The Eden Magazine December issue

T h e

December, 2018

Š

Magazine

Two

Birds Visit

from Beyond

By Lynn Robinson

Les Stroud

Environmentalist, Musician & Film Maker

Remembering me when my husband walked out

By Tammy Letherer

Wisdom of King Solomon

By Haim Shapira

Scott Fifer Helping Tens of Thousands of Children with

GO Campaign

Table of Contents 6

SCOTT FIFER Go Compaign

16

TWO BIRDS VISIT FROM BEYOND

By Lynn Robinson

16

18

SIRGUN KAUR

22

THE MAGIC OF A GIFT

By Nancy E. Yearout

26

AN INTERVIEW WITH LES STROUD

36

WISDOM OF KING SOLOMON

18

By Haim Shapira

44

REMEMBERING ME WHEN MY HUSBAND WALKED OUT

By Tammy Letherer

54

IMAGINE THE PAST, REMEBER THE FUTURE

By Michael White Ryan

58

54

OCEAN LIFE BACK TO BEGINNING

By Sasha Gary

66

SOBER & PISSED OFF

By Jane Zarse

72

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

By Alexia Melocchi

76

SCOTT FIFER GO Campaign

76

THE IMPORTANCE OF REDUCING STRESS TO LOOK AND FEEL BETTER

By Margaret Tomaszewic

Cover by Doria Anselmo

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DINA MORRONE

Maryam Morrison

GLORIA KISEL-HOLLIS

JAN DIANA

MICHAEL WHITE RYAN

SASHA GARY

ANGELA DUNNING

TARA-JENELLE WALSCH

MIRIAM BERTKE

KATE YOUNGER

MARIA ELENA INFANTINO

EDWARD HAKOPIAN

BRENDA SAINT HILAIRE

SHERI DETERMAN

ALEXIA MELOCCHI

JOE SANTOS, JR.

MARGARET TOMASZEWIC

JAYITA BHATTACHARJEE

MEET OUR TEAM

Photo by Artin Mardirosian

Spreading Compassion to all Sentient Beings and Living in healing and peaceful world

EDEN

T H E

MAGAZINE Since 2010

The Eden Magazine is a free Online magazine focuses on spreading compassion to all sentient beings Living in a healing and peaceful world FOUNDER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MARYAM MORRISON CONTRIBUTING EDITOR DINA MORRONE BRAND AMBASSADOR MARIA ELENA INFANTINO SOCIALITE DIRECTOR GLORIA KISEL-HOLLIS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS JAN DIANA JOE SANTOS, JR. ALEXIA MELOCCHI

ANGELA DUNNING SASHA GARY MIRIAM BERTKE MICHAEL WHITE RYAN JAYITA BHATTACHARJEE TARA-JENELLE WALSCH MARGARET TOMASZEWIC CONTRIBUTING STYLISTS + MAKEUP ARTIST EDWARD HAKOPIAN GRAPHICS & PHOTOGRAPHY KATE YOUNGER BRENDA SAINT HILAIRE PHOTOGRAPHY EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY SHERI DETERMAN WEBSITE www.theedenmagazine.com 325 N. Maple Dr. Po Box 5132 Beverly Hills, CA 90209 To read this issue online www.issuupublishing.com To purchase a copy visit us in www.magcloud.com Eden Magazine is an non-profit & independent monthly online magazine.

Our aim is to create a better environment where we live among other living being in peace and harmony. We support artists that their work match our criteria. If you would like to submit your artwork, article or/and your Photography For our future issues please contact Maryam Morrison at; maryammorrison@theedenmagazine.com 5 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

Scott Fifer Helping Tens of Thousands of Children with

GO Campaign

This month, we're catching up with Santa Monica resident and GO Campaign's Founder and CEO, Scott Fifer. GO Campaign is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that invests in pioneering "Local Heroes" around the world to address the needs of vulnerable children. In addition to raising funds and granting money, GO Campaign supports and strengthens the ability of grassroots organizations to succeed in their mission and transform their communities. GO Campaign also works closely with donors, letting donors choose which projects resonate most with their passion. Donors are encouraged to adopt projects, and to visit and volunteer at any of their projects around the world. GO Campaign has been compared to a really good investment fund – they take your dollars and invest them in children and they do it wisely, in a diverse portfolio, for maximum results. But the common thread is those heroes, their proven track record, their commitment to serving children, where the money is accountable, and results are quantifiable. With the holidays upon us, it’s a time for giving, and Eden sat down with GO’s founder to talk about what inspires him to continue helping children around the world and to explain how we can all make a difference.

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At a GO Campaign project for disabled youth in Tanzania

Last we spoke (in January '17), GO Campaign was still celebrating its 10-year anniversary. Bring us to today: What has happened since then?

So much! When GO Campaign started in 2006, my goal was to help a group of 20 orphans in Tanzania. Now, 12 years later, we’ve helped over 125,000 children across 34 countries. Since I spoke to Eden readers at the start of 2017, we’ve been able to expand our work in the USA, especially in our own backyard of Los Angeles where we are now supporting programs for foster youth, girls empowerment, arts programming, tutoring, mentorship and more.

In addition, we’ve recently built a new campus in Tanzania for children with intellectual challenges such as autism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy and other special needs.

It will be a game-changer for special needs children and their families across East Africa.

Can you share more about what makes GO Campaign's model so unique?

We think differently. Instead of going in and imposing our ideas on a community, we simply go in and listen. We identify pioneering local heroes in communities around the world and we listen to them. We offer them our resources and expertise, but we always rely on them to know what is best for children in their communities. And our “Local Heroes” range from the celebrated, like Nobel Prize Winner Kailash Satyarthi in India and CNN Superhero Pushpa Basnet in Nepal, to the quiet and unknown, like school principal Jessica Flores in Peru and youth activists Anja Thiessen and Bianca Zaharescu in rural Mississippi.

And on the donor side, we listen there too. We want our donors to feel connected to their giving, to choose projects that resonate with them. You care about the Middle East? We have projects there you can help. You care about protecting girls from sex-trafficking? We have projects that do that. You like growing businesses? We have entrepreneurship and microloan programs that enable youth to become breadwinners for their families. We let our donors choose how they want to have an impact. From East L.A. to East Africa, from Compton to Cambodia, Harlem to Haiti, we’ve got a way for you to connect and make a difference.

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Visiting a GO Campaign supported school near Machu Picchu, Peru

How did GO Campaign get its start?

In 2006, I took a volunteer vacation to Africa and it completely changed my life. I came back to Los Angeles determined to help a small orphanage in Kilimanjaro where I volunteered. At first it was just friends and family who helped me, but word quickly spread and I teamed up with some passionate women in Los Angeles who helped raise even more funds and raise even greater awareness and together we were able to grow the organization to one that helps children globally.

Tell us about one of GO Campaign's current programs.

We’ve recently started helping children who have been separated from their families at the border. No matter what your thoughts on how to fix US immigration problems, I think we all can agree that children should not be the ones to suffer. We welcome donations for those who want to help reunite families and we can make sure it gets to where it is needed most. It’s a critical time for so many innocent children being held in detention centers across the country.

You have been practicing meditation and yoga for years.

How has that affected your worldview?

I’m not so good with the meditation, but I do practice yoga and I find it beneficial to find the calm amidst the struggle. Some poses are so challenging, but you learn to find your breath and keep calm, and you realize you can do this in the outside world too. When things seem crazy around you and life throws unexpected turns your way, yoga helps you know that ‘this too shall pass’ and I have the ultimate control about how I am going to react to any given situation.

I also practice gratitude when I can. I don’t do it nearly enough, but I always find it helpful when I do. I think the universe reacts well to people who are grateful for their blessings.

What are you most proud of?

There’s so much GO Campaign can be proud of, so many lives we’ve helped to save. They say if you save one life, you’ve made a difference, and so personally I am most proud of a young orphan from Tanzania named Leonce.

I first met him at an orphanage in 2008, and have been mentoring him and making sure he got a good education.

Today he’s in high school in Hawaii, and next year I’ll be helping him apply to colleges. His life is so different now than it was before, and I know he will go on to do great things in the world. The ripple effect that will come from changing just this one life is something I know I can always be proud of.

Who's your biggest inspiration?

I find inspiration in small, every day acts. Mostly from children. Children are naturally caring, naturally optimistic, naturally happy. That’s why it’s so important to nurture them from a young age. They inspire me to do the work I do because they really are our best hope for the future.

Think of what you want for your children, for your friend’s children, the lengths you rightfully go to make sure your children have access to the best opportunities – because you want the world for them – and you want them to make a better world – that’s what we want for kids everywhere.

Project by project we are leveling the playing field. Whether it’s by providing education, medical care, vocational training, nutrition, we want kids to have a fair chance.

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GO Campaign Gala Fundraising

To date, GO Campaign has invested $7,138,299 in projects worldwide, having a direct impact on 126,422 orphans and vulnerable children.

We often hear how giving - or giving back - also has a powerfully positive effect on the person doing the giving. Do you believe that?

Giving back helps you live longer! There’s science behind it! It releases chemicals in your body, much like exercise. In a way, giving back is actually selfish, because many people do it because it makes them feel so good. And there’s nothing wrong with that. When I spent that first month volunteering at the orphanage in Africa, I got so much more from those kids than I could ever give to them.

What keeps you up at night?

Albert Einstein said “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.” So I try to make sure I am always doing something about it. I often wake up thinking of ways to make GO Campaign better.

Sometimes that means thinking up ways to raise more money, because money helps us reach more children in need. And children in need are what really keep me up at night. Refugee children from Syria, from Myanmar.

Child soldiers in the Congo. Children being shot in Chicago. There are so many more children who need our help, who deserve our help.

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Where do you see GO Campaign in another 10 years?

I probably shouldn’t even try to answer that question, because if you asked me that question 10 years ago, I never would have imagined the success we’ve achieved now. I never could have imagined we’d have helped change the lives of children across 34 countries.

I can only hope that in 10 years, we continue to identify and lift up the most pioneering and remarkable local heroes who are dedicating and often risking their lives to give opportunity to children in their communities. That’s what GO stands for: Giving Opportunity.

In this political climate, many people are discouraged, angry, or simply don't know where to start to fix things.

What advice would you give on how to overcome this?

We need to start by listening to each other. Just like GO Campaign listens to the people on the ground, we all need to listen to each other and engage in more civil conversation. It also helps to divert your attention to helping others. Be part of the solution. Donate to a cause that inspires you. Find somewhere to volunteer. Focus on someone other than yourself. And you can start small. The smallest actions can have the greatest ripple effects.

Outro/Sidebar call-out: To donate, volunteer or get involved, visit www.GOCampaign.org Special Thank you to Scott Fifer for the interview photography by Doria Anselmo - for the cover

We invest your donations in programs that address the root causes of problems affecting orphans and vulnerable children throughout the world.

Together, we are changing lives and transforming communities, one child at a time.

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Have you seen Gretchen?!

Missing since 11/11/2016 Please contact us

info@theedenmagazine.com

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Two Birds Visit from Beyond

By Lynn B. Robinson, PhD

Standing with painters in a front bedroom, discussing new wall color, I heard tapping at the window. A beautiful bird, unlike any I had seen, was looking in at us, tapping. We moved across the hall to another bedroom and again heard tapping. The bird had moved with us.

I was delighted. I thought little more about it until later. Sitting alone in my bedroom in the back of the house, I again heard tapping at a window. The same bird was there, looking in, its beak tapping, tapping.

More curious, I went downstairs to find and consult a bird book. I could not find a bird that shared the size, color or the exact structure of what I had begun to think of as a special visitor.

The bird came again the next day, and tapped on the window where I stood in the kitchen, on the opposite side of the house and on a different level from the bedrooms. Now I was more than curious. I delighted in the possibility that I had an ethereal visitor.

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In my just published book, Loving to the End…and On, A Guide to the Impossibly Possible, I told the story of a friend whose mother had once told her that if she could, she would visit after death as a certain kind of bird, and she did, as an entire flock of those birds! I also told the story of a cousin who told me she’d use a butterfly postmortem to contact me, and at her funeral there was a swarm of small yellow butterflies. I told other similar stories.

My mother kept several bird books at hand in her den.

She loved birds. My dad bought bird feed to encourage their visits. No, I did not think it was either deceased parent; it did not feel that way.

The ethereal visitor bird appeared at various windows in various parts of the house and at different times of day.

Tap, tap, tap. Once, he even appeared at a window in what I call my husband’s “man-cave,” telling him “hello.”

Some months prior to my bird visits I had learned, posthumously, a life long friend had developed an interest in migratory bird patterns and for years was a volunteer participant in a national bird migration study. I suppose that shouldn’t have been surprising. He was wicked funny, a PhD writer and scholar, an ordained minister, and perpetually curious. His injury in a high school football game had required serious, life-changing surgery. It is probable he had what years later Dr. Raymond Moody termed a near-death experience (NDE) that influenced his scholarship, his life’s work, and his openness to possibility.

A short time after my friend’s death, his wife told me that when she visited his gravesite, she would see lots of birds there. They comforted her; they made her feel as though her husband was nearby. Her husband, my friend, might have reminded us that Albert Einstein had written, “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

Still I wondered was my friend responsible for our special visitor? There is no way I can say with certainty.

Here’s what I know. I had never seen a bird like the one tapping at my windows nor could I find him in my bird book. For a few weeks, he tapped at windows in seven different rooms in our home, at different times, and on numerous different days. Each time “my” bird tapped until I or my husband or both of us acknowledged his presence.

And here is another thing I know. My recently deceased friend had been my go-to guy on Biblical history and

meaning, on philosophy, and on assorted esoteric topics.

He could read manuscripts in English and in Greek. He remained open to my proclivity toward expanded consciousness experiences. He listened patiently to my recounting of personal communication with those no longer in physical bodies.

