Stay Tight Inside Those Ruby Slippers

Visual....girl clicking her ruby slippered heels together while chanting.."there's no place like home, there's no place like home...." Dorothy of Wizard of Oz classic movie fame. Young girl from farmbelt goes on a quest over the rainbow to Oz, and on the journey to find what she's looking for, the proverbial "bluebird of happiness," realizes she had it in side herself, all along. We are very much like Dorothy from Kansas, we are always looking over the rainbow, seeking the "answer." Whatever that may be for us. We meet many characters on the way that are there to guide, some we recognize from lifetimes before, just as the Lion, Tinman, and Scarecrow, were familiar to Dorothy, and  they are there to assist us on the path. We meet many challanges, just as Dorothy had her nemesis...a.k.a "the Wicked Witch." Those challenges want to keep us off the path, like the scene where the poppies appear and lull Dorothy and her guides gently  to sleep.But a soft snow awakens them, just as we can wake up and continue our journey. We can awaken our conciousness, raise the vibration and see what our truth, our story really is, or we can stay asleep. As Glinda the Good tells our girl....."say tight inside the ruby slippers, their magic must be very powerful or she (wicked witch) wouldn't want them so badly."  Those ruby slippers have the power, the power of being home, inside ourselves. All we need to do is click our heels together and realize we are home, inside our heart.

All or One

Yesterday was May Day, in some traditions known as Beltane. It is an ancient Celtic fire festival, celebrating the union of father Sun and mother Earth and fertility as the season moves into the bounty of summer. People danced together, celebrated, and worked together- side by side. No divisions, everybody joined in and worked for the great harvest, and then reveled again in the fall to celebrate communal success.The model of simple unity. It has been said that "the Earth has enough for All creatures needs, but not enough for One man's greed." In these modern times this becomes a more urgent statement, almost a plea.When will we realize what each of us does effects the other?  But we continue to struggle with duality and separation; we isolate ourselves, it becomes "mine, me, I" instead of "we." We create a struggle, and by doing so misery. We lose sight of that interconnection we share with the intricate and fragile web of life that supports each and every one of the creatures on the planet, including ourselves. In the tenants of yoga, it is said we are all One. And  in Tantric texts that everything is Sacred. That we all hold that spark of Divinity within, we are one with the Divine.  Sun/Moon; Man/Woman; ....night/day, good/bad, birth, death, rebirth....all things are interconnected in this beautiful mosaic of life.  There is no separation. If we are so intertwined, what we do to another, we do to ourselves. Think carefully about your impact, tread lightly on this Earth that supports your very being, as well as your neighbor across the globe.  A butterfly flaps it's wings and effects the wind on the other side of the world, what will your effect be?