LOVELIGHT

Magazine

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June 2007*** Vol. 4, no. 6

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Managing Coeditors: Adamaria Francis and Richard Shining Thunder Francis

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Contributors to this issue: Jim Dwyer, Maureen Dwyer, Carol Espelage, Chris Finer, Pat Helms, Steven McDaniel, Robert Piche, Ginger Raby.

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LOVELIGHT MAGAZINE: WHAT WE'RE ALL ABOUT

Lovelight magazine is free, coming directly to your inboxscreen once a month. We love to laugh.:) So, if you discover any jokes that make you roar, please send them along to us.:) But life is not all laughs. So, we hope also to share with you some pleasant thoughts.

Lovelight wants to promote peace and harmony, and to aid you. If you are working on any religious, psychological, or spiritual problems, we encourage you to write to us at rmfrancis@juno.comm So, if you come across any wise or touching pieces, not copyrighted, fairly short, please share them with the efamily. Also welcome are practical tips. We also welcome short pieces on personal philosophies, interesting facts, wordplays, and spirituality. We reserve the right to make whatever changes are necessary or desirable before inclusion in Lovelight.

As a subscriber, your email name/address will not be shared. Please share, send, or copy, this magazine, or any parts of it. Share it with all your friends, and all others. Please use it on your websites. Also, please have friends send us their emailaddress and subscribe. Subscriptions are free.

This is a "light" introduction to spirituality. And it is also great, fun reading. A collection of magazines is produced once a year. We have published three volumes, and this would make a sweet gift for a loved one. Happy reading!:)

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THE 2006 COLLECTION IS PUBLISHED!

Most of our readers know that, at the end of every year, we gather all the issues of Lovelight magazine for that year together into a single paperback book. In Volume 1 of The Light of Love, we gathered all the issues for the year twenty-oh-four together, and in Volume 2, we collected and bound all the issues of the magazine for twenty-oh-five. We are now very happy to announce that Volume 3 of the series has now been published; and it contains every issue of Lovelight magazine published in twenty-oh-six! This three-volume set would make a spectacular and very thoughtful gift for anyone who might be spiritually inclined, but who is also a bit reticent or reluctant. This is a great opportunity for you to aid those friends who are not really "spiritually inclined," but who have great and profound Love-potential. Please aid them. We are vending the entire set of three for our personal publication-costs; we make no profit on this. All three are available for a donation of $18, from: rmfrancis@juno.com

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THE IMPORTANCE OF LOVE, by Ginger Raby

How Important is Love to Our Creator?

A few weeks ago I was talking with my young adult daughter about the sweet love that I always see between her and her husband. However, as with all couples, they have their share of trials. He desires to be a Godly husband and a good father to their beautiful three-year-old daughter. She also is focused on growing closer to the Lord.

Thankfully they are very determined to overcome the difficulties that they have grown up with in their families of origin. They are implementing various strategies to begin to move forward in their lives. First, they have recognized that inviting Jesus into their hearts is the only way to fill the void in their hearts. Secondly, they have identified negative family patterns so that the "generational strongholds" no longer have power over their household. And yet the most important focus has been realizing the importance of developing that individual close relationship to Jesus Christ through our love for him and others.

As we reviewed these points, and easily could identify some fruit of their labors already in their young marriage, the Lord blessed me with a powerful teaching for my daughter. He gave me these words to speak to her: The world distracts us from the commitment that we have made to our spouses; and it makes light of the covenant that we join together with Him. And, at this moment, He revealed to me to encourage her in her strong conviction that she would always stay in love and be married to her spouse because the Love that Our Creator has given to us is so powerful. I asked her to dwell for a moment to realize just how powerful that Love is. I focused on the simple fact that as we bring our Love into intimacy, that Love is so powerful that we are able to create another life to love. And then, we develop a relationship with this new life. Love is so important to Him that this is how life is given. Love is the most powerful commandment that He calls us to! "Making Love" is His way of teaching us the power of Love!