Was my friend in collaboration with a bird or posthumously using a bird’s body to continue or to verify our esoteric lifetime discussions? I thought about those possibilities. In the last few days of the tapping, the bird brought a companion to the window, one that appeared to be female: about the same size, same beak, and compatible coloring. They were playful in their window tapping.

The second time-the final time-they tapped, I experienced incredible delight. Had he teamed up with another lifelong friend who had left her body within months of his departure?

In Loving to the End…and On, A Guide to the Impossibly Possible, I mention that very close lifelong friend who, as she was dying, told her daughters the birds had come to get her. And I tell of one of her daughters hearing birds singing in her car as she drove home from the hospital following her mother’s death. Was that friend the energy of this female bird? I smiled each time I asked myself that question because both friends were playful enough, mischievous enough, to have teamed up to test and to delight me.

Fantasy, wishful thinking, or reality? It is easy for me to imagine my two friends having a wonderful time pressing me to own up to the limitless possibilities I enjoy espousing. If forced to choose, I say reality. They are not gone.

They remain my friends.

I enjoyed their visit and cherish their love.

h Lynn B. Robinson, PhD is a professor emerita of marketing and a former business consultant, an author and speaker, a hospice and community service organizations volunteer, and facilitator for a local affiliate of IANDS, she is the author of Loving To The End…And ON www.lynnbrobinson.com 17 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

Sirgun

Kaur

sacred songstress and Kundalini Yoga instructor

It was after a three-day meditation event in New Mexico that Sirgun Kaur first understood the healing power of music.

In 2010, she had just broken up with her first love, and even though she knew she was at the brink of enormous possibility, her emotions were shaky. To the newcomer that she was, sitting with her arms raised, staring into another person’s eyes for up to 62 minutes, seemed like a bizarre form of spiritual torture. Sirgun Kaur reached the tipping point during a prolonged period of chanting "I am bountiful, blissful and beautiful." She began to wail uncontrollably for seemingly no reason. She felt embarrassed, vulnerable, and not a little bit resentful of the meditation’s effect on her. But when she returned home, she realized something amazing had taken place.

One of the first things she read as she crossed the threshold of her studio apartment back in California, was a disappointing email from her old beau. In the past, this would have sent 18 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

her down a spiral of despair. Instead, she biked to yoga class.

During final relaxation, she recalled the email and began laughing hysterically. It was as uncontrollable as the crying in New Mexico. As she walked out of class, still laughing, she realized that she could not access the pain of this breakup anymore. I was dumb struck. The situation simply did not feel sad anymore.

The ability to dissolve her issues into the nothingness from which they came is something she has come to expect from her chanting practice. At the time though, this seemed like a miracle.

Sirgun Kaur was raised moving back and forth between two continents. As a result, she never felt “at home” anywhere.

Initially, used music as an emotional outlet for this sense of displacement. Music was for a very long time, Sirgun Kaur vehicle for complaint.

Photography by Amar Atma Singh Khalsa

"In chanting we use mantras. A mantra is a tool for “tuning” the mind. In order for a guitar to sound good, each string must vibrate in resonance with the whole instrument. Similarly, in order for life to feel good, the mind must vibrate in resonance with its WHOLE. Yogis believe we are infinite beings in a temporary finite form. We are only whole when we unite this finite human form with our infinite Self. That is the meaning of yoga-Union." Sirgun Kaur says.

"The purpose of the mantra is to entrain the mind in a repetitive task for two simple reasons: 1. to take attention away from thought patterns that do not serve us (i.e. “I am unworthy”, “I am limited”...), and then 2. to bring attention towards thought patterns that do serve us. Mantras translate to very vast and universal concepts like (“Creator and Creation Are One”, or “Yay God!”)".

"Along with rerouting our focus, chanting mantras in the Kundalini Yoga tradition trigger the tongue to tap on the meridian lines of the upper palate. Science is now proving something yogis have known for thousands of years: chanting changes brain chemistry. It is no wonder that I was able to completely dissolve emotions about a painful breakup through chanting."

Chanting has been even more of a blessing to her since becoming a mother. She has two young boys whom she homeschools, so there is not always time for meditation without disruption, or a strenuous yoga practice. However, She can chant mantras either silently or out loud, pretty much anytime and anywhere. She can chant while she is driving car, washing dishes, picking up toys, waiting in line at the post office, or nursing her toddler to sleep. In other words, anyone can get the benefit of being “in tune” while accomplishing daily tasks.

In the spirit of finding more and more accessible ways to “retune”, Sirgun Kaur has created her latest album, -8 (pronounced “minus eight”) in the healing frequency of 432 hertz. She chose this name because standard tuning is at 440 hertz, and the album was recorded in 432 hertz--or 440 minus 8. Proponents of this tuning claim that it creates a more soothing human response, since it is in harmony with the natural vibration of the Earth. This gives the listener an even greater opportunity to find resonance with who they are while chanting along, or just passively listening.

"Being in tune feels like peace, like joy, like freedom. Healing is the natural result because every cell of our body is constantly seeking balance. We impede this balance with our habitual negative thought patterns, our stress, our anger… Chanting allows the find to focus on something real and good, so that our innate healing can happen unhindered. Put differently, chanting mantras allows us to get out of our own way and let Grace flow through us. Even though it is the natural course of things, it never stops feeling like a miracle."

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Photography by Jake J. Thomas

Photography by Harimander Singh Khalsa

When she began practicing yoga and chanting, a gradual shift happened within, and she could no longer motivate herself to perform her old sad songs. Her parents were puzzled, as they had always supported her creativity and dreams. But it was in the silence of this break from songwriting that Sirgun Kaur found her voice as a sacred chant artist.

Photography by Jake J. Thomas

The Magic of a Gift

By Nancy E. Yearout

A sneak preview for the holidays from Nancy E. Yearout new book Entitlement Mindset

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This next story will not only give you hope, it will make you believe in the magic of Christmas.

It was late October when I realized that old man winter had come to stay. I needed a new winter coat, so off to the department store I went. Some people like to go and look and window shop, but not me. At this time in my life, I wanted to make my purchase and head for home.

It was a Saturday afternoon when I landed at my favorite department store. I was making my way to the women’s coats when I saw an awesome purse and stopped to admire it. I heard someone from behind the glass counter say, “Isn’t that a fabulous bag?” I was a little startled by the saleslady who seemed to show up out of nowhere.

She was a delightful girl, probably in her early thirties, in her holiday sweater with matching earrings. She was smiling at me from ear to ear as she gave me the details of the handbag. It was plain to see that she loved her job and the Christmas holiday.

As we visited, she told me that her name was Delaney.

She spoke about working at this store for many years and how she enjoyed her job. Delaney shared with me how much she loved Christmas and that she felt the holiday was magical. She spoke about the difficulties of raising a young son as a single mom. I explained that I was a single mom as well and understood the challenges of raising a child on your own. I told her that I was a real estate gent who loved my career path also. She expressed to me that she would love to buy a house but did not think

she could afford it. I mentioned to her that there were all kinds of first time home buyer’s programs with incentives to help you buy a home. She confided in me that she would love to buy a house for Christmas and surprise her young son. She looked at me and said in a quiet yet serious tone, “Do you believe in Christmas miracles?”

I was a bit taken back by her words and replied, “Yes, I do believe in miracles, especially at Christmas time.”

“Well,” she said in a low voice, “I asked for a house for Christmas last night before I went to sleep and here you are!” The look on her face was priceless, and I am sure the look on mine was priceless too. Now I was wondering if this girl was for real or not. I mean, I came to the mall to buy a coat, and now I was supposed to create a Christmas miracle?

As we talked further, she explained to me that Christmas was her favorite time of year and felt that this time of year held magic. I did not want to give her any false expectations. I cannot produce Christmas miracles, I thought. But I can help her buy a house.

We had spoken only briefly about her work history, when I explained that the best thing she could do was to get preapproved for a mortgage. I gave her a couple names of mortgage brokers in the area and gave her my business card. I asked her to contact me when she knew what price range and monthly payment that she was comfortable with. We parted ways, and I felt like I had met a new friend.

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A week or so had passed when I received a call from Delaney. She was very excited and a bit winded when she called. She explained that she had visited a lender and she had the green light to go shopping for a home. Now, the down side was she was approved for $89,000 and wanted to live near her work and her son’s school in the area of town of higher priced homes. I was very excited for her but thought, “How am I going to find her what she wants for that \price?” This would be a Christmas miracle if I could pull this off!

never forget her and the lesson she taught me about the miracles that happen at Christmastime when you believe.

I hopped on the computer and pulled up any homes or condos in her price range in the area that she wanted to live. I was surprised to find a couple condos for sale. I made the appointments, and Delaney and I went shopping. I remember that day like it was yesterday. The weather was cool, and the wind was blowing when we pulled up to the first listing. I can still recall the fallen crisp leaves swirling around in the parking lot of the condominiums. This condominium was vacant. As we entered, we both realized that this one needed a lot of TLC. Delaney was a single mom, she needed something that was in good shape that did not need so much work. We were both a bit frustrated but drove to the next condo.

We all need to believe in a power that is bigger than ourselves; we are not alone. ~Nancy Yearout

We looked at a couple more, but they were rundown and a bit overpriced. We had one more to look at that was in her price range and location parameters. As we pulled into the parking lot she commented that this would be a perfect location for her. I agreed. I took the key out of the lockbox and unlocked the front door. As I opened the door and walked in I could not believe my eyes. This place was beautiful. It had fresh paint, new carpet, and two levels and was in pristine condition. We both looked at each other and double checked the price on the brochure that was on the kitchen counter. I checked the association fees and the taxes, and all was within reason. We went upstairs to the bedrooms. There were two nice-sized bedrooms upstairs with a bathroom up and down. We were ecstatic. I immediately called the Realtor to find out if there were any offers on the place.

There were not. The Realtor was super helpful. Delaney and I headed back to my office to write up an offer. Well, needless to say, the deal went through without a hitch. Delaney would close before Christmas. She had not told her son about the new home. She confided in me that she was going to make a key and wrap it up in a box for Christmas and then take her son to their new home on Christmas Eve “What a cool mom she is,” I thought. This story has a happy ending. We closed on her home as planned and she and her son had been given a Christmas miracle. I will 24 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

A New Mind-Set: When you believe with unwavering faith and let go of the outcome, miracles will occur. It is difficult to believe in something that you cannot see, but once you do, your entire life will change for the better. True unwavering faith in God/Spirit will set you free. When life gets tough, give your worries over to God. Release and worry to a higher power than yourself and believe!

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” ~John 20:27

Nancy E. Yearout is an author, a spiritual life coach, and a motivational speaker. Nancy has enjoyed an extensive corporate career as a sales coordinator with one of the Big Three automakers in Detroit. Her sales, management, and marketing skills have grown with each step of her business.

Her success has blessed her with the real life experience, knowledge, and common sense that is required to help others through life’s challenges.

Nancy has been fortunate to acquire hands-on energy healing skills from an Aztec healer from Mexico, and she has helped many balance their energy fields.

She has received guidance from religious and spiritual teachers along the way, resulting in the development of her skills as an intuitive, a tarot card reader, and a life coach.

She utilizes these tools to guide her clients to joyful and successful lives. Nancy is the author of Wake Up! The Universe Is Speaking To You. www.TheEnergyProphet.com

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Les Stroud An interview with

Environmentalist, Musician & Filmmaker

For many years, environmentalist, musician and filmmaker Les Stroud has used his groundbreaking TV show Survivorman as the principle vehicle for conveying his mission to celebrate and protect nature.

Now, he’s combining his love for the environment with his other passion: music. On his fifth full-length album Bittern Lake (June 1), the Canadian singer-songwriter issues an urgent call for environmental preservation with a collection of songs produced by Mike Clink (Guns ’N Roses Appetite for Destruction, Metallica).

Elsewhere on Bittern Lake, Stroud displays considerable songwriting chops of his own. “Snowshoes and Solitude” could be described as Northern blues, as Stroud meditates on escaping to “a world of wind and water” above the Arctic Circle, where he’s alone with the caribou and the aurora borealis. “How Long” is a wakeup call disguised as a plaintive folk ballad, wondering if it’s too late for humanity to realize “time’s no longer on our side.

Stroud has logged his 10,000 hours in music. He began playing guitar and writing songs at 14, and by his early twenties was a published songwriter with RCA/BMG Music. He later put music aside to focus on his burgeoning career as a filmmaker and outdoor adventurer — but a chance gig on one of his many wilderness trips rekindled his passion for music.

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Tell us about yourself, and when you decided tobecome a musician?

I think – based on my career in adventure and documentary film making, people would like to hear the cliché: “I was raised by wolves in the deep forest”. But in fact it's a fairly benign and what I would describe as boring, upbringing. I grew up in a west end suburb of Toronto, Ontario called Mimico during the 70’s, drinking beer and listening to Led Zepplin, Supertramp and all the rest. However it was in grade 8 first where my internal passion for music really landed home. That year we studied the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in music class and right then and there I knew my life had to have music as a major component if not main focus.

What was it about wilderness adventure that got you doing what you do?

My life was always on, and continues to always be on, two tracks. One is nature and the other music.The first passion was my inherent love of the natural world and given the fact that it was a decade of TV expansion, it was there that I watched with envy Jacques Cousteau films and Tarzan movies. That TV viewing would then be enhanced by my trips to the family cottage where I would spend days out in the woods playing and building little shelters.

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"Sometimes the stars align, and as far as putting out this music now and having all these people behind it, it’s very much the right place and the right time."

What can you share with our readers about nature and how people can connect to it?

