Saturday: You are the Light -- You are the Miracle

We must accept finite disappointment,but we must never lose infinite hope.

~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The idea that hope can make a difference in any situation is extremely important. All of us face adversity but when we can realize that these are just temporary experience in the temporal life we can go forward with renewed optimism.

Often we need others to help us maintain hope. As we share our experience of success over adversity with others we each have the opportunity to be a role model for someone else. It is amazing our own survival and success shared with another gives them renewed hope that answers will be found.

When a friend comes to us with a problem, first we must listen. And then demonstrate that we truly know where they are coming from. Some of us just do the short cut: Been there. Done that. However, it is important after listening to share a word of hope. Not that we have been there and been through difficulties but a few words that shows that this situation can not only be tolerated but will eventually bring victory. So not only have I been there and done that, but I felt at the time there was not hope but through persistence, faith and the help of friends like you I made it through it. And, the biggest words of hope: And, I know you are going to be OK also.

When ever you see darkness, share a light!

When ever you see despair, share hope!

When ever you see someone lost, hold out your hand to share faith!

When someone is looking for a miracle, Be The Miracle.

Today: You are the Miracle.

Friday: Día de los Muertos

The approach of All Souls Day or Día de los Muertos always brings to me a sense of sadness and joy about the bittersweet qualities of life, love, and death.

This story begins about 10 years ago at this time of the year. My husband, Mark, and I were at lunch with his father Antonio. As we sat around the table for some reason or another Tonio and I were discussing what songs we would like to be played at our funerals. We both agreed that Amazing Grace was really so emotionally packed with the concepts of redemption and being born again that it was the perfect music to accompany our souls from this world to the next.


Amazing Grace has been my companion since the year my father died when I was 11. I cannot hardly hear the song and not have tears well up in my eyes. I can still feel my utter sense of loss when my father left me and as I stood at his casket they played this song.


Over time, it seemed that every time I would hear this song on the radio or on television, there would soon be a death in the family. It could just be that I was sensitized to the music and when my spirit felt that someone was leaving I would hear the music. Sometimes it would just start to play in my head as a secret melody from my heart.


On November 1st I accompanied Tonio to a mass held at the University chapel which was celebrated every year and sponsored by Tonio in honor of his brother Jesus, a major Mexican artist. The rest of the family refused to go as they did not particularly like religious celebrations. As Tonio and I went to our seats the organ above us began to play Amazing Grace. I felt the cold chill of death come over me. As we stood for a certain part of the service, I could see Tonio blanch white. I urged him to sit down.


A few weeks later, Tonio was scheduled for open heart surgery. We had Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before the Thursday planned holiday because he would be in surgery Monday morning. We drank wine and ate luscious food and played music and celebrated the many blessings in our life.


Tonio went through the surgery and it was considered successful. However, Wednesday night, as I lay in my bed alone since Mark was in the city and at the hospital with his father. I heard in my heart the strains of Amazing Grace. The phone rang. As I picked it up and heard Mark's voice as he asked me what I was doing, I said: I was just lying here waiting to hear from you to tell me of the passing of your father.


To see the symbology of the family altars to honor the dead click here: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/altar/

Thursday: The great OCD

My dog Avis is a strange and mysterious pooch.

She has allergies of every type and of every season. And when she gets into one of her reactions to an allergy she suddenly develops some of the craziest behaviors.

I have an OCD Pit Bull... Obsessive Compulsive Dog.

It all started one day when we were taking a cruise in my Porsche. When I turned sixty I decided I wanted to be sixty and sexy so I bought a red 944 Porsche. It is quite a stunning little collector's item and it looks even better with Avis sitting in the back enjoying the view from 360 degrees of window space available to her.

Well I lit up a cigarette and Avis sneezed. I looked at her and just thought oh hell now I can't even smoke in my car. Being rather pissed off by my consideration of my fur child's reaction I sneezed back at her. She sneezed back at me. Now she has learned to sneeze on demand. I just have to sneeze at her and she sneezes back. It has become a fun game with us. Me sneeze. Avis sneeze.

