United in Prayer -- Will You Join Us?

Dr. Masaru Emoto is a scientist from Japan who has done research, and published information, about the characteristics of water. Among other things, his research revealed that water physically responds to emotions.

When we think of what’s happening in the Gulf, most of us feel overwhelmed and overcome with negative emotions, but while justified in that emotion, we may be of greater assistance to our planet and its life forms if we sincerely, powerfully and humbly send out our collective energy through the simple prayer Dr. Emoto, himself, has proposed. It doesn’t matter whom one prays to, all that matters is that healing, loving energy is sent out and focused on the Gulf.

We are not powerless. We are powerful. Our united energy, released by sending out this prayer daily...multiple times daily...can literally shift the balance of destruction that is taking place. We don't have to know how...we just have to recognize that the power of love is greater than any other power active in the Universe today.

"I send the energy of love and gratitude to the waters and all living creatures
in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings.
To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, planktons,
corals, algae ... to ALL living creatures ... I am sorry.
Please forgive me. Thank you.
I Love You."

What do we have to lose in trying?


(The information above was sent to me by a friend who’s a spiritual teacher. While I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the data reported, I really believe that this short, simple prayer holds a tremendous amount of power. My friend copied it on sticky notes and posted it in different areas of her home, to ensure she will repeat it several times a day.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzASMa_Th10


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A Prayer for The Saints

“Dreams are like the paint of a great artist. Your dreams are your paints, the world is your canvas. Believing is the brush that converts your dreams into a masterpiece of reality.” ~ Author unknown


Last night, the New Orleans Saints brought home the smashing victory they deserved, and they taught my kids a valuable lesson.

Let me express first that I am not usually a big football fan, but since I consider New Orleans my true home from the heart, I would support anything that comes out of it, even if that means watching a long game I hardly understand the rules of.

Aside from me and my husband – he’s not really a fan of the Saints, but doesn’t dislike them either – my boys were pulling for the Colts. When in the first quarter the Saints were losing by ten points, my oldest son came up to me in the kitchen and said: “I told you that your boys were going to lose, mom” to which I firmly and proudly replied: “ The Saints will win, even if it’s not going to happen until after half time.” My son, not wanting to back down, and giving in to the arrogance of youth, made a huge mistake. “You really think so? I will bet my next week’s allowance that the Colts are going to win.” His brother, not wanting to be left far behind joined in, “I bet my allowance too. The Saints will lose.”

So, I agreed to accept their bets, and I decided to add a little energy to the whole thing; hey, after all, I have spent my whole life praying to the real New Orleans saints, right? Asking for a little favor could not possibly be crossing the line too much. I picked up a red candle, anointed it with success oil, clear the path oil, honey and bay leaves, and then lit it up visualizing the Saints holding the trophy. Then, satisfied that my wish had made it up to the ether and certain of the outcome, I left the game and went upstairs to watch a movie with my daughter, not giving the game another thought.

About ten minutes before the end of the game, my youngest son came upstairs and asked if we could call off the bets because he and his brother were feeling a little guilty siding with a team from up north. Ha! Good try! I refused to dissolve the bets and he walked back downstairs, a little disappointed.

As history had it, the Saints won, and they didn’t just win, they stomped on the Colts! I went downstairs carrying my laptop while Louis Armstrong sang “When the Saints Go Marching in” on Youtube. The moment I got to the bottom of the stairs, six eyes were staring me down – “You cheated, mom!” said the first one, “I never really wanted the Colts to win,” said the other, “I just did it for the money.”

Now, that was really something to talk about. Although in the beginning they were all talking about wanting the Saints to win, they allowed themselves to be swayed by the opinions of others over the odds of each team. Since the Colts were favored by many, they assumed it was not possible for the Saints to win. “You know nothing about football, mom” said my oldest son, “I didn’t think you could predict right when so many others said the Saints would lose.”

And indeed, that taught them a valuable lesson. Rather than sticking by what they believed, they followed what others were saying, and they lost track of what they wanted. In my heart, I had no doubt the Saints would win, especially after I set my wish and let it get out into the Universe. As Voltaire once said: “Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.” I hope that from now on, my kids will learn to think with their own minds and put a little more faith in the power of prayer.

