In his book Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends, Tim Sanders articulates what I feel about business, “Pay it forward with the intention of being in service and be alert to all the ways the Law of Attraction shows up on your doorstep with opportunities ripe for the picking.” Sanders evangelizes the value of shared knowledge, the power of personal networks, and the karma of human compassion. All this is for the purpose of helping people succeed by ‘showing love.’ In helping others we build ourselves as an outstanding brand - marketing advise that will create winners in any setting. Sanders weaves universal truth, personal observation and sound-bites from some of today’s best business thinkers. At 194 pages I found it a fast, value packed read.

This Upstream TV video of GoodGuide was referenced on a tweet. Awesome video and concept!

GoodGuide is a product database that rates consumer products on many factors including: Health Performance, Environmental Performance and Social Performance. GoodGuide then gives an overall rating out of 10 based on a proprietary algorithm.

Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV

Check out the GoodGuide site. Also read the TechCrunch post about GoodGuide.

I am very impressed with the idea and the huge amount of work that has gone into the data collection to date. I wandered around the site looking for some of the products I use for Kathryn (4.5 years old) to help prevent her eczema breakouts.

George’s Cream - It was not listed so I sent GoodGuide a note with the George’s website to ask them to include George’s in their research and postings.

Neutrogena Sensative Skin Sun screen - not found, but Neutorgena Sunblock Lotion, SPF 30 was. Its rating was Good-7.4 out of 10. This overall was made up from an Excellent-9.7 out of 10 for Health Performance, Good-6.2 out of 10 for Environmental Performance and Good-6.4 out of 10 for Social Performance.

Ombrelle Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 30 by L’Oreal SA - found and given Good-6.5 out of 10 rating. This rating was based on Environment and Social Performance _only_. There is _no_ Health Performance information at all.

Also I noticed when I searched the category Sun Care, I got only 10 results. None of which was Neutrogena or Ombrelle products that I clearly know are in the database. So I submitted a note to their “Found a bug? Let us know here” link.

Huggies Natural Care Baby Wipes, Unscented, by Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Its rating was Good-7.6 out of 10. This overall was made up from an Excellent-9.6 out of 10 for Health Performance, Good-7.1 out of 10 for Environmental Performance and Good-6.1 out of 10 for Social Performance. I wanted to see what made up that Excellent-9.6 out of 10 for Health Performance. It looked good as I started reading 10 out of 10 for Reproductive and Developmental Effects, Cancer Effects, Long-Term and Short-Term Health Effects. The ratings dropped to Good-7.9 out of 10 for General Health and Safety. That seemed odd to me given the glowing 10 out of 10 for the previous specific health factors.

“I wondered, how can a product get ‘Excellent-10 out of 10′ on some key specific health factors and then drop to ‘Good’ for General Health and Safety?”

Looking yet another layer deeper I found that the scores on the two “Certifications and Listings” categories were only Fair: ‘Safety Score’ was Fair-6 out of 10; and ‘Found Safe As Used’ was Fair-5.7 out of 10. Clearly there is a weighting system in play. However, the mom in me was very concerned about seeing such low scores for ‘Saftey’ sections and the product still ending up with a Excellent-9.6 out of 10 for Health Performance. I posted my concern and question to GoodGuide in a search for clarity.

OK I am a mom and the hierchy of needs for the mom in me is: #1 Is my kid safe?; #2 Are your kids safe?; #3 Are other people and the world safe?

I know this is not very spiritually enlightened of me to put my kid first. At some level of me I know all are one. I am still very ego attached to my kid. ;-> For the moment this is the way I am. I know too this will change - I will be able to learn to love unconditionally without ego attachment. (I will keep practicing my Kriya Yoga meditation.)

In the mean time:

-GoodGuide is a great idea, awesome first wave, needs even more data for consistent information between products.

-GoodGuide seems to be very customer driven, open to information and feedback.

-We can help. Go to the site search for products that are most important to you and your family and communicate with GoodGuide. Is the product listed? What level of information is available? Does it make sense to you? Tell GoodGuide your experiences. I believe it can only make this site and tool better for all of us.

I have not seen any feedback from GoodGuide to my suggestions and questions. If and when I do I will repost and let you know.

Enjoy! Happy, happy day!

(Please forward this to a friend if you think they might be interested.)

“Truth is in the experience not in the description.” I have heard this said many, many times by my Kriya yoga meditation teacher. I do not know if it is original or a quote. It doesn’t matter it resounds with me ever time I hear it, every time I think it. It is one of those zen things that is way deeper and multilayered than it first appears.

