HOMEIssue 38
In This Issue:
1) Welcome Letter by Sibyl McLendon
2) Wisdom From Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3) Cherokee Creation Story
4) My Name Is Bob... by Bobby McLendon
5) Thoughts To Live By from Months Of Inspiration
6) The Power Of Music
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Welcome Letter
by Sibyl McLendon
Yá'át'ééh and Welcome to MousePages. I am feeling rather uninspired
this week, so I have decided that, instead of my usual ramblings, I
would share with you a prayer that I wrote some time ago:
Great Spirit, Grandmothers and Grandfathers, I send a prayer.
I am nothing without you.
Let me always be able to see you
In everything I see.
Let me always be able to feel you
In everything I feel.
May I walk your path bravely, effortlessly, and without question.
May I accept your wisdom without fear.
Assist me to always walk in beauty,
Gently upon Mother Earth.
Assist me to remember
That the tree, the leaf, the plant
Is my relation, and needs my care.
Assist me to remember
That the bird, the insect and the four-legged
Is my relation, and needs my respect.
Assist me to remember
That the air I breathe is your gift to me.
Assist me to remember
To honor Father sun for his warmth,
And Grandmother Moon for her dreams.
I send a prayer,
Hear me.
Assist me
That I may never forget for an instant
Your loving gifts.
A HO!
Have a wonderful and blessed week.
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WISDOM FROM GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
I received this by email and felt that Marquez's words should be shared.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has retired from public life due to health
reasons:
cancer of the lymph nodes. He sent this farewell letter to his friends,
which has been translated and posted on the Internet.
Marquez's style of writing was often referred to as "magical realism."
Doesn't that describe the enchanted kingdom where we all live?
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If for an instant God were to forget that I am a rag doll and gifted me
with
a piece of life, possibly I wouldn't say all that I think, but rather I
would think of all that I say. I would value things, not for their worth
but
for what they mean. I would sleep little, dream more, understanding that
for
each minute we close our eyes we lose sixty seconds of light.
I would walk when others hold back, I would wake when others sleep. I
would
listen when others talk, and how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice
cream!
If God were to give me a piece of life, I would dress simply, throw
myself
face first into the sun, baring not only my body but also my soul.
My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hate on ice, and wait for the
sun
to show. Over the stars I would paint with a Van Gogh dream a Benedetti
poem, and a Serrat song would be the serenade I'd offer to the moon.
With my
tears I would water roses, to feel the pain of their thorns, and the red
kiss of their petals...
My God, if I had a piece of life... I wouldn't let a single day pass
without
telling the people I love that I love them. I would convince each woman
and
each man that they are my favorites, and I would live in love with love.
I would show men how very wrong they are to think that they cease to be
in
love when they grow old, not knowing that they grow old when they cease
to
be in love! To a child I shall give wings, but I shall let him learn to
fly
on his own. I would teach the old that death does not come with old age,
but
with forgetting.
So much have I learned from you, oh men...
I have learned that everyone wants to live on the peak of the mountain,
without knowing that real happiness is in how it is scaled. I have
learned
that when a newborn child squeezes for the first time with his tiny fist
his
father's finger, he has him trapped forever. I have learned that a man
has
the right to look down on another only when he has to help the other get
to
his feet. From you I have learned so many things, but in truth they
won't be
of much use, for when I keep them within this suit, unhappily shall I be
dying.
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
1982 Nobel Laureate in Literature
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This too shall pass
If I can endure for this minute whatever is happening to me
No matter how heavy my heart is or how dark the moment might be...
If I can but keep on believing what I know in my heart to be true,
That darkness will fade with morning and that this will pass away,
too...
Then nothing can ever disturb me or fill me with uncertain fear,
For as sure as night brings dawning, my morning is bound to appear...
~Unknown
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Cherokee Creation Story
Long, long ago, in the beginning of time, the earth was all water. There
was no land. All the four-leggeds and all the winged-ones lived up in
the sky on the clouds. They were waiting for the land to dry, but it
would not dry. They would send animal after animal to check, but each
would come back unable to find dry land. The animals would regularly
check the water below. Finally, after the dog looked and reported back
that it was still wet, they sent the water beetle. The water beetle dove
into the water, grabbed a handful of mud at the bottom, brought it up
and put it on top of the water; and it started to dry, started to build
land. He brought more and more; and still they waited for it to dry.
Finally, they sent grandfather buzzard down and the land was almost dry.
As the buzzard flew, every time he would flap his mighty wings he would
form a mountain and a valley. That's why the Cherokee land has mountains
and valleys in it today. All the animals came down and settled on the
earth.
