According to basic accounting principals, if my professional services require I attend continuing education and business conferences, then those expenses are written off my gross income, under “business expenses”  on my schedule C, as per IRS rules.

Even though said expenses may have been covered by “donations”…(in other words, paid for by others),  it does not negate the fact that these expenses are considered under business ethics and law, as,

“the costs of doing business”.

If I were them, as I guess I AM, if I desired to stay IN business,  I would suggest WE start cutting *this* business’ costs.

Donations can just go to paying off their debt to US.  For those that made them had a vested interest in the “business” staying IN business and courting these “agents” favor, too.

And instead of relying on the *old* energy and *power* of ~money~,  start integrating business models based upon business principals and ethics related to the concepts of Responsibility and Accountability for the use of Life’s resources.

My daughter is my daughter.  She is also her father’s daughter.  So she comes by her tendencies to speak her mind, honestly.  A lot of times we clash, when I do not agree.

We had such an instance today, when it came to California’s “Proposition 8″, which made same sex “marriages”, illegal.  Angela doesn’t like the idea of negating freedoms AT ALL.  She cites bias and prejudice towards alternative lifestyles, as the basis for her perspective of what is going on. And marched off in a huff because I didn’t agree with her~victimization scenario~.

Angela is only 14.  And has just reached the age where I can share with her what I understand.  She is asking, expressing interest.  And will become a far better messenger and communicator then I ever could be, when she comes into her own Power.  Far more naturally attractive to Mass Humanity then I, because Humanity will have changed by then.  So I guess I could say I do what I do for my daughter.  To pave the way for the realization of her Passions.

I recognize the validity of same sex marriage.  I simply don’t recognize the state’s right to deny the Sovereignty of our Hearts.  We WILL Love and Live with whom we WILL.  We do NOT need a “license” or any other “authority” to sanction Loving someone.  To be “married” or “joined together” in our Hearts and Souls.

Licenses and blood tests came about related to the health of possible children.  And does NOT relate to “same sex marriage”.

In observation of the fact that opponents to same sex marriages adamantly express being LACKING in genuine and essential qualities of character, namely LACKING in Tolerance, LACKING in Acceptance, LACKING in being Understanding and filled with FEAR, I question this group’s “parenting skills” to begin with.  So as concerns possible children of said marriage, our choice of the way we express personal intimacy, sexually, has very little to do with parenting.

As for what is going on, as I told my daughter, this is about *benefits*.  It’s about who is going to get their *benefits* paid for, by others.  And what I told my daughter was…

We have the Liberty to Love and Live with whom we will.  Sovereignty belongs to the People.  This whole drama is being created  by giving false power to an outside ‘authority’.  That, is Self betrayal.   And choosing Self betrayal, is what both sides of the issue have in common.

Proponents of same sex marriage are seeking the VALIDATION of the State, having surrendered the Authority of their own Hearts, just like the opponents to same sex marriage, have surrendered the Authority of their own Hearts, over to their preachers and priests.

Surrendering the Sovereignty of our own Hearts was our *old* way of doing things.  While CLAIMING it, is our *new*.

On election day I sat across the table from one of my in-laws.  A very Precious Lady.  Sincere and genuine.  While her children filled out their ballots, voting for those I already knew were going to lose.  She told me a story of one of her friends.  Her friend had been all confused about “voting” and “elections”.   Anything having to do with “civics” being totally beyond her understanding.

So when she spoke of Freedom of Religion I said, “Yes, we all have the Liberty to choose our Beliefs.  But the definition of Liberty is the freedom of choice while being responsible and accountable for the costs and the consequences.  License is not Liberty.  License is when we insist on freedom of choice and deny the costs and the consequences of those choices.  And I am speaking about being responsible and accountable for the consequences of our beliefs, to our mental and emotional health and sense of well being.  Believing in the worship of fear and ignorance carries with it costs and consequences.

This week has been an active one for me.  From ‘reports’ I’ve had coming in, I’ not the ~only~ one experiencing such activity.  Most of what I hear about, comes to me in the form of people calling me.  Sometimes not really knowing why they called, just feeling like calling.  Like my son did from college yesterday.  I had time to catch up with him late last night.