I can start by saying that you don't have to become Survivorman and travel to Peru or Madagascar. Though it may be stifled by the confines of concrete and steel in the cities, nature is still always there. It’s always around you, always pushing through the cracks and trying to hard to show you its life. All you really need is a tree. A patch of trees? Even better. A small forest or your neighborhood park, better yet. Sitting in amongst nature you cannot avoid being healed by the energy of the forest or of the plants, water, animals and rocks around you. This is science now; not new age philosophy. Just the sight of a tree out through a hospital window causes a patient to heal faster and require less pain killers. Think on that fact for a second. Then go out and sit by a tree. A forest is aroma therapy times a billion! In Japan they have something called Shin Rin Yoku. “Forest Bathing”. Go out into a forest and allow it to bath you in healing and strengthening energies. Again I repeat; this is proven science now.

How does your love of nature resonant within your music?

Though I certainly write love songs and social commentaries, I have chosen to focus on something I know so well. Something I am personally and profoundly affected by; nature. So my lyrics reflect that. Sometimes they celebrate a place like in my song “Arctic Mistress”. Sometimes they are my own frustration and even anger as in my new release “How Long”. It is a niche that I feel completely at home with.

You are a musician and filmmaker, are these two directions relating to each other, or are they separate work for you.

The two worlds of my creative expression; music and film making tend to exist in a shuffling balance. Sometimes my film making (and thusly my adventuring) take over and control my days as with all the years filming Survivorman, Beyond Survival and Survivorman Bigfoot. Sometimes music takes the drivers seat, as when I am on tour or in the studio for a few weeks recording.

How do you feel about the spiritual world and how And though they jockey for position of mastering my time, they can that resonant within your work?

I feel that the purest spiritual world is nature. There is also tend to support and even boost each other. nothing that does not originate in nature. Not this computer I’m typing on, not the TV I used to watch Tarzan You are an environmentalist, and have traveled all over the movies on, not my guitar not my food. They all came world, what message do you have for our readers. from nature. Our very life originates and is sustained Get outside (and into a natural space). Breathe deep. Because by nature. So our spiritual selves also originate from the first I want you to re-connect with the natural world. Then you natural world. You can’t get a more clearer, or ominous, will remember how vital it is. How desperately dependent upon metaphor for how we treat ourselves as a species, as the it we are. How you react when you see what we are doing to it way we treat nature. My goal, my mission, has always will be up to you. Perhaps you will react with a burning pasbeen to re-connect people with nature. So whether in sion to fix things. or you will react with a burning anger to stop my film work or the lyrics of my songs or even the actual atrocities. Perhaps you will react with a deep love to learn more sounds used within the music of my songs, my mission about nature and share that with others. I can’t point out which is, I would say, a spiritual one; to re-connect people to the cause for nature to fight or argue for. There are too many and they are added to each year. So first; get outside. natural word.

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What place that your travelled to touched your heart and why?

For beauty I always like to point to the Utah Canyon lands, the High Arctic or the Peruvian Andes. However deep within the Amazon rain forest is where I always feel some strange sense of my deepest connection. Even just saying this I feel like I’m betraying a thousand other beautiful places. So maybe its just because I grew up watching Tarzan. I don't know. But the jungle has always felt so comfortable to me. So primal. So raw.

How can people be conscious about our planet, what do we need to do to save our planet?

Save our planet. That's an interesting phrase isn’t it? It’s us that need the saving. The planet is not separate from us. It is us. And we are it. Realizing this might be a good start. We are not here with dominion over anything. Yes, we can level mountains, eradicate species, trench oceans and all the rest. But we are a blip in time. We are a tiny little species and like a parasite we are destroying that which feeds us. That which gives us our very lives; the natural world. The planet. Yet there is hope of course. I live in the fear that we are going to self-fulfill our own prophecies and turn this place into something that looks like Blade Runner when I would prefer that we maybe head more towards Star Wars where there are still vast tracks of natural world and beautiful forests. (Which btw was shot in the west coast rain forests.) To be conscious about our planet we first have to become conscious period. And many of us are not. Ignorance is not bliss. It is ….ignorant. So again I say; get outside and become conscious.

Now let me take that a step further. I believe there are three ways in which we live and carry out our lives.

Selfishly, Community based or Globally. Living selfishly is important and has its time and place such as studying in school, practicing as an artist, training as an athlete working towards becoming a mathematician or a doctor or journalist etc. This is an important way to be…for a time. And it can occur at any time in life. But staying in the selfish mode should not be the end in and of itself. That would simply be living, as the title implies, selfishly and therefor is not living effectually. There would be no seeking to live altruistically or to the betterment of other people or the planet when you get stuck in a constantly inwardly focused existence. Then there is living in a community-based sense; the soccer dads and coaches, the groups who meet to clean up a river, contribution to the local arts or schools, volunteering etc. Globally living, though it might seem on the outside like an ambitious

or grandiose way to live and think, is also vital and important. It is what I like to call the John Lennon way of living: “I don't want to reach 10 people, I want to reach ten million”. And yes of course these three ways of being will dovetail and have hybrid versions.

So if we think about all this in terms of environmental consciousness, it becomes a choice for us to make. That choice might be joining that local clean up group for the badly polluted creek running through town (living community based). Studying to become a marine biologist with the eventual outcome to make use of this knowledge for the community or globe (selfishly based living). Or trying to save the oceans (globally based). Three ways to be. Pick one or blend them.

Your documentary film “Snowshoes” and “Solitude” was named as Best Documentary at the Muskoka Film Festival and Best Film at the Waterwalker Film Festival, please tell us about it.

This is actually from the year 2000. It was my first ever foray into film-making. After years of being an adventure guide I determined, with my then wife, that spending a full year out in the woods would make for an incredible life experience. Of course I was bang-on with that belief and everything I have done since was been affected by all that I learned and experienced that year in the bush. Snowshoes and Solitude is a simple yet, I believe, profound and romantic film about escaping it all and truly experiencing the natural rhythms of the earth.

http://www.lesstroud.ca

First we reconnect with Mother Earth.

Then we fight for her.

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WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT Interview with Jaleh

Modjallal aka Zsa Zsa Modjallal

Jaleh Modjallal (aka Zsa Zsa Modjallal) is an Iranian born actress known for her work in the award winning film "The House of Sand and Fog" and in the television series "Sleeper Cell". She began her career in a performance of "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the Pasadena Playhouse, where her love of acting took hold. She refined her craft training with the likes of Jeff Corey and Leonard Nimoy. Although noted for dramatic supporting work, Jaleh is also adept at comedy, often as a straight man to the lead, as evidenced in her role in the 2018 romantic comedy, "Simple Wedding". Residing in Los Angeles, CA, Jaleh spent over 20 years in the UK and Norway and speaks fluent English and Farsi.

Zsa Zsa diagnosted with cancer in 2008, and 2015, it was a great challenge that she has to face in her life. Here we had a privilege to sit down and speak to Zsa Zsa about her life.

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Please tell us about yourself.

I was born 1941 in Tehran, Iran. My parents were both well-educated and had lived in France for 10 years, when my only sibling, a brother 7 years older, was born in Paris. My father was a physician and a professor at the University of Tehran and my mother taught languages.

Predictably, they sent my brother to study medicine in the US and my mother and I followed him. My father was always in trensite. I finished my high school years as a typical American girl (hanging out with my friends, going to the movies and concerts, that sort of thing).

We also had a home in Tehran, so in 1968 I visited and fell in love with a country that I hardly knew or spoke the language. During that time, I also fell in love with an Iranian and married him. That marriage, unfortunately, did not work out, so in 1978 I moved to Europe.

For almost 20 years, I lived in London and spent much of the time traveling around Europe and appreciating everything about those cultures and societies, taking in theatre and the arts. By chance, I met a beautiful Norwegian man, who was the love of my life. We spent many wonderful years together in London and Oslo. Sadly, he passed away so I moved back to Los Angeles to be with my family. This was in 1998; once here, I realized this is where I’ll always stay, it really is my home.

You are an actress who played in House of Sand and Fog" and in the television series "Sleeper Cell" to name a few, when you started your acting, and what inspired you to become an actress?

As a child I loved movies.

My parents would take my brother and me to the movies only occasionally, so it was a special treat for me when they did. But once I was in the US, I had so many more opportunities to enjoy the cinema as a teenager. I even worked selling candies at a movie theatre while in junior high. So not only did I put on the pounds but I got to see every movie that came out every week or two. The actresses of the 1960s were all beautiful, like Raquel Welch, Natalie Wood, etc. But then one day I saw Anna Magnani in the Rose Tattoo!!! That was it! That was all I wanted to be, an Italian actress but to the disappointment of my parents, I started to study at the Pasadena Playhouse, and also took coaching with Jeff Cory and Leonard Nimoy.

I had a well-known agent and went to many auditions; I started to perform in the theatre and a little bit in television and movies. Because this was the 60’s, there weren’t many roles for women outside the role of the “girl next door”, so I auditioned for Latina and Native Americans.

As noted, I visited Iran in 1968 and realized the Iranian cinema was changing and becoming more progressive.

Wanting to be a part of that, I started working behind the scenes in production. It was at this time that I met my best friend to be for over 45 years and counting, Shohreh Aghdashloo. It was her first role and the lead and I was in charge of the production of The Wind Chess (aka The Chess of the Wind).

Tell us about your upcoming movie “Simple Wedding” I had just finished my cancer treatments and dealing with my new physical problems when I was offered the role of my lifetime, I could not refuse! Although I gained weight due to the depression and sedentary lifestyle, I accepted and I am so grateful. It was the perfect medicine to give me back some of who I was.....an actor!

It’s a romantic comedy about a young Iranian American woman, and the lengths she goes to in order to appease her parents and their need to see her settled down. I’d sum it up in three words: Compassion, Acceptance, and Tolerance. Those are the themes I think viewers will take away from this film.

You are also a cancer survivor, How did you feel when you were first diagnosed with cancer?

I didn't feel scared but I felt a wall of sadness wash over me. It was in 2008 at the age of 67 I had my annual mammogram, the following day they called and wanted me back for an Ultrasound. The next time they called was to tell me on the phone, yes I had a malignant tumor Who was the first person you shared about your cancer?

I remember sitting alone thinking this is not going to be a good year. Of course I immediately called my family to share the news. I was scheduled for a lumpectomy and the results showed that I would need double mastectomy due to the type of breast cancer I had.

I remember my brother, a retired physician, had come with me. Sitting in Dr. Armando Giuliano's office at Cedars –Sinai, After the surgery I was given the good news that I did not need any treatments since it was caught early and it had not affected my lymph nodes. So I was to take medication daily for 5 years.

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What was your biggest challenge during cancer treatment?

As far as cosmetically, I chose to have implants. I had expanders placed under the muscles and, over a period of six months, I got the implants, and I went about my life as much as I could. But admittedly, I felt broken.

How did you find a strength to go through the treatment?

In 2015 while taking a shower, I felt a lump on top of my left breast again.

And yes it had come back as two different types of cancer. This time there was plenty to worry about.

My wonderful surgeon at Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Farin Amerci came to help me and was able to save some skin. So for a second time I had expanders and had silicone implants. I needed 7 weeks of radiation daily, and 4 sessions of chemo therapy over a period of 2 months. I must say second time around was terribly hard and I was very depressed and hopeless at times, and this is where I want to share the importance of love and support from family and friends. I am so lucky to have had both and still do. When I speak of love and support from friends, anyone would be lucky to have a friend like Shohreh Aghdasloo, an angel who was there for me and would not allow me to worry about anything; she inspired me, gave me hope and so much love. Along with the amazing support from my family, I think I am very blessed.

How did you overcome your fears of treatment? And the side effects?

Of course I have side effects from the chemo; I have neuropathy and am still fighting fatigue. What has saved me mentally is doing about an hour of lap swimming every other day. obviously any exercise is the key.

In life we face many challenges, once we facing it you realize, how strong we really are!

So, indeed the support from family and friends, and the love of acting help me to stay focus and think positive. In life we face challenges over and over, but to trusting our-

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selves keep us going. And this is how I overcome the fear of the treatment and side effects.

Are you encouraging others to join a support group and why?

I didn’t reach out to any support group, my support group was my family and friends.

Every cancer patient should have strong support group.

Many researches showing that cancer can be treat it with natural remedy, Do you believe that cancer can be treated through natural treatment?

Well, I am sure there are many ways that natural remedy can help patients, but for me I felt I just trust my medical doctors, I felt I am in a good hands and this is the route I needed to peruse. I belivealso that every cancer patient should have the choice.

How you feel now, and what would you like to share with our readers about fighting the cancer?

I feel very good, but of course I am always ready to face the challenge again. My message to all those people who are going through the same situation as I did, is to stay positive, and know that we are not without the power, reach out to whatever, you think it works for you. Luckily we live in the era that there are many sources out there to help us.

Wisdom of King Solomon

By Haim Shapira, Ph. D

As It Is “Ecclesiastes argues that the day on which we leave this life is better than the day we joined it. If my book were a musical work, I’d place four empty bars right here. We must have some silence after reading the last line and before we move on to the next. “…Against your will you were created, and against your will you were born, and against your will you live, and against your will you die, and against your will you are destined to give account and reckoning before the King of kings...” (Ethics of the Fathers, 4:22).

The story by Ryunosuke (who committed suicide at the age of 35; just a fact) goes on to say that the number of fetuses who choose not to see the outside world keeps rising, until at one point the authorities start considering a barbaric notion: Bringing babies into the world without asking them!

His tale and the horrifying statement by the Sages gave rise to the following idea: I do not speak the language of unborn babies nor am I a prophet, but I could ask people who have seen many a day under the sun whether they would relive their lives, given a chance.

I decided to ask my father first. He was not a young man – a Holocaust survivor who experienced hardships and much agony in his life. I assure you it was not easy for me to pose that question to him, but I summoned enough courage and asked whether he would live his entire life all over again, if he could.

