PEACE

We don't realize the importance of peace. I mean peace in our minds. It took me a long time to accept how important it is. Intellectually I accepted its importance many years ago; but I didn't make a commitment to watch my mind and not permit myself to dwell on peace disturbing thoughts. I am sure I thought I was making some commitment but I always slid back into the old ways. I think, perhaps, the problem is the idea of commitment itself. The idea has too much of a forceful attitude. If peace is what we want, we need to cherish it.

One of the great advantages I had in my life was being a psychotherapist. I could observe how people created their experiences in life by how they thought. I learned more from my clients than they ever learned from me. Every day I learned something I could apply to my own life. I loved the work.

So, it was clear to me for a long time that, if I want Peace, Love and Joy, I need to start in  my own mind. For years I gave lip service to this belief; yet I would watch the news with the belief that I was immune to the disturbance, the chaos, the horrible pain of the world. What was I thinking? I was so exceptional that I could observe these things without disturbing my peace? It is true, I do have a greater tolerance than many people. I take my own advice and view it as a history that happened years ago. Lately, I have opened up to a new level of honesty about myself and have seen how I let ideas, thoughtforms,  whatever you want to call them, into my mind and allow them fester.

If we want paradise for ourselves and our fellow beings, we must start with our own minds. Recognize that you create your perception of the world with your thoughts and contribute to the groups creation. A peaceful mind is a very powerful thing that will bring peace to many minds around. Love can only come out of Peace.


We all can create our own Paradise and extend it to those around us.

Love and Peace, Gregg

LIFE ON PLANET EARTH

There really is such a thing as International Procrastination Day? I would be an honored member; maybe even win a medal or two. However, my tardiness in blogging did not have as much to do with procrastination as it did with our inability to plan anything. We never do take planning very seriously. We think of the future in probabilities. Normally, things work out more or less as we anticipated them. Which brings me to the spaghetti sauce. Jamie had successfully canned about 28 quarts { 4 canner loads}. She had another, same size, batch to do. The jar lids began popping in the pressure cooker. The jar lids were bulged and some even buckled up. It looked like there was too much pressure inside the jars. We went over ever aspect of the procedure, closely examined the pressure cooker; nothing plugged, proper weight etc. Yet every canner load had three or four popped jars. This slowed us down so much that we didn't get all the jars canned; we held some over to the next day and they fermented in the jars and had to be tossed out. [The chickens thought that was great.] On opening the jars, a geyser of fermented sauce splashed over the kitchen. I soon learned to open them in a bucket. There must have been about twelve of them.

I have been canning for about fifty years; Jamie over forty years and we couldn't come up with a reason for the problem, with any certainty. The first batch was canned without incident. What was the difference? The only possibility is that the second batch was more dense. My perusal of the canning book would lead me to that conclusion. If any of you folks have a suggestion; please comment.

It was a learning experience and even though Jamie called it the "spaghetti sauce from hell" when it was all over we didn't have any regrets. More and more, both of us are able to maintain peace through life's little conundrums. Perhaps, one more than the other.

Well, so I didn't commence with my chicken butchering until yesterday. We got seven more ready for the freezer. I have about five more to do.

Lately, time has been flying by. Almost anybody over fifty will acknowledge this phenomenon. But I am talking about something even faster; in the last few months the weeks seem like days. Sundays come up every other day! If I was afraid of dying it would be unsettling; but for me it is exciting. I feel so much change and I am eager to see the future. On the other hand, back to earth, I realize how much I have to do before snow flies. The way time has been going that will be real soon. There are things I had planned for the Spring that are still undone, procrastination hmmmmmmmmm.  

Keep the Peace, love everything and lets watch a beautiful future unfold.

Love and Peace, Gregg

A SOGGY MORNING

It has drizzled off and on for the last few days; but no rain in the rain gauge. This morning we had 1/2 inch in the rain gauge. I was aware of it raining gently during the night, but I was surprised at the amount. We need it. It has been dry for a couple of weeks and digging those potatoes won't be much fun if it is too dry. Tomorrow, we are planning on butchering ten more chickens; it will be nice to get that chore over.

Jamie has been working like a fiend. She feels she is chained to kitchen. She canned 24 quarts of spaghetti sauce yesterday and has about 25 to do today. This time of year the canning seems endless. Jamie does the work; I kibbutz with helpful advice. Sometimes she accuses me of being less than helpful. How could that be?

