Christmas Shopping

Less than a month until Christmas and you would think I would learn that Saturday is not the day to go out and go shopping!! Alas... I braved the roads and the traffic and the crowds and went to one of the larger outdoor mall areas. Winners, Pier 1, Michaels, Superstore, Best Buy, etc... Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea!! Superstore was perhaps the worst and some aisles looked more like a bumper-car rink than anything else... As I felt my anxiety and frustration climbing, I kept reminding myself that patience was probably a more peaceful and fulfilling virtue to cultivate! By the time I left Superstore, I had way more than was on my shopping list but... I left in a relatively good frame of mind. Which is a bonus... Mind you, I did leave with a dozen chocolate chip cookies... the bendable ones... YUM!!! I had one as I was loading groceries and then another when I got home... At which point I looked at the calorie count and was shocked to discover that each cooke (1 cookie!) has 200 calories... Another hour on the treadmill at 8% gradient and 3.2 mph!!!

So, Christmas shopping... I think I am more or less good for most people... there are still a few odds and ends to pick up but there are still a few weeks left... Just remind me not to go on a weekend! I still need to get out to Costco (horrible parking/lines) and maybe Ikea and JYSK... We'll see how it goes... But... always remember, it is patience and courtesy and good humour that will get you through those days! I am going to cultivate that in these coming weeks... my declaration stepping into this season of Advent!

Advent

If you've been following the entertainment news... you know that there is a new movie out called 2012. It's a "end of the world" movie which is guaranteed to have geologists everywhere rolling in the aisles hysterical with laughter. It's a movie that is not... shall we say... grounded in scientific reality. At least not from the geological perspective (as a geologist... I can say that!)... It does play on the growing fascination with the year 2012 and the date of Dec 21, 2012. According to the Mayan calendar, this date marks the end of a chronological cycle (about 26,000 years long). So, it's sort of like the year 2000 was for us... just the end of a cycle of time and the beginning of another...

Mind you, there are others who believe that this date will mark a transformation in the consciousness of humanity, that it will be the end of our lives as we know them... the beginning of a new ear of enlightenment. Quite possibly. If you read Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Eckhardt Tolle, Neale Donald Walsch, Don Miguel Ruiz, or any of a variety of authors, you will find the stirrings of this new consciousness. Interestingly, all of them recommend/demand that individuals practice meditation or contemplation. This is a practice which we, in the Catholic Church, have heard much about, but which we generally ignore. We'd much rather be out there "doing" something, whether it's doing an activity or doing a prayer. Much more of a challenge for us to just "be" in the silence and stillness... to quiet our minds and connect with that deeper source.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel today (Lk 21:25-28, 34-36) that there will be much upheaval, but not to get caught up in it. We are called to be grounded in our sure knowledge of who we are as children of the divine... And that's not just a head knowledge... that is a heart knowledge... a gut knowledge. And it comes from connecting with the source... "Be still and know that I am God..." (Ps 46:10) has much wisdom for us today... Stop with the wordy prayers... get to the heart and be still... listen for that quiet, still, small whisper... not your thoughts about it... but listen to the silence... Who knows what you might hear...

Snow??

Having lived in northwestern BC, the lower mainland, north-central BC, as well as a few months in Edmonton, I've seen a lot of snow... and a lot of driver reactions to snow! Living in the north, we would always laugh ourselves silly over the Vancouverites and how 1 or 2 cm of snow would turn Vancouver into a snarling mess of traffic with cars in the ditches. "Those Vancouverites... they don't know how to drive in snow... they don't have snow tires!"...

Wellllll... here in Calgary yesterday... we looked a lot more like Vancouver than a city that knows how to drive in snow!! A little skiff of 1 to 2 cm of snow turned the streets into skating rinks. Collissions galore, cars in ditches, people abandoning their cars and walking home, hilly roads closed because they were too slippery (yes Calgary does have hills)... This is a city that gets snow, knows snow... and drivers presumably have winter tires and all that good stuff...

But... it is pretty much the first snow of the year (first weekend in October has already faded from people's memories)... and the first snow is always a shocking wake-up reminder to city-dwellers that we do live in a cold, relatively northern climate. People still think they can drive at their normal speed in these conditions and it takes a while for them to realize... "ah... it's winter!"... Sadly, one young man was killed yesterday on Highway 2 north of Calgary... leaving his vehicle and trying to get to the safety of a ditch.

People... slow down!!!

