OPENING THE EYES

Spring weather has been here only three days and it is already old hat. Well not quite; but it is easy to get used to. The difference between this last Friday 4/26 and Friday 4/19 was phenomenal. On the 19th, we had to get plowed out. We had over a foot of snow on the ground. Spring was still a glimmer at the end of the tunnel.

On 4/26 Spring was manifest. We sat out on the screen porch for the first time. We had supper out on the porch and we celebrated heartily. A little too heartily for this old soldier. It was a beautiful day and wonderful evening. The long awaited Spring had arrived. The temperature was over 70F. There were still piles of snow around where it was shed by the roof.

Saturday and Sunday continued warm and the remaining snow shrank. There is only a few piles of snow left and they could be gone by tomorrow. It is easy to see the Earth as paradise after a weekend like this.

My mentors, both past and present, remind me that I needn't wait for paradise. I need only to open my eyes. If you can stop time; you will see paradise. We live in a time stream. We are continually caught up in time. It travels fast or slow or both at the same time. We can't seem to stop it. The past creates the future. We miss the present, where creation is taking place. We simply do not experience the present. For thousands of years teachers, of meditation have taught us how do it. True peace can only be found in the present. I think we have, all, had experiences of great clarity or great peace, that seemed to happen spontaneously.

How can we stop creating the future from the past? How can we see the present? Pay attention to your mind. Catch yourself dwelling on the past. Often, we dwell on the past when we need to forgive someone. Teach yourself to forgive, naturally and spontaneously, so you don't drag the past into the present. 

Opening your eyes, means being here and now. It means being present. Let us assume that the present is love. One way to approach it, is to see only love in all situations. If you see only love, you are in the present, you are in paradise.

Many of us are waiting for the New World of Love. We are getting frustrated because we are not experiencing it. We desperately want it to be here; yet where is it? Perhaps we need to take a new tack. Perhaps we need to consider how much time we spend looking at the Old World and thinking, that is reality. Reality, after all, is what we think it is. We extend what we pay attention to. There is no need to focus on what was; the Old World is 'was'. It doesn't exist in the now.

To peel away, the layers of illusion of the Old World, practice seeing through to the New World. The Old World is made of fear [a rejection of love], you don't need to see it. See the beauty all around you. Look to see the love in everything and everybody.

Some friends of ours were recently in Florida. They traveled in their camper truck and stayed in RV parks. The RV parks were populated by people who had lost their homes during the recession[?] or current depression. They didn't see a bunch of desperate people who were depressed by their poverty. They saw people, who lovingly cared for each other and were concerned for the common good. They created a community. Their community was infused with love. And that is how people are! People are naturally loving. We are love.

Turn your eyes away from the Old World. See the New World. It is already here.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

A PERFECT MORNING

I did the chores an hour earlier than usual. What a beautiful day. The air is quiet but loaded with expectation. It is like the Earth, itself, is pregnant and ready to burst forth with life. The Juncos have headed North to their breeding grounds. The Robins are no longer flocked together; they have split up in  pairs and are finding their nesting spots.

Last night I was wakened by a clap of thunder. I looked at the clock it was a little after 2AM. It was the first thunder I heard this year. It was wonderful.

I ran across an interesting aspect of media control. Remember I wrote about the dumping of 500 tons of gold on the futures market. On the Morning of April 15th, it dominated the financial news. It, clearly, happened. Gold had plunged over $100 an ounce, at the time I blogged, that Morning. It continued to lose, until it lost 9 percent of its value that day.

I was glancing through the paper Thursday, April 18, {Minneapolis STARTRIBUNE} when I ran across an article, on the business page, titled "Gold is not the place to look for a safe haven", written be Lee Schafer. The article reports on the drop in gold and attributes it to a bursting bubble, I guess, it really is not clear what he thinks. He quotes some important people like Warren Buffett. He repeats the opinions of a Reuters blogger, Felix Salmon. It is a fairly lengthy article for a newspaper business section, yet there is no credible information, I could find, and there is no mention of the dumping of gold on the futures market.

Likewise, there is a article in THE WEEK magazine, dtd. April 26,  titled, "Why gold is losing its luster" by Peter Cole. He seems to attribute the fall in gold prices to the reduction of global inflation and the improvement in the economy. Again, no mention of the gold dump.

