As my friend Jody said, here’s a good reason why every business needs a mythologist on staff: 7 Horrifying Historical Origins of Famous Corporate Logos

The week’s cutest news: Tiniest Chameleon, Brookesia Micra, Discovered On Madagascar Island

The week’s creepiest news: How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did

So, I usually share links because they’re awesome. This week, I have something to share that I’m not supportive of! While browsing my campus bookstore, I saw this darling notebook with a cover that said “Choose to be Green.” I thought it was awesome! But then I noticed something… there was no recycle symbol anywhere. Though the product was promoting green, it wasn’t green! Therefore, I’m sharing this Choosey Chicks links to encourage you not to buy any of their products. They promote some positive ideas – choose peace, choose change, choose strength – but they are only out for profit. As far as I can see, they aren’t attempting to make any changes, at least not for the environment.

But, I’d like to end on a happy note, so I recommend you go here to learn more about Peace Sounds, a beautiful album that will soothe you and provide a donation to Thich Nhat Hanh’s current tour.

Namaste.

What is unique about this film isn’t the centuries old ideas about compassion and cooperation, but the scientific approach it offers. One interviewee offers, “Science is finally catching up with religion.” And, really, the religious notions that come up the most resemble the Eastern traditions. A lot of what came up in this documentary is synonymous with ideas I’m learning in my Buddhist Traditions course.

American ideologies of independence and success are unhealthy – for the individual and the collective. In I AM, Tom Shadyac shows how we are hard-wired for compassion and how we can make a difference in this world – one small act a time.

I attended one private school for grades K-8. If anyone brought Valentines to school, they had to bring them for every classmate. So, fairness abounded. When I was really little, this was all just cute and fun. But, around 5th grade or so, you also had the option to purchase Valentine Grams that were delivered to the classrooms. I never got one… until 7th grade. It was from a secret admirer. My heart was a flutter. Then I learned our teacher thought she was doing us a favor by sending these to those of us who weren’t receiving them from other students. Ouch. I think it must have been around this time that I started to get bitter about Valentine’s Day.

Enter high school. Freshmen Valentine came and went. But then I had a boyfriend during Sophomore year. I got him a few little goodies and put them in his locker (I had his spare key). I was tickled and couldn’t wait to see what he got me. But he didn’t get me anything. And he didn’t really say anything about what I got him. Epic fail. Bitterness grew stronger. Junior year I was single again. And really rather pissy about the whole Valentine extravaganza. But it was that year that I got the sweetest Valentine – my best girlfriend at the time had a balloon bouquet delivered to me in one of my classes with a sweet note. We were both single, and she got how rough the holiday could be. It was a super sweet gesture.

Enter college. I had a boyfriend when Valentine’s day came around my first year. But I was actually really peeved at him because he spent a lot of money on me when I had asked him to keep within the same small budget I was. It wasn’t the greatest relationship, so this big gesture just didn’t fly with me, I guess.

Then I had several more single Valentine’s days. Though, it’s much easier when you’re out of high school and not at a campus flooded with heart decor and PDAs. Though I do remember when I was in my early 20s my best friend and I were both single, and she decided to have a Black Valentine’s Day party for all the single girls. It was going to be an awesome bitterfest. But, before the plans went under way, she went and got herself a boyfriend. The party never happened.

Really, it’s a silly holiday. And the pressure it puts on you – especially in those angsty teen years – is rather unfair. I never felt like I needed to be in a relationship, and I was fine when I was single. Until the big V-day came – then I always felt excluded. The holiday for everyone who had what I didn’t.

You’d think after all this, as I grew up, I’d just grow to dismiss it as the silly day it is. That I’d grow to recognize that we celebrate love every day and there’s no need to put up paper hearts and swap out fluffy gifts. But, that didn’t happen. Now that I’m married I love Valentine’s day more than ever. I still feel bad for all the kids/teens that won’t get that special gift from that special someone they haven’t met yet… and I don’t know how I’ll address the holiday when I’m a parent. But for now, despite the fact that – I think – I’m a relatively grounded, mature grown up…. I love every ridiculous pink inch of it. Flowers, balloons, cards, small trinkets, kisses, stuffed monkeys, you name it. My dad makes fun of me every year. Fortunately, my hubby indulges me.