Love is like that - way deeper and multilayered than it first appears.

Love is:

gentle; kind, compassionate; willing; experimentation; practice; devotion; doing again, and again, and again without expectation of getting something or getting rid of something; presence to this breath; presence to this life; intent to learn; not fear; in the experience, in the experience of pain, in the experience of joy, in the experience of the moment; connection.

We humans seem to feel the deepest connection with self and with each other in our experiences of deepest joy and in our experiences of deepest pain.

I read an article recently in Glamour magazine while waiting for Kathryn to finish her clay class. It was by Eve Ensler. Do you remember her? Celebrated playwright. Creator of the Vagina Monologues.

Well she has certainly taken it to the next level. She takes us past our comfort zone. She takes us where most of us would not go alone or without guidance. She takes us to a world of deep love born of deep suffering. The article is, Women left for dead–and the man who’s saving them.

It is painful, provocative, moving. It is seeping, oozing and sticky with love.

Love is not only in beauty. It is also in the ugly. Love is everywhere. Love is in all things. The trick is can we see it. Often we can feel it way before we can see it. This is my experience. I feel before I see, then I struggle to translate those feelings into words - an ineffectual attempt to communicate to another human being. An attempt to connect.

This is my experience of love - feeling, connecting, again and again, coming to know my self more and more in the process of knowing others.

Love too, like truth, seems to be in the experience not the description. Perhaps love is truth. What’s love got to do with it? Perhaps everything. Maybe it is not the second hand emotion Tina Turner sang about in 1984. Maybe I am not as cynical as I was in 1984.

What is your experience of love?

What is your experience of truth?

Have a happy, happy day!

If you think a friend might be interested in this article please pass on the url.

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Mike sent me this pretty interesting article in Scientific American by Carol S.Dweck, “The Secret of Raising Smart Kids.” He thinks it is a good read and there is nothing really surprising in it.

‘Nothing really surprising’ translates as common sense to me. Common sense, in my experience and the experience of lots of other people, is not all that common. It is right up there with all the things we say ‘we know’, the things we ‘know we should do’ and the things we ‘want to do.’ Often many of these things we are not actually putting into practice or doing.

Why?

Resistance.

We are in resistance to doing what we know or what we want. Resistance is subtle. It is, more often than not, at a less than conscious belief level. We actually don’t want to, or we are attached to the pay-off we get for staying just as we are.

Reminders help us refocus.

This article is a great reminder. It focuses on educating our kids, yet I suspect these principles would work with adults too.

Enjoy!

Happy, happy day!

Please forward this to a friend if you think they might be interested.

I have been having quite a lot of fun connecting with people through FaceBook.

One delightful application is ‘My Question’ wherein you can pose a question that your friends and network may choose to answer if they wish.

Beata’s question was: If you saw a UFO would you tell anyone?

My answer (blogged due to character restraints - this is why I do not Twitter - I seem to need a lot of writing to process myself down to the essence of my point - this is also why I am in favour of journaling):

Question: If you saw a UFO would you tell anyone?

Answer: Hell ya! Only special people get to see UFOs. For example it is only my nearest and dearest who get to see my Thanksgiving turkey - Ugly Fowl Offering.

Oh, oh, you meant Unidentified Flying Object, which is just that UNIDENTIFIED. UFO is also, known as ‘flying saucer’, which by my dictionary is a UFO described as being Saucer Shaped.

So why is there social stigma around UFOs or Flying Saucers? (If there were no social stigma, there would be no reason to not tell.) What is it about “Unidentified” and “Saucer Shaped” that is freaking us out?

What does social stigma mean anyway? According to Merriem-Webster online, ‘stigma’ means; “a mark of shame or discredit.” And ‘social’ means; “of or relating to the welfare of human beings as members of society.” OK I think the issue arises with the meaning of ‘social’, specifically the word ‘welfare’, which is defined as; “the state of doing well especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity.” Hmmm any feelings coming up for you of wanting to protect your “good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity?” There is for me. I want to protect my good fortune, happiness, well-being, and prosperity.

What I know to be true is that, as soon as I shift to a an intent to protect I have moved into a space of fear – fear of loss in this case. Further, the word ‘unidentified’, really means not identified.