Now, Avis is not a pure pit bull. She is part boxer. Most folks forget that boxers got that name because they can fight using their feet. Well Avis in playing would dance around like a boxer ready to throw the next punch. So every time she would go into that reaction to play time I would say dance, Avis, dance. She learned to dance on command. When Mom was in her last year and confined to her bed Avis was her constant companion, guardian and entertainment. Mom would laugh so much when she would say dance, Avis, dance and the pooch would be tapping up a storm on the wood floors.

Now Avis has a new OCD behavior. She developed an itch. When I would scratch her she always wanted to smell and lick my fingers to see what was going on with her ... as you know dogs live by smell and taste. Then I noticed when I would scratch her in a certain way she would start sticking her tongue out and giving a licking motion. Then every time she would stick out her tongue I would stick out my tongue at her. Now she sticks out her tongue on demand.

So there you have it. Avis, my OCD, is a dancing, sneezing, stick your tongue out pooch who never ceases to amuse me.



Myriam Maytorena, M.Ed.
http://myriamsmuse.blogspot.com/
http://manifestreality.com/
http://asknow.com/
You are the Miracle.
“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” - C.W. Leadbeater

Wednesday: Metaphor

Shamanism has always fascinated me. The concept of an animal totem being a spirit guide is truly interesting and can become empowering. The issue is that most people who are not shamanic in their training mistake what it means to have a totem or using that totem as in shape shifting.

Working with animal spirit guides is a true explanation of metaphor which is the underlying explanation of were-animals in shamanism.

When the Yaqui Deer Dancer dawns his regalia he does not dance like he is a deer he becomes the deer. When any spirit comes into the physical body of a earth-centered religious practitioner, the energy of human and animal (or other spirit medium) become one.

Essentially the religious experience empowers the person to be God. That is the real difference between more sophisticated, language based religions and religions of ritual and that are earth based such as Voodoo, Taoism, Wiccan, Native American and so forth. God is not separate and man is never separate from God. Divine spirit manifests man and man manifests divine spirit. They are integrally one.

When I say my totem is the wolf, I say that the energy of the wolf is one with my spirit.

When in Voodoo I say I am ridden by the loa Brigid, I am saying that Brigid and I are one.

When I am one with the Tao, it means that the Tao and I are one and there is no other than what is now manifest in my reality.

Many modern fantasy paintings are but a desire to get back to the true meaning of metaphor. The isolationism of many popular religions today creates loneliness in the soul and we need to reconnect with our own true divinity.

This concept was really explored in the movie by George Lucas and when Luke Skywalked became one with the force he made no errors. We we are in the Tao we follow natural energy patterns and we make no errors.

To not be one with the divine is when we sin or make errors. When we are once again with the divine we are existing in divine grace and thus without sin.

We are all divine, perfect and enough. We just have to recognize and embrace that reality.






Love all God’s creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. If you love each thing you will perceive the mystery of God in all.
Feodor Dostoevsky



Myriam Maytorena, M.Ed.
http://myriamsmuse.blogspot.com/
http://manifestreality.com/
http://asknow.com/
You are the Miracle.
“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” - C.W. Leadbeater

Tuesday: Doing the dishes

Passion has flown through my life as strong as eagles wings soaring on the wind. It is perhaps the source of my muse and my desire to fully engage in ever thing that I do.

I have never had any desire to be a jelly fish floating on the sea of life with no purpose or reason for existence other than to eat, to reproduce and to die.

And fortunately or unfortunately that same passion is applied to cooking.

As I walked into the kitchen I was amazed that so much chaos had been created in just 24 hours. You know when you are a creative sometimes the mundane in life is just too much distraction so the pots pile up in the sink and the dishwasher stands half empty or half full until someone gets around to turning it on or emptying it.