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SNORTS AND CHUCKLES: HUMORTHERAPY

WHY GOD MADE MOTHERS, sent in by Christine Finer

Answers given by second-grade school children to the following questions: Why did God make mothers? To help us out of there when we were getting born.***How did God make mothers? 1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us. 2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of string.***What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.***Why did God give you Your mother & not some other mom? God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.***What kind of little girl was your mom? I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.***What did your mother need to know about your father before she married him? She had to know his back ground. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?***Why did your Mom marry your dad? She got too old to do anything else with him.***Who's the boss at your house? Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.***What's the difference between Moms & dads? Dads are taller & stronger, but Moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.***What does your Mom do in her spare time? Mothers don't do spare time.***What would it take to make your Mom perfect? Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.***If you could change one thing about your Mom, what would it be? I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

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HUMOR FOR THINKING PEOPLE, sent in by Pat Helms

Here are the winners of the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational,

which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary,

alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a

new definition. The 2006 winners are:

1. Cashtration: (n.) buying a house, rendering the subject financially impotent.***

2. Intaxication: Euphoria of tax refund, until  you realize that it was your money.***

3. Reintarnation: Coming back as a hillbilly.***4. Bozone: (n.) The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.***5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.***6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.***7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously.***8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.***9. Karmageddon: It's when everybody sends off bad vibes, and earth explodes and it's, like, a serious bummer.***

10. Decafalon: (n.) Getting through the day consuming only healthy things.***

11. Dopeler Effect: stupid ideas seem "smarter" when they come at you rapidly.***

12. Arachnoleptic Fit: (n.) The "dance" performed after you've walked through a spiderweb.***13. Beelzebug: (n.) Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom, and cannot be cast out.

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The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to  its

yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for

common words.  And the winners are:

1. Negligent, (adj.) absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.***2. Gargoyle, (n.) olive-flavored mouthwash.***3. Frisbeetarianism, (n.) the belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

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TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER, sent in by Maureen Dwyer

When I had been married 25 years, I looked at my wife and said,
"Honey, 25 years ago, we had a cheap apartment, a cheap car, slept on a
sofa bed and watched a 10-inch black and white TV, but I got to sleep
every night with a hot 25 year old blonde. Now, we have a nice house, nice car, big bed and plasma screen TV, but I'm sleeping with a 50 year-old woman. It seems to me that you are not holding up your side of things."

My wife is a very reasonable woman. So, she told me to go out and find a
hot 25 year old blonde, and she would make sure that I would once again
be living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofabed and watching a 10-inch black and white tv.

Aren't older women great? They really know how to solve a mid-life
crisis.

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[Among favorites, of silly remarks taken seriously,] mine would have to be from a Jehovah's Witness I knew-- "The dinosaurs were put here by God to trample down the forests to make way for humans."

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SMART RADIO!

We bought a car, but had to return to the dealer because we couldn't get the radio to work. The salesman explained that the radio was voice activated.

"Nelson," the salesman said to the radio. The radio replied, "Ricky or Willie?"

"Willie!" he said, and it played, "On the Road Again." Then, he said, "Ray Charles!", and "Georgia On My Mind" replaced Nelson.

For the next few days, every time we'd say "Beethoven," we'd get beautiful music, and "Beatles," A Beatle-song.

Yesterday, a couple ran a red light and nearly creamed my new car, but I swerved in time to avoid them. I yelled, "Mindless idiots!"

Immediately "Hail to the Chief" began to play, sung by George Bush and Dick Cheney, backed up by Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity, with John McCain on guitar, Karl Rove on drums, Tony Snow on harmonica, Mitch McConnell on tambourine, Alberto Gonzales on spoons, Condy on the triangle, Bill O'Reilly on sax, and Rush Limbaugh on OxyContin.

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E BEST THING THAT BUSH CAN DO

What is the best thing that george bush can do for the country right now?

Go on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney.

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A BLOND IN CHURCH

Did you hear about the blonde who thought Jesus was a giant teddy bear called Gladly who had something wrong with his eyes because every time she went to church they would sing "Gladly the cross I'd bear"!!!

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When you call Dial-a-Prayer for atheists, the phone rings, but nobody answers

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If the weather is extremely bad, church attendance will be down. If the weather is extremely good, church attendance will be down.