To me the real crux of the issue is the ‘un’ part, the ‘not’ part. Unidentified implies not known. As a general statement we human beings are scared spitless of the unknown. Unknown makes us feel unsafe. What do we do when we feel unsafe? We tend to have an overwhelming desire to protect. Bare with me as I repeat. What I know to be true is that, as soon as I shift to a an intent to protect I have moved into a space of fear. (Let me say here that my knowing my truth does not preclude, in my mind anyway, you from knowing your truth, which may well be different than mine.)

To my mind and heart fear is the opposite to love. Intent to protect and its opposite intent to learn are terms I took away from my work with theInner Bonding process. (If you check out their site, don’t miss their tag line, “Grace through Growth.” I just love it. To me grace is unconditional love warmed by the breath of the divine.)

I find both pairs of opposites (love:fear, intent to learn:intent to protect) applicable to life in general. I use them as reference points. I check in with my feelings and behaviours. Where am I in this moment? Am I coming from a place of love or fear? Am I in an intent to learn or an intent to protect. The forced choice of the pairs helps me identify what is going on for me in my world and so reduces my anxiety. (Oh come on people, like none of you experience anxiety. ;->)

I further find opportunity to learn about another from peeling back the layers of why we would do what we do. A great book of the same name Why We Do What We Do - four pathways to your authentic self describes eight patterns of behaviour from the perspective of inner family archetypes. It is a delicious mix of family myths and practical tools to engage and integrate the less dominate parts of our personality. To nurture, if you will, our psychological wounds. As always I am excited to share that the co-author of this book, Caroline Hanstke, a veteran psychologist, runs a practice in Calgary. If you are wondering, I am a Boy-Girl. That is boy in my thinking, girl in my feeling, mother in my spiritual space and father in my unconscious or shadow (to use a Jungian term.) No real surprises in that for me, yet the perspective derived from the mythology has been deeply insightful.

I believe also, that fear is what drives us to be less than truthful with ourselves and with others. For a truly marvelous, insightful and textured look at truth-telling please see Herriet G. Lerner’s, The Dance of Deception. Her entire “Dance” series is worth reading.

I digress. It is my habit. Today I am accepting of this habit within me.

So back to UFOs. I would say it is fear that makes some of us fussed about UFOs and/or Flying Saucers. Fear is what would keep us from telling if we saw a UFO. If I saw a UFO would I tell anyone? Hell ya! Only special people get to see UFOs. The aliens are only interested in the best-of-the-best. ;->

Happy, happy day!

Please forward the above url to a friend if you think they might be interested.

Wow it is that season again. As my dear friend Deb used to call it, the “Silly Season”, mostly because most of us become so silly with, running around and buying and baking and generally making ourselves a little crazier than usual when the whole point really is to relax, be kind, be generous and to love.

We fail to direct much if any of all this good stuff; relaxing, kindness, generosity and love, toward ourselves.

So let’s all be good to ourselves. Here is a recipe of Deb’s that is ridiculously easy, (buy pre-made tart shells!) Share if you choose or just put your feet up and enjoy. I know best intentions, just buy enough supplies when you are at the store for two batches.

Deb’s Best Ever Butter Tarts

24 large unbaked Tenderflake tart shells. Oven 350 degree F.

3 eggs
1 cup corn syrup
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins
Optional : 1/4 cup walnuts or pecans

Beat the eggs until frothy, add syrup, sugar, melted butter & vanilla. Mix well.
Place a few raisins into the bottom of each tart shell, ladle in egg mixture.
Bake 350 - 375 F 20 to 25 min.

DJ’s Note: I use Demerara sugar, think it makes a richer taste, ya like I know you need “richer” in a butter tart. ;->

DJ’s Note: I just made these and used a 350 degree F. oven and about 30 minutes - point is first time watch em till you know what your oven does.

DJ’s Note: Don’t forget the brown sugar!

DJ’s Note: It is possible to pour all the goo out of 24 tart shells back into your bowl, add the brown sugar, mix, re-ladle, bake and end up with perfect tarts with no one being the wiser. Oh! Oops! ;->

DJ’s Note: I hear coconut is yummy!

A big thank you to Sandra, Christine & Kay (you know who you are) who found Deb’s recipe for me since I have misplaced my copy.

Happy, happy day!

This was such fun I wanted to share.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Winter Solstice…. This is just some tremendous musical fun demonstrated by great talent. I appreciate music ever so much perhaps because I am so lacking in its gifts.

Enjoy.

Happy, happy day!