Snow!

It's finally starting snowing again here in Calgary! I was beginning to give up hope that we would have a winter but apparently that will not be a problem! We had snow the first weekend in October and nothing since then... at least not while I've been here. The roads are becoming treacherous and I am glad to be snug as a bug inside!

The treadmill is calling my name and I haven't done a walk yet today so perhaps I should heed the call. With a treadmill in the house, weather becomes no excuse. Plus, there is a tiny tv to watch while I am walking away the calories and the pounds. Rather than sitting on the tv and vegging, I can actually watch tv and get some exercise at the same time... a win-win situation I figure.

Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol

I'm reading the new book by Dan Brown at the moment - The Lost Symbol. I'm only about 60 pages into it and it's already gripped me! He has this amazing talent of weaving fact and fiction so that you're not sure where one leaves off and the other one starts. This one has Masons, symbols in Washington DC, and Noetic Sciences. He refers to a book that I've actually read!!! The Intention Experiment.

The premise of Noetic Science is that the human mind can influence the physical environment via thoughts. This idea appears in alot of the "self-help" books out there. And then weaves some quantum physics into the mix, touches on spirituality and voila... you have a new vision of the universe, and our place in it. So far, I like where the book is going, and I am anxious to see what comes next!

Now, hard core scientists would say that Noetic Science is all fluff and puff. It brings together paranormal stuff, which many scientists don't know what to do with. But really, Noetic Science could be the bridge that links "science" with "consciousness"... There is a bridge... we just haven't recognized it yet and embraced it...

Some people are looking ahead to 2012 and the supposed "end of the world" on 21 Dec 2012 as the moment in which human consciousness will take a quantum leap... Be interesting to see if Dan Brown weaves that into his story...

There are stranger things out there than we have dreamed of...

Peace Through Compassion

A couple of months ago, myself and a friend went and saw a famous spiritual leader give a talk. The premise was quite simple... peace through compassion. That is the only way there will ever be peace in this world... if we become compassion.

Compassion means seeing others without all the judgements and opinions that so often colour our thinking. Stop and take a look at your own life... listen to some of the thoughts and judgements that pop into your head as you are watching TV or going shopping or talking with someone. We have judgements about everything and everyone. We're just not aware of it most times! We think that's normal! Having compassion... being compassion... means that we see people for who they are, who they really are... not through our lens.

One of the most important people we need to have compassion with is... you guessed it... ourselves. We are often our own worst critics, berating ourselves in various ways for "not being good enough". If we can't have compassion on ourselves, how can we ever expect to have compassion on others??? If we cannot be comopassion with ourselves... how will we ever have peace in our hearts?? Peace and compassion starts with us... it starts with us being gentle with ourselves and letting all those judgements we have about ourselves go... Just let them go... And they'll pop up again... and just let them go...

Peace through compassion...

Oh, and the spiritual leader... it was the Dalai Lama!!

Rhymes of the Mind

I was on a WestJet flight about 10 days ago and the flight attendants were doing their pre-flight safety announcements. All those things that most of us tune out... where the exits are, floor level track lighting, oxygen masks, seat belt instructions, etc. I used to feel vaguely guilty for not paying attention and would try to watch the flight attendant, so I could at least give a semblance of attention! Now... I don't even do that. I am reading my book or looking out the window. But this one flight... things were different.

As soon as the lead flight attendant openned her mouth to begin her spiel, I could tell something was off. The first couple of lines rhymed! That was interesting... how did they manage that??? And then it continued... everything rhymed together and there was a flow and an ease with what she was saying. People began to pay attention!!! They were curious to see how she was going to make things rhyme together... and she managed it quite nicely! Perhaps WestJet is trying a new technique on their flights? Alas no, my return trip had no rhyming attendants!

Rhyme and song touch something within our spirit. They somehow stick with us and allow us to remember things that would normally disappear from our memory quickly. That's why songs and commercial jingles stick with us. Yet, as a high school student, I remember being utterly bored with poetry, finding nothing of value there. It was a chore... not a delight. This WestJet attendant found delight in creating a rhyming verse out of something that was the "same old - same old". In that moment of creativity, she touched a whole plane load of people and probably many flights after that. She is making a difference in her own way... making the ho-hum of the safety announcements something else.

The say that WestJet employees are owners of the company. This woman took that to heart and created the space for her own wit and delight to shine. What would it take for each of us to create that within our own spaces... wherever that might be??