After they did, they realized they had no light. So they called to
Grandfather and asked to give them light, and he did. He brought them
the sun. He put the sun down right by the ground but it was too hot for
the animals. So they pushed and pushed untill finally they got it far
enough out that it would not burn all the time; but it was still so hot
that the crawfish was baked. That's why, if you look at him today, he is
red from the sun being too close.
Finally, they got the sun far enough out so it would not burn
everything, and we would have night. Grandfather told them, "Now that I
have done this for you, I ask that all the four-legged and all the
plants stay awake for seven days and for seven nights."
Most of the animals and all the plants fell asleep except for some. The
owl stayed awake, and that's why he has vision to hunt at night now. The
Douglas fir, the cedar, the pine, and a few others stayed awake for
seven nights and for seven days. That's why only these, among all the
plants, are allowed to stay green all the year round. The other plants
fell asleep and so must sleep part of every year.
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My Name Is Bob...
by Bobby McLendon
My name is Bob and I'm not an alcoholic.
I use to have a drug and alcohol problem. I no longer have one. I have
been totally clean for four years. I prefer to look at life from a
positive point of view. Why, if I don't drink or drug, should I have to
refer to myself as an addict? I have reached the conclusion that there
is no need to. The moment that I would take a drink of alcohol, then I
would be an alcoholic again. If I used again, then I would be an
addict.
Through out my life, I have done/tried every drug that I know of except
Exctasy. I have, in my attempts to quit, gone through counseling, NA,
AA and residential treatment programs. Unfortunately, I had little
success with any of these programs. I have gone to meetings and just
before or after had a beer, smoked a joint or fired up the old crack
pipe. I felt that many people traded their drug and alcohol addictions
for an addiction to meetings. They felt that they HAD to go to at least
one meeting every day, seven days a week, or they just fell apart. Many
went to several meetings every day. I was not looking to become
addicted to meetings. I wanted to be free of all addicitons. I wanted
to have a real life!
Now that I have been drug and alcohol free for over four years now, I
will never look back or go back. The way I did it was two fold. First
I had to be selfish. This may sound strange, but I will explain. When
I was drinking and doing drugs, the only thing I cared about was where I
was going to get my next blast, joint or beer. This was totally
selfish. In order to reverse that way of thinking, I had to once again
become selfish, but from the completely opposite point of view. I
learned that I had to quit for myself, and only myself. If I quit for
my family, or my boss, or anyone else, it was not going to work.
Second, what I did was to adopt the attitude that no drug or substance
was good enough to rule my life. I had to and did learn to love myself.
By doing this, everything then fell into place. I learned that I was a
better person than I thought I was. I learned that I was capable of
more than I thought I was. This is something that helped me: When you
get up in the morning, go into the bathroom. Stare at yourself face to
face, eye to eye in the mirror and say, without moving your eyes from
side to side, and say, "Good morning. I love you. It's good to be with
you today." It may sound silly or easy, but wait until you try it. Do
it every day. Learn to honestly care about yourself, and what happens
to you. After you do this, of course the people around you are going to
benefit. Then you can go about making amends if you want to. If you can
learn to love yourself then you will not allow any substance to ruin
your life.
The point of this article is to show that unless you can honestly love
yourself more than any substance that controls you, all of the twelve
step programs and meetings in the world are not going to bring you peace
of mind.
Bobby McLendon, Eagle Dancing, Is available for Tarot readings at
http://www.keen.com/eagledancing
http://www.eagledancing.com
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Thoughts to Live by
You shall not worry, for worry is the most unproductive of all human
activities.
You shall not be fearful, for most of the things we fear never come to
pass.
You shall not carry grudges, for they are the heaviest of all life's
burdens.
You shall face each problem as it comes. You can only handle one at a
time anyway.
You shall not take problems to bed with you, for they make very poor
bedfellows.
You shall not borrow other people's problems. They can better care for
them than you.
You shall not try to relive yesterday for good or ill, it is forever
gone. Concentrate on what is happening in your life and be happy now!
You shall be a good listener, for only when you listen do you hear ideas
different from your own.
You shall not become "bogged down" by frustration, for 90% of it is
rooted in self-pity and will only interfere with positive action.
You shall count your blessings, never overlooking the small ones, for a
lot of small blessings add up to a big one.
~Author Unknown
Reprinted with permission from Months Of Inspiration
to learn more about this list, go to
http://www.room101.com/newsletters.jsp
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The Power Of Music
We Are The World
There comes a time when we need a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
Oh, and it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all
We can't go on pretending day by day
That someone, somehow will soon make a change
We're all a part of God's great big family
And the truth - you know love is all we need
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
so let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me
Well, send them your heart
So they know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us
By turning stone to bread
And so we all must lend a helping hand
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
so let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me
When you're down and out
There seems no hope at all
But if you just believe
There's no way we can fall
Well, well, well, let's realize
That one change can only come
When we stand together as one
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