Friday, May 29, 2009

Help State Parks: Odwalla - Plant a Tree Program


Thanks to my friend Jenny for this one…

I love this! We need all the trees we can grow!

If you click here:
www.parkvisitor.com/odwalla and choose a state, our state parks will get free money from Odwalla to plant trees :) And it will only take a few seconds.

Odwalla Plant a Tree Program Description:
Odwalla is re-running its successful Plant a Tree promotion for 2009, and has DOUBLED the funding they will put towards the trees from $50,000 in 2008 to $100,000 in 2009. Only 11 State Park systems nationwide will be eligible for the funding.

How it works:
Each time someone goes to
www.parkvisitor.com/odwalla and chooses your state, $1 will be added to your state fund. Each computer will only be allowed to participate once. Each click will be worth $1 this year. The program will ONLY remain open until all funds are used, or until Dec. 31, 2009. The state with the most clicks gets the most dollars!

To see how each state is doing, click on the “Number of Trees Planted” tab.

Easy & fun~!

Blessings,
Cathryn
www.moonsinger.com
www.dancingpeace.blogspot.com
"Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself." ~Chief Seattle

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Near Death Experience of a Child


This lovely story was sent to me by a friend and it brought tears to my eyes - beautiful and poignant...


In March of 1990, while vacationing in Florida, our family was involved in a serious car accident: a head-on collision with a drunk driver. Rose Marie, our five year old daughter, and I only sustained minor injuries, but my husband and our two and a half year old daughter Kayla were gravely hurt. Along with fractures to her right leg and collar bone, as well as other injuries, Kayla's left hip was smashed, requiring several weeks in traction and more weeks in a bodycast.

The earliest prognosis was that Kayla's left leg would likely not heal properly since the fracture occurred across the growth plate. The fractures did heal, but one leg was markedly shorter than the other. We were then told she would likely have a permanent limp. But six months after the accident, the limp was no longer apparent. And a little less than a year later both legs had grown to be the same length. One is slightly longer from hip to knee and the other is longer from knee to ankle, but she has no physical disabilities whatsoever. In fact, she is an excellent dancer, gymnast, and sprint and relay runner for her School's track and field team.

Aside from my daughter's remarkable recovery, there is another aspect of the accident I would like to share -- Kayla's near-death experience.

After the impact, my husband was pinned inside the wreckage and writhing in pain beside me. As I turned and looked into the back of the car, I could see Rose Marie was not seriously hurt. But, to my horror, Kayla was nowhere to be seen. Her side of the car had been obliterated by the crash. I thought at first that she might be tangled within the wreckage, but seconds later discovered she had been thrown out of the seat and into the hatchback of the car.

A bystander hurried to our aid, wrapped Rose Marie in a jacket, and carried her to a bench some yards from the car so that I could attend to Kayla. Kayla's eyes were closed, her face was an ashen white, and her body was still and motionless. I was sure she had died. To spare my husband from this knowledge, I gathered Kayla's limp body in my arms, lifted her out of the car, and stepped a short distance away. The moments that followed are forever imprinted on my memory.

As I stood holding Kayla, all the sights, sounds and commotion around me seemed to fade away. I was only aware of my child and a bright, white light that emanated from her body, surrounding us both. Then Kayla's eyelids began to flutter and she opened her eyes and looked into mine. Her gaze was intent and fixed. I felt she was looking at me and also through me. And there occurred between us what I can only describe as an outpouring of love. Within this love, I felt perfectly at peace. I knew Kayla was about to die, but I was not afraid to let her go. A second or two later, she closed her eyes and was gone.

When Kayla "died," my peace was instantly and violently shattered. The reality of living without her seemed unbearable. And it felt as though my soul had torn from my body and entered into some other dimension, a dark and empty void, in search of my child. But Kayla was not there. And the grief I felt was so agonizing, all I could do was scream.