One particular weekend in late October our friend Patrick came to visit. I had been cloistered in my office with my latest tangent of creative angst and Mark and Patrick were waiting for me to emerge and become a domestic diva. You would think that they would have known better. I finally agreed to fill their stomachs and souls with some Myriam kitchen mojo if they would "do" the dishes.

I wandered back to my office while they were left with the task of doing the dishes so I could come back and do my magic.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Gunshots split the sound of silence.

Shocked I hurried to look outside.

Patrick and Mark were doing the dishes by using them for target practice.

A food soaked blue platter went up in the air. Bang. It disintegrated into the air.

A yellow glass plate went whirling into the sky. Bang. It splintered into a million shards of shimmering gold against the blue of the sky.

Up went a glass wrapped in colors of blue and yellow and red. Bang. Alas no more glass.

I laughed. Turned around and went back to my office.

About an hour later they informed me the kitchen was ready for inspection.

A few less dishes (I always have way to many incase I am inspired to throw a few) but orderly and ready for me to begin a new culinary adventure.

I placed some cheese and fruit on the kitchen bar, handed Mark a bottle of Merlot to open and pour. As the wine began to flow and smiles began to grow bigger, I began to chop up the fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic and cilantro to make a sauce. The fresh talapia was poaching in some white wine. The rice was properly seasoned with my special blend of herbs and spices.

I thought what would make this perfect would be some fresh peas with pearl onions in a white sauce.

I turned to Mark and asked where is the corn starch?

He looked sheepishly at Patrick, and explained it was gone. They had used it to powder their hands so when they did the dishes they would have greater control on the torque of the toss. I never did understand that one.

But to this day, every once in awhile when Patrick is visiting, I have to truly refrain myself from asking them to "do" the dishes.





Myriam Maytorena, M.Ed.
http://myriamsmuse.blogspot.com/
http://manifestreality.com/
http://asknow.com/
You are the Miracle.
“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” - C.W. Leadbeater

Monday Inspiration

I hear music and their's no one there...

Music is an integral part of my creative process. It is also the magic that tames my wild imagination so that my muse can effectively cope with a multi-dimensional reality.

I have always thought that I was a multi-dimensional person caught in a linear world.

Everyone can sometimes seem to be too damn literal. All things seem to be finite in the mind of many a modern person and even I when caught up with the day-to-day survival mode can get captured by the illusion of a finite universe.

However, music can free me from the bounds of earth and the mundane. I am suffering today because the speakers of my computer are on the fritz and I miss my music so I have to turn the radio on in my head. I need a little Elvis today singing Amazing Grace.

Oh by the way, that is the last album that I bought... Elvis gospel. I find it an inspiring blast from the past and the music I heard as a child in the small churches my father would pastor. There is joy and abandonment in gospel music... just what my inner child needs today.

Friday: Memories of the calm in the middle of the storm

As the hurricane approaches the Yucatan, I am filled with memories.



My first trip to Mexico was for a very sad occasion. It was a family trip to return half of my father-in-laws ashes to his country of birth. He had chosen to live his last years in a small fishing village in Yucatan. The place was amazing.



One evening Mark and I were upstairs where we could see the ocean. A storm was gathering and it was chilly and damp. The waves grew larger and the winds grew stronger. We were filled with admiration for the power of Mother Nature when she is whipping up the fury of her energies to cleanse the earth so it could be renewed again.



While her fury was frightening it was also emotionally empowering. We did not need to talk, we only needed to be still in the middle of the storm.



In the midst of the chaos Mother was creating, we both felt a sense of peace. We shared a moment of pure awe as the house stood sturdy and steady and wrapped a cocoon around us in a warm embrace of concrete, glass and steel.



While we had come to mourn Antonio, we were gifted healing from the divine Mother as her tears washed away ours. The morning came. The storm passed. And as the sun rose to warm the sand and sea, we walked along the shore discovering tokens deposited on the beach ... gifts from the sea brought to us by the storm the night before.