Wow! What kind of disinformation is this. Gold, as a hedge against inflation, is a small part of why people have gold. The biggest reason is that fiat currency has been making them nervous. But why the information management? These are knowledgeable people who know the truth. What is wrong with the truth? Who has power enough to lean on them and keep them from telling the whole story?

Is the government, so worried, about the precariousness of the dollar, that they would attempt to bury the knowledge of the gold dump? Everybody who is Anybody in financial circles knows about the gold dump, so who are they kidding? Is it possible that the average investor hasn't heard of it? I am really not that knowledgeable. I would assume if I know it, every interested person knows it. 

It appears to be an effort to keep the average investor from buying gold or, at least, to reassure them that 'everything' is okay and they need not worry about the economy.

It will be interesting to see how they explain the increase in gold this last week, about $100 an ounce.

Well, we will see. It doesn't matter in the long run. We need to rid ourselves of this crazy economy. If it is that fragile, nothing will save it. In any case a crash will be a blessing.

We need to build a 'user friendly economy', one that doesn't make some richer and some poorer. We need an economy that recognizes individual differences without sacrificing equality. Eventually we will evolve to the place where we don't need money at all.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

FINALLY SPRING

It is a beautiful Morning! You don't need the forecast to tell you that Spring has finally emerged. The forecast is very reassuring, however, 70F or near 70F is predicted for this weekend. We still have a lot of snow, but, there are large swathes of snow free ground appearing in the lawn and the pasture.

In the last few days I have been seeing Robins and Slate Colored Juncos flocked together on the bare patches of lawn. The Juncos, are the birds, that signal Winter is coming every Fall. They appear about two weeks before the first snowfall and stay the Winter. When they finally leave, you know Spring has arrived. Of course, Robins are a harbinger of Spring, so it was interesting to see them together.

Our good friends and Neighbors, a few miles to the South of us, witnessed Sandhill Cranes doing their courting dance. I have never seen it, myself, but heard it described. It sounds quite magnificent. We hear the cranes everyday and see them a couple times a week. They cavort in a field, that is obscured by trees, and it is hard to get a good look at them. I saw a crane walking through deep snow on Friday. It was a strange image. One doesn't associate Sandhill Cranes with snow.

Spring is here! Will it come in a meaningful way to the World. One could say that it has arrived. That we just need to open our eyes and see that the vast majority of the population wills nothing but love for their neighbors and the planet Earth. There is, only, a teeny group of people who have been in control and have been keeping us from coming together, by engendering fear of each other. Every time the light seems to be winning, this tiny, tiny group, who are habituated to power, manages to pull off another event such as the recent one in Boston. They are desperate and will probably try a few other things before they are finally sidelined. If the media wasn't controlled by them; folks would have seen, long since, what they are up to. Ignore them. Their reign is almost over.

Rejoice in the beauty of the Earth! Rejoice in the beauty of the folks around you! Know that some of the people you see may have been beaten down and are hiding behind layers of protection. However, they love you! Connect with that love. Give then your most radiant smile. Make them laugh. We are here to be happy. We are here to enjoy each other. Be exultant. Don't settle for less. The Sun shines on an Earthly paradise. Don't miss it, by paying attention to dark thoughts, that are not even yours. It is possible now to ignore all dark energy; do it. Let us bask in the Love that is our right as Human Beings.

Love and Peace,  Gregg 

IF I WAS A PROPHET

If, only, I was a prophet; I could see what the global markets were going to do, in the next week. It doesn't look good.

But I am not a prophet. If I was, I would have seen, the back to the land revolution of the 1970s, would fizzle. I, always, was interested in living as close to nature as possible, so when the movement, to go back to the land, gained momentum in the early 1970s, we jumped on the bandwagon. The way people were living didn't make sense then, as it doesn't make sense now. By giving up running water and electricity, Jamie and I went a little further back than most folks.

We wanted to understand what people gave up, by hooking up to electricity and bringing water into the house. We wanted to know how our great-grandparents, and sometime grandparents, lived and what they took for granted. There was a powerful wave of energy going through the consciousness of man, that suggested that we needed to go back and find out how we lost our way. I felt it so strongly, that I believed everybody, would soon follow. We dropped out gradually and when we finally gave up electricity, paradoxically, the world we left, took a turn back into the craziness, we felt it was evolving from.

