SPIRIT IN MATTERS: Taking a Higher View of Life on Earth
By Dianne Eppler Adams

Vol. 2, No 3 – February 10, 2004

GUIDING PRINCIPLES
...Ours is an interconnected, interdependent, sacred world.
...All relationships – personal, communal, national, global – are equal and best approached with fairness, respect, honesty, and compassion.
...Darkness is overcome, not by avoidance, but through shining the light of awareness on it and choosing otherwise.
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FROM THIS VANTAGE POINT...

          The Benefit of Being Yourself

You might find this a strange title since, conceivably, we really have no choice. But for the many people who, like me, spent years trying to be like someone else who is better looking, smarter, more accomplished, more likeable, etc. Being yourself may not always have been acceptable. Self-criticism and comparison with others are behaviors that erode your comfort in being who you are.

When you finally realize that being yourself is the only thing you can do, relief and deep joy follow!

By the way, I am not suggesting that we can’t set self-improvement goals and achieve them. But in truth, our essential being is so incredibly unique and special that trying to become someone else by looking out at others you admire is a project doomed to failure.

Rather, if you compare your self to some external criteria, you are missing all the joy and benefits of being fully and completely yourself! What are the benefits of being yourself?

First, you can give up unnatural self-improvement efforts. When you look out at someone you admire, instead you can send them a thought of "thank you," knowing that since they are who they are, you don’t have to be that. You can simply be yourself!

Second, by being yourself, you may suddenly discover that the people attracted to you are people you like. Your essential self no longer blocked by self-criticism draws to you kindred souls, people who have similar likes and dislikes and, most of all, people who appreciate who you are.

Third, when you are comfortable with being who you are, you may discover that others – even those who are very different from you – are more acceptable. You have less of an urge to criticize or conflict with those who are different. It’s an interesting thing that when we are most critical of our self, we are also most critical of others.

Surely, there are other benefits. May you discover them by being just who you are.

(Your comments are always welcome at SpiritInMatters@aol.com.)
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Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.
---Burton Hills

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COMING OPPORTUNITIES

The Power and Glory of Your Uniqueness
Saturday, March 20, 2004 - 10-5 PM
501 Slaters Lane #422, Alexandria, VA
Limited to 6 people - $85
Call to register (703-548-4553) and provide birth data by March 12.

Do you often feel as if you don’t fit in to your community, your work, your family? Through a group astrological experience, we will explore each person’s unique attributes, confirming the importance of honoring who we are, and acknowledging our vital contribution to the wholeness of life.

Each person’s horoscope interpretation will be interwoven with the others, in a spirit of confidentiality and inclusivity, by contrasting (not comparing) differences and illuminating similarities.  The goal is enhanced self-love, appreciation of diversity and recognition of our unity. 

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An Astrological Appetizer – Spring Equinox
Sunday, March 21, 7:30-9:00 PM
501 Slaters Lane #422, Alexandria, VA
Call to register (703-548-4552) - $15

Spring is sprung, the flowers bloom but what else is coming? What do the next three months hold - in economics, politics, and your personal life? Come enjoy a lively discussion of probabilities!

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FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION...

NETWORK HORSE RACE COVERAGE TRAMPLES THE ISSUES
By Timothy Karr, MediaChannel.org
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert135.shtml

NEW YORK, January 27, 2004 -- Howard Dean's now notorious Iowa speech may have marked the beginning of the end of the candidate's campaign to become president -- not so much for the content and fury of his words, but because of the way mainstream media subsequently characterized those 18 seconds in Iowa as a summation of the candidate himself.
The Dean "moment" is just one of many set pieces in network news' ongoing portrayal of the 2004 elections as a horse race pitting archetypal personalities against one another. Dean is the mercurial candidate; John Kerry the aloof plutocrat, while John Edwards is the simple populist. This drama may play well on the small screen, but it accomplishes little towards educating voters about the candidates' political views as Americans head to the polls this year.
According to MediaChannel/Media Tenor's ongoing monitoring of CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News, the Democratic candidates are increasingly not being identified according to their stances on political issues, but by their incremental movements, up or down, in the polls and by their personality traits as perceived by the campaign media horde.