Myriam Maytorena, M.Ed.
http://myriamsmuse.blogspot.com/
http://manifestreality.com/
http://asknow.com/

Wednesday

The leaking sink has less tendency to stink.

Did you ever notice that sometimes it feels that life seems to get little clogs in it. The flow is just not there. It is like a sink where the spaghetti that you strained got caught in the drain and the water sits there stagnant and rank. It is then you really wish there was a leak in that old sink.

So it is then time to either call the plumber and have the clogs removed and put on a gas helmet and dive in there yourself. That is totally an unpleasant experience. There is of course another alternative, when blocks are stopping up your life or your sink there is the option of a sledge hammer. While it might create a mess and you might have to get a new sink, at least it will get rid of the stench.

I kind of like the concept of having a leak to avoid either the clogging up and the overflow onto the floor. Now that is a real issue. When one has so much flowing that one cannot contain it being life or the kitchen sink, one can find one's self in water up to one's knees. At that point it is suggested that one just walk away and say the hell with it and cancel the dinner party one had planned for a celebration of all the good flowing into one's life.

I find that since I have well water and do not have to pay the government for the privilege of ignoring a leaky sink, that life is a lot easier if I just practice the art of avoidance.

It is amazing to me how often the problems of life just manage to disappear if one ignores them. And, as I always say in a hundred years it won't make any difference. Probably I will have forgotten about it in a year. In fact, probably won't make any difference tomorrow. So for today, I will just walk away.

Wednesday: You are the miracle.

To manifest a miracle, one has to recognize that the miracle has occurred.

Do you know that there is a miracle occuring in YOUR life today? I know it may sometimes seem that is an impossibility. But something is drawing me to write this and to tell you to wake and recognize that the miracle that you have been praying for is already manifest.

Today, give thanks for the miracle that is you and that is manifesting in your life.

Love
Myriam

Tuesday: Don't Let anyone Sh over you

That's the horrible thing starting out, you get distracted a lotbecause anything is easier than writing. It's just the sameenemy - blank paper.

Jimmy Breslin

This quote made me laugh. Yes, laugh. It is the silliest thing that I ever heard. Why? Because I find nothing easier than writing. I think it is because I do not have a lot of false expectations about writing. I write because I enjoy it. I have another major rule in living my life: If I don't enjoy it, I don't do it.


That includes:


1. If I don't like people, I don't let them hang around.


2. If I don't like a job, I quit!


3. If I don't like certain foods, I don't eat them.


4. If my kids drive me nuts, I tell them to get out of my face and out of my space.


5. If I don't like what is on TV, I change the channel.


6. If I don't like the music on the radio, I change the station.


It is pretty clear, I just don't do things that I don't like to do. I find the word should to be the most over-used word in the English dictionary. I don't do shoulds and I always remember that shit and should both start with sh and I don't let anyone or anything, including me, to sh all over me.


Now, according the my family history, I should be in cleaning the house. Well that is a bunch of sh and remember my rule.


If the paper is the enemy, than thank the cyber goddess who developed the computer. And, ultimately perhaps, if one feels that the blank page is one's enemy I have one suggestion:


Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.



Have a great day and don't let anyone sh all over you.

Monday Chaos Dragon

When in the midst of chaos it may seem that order may never return. One thing after another seems to come at us from every side.


We want to throw up our hands, walk away, and hide in the shadow of a willow tree and forget about anything except the wind blowing the leaves with the gentle hand of a mother rocking a cradle.


We may call out for help and none comes. It may seem that there are no answers. But if we take a moment to be still there comes a message from the universe. We will not hear that message if we do not still ourselves and allow it to happen.


Today, the moon is full and even it is hiding out from the tribulations of the world as it is eclipsed. It is important sometimes to let our own reflection of life to be eclipsed by something bigger than us. When we recognize that whether everything is going wrong or everything goes right, this is but shifting waters of cosmic energy and when we are still and in the center of the Tao all is fleeting while all is constant.