And now I’ll tell you about the best Valentine’s Day with my hubby. When we were engaged, I was sick on V-Day. He called in sick and didn’t go to work because he said I shouldn’t be home alone and sick on V-Day. Awwwww. Then he went to the store to get me some more cold meds. He came back with all the right goodies! Here it is:

I know it’s a silly day. And I fear it can harvest some relatively shallow thoughts about love…. But I hope you enjoy it with whomever you have, or just dismiss it because it really is silly! I hope no one is feeling lonely this Valentine’s day. It would be nice, I think, if it focused on more than romantic love, because we all do have great love operating in our lives.

xoxo

Photos © Mythgirl

I just learned that Nix is a satellite orbiting Pluto. Cool. I’ll own that!

Alternatively, the friend that coined this nickname for me spells it Nyx.

A while back I learned Nyx is the goddess of the night.

Pretty! I’ll own that too!

I have always had fun with nicknames.

You have to be careful though, sometimes, with your real name.

I wonder if anyone has Googled me and found my doppleganger by mistake.

 LOL. Just indulging in some silliness in the midst of a busy week!

In Old Path White Clouds, Thich Nhat Hanh masterfully discusses meditation, mindfulness, and other key concepts of Buddhism. In over five-hundred pages, he guides readers on a path with the Buddha, allowing for a deep experience in the reading of the text. Of the many elements presented in Old Path White Clouds, two key ideas stand out: meditation and mindfulness. Ultimately, these notions can be seen as two sides of the same coin. Meditation fosters mindfulness, and mindfulness cultivates meditation.

Utilizing the voice of the Buddha, Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes the importance of meditation, which “will bring peace to your heart” (69), “nourish body and mind and provide the strength needed to pursue the path to enlightenment” (105). The deep importance and power of meditation is most aptly demonstrated in the Buddha’s attainment of Enlightenment. It is important to note that the Buddha was dedicated to meditation both before and after enlightenment. As the popular Zen proverb reminds us: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” Enlightenment was pivotal in Siddhartha’s transformation to the Buddha, but it does not change the things he must do to continue nourishing his spiritual life and teach those around him.

Through Enlightenment, the Buddha found the answer to his quest for learning how to live in a world that contains suffering. In meditation, Buddha discovered that suffering comes from wrong thinking. It is through meditation and practices of mindfulness that one can overcome wrong thinking and see the reality of impermanence and inter-being, other important principles in Buddhism. The way to achieve both meditation and mindfulness is by bringing awareness to the present moment. This is an important ability because “Life can be found only in the present moment . . . Once you know how to return to the present moment, you will become awakened, and at that moment, you will find your true self” (163).

In an important passage on pages 514-515 in Old Path White Clouds, the Buddha offers ten ways that “happiness can be realized in this very life,” (514) including “[l]earn[ing] how to meditate in order to release sorrows and anxieties” (515). There is a very circular nature in the concepts presented by the Buddha. By being in the moment, one can experience life and one’s true self. By taking care of one’s self, one can take care of others. In tending to others, one is also tending to the self. By meditating, one learns how to be mindful. Through being mindful and focusing only on the present moment, one can move into meditation. All these elements work together in a powerful way that reciprocally aids the self, others and nature (which are not separate, as taught through the concept of inter-being): “By nourishing awareness in the present moment, you can avoid causing suffering to yourself and those around you. The way you look at others, your smile, and your small acts of caring can create happiness” (513). Mindfulness and meditation are keys to fostering and sharing happiness. Through this path of happiness, one also finds peace, understanding (of self and others), and acceptance (of suffering and impermanence).

What is truly wonderful about meditation and mindfulness is that they can be practiced on a daily basis and in any location. Furthermore, one does not have to be Buddhist in order to participate in these practices or benefit from them. They offer universal truths that can facilitate great change in everyone’s lives. Last year, I had the opportunity to attend two dharma talks by Thich Nhat Hanh and to join with many others in a guided meditation walk he led at Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, California. As I read Old Path White Clouds, I could hear his voice and feel the sense of peace that he so beautifully radiates. I see meditation and mindfulness as a symbiotic process that is having a powerful effect on my life.

