• About
  • Archives
  • Categories
  • Archive for the ‘Memories’ Category

    Two Sided Karma


    2010 - 07.08

    You know how things go-you get mad at someone, and you want revenge. But you know if you do something, it will look really bad for you. So what is your answer? He’ll get his, Karma will get him in the end. Sometimes, it happens quickly, other times it may take a lifetime.

    But what about there being two sides to every story? We often times don’t want to look at that because we feel we are the victims and we just want revenge. We didn’t do anything wrong. The other person did. They are at fault, not us. We were just standing there, innocently, when the other person just swooped in and hurt us.

    Let me share some stories/opinions with you. Some of these will be personal, others will be just from what I’ve seen.

    1) A number of years ago, I had been in a relationship with a man. He had come from a very male dominated background. His attitude was women should be seen and not heard, and they should have everything ready when he got home. Being incredibly shy, I did what I was told for many years. I finally broke out of that mold, as well as, out of the relationship. In my anger, I wanted swift revenge. I didn’t care what happened, I just wanted him to get his!! And then one day, I really thought about things. Was it all his fault? No, if I was honest with myself, it wasn’t. I had my problems. Which then got me to thinking, if I really want revenge, well, it’s karma. My karma would be wanting something bad to happen to him and more than likely, something bad would end up happening to me too. Hmmmm, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. So, I said to the universe, wait a sec. I’m just seeing this from my side, so I guess that’s not fair. He probably has feelings of negativity against me too. If you really feel like he should be punished, then I’m sure you’ll do something that will get his attention. And if I need to be punished, I’m sure you’ll do something to get my attention.

    Shortly after this conversation, I found out that he had been seeing someone and had asked them to move in with him. He had always prided himself with being very intelligent (which he is), within a couple of months, he found out that his house mate, did not have a high intellect. He asked her to move out to make it better for both of them. She didn’t move out for almost another year. Yep, karma rules!!!! No one was really hurt, but I was happy.

    2) I have been involved in the Pagan, psychic, Wiccan communities for a number of years now. I’ve seen many people come and go. And I’ve seen a lot of people stay year after year. Each of those that have stayed have some kind of wisdom to bring to the “table”. Recently one of the Elders of the Pagan Community was diagnosed with a major health problem. Because of his past, a number of people said, well, he’s finally getting his karma. Look at him, see what happens when you do bad things? But I guess everyone forgot that another Elder was once rushed to a hospital down in Florida with some type of undiagnosed illness, and actually lay near death for a number of days till the doctors finally found the right combination of antibiotics. Now when that happened to this Elder, no one looked at her and said, Karma! They all looked around and said, who put the bad spell on her? My question is this, if it was karma for the gentleman, why not for the lady? There are always 2 sides to every story-I’m sure that neither of them are “lily white”. It’s kind of like the biblical aspect, if you’ve never done anything bad, throw the first stone. Seems to me that not too many of us could pick up that stone.

    3) There is also quite a large Bigfoot Community out there. There is one gentleman who is supposed to be THE Bigfoot authority. He plans to capture one and then kill it. He has been all over creation, trying to find one. Anytime there is a sighting, he is contacted. Quite recently, however, there are several new websites that have popped up. They are questioning this gentleman’s authority, and his credentials. And wondering about the wisdom of capturing and killing something so unique (if in fact they do exist). They are wondering if the only place he’s a legend Bigfoot Hunter is in his own mind. Again, 2 sides! And karma even comes in to play here. If there are Bigfoot, do you think our Creator is going to want something so different and unique killed? Or do you think He would rather we let it live and be what He created it to be?

    4) Again another personal insight. I was once very good friends with a woman. We had been like sisters. But over a period of time, my life changed drastically. Because of some of the choices I made, she chose to end our friendship. We had also had a business relationship which ended at the same time. Through the grapevine, I heard about things which were being said about me. None of which were nice. Do I completely blame her? Of course not. Again it takes 2. And we each had our perspective on things. They were obviously very opposite of each other. Did I feel hurt, yes-and I’m sure she did too. Karma? Most likely-we had a number of past lives together. But it’s the idea, she had her friends who were behind her, just as I had my friends on my side.