The Seed in the Wind

“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there” and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you.” –Matthew 17:20


As we move through hard times, it is quite challenging to remain true to one’s faith and to keep a positive outlook. Many proudly state their beliefs of a Higher Power taking care of things, but in reality few have the type of faith that will keep their heads above the waters of anxiety. True faith is not in hoping that we will be okay, but in believing it with every cell of our being while letting go of the illusion of control we cling to, regardless of the resistance we meet in our daily lives.

After the Tsunami in Indonesia, I remember watching an interview to a girl who had been picked up and swept away by the tidal wave from her hotel room. She explained that at first she had panicked and had tried to grasp anything she could; once she realized there was nothing she could do to win against the amazing power of the water, she had let herself go without fighting, ready to accept whatever was to come, knowing that she was going to be alright. Once she stopped fighting, after a few bumps along the path, the wave carried her safely off shore until she could swim back, away from the sweeping currents. Letting go, and allowing destiny to unfold without fighting, had saved her life.

As the Tsunami in Indonesia, the economical wave we have been experiencing the past few months has swept many families away from their platform of security, and has left most in a paralyzing grip of fear for their future and for the wellbeing of their loved ones. With unemployment funds drying up, and few jobs on the horizon, even the strongest believers are faltering in their faith, and are desperately clinging to whatever they can find to remain afloat. Many more have turned to prayer to drown the distress, but although their lips utter words of salvation, their minds paint pictures of hell the moment they say Amen. Prayer and fear are ill-fated roommates, and unless a deep faith in the outcome evicts the doubts, prayers are but a stream of pretty words.

Regardless of the gloom of our financial night, we must know the sun will rise again. As Jesus himself said, if earthly parents have the power to fulfill the wishes of their children, how can we possibly doubt God’s power in fulfilling the wishes of His children? No petition is hopeless if it is accompanied by absolute faith. Doubt is a human weakness which must be overcome if we can ever hope to rise above our limitations.

As the mustard seed, we know we are too small and powerless to fight the winds of destiny, but we are big enough to hang on tight to our faith and “know” that we will be safely deposited wherever we need to go.

A Perfect Moment

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” ~Buddha


As humans, we easily take things for granted. Although few of us have concrete reasons to be unhappy, we nearly view complaining as a birthright. Regardless of how unfortunate we are at any given juncture in our lives, the hard times are usually temporary, and we are able to bounce back if so we choose.

Being thankful for the blessings in our lives is a skill we can learn to master. Each day we start a new page of our reality – we can choose to rewrite the lines of yesterday, or begin a new chapter. If the pages already written could use some editing, it is never too late to work on them. There is always room for improvement, yet there are things in our lives that are perfect the way they are, if we stop a moment and acknowledge their existence.

One of my mother’s friends once told me that every morning he thinks about the people and things he would not want to live without, then says a small prayer of gratitude.

Generally speaking, very few of us – if any at all – are completely aware, and consciously thankful, of how much we have going for ourselves, as we rarely pause long enough to acknowledge everything in our world. Let’s consider health, for example – we don’t realize how blessed we are until we begin to have problems. All the days we spend pain-free and absorbed in something else, we probably never give a second thought to the fact that we are healthy.

The same goes for about everything else in our lives. We might run short of money and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a month. Yet, we have eaten and we are full – our immediate need is taken care of.

We might just be recovering from a broken relationship, during the course of which someone betrayed us. Maybe they did us a favor by timely showing us their true colors, thus giving us the chance to meet somebody else who can really love us the way we deserve.

Realistically, we will never be totally happy until we decide we are going to be. No matter how wealthy, loved, or successful we are, we are going to want more. We can look at things in two ways – we can notice the beauty of our surroundings and enjoy being where we are, or we can be on a constant road trip that will likely lead us nowhere.

In this particular instant, ask yourself what is missing for you to be happy. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, nor the day after. Consider this one moment and determine what is missing and what is available to you in this second. What’s already there is very likely more plentiful than what is not.