I don't feel like talking about world affairs today. Maybe, a little; I have been observing the collapse of the American Empire. Most Americans don't realize we have one, as unlike the Roman and British Empires, we don't "own" vast lands which fly our flag. Our Empire is controlled through multinational corporations backed up the Banking System.

We have controlled countries by controlling trade, natural resources and especially the monetary system. We have ruled the world because we have the Reserve Currency and in order for any other country to buy oil they had to have dollars. In order to maintain their dollar supply they had to invest in our treasury notes. This little scam has started to unravel. Oil rich countries have begun{or threaten} to sell oil for other currencies, in defiance of U.S. wishes. Our only strong alliance left is NATO and they are giving us only tentative support. They went along with us in Libya only because they thirsted for Libya's oil. Despite the media coverage there are signs that this bit of fakery is not going to work. Libya will not kowtow to NATO.

Of course, we still have numerous Army and Air Force bases all over the world to reinforce our banking and corporate decisions; but even the ruled need to give some acquiescence in the process. Even the conquered cannot be controlled without some willingness; witness Afghanistan. The world is no longer going along. Many countries are considering dumping the dollar as their reserve currency. They are aligning themselves anew, against the dictates of American policy. We are greatly weakened by our diminished status, as the greatest financial powerhouse, partly because of our huge debt to China and Japan. The rest of the world is waking up to the fact that they don't need to be afraid of us. This is a big, big change and a welcomed one.

Perhaps that is enough for today. I need to wash the dishes and hopefully get some things done outside. I will probably not blog tomorrow as I will be up to my neck in chickens but who knows?

Love and Peace,  Gregg

A Beautiful Fall Day

It is a perfect day! Cool and Sunny; a perfect day to do all the outside work I have been procrastinating about all Summer. I still have several chickens to butcher. Our yard is full of blown down branches from numerous storms this Summer. Some were outside the mowed area and some I just mowed around. This is work I would like to get finished before the snow flies.   

These next few months will be very chaotic. Keep your peace by being aware of your thoughts and dismissing those that lead to negative scenarios. Perception is everything. What you perceive is what you will experience. See the Love and Light behind everything; difficult sometime but possible. Think of this world as an illusion that we create both separately and collectively. See the most loving scenarios you can imagine.

Many people will fall victim to the superficial negativity in the coming months. They will need our reassurance that it won't last long and help in seeing differently. There will be periods of time that will seem hopeless to many. Know that it is only the dark before the dawn. There is a glorious future.

  Life on Earth will be different. People will know they are sovereign beings. Everyone with a different function but none better than another. Cooperation, not competition, will be the rule. Village life will be the rule, rather than huge cities. Food raising and manufacture will be local. Our surpluses will be  will be shared with others; thus we will have goods from other climates. Energy sources will be completely different. We have been slaves to oil and coal because money could be made from them and people could be easily controlled because of their dependence on them. Over the last century there have been many saner ways of producing energy that were proposed then scuttled because it did not create a cash cow for the monied few. When our minds are free to look for new sources of energy that are affordable and nurturing to ourselves and our environment we will easily find them.

The folks in power are desperate to hang on. They will create more chaos as they are losing their grip. There may be more "false flag" operations as an excuse to continue the endless war. Know that they are becoming more and more powerless as every day goes by. Ignore what you hear and see on television and be skeptical about what you read. If it is scary- don't believe it. If it disturbs your peace-ignore it.

You will get through these times and you will see the Dawn.

Love and Peace, Gregg

TGIF

Although, I have been retired now for 11 years I still remember the blessedness of a Friday. To have that weekend stretch out before you.............two whole days to relax and be free. You working stiffs have my love and compassion. There is nothing wrong with work. We need to work. It is an important expression of our being. I was lucky, I always did what I loved to do. Working with people, helping people, but even then the institution that provided the work could be rife with rules that contradicted the mission and caused stress in the employees. We will have a saner world.

My last two days were very busy. Wednesday we went to the flea market and bought vegetables to supplement the supply from the garden. My brother and his wife came for dinner and brought a bushel of tomatoes that they couldn't use. There was a frost forecast for the morning and they already canned all they they wanted. We much appreciated them, as our crop was piddly. We had a delicious dinner featuring our home raised chicken and ample wine.

