Ida Lawrence, Contributor
Waking Times

Peaceful, wholly contained moments: sometimes they come to us while in nature, sometimes when family is in ‘sync’, sometimes within an embrace. It’s as if a blessing descends, we’re in our body, and the body knows that everything is perfect: we feel uplifted and at home in an expanded, balanced center. “I am here, my heart is happy, this is real, love is here, and it’s eternal.”

As you might guess, we’re starting out with the ‘perfect moment’ because I recently enjoyed one. My six-year-old granddaughter was visiting, and for about an hour, daddy and a bunch of uncles were helping her play with some new, funny ‘sticky’ blocks. When the clowning around was over, I left the room for a bit, and returned to see an entirely different picture: she was engrossed in music with one of the uncles. I watched as they listened to the Japanese drums, then the didgeridoo, then the African drums.

An oil pipeline in Montana has burst, spilling more than 50,000 gallons of oil directly into the Yellowstone River, which prompted the governor to declare a state of emergency. In nearby cities, residents were told not to drink the tap water. Some locals said the water smelled like diesel.

The oil spill happened when a 12 inch pipeline ruptured about 5 miles up from the city of Glendive, says Montana’s Department of Environmental quality. The Bridger Pipeline company shut down the pipeline, but not before dumping as much as 50,400 gallons of oil into the river.

Glendive City Council member Gerald Reichert was among the residents who noted the terrible odor coming from the tap water.

Native American activists along with the Oglala Lakota have made a vow to die before they allow the Keystone XL Pipeline through their land, saying they’ll either be dead or in prison before it does.

The Oglala Lakota Nation is scrambling to organize a protest movement to oppose the construction of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline. The pipeline would be 1,700 miles long and move an incredible 830,000 barrels of crude oil every day from Canada through their land in South Dakota on toward the Texas coast. Pipelines like this one have a long history of terrible leaks and explosions.

The current path for the pipeline has it crossing at two points with a pipeline that is the main water source for the people of Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation as well as Sicangu Rosebud reservation. A spill would place in jeopardy the safety of their drinking water.

Resistance is a sure way to continue what you do not want. Appreciation is a sure way to continue what you do want. It really is quite simple. Do you see? Both are amplified focus, and your amplified focus is your agreement with a situation. Simply choose what you feel deserves your attention and continuation in your life, and grow it with gratitude. ~Archangel Gabriel

Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness

The goal of enlightenment, beyond reaching a higher state of consciousness, is to be able to live in peace and hold no resistance to any person or idea. Enlightenment isn’t easy by any means, but by the end of the process, we’ll have refined our consciousness and taught ourselves how to flow with life with no restrictions.

Plenty of teachers have told us that enlightenment will result in an experience of bliss that’s unlike anything we’ve yet felt, but the process can be difficult because it urges us to look at everything about ourselves that’s out of alignment with the personal changes we strive to make.

Most people would love to feel the bliss that comes with enlightenment, but doing the work to get there isn’t so desirable. It’s understandable that we wouldn’t want to shine our light on everything about ourselves, including the darkest aspects of our consciousness that need exposed and healed, but this is what’s required if we want to find enlightenment.

Among the many mysteries of human biology is why complex diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and psychiatric disorders are so difficult to predict and, often, to treat. An equally perplexing puzzle is why one individual gets a disease like cancer or depression, while an identical twin remains perfectly healthy.

Now scientists have discovered a vital clue to unraveling these riddles. The human genome is packed with at least four million gene switches that reside in bits of DNA that once were dismissed as “junk” but that turn out to play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs and other tissues behave. The discovery, considered a major medical and scientific breakthrough, has enormous implications for human health because many complex diseases appear to be caused by tiny changes in hundreds of gene switches.

“Up there, godding the whole blue world, and shrieking at a snip of land.” –Anne Sexton, Birds

No, the title of this article is not a typo. Yes, god can be a verb. No, it isn’t religious. Yes, it is extremely spiritual. “Godding” means a sacred flourishing of the human condition, a divine blossoming into self-actualization. When the crown chakra is godding it is an all-out embracing of self as cosmos and cosmos as self. It is an overwhelming, agape, in-love-with-the-moment breath of fresh air at experiencing the cosmos as an interdependent whole.

The crown is the accumulation of all the energies of the chakras, a blending of all the unique lessons learned from meditating on the other chakras. It is the merging of our personal consciousness with cosmic consciousness to bring forth all the knowledge that is available to us...

Awakening to truth is soft and subtle.  We do not need a marching band to bring awareness.

What thwarts awakening is anticipation within the imagination of some glorious experience.

A soft and subtle becoming rises in our awareness and it reminds us of who we are in consciousness, almost like the soul is saying, “no big deal, my child”.

Only the ego demands a parade and wants attention for self.

Awareness is a silent reminder of the silent nature of existence.

Namaste.
Robert and CJ

**If you enjoyed this post, please share it!
email Robert: robertcosmar@gmail.com
email CJ: cjheck60porsche@gmail.com

Thank you. Thank you for providing the surprise plot twist to our story. Thank you for revealing yourself, in the final chapter—and, God, what a page-turner that was—as our protagonist. Photo credit: New Yorkers Against Fracking

Sandra Steingraber, EcoWatch
Waking Times

My friends, we are unfractured.

And thereby hangs a tale.

It’s a tale in which we all are—each one of us is—a starring character and a co-author. We are the maker of this story that has been shaped by our unceasing, unrelenting efforts—all of which mattered and made a difference.

Every rally. Every march. Every jug of Dimock water. Every public comment. Every local ban. Every letter to the editor. Every letter to the Governor. Every concert. Every expert testimony at every hearing.

It all mattered.