The greatest moment of Zen is to realize that it is what it is and we always do the best that we can. The universe does not judge us only the dragon in our mind churns the chaos.


Today I choose to ride the dragon rather than having the dragon ride me.

Sunday: Sentimental Journeys

There is a journey that we all take. It is to go back to the past. While I do not believe in living in the past I think that sometimes to heal in the present we need to review those things that we consider bad in the past and put them in perspective.

As we evolve as spiritual beings we finally learn the art of unconditional love. We sometimes think that this is about unconditionally loving others. The truth is the first step to being totally centered in spiritual living is to have unconditional love for ourselves.

We need to forgive our own perceived sins and get on with life.

Once we truly accept that all of us, including self, are all doing the best that we can based upon the circumstances in which we find ourselves, it is then that we can achieve contentment and live in a state of grace.

Today live in the grace of total self-acceptance and unconditional love.


I believe in YOU.

please send me your comments at myriammaytorena@adelphia.net

Friday: Monsters and other stuff

M.I.L. - Monster-in-Law

I can deal well with the concept that everyone is a mirror of what is inside us. Well, until I look at some of the real monsters in life like my M.I.L. - Monster-in-Law. What can one say when one has been forced by choice to live with a demon in one's life. I don't think that I ever met anyone crazier than Virginia. Now, you can say this is just a typical reaction of all women when there is conflict between how and who runs one's household but I can honestly say the only real mistake that I ever made in my life was not killing THAT woman.

Think that sounds like and exageration and I am kidding, well I am not.

I have known her for at least 40 years and I can honestly say that more then 70 percent of the issues that I have had to deal with in life were somehow involved in her actions.
First I married her son and while she is not totally responsible that he was addicted to everything from alcohol to sex to the acquisition of money she certainly had some hand in creating the Lounge Lizard from hell. She gave him the genes to become what he became. A great jazz musician and composer who turned his back on his art to turn to becoming a slum lord so he could have money to fuel his addictions. After seven years I managed to escape him and the marriage but I never was really free of the impact on my life and neither were my sons.
Second I had her grandchildren. For forty years she took great delight in telling them how horrible I was... I was everything from a whore to lesbian to a maniac. There is no limit to the things that she said about me to my children during their developmental years. Their vision of me became distorted because of vile tongue. You have heard about that plant that is sharp and spikey and hurts you when you touch it... now I know why they call it Mother-in-Law Tongue. She even told my children that their father did not love me but married me so that he would have children and not have to go to Vietnam. Of course, I will not even go into what she said about their father.

Third she sent me on a search to recover my soul. After seven years of verbal and emotional abuse my soul was shattered and I was so destroyed that I was luckey to escape with my life and what was left of my sanity. They say that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Well, I must say that I have become stronger. And along the way to recovery from an abusive relationship with this demon, I was brought to many adventures and expressions of my reality.
Yesterday, I wrote about the entity in the attic, but there was also a demon that lived next door to me while I experienced the evil in that house and it was in th form of that woman. When I had recovered enough to start to think clearly I wrote her a letter and I said there can only be three reasons for the way that she had lived and expressed her life:

1. She was either possessed by a demon and in that case should go to my mother and have her pray for her and have it exorcised.

2. She was totally insane and should seek psychiatric help.

3. She was a sociopath.

After years of analysis and soul searching I have come to the conclusion that my M.I.L. was all three. And hopefully she does not reflect what is me or what I have become. Perhaps because I was able to escape I did not become a reflection of her. Inch by inch, sliver by sliver I have managed to retrieve my soul. However, I still say for the safety of the world and the sanity of my family and me, the only mistake that I ever made was not to kill that woman.

Thursday: The Attic A True Horror Story

As I slept I could feel this disturbance in the house. It was invading my dreams as if someone were trying to communicate with me. I felt the inner me being drawn out of my body and as I looked down I could see me sleeping.