November 4th, 2007 my dear friend, of 25 years, Debra completed her journey and left her body. I will miss her in the physical, though I still feel her wisdom and guidance daily. I felt honoured to be asked to write and deliver her eulogy at her memorial service. I share it in love.

To Dean Terry, family, and friends. I feel it is an honour to be here to come and say goodbye.

I met Debra shortly after I turned 19. She was wise and worldly to me. She introduced me to many things: to perked coffee, dim sum, Indian food, The Hichhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, veggie spread, lapsang su shong tea, and most importantly she introduced me to the idea of honouring my feelings, and in so doing honouring myself. Over the years we have enjoyed good conversation, shopping trips that we called “credit card melt-downs”, copious amounts of amazing food, much good beer, lots of kung-fu movies, (you’ve gotta love men with long hair, fighting in skirts.) lots of laughs and some tears. I basically grew up with her guidance.

What I remember most about Debra is her hands - small, well formed, strong and deliberate. Debra lived mindfully. I know this because of how she moved. She did not dart at things. She moved and worked with a calm knowing. She brought a meditative quality to chopping vegetables, to stirring a sauce, to handling media in the lab. I have often caught myself watching Debra’s hands over the years. To me they have defined her essence. Delicate, strong, slow, graceful, mindful, intentioned, meditative, earnest, deliberate, careful, diligent, and gentle.

Our hands handle our experiences in life. Debra handled things with grace and movement, with doing and living, with laughing and loving. While preparing to talk with you today, I was guided to a quote I had saved by Suzan-Lori Parks, an American playwright. She urged, “Don’t just spend your life. SPLURGE. SPLURGE YOUR LIFE BY DOING SOMETHING YOU LOVE.”

Debra had many loves that she splurged her life on. She loved dressing up. She would get “all gussied up”, as she would put it, for any event - ballroom dancing, theatre, ballet, a friend’s birthday. But then, every day was an event for Deb. She always presented herself with thoughtfulness, care and consideration. She had a style of her own complimented by the many unique and beautiful pieces of jewelry she collected and loved. Debra did everything in full measure. If it was worth doing, it was worth doing well, and in the case of jewelry - if it was worth doing, it was worth doing to excess. She was the first to admit she had the “bobble gene.”

Deb’s belief in doing things well can be seen in her hand-built pottery. I heard her say often, “God is in the details.” Her work embodies her unique, detailed way of looking at the world, and her patience. Her patience and doing things well was no more apparent then in her relationships with each of her horses. Debra loved riding. Her natural grace combined with that of the animal was pure joy in motion. (If you were not lucky enough to see her ride, just look at any of the several photos of her riding Ruby - you will see what I mean.) Deb loved her horses, perhaps as much as people. I never met Galahad, but I hear he was a true gentleman of a horse. Deb loved Silver Willow as if she was her own. Ahhh, but Ruby - Ruby was her true love. Deb loved everything about Ruby. No matter if a trip to the barns was only for a carrot and pat, or a trail ride complete with convincing Ruby that the shrubs really weren’t going to jump out and attack her, or even if she got dumped on her head and woke up alone and had to walk the miles back to the barns. She loved it all. She was Ruby’s mom, and it was all good. I know Deb was very pleased that Catherine agreed to be Ruby’s new mom.

No ride was complete without a ‘horsey decompression’ that included a good drink and detailed conversation about the ride. This was the meeting of her greatest passions, horses and people over food and drink. Debra loved good food. Preparing it. Enjoying it. Or sharing it with her friends and family. Even after ‘Marvin’, which is what she named her very sensitive mouth after her first neckectomy. Tastes and temperatures where a whole new game with ‘Marvin’ paranoid and pernickity, he was, but that did not stop Deb from experimenting, trying new things and testing old things and enjoying treats, and meals and drinks with the people she loved.

Debra loved all the good in people, and she loved all the good in life. Perhaps however she did not always recognize the depth of good within herself. She had true humility and wondered at times why people were so good to her.

Debra was always generous, not only with her friends and family but with her community. She donated to various charities even when her income was unsure. Deb was a blood donor and gave regularly. She used to say, “It’s my civic duty!”, in that matter of fact way she had.

Deb touched lives at a core level whether she knew it or not or whether the life being touched knew it at the moment or not. For me it has taken years of friendship to come to understand the core level of growth she activated within me. In true friend fashion she reached for my hand and touched my heart.