What’s going on concerns the subject of “power”.  And as the bottom falls out of our understanding of what it is and how to use it, the ground is also swelling under a totally *new* understanding of what it is and how to use it.  We’re swtiching from one energy flow to another on a very basic level.  Likened to swtiching from AC to DC currents.  Some of us call this level “quantum”.

Even my own energy field has been fluxuating.  Electronics and electrical appliances and equipment acting ~scewry~.  Blowing light bulbs all over the place.  I spent yesterday replacing a pressure swtich to our pump system…so we would have running water again.

Hear that?  I did it.

I was able to perform the task, with the arm and hand dexterity required.  My left arm and my left hand.    The ones that used to be numb and paralyzed, then operated only under severe pain.   And I did it without feeling any pain or discomfort at all.

that’s not all that has changed…

I am taking my walks now, without tears streaming down my face from the pain in my legs.  It simply happened all of a sudden, ~this~ week.  I can walk all the way to my destination of the bend in the river and back without stopping to rest until the pain subsides.  There and back…NO pain.

And the reason why my son and other people have called me, is because they *know*, I *know* what is happening and how to understand it.

I am going to speak for all the people in our world that have never ‘qualified’ for credit.  The ones of us that did not meet the “conditions”.

Since the markets have been fueled by credit demand, they have responded to only fulfilling the desires of those who have it and use it, while a vast percentage of our populations’ basic needs have been ignored.  Like a basic need for water.

When our pipes started flowing with water that tasted ‘bad’, how did we respond?

We responded by creating an industry that sold bottled water fit to drink.  Which in turn has created further challenges in disposing of the empty plastic bottles, as well as, all the costs of the materials for the plastic itself, and the energy expended in the production of said plastic bottles.

Which also left a lot of people stuck with the awful tasting water coming out of municipal pipes.

BECAUSE this was the way we RESPONDED to our need for water, ~now~ more and more of us are going to be stuck drinking the awful tasting water coming out of our pipes, UNTIL SUCH TIME as the problem is addressed that satifies the need of the many.  It’s simply a matter of HOW many it is going to take until such time as we decided to RESPOND differently to the problem.

HINT.  HINT.

Take PROFIT out of the picture when it comes to our water supply.

How about that scare a few months ago involving our pet food?    Ever take a look at how MANY brand names were effected?   ALL coming from the same plant?

Did it even dawn on us to question WHY we needed ALL those brands of essentially a lot of the same thing?

Last but not least I ask…

Wouldn’t it cost a lot less and get us a lot further, if we based our markets on the SPIRIT of Cooperation, rather then Competition?

After we walk the mile in another’s moccasins, we end up *knowing* the value of a good pair of walking shoes…ones with support.

Every day it seems I hear some moron on TV talking about how our nations’ security depends on oil. I understand the relics in the oil industries’ security is tied to oil but not this country’s. To even sell that idea to the American public is a betrayal of the public Trust.

Trust, now that’s a word, isn’t it? What’s happening to all that Trust now? The Trust we misplaced in others?

I think we could use a reminder of exactly Who we ARE.

We’re A M E R I C A N S!!!!!!!!!!!!

What follows is a speech given on July 4, 1946…

“I propose today to discuss certain elements of the American character, which have made this nation great. It is well for us to recall them today, for this is a day of recollection and a day of hope.

A nation’s character, like that of an individual, is elusive. It is produced partly by things we have done and partly by what has been done to us. It is the result of physical factors, intellectual factors, and spiritual factors. It is well for us to consider our American character, for in peace, as in war, we will survive or fail according to its measure.

Our government was founded on the essential spiritual idea of integrity of the individual. It was this spiritual sense which inspired the authors of the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.”

Inspired by a deeply spiritual sense, this country, which has ever been devoted to the dignity of man, which has ever fostered the growth of the human spirit, has always met and hurled back the challenge of those deathly philosophies of hate and despair. We have defeated them in the past; we will always defeat them.

Another element in the American character that I would bring to your attention this morning is the idealism of our people. This idealism, this fixed regard for principle, has been an element of the American character from the birth of this nation to the present day.

