Issue 45

In this issue:

1) Welcome Letter by Sibyl McLendon
2) Letter From Neale Donald Walsch 
3) Hatred Is Unworthy Of Us by Leonard Pitts
4) Attack On America by Jeannette E. de Langis
5) The Power Of Music

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Yá'át'ééh. As we all struggle to find some sense of normalcy in this time of utter pain and tragedy, I find myself filled with what can only be called mixed emotions. I find myself having a difficult time trying to go back to my work, to find my niche in the reality of today. We have all been changed in fundamental ways, and learning to incorporate these changes into our everyday lives will be hard. All I can say is that I intend to reach out to my loved ones and friends, to clasp them to me, and to pray for Love and Peace and Light to return and guide us all.

I do have a point to make that you may or may not have thought of. This terrible tragedy may have touched your friends and neighbors in ways that you are not aware of. Because of the tremendous slow down in mail delivery, many, many people are waiting for checks to come that they made need desperately. I know that this is true for us. Take a look around you, and see if you might know someone who could use a helping hand right now. Maybe you could take them a food basket, or ask if there is anything you can do to help them. This is especially true of people who live on fixed incomes like we do.

I am including another appeal for a return to reason as it applies to Arab-Americans and their treatment, written by Leonard Pitts, a newspaper columnist. I do not think that anyone who subscribes to MousePages would ever threaten or attack another, regardless of their heritage, but maybe if it gets passed around, someone who needs to read it will read it.

I do want to address Afghanistan and its people. I am seeing so many highly-charged emotional calls for war everywhere. "Lets kick some ass!" is the general sentiment of America, and the world. While I do, unfortunately, feel that some sort of response must be made to the terrifying attack, I want to share some facts on the general population in Afghanistan:

The average person in Afghanistan is not a terrorist. It is exactly the opposite! The general population is suffering in ways that we could never understand. They are, themselves, victims of the terrorists. They are also suffering the consequences of the worst drought in history. There are millions of refugees in other countries, starving, dying from disease and lack of shelter. Those that are still in Afghanistan are suffering horribly. Imagine, the average life expectancy in Afghanistan is 45 years! There are 150 stillbirths out of every 1,000 births. There has been a huge out crying for the need of mud huts to be built just to shelter refugees before the winter sets in, and they die from exposure. Mud huts. Do we need to fear and hate these tortured souls? They suffer too, because of a government who harbors a madman in a cave.

I am praying for each and every one of you. I am praying for the country and the world. I would ask if you would pray for my youngest son, Christopher, who is in the process of enlisting in the Army right now. I will let you all know if he was successful or not, in the next newsletter.

Thanks for re-subscribing!

In Love and Light, Sibyl


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“Out of a great need
We are all holding hands
And climbing. 

Not loving is a letting go.
Listen,
The terrain around here
Is far too dangerous
For that.” 

~Hafiz [an ancient Persian poet]

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Dear friends around the world…

The events of this day cause every thinking person to stop their daily lives, whatever is going on in them, and to ponder deeply the larger questions of life. We search again for not only the
meaning of life, but the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have created it-and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate ourselves anew as a human species, so that we will never treat each other this way again.

The hour has come for us to demonstrate at the highest level our most extraordinary thought about Who We Really Are. 

There are two possible responses to what has occurred today. The first comes from love, the second from fear.

If we come from fear we may panic and do things-as individuals and as nations-that could only cause further damage. If we come from love we will find refuge and strength, even as we provide it to others. 

This is the moment of your ministry. This is the time of teaching. What you teach at this time, through your every word and action right now, will remain as indelible lessons in the hearts and minds of those whose lives you touch, both now, and for years to come.

We will set the course for tomorrow, today. At this hour. In this moment. 

Let us seek not to pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause.

Unless we take this time to look at the cause of our experience, we will never remove ourselves from the experiences it creates. Instead, we will forever live in fear of retribution from those within the human family who feel aggrieved, and, likewise, seek retribution from them.

