March 27-April 2

Treasure Beach Forum: Inspirational Thoughts: March 27-April 2
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glasceta Honeyghan on Monday, March 28, 2005 - 04:35 pm: Edit Post

SCARS

Some years ago, on a hot summer day in south Florida, a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his house. In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind shoes, socks and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming toward the shore.

His mother, in the house and looking out the window, saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, she ran toward the water, yelling to her son as loudly as she could.
Hearing her voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his mother. It was too late. Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him. From the dock, the mother grabbed her little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war between the two. The alligator was much stronger than the mother, but the mother was much too passionate to let go.

A farmer happened to drive by, heard her screams, raced from his truck, took aim and shot the alligator. Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the vicious attack of the animal. And, on his arms, were deep scratches where his mother's fingernails dug into his flesh in her effort to hang on to the son she loved.

The newspaper reporter who interviewed the boy after the trauma asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, "But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. I have them because my Mom wouldn't let go."

You and I can identify with that little boy. We have scars, too. No, not from an alligator, but the scars of a painful past. Some of those scars are unsightly and have caused us deep regret. But some wounds, my friend, are because God has refused to let go. In the midst of your struggle, He's been there holding on to you. The Scripture teaches that God loves you. You are a child of God. He wants to protect you and provide for you in every way.

But sometimes we foolishly wade into dangerous situations, not knowing what lies ahead. The swimming hole of life is filled with peril - and we forget that the enemy is waiting to attack. That's when the tug-of-war begins - and if you have the scars of His love on your arms be very, very grateful. He did not, and will not, ever let you go.

Another lesson from this story is that we should never judge another persons scars, because we do not know how they got them.
~ Author Unknown ~


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glasceta Honeyghan on Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - 11:24 am: Edit Post

WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
By Frances Moore Lappé

Nobody gets up in the morning and says, "I want a child to die of hunger today" or "I want pollution to get worse." But both things will happen. My whole life has been about peeling away the layers of "why, why, why," and as I neared my 60th birthday I needed to know why we keep creating a world that none of us wants. The reason, I believe, is fear.

One expert on fear management estimates that we each have about 66,000 thoughts a day and that two-thirds of them are fear-based. Those fears come in two basic forms: fear of the unknown and fear of conflict—which is enormous because, back in ancient times, getting cast out of the tribe meant certain death. We human beings still suffer from that hardwiring, even though today, staying with the tribe means following a crowd off a cliff. The fact is, right now a group of people somewhere in the world is causing massive destruction, and most of us just try not to think about where we're headed.

I've been scared to death twice in my life—not when I was on a hairpin turn in the Himalayas or when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Both times were when I thought I was letting people down and that I would be hated—in other words, cast out.

When I was 26, I dropped out of graduate school. I didn't leave home much because I was afraid people would ask what I was doing and I would have to answer, "Nothing." But now I realize that allowing myself to be in that void let me hear the little voice of my own curiosity. That curiosity eventually led me to write Diet for a Small Planet and create what I thought was my ultimate dream, the Center for Living Democracy, an organization set up to help citizens tackle America's social problems. But at 56, I found I had so assiduously avoided conflict with almost everyone in my life that my dream was seriously off-track. After a very painful time, I chose to close the Center. Every piece of my "ultimate dream" came apart. The marriage. The organization. I lost the first piece of land I'd bonded with. And my alleged life's work.

Then my children threw me a lifeline: They suggested I write a 30th-anniversary sequel to Diet for a Small Planet. I returned to my first grand passion—food and how it connects us to our health, one another, and our planet. These experiences taught me that fear is just an energy—an energy we can use to our advantage or be cowed by.

We can all reprogram our brain's responses by putting ourselves into new, initially uncomfortable situations. We'll learn fear might not mean "stop"; personally, I've come to believe fear usually means "go." It always means listen closely.

Today a lot of people assume they're fearful because of terrorism or the shaky economy. But I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. Because when you get right down to it, even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not having lived authentically and fully.

Frances Moore Lappé is the coauthor of You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear(Tarcher/Penguin).


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glasceta Honeyghan on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 06:46 am: Edit Post

"When it comes to your health, I recommend frequent doses of that rare
commodity among Americans--common sense." --Vincent Askey, MD


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glasceta Honeyghan on Monday, April 04, 2005 - 01:26 pm: Edit Post

How to Get Your Power Back

Begin to build authentic power —the kind of power that comes from inside. It cannot be lost like a set of keys. Gary Zukav says the creation of authentic power is a process. Once you create it, it can never be taken away from you.

Every time you lose control to negative emotions like anger, fear, jealousy or rage, you allow those feelings to have power over you. When you allow yourself to feel those emotions—instead of just acting out—you begin to create authentic power.

Here's one woman who survived a brutal rape and overcame it…to become more powerful than ever.
In 1997, Gina Cotroneo was brutally raped. Once strong, empowered and independent, Gina felt angry, powerless, fearful and ashamed. Then she began her journey to get her power back.

During her ordeal, Gina focused on a picture of an angel she had on her wall and remained calm enough to gather evidence that eventually led to the conviction of the rapist.

Gina confronted the rapist in court two years later. "I told him he had taken a piece of my soul and that I wanted it back. I reached forward and grabbed the air in front of him ... and I brought it back to myself."

Gina let go of her anger and guilt. She looks at her rape now as an opportunity, "the biggest one of my life—it just came really well disguised."

Where could she have been after that rape? According to Gary Zukav, Gina was spiraling downward into depression, consumed with grief, anger or rage against men, rage against the Universe. If Gina had done that, she would not have tapped into or created the power that she has created in her life.

"You've got a right to be angry," Gary says. "You've got a right to be loving. You have a lot of rights. Which one are you going to take? Gina took one of her rights and it led her to authentic power. There are always choices."