Surprisingly, he did not hesitate and immediately said, “Yes, I would,” adding that it was not even a tough call for him. “I did not have to think much because I experienced quite a few amazing things in my life that made the whole life worth repeating, despite the horrors I encountered.”

I was a little surprised and very happy.

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Since I do not know enough people of the appropriate research age, I asked my father to survey his friends and relatives on their willingness to repeat their lives.

He took a few days to conduct his clearly-unscientific telephone poll. The questions were posed in Yiddish, which is a clever and beautiful language, but produced very few science papers, if at all. My father’s friends were not only less certain than he was, but some of them said they did not want to live their lives again at all, while others could not provide a conclusive answer even when he asked them to stop telling stories and just say, yes or no. One of his lady friends said she would repeat her life, but only up to her wedding and not a day further. She violated the rules of the game of course, but I found it most interesting that she would not relive not only her old age, but even her childbirths and childrearing days. …and years shall come for which, you will say, I have no need. (Ecclesiastes 12:1)” The Unbearable Shortness of Being “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem: Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor which he does under the sun? One generation passes away and another generation comes, but the earth abides forever.

Wow! What an exemplary opening! What an unequivocal statement right at the beginning! And the words! And the rhythm! (Forgive the exclamation marks; this opening statement amazes me every time I read it, especially in Hebrew).

As noted, when I first read the Scroll of Ecclesiastes in an Israeli high school, I did not have enough Hebrew to comprehend it. Reading the Scroll in Russian, I discovered that I don’t have enough days under the sun to grasp its profundity.

My first true reading of the original Hebrew version occurred when I was in my early twenties. Let me tell you: It is a great pleasure to just read the Bible with no mediators or interpreters, without teachers and knowledge graders, without fear. The Scroll of Ecclesiastes made such a huge impression on me that I decided to learn it by heart so that I’ll always have it with me.

This great book of soul-searching, as Prof Yeshayahu Leibowitz referred to it, has been discussed by scholars, thinkers, and commentators of all ages. It was observed 38 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COMe December 2018

from every angle. No stone in it was left unturned, and then they were turned again.

The first word of the actual text is hevel. Studies have found that 38 of the 73 times that word appears in the Old Testament - more than half - are in Ecclesiastes. When one word so frequently appears in such as small volume, we should examine its meaning before we too delve into the book itself.

My Hebrew-Hebrew dictionary offers the following definitions of hevel - 1) hot air, vapor that comes out of a breathing mouth; 2) steam; 3) something worthless, a thing of folly; 4) in vain, for nothing. A few entries later we find hevel havalim (vanity of vanities), which the dictionary explains as “absolute folly”, or something “devoid of substance, unreal”.

[The aforementioned] Klein and Fuchs suggest that the word could also mean “absurd” - a situation or an event that defy reason. This is an interesting meeting point between the Biblical poet and Albert Camus, the Philosopher of Absurd: In his major work The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus discusses the absurdity of existence and the rebellion against this meaninglessness. As may be recalled, the ancient Greek gods punished Sisyphus by forcing him to roll a heavy rock up a hill to the summit, but when he gets there, the rock rolls right back down and he is doomed to climb down and resume his futile mission. Surprisingly, Camus does not believe that Sisyphus’ life is filled with nothing but vanities and suffering. In the final sentence of this essay he even wrote that Sisyphus may be considered a happy man after all.

I was not surprised to discover that people who attempted to translate hevel havalim encountered some serious problems. Russian and English versions I examined offer diverse and often very different interpretations of this opening statement. Guessing that most of my dear readers are not fluent in Russian, I decided to focus on several English renditions.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Absolutely pointless! Everything is pointless.

Futility of futilities, all is futile.

Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher.

Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.

Here, Kohelet is translated into “teacher”, though I have seen it rendered as “preacher” and even “leader of the assembly.” (the most precise translation is “gatherer”).

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Absolutely pointless! Everything is pointless.

Futility of futilities, all is futile.

Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher.

Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.

Here, Kohelet is translated into “teacher”, though I have seen it rendered as “preacher” and even “leader of the assembly.” (the most precise translation is “gatherer”).

Though “vanity” is the most common translation of hevel, that is a problem for English speakers because with its numerous meanings (including ‘makeup table’), vanity speaks primarily of pride, the cardinal sin of hubris, one of the seven deadly sins. Yet, the opening statement of Ecclesiastes has very little to do with pride - with the exception of one very interesting aspect: Despair may be viewed as a grave extension of pride in the sense that a desperate person may be too proud and vain to believe that not even God can help him here.

Thus, such despair is pride combined with blasphemy.

Either way, my translation of choice for hevel is ‘fleeting’ - something that goes by in an instant, like beer foam, leaving very little trace behind.

Thus, in my humble opinion the first line of Solomon’s Scroll should be translated as: Fleeting, everything is fleeting.

When Ecclesiastes says that “childhood and youth are hevel”, I tend to believe that meant to say that every period of our lives ends swiftly, and did not mean to say they were lived in vain and folly. Even Arthur Schopenhauer believed childhood to be a wonderful period during which the child, who is not yet aware of sex and death, may experience periods of true bliss. Dostoevsky maintained that lovely childhood memories that we keep and cherish could be very helpful in particularly hard times.

Everything is fleeting or, as Heraclitus said, you cannot enter the same river twice because both you and the river are in a constant flux…”

Joseph Burgo, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist and the author of The Narcissist You Know: Defending Yourself Against Extreme Narcissists in an All-About-Me World (Touchstone, 2015) and Why Do I Do That? Psychological Defense Mechanisms and the Hidden Ways They Shape Our Lives (2012). His blog, AfterPsychotherapy, draws more than 25,000 visits per months. A regular writer and commentator for news outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and NPR, Joe is also the voice behind thePsychology Today blog “Shame.”

Joe provides face-to-face video psychotherapy through a secure online platform to clients in Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as throughout North America. He has practiced psychotherapy for more than 30 years, holding licenses as a marriage and family therapist and clinical psychologist. He He earned his undergraduate degree at UCLA and his masters and doctorate degrees from California Graduate institute in Los Angeles. He has taught at the graduate level and served as a board member, officer and instructor at an affiliate of the International Psychoanalytic Association.

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Reclaming Your True Self

By Angela Dunning

Conscious Releasing

Photography by Susan Gietka 40 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

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A very real but often overlooked paradox in the act of letting go is that in order to genuinely release something that no longer serves us, we must first be willing to really hold it. In other words, it must be made fully conscious to us before we let go.

Many spiritual and healing approaches advocate ‘letting go’ as an essential part of growth. While I clearly see the benefit of developing this ability, this is frequently the sole and primary goal of healing, often bypassing an essential, initial stage.

In my experience, I have found that it is impossible to let go of something that we did not really hold in the first place. Any pattern or habit we wish to be free of has to be fully excavated, examined and loved by us if we are ever to be truly free of its power over us.

Often, it is our unhealthy habits, behaviours, or thought patterns that we wish to be free of. It is also frequently our pain, our past or our weaknesses. Yet, all of these aspects of ourselves first need our full attention and love, in order to be owned and recognised for the often years of service they have given to us, before we can be truly free of them.

Holding in this sense, involves cradling our pain, emotion, memories, losses, guilt, shame, sadness and grief fully in our own arms. A skilled professional or a really good friend can support in this process, but often it is when we are alone that we can invite up our deepest pain, losses and memories. And ultimately, it is only through us holding ourselves fully in this way, seeing and feeling our emotions, and loving them enough that they then feel able to actually depart, or lessen in their power over us.

As the poet Rumi suggests, we must welcome these “unexpected visitors” into our “home” in order to attain wholeness and true inner peace.

If we look at this from a psychotherapy approach, we would first spend time uncovering, acknowledging and fully owning anything which is harming us but which must first be felt fully at the emotional level. Then we can explore ways to release it from our lives, possibly through journaling and writing; creating art; using movement and dance; through a small ceremony, or the release may even take place in a dream. Through something physical and symbolic to represent that which we are letting go of.

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From a Shamanic perspective, we would choose the thing we wish to release and then let go of it symbolically through the form of a ritual or ceremony; cutting the energetic ties we have to it.

The one thing both approaches have in common is that this must all be done consciously, no matter how painful or challenging, and with full presence, awareness and attentive holding before releasing.

To try to let go of something that no longer serves us without this degree of consciousness is a somewhat superficial process, with little guarantee of success of releasing the thing from our psyches, and will most likely return to haunt us again in some way in the future. Thus, we often find ourselves needing to try to release particularly destructive patterns time and time again.

So, to use a very simple analogy, just as you can’t let go of a balloon you never had hold of in the first place, neither can you let go of your pain, unmet emotional or physical needs, trauma or grief until you have first taken hold of them and given them your fullest attention, presence and love. Remembering this simple truth next time you tell yourself or someone guides you to let go of something will help you enormously to follow this process through from its proper beginning to end, but now more congruently and more fruitfully.

2 Angela Dunning is the author of The Horse Leads the Way: Honoring the True Role of the Horse in Equine Facilitated Practice. You can learn more about Angela; her work helping people and horses reclaim their wildness, and read more of her articles at: www.thehorsestruth.co.uk You can also connect with Angela on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorsestruth or www.thehorsestruth.co.uk

Remembering Me When My Husband Walked Out

By Tammy Letherer

My parents have been divorced for twenty-seven years but my mother does not speak favorably of my father, if she speaks of him at all. When I call her with the news that my husband Dave is leaving me, my face is burning; I’m embarrassed and ashamed that Dave is so like my father, who had his own string of affairs. I dread the inevitable comparisons. Instead, my mother cries and says, “My heart breaks thinking of all the issues for the kids, things Dave can't begin to understand!”

Like me, she can't believe this is the same man who made a toast only a week earlier to “his beautiful wife.” We cry together and I’m soothed because there is nothing in the world like crying to your mother. It waters some dry patch in us that, as adults, we tend to overlook, intent instead on staking up our blooming Proven-Winner lives.

And just as children and mothers are hard-wired with wisdom, wisdom itself is hard-wired to push through our emotional concrete to show its face. I see this when my oldest son brings me a book of Bible lessons my mother gave him and asks, “What's Isaiah 41 say?”

I show him how to find the verse. When he's finished, he leaves it open on the dining room table. The next morning, my aunt calls. She's heard the news from my mother.

“I want you to read something,” she says. “This is from Isaiah 41. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold 46 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

you with my righteous right hand.”

I listen, awash in a sensation that’s both stillness and electric charge.

“It's open right now in front of me.”

This is not my first brush with what I call Amazing Grace.

I’ve always been intuitive, but, growing up, was made to believe I was 'too sensitive' and 'too quiet.' It led to a lifelong struggle with loneliness—no, something deeper than that—a fear of being disregarded, overlooked, cast off. It's a deep soul loneliness that can be kept at bay by a healthy social life or solid group of friends but is finally revealed in long-term relationships, in the certainty that once someone really knows me, say for a decade or two, the truth will come out and I’ll be found to be lacking. Now it’s happened: I’ve been cast off two weeks before Christmas.

The inevitable pain of this looms over me like a guillotine.

We always visit Dave's parents, who shower the kids with excess but there’s been no talk of what will happen this year. It's up to me, I suppose, to stop thinking like a wife and find a new way to be. So I go to my best friend’s house and try to determine what I need. The effort of this makes me ache the way underused muscles ache after a workout, but finally the answer comes: I need my mother. She’ll be in Nashville the week after Christmas so I use Abigail's computer to buy plane tickets for me and the kids to visit her there. The cost is $930, more than I've ever spent without Dave.

When we land in Nashville, the sun is shining and the warmth is a tonic after the ice and snow of Chicago. I curl up in my mother’s Lazy-Boy recliner next to the picture window and watch the birds gather at the feeder, wrens and red-headed woodpeckers and occasionally a cardinal.

Before long, Dave calls. I see the skull and crossbones icon appear on my phone, so I hand it directly to my son Logan.

I don’t anticipate his eye for detail, and when he asks me why daddy's picture is gone I have to think fast.

“I gave daddy a pirate look,” I say, and quickly add that there weren't many icons to choose from.

The kids each talk to him, and when my daughter April is done she gives the phone to me. “You want to talk to him, mom?” I take it from her and flip it shut.

“Why didn't you say anything?” my younger son asks.

“The battery was about to die.” I duck my head, ashamed of my behavior. Where do I draw the line between being protective of myself and ridiculous and hurtful in front of the kids? I become more confused later when I read an email from Dave. I'm still your old friend, he writes. I kept some things from you, but that doesn’t change our friendship.

I don’t know how to respond to that, so I don’t. This is an approach I don’t think I’ve ever tried in my life, but I’m beginning to see the merit of it. Maybe it’s easier being with my mother. I can be the child, without responsibility, excluded from decision making and relieved of even the simplest day to day tasks. I sit for hours by the window, eventually flipping through some of my mom’s books. There’s one on forgiveness. I find: Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. My counsel now is to pour on the love. 2 Corinthians 2:7.

God how I hate the F word! Forgiveness. I’m never sure what I’m supposed to feel. But love, I find that easier to contemplate.

When was the last time I told Dave I loved him? Did I say it enough? Why didn’t I say it more? Why was I so stingy? Would it even have made a difference?

I read the quote again and pray: God, show me how to pour on the love.

Nothing. I don’t feel it. I’m sorry God, but I can’t help Dave get back on his feet. I need to find my own. I begin by walking with the kids in the woods. We’re excited to find a deer blind that they think is a fort made by a

runaway slave, or a lost boy, or a wood fairy. Occasionally, as we walk, I stop and try on the thought: I am divorced.