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And the angel of the Lord said unto the shepherds "Shove off, this is cattle country!"

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What do you call a nun who has had a sex change? A transister.

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A BAD WORLD! For Catholics, death is a promotion.

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When I die, I'm going to leave my body to science fiction.

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I used to be an agnostic, but now I'm not so sure.

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HAI-KUS FROM OUR JEWISH SISTERS AND BROTHERS

Harsh Scrabble discord--someone has placed "putzhead" on a triple word score.

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Testing the warm milk
on her wrist, she sighs softly.
Her son is forty.

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The sparkling blue sea
reminds me to wait an hour
after my sandwich.

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Tea ceremony--
fragrant steam perfumes the air.
Try the cheese danish.

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Lovely butterfly--
not long ago your name was
Caterpillarstein.

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In the ice sculpture
reflected bar mitzvah guests
nosh on chopped liver.

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My nature journal --
today, I saw some trees and birds.
I should know the names?

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Like a bonsai tree,
your terrible posture at
my dinner table.

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Beyond Valium
the peace of knowing one's child
is an internist.

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Coroner's report --
"The deceased, wearing no hat,
caught his death of cold."

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The sparrow brings home
too many worms for her young.
"Force yourself," she chirps.

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Our youngest daughter,
our most precious jewel.
Hence the name, Tiffany.

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Ma, please! There is no
need to put that dinner roll
in your pocketbook.

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Concert of car horns
as we debate the question
of when to change lanes.

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Sorry I'm not home.

to take your call. At the tone,
please state your bad news.

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Is one Nobel Prize
so much to ask from a child
after all I've done?

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Left the door open.
for the Prophet Elijah.
Now our cat is gone.

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Quietly murmured
at Saturday services,
Yanks 5, Red Sox 3.

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Lonely mantra of
the Buddhist monk--"They never
write, they never call."

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A lovely nose ring --
excuse me, while I put my
head in the oven.

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Wet moss on the old
stones. Lying in the
grass, I ponder who to sue.

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My handsome son
wonderful new bride to be
She is a slut.

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JESUS VS. SATAN IN CYBERSPACE

Jesus and Satan argued about who was better on computers. God tired of listening to this, and said, "I'm going to set up a test, and I will judge who does the better job."

So, down sat Satan and Jesus at their keyboards and they began to type away.

They moused. They did spreadsheets. They wrote reports. They sent faxes. They sent email. They sent out email with attachments. They downloaded. They did some genealogy reports. They made cards. They did every known job. But ten minutes before their time was up, lightening suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, the rain poured; and, of course, the electricity went off.

Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed. The electricity finally flickered back on, and each of them restarted his computer. Satan started searching frantically, screaming "It's gone! It's all gone! I lost everything when the power went out!"

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours. Satan observed this and became irate. "Wait! He cheated! How did he do it?"

God shrugged and said, "Jesus saves."

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FOR OUR FRIEND, BROTHE RABBI TOM

A priest goes into a barbershop, gets a haircut, thanks the barber, and asks how much he owes him. The barber says, "Father, you're a man of the cloth; I couldn't charge you. It's on the house."

The priest thanks him and leaves. The next day, magically appearing on the doorstep are 12 gold coins.

A few days later, a Buddhist monk goes in for a shave and a shine. And when the time comes to pay, the barber says, "No money, please, you're a man of the people. It's on the house." The next day, magically appearing on the doorstep are 12 rubies.

The following week a rabbi comes in, gets a haircut, goes to pay, and the barber says, "No, Rabbi, you are a wise man. I can't take any money from you, go in peace." And the next day, magically appearing on the doorstep, are 12 rabbis.

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IF COLLEGE-STUDENTS HAD WRITTEN THE BIBLE

The Last Supper would have been eaten the next morning -- cold.***The Ten Commandments would actually be only five -- double-spaced and written in a large font. A new edition would be published every two years in order to limit reselling.***Forbidden fruit would have been eaten because it wasn't cafeteria food.***Paul's letter to the Romans would become Paul's email to ideas@romans.gov.***The reason Cain killed Abel: They were roommates.***The reason why Moses and followers walked in the desert for 40 years: They didn't want to ask directions and look like freshmen.***Instead of God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh, he would have put it off until the night before.

