Leo Tolstoy on God

LEO TOLSTOY ON GOD: "When you look inside yourself, you see what is called 'your own self' or your soul. You cannot touch it or see it or understand it, but you know it is there. And this part of yourself--that which you cannot understand--is what is called God. God is both around us and inside of us--in our souls.

The more you understand that you are at one with God, the more you will understand that you are at one with all His worldly manifestations."

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The World Needs A Facelift: Cracks Are Beginning To Appear!

According to some religious circles, you should not be reading this piece.

The world should have ended yesterday, May 21, 2011.



The fact that you're still here and reading this means that those people with their predictions about end of world times were wrong.

It gets me thinking about how many other predictions we make on a daily basis that simply do not happen and are just wrong.

We get to the point in life where we think that we follow the rules of life and certain things are bound to follow.

Live long enough and you realize that things are not necessarily that well ordered. In fact, you get to the point where you know the "world" we're living in is being "created" as we move along from family to family in generation to generation.

Yet, we're still doing a great pretense of acting with certainty about the world.



But cracks are beginning to appear in the carefully erected facade in the world that we have been living in.


If you look closely...through the cracks...you can see the crumbling and falling down. Not only the walls we've erected to separate ourselves from others...the outside wall...are falling, but the very foundation of the facade is begin to erode and erupt and crack!



Every time a Soul breaks from the tradition of doing "evil," as the world is having some do, then a little crack appears. More individuals moving along that "fault line" add to the widening of the crack...until eventually that part of the wall falls down.

Look carefully around you...and more and more...you should see little "cracks" appear in an otherwise normal wall.

The thing is that it is "ordinary" men and women...who are causing these little cracks to appear...all over the surface of this facade.

The pretty picture that was painted already was beginning to look old...and faded...and now, with the cracks, there's no going back to that old picture!

The World Needs a Face Lift!
A New Order Must Be Put In Place!


The carefully erected world those of us who are of the Baby-Boom generation grew up in has long been discarded.

We know that certain "truths" we took for granted have been spat upon and broken down.



First, it started with a new generation of parents teaching their kids that they don't have to live segregated from each other because of race, color, creed or religion.

So the children of those Baby Boomers now are integrating in ways those parents never, ever could have foreseen as youngsters, though the consciousness had already begun with their parents' parents' parents.

As a result of those set of rules changing, we are now witnesses to an ever evolving, changing world.

*Barack Obama is president of the United States, elected by a coalition of people of all races, creeds, colors and religions. His parents, one black one white, could not have imagined or dreamed of this when they dared to strain the rules of integration by coupling up as college students.


By saying "NO" to the world that made interracial dating taboo, they said "YES" to the possibilities of tomorrow and the reality of today, where Barack Obama, an African-American, was elected president in 2008.

In more ways we're seeing the "old world" order fall apart.
But the world always has been falling apart. We just had the illusion that it was all permanently pasted together. The world has never, ever been stationary!


Each generation of people has had to deal with the changing world and "the illusions."

Today, many are waking up to the illusion of predictability in the stock market and real estate market. The old rules for money making and growing prosperous and rich that worked for earlier generations are now no longer a guarantee of a secure future or for "old age."

Many people are afraid. They are very, very afraid about their finances.

Job security?

Totally a thing of the past, except with very few organizations and entities.




In Egypt and in Middle Eastern countries we were witnesses this year to major changes. People born into hierarchical systems that kept average citizens enslaved to the wealthy, and women subjugated to men, began saying "NO" to those ways and "YES" to freedom.

As a matter of fact, this year alone we saw the toppling of several entrenched regimes, as people took power into their own hands and said "NO" to the old ways.


This was evidenced first, in Egypt, then Syria, Yemen, Baharain and Libya and other countries that had long histories of hierarchical and patriarchial rule.

So the evidence is clear.

What is not clear but still is central to our understanding of the changes occurring in our world is the mass consciousness that has developed and declared "war" on the old ways.

People have said "NO" to old ways for a long, long time. This was imbedded into the consciousness of each new generation that was born. It took decades...but eventually, the old ways of thinking, being and doing have given way to our new and evolving world.




Our parents' parents' parents did not live to see their consciousness interplay in their world for their generation. But their children's children's children are now beneficiaries of those "new thoughts" they imbedded.

Even though we may never directly reap the benefits of our current thinking and actions, we leave a legacy of those thoughts and actions for those following behind.