It was a strange sensation being in two places at once. This second body seemed to have more light to it and it could move in the most interesting ways. I could actually think of a place and be transported there instantaneously. I found myself in my sons' room looking down at them sleeping. Then I found myself at my mother's house looking at her. And then, I was in the attic.



It looked different... well lets say it felt different. It felt cold and lifeless almost. It is a great attic. More of a third floor to the house with wonderful huge walk-in closets lined with cedar. The boys would often come up here to play and their train was set up with lots of room for tracks and so forth.



As I looked around the room, I sensed a presence. A presence that I would almost describe as evil. I had felt this cold energy of evil when I had been here before in my physical body but being in my astral body gave a different perception to me that I did not experience in my normal day-to-day reality.



My first journey out of my body was eye opening, or perhaps spiritual eye opening. These experiences of astral projection continued. In the beginning it would only happen in a dream state but then I began to develop the ability to do it by just going into a meditative state. It is a handy skill for a mother to have in order to keep an eye on her children.



However, another gift or curse accompanied this new and developing skill. I became more and more able to sense the presence of ghosts or entities from other dimensions.



When we had moved into our house, the door leading to the attic had a symbol painted on the door in black paint. I didn't quite understand what it meant but it was almost like a hex sign that would create a barrier to negative energies entering a place. Perhaps this is why the entity was caught in the attic.



After the initial experience as I would walk into the bathroom of the children's suite I started to notice cold spots on the floor. I then started to notice them on the bedroom floor. I realized that we had a ghost or lost soul wandering from the bathroom to our bedroom.



As I began to investigate the history of the house, I discovered that the woman who had lived here before had killed herself in the bathroom tub. Her son apparently went insane and insisted that the house was possessed by a demon and he was sure the demon was in the attic. I felt that he had painted the hex on the door to contain the demon that had led his mother to take her own life.



This discovery caused my house and my family to deteriorate. My sons began to have nightmares. My husband and I began to have tremendous difficulties that led to divorce and my children actually going to live with their grandparents because it appeared that I was having a nervous breakdown through all these events.



A few years after the divorce, a friend who was a part of the Santeria religion in Miami Florida came with me to visit my children who lived next door to that house. As we went through the house, he was able to discern the suicide of the previous owner and also the presence of evil. Though he was able to help the woman pass on to the light, the entity proved to strong for him to remove.



The house was rented out to several different families in the years that followed. Every family ended up having their families torn apart by divorce and/or mental illness.



The final travesty was when my son Donald moved into the house. He developed symptoms of schizophrenia and his wife was drawn into the use of crack cocaine. I begged them to move out of the house which they did but ultimately their marriage was destroyed by divorce.



The entity apparently attached itself to Donald as he has seen it and felt its presence following him for more than 10 years. In fact, I have seen it when I visited him at Lake Erie and later when he moved to Dayton, Ohio. He keeps a cross over his bed to try and keep it at bay but at times when he is vulnerable it has literally dragged him out of his bed. Sometimes those things that science call delusions are but an ability to see through the veil that stands between different dimensions.



As I said it was both a blessing and a curse when I left my body and ended up in the attic of that house at 62 Forrer Boulevard. After the entity attached to Donald there was no more evidence of families being harmed when living there. The house has been sold. However, the evil demon that possessed it still lives and is creating havoc.

Wednesday: Shades of dark and light

The Portal between darkness and light is often only held open by a simple chair.



Is one trying to let in the light or is one hoping to find the path between two worlds and must keep the portal open until one experiences that other dimension fully?



The illusions that are held in the mind of the artist are always more real then the illusions of reality that are cold and sharp and black and white.



It is in the mind, which is the portal to imagination and the playground of the immortal soul, that one finds the colors that are inherent in both black and white. The light and the dark are a continuum and once we pass through that portal of understanding we know that the chair no longer needs to be a prop to either keep the portal open or tightly shut.



The portal is the illusion and once one realizes that dark and light, good and evil, yin and yang are one, then one is in the Tao. And all wisdom is revealed.