It was a silent scream, one that could only be heard inside my mind, but out of this pain came a thought, a solution: I began calling out to God from within the void, asking God to bring Kayla back, and to bring her back whole. Suddenly, the sounds -- my husband's moans, the running and shouting of the people -- were part of my awareness again. And I began calling out my daughter's name, hoping it would somehow help to revive her. "Kayla! Kayla!" I shouted loudly and firmly, over and over again. A woman came and put her hand on my shoulder, as if to tell me to stop, that my daughter was dead. I noticed then that there were many people around us. Some were crying. But I could not stop, and continued calling Kayla's name.

Although it seemed like an eternity, likely only a minute or two passed before Kayla's body suddenly jolted. It was as though she had been shocked by electricity or dropped from a great height, and all her limbs jerked. The force was so strong, I almost dropped her. And then, in an instant, all the color rushed back into her face, her eyes popped open, and she screamed, "I NEED A BAND-AID!" Overwhelmed with relief and with tears still streaming down my face, I began to laugh, as did the other people who were there.

The first few months after the accident were tremendously stressful. The reality of death seemed a constant presence. I felt traumatized. Why did God put my family through this? Had we not suffered enough? I felt guilty. Why was my child spared while others die in their mothers' arms? I felt angry -- very angry with God. But during the month before my husband and Kayla were well enough to be transported home by air ambulance, and during the year of recovery that followed, this rage seemed to give me the strength and energy I needed to get myself and my family through.

I was also plagued by nightmares in which my children were dying, slipping out of my grasp and falling into some bottomless abyss. I would awaken from these dreams in a cold sweat, shaken and in tears. The events surrounding the accident would replay themselves in my waking hours as well, often while driving. It was horrible and confusing. All I knew was that the world was not a safe place. At any given moment, God might come and try to snatch my loved ones from me. And there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

At first, I didn't tell anyone, except my husband and my parents, that Kayla had come so close to dying. The experience and the feelings it aroused were just too painful for me to talk about with anyone else. But eventually I did share the experience with a few close friends, hoping they might be able to help me work through my anger and confusion. I needed some sort of validation that what happened to me was real, that I had not imagined the light and void, and that my daughter had survived an encounter with death. But as supportive as my friends had been throughout this time, this validation was not something they could give me.

The alienation I felt from not being able to find the kind of understanding I needed just compounded my confusion. I began to wonder if maybe my friends were right. Perhaps what I experienced was the result of shock. Perhaps Kayla's condition was also shock and not a near-death experience as I had thought. Soon, I began to think that maybe God and all the mysterious experiences that had hinted at God's existence over the course of my life might also be illusions, delusions really, the result of wishful thinking and an overdeveloped imagination.

By mid-May, just over three months after the accident, my husband was able to walk short distances with the aid of a walker. Kayla's bodycast had recently been removed and she needed to be in a stroller since walking was still quite difficult for her. But they were both well enough for us to pay a visit to my father who was in hospital at the time, recovering from surgery for bladder and prostate cancer. During this visit, Kayla spied a get-well card on my father's bedside table. On the front was a picture of Jesus sitting on a rock in a garden, holding a small child on his lap. She became very excited about it, tugging at my clothes and then at my mother's, trying to get our attention.

"Who's that?" Kayla asked, pointing to the picture.

"It's Jesus," I answered.

"Well, Jesus picked me up," she said matter-of-factly.

"Where did he pick you up?" I asked.

"In Florida," she said.

"Where in Florida, at Disneyland?" I asked, thinking she might have been referring to some flesh-and-blood person.

"No, silly mommy! At the car accident!" she laughed.

My family members and I just looked at one another in amazement, and for a moment we were speechless.

"So Jesus picked you up? Where did he take you?" I continued.

"He was taking me to heaven."

"Did you go to heaven?"

"No," Kayla said. "You were crying so much that Jesus gave me back to you."

As I listened, chills ran up and down my spine, and tears filled my eyes. Kayla went on to tell us that Jesus had taken her by the hand and lifted her out of the car. As he carried her away, she could see the car wreck below. She wanted to go to heaven with him, she said.

