in Obamania.

He’s not wrong. Some people are asking if he’s crazy, but consider the results of the doctors above. Hope cures. In and of itself.

The United States, after eight years of pummeling economic catastrophe, needs curing. We need hope. Even false hope cures.

Who knows if the drug cocktail caused the doctor’s results or if the hope itself did? Does it matter? I don’t think so. I think a politics of hope is the perfect prescription for our suffering economy.

Hope away!

And VOTE in November, please.

Staying In The Problem

2008-06-06T09:18:00.000-05:00

Seeds X, 23

Seed: Staying In The Problem

Oooh, oooh, are humans good at this! I see it all the time in the various peace organizations on the planet. They say, “We must fight for peace.” Uh, I say, dear one, could I direct your attention to that screaming oxymoron? Fight? For peace? Not so much.

Being against something, anything, is a way of staying in the problem instead of being a part of the solution. I’d rather be part of the solution. Sure, we know that what’s happening in all kinds of places on this planet isn’t the best or highest good. Judging, another way of being against, isn’t the solution in Darfur or East Timor, or the South Bronx.

Ask yourself: are my ideas helping me stay in the problem or are they fostering a solution? Solutions are much easier to devise when we stop judging, stop being against, and start being for.

Be content,

Susan Corso

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.