Since the old world did not give way and crumble as predicted yesterday, there's a question now for us all as we move into the "new world." What legacy are you leaving for the world?



What crack are you putting into the world's wall as you go forward in your life?

These are important issues as day by day, in what we may consider our limited way, we make a crack in the wall of "old" thinking and actions.

Your crack becomes the opening through which an entirely new universe emerges for yet another new world.

Think on these things. Then...

Get Cracking!


Namaste',

Che'
*NOTE: Oprah Winfrey also defied the odds by becoming the Number One Talk Show host of a day-time television show. After 25 years, on May 25, she's finally ending her top-rated talk show, begun in May 1986. Over the 25 years of her program, Oprah Winfred inspired millions to change their lives.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Book Review: "God is a Brown Girl, Too" by Cecilia B. Loving


The experience of God is a unique and personal one and so individualized that it becomes a huge challenge to communicate this "knowingness" to others.


Some how, in some way, Cecilia B. Loving has been able to accomplish this feat with the book, "God is a Brown Girl, Too."

This talented poet, teacher and preacher reaches deep into her own soul to share the absolute truth as she knows it about God. In doing so, she provides readers with a confidence and clarity to be witnesses to the same experiences and claim them for themselves.


At the end of this terrific and empowering book, readers are left breathless with confidence and a sense of direction in discovering their own personal relationship with God.

If they didn't know what God should and could feel like, this book is a guide to uncovering the mystery. If they didn't know what God should and could look like, this book is the truth!

Without a doubt Rev. Loving's passion and sincerity capture your Soul. You're easily able to ride along with her through characters, named Grace, Myrtle and Karma, all providing, light and enlightening for your own passage to truth.

The fact that Cecilia Loving is a poet certainly brings life to the many biblical passages she uses throughout, heightening your sense of places and time so long ago.

The confidence that Rev. Loving shares stories about Grace, Myrtle and Karma allow you to embrace their experiences and insights as your own.


I highly recommend this book for "brown" girls and all others throughout the United States and around world. In fact, if you're "brown," it's downright required reading!

Here are some highlights that fully bring alive the experience and sensation of God, as you, and as a "brown girl, too."


"Disregard those who believe that you have no right to God--for they want you to believe that you have no right to yourself."

"When you know that it is my pleasure to give you the kingdom, you will feel your cup running over and the abundance of good that pours and flows from it."

"When you need to get your glow on, I am the only real 'exfoliate.' Not only do I clean the toxins from your body, but I scrub away the thoughts that clog your mind."

"Walk beyond the confines of your self-imposed limitations, so that I can shine through you."

"Walk as an unlimited expression of all that I AM."

"I am here to help you realize the benefit of surrender. There is no need for a 9/11 or some catastrophe."

"You define yourselves based on the environment in which you grew up as a child---even though you may not have seen or experienced that environment in 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or even 60 years."



Sections such as: "Awaken to Love," "Dance Beyond Done and Do Even More," "Create Outside the Box of Conventionality," "Release Your Demons," and "Tell a New Story," each with many powerful chapters, have you reading...and reading...and gasping...through the end.

By then...you believe!

You know the truth and TRUTH: God IS a Brown Girl, Too!

[Pictured: Senaya Miles (L) and Shondelle Solomon-Miles (R), a brown girl who certainly knows TRUTH!]



Thank you, Cecilia B. Loving, for this awe-inspiring book!

Namaste',

Che'

EDITOR'S NOTE: Rev. Cecilia B. Loving is the spiritual leader of SPIRITMUV (www.spiritmuv.com), a nondenominational church in New York City. Before becoming a minister, she paracticed law for more than 20 years. Rev. Loving is a graduate of Howard University (BFA); University of California, Los Angeles (MFA); New York University School of Law (JD); and New York Theological Seminary (MDiv) where she received both the President and the Rising Star Awards. Her first book, "Prayers for Those Standing n the Edge of Greatness" is available at www.prayersontheedge.com or http://myrtle-treepress.webs.com. "God is a Brown Girl, Too," is available through SPIRITMUV, http://www.spiritmuv.com, or amazon.com, or where ever books are sold.

Personal Authenticity: "To Thine Own Self Be True"...

"To Thine Own Self Be True and it must follow as the night, the day, Thou canst not then be false to ANY man."
William Shakespeare.