And now I would like to leave you with a final quote from Old Path White Clouds:

“If you want to see the essence of a lotus flower, you must see the lotus present in all the dharmas normally thought of as non-lotus, such as the sun, pond water, clouds, mud, and heat. Only by looking in this way can we tear asunder the web of narrow views, the web of mental discrimination which creates the prisons of birth, death, here, there, existence, non-existence, defiled, immaculate, increasing and decreasing . . . reality in itself cannot be expressed by conceptual knowledge or by written and spoken language. Only the understanding which meditation brings can help us recognize the essence of reality” (466-467).

First up, zombies continue to plague the internet. Learn about a course you can actually take here: Prepping for apocalypse: Zombie survival course in Portland or look for like-minded zombies on this dating website: ZombieHarmony

On a more serious note, things are looking up for mother nature. First of all, Fungi Discovered In The Amazon Will Eat Your Plastic. Now we just have to figure out how to get it in our landfills! And also, good endangered species news: Endangered Green Turtle Baby Boom Breaks 28-year Record. Elsewhere in the universe, we’ve got this going on: “Alien” Particles Found Invading Our Solar System—A First.

Now this may not be news to some of you, but I just learned that there are guide horses! Yep, just like guide dogs, but swapped out for a miniature horse! This is incredible! I’ve always been impressed with service dogs. I did not know any other animals were up to the task. You can learn all about it at the Guide Horse Foundation.

For my fellow bookworms, here’s a fun list to peruse: The Greatest Books of All Time, As Voted by 125 Famous Authors. And here’s some amazing “book porn”! The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World

For all you Big Bang Theory / Sheldon fans, yes, this is now available: Soft Kitty Singing Plush.

Finally, I’ll leave you with some ROTF humor from cutie John Stamos: John Stamos’ Guide to Cuddling. Enjoy!

To begin with, my only “complaint” about the program was that it was often difficult for me to understand Bill Harney. As an aboriginal, he had a unique perspective I have not been exposed to before. Unfortunately, I missed so much of what he was saying that I’m not sure how well I grasped his ideas. Every once in a while, subtitles were added to his dialogue, and had that been the case throughout, I’d have more to say about Harney. Since I don’t though, I’ll focus on Aizenstat. If you’re also from Pacifica or the depth-community, you will recognize the name of Pacifica’s founding-president. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you may remember when I had the opportunity to tend a dream with Dr. Aizenstat. He is really an incredible, intelligent, and gentle human being.

In Dreams, Visions & Realities, Aizenstat focuses on one of his key ideas about dreams: “It’s not ego centered. It’s soul-centered.” To work with our dreams, he instructs we have to develop relationships with the images that come to us. The more difficult they are, the more original they are. And when we get to know these images, their intelligence is revealed to us. It’s our American way to tend to ask what the dream means, but Aizenstat says we’re getting the order wrong when approaching our dreams. He emphasizes, “It’s not a think-about. It’s a walk-about. It is important to understand dreams, but they need depth first.” We must work with those images, listen to their archetypes, and allow the images to name themselves before we even start to ask what they mean.

In the post-premiere web-chat, Aizenstat answered as many questions as he could from viewers in the 45 minutes he was with us. An important question he addressed, one that he said he is always asked, is how do I remember my dreams? Aizenstat identified the key to remembering dreams is to be “curious” about them. Think about remembering your dreams before you go to sleep, and when you wake allow yourself to stay in that liminal space before forcing the day. Then, write down your dreams. Really, the more curious you are, the more you’ll remember. In this discussion, Aizenstat poetically stated that, “In each image is a medicinal quality.” I really believe we should all dedicate time each day into tapping into that.

Aizenstat briefly mentioned the great film Inception. He said it brings up great questions we often find ourselves wrestling with: “Who’s dreaming the dream? Is there a separation between dream time and this reality?” Aizenstat emphasized that in our culture we differentiate between the conscious and the unconscious; this is not true in the aboriginal culture. They differentiate between different levels of awareness.