    Which brings me to another statement. When we are in a crisis where another person is involved, how many times do we bring our friends into it? And even sometimes our families? We expect people to take sides. Well, you knew me before him, why aren’t you on my side? Why are you telling me that I don’t know what I’m talking about, etc, etc, etc. If a friend is not taking your side, maybe they are seeing something you can’t or won’t see. Maybe if you take a step back, you might just get a little bit of a clearer picture. And if you meditate, you might actually see what this has to do with karma.

    One more story-for years I have been terrified of heights. I had finally asked my spirit guides to show me why, did it have to do with a past life? Well, yes it did. I had been a Native American in a past life and had been being hunted by the white men. I had been cornered on a cliff and had a choice to make-be brutally executed or jump-I jumped. But the story doesn’t end there-I finally asked to be shown that life so that I had more details. Come to find out I was the Chief’s son, and I had some very futuristic ideas on how things should be run. Dad said no way, I had a temper tantrum. I had a wife who was with child at the time and I didn’t have the smarts to keep my mouth shut and just do what Dad told me. So I was kicked out of the tribe. I went nuts, literally, because it had always been my life. I did many bad, evil things to the white men and their families. Which is why they were after me. When I jumped, I saw everything, the error of my ways, what kind of karma I was going to have because of my weakness. When I finally hit the rocks and stream so very far down below, I didn’t die right away. But I was shown, that while I was dying, my son was being born. And he would be given a part of my soul to make things right. He would be a great leader and healer and put a number of things right. And then I was allowed to die.

    Now for any of you that know me well, you know that in this life, I don’t like violence. But if you hurt my family, well, I’ll do what I have to do within reason. No, I really don’t think I could kill someone. I just don’t have that in me, but I could pick up the phone and call 911.
    Does my dislike of violence come from that lifetime and finally knowing the whole story? Yes, I think it does. I’m a healer this lifetime. But again, 2 sided karma.

    So next time you want revenge, think about it-it always takes 2 to tango!

    Blessings and healing!

    Till next time. – Cindy Lee

    Heart Song


    2009 - 08.13

    A couple of months ago, I was idly browsing through the channels, looking for something to watch that would hold my interest for more than 2 minutes. I like horror, supernatural, and anything Csi or Law and Order. I like some comedy, and will watch a love story as long as there is a good horror plot going with it.

    What I ended up watching that night was the movie Happy Feet. It’s a movie about penguins. Emperor Penguins to be exact. Okay, okay-twist my arm-sometimes I like musicals and cartoons too.

    I watched it that night, and a week later watched it again. And it really got me thinking. About being different and how society looks at you. And how they treat you. But before I get into that, let me share just a little bit about the story.

    It starts with Memphis and Norma Jean, meeting and falling in love. When penguins mate, they lift up their hearts in “song”. If you’ve ever watched a documentary about this, they will “sing”, and whoever is attracted to their voice becomes their mate. So, the 2 love penguins hit the right notes together and voila, an egg is dropped. The female penguins go out to forage for food while the male penguins sit on the eggs. But you must never drop or lose an egg. Of course, Memphis loses his egg for just a few seconds. The females finally come home. Norma Jean finds that her egg has not quite hatched yet. But when it does, out comes the baby penguin, who can’t keep his feet still. They name him Mumble, because when he lifts up his voice to sing, it sounds awful. But his feet are always happy and tapping away. Mumble grows a little slower than most of the other hatchlings, and when they finally are ready to lift their voices up in song to attract a mate, well, Mumble just can’t find the right voice. But when he dances, Gloria decides that she fits right in with him. His tapping and her singing.