It is in the juxtaposition of light and dark, black and white, subtlety and starkness that allows the colors of life to become as a stained glass portrait of our perceived reality.



Thanks Alice for sharing your spirit through your art. http://www.woodrome.com

Tuesday: My philosophy

If I don't remember it, it didn't happen!

I often jokingly use this phrase to explain away my current condition of CRS. CRS means Can't Remember Shit. I will also joke and say I have Old Timers. The truth is I do find it harder and harder to remember things as time goes on. Sometimes it bothers me, but most of the time I can't remember to be bothered by the minutiae of life that seems to slip through the neural net that is called my brain. Perhaps, my brain has too much to process? Perhaps, I just don't care? Maybe it matters and maybe it doesn't. However, I am trying to learn some tricks to keep me at least functional in a world where life demands that one at least be courteous to others and to accomplish some things that are important to me.

We tend to remember what is important to us.

In my case that must mean that not many things are important to me anymore. That sounds a little depressing when one first considers it but it really has some great benefits. I have forgotten most of the people who have hurt me or insulted me or made my life miserable in the past. It is a stretch to go back to the negative emotions and go through all that junk again. I do sometimes smile when a joyful memory passes through and gets captured by my attention. I guess I am finally in the moment. That has been my goal for many years to just be where I am both physically, mentally, and spiritually. I smile as I remember Ram Dass who wrote: Be Here Now! This saying was the opening mantra for the new age and I find it is simple and still a good concept.

Life is How You Remember!

How we remember our past is more a matter of how we remember it rather than what we remember. It is not so important that I recall all the details but to retain an over-all gist of the journey that has brought me from there to here. I like here so I hope that I can stay here.

Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday!

Forgive the past mistakes and affirm the past joys. Quit wishing and worrying about tomorrow there is little that you can do about it. Be in your body today and let your spirit be expressed creatively and with contentment. Don't do anything you don't want to do. Don't hang out with folks who bore you. Let go and let life fill you to the maximum capacity of enjoyment possible.

Don't forget to read your audio horoscope everyday (almost - smile) at http://myriamsmuse.blogspot.com just click on the audio link.

Saturday: Masks

How do people see you?

How do they see me?

How do you see you?

How do I see me?

Is the mask just another reality?

It's all make believe, isn't it? Marilyn Monroe

Most of us like to believe that what you see is what you get. In someways this is true. However, what you get may not be what is the inner essence of a person. We all learn to wear masks in different situations and with different people. This is not being a phony. It is just that we are all to complex to be showing all dimensions of ourselves to others. In fact, it may be hard for even an individual to see all the dynamics that drive him or her.

One of the most important ideas or concepts to remember is this: It is not important what people think about us, it is what we think people think about us. You will find that if you quit worrying about what people think and quit trying to control it, you will start to feel more comfortable and experience less stress.

When you turn your focus from what people think and turn it to action and seeking pleasure in what you do, life becomes a more content adventure.

So, the with the energy now turning to philosophy and discovering our spiritual path, the question becomes how can I best express the inner me in a positive expansion of possibilities.

Until tomorrow, polish up that mask till it shines.

http://yahoogroups.com/group/myriamsmuse for daily messages in your mailbox from Mother Myriam

Thursday: A mental exercise

Miss June always set in the last booth of Another Fool’s Café. She seemed detached as she drank her coffee and smoked her cigarettes. It was like nothing around her seemed to have any interest to her but when evening came and the doors were locked and the money was counted and the receipts added up, Miss June knew exactly what the results were.


It was like she had an abacus in her mind that just clicked away as she coolly watched how the business went. She could even tell you how much the costs were for the day and truly knew what the tips were that each server made. Each day she knew exactly what the bottom line was and her range of profit or loss.


No one knew how she did it. All were amazed, especially those who would try to steal or hide something from her. Was it intuition or was it the fact that she had a brain that worked with greater skill then the most complex calculator.