When I asked what Jesus looked like, she said something even more astonishing. The Jesus who picked her up was a being of "blue light." As she recounted this memory, the expression on her face became blissful. "He was beautiful!" she said.

Seeing the peace and joy on Kayla's face as she shared her NDE with us, I was immediately released from many of the difficult feelings that had been tormenting me over those months. But it would be several more years before I could even begin to think about the many questions the experience inspired. These questions, although still unanswered, continue to hold my attention to this day.

Kayla sometimes liked to talk about the NDE during that first year, but stopped when she became embarrassed by the curiosity it aroused. These days, she doesn't mention it very often, but she has agreed to let me share her story.
_________________________


Some excellent related articles:
_________________________

Key Facts About Near-Death Experiences
http://tinyurl.com/ozuffu
_________________________

NPR FIVE-PART REPORT: IS THIS YOUR BRAIN ON GOD?
http://tinyurl.com/rce96x
PART ONE: THE GOD CHEMICAL: BRAIN CHEMISTRY AND MYSTICISM By Barbara Bradley Hagerty All Things Considered May 18, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/olh7bk
PART TWO: ARE SPIRITUAL ENCOUNTERS ALL IN YOUR HEAD?
http://tinyurl.com/pnsees
PART THREE: PRAYER MAY RESHAPE YOUR BRAIN ... AND YOUR REALITY
http://tinyurl.com/oh627c

PART FOUR: CAN POSITIVE THOUGHTS HELP HEAL ANOTHER PERSON?
http://tinyurl.com/qhxxj6
PART FIVE: DECODING THE MYSTERY OF NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES
http://tinyurl.com/qp592l
_________________________

Blessings,
Cathryn
www.moonsinger.com
www.dancingpeace.blogspot.com
"We are travelers in a cosmic journey - star dust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. But the expressions of life are ephemeral, momentary, transient. Buddha once said "This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky." We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment, but it is transient. It is a little parenthesis in eternity. If we share with caring, light heartedness and love, we will create abundance and joy for each other. And then this moment will have been worthwhile." ~Deepak Chopra

Sunday, May 24, 2009

What's you say? I can't hear you with these fingers in my ears...

"There is a disturbing trend we're seeing in otherwise logical, intelligent people these days. It first shows up as a blatant denial of some scientific fact; such as a denial that weather patterns are changing, or that the number of polar bears is diminishing. This is then followed by an irrational and stubborn refusal to hear any facts to the contrary, accompanied by huffy grumpiness. Why? These are normally rational, open-minded people. We see this trend as a result of the powerlessness people are feeling in the face of enormous change. If it's too overwhelmingly large a problem to look at, we feel helpless. Our advice? Don't be judgmental. We all have fear. Every action we take or word we say makes a difference because we're inter-related. Use compassion and patience… they give resentment and denial a place to begin healing." ~Michael channeled by JP Van Hulle

Blessings,
Cathryn
www.moonsinger.com
www.dancingpeace.blogspot.com
"If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them, you will not know them, and what you do not know you will fear. What one fears one destroys." ~Chief Dan George

A Child’s View of a Thunderstorm

Another great story about a child.... (Thank you, Joyful!)
___________________

A little girl walked to and from school daily. Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trek to the school. As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with lightning. The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school and she feared the electrical storm might harm her child.

Full of concern, the mother quickly got into her car and drove along the route to her child's school. As she did, she saw her little girl walking along. At each flash of lightning, the child would stop, lo ok up, and smile. Another and another flash of lighting followed quickly and with each, the little girl would look at the streak of light and smile.

When the mother's car drew up beside the child, she lowered the window and called to her 'What are you doing?' The child answered , 'I am trying to look pretty because God keeps taking my picture.'


I couldn’t find a suitable picture of a child in a lightning storm (that’s probably a good sign!) but I did find this great photoshop contest picture:
You can see more artistic photoshop creations here:
http://tinyurl.com/qyutmo

Bless you today and everyday as you face the storms that come your way,
Cathryn
www.moonsinger.com
www.dancingpeace.blogspot.com

Friday, May 22, 2009

Kids say...