I am a single mother. I can’t look at that picture without seeing a darker one, a foreboding storm cloud crackling with the thunderbolt: I am alone (unlovable/broken/ defective). I try to imagine what it will look like, this life with just me and my kids. I know the cliche—if I’m OK, they’ll be OK. I feel OK right now, sitting in the sun, away from the trappings of my life, away from Dave. The kids seem more relaxed too. I resolve that any love I have I’ll pour on them. But even this love feels depleted, reduced to a trickle where once a river raged.

What if I’m forever in a dry spell? Will I remain brittle and dried up, and how then will I buoy my children?

This fear surges each night when I tackle the bedtime routine on my own. I hear myself snapping at the kids to hurry up and go to sleep, an oxymoron that makes me feel ignorant and nasty. I read somewhere that children lose both parents in a divorce—one is physically gone and the other is so changed by assuming both roles that he or she becomes unfamiliar. So as I help my kids brush their teeth and promise to read a story and remind them to turn off their Ipods, I do my best to keep this stranger in me away from them. And when my son throws his arms around me and says, “Mom, I'm glad that God made you because you're extra huggable and kissable,” I’m so grateful to him for reminding me who I am.

1

Tammy Letherer is the author of The Buddha at My Table: How I Found Peace in Betrayal and Divorce (She Writes Press, 2018), which was selected as the Gold Medal Winner in the Living Now Book Awards as well as the Human Relations Indie Book Awards.

Tammy is a writing coach and blogger; she holds a degree in Journalism from Indiana University and has enjoyed a long and varied professional writing career. In addition to her recent memoir, Letherer is also the author of the novel, Hello Loved Ones, and the children’s book, My Health is in My Hands.

She lives in Chicago with her three children.

Read Letherer’s blogs on Huffington Post or learn more about her work at TammyLetherer.com.

47 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

THE WAY I SEE IT

By Joe Santos, Jr.

Giga?

Byte me!

48 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

Technology + me = stupidity. At least it feels that way most times. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking it, I’m just frustrated by it 99% of the time!

I wish it came naturally to me (as it does to most 4-yearolds) but it doesn’t. I have to walk myself through the steps each time and as long as I don’t trip along the way, I’m fine. But I’m a klutz. So good luck with that!

I recently downloaded Venmo. It’s a convenient phone App that allows you to send and receive money immediately or within a few hours. It’s linked to your bank account and contacts. It really doesn’t get any easier than that. I hired a vendor for a party I was throwing recently so I decided to pay for the services by using Venmo. It worked and it was so easy. Except for the fact that I sent the $500.00 payment to the wrong number and I had to spend the next two days figuring out how to get it credited back to my account and so on and so on!

I bought a new iPhone XS Max. I was so proud of myself, even setting up the “face recognition” tool. It hasn’t recognized my face not once! Listen, there are some mornings when I get up and look in the mirror to shave and I don’t recognize my face either, but for $1,200.00, not only should it recognize my face every time and in every stage but it should play me love songs!

Technology. Let’s not forget that the “technology” we used then (as antiquated or dated as it may look or sound these days), at the time it was modern and just as exciting. What it was not was mind-boggling, frustrating or intimidating. It was simple because it was made to be simple. People are simple. These were tools and devices created to bring people together not separate or distract us or create anxiety over every little thing that goes wrong becoming a major catastrophe simply because we went from having "five bars" to having "no service” by walking from the living room into the kitchen.

The more we move forward it seems the more we go backward. Shouldn’t all this “high-technology” unite us? Making us more aware of our surroundings and each other?

Shouldn’t it make us feel confident, accomplished even powerful?

How far can we go before we lose ourselves completely? Eventually becoming not so “simple" devices ourselves. Who knows? Isn’t the question? Who cares? Is!

The more we move forward it seems the more we go backward. Shouldn’t all this “high-technology” unite us? Making us more aware of our surroundings and each other?

Shouldn’t it make us feel confident, accomplished even powerful?

I don’t understand. I don’t live in the past in any way, shape or form but I remember a time when I turned on the TV, it stayed on until I turned it off.

I remember a stereo that played music. Good music. And played all kinds of music. I remember a car that drove instead of “talking" constantly. I remember coming home from school or errands or shopping and hearing my phone ring in the distance and I’d run to answer it, fiddling with keys, balancing packages or books, or whatever, and by the time I finally picked up the receiver there was actually still a person on the other end that was happy to talk to me. Sometimes, for hours.

But as new telecommunications develop and grow I’ll continue to purchase them and walk myself through figuring them out, tripping all the way, but what I will not do is abuse their purpose by ignoring my surroundings, avoiding people or finding presence in each moment.

For as complicated as it gets, I will remain simple… as intended.

2 Joe Santos, Jr. is a Celebrity Chef and Life-Stylist.

He joins The Eden Magazine as a writer sharing his unique view on life, death, love, and the avoidance of mediocrity.

Follow Joey on Instagram @jojoboy13

49 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

Love that Lifts the Sadness

By Jayita Bhattacharjee

50 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

Love in such a way so it can soak the suffering souls, so it silences the screaming pain, so it scatters the pearls of wisdom. It is that love which gives birth to a light, that out shines every sorrow, all the sadness that comes along the way. Walk with such a love so the earth may smile in a thousand flowers, as the light of your love begins to light a thousand hearts. It is this light that can enter the illusions and can pierce any veil that it faces. Love in such a way that it gives peace, peace that can wash away the spilling over of someone’s suffering.

From this love, is born a light, a light that can enter inside sorrows frozen in the depths. The light that reaches the shore of shores, the light that reaches the soul of souls, the light that penetrates the night of nights, this is the light that shines in our sanctuary within. In many lonesome nights, when there may not be words to speak, when the sadness may seem to engulf the night, it is this light that pierces through the sorrows, it is this light that cuts through the night, and gives words to the silenced hearts. Such is this light that can breathe life again in the hearts that have sobbed for years. It is this light that can give music to the soul again. As this is the light coming from the heart of heaven, in this light is washed the grief of century old damage, damage done to souls in the screaming pain, as some of the most raw, bare feelings come out in their purest flow.

They flowed, and flowed, and with time, they passed, fearing that all outlets were sealed forever, that they would not live to see the dawn of another day. But here is the light again, emerging from the stream of consciousness, from the raised awareness, as the lamp has lighted the sanctuary again, the very lamp that has been fed by the oil from inside. The sanctuary sees the light again, to whisper to us, that we have not lost our way.

Inside our indwelling temple, we make a conscious encounter with the divine presence, and awaken to the enlightening radiance to the universe dwelling inside our bodies. This is the sacred building that houses your spirit, that is made of love and compassion, hope and peace, joy and understanding. It stands on the shores of our souls, radiating in the light of eternity, but concealed from the ordinary eyes, yet it happens to be a sacred retreat for us in much needed times when we need to go back to your own spring to drink the waters again, to fulfill our thirst again, to satiate our needs again.

Somewhere in the heart of hearts, somewhere in the soul of souls, this temple is the divinely blessed sanctuary, the adorable shrine where you can come and worship the light of eternity, the light that can cut through grief, the light that can enter into a sleeping soul and awaken the person to rise again, to face the incoming tides of life again. This is where you burn all your desires, so you can transcend all earthly desires, and be a soul with the light of divine, a soul that knows how to emerge out of the weeping darkness, when the times seem to be so unkind. In your heart, you find the divine, the divine that always lived inside your shrine, but is you who failed to glimpse the light. Thousands of beauties and splendors are waiting for you at your innermost shrine. Your body is the holy temple that you have been in search of all along. The teaching of the sacred divine is held in the deep- rooted trees, the swaying branches, the dew-kissed flowers, the snow-clad mountain tops, but the ultimate teachings of divine are written in your heart. But somewhere, somehow, we have lost it all, while facing the screaming pain in the silence of nights, coming from the brutal battles of life.

As the truth dwells in our temple, so the heart always shines as a shrine in the sacred abode inside. We come to self-realization, that the divine is the indwelling essence. Your soul is the divine temple, and your heart is the home where you return from time to time, as you get lost in the wilderness of life. In your temple is the blazing light that ignites the sobbing darkness, that tears the veil of silence, and fills you with a sacred

glory. This is the light that rises from your soul-song, so your engulfing darkness begins to burst, and the shafts of holy light may seem to pierce the unkind, unforgiving darkness. The light that bursts all the veils, breaks through the illusory clouds that seem to fog your vision, is the light that bursts through the silence, the hardness that holds your heart heavy. It makes the soul song streaming again, so it echoes and reechoes it into this cosmos. In the seamless joy, the soul -song that flows, streams the light that breaks through sadness. It sparkles as a diamond that cuts through all kinds of roughness. We dance as we lighten inside. This is the joy whose light can cut through the frozen pain that has been there for decades inside and can bring you in touch with the light in your shrine again. This joy rises form your shrine, where day and night, you can dance in the flowering of your soul.

t Jayita Bhattacharjee was born in Calcutta, India and later on pursued education from University of Houston in Economics, she had chosen her career as a trustee and teacher.

Her Indian residence is in the vicinity of the famous Belurmath. Currently, she is settled in Tampa, Florida.

Her love for writing on a journey of heart and soul was hidden all within. Looking at the moments captured in love and pain, joy and grief, the hidden tragedies of life...it was a calling of her soul to write with the ink that kept flowing from her heart. This is what gave her the fulfillment, the richness in her soul.

Her books "The Ecstatic Dance of Life', " Sacred Sanctuary", " Light of Consciousness", "Dewdrops of Compassion" are meant to shed light on what guides a person to respond to the mystical voice hidden inside, to soar in a boundless expansion with the limitless freedom of spirit.

"It is in the deepest joy that I write with every breath of mine."

51 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

Home is where the Heart is

By Alexia Melocchi

The Holiday Season has arrived. And it is during this time that many of us long for the moments we get to spend with family and loved ones (pets included) because as the saying goes, “home is where the heart is”. But what does this truly mean? Where is this home that our heart gravitates towards?

I had to think about this long and hard this past month of November where the State I live in, California, was hit by one of the most tragic and deadly natural disasters it has experienced, the Camp Fire in Northern California and the Wolsey Fire and Malibu fire, right here in one of Los Angeles most famous tourist destinations, the coastal town of Malibu.

I was very excited in early November about the article I intended to write, reporting from another popular film convention, the American Film Market in Santa Monica.

However, just a few days later, California was ablaze from an uncontrollable fire. And while homes were being burnt to the ground, the word “Home” took an entirely different meaning for so many, and our hearts, our compassion and our wanting to help one another and save our furry friends, became the “home’ that many sought after they lost everything.

For many who have seen Malibu only in the movies, it is easy to associate this very chill coastal town with surfers and perpetual beach goers getting their tans to the soundtrack of the Beach Boys “California Girls”. Many also believe Malibu and the neighboring areas of Topanga, Calabasas, Westlake are communities comprising of privileged inhabitants living in multi- million dollar mansions, entitled movie stars, and horse ranches for the eccentric types. Because of these misconceptions, the loss of property may appear as something that the “Malibu” types can easily recover from.

But it is not so.

Beyond the human death toll, and the destruction of property and all the memories that these properties contain within them, we had to witness the fear and sheer terror of helpless animals, wild and domestic trying to flee to safety, many not surviving the fires of Hell. I am sure you have seen the images all over the social media.

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Celebrities like Sandra Bullocks rushed to donate 100K to the Ventura Humane Society, Ellen DeGeneres donated 100K to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, Miley Cyrus donated 500K to the Malibu Foundation, even though she lost her own property. What you do not know is the tireless work and sacrifice of its residents, many members of Hollywood circles that are not in the limelight. Jessica Steindorff the daughter of producer Scott Steindorff, did not obey the mandatory evacuation and stayed behind, to help others, while her mother’s house turned to ashes. Her only companion, her “home” was her puppy Gator.

Dr. Lupo, of the Malibu Vet Clinic, offered free treatment and visited the wounded and displaced animals, even though he lost his home. Paradise Cove hosted a free Thanksgiving dinner for the local firefighters. Pepperdine University also gave out pies and food to the entire community.

Even our own Editor and Publisher Maryam Morrison, spent her days organizing haulers and stables to relocate horses.

Home becomes an action during these trying times, and it is no longer material. “HOME” when all our belongings can be gone in a moment’ notice, becomes the companionship of our pets, the presence of our friends and the kindness of our neighbors. When our heart strings are pulled, and we feel love and comfort and grace, we return home, in the truest sense.

This Thanksgiving, I chose not to eat a Turkey. I wanted to honor all animals and give thanks to them. This Black Friday I did not visit a Mall nor shopped on line. I decided to use this money to donate to rescue groups and

disaster relief organizations. This Thanksgiving I hugged my 3 cats a little longer because the pure and unconditional love of our animals reminds us of the miracle of life and God’s amazing creations- including the memories of the green trees that burned so savagely during the fire.

With Christmas around the corner and the year coming to an end, I hope you will feel at home, wherever home is.

As HOME is where love lives. Wishing you and yours a safe peaceful and joyful Holiday Season and Happy New Year.

To help and donate the humans and animals affected by the fire please go to: https://www.hsvc.org/donate HELP CALIFORNIA: https://help-california.org/

? ?

For 4 days, she helped evacuate the animals, many of them horses from the neighboring ranches. Her puppy had never left the ranch before, but Gator was by Jessica’s side, drinking out of a water bottle and eating in the back seat of her car. When Jessica and volunteers worked at Point Dume Elementary relief center to provide food and clean water to those left behind and their animals, Gator gave Jessica the needed emotional support to keep going despite exhaustion and love and kisses to anyone going near her. It was because of Gator that Jessica even remembered to stop for a moment and eat a lso, when she was feeding Gator. Many of the people Jessica grew up with, Malibu residents, worked to make sure those stuck in the canyons had food and clear water.

“It was really had getting the animals out who were left behind” Jessica says. “The roads were closed and we had to resort to fake passes and back dirt roads to get the animals out”. Jessica, like many others decided to stay.