We developed a very serene unhurried lifestyle. We lived elegantly and did not feel deprived. We, certainly, had our trials, as we lived in a world that required money and we had none. I didn't expect that to happen, as I felt I could bring in money with my new concept of doing therapy. It didn't work out. Perhaps, I will go into the reasons in another blog.

There were a great number of people who understood what we were doing and we had constant company. We had no phone, so people dropped in anytime; usually planning to stay a few days.

The people around us, thought we must be nuts. In this rural area, it wasn't their great grandparents or even their grandparents that didn't have the modern conveniences. It was their parents. And most of them, who were around our age, didn't have electricity or running water when they were children. Many of our neighbors just couldn't understand it. Yet, it would cause them to reminisce and I heard several people say [something like], "We didn't have any of these modern labor saving conveniences and still we had more leisure" They seemed to understand that society had lost something.

As I said before, I thought the world was going to follow. At least, I thought a community of modern homesteaders would develop. We did have a homesteader club; which was a group of people interested in learning how to live off the land. It was a very diverse group held together by that one idea. By the 1980s, the group lost its juice and slowly disbanded. When we had children, we thought it was not a lifestyle we wanted to pursue. I don't know if the children would have suffered, if the community thought their parents were weird, but I would guess so. Besides we couldn't continue living comfortably without money and having a regular daytime job, one had to commute to, was difficult without a shower etc. I tried it for a couple years. I would have to get up early and get the wood stove {kitchen range} going, if I wanted breakfast.

So I was not much of a prophet then. I really believed people wanted a different way of life and I was genuinely surprised
when the homesteader movement lost its steam. Like now, the economic system seemed close to collapse. Since then, I have learned much about economics and how the system can be resuscitated and kept afloat, even when common sense, would conclude, it must collapse.

I am not sure of anything; yet things have never looked worse for the world economy, as they do right now. Last weeks dumping of 500 tons of paper gold on the futures market was an act of desperation. Should we know if the the economy is going to collapse? Can we do anything any way? Perhaps there is a reason reliable prophets seem in short supply. I don't know.

If the worst happens {or is it the best}, we are going to need everybody who is willing, to get their hands in the dirt, to do so. We are going to need to feed ourselves and our neighbors. Imagine money evaporating. How will we get along? It will be the end of big agriculture. Suburban lawns will be converted to vegetable gardens. Vacant lots in the city will be gardened. Appropriate basements, if cool enough, will become root cellars. People who know how to can, will throw open their kitchens, and teach canning classes.

Raising chickens will become common, even in the city, where appropriate. Many suburban lots are large enough to raise chickens and even a hog or two. Five families can band together and one of the families can raise the hog and they can all contribute their kitchen scraps as part of the feed. The most skilled can do the butchering; all will share. Folks can specialize and do what they are good at. One family can raise potatoes, another squash etc. There is no need for one family to raise everything they consume themselves. The theme is sharing, what you have, with everybody.

Instead of a negative, the collapsing of the economy is a chance for us to create a life that makes sense. When we realize, we are 'one' and accept our 'oneness', we will move into a world, where we use our gifts, for the benefit of all. We will be amazed at how easy it is and how effortless life becomes. Loving our neighbor will be as easy as breathing. Eventually, it will seem like we have awakened from a bad dream, and living what we think of reality now, will be unbelievable.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

THANKFULNESS

We are snowed in, here, on Laughing Water Farm. It is the first time that I remember,  being snowed in, in April. We have had deep snows in April before, but we waited for the snow to melt, a bit, before venturing out. I think it would be a couple days, if I waited for this batch to melt.

So I do exercise my thankfulness. I am thankful I am in a warm house, with plenty of food. Good water and plumbing, that works. A full liquor cabinet, if a libation is indicated. Hey! I could be holed up here for a month if need be. But I am, also, thankful that I can pick up the phone and call my very friendly plowman, who will be here this afternoon.

Like practicing kindness, practicing thankfulness can be world changing. It certainly changes an individual's perception. It is easy to get into a pattern of grousing; continuing mild complaints about the world. It can start the minute we get up. I didn't sleep enough. I slept too much. I slept wrong and my shoulder hurts. The weather's icky. My throat feels dry. I think I might be coming down with something. There is an endless variety of things we can find to grouse about.

Before trying to practice thankfulness, take an inventory of your personal propensity to complain. Some of these things can become so automatic that you are not aware of how much you are doing it.

