The Decade: 2000-2009

2000: Met Carl
2001: Married Carl, fell in love with Maine in November
2002: Spent birthday in Ireland & legally changed my name
2003: Quit 9-5 management job - began producing documentary; traveled all around U.S. (favorite destination - D.C.)
2004: Launched LAwritersgroup.com
2005: Documentary released, spent month writing in Prague
2006: Graduated USC with Masters in Writing
2007: Learned Vedic Meditation; spent time in New York City (amazing)
2008: Trained for a marathon, ran further than I knew I was capable of; began Vedic studies
2009: Went to India & became a Vedic Meditation Teacher.

Your higher self is waiting.

Catch the express train. Vedic Meditation. There is only one destination - evolution.

Writers Group

I am a co-founder and partner in LAwritersgroup.com and run weekly writers groups in my home. These groups run in 8-week increments so we're winding down for the year. Last night was our second-to-last session and I wrote along with the writers. One of the prompts was to start with one of several lines of poetry. I chose "I think how day hides the stars..." and went from there. I haven't edited this from the "freewrite" so it may need a little tweaking but I wanted to share. (My students are now grinning and saying "no disclaimer! no disclaimer!" which is what I tell them when they read what they've just written...)

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I think how day hides the stars, how the sun bends the air around itself, creating a curve, a warp that we follow blindly. Don't stare at the light too long for it can bring only darkness. I think about the way that every electron has its mate; separate them and they communicate by telepathy, instantaneously adjusting their spin, their shape, the moment either one recognizes the observer. I think of the observer who looks above at noon and sees nothing but blue or gray but never sees the shards of light that wait for night, for attention, for observation. I think how matter hides the empty space between the center of life and the energy that keeps us all compressed and clinging to an idea that we are here, now, and not perhaps somewhere far in the future, looking at distant time through a telescope without realizing it is a conduit to the big bang, which is here, now, hurtling toward us. I think how if one took all of the empty space from every atom and allowed electrons to nestle next to the nuclei, the protons to wrap themselves around the family, then all of humanity would fit in the palm of my hand, the way you hold a sugar cube flat out for the horse to gingerly pick it up with pursed lips, allowing it to fall between its teeth - so sweet. I think how emptiness is for scientists and angels and the observer paces in echoing corridors.

The Self

"That which is not never comes into being, and that which is never ceases to be." BaghavadGita

What does this mean?
That which is not = objects as separate from the Self
That which is = the Self

Simple really. All is That.

Thanksgiving

Teachers who treated my inquiry as worthy. Teachers who, when I grokked the knowledge offered, treated me as an esteemed colleague. Holly Prado, Jeff Kober, Thom Knoles.

Students, who come to me with worthy inquiry and teach me that we're all able to cognize the Truth.

Friends who have stayed with me through several incarnations and various stages of evolution - I don't see them often enough. Nicole Criona, Steve Brady, Christi Styles, Jen Hirshorn, Adele Slaughter.

For lack of a better word, Frienemies. Those who grit their teeth when I'm around but still manage to share and impart wisdom and show me that we don't all have to like each other to be each other.

Ex-husband who is not an ex-friend and who is still one of the first people I think of to share good news. Mark Neukom.

My husband, who tells me I'm beautiful first thing in the morning when I have bed hair; who starts the kettle boiling for me and brings me tea if I haven't made it from the computer to the kitchen, who remembers to pick up cat food on the way home from a meeting, who, when he slides into bed before me, warms my side of the bed first ...I could list each gesture but it would be a whole blog entry.

Carl Bartels. Love personified.

Follow Charm

"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls." Joseph Campbell

Vedic Meditators talk about it all the time using the word "charm". Follow charm. And then the discussion begins - how do I follow charm without becoming really lazy? "Gee, I'm not charmed by getting up at 6 in the morning in order to go to the gym before work. I'm charmed by laying in bed an extra hour."

Well, maybe you are charmed to lie in bed, but are you charmed to gain 10 pounds over the course of 3 months because you decided to stop taking care of your body? Charm has to include the bigger picture. That bigger picture, by definition, includes evolution. You can succumb to the ever-repeating known - lie in bed, feel less healthy - or opt for change (evolution). Change the status quo, change your evolutionary state.

I've used exercise as an example because it's easy to see physical results over a relatively short time. You can plug in any action here. (This is not to say that rest does not have its place in your life - but with vedic meditation, you truly need less rest.)

Today, truly follow charm, follow bliss, right now - what is the first thing that pops in your head. Follow.

Practical Spirituality

Every time I do an Intro Talk, I am reminded of all of the practical benefits of Vedic Meditation. My students ask "but will I be able to stop the loop in my head that tells me I'm not worthy?" Yes.

It's not just an intellectual adjustment, your being is affected on a physical level first. It begins to produce all kinds of yummy bliss chemicals; serotonin, anandomine, 14 different endorphins and these course through your body. Suddenly not only is the loop erased, but the content is then replaced by your higher deserving power.

Everytime you sit down to meditate you open the channels to the message - I am That, thou art That, all of this is nothing more or less than That - and when you recognize this truth, you realize there is no higher deserving power than self recognizing Self.