Unconditional Prayers

“The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope.” ~Walter Benjamin

A few days ago, my father informed me that my best friend of childhood recently lost her dad to throat cancer. While growing up, I saw through her eyes how trying living with an alcoholic can be.

I never quite understood why her mother put herself and the children through all they went through. She was financially self-sufficient and could have moved on to a better life, yet she never left - even after the kids were old enough to move out, she stuck by her vows.

When I called my friend to offer my belated condolences, her mother was at her house babysitting the grandchildren, so we talked for a while. She told me of the suffering her husband went through during the last few months, and was happy he was finally free of pain. There was so much peace and love in her words that I was speechless.

I told her how much I admired her strength and devotion through the years, although I doubt I could have done what she did, had I been in her place. Her reply was a simple one: “I loved him, and he wasn’t a bad man; he was only a sad man.” She went on to explain about his horrible childhood and the way he had changed and found peace in the last few years.

She loved him unconditionally, regardless of his demons. She knew she could not erase years of abuse, and had little hope of changing him, but always prayed that he would find inner healing. She told me that every time she prayed for him, she always did so for his higher good, and wished him to find his light. Not once had she asked to change who he was. Yet, he had changed. By embracing the hardship through her unconditional love she had confirmed something very important: Prayers should be sent for the highest good of the person we are praying for, not for our personal gain.

It is hard to wish well upon those who create strife in our lives, and when we do pray for them, we often ask that they change in ways that make them acceptable in our eyes, thus attempting one final time to control the unveiling of their destiny.

Try this today - whenever you see or think of a person you have issues with, just pray for them. Ask for their healing and nothing more; do so over and over again. By blessing them, you will indirectly bless and heal yourself.

Prayer changes things. It changes US. And our world will change as well, once we decide it is time to change ourselves.

Angels or Demons?

A few days ago, while talking to a friend, I learned that one of her co-workers is hoping to get a new job which she applied for last week.
This lady-I will name her Lauren to maintain her privacy-has held on to the same job for over a decade; although she loves what she does, she feels as if there are no challenges left for her in her current position. In addition to the general feeling of being on a dead-end street when it comes to her professional growth, Lauren has also been having trouble in dealing with a new supervisor in her office.
She has been there for so long that she can attend to her job requirements with eyes closed, yet the supervisor continues to breathe over her neck making her life miserable. When I spoke with her, Lauren readily admitted that the hellish supervisor was the main reason why she set out looking for another job. Had she not been looking, she would have missed the wonderful opportunity of advancement this new position offers, and would have probably chosen to remain in the unrewarding, yet familiar type of work. The figure of the supervisor was a catalyst for the change, and the feelings she triggered in Lauren were the fuel needed to nourish the flame of courage necessary to start her engine.
In our lives we all do that a lot. When blessings come knocking on our door, we often mistake them for a crude joke of destiny. As hard as it to recognize a blessing when it is clad in unpleasant garments, we should always assume that everything happens for a specific reason. We pray for change, yet we get angry and annoyed while the road to our desired wish is being paved.
A few years ago, I read a wonderful book which related the journey of a spiritual Master. One day, the Master was visited by the town drunk, who was belligerent and disrespectful, waiting only for a chance to start an argument. The Holy Man asked him if he could pray for him, and only demanded one favor: from then on, the drunken man would have to accept everything that manifested in his life, whether it was good or bad, without questioning it. After a prayer is sent out, the Holy Man explained, any unfolding event is simply one more step toward achieving one’s heart desire.
If we pray for more financial affluence, a sack of money won’t just appear in the middle of our kitchen table; rather, we may have to lose our present job position to free ourselves from the chains that hold us back, and have the opportunity to find more financially rewarding employment. Similarly, if we ask to become more courageous, or better parents, we may first have to go through the ‘basic training’ of a few unpleasant experiences, before we can develop the attributes we wish for.
All the people we meet, and all the apparent trials we endure hold the potential of helping us become the type of person we want to be. Everything is placed on our path for our greater good, whether we do or don’t recognize its value in the greater scheme of things.
We may not understand why something is happening, but we can’t judge the importance that such an event might have in our life.
Maybe it is time that we all learn that even demons, most often, are nothing more than just angels in disguise.