Remembering to be thankful can be like magic. It can turn your perception of the world around, like it was on a pivot. Expressing your thankfulness to somebody else can turn the world around for both of you.

Everybody has had the experience of having, somebody turn their face to them, and with a radiating smile say, thank you. It sends warmth through you that can last and last. The event doesn't matter, it can be about the smallest thing. Of course, it has to be genuine, but it is genuine. We are, usually so preoccupied, with that string of nonsense running through our minds, that we don't see that we are thankful. In our human interaction, we are doing things for each other all the time. People help us in the grocery store, they carry out our goods. In the hardware store I go to, the folks are very helpful. They know everything, at least, it seems like it. My wife brings me coffee, some times she does my dishes. All day long there are things I am thankful for.

Giving thanks raises the spirits of the person doing the thanking and confirms the value of the person being thanked. It is just tremendously enriching. Like, acts of kindness, it travels around the world enriching everybody's life.

People need to know how grateful you are for their existence. We enrich each other with our thankfulness. When you catch yourself grousing, use it as an opportunity, to see what your thankful for. 

Love and Peace,  Gregg

THE ONGOING STRUGGLE

The bomber in Boston gives the dark another opportunity to create fear, and all its negative emotions, to extend their agenda. Whether they were behind it or not, they will use it to create fear and anger to aid them in fomenting conflict.

I was listening to MPR, when I was doing the dishes yesterday, and I was pleased to note that there was less hysteria and [usually subtle] calls for revenge than in past such tragedies. In fact they interviewed a gentlemen, who happened to be Buddhist, who said that this is an opportunity to bring light on the world.

I don't remember exactly how the gentlemen recommended blessing the world, but the method I use is to visualize the Earth in front of me. Bring it down to a manageable size, rotate it, while you visualize light glowing around it. Imagine the Earth marinating in a light, made of unconditional love, and soaking into the minds and hearts of all the people. I often do this as I am going to sleep at night.

The dark uses all our negative emotions, fear, outrage, vengefulness, to enhance their agenda. This is an opportunity to rise above these feelings. Whether the misguided soul who is responsible for these attacks, acted alone or with direction from the dark, he/she is a victim like all the others. A victim of the craziness that has gripped our Earth for millennia; all need love and forgiveness.

Perhaps this is crunch time. A time to quit responding to the dark with our own negativity. We can't end violence with violence. We can't bring peace with war. We can't end tyranny with tyranny of our own. We can't expect acceptance when we condemn others. We can't meet judgement with judgement. You get the idea; it is time to stop being crazy. We want to be loved, lets love.

The day before the bombing, Jamie was feeling the darkness of the world. She decided to counteract the feeling and lift her spirits, by keeping in mind, to perform an act of kindness or thankfulness wherever she went. Look for reasons to be grateful and express your gratitude. I will be writing more about this.

Meanwhile, back on Laughing Water Farm, we are doing our best to enjoy a Spring that isn't. We still have snow on the ground and we are forecast to get six more inches before Friday Morning. Yesterday, was a good day for melting and we lost much of the existing snow, at least the new snow won't add much, and hopefully it will melt on the weekend. How is that for positive thinking?

Yesterday I got a fruit tree [bare root] that I ordered from a nursery in Wisconsin. This a very reliable nursery, that we have used for many years. They, always, have sent things at the appropriate time for planting. I guess they haven't been paying attention to their neighbor, West of them. I am sure I won't be able to plant it for two weeks. I will keep it alive some way.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

WHAT'S NEXT?

Sometimes I can sit here in my sanctuary and the illusory world is far away. I drink my coffee, read, do the cross word puzzle, discuss and argue issues with Jamie, do my chores, go to town and live and breathe in my version of paradise. The only thing that might bother me is my own mind. That is another subject and is, of course, everything. Our thoughts are the author of our complete experience, but I didn't intend to get that deeply into the subject in today's blog. I don't have a destination in mind, I will just meander a bit.

There is definitely a new loving world emerging. Yesterday, as I was driving to Ogilvie to get the paper, I was listening to The Splendid Table on NPR. I tuned in at the middle of a conversation. The person being interviewed was representing a group called the CONFLICT KITCHEN. It is a take out style restaurant that serves foods, from countries, that the United States is in conflict with. For instance, they will serve food from a Iran for a month and supply historical, cultural and culinary information about the country. They have interviews set up with SKYPE, of Iranian citizens, talking about their country. They often express contrary views as exist in real life. The packages, the food is wrapped in, has information about the countries. They have covered Afghanistan, Iran, Venezuela and they are planning on covering North Korea. Check out the information on the web.

