Several Cool Responses To Seeds

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.

To Be List

Seeds IX, 39

Seed: To Be List

Overheard in a public conveyance recently: a pissing contest (there are no other words so apt) between two women over their To Do Lists. Escalating voices. Animated faces. Super-sized gestures. “Well, I have to do this!” “Really? I have to do that!” Are we suffering from To Do List hubris? I think we are. I was glad to get off the bus.

Yes, dear one, too much to do is a part of everyone’s life at different times. Too many things scheduled too close together. Deadlines at work and at home. Promises made and promises we want to keep. Emergencies. Exigencies. Life has a certain amount of stress, I’ll give you that.

My question today is: do you have a To Be List? I read about this idea on beliefnet and the two bus pugilists reminded me of it. A To Be List is very different from a To Do List. What a To Be List does is give you opportunities to practice how you choose to live your life.

My To Be List includes: Peaceful, Loving, Patient, Kind, Joyous, Gentle, Sweet. I almost never cross things off my To Be List. Why? Because each thing on it is about me learning to be a better, wiser, more open person, and I only ever want more of that.

Be serene,

Dr. Susan Corso

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

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

Global Warming > Divine Flame?

If you’re looking for doom mongering, you won’t find it here. I was sitting in meditation yesterday and got a spiritual vision of the purpose of global warming. Bear with me, and follow my logic.

Most of you know that mystically the element which represents spiritual transformation is fire.

Could it be that global warming is a physical symptom of the spiritual awakening that is happening all over the planet?

Spirituality is, by all accounts, about fire, about passion, about a new energy, about an enthusiasm for life. Could it be that we must learn how to allow this new fire a place to be in our lives?

In the alchemical process of transformation, fire is used to burn away the old. One way to help this process is to reduce our individual carbon footprints. I find that since I filled out Al Gore’s questionnaire which measured my carbon footprint, I almost always turn out the light when I leave a room. Simple, yes, and effective. I group my errands so I use the car less. Simple, and effective. I think twice before I run the air conditioners. Simple.

I like reducing my carbon footprint. Could it be that as I do this, my spiritual fire can burn more brightly? Instead of mistakenly channeling the heat of transformation into the earth herself, does reducing my carbon footprint allow me to be a better vessel for the heat of spiritual transformation for my own growth?

If you are a reader of Seeds, the weekly spiritual email that I’ve sent on Fridays for nine years now, you’ll know that there is a Divine Spark in each one of us. That Divine Spark has a purpose. It is to burn brighter and brighter so that instead of a Spark, there is a Flame. Let’s decide that global warming is for our good, and let the transformation shine on.

Rolling in Ecstasy

What causes you to roll in ecstasy? I know you know the kind I mean. Like a favorite dog squirming through a perfect tummy rub. Or a cat (they don’t really roll) stretching after a thoroughly satisfying purr.

Ecstasy is an amazing word. It comes from the Latin ex- which means out of, and stasis which means place. When you are ecstatic, you are actually out of place. That bugs me. How is it that ecstasy is something we want then?

Stasis, as I’m sure you know, is the basis of our word static. The emotional equivalent of static is security. I’m here to tell you that there’s no such thing. That’s right, NO SUCH THING at all, ever, anyplace, in any time, whatsoever, EXCEPT . . . within.

This quote from Franz Kafka astonished me—I ordinarily associate him with darker ideas than this one:

You do not need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Do not even listen, simply wait.
Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice,
it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Here is an out of place place to be considered a prime destination. Genuine, bona fide, real, permanent security is to be found in that out of place place within you known as the Divine Spark. There is no place to go but here within your most precious self to find ecstasy.

As the world rolls in ecstasy at your feet, feel free to join in.

Choice . . . and Consequence

Recently I was invited to give an informal talk at my undergraduate alma mater for seniors facing their first “real-world” (whatever that means!) experience. We met in the living room of Mary Ellen Chase House over tea.

My chat was called, “Yes, there IS life after Smith.” I thought the title was humorous. It turned out not to be. There was a genuine, heartfelt question about whether there really is life after college, and can I, do I have what it takes, to handle it, make it, function, in the real world?

What I thought I was going to talk about flew out the mental window. I found I went to a much more fundamental place in myself to address the fundamental place where these seniors were residing.

I ended up talking about choosing. Plainly, simply making a choice. I could feel the room hold its collective breath when I mentioned choosing. Why? Because right with the introduction of the concept of choosing came the towering fear of making the “wrong” choice. I mean, instantly, do-not-pass-go, immediately, at once. If I had to write it as an equation it would look like this:

Choosing = Fear of Making the Wrong Choice

The two were identical. How did this come to be? How could it be that a roomful of very bright, well-educated young women were paralyzed by the need to make a choice—any choice—at all?

It seemed patently clear to me that no one had told these promising young people that there is a simple secret to choosing which takes much of the fear out of it. It has three aspects.

First, there is no such thing as a wrong choice.

I mean it—quite literally. There IS no such thing as a wrong choice. There are only choices which yield results.

Second, choices simply have consequences.

Consequences. No more, no less. If you have peanut butter and jelly for lunch, you’re not having turkey. That’s all. If you’re seeing The Sound of Music, you’re not seeing a Star Wars movie at the same time.

Third, if you don’t like the consequences, you get to choose again.

Maybe you don’t get to have lunch all over again, but you could have turkey tomorrow if the PBJ didn’t satisfy today. Or you could rent a Star Wars movie tonight after a matinée with the Von Trapps.

I’m being slightly facetious by using less-than-what-seems-dire examples, but try out my theory with a choice about a job. There was a marvelous young woman in the room who had majored in Economics. She has applied for a one-year position with Teach for America. What’s the worst thing that could happen? She gets the job, and she realizes part way into it that she really doesn’t want to do a job like this. Great! More information about herself for herself. She gets to choose again when the position is up.

This is true for all of us. We get to choose again if we don’t like the consequences of our choices.

Did you know that commercial airline pilots are off-course 85% of the time? This means that they’re on-course 15% of the time. Only 15%! The rest of the time they’re, if you will, re-choosing, also known as . . . steering. Now airline pilots have measurable coordinates by which on- and off-coursed-ness is measured. Most of our choices aren’t measured in this way.

So what can we use as coordinates if Air Traffic Control doesn’t supply them? What we ALL have (pilots or not) is an Inner Air Traffic Controller called the Divine Spark. That Spark grows into a flame when we make choices which are in our best interests. The Spark diminishes into an ember when we make less than ideal choices.

Once again, dear one, help wanted? As always, inquire within.

It was a pleasure to speak to these young women, women who will step forward in their own ways and make significant contributions to the greater health and well-being of our world. I was glad to be able to tell them about choices—and consequences—and the universal ability to choose again.

This dozen young women got it, they heard me, and they let out that collective breath and let go a little of their fear. On the drive home, I thought to myself, Wow, these young women gave me a huge wallop of hope for the future of our planet. Ain’t that grand?