Debra was a spiritual person, she embraced all the good things that are the essence of traditional religions - acknowledging others, living a positive life, working hard. As Christine has said, “Although Deb had the mind of a scientist, she had the heart and soul of a true Christian.”

Debra demonstrated total and utter acceptance of every human being she ever came in contact with. She was the most accepting of the diversity of every human being and made friends of anyone. She made time for everybody. She might have been late for her next appointment, but when she was with you she was totally with you and thoroughly enjoying you. No topic ever fussed her, or scared her off, she was open and willing to talk about anything that was important to another.

As loving and accepting and gentle as Deb was, there was also a fierce side to her that I loved. She was vehement that she would not be called Debbie! And I never did. I have a picture of her taken years ago, before I even met her. She has a big scowl on her face and I just loved it when I saw it. There was this dark scowl, but behind it was impish playfulness. And in fact when the picture was snapped she was saying, “Don’t you take my picture!”

Even so Debra smiled often. She gave the best hugs in the world. She laughed with her whole body and she cried when waves of compassion, joy, loss, hope, or love, welled up within her. Deb was not afraid to feel. She was not afraid to live.

Debra was a fantastic friend. Have you ever looked at the word friend. My mom used to say that a friend is a friend till the end, (this was one of her many futile efforts to teach me to spell.) Deb was a friend. For all of you here today you know the truth of that little mnemonic.

Deb was a friend to the end. She was thoughtful, kind, supportive. She loved each of us as a whole being with parts she liked and parts she didn’t like. Deb didn’t get hung up on the parts or behaviours she didn’t like. She focused instead on our core, on our being. She focused on us as a soul of the universe, who was and is just like her. She taught me that this is what loving others is about, seeing past the bits in people we don’t like and loving them anyway for being just what they are - a sparkling light of the universe, the once and future hope of all of us.

As many of you know Deb was not always up and in good spirits, she had her challenges like we all do, I mean even before the cancer. What always impressed me through the times she was down is how she was still willing to get up, get out and do things to live life and not let sadness or the bad things keep her down.

Debra seemed to live her life present to the presence. She lived right to the end relishing each moment. What a word relish, it brings to mind saucy and spicy and tart and tingly, wow that sounds like a good life. Deb relished life.

During her last two days she went shopping for PJ’s, her birthday gift from Sandra, she wore them and loved them. She went to a Tack shop she had been wanting to visit for some time. She went for a special coffee, a Frappe, at the Broadway Roastery. She had learned through speech therapy that saying the word “Hawk” would help her regain the ability to swallow. She was very determined and was able to enjoy some beer and coffee in these last months. Debra also went to a jewelry shop to visit some rings she liked. Then back to her apartment for a feeling of normalcy and soul rejuvenation that being in her home, that combination of museum and art gallery, provided for her. She even went to the bank. Planning for the tomorrow that would not be.

Debra lived as she died, to my mind, with grace.

Celebrate Debra’s life by living. Let us console our grief by celebrating her life and going forward and living and loving well. She is and always will be in our hearts.

I will remember most her hands. Those hands in the end, sometimes shaky, did the work of handling syringes and feeding tubes, and mixing meds instead of lab experiments. Those hands wore the rings we were so familiar with. Those hands luxuriated to the touch of satin pajamas. Those hands touched us all with heartfelt embraces, acceptance and unconditional love.

Debra Madeleine Brogden, you have enriched, enlivened and enlightened my life and the lives of countless others, certainly everyone here today. I love you, I thank you and I look forward to doing it all again. You may not have believed in something after this life. That’s OK honey, I will believe for both of us. Rest easy - in the glory of eternal love. I great the Divine within you. (Namaste.)

Hey all sorry for the late notice.

There is a FIREWALKING seminar, tomorrow night Oct. 20th, 2007 in Calgary. It runs 6:30-10:30, and the cost is $50. Janice Piet of Mobility Yoga is hosting this seminar for Quantum Leaps Lodge. Your facilitators will be Brian and Annette of Quantum Leaps.

If you have ever thought about fire walking maybe this is the time for you. Fire walks can be powerful, emotional, symbolic experiences. Like any symbolic or archetypal activity come to it with respect and honour. You will get back from it what you bring to it.

Call Janice at 403-243-4361.

I attended just such a seminar in April 2006. As always Janice was a gracious hostess and inspired participant. Brian and Annette led us through some inner work as the fire burned down to coals. This prepared us emotionally and spiritually for the big event. At least it was a big event in my mind. Don’t get me wrong. Consiousness can be tapped through the big events that push our context as well as the everyday mundane events if we are attentive. Both are needed at differnet times for differnet reasons.