Everyday, I have been experiencing something new in relationship to the emerging world. There are movements, growing all over, that have to do with bringing understanding and love to our diverse peoples. The Conflict Kitchen is just one example of a phenomena that is becoming more and more common. People are awakening and they want to heal the wounds, that have been created, by the machinations of the old and dying world. In the process, they are learning how to grow their own food and how to live on the Earth giving the deep respect to our Mother Earth and our Brothers and Sisters that they deserve. All our Brothers and Sisters, everywhere.

Meanwhile, news of the dying world is dreadful. Oh, they would love to get us into a war. They have the fantasy that it would save them. If they could crank up the war machine, they might be able to make enough fake money to keep them going for awhile. They can't. If you are following the financial news, you probably know that some entity dumped 500 tons of gold. It would have to be a huge bank or government. How could anybody else have that much gold? If they wanted to convert their gold holdings to something more liquid, they would do so in smaller amounts to prevent collapsing the market. It is clear they meant to collapse the gold market. Gold has dropped well over a hundred dollars an ounce since Friday and is continuing downward. Most of the commentators, I have read, say that the seller and buyer were the same entity. They took a huge risk in devaluing their own holdings of gold. Are they planning on making it up on the upswing? Who is gaining by this maneuver? It temporarily makes the dollar look better by increasing its value against gold, which increases the value of institutions that hold dollars. Federal Reserve? There are rumors they are near bankruptcy.

The downside of this maneuver is that the Russians and Chinese can buy gold at discount prices. They have been buying gold on the open market in recent months and it is rumored that they plan on issuing a gold backed currency. That would be the beginning of the end for the dollar as the World Reserve Currency. If the Chinese use their dollar holdings to buy gold it will further devalue the dollar, thus creating the opposite effect that the gold dumpers intended. If that was their intention. I certainly don't know, but it looks like something big is happening.

Sometimes I would like to be rich or at least have a little left over at the end of the month. We live very comfortably; but month by month, our outflow, pretty much, equals our income. I am not a prophet and I am not qualified to give financial advice. But if I had extra money I would pay off all my bills and put my money into solid things of value. We will see what happens in the next couple months. I don't think things are going to remain the same.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

KINDNESS

This Morning I said to Jamie, "I have no idea what I am going to blog about". She replied, "Why don't you write about kindness". Then she remembered a book on kindness she got from the Amish. It was a children's book and she thought it would be inspirational. It was given to Elijah, who reads like an adult, he is five and has been reading since he was two and a half or three. Unfortunately, his mind seems very orderly, but his room isn't. We gave up looking, when the needle in a haystack analogy came to mind.

I have plenty of inspiration in my daily life to help me write about kindness. So many times people have been kind to me when I wasn't feeling very kindly towards myself. I know it has saved my day on occasion.

It reminds me, when I was an undergraduate, working in a paint store. The store was located in an old mixed ethnic neighborhood mostly first generation Jewish, Swedish and Norwegian folks. Most, of course, were delightful people who brightened my day. Every once in awhile, you would get a customer who was a real grump. There was this one old Scandinavian painter who came in frequently. He was so abrupt and rude in his speech to be intimidating. I did not like waiting on. He never smiled. He never said anything pleasant.

One day, it occurred to me, what his life must look to him. I realized that no matter where he went people masked their feelings and treated him with kid gloves. And that would be at best, many people must have returned his grouchiness with grouchiness of their own. I could see that from inside his body, looking out his eyes, the world was a hellish place.

There were, generally, two of us clerking and the manager. We all held back when he came in the store. One day, I decided to change things. I greeted him like he was my favorite customer. I met his usual scowl with a smile. I tried to be as helpful and kindly as I could. It took a long time, he was a frequent customer, but I did get him to change. He never became all smiles, you understand, but he did lose his sourness and quit treating us as something you would scrape off the bottom of your shoe.