Aizenstat also emphasized that, more than anything, dreams offer “support.” There is a voice, teachings, direction, all available in the dream language if we listen. He also said that “dreams are informed as much by the future as they are by the present and past” : “The dream is a seed … the future pulls on it, allows it to grow forward. It’s a sketch of what’s coming next.” This idea really fascinates me. I know that our concept of time as linear is based greatly on our perception. How time really moves is something that I think is beyond the capacity for our brains to really comprehend or identify. The thought that we can access time differently in dreams is greatly intriguing!

Aizenstat emphasizes that the world is dreaming. We are dreaming. Animals are dreaming. We all exist in this dream scape. And we shouldn’t ask why we see certain images, but who we see – again, what is the archetype here? The dream is partly ours and partly the collective. “As dreams comes forward, they have particular value, connected to the universal story. Put all the threads together on a planetary level.”

As you can see, I was really intrigued by the program and Aizenstat’s chat. Any time I get the opportunity to interact with him, virtually or in-person, I take advantage of it. I have more of his thoughts from the web-chat that I would like to share. Since I really don’t have the time this morning to weave these into a more developed form, I’m just going to go ahead and share some of the notes I took. What you will find below is pretty much word for word from what Aizenstat said in the web chat. It’s all self-explanatory, so I don’t really think it even needs my words included for any clarification. Enjoy! And sweet dreams!

meditation/trance work: there is a quality that bumps into the experience of meditation. it’s how we work with dreams that makes all the diff. if we bring our rational mind and try to interpret to quickly, we lose that quality. if we come to dream, allow it to present itself first in this walk about imagery, witnessing the colors, textures, images in their activity without so quickly making sense of it, we become part of the living enactment in the dream. an extraordinary way of experiencing dream. when dreams come in that way, they’re in immediacy of the present. when we share a dream with another person, they’re happening now.
when we experience dreams in the present moment, we are in a type of meditation. the images themselves are so incredibly present, so immediate. by developing relationship with them, they bring us into their presence. that’s the meditation. rediscover being anchored deeply in personal belonging and the immediacy of the now

whenever an animal comes into a dream, it gets my attention…. von franz: universally true: when an animal presented in a dream, the thing to do is follow the animal, will take you into places you wouldn’t otherwise discover. animals animate. images are like animals, embodied entities…. there’s that white rabbit that always takes us into another dimension

structures (building, house)… we have to appreciate cityscape as well. most of civilization lives in city. you can just as easily take a walk-about in a city. experience the buildings. how the buildings have a voice. that whole idea of “if walls can talk.” maybe walls do talk, and they have stories to tell. sci-fi, active imagination. what diff does it make? live in the world as if it’s alive, enchanted. … brings us in relationship with creatures, buildings, structures. Not as easy then to go in and demolish a neighborhood… not as easy to pollute the streams, contaminate the ocean, if you have an emotional relationship to these things, to the landscapes, to the structures. Experience the world as alive, treat differently.

dreams of animals: additional states of consciousness. the creatures of the world are always dreaming… we may not hear their voice in relation to having a conversation, yet in the dream world we are able to hear their experience and pick up their dreams. what are they saying about their species? instinctually about planet? about what’s going on in home? when the dog appears, the dog we know, and it appears in dream: listen. instinctual intelligence alive in creatures. how is it responding to you, other creatures in dream? pick up a sense of its advocacy? animals are dreaming… rocks are dreaming. rocks have a lot to say about the nature of how it is to be a rock. may not be dreaming the way we do, but we can hear it as it presents in imagery of dream.

befriend the dream. pay attention. host the images. bring yourself to them as you would with any friend. as you care about them they will care about you and the guidance they offer you will be available.

You can also learn more here on this public radio interview.

Spread the word!! Fast!!

First up…. A Bold Vision for an Urban Forest. Pictured here is a CG image of what is becoming reality in Italy. WOW!

Next… love animals? Hey, me too! And guess what? Scientists have recently discovered that we’ve been missing out on elephant communication because they can make noises at a pitch we can’t hear! Ah, nature, always impressing me! Learn more and support the project here: Elephant Listening Project

And, finally, fancy children’s lit? Check out one of the latest Caldecott winners: A Ball (And A Caldecott) For ‘Daisy’ The Dog

Enjoy!