Now, this is a true story. And while it seems amazing to those who knew her, it was still reality. We all have the potential to process an amazing amount of data at speeds that would impress the creators of the computer. Often what appears to be psychic or intuitive understanding or flashes of insight is just the human brain processing information below the line that we call consciousness. Through training, we can all learn to increase the power of our own internal data processor.


If you would like to learn how to do this, you may download a free copy of my e-book Psychic Training in PDF format at http://manifestreality.com/psychic/training.pdf

Wednesday: Musings on being Amused

It is raining a gentle rain outside. I am settled in my office and realizing that sometimes we do not have to hurry. Sometimes even I can be still and not feel guilty because I am not working. I really have worked for years about not doing the guilt trip on me and I was, I thought, pretty good at releasing all that crap from the past. But, in the last few days, I realized that the reason that I had been stressing out so bad was because I am a workaholic. If I am just relaxing and doing nothing something in the back of my head kicks in and says something to the effect that something is wrong.

Well! Wake up and smell the coffee Mz. Myri.

I love spiritual epiphany. I do not like personal epiphany where I have to look at myself and say: Myriam - we have a problem here. You know it doesn't make me anymore productive to kick myself when I am supposed to be relaxing. In fact it makes me less productive. I get irritable and edgy and I want people to just leave me alone. I finally recognized that I have to make some changes when I got up this morning late and did not want to work. Something in me is saying the changes that are coming are the changes in you.

Changes!

My sister Glenna said something interesting last night. I was doing that complain game and she was doing the same. It is good to have a person who will listen to you vent and then come back with the most amazing comments. That is Glenna. She said: You do not do anything you don't want to do. I laughed and said you are right. So something in me wanted me to do that guilt thing about work. Well I can tell you I don't like doing that so I am going to explore why I do that. I know that what ever is blocking me is inside me.

Dancing!

When I was a child I liked to dance and sing and just play. Then one day I noticed that when I did certain things people would applaud or laugh or give me really positive feedback. I went from dancing for fun to dancing for rewards. I gave up the love of doing for the love of applause. When I work I want to be the best. I want people to give me applause and recognition. I had started thinking of work as only a tool for getting the appreciation that I had learn to crave back when I was a child.

When I write I always write from my heart. It doesn't matter to me if people like it or not. I like when they do like it but that is not the pay off. That is not the reward. For me writing is a joy that I had when I was a child and would dance and sing.

Today!

Today I promise me that I am giving up the doing for appreciation and going back to doing for the fun of it. From the day forward I give up guilt when I don't work as hard or as well as others want. I am just going to do, quoting Glenna again, the best that I can. And, if it isn't fun, I am going to go do something that is.

Tuesday: Life with Mother

A good life can seem much too short. A bad life can seem much too long. Whether one has lived a long life or a short life is rather relative and in context of time as perhaps infinite, any life is short.

Fortunately for most that walk this earth life is filled with good times and with bad times. When times are good we all know just hang on things are going to change. But, happily, when times are bad we should also remember to hang on things are going to change.


I truly like the concept that immortality is achieved when one is remembered. As long as one person holds the memory of one who has passed over in one’s heart one continues to exist in consciousness.


There is a difference in how we are remembered that makes the real difference. We might read about Napoleon or Alexander the Great but do we hold them in our hearts? No we only hold them in history books.


Before my mother passed over she only asked me to do one thing and that was to write a book about her and her life. I did this. The book is called Life with Mother: A Journey of Love, Death and Rebirth. In her own way Mother wanted to be remembered and to have some claim to immortality because to her books brought people back to life. She also wanted to live to be a hundred and be a jelly jar pin up girl on the Morning Show on TV. She didn’t make it to 100 but she will be remembered by many who choose my book to help them through the process of caring for a dying parent. Next May 8th Mother would have been 100 maybe they will invite me to be on that morning show and I can hold up a picture with her on a Shmucker’s jelly jar. She would like that.



Myriam Maytorena, M.Ed.
http://lifewithmother.com/