Stephen Hawking - Here and the Hereafter

Stephen Hawking - Child Star

I so wanted to watch the PBS special on Stephen Hawking. I did catch the broadcast but almost missed it. As it was, I tuned in about ten-15 minutes into this superb documentary.

I was transfixed watching this brilliant man tested by a body increasingly impacted by a motor neuron disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years. His persistence and sheer grit to triumph despite his handicaps is now legendary. And thankfully he is with us still!

As a poet I obviously don't have his mind that has changed how people see the universe. But I am most intrigued & fascinated in the quotes I see of Stephen's thoughts on the afterlife.

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he said in an interview which ran in The Guardian May 15, 2011.

There is, however, quite a bit of documentation now about the soul level before we come to Earth taped in past-life regressions and after-death communication (ADC),

Years ago I learned in a business women's group (most of whom were in the counseling field) that we choose our parents. Stunned I asked two women about it again as the room emptied out. They each nodded yes to my question and looked at me as if I had been living under a rock.

I had to go home and chew on that one! However Carol Bowman, who has written about children and past lives, narrates a true story of a child telling his mother that he picked her and his father when they were on a beach near a pink hotel. And the truth is, his parents honeymooned in Maui near a “pink” hotel.  He was born nine months later.

Authors Judy and Jim Guggenheim in Hello From Heaven, attest that one needn’t believe in heaven to get there! As many who didn’t believe have communicated to the living: I was wrong about not believing in the afterlife.

I see parallels between Stephen Hawking's incredible life and his choosing the life he has on the soul level. It is inconceivable that Stephen would choose his parents yet not know of the profound handicap he would be met with as a young man. Choosing a life this arduous sets in place deeper spiritual growth and development were he not in a body limited by a degenerative disease.

Thus while Stephen has profound accomplishments in his life as a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, he has also chosen to deepen his spiritual progression at the same time. The fact that he doesn’t remember his commitment on the soul level doesn’t matter.

Stephen’s belief that heaven isn’t a fairy tale will be wondrously disproved to him, as he embraces (one day) what he’s always known as a soul going home.

400,000 Untested Rape Kits - College Campuses: Women and Social Justice

Taking a Stand 

Yesterday President Barack Obama took a pledge to make our college campuses safer for women in the fight against sexual assaults. He's created a task force from his senior administration to coordinate enforcement on college campuses.

College sexual assault is now an epidemic: one in five women have been assaulted, but only 12% report the crime. 

Below is an article the Boston Globe ran January 22, 2014...with a telling poster of one young woman's story.

Obama pledges stand against college sexual assaults - via @bostondotcom http://www.boston.com/yourcampus/news/babson/2014/01/obama_pledges_stand_against_college_sexual_assaults.html

All the acts against young women leave forever scars. In looking at the chart posted by the Boston Globe, Harvard leads the Eastern universities in the number of assaults. It's chilling. Residential halls are the main areas where the attacks/rapes take place.

Surely ivy-league young men have had every advantage by-in-large in terms of a better background as candidates to this esteemed university. But as we know, status, income, means, and background clearly don't seem to matter. 

But abuse of power is all around us; and many male students take assault pretty lightly. Some schools are not taking action against tenured professors (as noted on the poster in the article from the Globe).

Having written about many Minnesota female victims of violence, I applaud the President taking this stand. His visibility is needed. And he has a heartfelt reason to do so: the President and the First Lady have two beautiful and bright, gracious daughters.

I'm taking a stand, too. And I'm going to need your help. There is a number that is so appalling that I can't forget it. That number is 400,000. 

As we stand for our precious, young women planning for tomorrow, we need remember over 400,000 women who lost yesterdays. Four hundred thousand is the number of untested rape kits lying around across the country. Some kits go back nineteen years.

Today I contacted the White House and Minnesota's two distinguished Senators, Sen Amy Klobucher and Sen. Al Franken to bring attention to this incredible injustice.

This backlog sends a message to many that a male perpetrator may never be charged: indeed--if we haven't marshaled the strength, will, and monies needed to stand for crimes going back years and years.

As we know, after an assault or rape, lives frequently don't get put back together. Goals are abandoned, and shame and guilt: all the residuals of being violated can remain for years.

We have to summon the will to rectify this injustice and honor our women and girls. For if we don't...what message are we sending? We're saying...it doesn't matter. Sorry. Red tape, no tape, no justice.

I plan on contacting women Congressional leaders first and foremost. We need to ban together and honor our women and girls.

I have a beautiful granddaughter. All the young women are and were beautifully wonderful spirits with everything ahead of them. And then a horrendous abuse of power took place. We have exacerbated their pain, and delayed healing by allowing the backlog to build and build. 

If we now have the attention and will to focus on our college campuses to prevent further rapes and assaults, Heaven Help Us, let's honor the women who wait for justice. 

Contact your female Congressional leaders in particular, as they may better understand what must be done. We can do it. We just need the compassion and the will. We have to demand that justice is served.  (This isn't about blame, but about galvanizing action.) Forward this post/& ReTweet it.