This was the only option to get the animals out as if she left, no one could return for days. And when everyone was gone, the experience of total isolation was apocalyptic.

There was no power, nor water and they relied on boats to bring them supplies. Hollywood producer Marty Katz also decided to stay behind. “Our 2 Golden Retrievers and our Maine Coon cat were inside with my wife Campbell”, he told me. “I stayed up all night to put out the hotspots and was up for over 36 hours. We were thankful we saved our house and this effort may have also spared our evacuated neighbors’ homes” he also added.

Alexia Melocchi is an accomplished film producer and worldwide distribution executive and the partner of Beverly Hills based LITTLE STUDIO FILMS. Alexia Melocchi has an experience of more than twenty years in in Hollywood and has produced 11 award wining movies and 3 documentaries that were shot by emerging film makers that she has personally discovered and mentored.

She also acquires on behalf of her international distributor clients films and television shows from all over the world for release in the Middle East, Italy, Greece, Spain, Canada, South America and Germany. She attends all major film festivals in the USA and abroad and has been often invited as an expert panelist on the Film Business for high profile film and television conventions.

Alexia is fluent in five languages and is the proud mama to 3 rescue cats. She supports environmental and animal causes , meditates daily, and is an avid reader of spiritual and self helps books. IG @lexybella @LttleStudioFlms

www.littlestudiofilms.com

53 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

LANGUAGE OF SPACE

IM AG RE IN M E E

TH EP AS T

By Michael White Ryan

Are we living in a world upsidedown

M BE R

E H T

E R U T FU

Remember the month of December Everything is beautiful, just saying! Give some of that loving feeling! Have you ever wondered how many mindset-generations are alive at this moment? Many, so many different past ideas of various moments suspended in this now-moment.

All collaborating with one another, while giving birth to new-freedom thoughts. Majorities and Minorities, together standing on life’s chess board, a merging of yesterday’s mindset to face tomorrows mindset. Breathe to fully imagine/remember? Want it to emerge, there’s no need it happens continually automatically every YEAR MONTH DAY HOUR MINUTE. Today functions with the future mindset. Ideas are developing so fast we have no conceivable idea where their taking us, and the same goes for those who keep telling us, it’s all 54 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

for the greater good, so please sign up here? For those of you feeling-for the common sense of it, I feel your pain. And why, it appears most may be thinking from a 2D perspective, while living in a 3D world, just a thought!

Fear and living this human life, go hand in hand. How each of us conceive fear and living creates conceptual consequences?

This depends completely on one’s level of knowing thy self, for now let’s call it, free will! We are, and that is the question?

Every every every, has the missing answers, all you need do is fall in line step to the step and be fed/freed, piece by piece, one piece at a time. And for your service, rejoice rejoice, for you will be transformed from all that you have brought in with you, to become a shining beacon of the moment.

Photography by Niaz Parvaresh

The year has almost faded back into never never land.

Those pending deeds and ideas held for so long, have or have not been planted? If not, now is the time for action, move faster! Know this to be truth, the coming waters of tomorrows future, have begun to flow. Remember remember, it is you who is the garden to be nurtured. No need to seek for your next quest experience, as the rains are already heading in your direction.

In life, fear and humility go hand in hand we are all sensitive creatures do not let fear stop you from speaking your truth everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear fear is not from past experience fear is “how I have to perform” breathing is a positive thing “who knew” Everything we do is final, the idea behind all learning experiences is for transformation to follow, that’s if we ever figure out the learning? If not, then there is no change.

Now the question arises, can change occur if a space has not been allowed for change to enter? Change is a renewed birthing experience!

Caught by the belief of delusion, that a positional, materialistic, physical change can occur, when in true reality it exists only within the mind of the individual. The corresponding effects sustains one’s belief, but they to only exist in the realm of delusion. The perception of recreating is like dressing up in costume for a special party, but in time the party’s over and we revert once again to our usual self.

A space of true beliefs which we live in and can handle adequately.

The stars revolve around us as do our habits and patterns, it’s hard to see difference in this 3D world of nature, us, the cosmos, because it’s impossible, difference doesn’t exist.

Difference can only occur when we view through singularity. The delusion trap of stepping out of the box, was creative, thinking just expanded the walls further away. The conceptual box is a mindset, as long as we are thinking, we are on the inside.

Experience expands us! The hurricane had arrived. I climbed to the hilltop, trees and roof tops traveled horizontally over my head, a leaf cut my face. I wanted to experience the full furry of nature’s voice, the roar, it filled my being with an overwhelming of connected oneness. The ocean danced a dirty white frenzy, spewing monstrous waves in all directions. I hulled in a block house, the water had to rise 18 inches to reach the door, in one hour the water had risen five feet.

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The second storm hit with harsh intenseness, the valley became a torrential river under the first deluge of wind and rain. As I moved forty children, and wheelchair persons through the raging waters to higher ground, cars floated past. A large tarantula spider has taken refuge on my shoulder, I could sense its fear. Later I set him free, high up in a tree.

We, with Grace, unknowingly imagine the past to fulfill our duty of being human. We remember the future to discover how to build the path that takes us into the freedom of the unbecoming. Freedom comes when we remove ourselves out of an imagined past. Are we living a life upsidedown, ask if you dare! Rember Rember this month of December.

Your wish, desires, are riding on the wind, calling/searching out your name. Dive into the depths of the wholly, to discover the many jewels that lie within.

Blessings to you, me, the one and the all….

t

Michael White Ryan is a co-founder with his wife Pamela Edwards of Language of Space.

They are leaders in sustainable business growth via Performance Design and Performance Code.

Sustainable design encompasses both Western and Eastern philosophies including advanced Feng Shui principles, Environmental Design, Buildings, Alternative Health, Business Advisory Consultants and 20 plus years as entrepreneurs. Recognized in the top 100 globally and are Americas Leading Feng Shui Business Consultants.

They are on faculty at CEO Space International one of the oldest business organizations in America today, currently operate in 7 countries and reside in Carlsbad CA.. www.languageofspace.com

57 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e November 2018

58 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e November 2018

Ocean Life Back to the Beginning

By Sasha Gary

Water is our most valuable natural resource. We drink it, bathe in it, swim in it, cleanse and heal from it like an ancient ritual from long ago. Most of us don’t even think twice about what it would be like to not have water. We are fortunate enough to live in an abundant place, the thought never crosses our mind.

I am drawn to the water, I am a Cancerian, a water sign. I was a platform diver growing up, and the ocean literally calls out to me. Some days louder than normal and I know I must go to her.

The ocean has so many moods and is reflective in my astrological personality. The ocean air soothes my mood, the water cleanses my soul and takes away my pain. I feel relaxed, rejuvenated and centered after I frolic, swim, and laugh with friends and family on a beautiful beach day, in unison with the brown pelicans diving down to catch fish, and the little sandpipers that run along the coast like tiny dancers.

I watch people at the beach and they drive in for miles to come see the ocean from all over the world. I have seen people see the ocean for the first time in their lives and it’s quite the sight! I thought to myself, we must come from the ocean. We must have evolved in time from the ocean into human beings on land.

Why else would we all return in droves every summer, or for someone like myself everyday.

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It’s a return to life! It’s where all life stems from. It’s the same reason why I am so drawn to mermaids! Or is it the great unknown, vast depth of the ocean that keeps us intrigued. I love watching families so happy after a wonderful day at the beach. Kids, parents, grandparents all in tow, packed up with towels, blankets, picnics, and when I see them leave they have smiles all over their faces and are much more relaxed then when they got here.

Unfortunately, also left behind are trash, chip bags, bottle caps, diapers, and other types of garbage.

I do a great deal of volunteering with Heal the Bay, and Surfrider Foundation and I do my part to help educate, clean our beaches and take care of my front yard Venice Beach. We made amazing changes to ban the plastic straw, and I loved being an advocate to this great cause.

Now, it is the cigarette butt that people put out on the ground and it goes right into our beautiful blue sea. Most people don’t even realize that small act would prevent so much less pollution. Cigarette butts leak chemicals into the environment and major effects on our water creatures, and they are not biodegradable.

Sunscreen is also a contributing factor to the destruction of the Coral Reef. There are better alternative sunscreens you can use that are free from Oxybenzone. In Thailand where they shot The Beach featuring Leonardo DiCaprio they have closed it off for a while due to the damage caused by tourists. This is not just the sunscreen but many other environmental factors. However, the authorities thought is was important enough to take the time to allow the recovery of the coral reefs and sea life!

Having respect for the ocean and understanding the power she has is so important! I watch where I swim, I keep an eye out for rip tides, I see the power of the waves coming closer to shore, and will knock you right over. Somedays there are many lifeguards rescues straight out of a Baywatch reunion. It’s never a dull moment at the beach!

I once made the a decision to swim out to the lifeguard boat with a friend who was in lifeguard training. The boat was out in the ocean, I’m not sure how far, but it was far enough, and we planned to jump aboard. As a strong swimmer and diver, I assessed the situation and knew I could handle it. But, as I made it halfway the water temperature dropped significantly. That’s when the panic set in. I knew I was definitely in shark territory. I just watched Shark week. I told my friend I have to go back and she was going to keep going to the boat. I

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said no, please come back with me. Then she caught the next wave and it tossed her back to wading water. I was still out there just floating. I thought oh my god, this can’t be it. I have to make my way back. I waited for what seemed like an eternity for the next wave. Finally it came!

I made it back to wading water.

That summer, I had a very difficult time going back in the ocean. I made myself. I thought there is no way, I will be afraid. This has been my life since I was a young girl.

I was a swimmer. So slowly I began to feel more and more comfortable swimming in the ocean again. Overtime the feeling went away, the panic that set in stayed around for a long time. It gave me a deeper respect for the ocean that sunny afternoon. You won’t catch me swimming to the lifeguard boat again, but on New Year’s Day, you will catch me frolicking in my polar bear hat washing away the previous year and finding renewal and rebirth in the new year to come!

We must all recognize consciously the beauty of all of our oceans and how quickly they are becoming more contaminated, and take steps to help keep man from ruining this natural resource. Join a beach cleanup before you enjoy a beach day! Find out how you can help, and educate other people who may not be aware. Protect it like it was our first home, so we can return to it, with our kids for many years to come!

1 Sasha Gary is an actress, writer, and Wellness Coach at www.balancedbellasonline.com a 16 week online health program for women that shows you how to implement small sustainable changes one by one to help you with whole food nutrition, self-love and a conscious movement.

Sasha is a yogi of 25 years, a crystal healer, and an avid sound bowl meditation participant and lives in Venice California!

61 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e November 2018

From Grief to Grace Pet Bereavement Counseling Monthly Column December 2018 With Pina De Rosa

The loss of a beloved pet can be the deepest heartbreak of our lives. Each month we will address and answer a key topic with Certified Pet Grief Counselor, Pina De Rosa (APLB / AAVSB).

If you wish to send in questions for Pina, please submit it Pina De Rosa How do age-related developmental stages affect a child’s perceptions and reactions to the death of their pet?

Age-related development stages affect a child’s perception in several ways. The death of a pet is crucial in a child’s life and how it is handled is likely to create positive or negative memories that will mark them for the rest of their life. The loss of a pet is often times the first time a child is faced with the concept of mortality. Honesty is paramount. Though parents often think it is best to shelter the children from such upsetting experience as grief, that is usually unadvisable. Children may grow up thinking it is wrong to grieve or cry. When children are old enough to form judgments, they understand if they are being excluded and kept out of something important. While they experience grief differently than adults, children need support in understanding their loss, in leaning how to mourn, and creating loving ways to celebrate their pet’s life.

2-3 Year Olds: While young toddlers do not understand the concept of death, transparency is key. They should be told the pet died and is not coming back. Because children at this age may think it has to do with their (naughty) behavior, they need to be reassured they did not do anything to cause the pet’s death. It is perfectly ok for the adult to show grief and tears, in moderation. The child will model / understand it is ok to cry, and the healing 62 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

power of tears. Though they do not quite understand the concept of death, they will accept it.

4-6 Year Olds: Similar to the toddlers, these young children may not understand the concept of death, especially its permanence. They may think the pet is asleep somewhere else, and may even be continuing to eat and play somewhere else. It is good to talk with them regularly, so they can express their feelings and be reassured. They will likely need to be reassured it was not their naughty behavior nor anger that caused the pet to die. The grief may manifest itself in physical reactions such as disruption of their bladder or bowels, as well as a shift in the way they play, sleep or eat.

7-9 Year Olds: Children in this age group understand the permanence of death. They often ask innocent question that may appear somewhat morbid. They are not usually concerned about their own death, but they can become quite worried about their parents’ dying. Like the younger children, they also need to be reassured it was not their naughty behavior nor anger that caused the pet to die.

Aside from the physical manifestations, their grief may reveal itself in reactions such as aggression, clinging, withdrawing, becoming anti-social, and having problems in school.

10-12 Year Olds: Children in this age group have the capacity to understand the inevitability of death for us all.

They will likely cry a lot of tears and need caring loving support during this sorrowful time. They can understand that tears can be healing. It is ok to share feelings to a reasonable level. If the adult has a fear of death, they are likely to model it. If there have been prior losses in the family, the death of a pet may bring up those painful memories for the children. It is good to talk with them regularly, so they can express their concerns and be reassured.

Adolescents: Children in this age group have the capacity to react as adults. Then the next day they may need to be reassured just like younger children do. Adolescence is a period marked by the exploration of their true feelings and learning how to express them. If there is conflict with a parent or if there is disapproval of their peers, it will make the mourning even more challenging for the adolescent.

Their emotions will span from total lack of concern one day, to ultra-sensitive the next. To help them deal with the loss, it is essential to avoid friction and that they feel supported.

