Over the past four days I’ve been confronted with a number of challenges.
First, I was in the mist of upgrading my Flip in order to share my videos of winter in New York and Mumbai, India when the process encountered a problem and wouldn’t function. I tried for hours to resolve the problem but to no avail and other tasks were left undone. The next day I was traveling by subway to Manhattan when the trains decided to move at a snails pace. I arrived late for the Paul Winter Solstice Concert. The concert and the beauty of the Cathedral were fantastic and worth the trip (wished I had my Flip). The questions that arose for me really boiled down to one question. “Now what?”

What is the next step? How do I move forward? Interesting that during the concert when the symbolic sun was rising and the Sun Gong was playing I noticed a shift in my inner being and how I felt. Music has a tremendous healing power for mind body and spirit. Not only was the concert a celebration of the renewal of the earth and the return of the Sun it served as a renewal phase for me and a reminder of a Buddhist phrase that says ‘winter always turn to spring’ and darkness always turn to light. Without assigning value there are no challenges that we cannot overcome.

Yeshiva University recently published a study which suggested regularly attending religious services reduced the risk of death by approximately 20%. This study was a subsidiary of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI).

The researchers at Yeshiva University-Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York, evaluated the  religious practices of 92,395 post-menopausal (PMP) women aged 50-79 and their subsequent health related outcomes as cardiovascular disease and mortality.

The women were asked three questions:

• frequency of attendance at religious service
• religious affiliation
• whether religion provided comfort and strength

The women were followed for 7.7 years to measure their self-reported religious practices.

The participants who attended religious services one time per week, compared to those who did not attend services, showed a 20% decrease in mortality. Read the report here…

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Celestial Bodies Celebration

shining brilliantly in the sky are Venus, Jupiter and a crescent Moon in a triangular formation creating a happy face. When I first saw the planets I thought Jupiter and Venus were the lights on an airplane then i notices the lights weren’t moving ant together they formed a triangular. Te brightness of the celestial bodies was outstanding. Later, I learned the will not reappear this close again until the year 2052.

Previously, I’ve written about me being a very seasonal person, which  is evidenced by varied bodily changes. Astrologically, Jupiter is my ruling planet, of the sign Sagittarius. Now what does the appearance of Jupiter, the Moon and Venus mean for me? I’ll need to ask the astrologist that question in order to earn the significance of their appearance and location as it relates to my life. Unfortunately I didn’t have my Flip to record the event!

Winter Solstice Celebration

Just as equally significant for some people is the Winter Solstice. December 21st is (more…)