Inviting Gratitude In--to Stay

Moss Gardens

The soft overcomes the hard; and the weak, the strong. Lao-Tzu

"God is glorified, not by our groans, but by our Thanksgiving."  Edwin Percy Whipple

In recent weeks and days, I've been carrying around the book Living in Gratitude by Angeles Arrien. It accompanies me from room to room and from house to car in a cloth bag. I've meant to use the book at the beginning of the year to the end, but I have not been consistent in that effort. A new year gives me a fresh opportunity.

Gratitude has been a theme in recent years. Now even more is known about how living with gratitude effects our well being. On Angeles Arrien's website is a quote I have long loved: Walking the mystical path with practical feet.

I was moved to read that a gratitude journal helped allay Deborah Norville's migraine headaches within her daily challenges of anchor, wife, and mother.

Indeed, I have gratitude for Angeles Arrien, meeting her first in her brilliant tarot manual: Tarot Handbook Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols. Her anthropological background is such a rich tapestry in terms of legend, symbols, peoples, and universal shapes. I use her handbook and remain startled at the spiritual depth revealed in the work. It is a marvelous tool for personal growth on every level.

One needs, as the Buddhists say, to lean into a study of gratitude. Arrien offers the learner the forms gratitude can take and the portals through which it enters.

She writes of: blessings, protections, mercies, and learnings as the means we evolve in appreciation--in gratitude.

Blessings are "what we hold as the good in our lives." They are linked to Spirit, and our recognition of the presence of grace through ritual as in "a calling forth."

Protections are the literal and spiritual arms we extend to our loved ones: the elderly, the ill, and others through ritual and prayer.

Mercies are the elements of kindness and compassion, and also forgiveness woven into the lives we live despite human betrayal and dishonour. Haven't we all felt the power of forgiveness within ourselves? And the sweep of compassion and kindness that makes us better human beings?

Learnings are truths we glean from living our lives. Each of us comes to know both the happiness and suffering for which we live the gratitude within.

I know I need keep the book near me to assist in staying present in my year-long commitment to incorporating, appreciating the gifts of God's Hands.

It's in quietude, humility, one acknowledges the goodness received. With gratitude you aren't seeing how much you can hold, but as you learn to let go, how much you have in simplicity in which one draws a quiet strength.

Arrien writes that a sense of gratitude through the portals touched on above, inpact our relationships, health and well being, and even our fianacial world. Moreover, grateful people are happy people.

If you've never picked up a book by Angles Arrien, this may present an opportunity. The book is an indepth look at becoming aware of what we've received and the benefits of that awareness.

I will keep evolving if I open increasingly to gratitude, live it--and keep it.
Indeed I wish to invite gratitude in--to stay.

God's Blessings to you!

Nobility of Heart

The North rose window

Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartes

Chartes, France 2002

You should remember that although another may have more money, beauty, and brains than you, yet when it comes to the rarer spiritual values such as charity, self-sacrifice, honor, nobility of heart, you have an equal chance with everyone to be the most beloved and honored of all people. -Archibald Rutledge

In 1965 I was given a book by beloved friends I've cherished ever since I received it. Popular at the time, The Treasure Chest, has lifted me with it's quotes on character, brotherhood, and faith. 

But the quote by Archibald Rutledge may be one of the top quotes for me in the entire book of inspiritional thought. 

It holds the concept of an ideal of spiritual achievement forever open to all spiritual paths and followers. I put it on like a cloak. Yet one has to make it your own.

Life purpose has it's summation in but three and one half lines. The longer I wear this garment, the truer the fabric. It's never dimished. 

Every Faith has it's path of attainment. The mystic moves and breaths in all parts of the world. The person drawn to these words knows at one's core that material weath is never spiritual weath, and can even deter you from the finer qualities of character. 

Now it is the New Year. I gather my books around me like gold bars. And the Treasure Chest holding Archibald Rutledge's words offers a satin coat worn by illuminary souls and those like me, hoping to grow--into it.

My Need is You

My Need is You

When others darken my path,

My need is You;

When I am chastised for

Who I am,

My need is You; 

When I am lost,

My need is You;

When I am shamed,

My need is You;

When I ponder Your Name,

My need is You;

When others explode,

You are My Calm;

When I can't bear my load,

You are my support;

When I feel damaged,

You are My Healer;

When humans fail me,

I know you are Divine;

When I lack purpose,

My home is Thine;

When I rise, You are My Light;

When I need rest, You provide the night;

When I'm alone

I need You Still;

Fill me with Grace

For every hill;

Humans my shelter

Can never be,

As I sit...just at Your feet;

When I am depressed,

When I am blue,

It is then I know

I need You.

December 19, 2013

Connie Nelson Ahlberg

All Rights Reserved.

Taking Christmas as It Comes

You have to take your Christmas

As it comes--even if you've had losses;

In lettting go you can embrace

Your friends; Your Angels

Your family;Your tree;

For the New Year

Comes in Time

for Healing

And Wisdom

the gifts

of 

hard 

times

By

Connie

Nelson Ahlberg

All Rights Reserved.

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming - Renée Fleming and the Mormon Tabernacle C.../ Living Candles

Christmas isn't the frenzy

Or the rush of shopping carts;

Christmas is You

And the gift

We each impart:

Christmas is Living Candles

Glowing in the Dark.

©Connie Nelson Ahlberg - All Rights Reserved.