I was the one who gained from the experience. It opened my eyes, to how the world is reflected back to us, according to our perception of it. I always remember, you see according to how you feel. The world is what you think it is. It happens to me right now, if I piss and moan about how lousy this Spring is, it affects my perception of everything. {Yes, I have been doing that}

Jamie, has related to me, how she deals with somebody who is critical and judgmental of her. This situation has happened when she was working as a nurse in the hospital. There was a particular nurse who treated her with scorn, this was an individual that nobody seemed to like. Jamie decided to treat her like a long lost friend and always said something complimentary to her and showered her with loving feelings, as much as she was able. This nurse not only improved her attitude towards Jamie but related better to the rest of the staff. This is not an isolated situation; Jamie always tries to remedy a relationship problem by showing kindness to the other person.

Showing kindness to others, always lightens up your life even if you can't see if it helps others. I know it does, from the many, many times when a kindness was shown me, when I didn't expect it. A kindness shown to somebody here in Minnesota will have a ripple effect all the way to China and back again.

Can you imagine the change in the world, that would occur, if we would only keep in the forefront of our mind, to be kind in all our dealings?

Kindness. It is nice to think about kindness.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

LIFE ON LAUGHING WATER FARM

I am blogging late today because I went with Jamie to get milk from the Amish. We get six gallons a week and Jamie uses most of it for making cheese. She makes excellent cheese. So far she has made cheddar, mozzarella, blue cheese and cream cheese. Goat cheese is a special treat, but for everyday eating, I prefer cheese from cow's milk.

We were supposed to get nine to ten inches of snow. So far, we have escaped. They haven't changed the forecast, they have just pushed it forward. We are suppose to get that much by Friday Morning. I hope not.

 More and more, we are trying to avoid buying food from the grocery store. We will probably never completely wean ourselves from the grocery store; there are many things that you can buy no where else. It is really nice to get food from people you know, that is raised without a plethora of chemicals.

The slowness of the Spring matches the slowness, of news, about the emerging of the new world. The main stream media is filled with dreadful, horrifying events. News of the emerging world is rare. The internet, however, carries much hopeful news [along with there usual paranoid offerings]. In Oakland, Detroit, Los Angeles, St. Louis and other cities across the nation there are groups of citizens taking responsibility for their welfare by raising their own food in vacant lots, front yards, median strips and anywhere else a piece of ground is available and not being used. They have met a little challenge, from municipalities, that they have been able to deal with. These movements have been about much more that raising food. They have been about nutritional education and teaching a new awareness of nature and Mother Earth. Reading about these groups engenders great hope for the future of humanity.

Also, old issues, that appeared settled are again rising to the surface. One such, is the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Sirhan Sirhan's lawyer is asking for a new trial based on evidence overlooked or suppressed at the time and new evidence. Many people, at the time, were not comfortable with the governments version of events. I thought something was fishy, then, but had no way to find out the facts. Any doubt one has is waived away and you are accused of being a conspiracy theorist. The charge of being a conspiracy theorist has been extremely effective in silencing people who question and look for truth. Nobody wants to be crazy and it takes a lot of self esteem to look for the truth when society thinks your nuts. I read the article on the AlterNet.

Starting soon, hopefully next week, I am going to cite the blogs and websites I read, so that you can just click on them. I apologize for not doing this sooner. I would like to use the excuse that I am 78 and I didn't see my first computer until I was fifty. I can't get away with that. I know I could have learned how to do it, before now.

Another thing, one of my primary motivations was to write about how to survive, living off the land. We know a great deal about this and I would like to share what I know. I don't have a sense of where people are at or what folks want to know. Jamie or I are happy to answer any question. If, it seems, that it is not information for the blog we can answer in the comment section or by e-mail.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

SPRING DELAYED

I am eager to write about the bursting forth of Spring. It will have to wait. We still have snow where it laid heaviest, several inches on the North side of the house and where ever it was drifted or piled. We still have snow on our porch roof, one of my benchmarks. We have relatives, who live in Iowa, they are gardening now; planting early things like radishes, lettuce, onions and potatoes.

The jet stream tends to loop down over Minnesota, blocking warm Southern and Western air. This not an uncommon situation, I have been monitoring it for several years. There can easily be a twenty degree difference in the highs, for the day, on each side of the jet stream. We will experience Spring when the jet stream goes North. It can happen suddenly.

Robins appeared in flocks, day before yesterday, some stayed behind and others moved North. Perhaps, they know something the weather forecasters don't. The weather forecast calls for slushy snow this week and yet next week; with highs in the thirties or low forties Fahrenheit. Do I sound gloomy? Perhaps I am a little, waiting for Spring can do that to me.