Young Adults: Losing a pet as a young adult can be particularly difficult. Young adults have the capacity to react as adults. Often they were especially close to that pet during their childhood and they frequently feel the added guilt of having left home to go to a new school, to start a new job, to get married etc… More often than not, that distance precludes them from saying goodbye, or being present with the family as they honor their pet’s life.

When it comes to coping with the death of a beloved pet, younger children are not so interested in adult detail or logic because some of that logic or detail might be lost on them. Conversations about death need to be tailored to their sensitivity and comprehension level. Often times they simply need to be reassured with simple and adequate answers that fit with their present level of curiosity and consciousness.

Their perceptions are different from adults in that they grasp concepts more at their simplest face value. Children do not accept death the way adults do. They often take on guilt and hold themselves responsible for something bad happening to the people and the animals they love.

It is not uncommon for them to feel that it is because of something they did, therefore their pet was punished with death. While adults may feel guilt also, the difference is that children do not have the ability to talk about their negative feelings - such as guilt and fear - and they

are often unable to express them. Those repressed feelings can end up coming out in the form of nightmares during their sleep.

Besides their parents, there are several people and caregivers in a child’s life who can help them cope with the loss of a beloved pet. People such as brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, grandparents, daycare providers, their teachers, the librarian, and even their peers can all be a source of support as children are unable to cope by themselves. If the school teachers start to notice that their participation in class may drop, that the child starts to daydream, or they may even stop doing their homework-these are all indicative that the child is needing support in coping with the loss. It is not unusual for their sleep, their appetite and their mood to be negatively impacted. The following are some activities that the counselor could suggest to these other caretakers as a way to support the child through this shocking life experience. The librarian could suggest some specific books that address the loss of a pet, such as “Until We Meet Again” by Melissa Lyons. The teacher could schedule a special class to discuss their pets and their death, which helps the child’s ability to cope with such distressing loss. This is often is the children’s first experience with death. This can be a traumatic experience that will likely impact them for as long as they live. The peer’s presence can be helpful. And the better the adult is able to cope with their own emotional issues about that loss, the less traumatic the experience can be for the child who is still learning to deal with this type of pain.

2 Pina De Rosa is a two-time TEDxSpeaker and Certified Pet Grief Counselor, founder of www.PetBereavementCounseling.com. You may reach her directly for 1-1 Pet Grief Support (sliding scale available). Her passion project is #MissionWellington and his www.TreatsForPups.com, bringing “doggie bags” of pet food, blankets and supplies to the homeless pups living out in the streets. Follow her at www.Instagram.com/LifeAccordingToWellington

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Message from the Goddess Mother

By Jan Diana

BE THE JOY THAT YOU ARE My Beloved Children of Heart, “Greetings at this time of great wonder! The days ahead are filled with joyful expectations of the greater visions of your heart.

As we come upon this time of year, it is a great opportunity to prepare to receive the many blessings of the season.

These afford opportunities for a more joyful heart, fun times shared with friends and family, and the entertaining of hopes and dreams unfolding.

Perhaps as you ponder on your life experiences up to this point, you feel a bit of a pull toward a grander vision. It may be that you are starting to entertain new thoughts of dreams that have been buried deep within your heart.

Imagine them as seeds that are starting to wiggle so that you may take notice of them. Dreams you had forgotten about, new beginnings about to awaken. How can this be you might ask? It is as if they have been sleeping, waiting for something to awaken them.

You are the one calling for the awakening of your dreams.

You knew this time would come one day. The time is now.

Oh the glory of these words as you heart hears them spoken. It is as if a big light just got switched on, shining on the pathways of remembering.

You are remembering what you tucked away until you and the world were ready. Celebrate this truth My Beloveds, for as you are elevating in your awareness, so are the many jewels in your heart beginning to awaken as well.

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After all, you prepared your plan well before you stepped into this life. The great master self, knowing fully your heart’s desired dreams, knew also that you would go about this in your ideal timing.

Sit for a moment and ponder on this great wonder. You can feel the truth as you heart speaks to you of this joyful time.

Accept the greater awareness without questioning it. It flows from your heart and just is.

Your heart has been guiding you all of your life back to the awareness of your true self. It is a journey of self-discovery, advancements and exploration.

The wonder of you blossoms with every thought fueled of greater lightness. It blossoms with every acceptance of your divinity.

You are who you are no matter what experiences you have had or will have. You expand upon that through your many choices which flavor your consciousness in the process of knowing the greater you, and your limitless loving nature.

Imagine you as the artist creating the masterpiece of your heart’s dreams. There really are no words to communicate the fullness of this great wonder. It is known in the language of love, the language of the heart. Deep within yourself you know this language. You can feel it on many levels as it speaks to you in sweet whispers.

Consider greater ease and grace in your life now. What would that feel and look like? How would it be for you if the struggle no longer existed?

Photo retrieved http://kevindmonroe.com/masterpiece-mindset

So much of the definers of self and your life have been met with limitations. What if you were free of these?

Take time to ponder on these topics deeply. What if you could define your life as you would like it to be?

What if it was easy and graceful to do so?

The gift of choice is given to all. It always has been and always will be.

Now the opportunity to make conscious directions of what you desire are more easily recognized and fueled.

Many tools are available to assist you. Open to receive and you will recognize the guidance of your heart.

You very nature is perfect. You are already perfect. You are in the process of remembering this holy truth.

Each of you chose to be here on Earth at this time.

Each of you plays important roles in the evolution of humanity and of Earth.

It is a journey, a wonderful process. We allow each their choice and timing. Yet with your personal advancements and the roles you play, you have the power to not only create your dreams, you also have the power to love, and to shine your light onto the world blessing all.

FREE CLASS: As a Gift I am offering you a Free Tele- Class, “Remember Who you are”.

-Restore pathways to remembering the truth of yourself using the tools of SVH, a prayer modality that can shift the old stories, old beliefs and perceptions that are not relevant to your truth.

-Receive tools that you can utilize in your life to further free yourself from the veils of forgetting -Take a journey to meet your true self and receive a priceless gift you will leave this class filled a greater vision of yourself and what is now possible for you.

This class is a great joy bringer!

Note: Register by subscribing by email at: http://www.jandiana.com (if the time is not convenient, register to receive the recording when available)

n

What a glorious gift. What a glorious time. What a glory you are.

Remember always you are not alone. You are greatly supported by many who love and adore you.

Have fun on this journey of self-expansion and exploration. Have fun nurturing the dreams seeded in your heart Have fun living and being.

You are destined for greatness because that is who you are. Accept this truth and fuel your dreams into reality.

You are My Children of Heart. You are the jewels that are sparking the lightness. Let yourself feel my love as it showers upon you forever more. Be the joy that you are. Shamon.”

With great love,

Your Beloved Mother

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Jan Diana is an intuitive healer, spiritual teacher, and master practitioner.

Her mission is to assist clients & students in creating harmony, balance, heightened levels of clarity, develop innate gifts & abilities, empowering them on their personal evolution to create the dreams of their heart. She utilizes several modalities including SVH L3M, Animal healing, GHM, Language of love, Reiki Master, and more.

Free meditation journeys, articles, & classes. http://www.jandiana.com Sessions and Classes by phone. You can reach her at website http://www.jandiana.com or by email sunsinyourheart@aol.com.

CATS AT THE STUDIOS, INC http://catsatthestudios.com/

Cat & Kitten for adoption

Cats At The Studios, Inc is a non profit rescue organization comprised entirely of volunteers.

We are dedicated to nurturing, neutering/spaying, and finding a good homes for abononed cats and Kitten.

We are looking for volunteers and help please contact us at CatsAtTheStudios@yahoo.com

Sober and Pissed Off

By Jane Zarse

FINDING THE ROAD TO RECOVERY THROUGH SPIRITUALITY AND SERENITY

Alcoholism is a global issue, as families across the world find themselves reeling from the effects of the disease and struggling to find ways to help their loved ones break themselves from the chains of this debilitating disorder. According to a 2017 study published by JAMA Psychiatry, alcoholism in the United States rose by a shocking 49% in the first decade of the 2000s. One in eight American adults, or 12.7 percent of the U.S. population, now meets diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder. With such an overwhelming epidemic striking families everywhere, how can we best address the disorder and save lives?

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In her new book, Sober and Pissed Off, recovering alcoholic Jane Zarse tells her story of recovery, and shares that since there is no known cure for alcoholism, the only proven treatment she has found is spirituality. When Zarse got tangled up emotionally, her spiritual condition suffered greatly.

When a recovering alcoholic loses serenity, sobriety is usually next. Zarse is grateful that she didn’t return to drinking, but if she stayed as miserable as she had become, there’s no telling what could have happened. There are millions of people in recovery who are struggling with emotional sobriety. Most alcoholics come into AA as very sick people. They are maladjusted to life, unhappy, mentally defective, and out of touch with reality. They are so desperate to change in the beginning that they will do anything, but when they start getting better, some of them start slacking off. Alcoholics are childish, sensitive, and grandiose. When they stop working on recovery, their character defects become more pronounced. These character defects cause alcoholics to have personal problems that jeopardize their sobriety even after they work through all twelve steps.

In Sober and Pissed Off, Zarse describes how she regained her emotional sobriety after becoming a dry, miserable alcoholic.

She took her newfound freedom for granted and paid dearly for it. The book illustrates why sobriety is so much more than simply not drinking. This book is for the countless people in recovery who are physically sober and emotionally struggling.

“Alcoholics Anonymous’ success rate for long-term sobriety is at an all-time low- less than 10%,” says Zarse. “Less than 20% of people in treatment can even maintain sobriety for a year. As a recovering alcoholic myself, I can firmly say that the road to recovery requires more than just weekly meetings.

Sober and Pissed Off takes a look at the spiritual elements required to recover not just physically, but emotionally, and begin your own personal path to healing.”

With my newfound sobriety and freedom, I was also told I could reinvent myself. This was great news! I was so sick of myself and my drunken existence. I was an unemployable, unfit parent sleeping on a couch in Gary, Indiana. I stayed drunk because I couldn’t stand myself or my life. Before AA, my drinking had made me unpredictable and unreliable, and I wanted to be a credible person of substance. I was done with the false promises and harmful habits of drunken insanity. This admission of weakness becomes a source of strength in rebuilding a new life. I was told, “Stick with the winners.”

There are obviously good examples and bad examples in AA. I did not want to be a chronic relapser, but I hate it when people say relapse is not a part of recovery. It makes them sound like they’ve never read The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Relapse is mentioned many times in the book, and it is part of many people’s recovery. It took me over a year to finally put the drink down because I’d finally reached a place of grim determination with no reservations.

I surrounded myself with winners who had many years of uninterrupted sobriety under their belt. I wanted what they had. There is an unspoken hierarchy in the rooms, though it’s said that we’re all just one drink away from a drunk. I agree that just one drink is the kiss of death for an alcoholic, but I don’t think the alcoholic with 20 hours sober is in the same league as the alcoholic with 20 years sober.

I had to remember that I was addicted to a legal substance and needed to learn to behave accordingly. I got lucky in the sense that I got sober in a house full of liquor. Because I was couch-surfing and unable to maintain my own residence, I still lived with friends who drank. We are told in AA to play the tape all the way through if we ever feel like picking up.

In early sobriety, I got to watch the live show. I would watch as my friends would start drinking with ease and comfort, and by the end of the night, I would watch them morph into disoriented, angry drunks. I was not jealous and didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. Many people treat recovering alcoholics like we still want to drink but we just white-knuckle it. They think we are hungry cartoon characters with big eyes and alcohol is the raw steak that we are salivating over. This could not be further from the truth. I want to stay sober more than I want to drink. I am indifferent to alcohol—safe and protected. Now that I am living in the solution, the problem has been removed. I can go anywhere neither cocky nor afraid.

I was starting to feel alive, happy, and grateful as I began to live a sober life. Alcohol had robbed me of these feelings, and it felt miraculous that I was living and loving life free from alcohol. AA is not a theory. It is a life of sober, normal living. In recovery from my self-imposed crisis, I was asked to decide whether God is everything or nothing. God either is or He isn’t. I knew that for me, God is absolutely everything. I had always believed in God, and now I could feel and see Him working in my life. No human power could have relieved my alcoholism. There is no known cure for alcoholism. The only proven treatment is a spiritual one.

Due to a divine intervention, I am living a new life free from alcohol. I have exchanged a life of drunkenness, failure, and defeat for a life of sobriety, peace of mind, and usefulness.

I hold my life in trust for God.

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When I quit drinking, my brain was pretty fried. Now that I was sober, I wanted and needed to take care of myself, but I really didn’t know how. I went to multiple AA meetings a day because I needed a lot of help.

I had no experience being sober, and I needed to learn how to live life on life’s terms without escaping reality. I was told, “Keep bringing the body, and the mind will follow.” I am one of the lucky ones who really enjoys attending meetings. Even in the beginning, I felt so fortunate to have these meetings to help me cope with and talk about my alcoholism. I’d been alone with this disease for a very long time, and finding other people committed to freedom from alcohol was a godsend. Just being open and honest about my drunken isolation was extremely therapeutic. I love dlistening to the other members and hung on every word. I was experiencing something new. I didn’t feel the need to have to explain myself. In the outside world, I never felt completely comfortable, but in AA, for the first time, I could just be.

I was also able to talk about my embarrassing life circumstances created by addiction. As a drunk, I’d been so ashamed of being sick and poor. I drove around in an old car with a cracked windshield that I couldn’t afford to fix. I looked horrible and I didn’t even bother to care. My wardrobe had dwindled down to two pairs of pants from Fashion Bug, one bra, and a few tops. When you are living with friends and have no home, personal possessions fall by the wayside. I carried around an old Louis Vuitton bag with a broken zipper (secretly hoping nobody noticed). I wore old, scuffed boots and a solid gold Rolex from Harrods. When the fog lifted, I was actually able to laugh at myself. I could laugh at the absurdity of my addiction.