Yesterday, Jamie worked all day putting up vegetables for the winter. She was on her feet from morning until evening. My day was much more relaxed. I did go to the feed store. I did finally get my lawn mowed and it really needed it.

These are difficult times and it is hard to see that people are really becoming more enlightened. One would not get that impression from the popular media, yet there are signs. Recent poles have indicated that more and more people describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. People are realizing that religion has not fulfilled the function of helping people make sense of the universe and understand their place in it. Regardless of the high motives religions founders may have had, the institution generally evolved into a means to control people. To be sure, their are many genuine spiritual seekers as parishioners and leaders in organized religion, but the institution as a whole has been used to control people, not enlighten them, these last two thousand years.

A core belief of most religion is that God is love and every human has equal access to him. No where in the instructions of the primary spiritual teachers is there any hint that people should create an institutional hierarchy of religion to let us know what God wants. All the teachers, I am familiar with, teach that God speaks directly to the heart of every person. We need to listen.

I am heartened that more and more people are willing to think for themselves in these matters.

Well that is enough for today. My dish water is getting cold.

Love and Peace, Gregg

TUESDAY A NEW DAY

Today we can feel the oncoming Autumnal Season. It is afternoon and it is still cool. There is frost predicted for the morning. I wasn't able to blog at my usual time because Tuesdays the morning a neighbor drops in and we spend time jawing about the universe. Some times it turns in to a rant. We talk about a great many things, often politics and current events. We have enough of a different slant on things as to make it interesting.

It is such a beautiful day it is hard to see the "old world". It appears that paradise is already surrounding us. Speaking of that, I was somewhat disturbed by my last blog. I think every thing I said was fine; but not the reason I said it. I was upset by the relenting resurrecting of  9-11. There is much to be revealed about that tragedy that is yet to come out. However, I teach that in order to create the world we want, we must give up the old world. It is a world created with fear. It no longer has value and happiness cannot be found there. I can generally view what is transpiring without reacting to it. I have said to people, who are disturbed by what is going on in the world, to look at it as if you were living a 1000 years from now. View it as if it was history, like we would view a film of the Roman Empire. There are many parallels.

In order to extract ourselves from the influence of the old world we do need to understand how we are influenced and how to give up the influence. However, criticizing, complaining, ranting about it etc. is not going to help. It only serves to disturb your own peace. We are the creators of our individual and group experience. We must own the "old world". We just don't want to do it any more.  We need to forgive ourselves for the mess we created and move on. We will create a "New World" founded on unconditional love because we are loving beings and that is what we want to do.

In future sessions I will continue to talk about how we have been taught fear, in order to be controlled, so we can free ourselves from said control. I will avoid the rants.

Love and Peace, Gregg 

CORRECTION- MONDAY MORNING

OKAY- "IT IS BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE IN THE WILDERNESS THAN CURSE THE DARKNESS" IT IS AN OLD MAN'S RAMBLE AFTER ALL.  GG

MONDAY MORNING

When I started this BLOG I intended to write everyday. I soon discovered that there were scheduled events that would demand my time and now I see that unscheduled events, also, would interfere. I had hoped to write every morning from about 9:30AM to 11:AM. Saturday we had to pick up bales of hay from a neighbors field and store it in our barn. Sunday morning we butchered seven more chickens, which we like to do in the cool of the morning. We should have enough hay now to last the Winter, unless we have a worse case scenario; that would be a Winter where snow lays on the ground from the first of November to the last day in March.

I would like to address how fear is used to control us. At a superficial level, look to insurance. The industry uses fear to sell their product; whether it be house, car, life, liability or health insurance. It is disguised as responsibility but ask yourself; what is it for you? The industry makes enough money to build huge skyscrapers in  every large city in America. If, as a group, we were interested in  being responsible for ourselves and each other; is this the way we would do it? In any community one could gather historical data on the frequency and extent of house fires. It would be easy to calculate how much each should pay: their share plus an amount to cover catastrophes. You would need a good computer. You would not need huge skyscrapers and executive salaries in  the millions. We have been carefully taught not to question those who are the supposed experts and we do not see how they use fear to manipulate us for the purpose of making money.

