Thanksgiving is upon us, and you know I'm all about the symbolism of gratitude, so it seemed like a good opportunity to talk a bit about ties of thanksgiving to the noble turkey. Turkeys have been a symbol of thanksgiving and abundance long before the Piligrim's 'first meal' in 1621 with the Northern Native Americans.Many Native American ...

The circle of life swings around each and every Thanksgiving for me and returns me once again to a place of reflection. I ask myself if I have lived the past year with gratitude.Thanksgiving is just another day. But, the true beauty of our desire to recognize a day for 'thankfulness' is that it practically forces us to take pause at least to the extent of recognizing the words 'thanks' and 'giving.'Frankly, I think the day should be called 'Giving Thanks Day.' In the United States, often we are taunted by the commercialistic machine to make this day about eating exorbitant amounts of food as an act of recognizing how good we have it. However, if we do take pause and reflect on...

I wrote this maxim more than two decades ago that says, 'Joy, we must look for, misery will find us.' Well, maybe not always.Decades ago, when I was in acting school, an assignment for the following week was to express joy. I had no problem with the other emotions we were to emulate. Yet, I had no idea what joy felt like. While walking down Highland, passing Hollywood Boulevard, just past where I worked at Max Factor, suddenly, what I could only describe as joy seized me. A better description is that it passed through me. Wow! Is that what joy feels like?!At the time, I had no idea what was the modus operandi of suddenly experiencing joy. Now, of course, I know. It was the same as when suddenly I began crying and stopped just as quickly without any reason for...

That move us along aren't always gentle.Life Paths aren't limited to numerology definitions. If reincarnation is reality then our existence ebbs and flows like the sea to the shore. It moves throughout the Universe and is not limited to this dimensional space. Why we exist and what is our purpose are good questions that multitudes have asked over aeons.Some think we are to serve a god or higher power. If meaning that we are to learn goodness, nothing can be wrong with that. Genuflecting for favors, however, seems like bargaining with our souls. Also, if we exist merely to accumulate wealth, we may very well limit our existence to this earth plane. Would the Universe have long-term use for those with this limited self-serving mentality?Apart from numerology Life Path...

Weightless your spirit moves along the waves of earth's breath, flowing freely to form and shape the world around you. Its vivid colors create a magical playground, while conscious thoughts meld into a musical harmony shaping your very idea of existence. Such a wondrous and powerful place, but forgotten it is, the power you contain inside. For you place yourself in a state of controlled illusion, a place of powerlessness and guilt, binding yourself to hardship and suppression displayed in various forms.You are as free as creation itself, for you are creation -- the universal mind. Your very thoughts resonate throughout all mankind, as you are one in the same, aspe...

Almost everyone I've spent any quality time conversing with in recent years has expressed or implied a desire to help create a better world—not just for certain individuals, groups or countries, but for human civilization as a whole.At its core, the Occupy Wall Street movement has arisen from a similar desire, as anyone really listening to what so many of the protesters have to say should know.
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Being broken doesn't always mean that we are the victims of others. It may mean that we have victimized others, so broke ourselves when doing so. The philosophy that says when we hurt others, we only hurt ourselves has validity when realizing the tangible process. When we come to terms with hurting others and are truly remorseful we make up for it in many ways.When the first Cave Man clobbered the first Cave Woman over the head and dragged her into the cave, he erred against her. He may have only thought he was being clever to get what he wanted, but did that really make a difference to her? She may have held him accountable for her headache and abuse. When Roman soldiers raped and pillaged, they may have told themselves that they were only following orders, but did the victims c...

Hindsight is 20/20, as we all know, but sometimes foresight is, too. In February this year, in a blog post entitled 2011: The Year Kansas Goes Bye-bye, I wrote: The timeframe around 2012 is not about global disaster, but global healing (which can involve some discomfort as toxins are expelled from the planetary body)....

Sol LuckmanIn an argument yesterday with a family member over the festering wound that is our country, the coming Untied States of America, I was, for the first time in my life, that I know of, called a zealot.This epithet was launched in my direction on the heels of a discussion about free will and self-determinism, concepts which my liberal relative—let's call him Babbit—clearly felt to be out of style, old-fashioned, even a little naïve....