posted February 23, 2004 11:40 PM              

as i viewed a photo from the WTC taken of the statue of liberty, it opened up to me how this watery womb of femininity gave birth to liberty. and can you think of a more nurturing "cancerian" thing to say than "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free..."?

posted February 24, 2004 01:41 PM              

What an absolutely beautiful thought and imagery!!! Sweet!

I'm so "damn" proud to be an american.

The Statue of Liberty is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in this world. It's up there with the top 3 along with the Grand Canyon. I even went to the top of the Liberty, and signed my name graffiti-style, like a million others had done, inside the top. Probably not there anymore since they did a restoring.

She reminds me a bit of what my soul desires, perhaps because I'm Libra (Scales of Justice), with Cancer Moon (Give me your tired...)

I'm breathless...

.gloria

posted February 24, 2004 10:25 PM              

but you have piqued my curiosity; what is the third of your wonders???

i have compared my "world view" with that grand canyon. my birth number is 33/6, which gives us sixers a vision of a better world. dan millman's book "the life you were born to live" fairly jumped off the shelf at me and it was like looking into a mirror!

but he also said it was depressogenic, and the reason is that i could see this "grand canyon" and i kept saying to people, "Psst--over here--check THIS out!"

but their noses were buried in a people magazine...may i share a little of my sixness with you? i guess i shall have to take the liberty, being as no one is "out there" to deny it ;o)

this is the icebreaker speech i gave to toastmasters recently [millman recommended i join a speaking group]

"fellow members and honored guests:

as you already know, for the first 27 years of my life i went by the name peggy, but now that i am 28 i go by raine, which means "wise one" and i would like to share some of my wisdom with you today. [this was a humorous reference to my previous introduction...i am actually, well, older than that... ;o)]

who i am, and my wisdom, are inextricably interwoven with the interconnectedness of everything in the universe

to demonstrate that, i am going to share three seemingly unrelated things that have been meaningful in my life

the first is an old klunker of a piano

secondly, the drought in europe last summer

and finally, a poem by a 19th-century catholic priest

--i told you they were seemingly unrelated--

i would like to start with the poem. it is called "thou are indeed just, lord," by gerard manley hopkins. in it he gently chides god for allowing those who fritter away their lives to prosper...while he has to remind god that he is, after all, living a life of service to him...calling himself time's eunuch...and imploring god to send his barren roots rain

time's eunuch...i could relate. in fact, something had pulled my eyes toward that poem, which was sitting right across the page from the assigned one back in college. that is how much of my eclectic learning has taken place...

that poem had struck a resonant chord with me, since it so beautifully expressed my own feelings about my dry, parched world as peggy

so i turned to that poem when i learned of the horrible drought that was enshrouding europe last summer. i sent it to a friend over there, along with my prayers for rain

then, here and there, i began to notice raindrops falling into my own life. the momentum of the rain just kept building into the steady shower of blessings it has become ever since, and i am green and growing and glad to be alive--as raine!

but what about the piano?

as a child i had to play on an old klunker of a piano that my uncle called an insult to the musical ear. you know how pianos have sets of three strings?...well some of the little hammers in the back would wobble over toward the adjacent set of strings...while still remaining a little bit on target

i knew what the notes were supposed to sound like, so i was able to create some of the finest musical dissonance you ever have heard!

it was that early training that has given me the ability to see and hear what this world is supposed to be like. i can ignore the caCAphony and look at a person and hear their inner note in the music of the spheres

this all fits in with my personal number, which is six. we each have our own personal number, a gift from the universe

this book, the life you were born to live, tells how to find it, and it is the reason i am here today. the sixness in me has given me a vision of what the world is supposed to be like...an inner wisdom...and let me assure you...it is a very beautiful world indeed!

i can say along with william wordsworth in his ode; intimations of immortality, "i hear! i hear! with joy i hear!"

yes, the world is indeed entirely interconnected

and as i carry this vision forth into the rest of the world, i want to express my gratitude to each one of you, for so graciously offering to help one another here, which is part of this sense of oneness i wish to share...

...this wisdom of raine"

and i would just add to the forum here that i am grateful to each of you for sharing of yourselves--it is making the world a better place, i believe...

i think linda would think so too... ;o)

posted February 25, 2004 12:15 AM              

i am proud to be an american too! i was away from our old glory for many moons while i was teaching school in new guinea. it is not quite the same saluting six stars and singing god save the queen every morning!

hence i am somewhat of a super-matriot!

glad you liked my speech. my evaluator said it was the best icebreaker she had heard...okay, like my quaint finnish grandmother used to tell us, "who's going to lift the cow's tail over the fence if the cow doesn't?"

so, tell me, what is your "third" wonder of your world?

posted February 25, 2004 01:07 AM              

I can't really say I could put stuff in a specific order right now...

But the Grand Canyon, Statue of Liberty, Paris, all the stars in the sky from the southern-most darkest tip of the U.S. on the darkest night of the month. I could see the Andromeda Galaxy with my NAKED EYES!!! Shooting stars every 10 seconds.

Oh... the Space Shuttle riding on the back of a 747, flying REALLY REEEEEEELY LOW and slow down the Coast just a couple of hundred yards above me.

My dog... he's an angel...

I'll add more later...

posted February 25, 2004 08:05 AM              

funny you should mention the space shuttle
i learned from reading margaret starbird's book "the goddess in the gospels" that the explosion of the challenger had great symbolic meaning

the two WOMEN on board CHRISTa and JUDith represent the two patriarchal religions, represented by fire

the fact that they exploded signaled, along with mount st helens [the destroying mountain in jeremiah 51:25], the beginning of the end for the imbalance of fire elements in the godhead. the feminine WATER from SPIRIT LAKE baptized the mountain as it poured out of its basin

that is where all of the altar burning and stuff came from. by the way, i should put this under dreams, but i had a dream a long time ago--at the time i had this real aversion to this one woman. it was of a very REAL altar--gray ashes and everything--and it was as though this was my child on that altar, and the woman i did not like in this life was the executioner! glad to wake up from that one! whew!

anyway, look for water, water everywhere...it is truly raine-ing new life into religion as well as my own life. that is what is behind the symbolism of the watery womb of the liberty in the statue...search the home site for it and look at it viewed from the WTC--sniff, that is so sad...

posted February 25, 2004 09:21 AM              

i have heard that that is a virgo city [if i remember right...i am not only blonde but i have ADD [four planets in air signs ;o)] so it is rather hard for this virgo to get things straight at times...what? you think it is easy living with a brain that "drops tabs" now and then? sigh...if i only had a [wizard's] brain...

but i wanted to point out that starbird's book talks a lot about france, as where jesus' wife mary madgalene emigrated after the crucifixion. medieval art and "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" document this quite thoroughly

anyone seeing mel gibson today? i might...

anyway, here is a "french connection" you know, with liberty and the statue and all
very interesting...you would enjoy the synchronicities in the book--they abound!

posted February 25, 2004 01:00 PM              

I wrote the name of the book down and will most definately check it out...

Another cool this was climbing the top of Stone Mountain, although this unique mountain itself it not all that majestic looking, the history of how it was formed, and the ENERGY you feel on top of the rock was AMAZING to me and made me have some grand epiphanies about myself.