    Eventually, the elders ostracize Mumble. He’s not a part of them, he doesn’t have a heart song, he just doesn’t belong. He leaves the colony, and meets up with some smaller penguins. Adélie penguins. There is a small group that Mumble becomes friends with. They travel with him, trying to keep him out of trouble. They get into more trouble than they keep him out of though. In their travels, they find that humans want to come to the Antarctic to fish, which will mean less fish for the penguins. Mumble ends up in an aquarium and when a child taps on the glass, starts tap dancing. Everyone is amazed that a penguin can do that and the humans finally release him back in the wild. Of course, they have a tracking device on him.

    Mumble leads them to his colony of penguins in the Antarctic. When Mumble returns home, the penguin voices are lifted up in song, and Mumble does the only thing that he can do-tap dances. The humans are amazed and take videos and sends them around the world. The humans decide that they have been overfishing there and leave everything in its natural setting. And everyone lives happily ever after.

    I love the movie, the singing and the dancing, but what had really opened my eyes was the statement it made about being different. Poor Mumble doesn’t have a heart song to attract a mate with-he only has tap dancing or happy feet.
    Therefore, he is kicked out of his home. His parents feel bad, but what can they do-the elders have decreed that Mumble doesn’t belong.

    How many of us have felt like that? You’re “kicked out” because you’re different. You don’t belong. And it can be any reason-physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Oh, you’re in a wheelchair, I’m not going to look at you because you’re different. Oh, you’re emotionally or mentally challenged, well, I don’t know what to say to you, so I’m going to ignore you like you’re not there. Oh, I’m a born again Christian-you’re a witch???? I’ll pray for you, but I definitely won’t be spending an evening of food and conversation with you.

    Growing up, I was extremely shy to the point of being absolutely terrified of people, and I was (and still am) overweight. Plus I was (and still am) psychic. That was 3 strikes against me from the very beginning. And I can tell you that I was ostracized almost my entire life. People wouldn’t talk to me because they thought I was stuck up-after all, I wasn’t saying anything. I never got picked for the fun stuff because look at her-she’s fat, I don’t want her on my team. And when I finally realized that I had abilities, well, it was really just an overactive imagination. Because being psychic isn’t real.

    How many times have we turned our heads away because someone was different? Well, you say that you don’t know how to react to someone who is different. What if I say the wrong thing? What if I do the wrong thing? Maybe sometimes we should just try.

    When J and I go to any store, because of his health, he needs one of the electric carts to get through the store. I can not believe how many people act as if he’s not even there. They will cut in front of him while not looking at him. They will pass him in a narrow aisle giving him a dirty look for being in THEIR way. And it amazes me how when some of those same people have issues, they are the first ones to expect everyone to drop everything to help them because all of a sudden they can’t do it for themselves. Yet when they were healthy, they ignored those that had handicaps.

    We are even teaching our children not to care about other people. Working in retail has proven how much society has changed from the 1930′s. Back then, if your neighbor got sick or hurt, many times, the whole neighborhood would pitch in to help. Now, we are so self absorbed, some of us wouldn’t even know our neighbor had died until we started smelling something really bad coming from next door.

    There are many reasons for people being different, but I think it’s time that we started caring again. Really caring and showing that we really care. Next time you see someone in the grocery store that has a handicap, offer to get the product off the top shelf, next time you see someone struggling with trying to get something in their car-offer to help them. If people don’t want your help, they’ll tell you. But at least care enough to offer. Even if, at first, all you can offer is a smile.

    Sometimes even a smile is the greatest gift you can give someone. So, don’t ignore people who are different, don’t make them feel like Mumble, an outcast. Appreciate people for their differences and get to know them. We are all human and we all like to be loved and needed-no matter what our difference. Try it, you just might find that it changes you in a very positive manner.

    Like I said, at the end of the movie, Mumble saves the day. Everyone loves him and his difference. I wish it could be like that in real life. But maybe if just a couple of us try to make a difference, maybe little by little, we will all be able to save the day at the end.

    So, lift up your heart song, see who hears it, or sees it or feels it. And if you can’t sing-get those Happy Feet going!

    Till next time.