~

9/27/06
Why is the miracle of the burning bush the ultimate metaphor for life?
It shows that god dwells within all things, that all things in nature can deliver a divine inspiration to each of us if we give attention and listen.

~

7/11/06
When I turned 12, I began the annoying and shameful habit of plucking out my eyelashes.  Throughout my life I have grown and changed in many ways but this one of a self-made allopecia victim is beyond my understanding.  Why would a person do this?  Thanks, Bald Eyes
Why does it shame you, Bald Eyes?  You know of course that you already know why you do this.  You have to look within to find what you really mean to say to yourself and world by this plucking.  Awareness and acceptance have to do their dance on the subject of bald lids.  Then you can go on plucking with delight, even make a short video of yourself plucking your eyes bald.

~

7/2/06
I recently spoke to a girl who told me "I love you as a person."  We used to hang out about a year ago, and she wanted to be dating me for real, but wasn't ready to be with anybody (problems).  We did not sleep together, or officially become a couple.  So after a long time of no phone calls, she says "I know I haven't called in a while, but I love you as a person" (well I know she doesn't hate me!).  This was nice to hear at any rate!  I took it as she loves me, was opening up a little bit, but needs more time, what do you think?
Skip the thought that "she needs more time."  I love you as a person means she doesn't love you as a lover, there isn't enough emotional/sexual attraction to compel her to override the problems.  Love/attraction is always compelling: there ain't no cure for love, as the great singer/poet Leonard Cohen wrote.  Move on, I suggest.

~

6/22/06
I have a burning question: about quitting my job and maybe starting something for which I have no qualifications.  How do we go about it?
Are you passionate about this work you're considering switching to?  
So passionate it's worth the risk?  Are you sick to the point of suffocation with what you've been doing?  If you answer an adamant YES to these questions, give yourself the freedom.  Make a vow never to go back to the old work that suffocates  you.  That way, you won't be tempted to go back regardless of the financial state the change lands you in at first.  You'll beg and borrow before you do.  Of course, if you have some money to tide you over, you're lucky and will have a more cushioned exit/entry.  Go for the passion, but be sure it's for a passionate purpose that you're making this change .  Then, as the advertising mind of Nike so smartly advised: JUST DO IT.  This is how I did it.

  ~

4/15/06
What scared you most as a young child?
My mother's drunken rampages.  She'd yell to me in the middle of the night to come to her:  "Hellsafiah, Johjel (that's how she pronounced my name), come here this minute."  We had a long, winding hallway between us, and I'd walk that hallway to her bedroom with icewater  running thru me, so cold with fear I shivered all the way.  Once there, my fears were warranted.  She'd have me get my father's belt out of the closet, then she'd spank me with it.  Immediately after the spanking she'd fold me into her arms and tell me, "O, Johjel, you know I'd never hurt you."  A strange bitch and a violent binge drinker, my mom -- who has since moved on to another body I hope never to meet.

~

9/27/06
I am a Jewish woman in my mid 30's and have, since my late 20's, had relationships with older men sometimes as much as 37 years older than me.  They tend to be Jewish, spiritual, wise, kind and caring.  What is this about?
I have to refer to Cyrano's speech about the many things his nose might be compared to or described as, there are so many reasons that can be given to explain your tendency for waaay older men:
You need the father archetype;
You don't want to love in an equal way, which is most surely a gestalt to investigate;
Younger men just aren't up to you creatively or intellectually;
Younger men just fuck, they don't know how to make love;
Younger men don't know how to treat you with respect and honor --
All of the above, tangled up in you.

~

8/1/05
Why man get ahead faster than women in life?
Man used his brawn to push his way to the top.  Man likes to conquer, it's the biology, and that biology includes everything necessary to do so.  Woman uses her mothering biology to maintain a safe place.  Even the Thermodontyne Amazons of long ago did not wish to explore and conquer other lands, and therefore lost their island and their power.  They defended their territory fiercely but were not interested in venturing out and accruing more.  Their male opponents across the sea conquered more land and more army and thus overcame the Amazons.  When women asked for equality, they didn't articulate well enough what that meant, to themselves or the men.  They did not mean to compete, they meant: respect women, and hold as valuable what women do and their individuality.  Women did mean:  if we want to pursue a career in opera or plumbing, we have that right.  They did not mean, ok we'll compete with you for the CEO position.  Now they do, however.  In that regard, I think women fighting in Iraq and leaving their newborn to do so is a mistake, but perhaps it's an evolution, a rebalancing, of humans.  After all, more fathers now are being full-time nurturers in their family.  Time will tell.