This year, especially, I have been looking forward to open pastures and a little warm weather. The hay I stored up for my goats was not up to standard. One batch was a little moldy, I couldn't smell it but the goats could. The other batch was too sticky, meaning too many sticks and stalks. Straw like might  best describe it. They would eat some of it and waste most of it by dragging it out of the manger. I compensated them by giving them some goat feed that was intended for lactating animals. They are now spoiled rotten and moon and complain if I don't give them the feed. They are very healthy and have not suffered from having inferior hay; but, it will be nice to see the snow gone and the greening of the pasture.

Many years ago, when I was reading, "The Course in Miracles", I ran across a chapter titled, "To Give and Receive are the Same". At the time, I understood the meaning. We are one and can only give to ourselves. I, also, understood that giving, is, therefore, never a sacrifice. I understood it and sometimes experienced it, but not always. Last night I was reading something that stated, that the highest joy was in giving. I know we hear that as kind of a corny Christmas saying that you pay attention to until the warm fuzziness last. But I mean really. Happiness is closely tied to how free you are to give as well as receive.

People have as much trouble receiving as they do giving; maybe more. They question their worthiness. It embarrasses them. They just do not experience, the great joy of receiving gifts, they could.

Maybe, practicing giving would help them enjoy receiving. Giving has to be real. It can't be, just going through the motions. A gift is something, you give with love, intended to bring love to the recipient.  I have always loved giving things away, I no longer needed, or didn't want for some reason or another. And I am more than happy to share with others the things that I enjoy. I think I could use more practice in giving away things that still have a high value to me.

The hypothesis is, we are one, to please another is to please oneself. Giving, in anyway you can, to the people around you can only enrich yourself and brings the highest happiness. It has to be real and come from that big warm heart of yours. Lets try it.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

SOVEREIGNTY

Most of us have accepted that we are all equal, at least from a spiritual point of view. But sovereignty? How can people be sovereign when they seem to be so in need of leaders? Why are so many, even slavishly, following somebody else, rather than trusting their own intuition?

Our whole culture has taught us, not to think for ourselves. Sure, we pretend. There is much lip service given to extol original thinking. In reality, original thinking is hated, unless it makes profits for somebody. From the time we are born we are taught to fit in and this really intensifies when we go to school. Anybody who steps out of line is punished, one way or another.

By the time we are adults we have learned that we need to accept certain authority figures. If we accept the wrong ones we may be ridiculed and humiliated. We learn who we can safely admire and who we must judge harshly. Liberals, Conservatives, Libertarians, Jews, Christians, Atheist, Muslims, etc, etc, soon learn who it is safe to follow and whose ideas it might be dangerous to consider. Nowadays the sanction for following the wrong person is usually scorn. It wasn't to long ago, that it could be torture or burning at the stake. Perhaps we have come a little ways, but the pressure against individual creative thinking is tremendous.

We have been carefully trained to accept authority even when it flies in the face of our common sense or our moral judgement. An easy example to look at is killing; every religion and philosophy has some version of, Thou Shalt Not Kill, yet when a government decides it is okay to do it, we do it and many do it without much question. It is only later that they suffer from PTSD, Shell Shock, Battle Fatigue, or what ever they called it, in that era. One cannot kill without dire consequences or, at least not many of us can.

But we are sovereign. Each of us knows the truth; even if our culture has helped us to bury it. We need leaders, who will work to free us, of needing leaders. Because we only think we need them.

There is a  two minute video that outlines the problem: www.LarkenRose.com. Mr. Rose, also, wrote a book titled, "The Most Dangerous Superstition". I haven't read it. He makes some valid points in the video. Most folks adhere to some form of non-aggression against their neighbors but governments are an exception. Governments think they have a moral authority to aggress.

Mr. Rose makes three points in his video.

One: there is no documented procedure where one person or group of person can delegate their rights to another group [i.e. government] so congress cannot have the right to do anything you do not have the right to do yourself.

Two: You can't have an obligation to do what you know is wrong. When ever there is a conflict you have a right to disobey. In that case the one who rules you cannot be an authority, because authority means having the right to rule you and one you have to obey.

Three: No document or ritual can alter morality and make an evil act good. Either the law agrees with objective reality and therefore is redundant or is in conflict with it and should be disobeyed. Therefore no legislation creates any obligation to obey and has no authority.