To us the reasons are clear. We have not learned the most basic human lessons. We have not remembered the most basic human truths. We have not understood the most basic spiritual wisdom. In short, we have not been listening to God, and because we have not, we watch
ourselves do ungodly things. 

The message we hear from all sources of truth is clear: We are all one. That is a message the human race has largely ignored. Forgetting this truth is the only cause of hatred and war, and the way to remember is simple: Love, this and every moment.

If we could love even those who have attacked us, and seek to understand why they have done so, what then would be our response? Yet if we meet negativity with negativity, rage with rage, attack
with attack, what then will be the outcome? 

These are the questions that are placed before the human race today. They are questions that we have failed to answer for thousands of years. Failure to answer them now could eliminate the need to answer them at all. 

If we want the beauty of the world that we have co-created to be experienced by our children and our children's children, we will have to become spiritual activists right here, right now, and cause
that to happen. We must choose to be at cause in the matter. 

So, talk with God today. Ask God for help, for counsel and advice, for insight and for strength and for inner peace and for deep wisdom. Ask God on this day to show us how to show up in the world in a way that will cause the world itself to change. And join all those people around the world who are praying right now, adding your Light to the Light that dispells all fear.

That is the challenge that is placed before every thinking person today. Today the human soul asks the question: What can I do to preserve the beauty and the wonder of our world and to eliminate the anger and hatred-and the disparity that inevitably causes it - in that part of the world which I touch? 

Please seek to answer that question today, with all the magnificence that is You.

What can you do TODAY...this very moment?

A central teaching in most spiritual traditions is: What you wish to experience, provide for another. 

Look to see, now, what it is you wish to experience-in your own life, and in the world. Then see if there is another for whom you may be the source of that. 

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another. 

If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe. 

If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand. 

If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another.

Those others are waiting for you now. They are looking to you for guidance, for help, for courage, for strength, for understanding, and for assurance at this hour. Most of all, they are looking to
you for love.

We love you, and we send you our deepest thoughts of peace.

Neale, Marianne, James, James and Doreen

Taken from: http://www.conversationswithgod.org/home2.htm

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Commentary: Hatred is unworthy of us

By LEONARD PITTS
Miami Herald Columnist

Episodes from the aftermath of tragedy:

In Colorado Springs, Colo., four men threaten to burn down a mosque.

In Irving, Texas, someone fires shots into the IslamicnCenter.

In Chicago, a passerby threatens violence against an Arab man.

The sad and awful truth is, you knew this was coming. Could have predicted it the moment four stolen planes plowed into a nation's heart. This is, after all, a troubling strain of our national personality that rises reliably to the surface in moments like this.

During the First World War, Americans of German heritage were widely treated as traitors and spies. During the Second World War, Americans of Japanese heritage were rounded up by the government and interned. During the Iranian hostage crisis, Americans of Middle Eastern heritage were reviled amid loose talk of mass deportation. And Tuesday afternoon, a friend of mine -- though in that moment, I was embarrassed to call him that -- said we should search out everyone in this country from the Middle East and send them back home.

In the wake of sentiments like those and against the backdrop of our history, let me say just one thing to my sister and brother Americans.

Don't. Please, don't.

Do not give terrorists the victory a hundred Pentagons and a thousand World Trade Centers could not. Hatred on account of culture or religion is unworthy of us at any time. But in the wake of Tuesday's events, it's tantamount to giving aid and comfort to the enemy, a group of petty thugs who tried to bring us down to their level, make us just like them.

I'm reminded of something I heard a man say on the radio Wednesday morning: that it's important that we save Americans, but also important that we save America.

As we grapple with the unthinkable, it occurs to me that his observation, which came and went in the media maelstrom of experts and pundits, encapsulates much of what is ultimately at stake here. Meaning human lives, yes. But also, that which ennobles them.

As these words are written, brave and sweat-streaked women and men sift the rubble of iconic office buildings in Manhattan and greater Washington and a crash site in the Pennsylvania countryside. The work of saving Americans continues apace.

