Mana for the Doctor's Soul

What do you see in in the above photo, hmmmm? It's a stress test: if you see anything but 2 dolphins there, you are stressed. If you happen to see a cow too, you are VERY stressed. I see the cow. I must be having an especially tough week. And as the comedian and actress Lily Tomlin tells us, "Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it." Sage observation with a grin, no? Deep within my own personal maelstroms, I've often remembered this quote and been able to laugh. Authentic laughter cleans out the pipes . But how many of us get truly bent out of our frames when what's in front of us doesn't match what we think "should" be there? Yes, we stress. And nearly everyone I've shown the photo to also sees the cow! Is reality the true cause of our stress, though? Or is there something amiss in how we're perceiving things? Also, how many of us keep as wide a berth as possible between our consciousness and actual reality? I ...

Ho'oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian process for resolving problems and releasing -- not just "managing" -- stress. Its very name means "to make right, to correct and rectify errors" through repentance, forgiveness, and transmutation. Ho'oponopono re-establishes correct balance between all aspects of the self, with all other beings through time, and with the environment as well. Need for this kind of balance is echoed throughout many cultures, including the Navajo who speak of " hozho ", or "walking in beauty". For them, there is no real health without balance between all parts of one's inner self, one's relationships with others, and the environment. Since we're all dynamic, ever-changing beings, is it any wonder our balance is an ever-changing thing also? We're like mobiles, motion in one part setting off gyrations in all the rest. We need some kind of process to keep us graceful throughout. With its simplicity and direc...

The deadliest wildfires in Australia's history have destroyed many acres, homes, and lives this week. In the midst of such horror, Divine Inspiration comes through in the above photo of a tired, parched koala being offered a drink by volunteer fireman David Tree. Taken by another volunteer with a cell phone camera, the photo captures a moment of uncomplicated Love in action. The koala was walking on scorched paws in a charred forest near Melbourne. Seeing that she was in trouble, the fireman pulled over his truck. The koala "plonked herself down, as if to say, 'I'm beat', " recounted Tree. He offered her a drink from a water bottle -- and "the most amazing part was when she grabbed my hand. I will never forget that." Now nicknamed "Sam", she is recuperating at Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter in Victoria state. Although badly burned, she is healing well -- and even has a protective new boyfriend named "Bob". Burned also, he apparentl...

Living in a land full of sunshine, I have long appreciated clouds. Blue skies are certainly beautiful too . . . but I've noticed that it's actually the clouds which make light dance in the sky. Would that we could appreciate our seeming problems so easily, saying "Thank you!" when they appear. After all, now they're up for healing. On this week's Thursday night call, Mabel Katz read an excerpt from the book, Prison to Praise by Merlin Carothers . It concerned the author's vision of a bright, sunshiney day, with a raft of black clouds just above. A ladder pushed upward through these clouds, and people were trying to climb up because they'd heard that above the clouds was something more beautiful than any had ever seen. They would climb and climb, get lost and disoriented in the dark clouds, and then slide back down the ladder into the crowd below. Finally the author's turn to climb arrives. He climbs the ladder into the clouds where the darkness b...