This is roughly paraphrased. Check out the video.

Yes, we are sovereign, our ruling principle is unconditional love.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

POINTING OUT THE FAULTS OF THE WORLD

When would you point out the faults of a friend? Answer: when it is helpful. How do you know when that is?

Back ground: those in control have been using fear to dominate the populations of the world for several millennia. The fear they generate feeds them and keeps us divided. The cabal is having a heyday right now. They are using everything they have to foment problems. They love war and they would love a nuclear war. They are in the process of demonizing several countries now with the hopes of getting the population
to go along with them. As they sense their power slip away they feel they have nothing to lose. They won't succeed.

Right now, what the people of the Earth need is, as many people as possible to stay above the fray. People who can resist the temptation to be afraid or angry, [Anger comes out of fear and feeds the cabal just as effectively], so that they can use their energy to visualize the world we want.

I know many people, and I have done it myself, who delight in discovering just how corrupt and horrid the world is. It is horrible indeed! Our financial system is operated for control and greed alone, with absolutely no concern for people. A huge percentage, of any given population, live under a police state and police brutality is rampant.

In the awakening process, these things need to be pointed out so people can see what is happening to them. Dwelling on the horrors for any other reason is not helpful. Anger makes one feel strong and deludes one into thinking they are responsible. In helping people to awaken, we must not appeal to their fear or anger. Fear and anger are always divisive and end up giving you the opposite result you want.

As individuals, we can ask ourselves, "How does knowing this make me feel?" "How do I want to feel?" How can I see this and still feel Love?" Answers to these questions are your guidance. Remember, we are 'one'. The perpetrators, that you see, are just as much victims of the system as the ones we see as victims. All who accept the illusion of this world are equally trapped. We are all innocent and we need to get out of it together.

We need folks who know they are the creators of their reality. We need people who will rise above the horror and envision the world of Love. Of course, it is happening. The group is growing by leaps and bounds. The world is lighting up with Love.

So, when do you point out the faults of the world? When it is helpful. Check out how you are feeling about it.

On Monday, I said I would talk about some things emerging on the world economic stage. I am not ready. I need to see the picture more clearly. I will mention this; there are a group of nations, who are buying up gold. They intend to issue a currency, backed by precious metals, to challenge the dollar as the world reserve currency. If it works out as planned, it would end the banking cabals control of the world and issue in a new era. The basic idea is sound and the intentions are positive. I need to understand more about it. I will write about it soon.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

EASTER MONDAY

I hope all you folks who celebrate Easter had a very enjoyable time. We had a quiet Easter; Jamie, myself, our daughter Naomi and grandson Elijah. Elijah is five and has expectations of the Easter Bunny which livened up the holiday. Naomi's [and our] friend, Renae and her son Zeke,  dropped over for a couple hours in the afternoon, which was very nice addition to our day.

Our journey has been a little rough lately; our egos have taken on a bristly character. Hopefully, on the way towards giving them up. It was my turn in the hot seat last night, with my daughter and wife making it clear, that I had a ways to go, with the issue of being controlling. I know that they are right. Sometimes I attempt to shape everybody and everything to my idea of 'perfect'. It certainly has never worked. It always backfires and the flames can singe. I am learning.

Giving up all control and letting go is the only way to true happiness. One must trust every aspect of the universe, especially those folks that live with you. It is interesting that the spiritual literature, that I read, has been emphasizing, trusting the unfolding of the universe in your everyday life. I have seen it expressed as 'God knows what he is doing'.

We have a cool day, here at Laughing Water Farm, it is not suppose to get above freezing. It is almost twenty degrees below average. Still, signs of Spring are seen and heard every day. The call of the Sand Hill Crane is heard every day. I have seen Canadian Geese moving into our area. The tightly wrapped buds of the trees and shrubs are beginning to loosen. If you look closely, you can see a little green showing on the lines of the buds.

I don't like to dwell on the crumbling of the old world, but there are some interesting things happening in global economics. Perhaps, on Wednesday, I will write about some of my observations.

I know it is difficult to see; but, things are getting better. Everything we do affects everybody else. When you smile at someone in the grocery store, the people on the other side of the Earth feel the glow in their heart. People are awakening to the fact, that all is love. Every individual that lights up, lights up the whole world. Keep in mind, we are all one. We can't understand it yet, but keeping it mind will be helpful.

Love and Peace,  Gregg