In recent years, the existence of this element in the American character has been challenged by those who seek to give an economic interpretation to American history. They seek to destroy our faith in our past so that they may guide our future. These cynics are wrong.

In Revolutionary times, the cry “No taxation without representation” was not an economic complaint. Rather, it was directly traceable to the eminently fair and just principle that no sovereign power has the right to govern without the consent of the governed. Anything short of that was tyranny. It was against this tyranny that the colonists “fired the shot heard ’round the world.”

Woodrow Wilson’s idealism was the traditional idealism of America. To such a degree was this true that he was able to say, “Some people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.”

The idealism with which we had entered the battle made the subsequent disillusionment all the more bitter and revealed a dangerous facet to this element of the American character, for this bitterness, a direct result of our inflated hopes, brought a radical change in our foreign policy

We failed to make the adjustment between what we had hoped to win and what we actually could win. Our idealism was too strong. We would not compromise. It is now in the postwar world that this idealism–this devotion to principle–this belief in the natural law– will meet its greatest trial. But, if we remain faithful to the American tradition, our idealism will be a steadfast thing, a constant flame, a torch held aloft for the guidance of other nations.

It will take great faith.

Our idealism, the second element of the American character, is being severely tested. Now, only time will tell whether this element of the American character will be true to its historic tradition.

The third element of the American character that I would bring to your attention this morning is the great patriotic instinct of our people. This American patriotism has always had as its core a strange and almost mystical love of the land.

Early in our history we acquired, as James Truslow Adams has pointed out, “a sense of unlimited energy face to face with unlimited resources.”

The American character has been not only spiritual, idealistic, and patriotic, but because of these it has been essentially individual. The right of the individual against the State has ever been one of our most cherished political principles.

The American Constitution has set down for all men to see the essentially Spiritual and American principle that there are certain rights held by every man which no government and no majority, however powerful, can deny.

Conceived in Grecian thought, strengthened by ethics, and stamped indelibly into American political philosophy, the right of the individual against the State is the keystone of our Constitution. Each man is free.

He is free in thought.

He is free in expression.

He is free in worship.

To us, who have been reared in the American tradition, these rights have become part of our very being. They have become so much a part of our being that most of us are prone to feel that they are rights universally recognized and universally exercised. But the sad fact is that this is not true. They were dearly won for us only a few short centuries ago and they were dearly preserved for us in the days just past. And there are large sections of the world today where these rights are denied as a matter of philosophy and as a matter of government.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. It was the price yesterday. It is the price today, and it will ever be the price.

The characteristics of the American people have ever been a deep sense of Spirit, a deep sense of idealism, a deep sense of patriotism, and a deep sense of individualism.

Let us not blink the fact that the days which lie ahead of us are bitter ones.

May God grant that, at some distant date, on this day, and on this platform, the orator may be able to say that these are still the great qualities of the American character and that they have prevailed.”

John F. Kennedy

Things of Value I Carry with Me  

Love & Attraction.  Obviously, I had issues with what I was and had been, attracting, as far as experiences went.   Same ole’ story, over and over and over.  And I didn’t especially like it.  Enough is as good as a feast, already. 

I could understand the magnetism of what I was attracting on a Quantum level but, honestly, what did Love have to do with it?

Then it hit me, I had chosen to Love the lack of it.  Of all things, me, blindsided when it came to Values.   That’s when I became the proverbial bull in a china shop.   The china shop being the Values I had been serving.  That I was now mindless in rattling as my inner life came crashing down, as insubstantial as a house of cards. 

One time later in my story my Husband suggested I give away my secret formula for miracles.  Just charge a hell of a lot for postage and handling.  I disregarded his statement about postage and handling, knowing he was just being a rascal.  But his statement that I had a secret formula puzzled me.  I didn’t know I knew a formula, secret or otherwise, for miracles.

Then he quoted my own words back to me.

“Values I carry with me where ever I go.”

Oh, I thought, that formula.  ‘That’s a formula?’, I asked him, somewhat thrown off by the utter blatancy that had escaped me, unnoticed.  Him, being him, just let me chew on it for a while, letting me digest what he had said.  It required I take a trip down memory lane, to when I first asked myself to make a list of:

Values I carry with me wherever I go.

