Deep Horoscope

Would you really prefer it if you had no problems? Do you imagine you'd enjoy life more if everything was pure fun and smoothly easy? Here's an astrological perspective: People who have an over-abundance of positive aspects in their natal horoscopes often turn out to be lucky but lazy bums who never accomplish much. So I say, be thankful for the complications that are visiting you. I bet they will make a man out of you if you're a woman, or a woman out of you if you're a man. If you're white, they'll help you get blacker, and if you're black, they'll make you whiter. Catch my drift? As you do your best to solve the knotty riddle, you'll become better balanced and more versatile than folks who are rarely challenged.


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SACRED ADVERTISEMENT
If you're reading this, you're probably not a Cambodian orphan who grew up as a slave in a brothel or a Sudanese man kidnapped by a militia and forced to do heavy labor 18 hours a day or one of the millions of other victims of human trafficking around the world. But you may be yoked and subjugated in a less literal way, perhaps to a debilitating drug or an abusive relationship or a job that brings out the worst in you or a fearful fantasy about the looming collapse of civilization's infrastructure.

The good news is that you have the power to escape your bondage. Maybe it'll help you muster the strength you need if I remind you that your freedom won't be anywhere near as difficult to achieve as that of the Pakistani boy tied to a carpet loom in a dark room around the clock or the Nigerian woman who's beaten daily as she toils in the sugar cane fields for no pay.

Try this: When you feel overwhelmed by the sadness of your problems or the addiction of your compulsions, put on your best clothes and clean toilets at a homeless shelter, or give foot massages to workers at a sewage disposal plant, or sing songs, sip champagne, and play card games with patients at a psychiatric hospital. Be ready to get hit upside the soul with exotic varieties of ecstasy, which such acts will unleash.
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Song of Solomon

ch 2
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.

ch 3
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.

ch 8
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.

Three Universal Needs

Several management theorists have identified three human universal needs. David Cooperrider believes that each person has the need to:

• Have a voice and be heard;

• Be viewed as essential to a group; and

• Be seen as unique and exceptional.

Universal needs

Connection
belonging/community/appreciation/intimacy/love/empathy/respect/support/to be seen, heard, and understood

Honesty
authenticity/integrity/trust

Peace
beauty/order/harmony/inspiration/communion

Play
humor/joy

Meaning
self-expression/discovery/growth/hope/challenge/purpose/learning/contribution/consciousness

Physical Well being
air/food/water/safety/shelter/sleep/rest/movement/exercise/sexual expression

Autonomy
choice/freedom/space/spontaneity/independence

-Unknown

What We Are Here For

A piece on Advocacy

we are here to listen
not to work miracles

we are here to help people discover what they are feeling
not to make the feelings go away

we are here to help people identify their options
not to decide for them what they should do

we are here to discuss steps with people
not to take the step with them

we are here to help people discover their own strength
not to rescue them and leave them still vulnerable

we are here to help people discover they can help themselves
not to take responsibility for them

we are here to help people learn to choose
not to make it unnecessary for them to make difficult choices

we are here to provide support for change

-adapted from NTAC on Family Violence

Decision Making

Take a breath, relax

Ask yourself:
Do I have enough info to make this decision?
What info am I missing?
Is this a decision I need to make right now or can I give myself some space to think it through?

Am I being rational and objective
If not: Step back, take a minute to recollect

Remember: Health and safety are top priority

We all make good and bad decisions
Take time to learn from your mistakes and be open to constructive criticism

Characteristics Held By Long Term Thrivers

Clear sense of why they are doing their work
Realistic goals/expectations of self and are self forgiving
Ability to let go of the illusion of control
Healthy sense of self: ability to laugh at self, knows strengths and weaknesses
Accepts others without hopes of changing them
Knows boundaries and can clearly state them, sets limits and can give an honest yes and no
Appreciates the reciprocity in the work they do
Has learned to let go and can forgive and forget. Has chronic spiritual Alzheimer
Has a sense of humor and lightness
Knows when lessons are learned or purpose is accomplished and can leave the work in a healthy manner
Knows what they need and can ask for it directly. Can graciously accept yes and no
Can detach from outcome
Respects co-workers, clients and self at very deep levels.

Heather Anderson

KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS

So, let's just say you're on I-5 cruising along in the left lane. You see a sign on your left that says 'KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS'. You look to your right and you're not passing anyone. Why don't you do me a favor and get over. Please.

Oh, and if you look to your right and there's a car right beside you and you're not going fast enough to pass them...you are so wrong, and you're upsetting me.

Basta!

The Four Noble Truths

1. Life means suffering.

2. The origin of suffering is attachment.

3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.

4. The path to the cessation of suffering.

Deep Thought

". . . This deed accomplished, life no longer suffers hopelessly under the terrible mutilations of ubiquitous disaster, battered by time, hideous throughout space; but with its horror visible still, its cries of anguish still tumultuous, it becomes penetrated by an all-suffusing, all-sustaining love, and a knowledge of its own unconquered power."

Joseph Campbell

Deep Thought

"Survival is the second law of life. The first is that we are all one."

Joseph Campbell

Privilege is still oppression

when someone is choosing who to give what to
when someone uses your baser fears to control you
when someone gives you possessions and instills a fear that they will be taken away by the 'other'

Deep Thought

Pain has a wonderful way of showing you how inefficient you are

Deep Thought

"all you need is a little occupational therapy, like making love" - pepe le pew

Revelation

I don't have a germ phobia. It's a hatred. A deep hatred felt with every blown nose, sore throat, sniffle, frantic trip to the bathroom, body ache... I hate being sick.

Deep Thought

You're not better than anyone else and no one is better than you. So chill

Deep Thought

"The two -- the hero and his ultimate god, the seeker and the found -- are thus understood as the outside and inside of a single, self-mirrored mystery, which is identical with the mystery of the manifest world. The great deed of the supreme hero is to come to the knowledge of this unity in multiplicity and then to make it known." Joseph Campbell