I love these little stories of things kids have said too or about their grandparents....

1. She was in the bathroom, putting on her makeup, under the watchful eyes of her young granddaughter, as she'd done many times before. After she applied her lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, "But Gramma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!" I will probably never put lipstick on again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper good-bye....

2. My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him, 62. My grandson was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, "Did you start at 1?"

3. After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair.. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, "Who was THAT?"

4. A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: "We used to skate outside on a pond I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods." The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!"

5. My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?" I mentally polished my halo and I said, "No, how are we alike?'' "You're both old," he replied.

6. A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story. "What's it about?" he asked. "I don't know," she replied. "I can't read."

7. I didn't know if my granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what color it was. She would tell me and was always correct. It was fun for me, so I continued. At last, she headed for the door, saying, "Grandma, I think you should try to figure out some of these, yourself!"

8. When my grandson Billy and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in. Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, "It's no use Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights."

9. When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, "I'm not sure." "Look in your underwear, Grandpa," he advised, "mine says I'm 4 to 6."

10. A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, "Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today." The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. "That's interesting," she said, "how do you make babies?" "It's simple," replied the girl. "You just change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'."

11. Children's Logic: "Give me a sentence about a public servant," said a teacher. The small boy wrote: "The fireman came down the ladder pregnant." The teacher took the lad aside to correct him. "Don't you know what pregnant means?" she asked. "Sure," said the young boy confidently. 'It means carrying a child."

12. A grandfather was delivering his grandchildren to their home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog's duties. "They use him to keep crowds back," said one child. "No," said another. "He's just for good luck." A third child brought the argument to a close.."They use the dogs," she said firmly, "to find the fire hydrants."

13. A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived. "Oh," he said, "she lives at the airport, and when we want her, we just go get her. Then, when we're done having her visit, we take her back to the airport."

14. Grandpa is the smartest man on earth! He teaches me good good things, but I don't get to see him enough to get as smart as him!

15. My Grandparents are funny, when they bend over; you hear gas leaks, and they blame their dog.


Blessings,
Cathryn
www.moonsinger.com
www.dancingpeace.blogspot.com
"Be open to truth regardless of its source. Let your feelings be your guide." ~Ramtha

Thursday, May 14, 2009

We Are Not Alone - My UFO Experiences

Ok, I have not forgotten that there was a request to hear about my UFO experiences. Unique times……. The space movie Star Trek has inspired me to complete this UFO tale.

In about 1974 I was living with my craziest ex-husband, at my hippie-est time of life, in a tipi out on a farm a few miles outside Austin, Texas. The land was rolling hills without a lot of trees (lots of farming in the area, so the land had been cleared a lot.)

We lived simply – by that I mean that we were not druggies, but were doing our best to be in tune with the land, the skies, the rhythms of nature. It was actually quite a beautiful place to live and fairly comfortable, as it was winter in central Texas, where it is not severely cold, and it was not SUMMER which would have been quite hot for living in a small space like a tipi. The crazy part came from his interest in all sorts of paranormal events and ideas. He bought all kinds of UFO magazines and read a lot about the hollow earth theory, UFO’s, sasquatches, and whatever else was unusual and outside of “normal” perceptions, normal life. (And he was a bit crazy in other ways, but that’s another story.)

So one night about maybe *9 pm he went outside to pee. (*We had no electricity in this tipi and at that time in the early 70’s, no battery powered electronics. It had been dark for several hours and in winter, that would be about 9pm.) Remember that a tipi with a fire inside glows in the dark………….



And I was sitting inside, and I heard him calling me, almost in a whisper, but very excited…. “Get out here! You gotta see this!”

There was a farmhouse on this farm land, about 200 yards(?) from our tipi. Close enough to see well….. but far enough away to give some perspective on things…..