DO YOU HAVE A SADOMASOCHISTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
http://www.spiritualchicks.com/Article_Sadomasochistic.htm

It might sound shocking, but it’s quite possible that you do. Anyone exposed as a young child to Judeo-Christian religious concepts has internalized to one degree or another the idea of a big daddy God somewhere in the sky who keeps track of all our mistakes and misdeeds so that he can punish us when we die. This idea has given birth to a terrorized slave race that throughout all recorded history has happily taken orders from whichever clergy person or secular leader happened to be impersonating God at the time. While many religious scriptures extol the virtues of love and peace, our deeply ingrained master/slave relationship with our Creator does not promote oneness or harmony. It breeds hate, fear and pain and turns even the most promising among us into warriors for Yahweh, bombers for Christ, and suicide machines for Allah.

You may think that you have escaped this conditioning. But have you really? Even those of us not heavily indoctrinated into the idea of an external, judgmental God are experts in conforming our lives to accepted standards and pleasing outside authority figures as a result of the training we’ve received from our parents and schools. We may be unafraid of God, but petrified of a bad economy; unconcerned about the afterlife but scared to death to change careers; nonchalant about not going to church, but unable to leave an abusive spouse. Except for the very few who have achieved true spiritual enlightenment, we’re all in the same boat, secular slaves and religious slaves alike.


NEW SITES FACT CHECK POLITICIANS, JOURNALISTS
Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0121/p25s04-stin.html

For the next eleven months, no matter how much you may wish for relief, it will be virtually impossible to escape politics. Ad campaigns - and budgets - that make Madison Avenue green with joy. Candidates trying to get interviewed by anyone with a microphone (the only time they'll be this accessible). Local and national news coverage in every medium from network television to one-man weblogs.

And though this may come as a shock, some of the information disseminated during this period may not be entirely accurate. Purely accidental of course - politicians would never aim to mislead or deceive, and wouldn't want us to vote for them if they did (I hope you appreciate that I'm keeping a straight face as I type this) - but there is such a thing as healthy skepticism, and this week's websites will help you to separate fact from fiction during the campaigns of '04.
Both of the sites being reviewed this week are new and specifically dedicated to truth in politics. (And Diogenes thought he had it rough.) The first operates under the name, FactCheck.org, and tops its home page with the mission statement of "Holding Politicians Accountable," and the Daniel Moynihan quote, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."


FLOWER-POWER COULD HELP CLEAR LAND MINES
By Elinor Schang, Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=4219916

A Danish biotech company has developed a genetically modified flower that could help detect land mines and it hopes to have a prototype ready for use within a few years.

"We are really excited about this, even though it's early days. It has considerable potential," Simon Oestergaard, chief executive of developing company Aresa Biodetection, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

The genetically modified weed has been coded to change color when its roots come in contact with nitrogen-dioxide (NO2) evaporating from explosives buried in soil.

Within three to six weeks from being sowed over land mine infested areas the small plant, a Thale Cress, will turn a warning red whenever close to a land mine.

According to data compiled by Aresa, more than 100 million land mines have been spread out in 45 countries, hidden killers that often remain for years after a conflict is over.

Oestergaard said the problem of sowing the seeds in a potential land mine could be overcome by clearing strips through a field by conventional methods or by using crop planes.

Currently land mines are mostly removed by putting a stick into the ground to locate the mine, then removing it and detonating it. Dogs and metal detectors are also often used.


STUDY: SEDENTARY LIFE STARTS IN TODDLERS
By Emma Ross ,AP Medical Writer
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FIT_ACTIVE_TODDLERS?

[Dianne – Could this be the result of using the TV as a babysitter?]

LONDON (AP) -- New research suggests even 3-year-olds aren't getting enough exercise, raising concerns over their weight, future disease risk, psychological well-being, behavior and learning ability.

In the first study to rigorously track the movements of preschoolers, scientists found that the average 3-year-old is physically active for just 20 minutes a day, well short of the recommended hour a day for that age.

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The scarcest resource is not oil, metals, clean air, capital, labor or technology. It is our willingness to listen to each other and learn from each other and to seek the truth rather than seek to be right.
---Donella Meadows

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©2004 Spirit in Matters: Taking a Higher View of Life on Earth - 501 Slaters Lane #422, Alexandria, VA 22314.   All rights reserved.  Permission is granted for reproduction or redistribution of the e-newsletter in its entirety only.