~

7/9/05
Is it necessary to force myself to do things, to do work?  It seems to me that almost everybody forces himself to work although he'd rather do other things.  I would like to work part time, do work that I like to do only as long as I like to do it.  Is that realistic?  There are no job offers like that.  Am I just lazy?
The root of the word job means piecework, taxes, prostitution.  But the root of the word work means to make sacred.  You're not lazy, you want to live your own authentic life.  It's certainly realistic.  The price you pay for freedom is security, however.  It's worth it.  Alan Watts wrote a book titled The Wisdom of Insecurity.  Find it and frame it.

~

~

3/10/05
Does reincarnation really exist?
In terms of energy, recycling is constant.  In terms of lacy stories of contiguous lives, probably not, but no one knows at this time.

~

3/10/05  
Can a person love two people spiritually at the same time?
Spiritually a person can love all people at the same time.

~

2/9/05
How does one let go?  Forgetting about it doesn't happen, distracting yourself only works for a little while, waiting for time to heal is almost unbearable.  What are the steps, how does one start the process, and stick with it?
You've simply got to endure it.  Endurance is what grief teaches and requires.  There's no exit but time.  Endurance and humor are absolutely necessary traits here in fleshly existence.

~

7/25/03
Does everything really happen for a reason?  Then why is the reason so elusive and why do we feel its always someone's fault?  I always say that everything happens for a reason but the reason isn't always good.
Yes, everything happens for a re on but the reason is way beyond our comprehension.  After all, we don't know the reasoning of an atom or a particle wave.  Therefore we imitate what we are doing on a cellular level by making up reasons so we can get through all the not-so-good happenings; not only get through them, but become stronger and wiser for doing so, and maybe even write a great opera around our good reasons for shit happening.

~

5/7/01
Why are educated women with college degrees so attracted to blue collar workers with a high school education and why are ladies in their early twenties, like 25, attracted to older men, like 31, 32?
All educated women know that between the sheets the blue collar worker with only a high school education is satisfaction guaranteed: he knows where the payoff is.   And a 32 year old man is in his prime, over boyhood but still trim and vigorous, having a sense of himself and where he's going: powerfully charismatic to a budding 25 year old.

~

1/27/01
How does one really know that they are doing "the next right thing?"
It takes decades to "get" that you must trust yourself, and therefore trust what ideas and inclinations arise within yourself;  not run off half-assed and do every whim, but LISTEN, consider every idea.  Stepping into the void of newness is always scary, always the view of what's ahead is vague, since the territory is uncharted.  But, life is about experience.  Experience contains the lessons and is the template we pour our life into.  Fear and safety have nothing to do with the real point of living; they are handrails on the steps.

~

11/10/00
WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON ATONEMENT (at-one-ment)?
Separation, alienation, division all run rampantly through our spirit, creating hatred, murder and war.  this has always been so, though all wise beings called these actions sin or its equivalent.  At   -  one  -   ment removes the cause of these world-wounding actions.  Being one with all in existence is certainly a more positive understanding of the word atonement than its more punishing and damning common meaning: "Amends or reparation made for an injury or wrong."  In The American Heritage Dictionary, the words above and below  atonement, which begin with aton, add a few other dimensions to atonement:
aton - Mythology: An Egyptian god of the sun, regarded during the reign of Akhenaton as the only god.
[My comment: Atonement then has a connection with "The One God" and aligning the Will (Sun) with that One God.]
atonal -
atonal -
atonal - Music: Lacking  a tonal center or key.
[My comment:  Isn't the lack of an inner tone and center one of the conditions of the separation that leads to actions one needs to atone for?]
atonic - Not accented: an atonic syllable.   Pathology: Relating to, caused by, or exhibiting lack of muscle tone.  From atony, lack of normal muscle tone; Greek atonos=slack: a=without; plus tonos=stretching, tone. Not accented: an atonic syllable.   Pathology: Relating to, caused by, or exhibiting lack of muscle tone.  From atony, lack of normal muscle tone; Greek atonos=slack: a=without; plus tonos=stretching, tone. Not accented: an atonic syllable.   Pathology: Relating to, caused by, or exhibiting lack of muscle tone.  From atony, lack of normal muscle tone; Greek atonos=slack: a=without; plus tonos=stretching, tone.
[My comment: This inability to stretch is also a condition of the spirit when it is caught in a hatred that leads to actions for which we need atonement.]