I remembered my list.  I also remembered how insecure a person I was when I made it.

I listed things like:

Ÿ         Money

Ÿ         Checkbook

Ÿ         Credit card

Ÿ         Debit card

Ÿ         Safety deposit box key. (which held a whole ‘nother list)

The next question I asked myself was, ‘how much time did I spend absorbed with these  things?’

Stark realization began to sink in.  I spent a LOT of time focused on these things, protecting these things and, trying to accumulate more.   Why, my feelings of worth and security, were tied to these and other, things. 

Things I could get using various means.  I never did resort to outright thievery.  I learned about working for what I desired.  I also learned how to cajole and manipulate through guilt.  Blaming other people for how I felt and, doing my best to try to make them feel guilty for me feeling that ‘not happy’ way.  Among the things that I counted on the most, was getting other people to agree with me.

I looked at my list.  Things I could get. 

Things that not only could be got, but could also be taken.  Which led me face to face with one of my greatest fears.  Loss.  Loss of the things and loss of the ability to get more.

A panorama of my life opened up before me.  It almost made me nauseous. 

I could get alright.  But in that getting, I never did have.  I had spent countless moments pursuing objects of my affection, that once acquired, never had  led to any firm or secure sense of anything.  Worth or loved.  What I had created instead, was a solid sense of being able to acquire and to fight to keep.

And it took a lot of effort. 

Being Honest with mySelf, I’m like a train to get moving.  I gather momentum as I go.  That makes it easy to plough through barricades in my way without any extra effort.  I asked my momentous Self what was the purpose of all this revving of engines if I never arrived at a destination?  Perpetual motion was exhausting.  Especially when it took everything I got,  to keep going.  Aha!  Give and take…equals a net of zero.

I finally grasped it. 

My previous list had been a list of things I could get.  Had got.  And showed my potential for getting even more.

Look at me!  I’m a go-getter.  Barreling down the tracks.

With my one track mind fueled by all my insecurities.

My inner world reeled as I came to a complete stop in my thinking.  That‘s when my life started to resemble a train wreck as far as appearances went.

‘Things of Value I carry with me where ever I go.’

Where had I invested my sense of worth?

OUTSIDE of myself, that’s where.  In things.  In Objects.  In achievements.  I saw where this train of thought had led.  To an endless series of competitions as a racing rat of an engine.   How cheesy.

Oh, by all appearances I certainly wouldn’t have been considered even close to poor, yet, it was all a screen.  A fake store front.  It provided an appearance of a person of worth.  I say ‘fake’ simply because inside my own heart, where it counted, I knew I wasn’t secure.  Everything I got, could be taken.

Worse, even if I managed to ‘keep’ whatever I ‘got’, no matter how durable the good, it eventually would return to dust.  Even plastic was biodegradable in lava.  Depreciation, depletion, amortization, erosion, devaluation, attrition, everywhere I looked was subject to outside influences.  Especially time. 

Staking my worth and sense of security on anything like this was risky.  I’d have to be pretty tricky and inventive to be able to control all these possible outside influences.  Even if I somehow managed the ludicrous idea of becoming Heap Big Chief in charge, controlling ’time’ was going to be somewhat of a challenge.  

There’s got to be something else, my Intuition told me.  I just sensed it.  So I asked myself the question again. 

‘What Values do I carry with me where ever I go?’

And it was in asking again, that I finally Understood.  ‘Getting’ and ‘having’ are different experiences.

What were the qualities of my character?  What was inside my Heart?  And I began taking an inner inventory this time.  An inventory of qualities of character I could call upon at any moment’s notice.  Any Where.  Any When.   Values of a Timeless sort of nature.  Understanding, Acceptance, Tolerance, Patience, Compassion, Wisdom and, Forgiveness.  

‘They were all there‘, I sighed to myself with a sense of relief.  Some in greater supply then others, especially Patience and Trust but, all were there.  I Had.  I realized I also Had all the Freedom in Life, to Have more.   Anytime I desired.  Completely independent of anything and anyone else.

Ever since then I’ve lived with a Secure sense of Worth.

Secure in knowing Love is very Attractive.

Especially when it’s what we Have.