Yes, I was laughing again. I would both laugh and cry at the tables, and it felt great to be alive. Keeping a sense of humor about circumstances that would have typically overwhelmed me made things seem more bearable. I was getting better, and I was having a good time doing it. The AA crowd is not a glum lot. We are people who tried to escape pain unsuccessfully, and we need each other to heal our pain collectively. We cannot stay sober alone. Laughter usually erupts over shared experiences that bond us. These experiences are often humiliating. I would laugh when members would talk about digging through couch cushions for change to buy a bottle, because I did that too. I was learning how to live in recovery, and that included learning how to have fun again.

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∑ Jane Zarse was born and raised in Lake Forest, Illinois.

She graduated from Boston University on the Dean’s list before acting in New York City and trading in Chicago.

She spiraled into alcoholism before joining Alcoholics Anonymous and finding her way back. Sober and Pissed Off is the second book for Zarse. Her first book, Love and Compassion Is My Religion (A Beginner’s Book Into Spirituality), is a guide for finding one’s spiritual self. Zarse’s first book received excellent reviews and gained worldwide attention. She has built an impressive author platform with tens of thousands of people who are in recovery following her on social media and is a top 2% Twitter influencer.

Connect with Zarse on Facebook, or Twitter. Sober and Pissed Off is available for purchase now on Amazon.

A Cat Cafe Experience

www.crumbsandwhiskers.com

Adopted: 800 | Saved from euthanasia: 1,710 | Amount donated to charity: $24.5K

WE HELP RESCUE & FIND HOMES FOR HOMELESS CATS

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SOUL COURAGE

By Tara-jenelle Walsch

The Gift of You

72 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

Did you hear that? Wait a minute, listen…

There they are, right on cue…jingle-jingle, jingle-jingle.

Come December, we start hearing the magical sound of jingle bells on street corners, in songs and radio commercials. And throughout the years, there’s become a conditioned emotional response to the sound. Pavlov's jingle bell, if you will; shifting our mood, opening our hearts and rebooting us with an unexplained sense of love and camaraderie with all those around.

People suddenly engage more with one another, openly passing on good cheer and lending a helping hand. You may have noticed that we’re even more mindfully gentle, compassionate and patient with one another in December.

It’s a magical month, in this way. Regardless if we celebrate any of the traditional holidays or not, this seems to have universally become a time of reflection, gratitude and expression.

But we don’t need a Pavlovian jingle bell to activate our humanness and the desire to connect, we’ve simply gotten comfortable with waiting for it to wave our heart in.

What if we ended the year differently than ever before?

How would we do it differently? Questions that wouldn’t hurt to ask ourselves, even at the last hour of the ball, in these final thirty-one days of 2018.

Perhaps we could start with sharing more of our Selves with others in simple ways, like consciously inviting our hearts to come out and play more often. Opening those battened down hatches to the sunshine of more laughter and spontaneous interaction. Verbally acknowledging one another with kindness and grace on a regular basis.

And, since there are several holidays celebrated around the world in December, what comes to mind is Soul Gifting.

Not just purchased items from local department stores, but true giving, from heart to heart.

As children, we rip through presents during the holidays without much thought. But we soon become more cognizant of the gift exchange process and eagerly want to be part of the giving.

As teenagers and young adults, we grown up wading our little feet in the consumerism pool. We hear about the true act of giving and that any extension of love to another is a gift, no matter the monetary worth, but it goes through one ear and out the other.

Usually, it’s not until we get older, that we come to find immense value in those extensions from the heart. In fact, we begin to see that those are the true gifts in life.

This is even more accurate in our world today, with the influx of natural disasters that have stripped thousands of people of their homes and personal belongings, leaving many to question their identity and faith.

In these times of crises we’re all called to look past the materialization surrounding us and turn our attention to who we really are and how we want to co-create our physical experience with one other. This thought, alone, has the potential to restore our awareness, reshaping the ethics, morals and values of humanity.

One may not think that the act of gift giving has anything to do with such a peaceful and connected vision for our world, but much transformation can be had through the beautifully raw and creative process of gifting, soul to soul.

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No price can be put on the meaningful exchange of heartfelt gifts crafted with love. The receiver of your gifts is left feeling special and touched that you took the time to create something just for them. Thoughtful and personalized gifts have long been treasured over anything that can be purchased.

The call to action here is to consider this holiday an opportunity to nourish our relationships by vulnerably sharing love through soulful giving. There may be some material gifts we’d like to buy this holiday, but just giving and getting more “stuff” alone will ultimately leave us feeling empty.

Let’s do it differently this season. Let’s courageously step forward and share the love we have for others by revealing who we are on the inside through meaningful, soul gifting.

There are so many profoundly expressive ways to share our appreciation for others. Here are just a few: Homemade Gifts - homemade cookies, jams, jellies & marmalades, candied pecans, special soup; frozen in dinner-portioned containers, Handmade Gifts - make a painting, write a poem, craft tree ornaments, make a wind chime with local elements, loom potholders, create a playlist of their favorite songs.

Sentimental Gifts - frame special photos, frame honored family heirlooms, print photo calendars, digitalize old VHS tapes, pass down objects from older relatives with their background story.

Acts of Service Gifts - shovel snow, chop wood, clean house, fix odds & ends, iron shirts, pull weeds, Experience Gifts - tickets to a play or symphony, trip to the ice cream parlor, date night, board game night with pizza, ice skating and hot cocoa, camping trip, day hiking trip with picnic, spa & massage day, manicure & pedicure.

Coupon Gifts - make a coupon booklet or stack of cards that offer things of interest to another. Decorate the coupons with images and beautiful words.

This coupon is good for one big, bear hug Coupon Ideas Coffee on me Homemade Cookies Car Wash 74 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

Breakfast in Bed Movie Night Mowing the Lawn Back Rub Washing Dishes Special Dinner Out Special Dinner In How will you use this last month of the year, differently than ever before?

Before you answer that, remember that life isn’t negotiable. It won’t wait for us to find the courage to fully show up for others from our heart. Only we decide if and when to stand at the plate and swing with all our might.

And when we do, it is always a home run, because the act itself is one of love.

RoadMap to The Gift of You 1- Ask yourself how you would like to end this year, then answer 2- Consciously open up to sharing more of yourself with others 3- See beyond materialization to how you want to co-create life with others 4- Nourish relationships with Soul Gifting this holiday, making things from your heart 5- Courageously step forward and share the love you have for others

e Tara-jenelle Walsch is a monthly columnist for the Eden Magazine. She is the author of the book, Soul Courage, and the founder and spirit behind the Soulebrate greeting card company. You will also find her speaking publicly about emotional and energetic awareness, and a sacred formula which she believes has the ability to enrich the world at large. Tara-jenelle was raised in Annapolis, Maryland and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from Towson University in Baltimore. She currently lives in the beautiful hills of Ashland, Oregon. www.soulcourage.com

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The Mindful Tax and Money Guide

By Miriam Bertke

Reviewing Your

Portfolio

The holiday season is here and with that we all are looking forward to spend more time with our families, friends and enjoy the festivities that the holiday season brings us. With that you might also look to evaluate what you have accomplished and what you still would like to accomplish before the end of the year. One of the goals might be to start getting your affairs in order.

As I have shared before I’m writing these first few articles on financial planning, all of which are meant to guide you as you go about getting your affairs in order.

I believe that many of you have started already creating financial plan. For those, that already have one, reviewing your portfolio regularly is important as well as it is an im-

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portant step to your retirement.

In this part I’d like to address reviewing your portfolio and what you should expect from your financial advisor as he/ she goes over it with you and what you should have prepared and ready in the way of paperwork prior to a meeting with them.

A quick summary: The previous articles covered what is financial plan and what should be included in it, what questions you should ask your financial advisor regarding your financial situation, your goals and objectives. I also discussed what questions you may want to answer as you go about planning for retirement and help you and your financial planner better understand your wants, needs and concerns.

In this article I would like to share with you what our team does as we go about helping our clients to review their investment portfolio. One of the key members of our financial team that I would like to introduce to you is a colleague of mine that I work very closely with, the founder and the CEO of the Advisor Consulting Group, Simon Singer, who is recognized by the Consumer Research Council of America as one of the country’s top financial planners, as well as by “Who’s Who In Business” organization, he is also an author and speaker on various financial topics. Our firm is designed to provide financial and estate planning assistance to affluent individuals, families and businesses.

Let’s look now what you need to know and how to go about it.

What’s the starting point? The starting point should include an agenda and should also include the following: Objectives: What is the overall goal? For example, do you want to retire at a certain age? Accumulate enough wealth to leave a large sum to heirs? Live on “x” amount each year starting at a given age? Give to a charity?

Expectations: What’s your lifestyle presently? Lavish, conservative? Are you expecting your net worth to be larger, smaller in the coming years? How would you use your assets in the future?

Statement of investment policy: This evaluation serves as a roadmap for getting you where you want to go and when you want to get there. This is an assessment of your risk tolerance, timeframe and liquidity needs.

Cash flow and principal needs: Are you looking for an assessment monthly, yearly? We can calculate within any time frame.

Asset allocation: This is an evaluation of how best to diversify your resources. How we suggest that a client reallocate money could be critical to the overall picture.

We always assess wherever or not the assets are being put to the best use, and if not, how we can make that happen.

A view of the most recent summary report - monthly or quarterly: This usually includes statements that you receive from your stockbrokerage firm, bank, or other financial institution where your assets are held. Reviewing this information help you make important decision along the way.

Prior to setting up a meeting with your financial advisor or financial team to examine each of the above will require some preliminary exploration on your part (like - how much you can afford to invest, how much you earn, how much you spend, and that is by creating a budget that we have discussed in one of my previous articles).

You might be also asking yourself: What age should I start this process? How much should I allocate to build my portfolio?

It will always depend on the facts and circumstances, as well as the goals and objectives of the individual or couple. No matter what your financial goals are, its never too early to start planning. Identify your goals, but give your power and energy to solutions.

I look forward to receive your feedbacks, questions and concerns that you might have with your financial planning.

Enjoy the beautiful holiday season filled with love, joy and peace. Wishing you all the warmth and happiness.

∑ Miriam Bertke is a Financial Services representative. She is a part of The Advisor Consulting Group (ACG), a firm designed to provide financial and estate planning assistance to individuals and businesses.

She has many years of experience, specializes in strategic and comprehensive financial planning focusing on the areas of tax, retirement and asset protection, helping people gain clarity with their financial goals and objectives. She also works closely with attorneys, CPAs, as well as with other financial advisors, creating financial planning teams.

You can also connect with Miriam via email or on LinkedIn: Email: miriam@advcg.com http://linkedin.com/in/miriam-bertke Website: www.advisorconsultinggroup.com 77 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

LOOKING GOOD & FEELING GREAT

with Margaret Tomaszewicz

The importance of reducing stress • • to look and feel better

78 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

79 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

Your relationship with yourself affects and controls the world around you.

like hives, rashes and eczema, show improvement after working out.

“Mindful beauty” is a concept about being in control over how you see yourself and how others see you. Many women and men off all ages are struggling with a lack of self-esteem, lack of self-care and confidence while dealing with changes to their skin, hair and nails that are made worst by stress and anxiety.

The good news is that to achieve that happy state of mind one does not have to spend many hours at the gym.

The mind is key to improving every part of your life and has a great power to make you look and feel your best.

As a professional beauty adviser, my role is not only to treat the skin but also help to restore and rejuvenate my clients prospective about how they feel about themselves.

The care of my clients’ mind makes them more energized, alive and beautiful.

There are some simple things we can change in our lives to achieve just that.

One of the simplest is to exercise.

We already know that exercise is good for your heart, lungs and joints but do you know that it is also great for your face and skin?

During the exercise your heart and lungs deliver oxygen-rich blood to your muscles as well to your skin.

It improves blood flow as well as carries nutrients and oxygen to your skin. The added blood, oxygen and nutrient supply to the skin improves collagen production.

Collagen keeps your skin smooth and plump. People who exercise regularly have noticeably fewer wrinkles and their skin becomes thicker and more resilient. Also weight training tones your muscles. The toned muscles under the skin makes your skin look and feel better.

In addition, exercise also helps to carry away waste products including free radicals from cells and organs. The kidney, liver and the skin are responsible for eliminating toxins from the body. Think of it as cleansing your skin from the inside.

But most important for wellbeing is how exercise helps to reduce stress.

Exercise decreases levels of the cortisone stress hormone and increases levels of endorphins, the brains’ natural chemical and produces feelings of happiness and relaxation. Even conditions that are exacerbated by stress,

80 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e December 2018

Research shows that as little as twenty to forty minutes of simply walking every day is very beneficial. Also swimming, yoga or playing sports or games with your friends or grandchildren will do the trick.

Remember that any time you are outdoors please be sure to wear sunscreen. The best are zinc sunscreen with SPF 40. Zink protects your skin the moment you put it on and does not cause breakouts.

Sun and UVA rays exposure can rapidly age our skin and erase any benefits your skin may obtain from outdoor workouts. It is also important to remove clogging makeup before exercising and showering after workouts to remove the toxins and dead skin cells.

Hope my article motivates you to get up and get moving to help you achieve your “Mindful Beauty”!

To Your Health!

Margaret

f Margaret Tomaszewicz is a licensed esthetician with over 25 years of experience.

She is the owner of European Skin and Massage Studio in Santa Monica, California and has developed the Organic WODA European Natural Skin Care Line.

Her products are available on wodaskincare.com and on Amazon.com For every product sold WODA Skin Care plants a tree.

Margaret can be reached at 424-279-9771 or europeanskinandmassagestudio@gmail.com wodaskincare.com

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