So I went outside, and there, over the farmhouse, was a UFO – as large as the house, or perhaps larger. I mean, this thing was BIG in the sky. There was absolutely NO WAY we could mistake what we were looking at!


This is the closest picture I can find, but it was rounder than this….. Actually I have narrowed this picture to make it look more round, but that UFO was ROUND. Like this pic, it had lights that appeared to be windows all around the “equator” of the craft. Similar to this, but they were bigger and like flattened ovals, each one touching (or nearly touching) the next one to the right and left of it. As the UFO was sitting still over the farmhouse, it was quiet and no lights were changing or flashing. It was eerily quiet.

As we stood there gawking at it, a very bright white light came out of the bottom of it, similar to this, but narrower in relation to the overall size of the UFO, and it TELESCOPED OUT at a diagonal angle toward us. You could see the end of the beam of light as it came out of the craft, like extruding a piece of plastic from a mold…. or pushing a piece of spaghetti out of the package. It telescoped out toward us until it was shining on us and our tipi.

We stood there looking at it for an undetermined amount of time, and then it withdrew its light – it retracted it and again we could see the end of the beam of light retreating from us. And then the “windows” around the equator of the thing began lighting up in sequence, left to right from our perspective, red-amber-green-amber-redambergreenamberredambergreenamber……….. getting faster and faster. And the thing took off. This is hard to describe but I will try…. If you hold your hands up in the air at arm’s length, open in such a position that you are indicating a big circle, and then your move your hands together quickly while closing your hands so that the circle you are “holding” becomes very small very fast and in fact disappears into a tiny dot – that is what this thing did. It took off so fast that it just appeared to become a (quickly disappearing) dot, without really any directional motion. And it was all silent. No sound at any time.

We went back into the tipi and sat and gaped at each other for awhile…. pretty much speechless…. although it did occur to us to wonder how long we were out there. We had no way of knowing, since we had no clock. It could have been 2 minutes – or hours. We had, of course, read of people being abducted who had no way to account for the time “missing” from when they first saw the UFO to the time they regained “normal” consciousness. And it would be only after hypnosis that they would remember the actual events of the time away while they were in the ship – or wherever they were taken. So we don’t know if we were out of the tipi for 2 minutes or two hours or ??

We theorized that they stopped over the farmhouse to look at the tipi, since a glowing tipi is not a frequent sight on Planet Earth these days. And when we came out, they decided to look more closely at us, thus extending their beam of very bright white light to shine on us.

Years later I was working with a pretty amazing seer/healer woman and I asked her to “look into” that experience and tell me whether or not we had been abducted and she said, “No, but the light that they shined on you was detrimental to your health. They were scanning you to determine whether or not you would be good subjects for their DNA gathering activities.” That was an attempt to bolster the rather fragile physical nature of their own species. She said the light somewhat scrambled our DNA and that contributed to the health problems I’ve had most of my adult life. Apparently they found us unsuitable! But she also said they actually impregnated the woman who lived in the farm house while they were there. And indeed – she did have a baby about 9 months later! I never saw the child….. we had moved away by then and the last I saw of that woman she was VERY pregnant and apparently healthy.

Several months later, after the wintertime sighting of the UFO over the farmhouse, we saw another UFO of the same type – again so close and so large that there could be no mistaking what we were seeing.

Warm weather had arrived and we were with another couple at Lake Travis, one of the most enjoyable and beautiful features of living in the Austin area. This is a really beautiful big lake – a man-made lake behind a dam on the Colorado River. There is a fault line, the Balcones Fault, that runs through the area, pretty much in alignment with the river, I believe. So on one side of the lake the land tends more to the type of gently rolling hills that the farm was on. On the other side the land is much rockier and rougher, and is also thrust up higher than the rolling hills. So on the “softer” side the land eases down to water level and there is easier access to the water, and sandy shores. On the rockier side there are often limestone cliffs – I’m guessing averaging about 20 to 30 feet high. And in some places between the cliffs there are gentler slopes going out farther into the water, perhaps created by long-ago landslides. At these places it is easier to walk down to the water. These formations create coves or inlets with the cliffs at the back of them and some nice sheltered sandy lakeshore areas that are good places for an afternoon of swimming, and relaxing…..