~

10/29/00
Are there any mature nineteen year old females on this planet or are they all in love with a famous musician and some regular Joe from another state that they slept with who gets them drunk at each confluence?  If there are, then where are they?
No, there are no mature 19 year old females, any more than there are mature 19 year old males.  There's a chance of finding more sensible 19 year old females in New York City, Boston, Paris and London.  The big city tempers one faster.

~

9/6/00
What does it men when someone you are dating tells you, "I've been wanting to tell you this for a couple of days now, don't take it for more than what it's worth.  I'm not saying we're going to run off and get married or anything, but I love you, as a person I love you."  It's hard for me to understand, it sounds a little ambiguous.  He doesn't open up very often -- so was he trying to, or trying to subtly tell me he just wants to be friends?  Confused.
You bet you're confused!  He's trying to express his feelings, but he doesn't want those feelings to trap him, commit him to some action.  It's too soon perhaps.    It's good to hear that he opened up and told you he loved you as a person.   There is no greater, or more solid, love between humans.

~

6/26/2000
WHAT IS ART NOW THAT KLEE CAN BE FOUND ON A SHOWER CURTAIN AND KANDINSKY ON A RUG?
Life.

~

4/19/2000
I have a student from Casa Blanca.  We have become good friends.   My family and I have an opportunity to go to Morocco this summer to visit with him and his family.  Should we go?  What does meeting this person mean to me and my life?
Do you want to go?  Does it feel right, deep within, for you to go?  At the core, what this person means to you and your life is experience.   What will experience do for you?  It will provide perspective and, if you're aware, it will be your Teacher.

~

3/10/2000
How many people have experienced a lucid dream?  And do they confuse them with a vivid dream?
Lucid dreams occur at times of major catharsis in the life, whether that be inner or worldly catharsis.  Therefore, I think many humans throughout time have had the experience of lucid dreams at least once in their life.  I do not think they are easily confused with the vivid dream.  Lucid dreams feel like the events are really happening; they break through into waking reality as a true experience, a message delivered by a living entity.  A vivid dream is only recalled, a memory of a scene.   Clear though it may be, a vivid dream is experienced afterward only as a recollection.

~

2/28/2000
Hi, it's me again, the Mercury retrograde fanatic, with yet another question about this planet.  What do you think about buying stock during Mercury retrograde?  No big stocks, just penny stocks, you can't lose all that much and everything costs less than a dollar a share, but still I personally would wait until Mercury resumes its forward motion.  What is your opinion?
I agree with you, Ms. Mercury retrograde fanatic -- buying stocks while Mercury is retrograde isn't a good idea.  The stocks are subject to changes after owners new and old reflect on their finances.  Mercury retrograde is a time to investigate the stocks, to make plans for what you want to buy -- later.

~

2/9/2000
Dear Writer in the Window, I asked you questions in the 80's when I lived in Santa Fe, went to San Francisco, California with my true love, who after 15 years no longer thinks I'm her true love.  I'm back in the real city of holy faith, and you are still here and I don't have to fight Texans downtown for your advice!  Is there any hope for the hopelessly afflicted?
Such affliction is hope itself.  And is hope not rooted in need?   And when that need is gone, then hope has delivered -- one way or the other.   (one way: you get what you hoped for; the other: you get over wanting it.)

~

1/13/2000
Why do some of us spend hours upon hours, madly trying to find the identity of our ancestors?
We try to find only what we've lost.  And the ancestors we've really lost are our First Ancestors:  Mother and Father Spirit.  Spirit is more evasive than blood; and also more pervasive, if we open our Original Eyes.

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