I am very glad this 9-11 business is over. I had to keep the television off and I only glanced at the Sunday paper. Just what were people suppose to remember?  For what purpose? Every time there is a danger of our fear of terrorism dieing down, another event materializes to remind us. We must fear. I thought this weekend was the most obscene exploitation of a tragedy ever perpetrated on a people. Who gains by making us afraid of Mid Easterners? Who wants us to mistrust Muslims? Let's see: we lost a few thousand in the trade center. We have killed millions since in the Middle East. A war in Afghanistan, a war in Iraq, a war in Libya, hidden wars all over the third world; check it out.  Who gains? Are you richer because of it? The munitions people certainly are, the oil people love it, I don't think the banks are complaining. There is an awful lot of money to be thrown around because of the War Machine. They can elect politicians,  they control the media. Is that what they are doing?

I had to have a mini-rant about the craziness of the world, as we experience it. I hope it helps to awaken some of the sleeping ones. My wish is that we would accept the fact that the world, as expressed in the media, is "barking mad" and we would turn our faces towards a world we want. We may need to understand just how crazy the world is but it is not very helpful to complain about it. You know the old saying, "It is better to light a candle in the darkness, than to curse the wilderness" well it is true.

In the next few sessions I would like to discuss how the major institutions of our life have used fear to rob us of our sense of sovereignty and therefore controlled us. And yes, "The candle in the wilderness", how we can free ourselves. 

Love and Peace,  Gregg 

WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN?

I haven't written for a few days because I am not sure who my readers are, even if I have any readers, and what they think is happening. I thought I would write in the next few days a synopsis of what I think is happening and why I think it is positive although it may seem negative in the short run.

I can only skim the surface because a full discussion would take volumes on each topic. At this moment the world financial markets are collapsing. They may see-saw for awhile and give investors false hope but they are beyond recovery. A complete collapse could happen at any time; certainly, at the most, only months away. Yes, this will be painful but going on like this would be more painful. In the last Century, money has become the exclusive source of power and influence. Democracy has always been greatly hampered by money but now it has been made impossible. Elections are prohibitively expensive, a politician cannot get elected without mortgaging his soul, newspapers, television etc. are dependent on advertising so what you see and here is only what money wants you to know. There are hundreds of lobbyist for every congressperson. Due the math. Ask yourself when did Democracy die? As long as money is power, in the hands of a few, Democracy will be impossible. We cannot cure this problem with legislation, money finds a way around every obstacle.

It is very strange that the greed of the monied few created the situation that they and we find ourselves in. The stock markets have become gambling casinos, bank leveraging has become obscene, speculation has created a situation where there is not enough money in the world to cover the debts. The housing bubble alone, with the associated credit default swaps, created worthless paper that is still sitting in bank holdings without possibility of redemption and they alone are enough to insure collapse and that's not the half of it.  

We can only welcome a collapse because we need to create a new society where money can no longer be garnered by a few who can then wield power over the rest of us. This will require a rise in consciousness. In order for people to have a rise in consciousness they must become aware. Becoming "Aware" is more than seeing "what's going on" it is also taking control back of your life; to do this you must give up fear. Money controls through fear. I will have more on this at a later date.

Many people are not aware that great changes are in process. People are so busy trying to make a living they collapse in front of the TV exhausted every night and believe what they are taught to believe. There are a whole bunch of other people who have long since realized that "truth" cannot be found in the popular media and search the internet and other sources to grasp what is going on. One of the big changes that is happening is that truth is coming out regardless of the money control of the media. There is very definitely an increase in the awareness of the populace and concurrently a greater difficulty in keeping things hidden.

One of the things we will be faced with will be more and more revelations about how we have been controlled and manipulated by power interest both corporate and governmental {and corporate through government}. It is going to shock many people and be very confusing. Almost nothing you believe about government in relation to foreign policy is true. The machinations of power in the interest of making more and more money have corrupted everything. Everything!

Well that is enough for the day. I need to wash the dishes. I hope to write tomorrow, although I need to get some chickens in the freezer.

I hope your with me.

Love and Peace, Gregg

LABOR DAY

Yesterday was a chicken processing day. We did seven. They were huge! They averaged about ten pounds. I picked out the biggest so the next batch won't be quite so heavy. We had one for dinner last night- delicious.

Labor Day was a significant day when I was a child and, also, when I had children at home. A big day, everything was different the next morning when the school year yawned before you. Now it creeps up quietly and has little demarcation in our lives; yet, the weather did cooperate as it seemed to usher in Fall. It got down to 39.7 degrees last night and was still chilly when we got up.