These pictures shows the type of shoreline…. so picture us at the back of one of these inlets, but with higher cliffs behind us.

We had spent the afternoon there, relaxing and swimming. That night we were at the back of one of those coves, with a beautiful limestone cliff behind us, and a view to the left of us somewhat like this:


But you have to imagine how it would be farther back to the left, as the land rose up to the height of the cliffs. (And, at night, it was dark, of course.)

We were back there with a nice fire going and we were cooking hotdogs over the fire, when we saw, coming up over the point of land extending out into the lake to our left, one of those same type of UFO’s – again, as big as a house – or bigger – SO big we could not mistake what we were seeing. Big, round, with windows or lights around the “equator” of the craft. It was moving very slowly and it came into view from VERY LOW – meaning it could only have come up from being IN THE LAKE. It moved slowly and soundlessly up over the point of land to our left and over the cliff behind us until it was out of sight.

Quite beautiful, actually.

There is quite a lot of military presence in Central Texas (or was, at that time) so we theorized that there were more UFO’s in that area to keep an eye on the military bases around there.

Not long after that we moved to another part of the state, and eventually to a log cabin in the pine forest in East Texas, where we saw what appeared to be a sasquatch.

And then I left the crazy person there in the woods, and moved away and eventually divorced him.

Since that time I have not seen anything I could clearly identify as a UFO, although I have seen some questionable lights in the sky… but they were all small dots of light. Questionable, though, because they were doing things that I know stars don’t do, and airplanes don’t do, and I don’t think satellites do – like figure 8 movements. Still, though, too small to verify.

A couple of years ago, some friends of ours were at a gathering of friends down toward the end of Tissaw Road in Cornville. Two cars left at the same time, driving up Tissaw toward Cottonwood, with a good view of Mingus Mountain. The couple in one car said they were watching a UFO quite easily visible in front of Mingus Mountain during the drive all the way up Tissaw – for about 10 minutes. The couple in the other car did not see it at all.

My theory about UFO’s is that they are here – all the time – in parallel realities, but they are only visible to those who really have an interest in seeing them. I believe that belief and desire for the experience enables some of us – on occasions – to open a dimensional window into those parallel realities to see them.

There are many people here in the Sedona area who take photos of orbs – circular lights all around us. A few see them with their eyes, but most do not. I think it’s the same thing there. Some few people are open to seeing into those parallel realities, and actually perhaps attract those beings to them with their belief and desire for contact.

I believe my ex-husband’s interest in UFO’s and other paranormal phenomena opened those dimensional doors of perception for us. Since I had less interest, I have not seen them since I have been away from him.

Blessings,
Cathryn
www.moonsinger.com
www.dancingpeace.blogspot.com
www.shakura-moonsinger.blogspot.com
"Is it reality, or is it not reality? All things are reality. Even if only one is imagining it, it is a reality in that the thought has been offered and someone, who has the ability to translate that vibration, will perceive it. It must be fair to say that anything that can be perceived must be reality. Because, as creators, your reality depends upon what you are willing to imagine and allow." ~Abraham

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Star Trek!




Tim and I went to see the new Star Trek movie and it was FUN!

We have been Star Trek fans since we were both kids. I was a bit skeptical that they could keep resurrecting this thing successfully, but I REALLY enjoyed it! The story begins before the original Star Trek series with Captain Kirk and Spock, with impossibly young actors, who proved to be very likeable. The story is intricate, involving parallel realities and the intersection of past and future – but it was very interesting, and had a LOT of humor in it – quite a bit more than I expected. The only original cast member in this movie was Leonard Nimoy as the aged Spock.

…successfully crafts a new beginning that both honors the series' previous incarnations but also charts its own course using a clever time-traveling narrative that essentially creates an alternate Trek universe…”
~James Kendrick (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_trek_11/#)

The only thing I didn’t like is that is it practically all non-stop crisis and action……… I would have appreciated a few more moments of just normal-speed events and personal interactions between the crew members.