But the work of saving America is a trickier, knottier task whose results are less readily seen. Because it is the work of saving an ideal and an identity, preserving -- and uplifting -- the best of who we are. Meaning, an experiment in individual liberty, a research project in human tolerance, a people bound to one another not by blood but by fealty to a extraordinary ideal.

And if you don't understand that ideal, well . . . you could pore over the Constitution, you could read the thoughts of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King. Or, you could simply recall the five words at the end of the pledge we once said as children. ``Liberty. And justice. For all.''

In this moment when emotions are high, it seems prudent -- vital -- that we stop and remind ourselves of what is meant by ``all.''

Every one of us, no one left out. We are not a nation that is only white or only Christian. We're a people of rainbow hues and multiple faiths.

If that heritage has taught us nothing else by now, it should have taught us this: It's ignorant to think you can judge a man's soul by looking at his face. Yes, I saw Arabs cheering our pain in the West Bank. I also saw them issuing condemnations in Washington.

Take it as a reminder: The enemy is not Arab people or the Muslim religion. The enemy is fanaticism, extremism, intolerance, hate. The madmen who commandeered those planes don't represent the followers of Islam any more than the madmen who blow up abortion clinics represent the followers of Christ.

Yes, we're angry. We're supposed to be angry. We have a right to be angry. But at the same time, we must be wary of the places to which we allow that anger to bring us.

If we let it deliver us to the doorstep of fanaticism, extremism, intolerance, hate, we might as well give up now. Because everything that matters has already been lost.

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Attack On America
by Jeannette E. de Langis

Fear is the greatest weapon of the terrorist. They are bullies. They want us to feel vulnerable and become their victims. 

This act is the ultimate manifestation of negative energy. They are taught this hate from 
birth. It is their way of life. We need to defend ourselves but certainly not get into the hate and fear. We must remain strong as one consciousness.

Nothing happens unless it is in the greater plan. We all come here with lessons in order for us to find balance. Sometimes it is necessary to see the extremes in order to awaken us. This has 
changed all of our lives. It has changed our priorities. It makes us see what is truly important 
in our lives. Everything seems so fleeting at times. 

In addition to our own personal lessons here, we have group lessons as well. These lessons 
come from that higher consciousness that guides us. If you were in the fifth grade and had a good breakfast and was driven to school by your mother, you would be more receptive to the lessons of the day. If you didn't have breakfast and fell off your bike on the way to school and were not feeling 
well, you would have a difficult time dealing with the lessons of the day. 

Regardless of how your day is going, the teacher will present the lesson plan of the day. Each one affected differently by the same lesson. Each one experiencing the lesson by their own perceptions and conditions in their life. 

Let us not forget we are part of a greater consciousness. That essence within is an extension of all things. Let us focus on this power within the light. Fighting hate with hate will only intensify 
the hate for us all. Let us remain strong within the consciousness of the light.

Walk in peace
Jeannette

Jeannette E. de Langis R.N., CSL has taught meditation and self- awareness for over twenty years. She has taught at risk teens and those with chronic illness to release fear and take control of their pain and lives. For more info: www.innerconcepts.net 

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The Power Of Music

Windows of the World
Dionne Warwick
Words by Hal David; music by Burt Bacharach.

The windows of the world are covered with rain,
Where is the sunshine we once knew?
Ev'rybody knows when little children play
They need a sunny day to grow straight and tall.
Let the sun shine through.

The windows of the world are covered with rain,
When will those black skies turn to blue?
Ev'rybody knows when boys grow into men
They start to wonder when their country will call.
Let the sun shine through.

The windows of the world are covered with rain,
What is the whole world coming to?
Ev'rybody knows when men can not be friends
Their quarrel often ends where some have to die.
Let the sun shine through.

The windows of the world are covered with rain,
There must be something we can do.
Ev'rybody knows whenever rain appears
It's really angel tears.
How long must they cry?
Let the sun shine through.

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