It occurred to me, as I heard more rumblings of the financial collapse, that chickens might become a very popular bird in city and suburban locations. They are easy to raise, they are omnivorous {eat almost any food scraps} and give eggs and meat. Chickens, coupled with a small garden, can help get a family through some lean spots.

I grew up in Columbia Heights, Minnesota which is/was an extension of North East Minneapolis. During World War 11 it was considered your duty to raise as much food for yourself as you could. Most people had "Victory Gardens" and many people converted a corner of their garage into a chicken coop. We had chickens, my grandparents did, several neighbors and so did many families throughout Columbia Heights and North East Minneapolis. This custom continued after the War and lasted well into the 1950s. It is a custom that could be revived to help families through the transition.

We give our chickens all the table scraps, in the Summer we have to feed them very little. In fact for years I didn't feed them anything besides scraps but they tended to find their way into the garden with too much regularity looking for bugs. Now I give them a little corn in the summer, still a few like to scratch in the garden. We are going to fence it in next year. Chasing the chickens out of the garden ceases to be fun after a few years. In the Winter, as soon as snow covers the ground, they need to be fed. Most folks now-a-days feed them a prepared mash. The old timers in this area fed them oats through the Winter.

Tomorrow could be a significant day on World financial markets. I might talk more about it.

Peace, Gregg

Saturday

I have 30 chickens that are desperately wanting to be butchered. I do not do this lightly and feel it is a sacred act. I give these chickens the happiest life I can and am grateful for their willingness to become food. They do not suffer. They are so fat that they waddle from their food tray to their water. These are Cornish Crosses and I don't like raising them because they are bred to gain weight rapidly in a way that robs them of their essential chickenness. There are other breeds of chickens that are just as desirable for food but are not bred to be freakish. We bought these because the eighty eggs I had incubating were a hatching disaster and it was too late in the year to order the ones I would have preferred. They will be delicious however.

Despite this years onslaught of mosquitoes and deerflies, we live in paradise. We have a small farm, twenty acres and we have a small flock of laying hens, 11 geese, 5 turkeys, 5 goats and 4 sheep. We have the capacity to raise all our own food. We don't, but we do raise much of it. This year was not a good gardening year but we do have excellent yields of potatoes, onions and garlic. Tomatoes hate humidity and except for the beans other things were disappointing. We were negatively impacted by deer, who ate our peas to the ground before they could pod and feasted on other vegetables. We have lived here over 35 years and the deer were never quite the problem they have been this year. We are restyling the garden and fencing it in.

I have to wash my dishes do my recycling and maybe process some chickens.

I will talk to you tomorrow.

Peace, Gregg

FRIDAY

I just started blogging and I already missed a day. I really intended to blog everyday but forgot every other Thursday is cleaning lady day and we go out for breakfast and then do our shopping in Cambridge or Princeton where ever we end up.

I finished my morning chores and my dishes are soaking, now if my mind works I will write something. The upheavals continue on the economic front. This is not a favorite topic of conversation for me because I am not a prophet and cannot see how close we are to the end of this madness. We have been teetering for a long, long time. I don't believe the present situation is sustainable and there is no reason to believe there is a way out of this depression. In order for the economy to grow the government would have to get the money in to the hands of the people one way or another. The political climate is hostile to this approach and reject any kind of Roseveltian solution. At this point only mass debt forgiveness will do anything to improve things.

I believe we need to accept that the economy as we know it is over. This is not a bad thing. In fact it is a reason for celebration. Sure there will be some transition angst but there is a promise of a new way of living where money is no longer a power that is held over the heads of those who don't have it. It is our final civil rights struggle. Their are many people involved in creating sustainable, local economies where the goods needed to live a life of joy and even elegance are produced a few miles from their homes. Don't think that this is a distant dream or something that can't happen in your lifetime. I am in my 77th year and I expect it to happen in my lifetime. So let us not dwell on the inevitable collapse but let us look forward to a new society where everyone enjoys a sense of value and sovereignty.

We have talked about Love and Compassion as if they are values that we hold high. But if you look around you it is greed, competitiveness, power, money etc. that we have held high. That is the Old World. Our new world will be one of Love and Compassion. Start imagining it.

I need to do my dishes and then go to the feed store. I hope to talk to you tomorrow.

Peace, Gregg