But I DO recommend it! If you ever enjoyed Star Trek, I think you will like this fresh take on these original characters.

Blessings,
Cathryn
www.moonsinger.com
www.dancingpeace.blogspot.com
"A seminar on Time Travel will be held two weeks ago." ~Unknown
"The only certain thing about the future is that it will surprise even those who have seen furthest into it." ~Eric Hobsbawm

Big Piano Dance / Bach

This is very cool - a huge piano-type keyboard on the floor, played by walking/dancing on it. It's a piano dance! (Thank you, John.)



Blessings,
Cathryn
www.moonsinger.com
www.dancingpeace.blogspot.com
"A seminar on Time Travel will be held two weeks ago." ~Unknown
"The only certain thing about the future is that it will surprise even those who have seen furthest into it." ~Eric Hobsbawm

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Honoring Mothers

Mother and Child from the Three Ages of Women - Gustave Klimpt



"The minute we arrive on the physical plane, we instinctively realize that we no longer feel the telepathic connection and universal love surrounding us that we feel on every other plane of existence. We feel cut off, alone and bereft. And deep in our psyches, we worry we've done something wrong. This fear is the basis of our Adam and Eve mythology, and our continual worry that we may just not be good enough. So how do we survive childhood? Mostly through our connection to our mothers. They anchor us in infancy to this perspective that all is not lost, and that we may still experience love and connection, even here. Let's take a minute to ponder that today." ~Michael, channeled by JP van Hulle


Blessings,
Cathryn
www.moonsinger.com
www.dancingpeace.blogspot.com
www.shakura-moonsinger.blogspot.com
"Even after all this time, the sun never says to the Earth, 'you owe me.' Look what happens with a love like that. It lights up the whole sky." ~Hafiz

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Celebrating Wesak

Celebrating Wesak


Today is Wesak, the most holy time in the Buddhist calendar. The Wesak Festival, The Buddha's Blessing, is celebrated in the eastern hemisphere at the Taurus full moon. On Wesak Day, Buddhists all over the world commemorate three great events: The Birth, Enlightenment and the Passing Away of Gautama Buddha. As Buddhism spread from India to all parts of the world, the teachings were readily assimilated with the cultures of the people who accepted the teachings. As a result, Buddhist art and culture took on a rich variety of forms with profound gentleness and kindness as the Buddha expressly forbade the use of force. It is a day for radiating loving kindness. (From http://www.crystalinks.com/wesak.html)


May All Beings Be Well, May All Beings Be Happy, Peace, Peace, Peace…
Shakura Cathryn
www.moonsinger.com
www.dancingpeace.blogspot.com
www.shakura-moonsinger.blogspot.com
"Enlightenment is not what you think.” ~Ivan M. Granger

Friday, May 8, 2009

Beyond the Veils: Endings and Beginnings

Yesterday, a laughing baby.
Today, some thoughts about the end of life on the physical plane.

Visit http://tinyurl.com/pxzno6 for a lovely (longish) channeled piece about death, with questions from a dying person, and answers to help her(?) know what to expect. I found it quite interesting – and it gives me the feeling of comfortable familiarity. I believe my soul recognizes much truth in this.
Blessings,
Cathryn
"We are travelers in a cosmic journey - star dust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. But the expressions of life are ephemeral, momentary, transient. Buddha once said "This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky." We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment, but it is transient. It is a little parenthesis in eternity. If we share with caring, light heartedness and love, we will create abundance and joy for each other. And then this moment will have been worthwhile." ~Deepak Chopra

Have You Had a Good Laugh Today?

Oh, this is so much fun!

Isn't that the best laugh you've heard in a long time? Or maybe the best laugh you've HAD in a long time?
Blessings,
Shakura Cathryn
"It's all so funny -- how can you not be laughing?" ~A 6th grade child.