I had been intrigued and interested in fire walking for years. I received an invitation for a fire walk hosted by Janice April 1, 2006, (no it was not an April Fool’s joke.)

I read the fire walk invitation and began to compose a nice thanks, but no thanks email. As I typed I realized my reason for not going was a load of dingo’s kidneys - it was a story. I caught myself and got honest. Fear was coming up for me. I was afraid I couldn’t do it. I was afraid of getting hurt. I was also in a space of emotional and spiritual growth where fear was also predominant. I knew in my depth that I needed to do this fire walk in the physical space to transform the fear from my spiritual space. So I took a deep breath, deleted my untruth, and composed an acceptance email. I was clear with my motivation and purpose for taking this risk and pushing out of my comfort zone.

Walking through the fire was about clearing the emotional, mental, physical or spiritual things that were blocking me. But the more incredible part for me was the intention that Brian and Annettee helped me set for walking back through the fire a second time. The intention was this second entry and exit was about opening to receiving from the universe. Now that sounds like action point #3 from The Secret.

The thing is I walked through the fire once and on the other side I thought consciously, “Wow I did it! Yaaaa me!” Then my next conscious thought was, “I am in the fire again!? Who is driving this body I call me?!” Then I was out again on the side of the fire where I had started. It would seem that my less than conscious self was very attached to that second intention of opening to the universe and so compelled the second walk. Kinda cool.

I would love to hear about your fire walking experience(s). If you care to share here, I am sure others would be interested too.

Have a happy, happy day!

P.S. I would bet that Janice may well be hosting another FIREWALKING Seminar for Quantum Leaps again in the Spring 2008. So stay tuned to the QL site.

Some of you may know how excited I was this time last year about what Tina Thrussell and Best U Can Be were doing with the Sage Within - The Vision retreat.

Well they have done it again, they’ve evolved to the next level. Best U Can Be is presenting The Spiritual Warrior’s Way, a weekend retreat October 12 - 14, 2007.

The Spiritual Warrior’s Way Tina says,

“is about discovering or re-discovering inner power, strength and resolve. Where Sage Within was about finding purpose, Spiritual Warrior is about DOING something to fulfill it.”

What came to my mind when I first heard of The Spiritual Warrior’s Way is Budo a Japanese word I learned years ago while taking Aikido.

Budo means the Way of The Warrior.

I remembered having read something about Master Morihei Ueshiba’s, (originator of Aiki-do), experience of enlightenment and its profound effect on the development of his Aikido.

I want to share with you a passage from Michel Randon’s book The Martial Arts: Swordsmanship, Kendo, Aikido, Judo, Karate (London: Peerage Books, 1984), p.208 & 209. Master Ueshiba says of his moment of enlightenment,

“I understood that the source of budo is the love of God, the spirit of loving protection of all creatures. Endless tears of joy ran down my cheeks.

I understood that budo does not consist of brining down the enemy by force, nor is it a means to destroy the world with weapons: the pure spirit of budo means accepting the the spirit of the universe, spreading peace throughout the world, speaking correctly, protecting and honouring all nature’s creatures. I understood that the purpose of budo is to accept the love of God in its true sense which protects and cultivates all living things and that it is advisable to use and assimilate it with our mind and body.

The Way of budo is to make the heart of the universe one’s own heart.”

To paraphrase this perspective then:

-The pure spirit of ‘The Way of The Warrior’ means accepting the spirit of the universe.

-The purpose of ‘The Way of The Warrior’ is to accept the love of God in its true sense which protects and cultivates all living things.

-The ‘Way’ of ‘The Way of The Warrior’ is to make the heart of the universe one’s own heart.

Pretty profound stuff.

Pretty profound stuff, is what you can expect at The Spiritual Warrior’s Way retreat.

One of the tools that will be used in this experiential weekend is Don Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements.

And who can argue with:

1. Be impeccable With Your Word

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally (Wow if I could learn the how of that….)

3. Don’t Make Assumptions

4. Always Do Your Best

Simple. Right! Yes, but not easy to do. The ‘doing’ part is where The Spiritual Warrior’s Way retreat may be in service to you.

And for the record, my Pay It Forward comment: “Tina Thrussell is a breath of light. Experience her.”

Happy, happy day!