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THINGS NOT TO SAY WHEN HANGING LIGHTS ON CHRISTMASTREES

"You've got two red lights right next to each other, dummy. You're supposed to go yellow, green, red, blue, not yellow, red, red, green, blue."***"Up a little higher. You can reach it. Go on, try."***"What the hell do you do to these lights when you put them away every year? Tie them in knots?"***"Come away from that aluminum ladder, kids. I'm going to fry that sucker."***"You've got the whole thing on the tree upside-down. The electric pluggee thing should be down here at the bottom, not up at the top."***"I don't care if you have found another two strings! I'm done!"***"Have you been drinking?"***"Where's the cat?"

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IMPERTURBABLE

Selma, an elderly Jewish lady, was leaving the garment district. Suddenly a man stood in front of her, blocked her path, opened up his raincoat and flashed her.

Unruffled she took a look and said, "This you call a lining?"

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FIGLEAF ENVY.

And then Adam said to Eve, "Hey! I wear the plants in this family!"

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HOLY PSEUDOMATRIMONY

A priest and a nun are on their way back home when their car breaks down. They are unable to get it fixed, so they decide to spend the night in a hotel. The only hotel in the town has only one room available.

The priest says, "Sister, I don't think the Lord would have a problem, under the circumstances, if we spent the night together in this one room. I'll sleep on the lounge, and you have the bed."

The nun agrees, and both take their agreed place in the room.

Ten minutes later, the nun says "Father, I'm terribly cold."

"Okay, I'll get you a blanket," says the priest, and he does.

Another few minutes pass, and the nun says, "Father, I'm still terribly cold."

"Alright, I'll get you another blanket."

Ten minutes later, the nun says, "Father, I'm still terribly cold. I don't think the Lord would mind if we acted as man and wife just for this one night."

"You're probably right! Get up and get your own damn blanket!"

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LOVELETTERS FROM BUDS, PALS, AND FRIENDS

From Bob Piche:

Dear sweet Richard,

I just got off the phone with you, and can hardly believe I've waited so long to contact you. (one quick note: when I met you at the farm in Michigan, You and Adamaria told me that I remind you of your brother which kind of cemented my feelings for you, because I felt some kind of very strong connection with you since the first time I heard you on the radio (Heartmind) years ago.)… It was SO wonderful to hear your voice!...

I know your busy, and worthiness of your time is an issue for me. I'm trying to overcome that, because I feel that I need you. Is this bad? It tells me that I have a LONG way to go on my mystical path…. My deepest sincerest love to you and Adamaria.

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From Pat Helms:

Hello Dearest Shi,

…Two days of rain and two of

Sunshine--all fun! Turned on the computer and was blessed with Lovelight.

You are a gift. Thank you once again. I cried at how God Finds Us In Pain.

I then roared in laughter at "Creative English" and then quietly contemplated As I Walk Through Life--so many truths.

The Newsletter is full of such fun and creativity while teaching us all! Your-- shall I call it summary-- of religions and who God is really. It filled my heart with peace. Your style is so simple. It is so LOVE! I have studied so much and been so frustrated and confused so many many times. I have struggled to understand how leaders have omitted truths and felt no guilt. I have struggled with why they felt they had the right to conclude

things for us and delete facts on their own decisions. We are talking about my whole life here. Then you take a couple of pages and put it into my mind as simple reality. You have offered us joy beyond any words that I can ever put together. These things are facts,… back to what Love was at the start… Thank you dearest and kindest teacher; …Love Abounds.

Your Energized Panther

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MOTHERLOVE CELEBRATION, sent in by Jim Dwyer

After many years of marriage, my wife wanted me to  take another woman
out to  dinner and a movie. She said, "I love you, but I  know this
other woman loves  you."

The "other woman" was  my mother, who had
been  a widow for many years. But the demands of my work  and my
children had made  it possible for me to have visited only occasionally.
I called to invite her for  dinner and a movie.

"What's wrong? Are you well?" she asked. My mother suspects that a late night call is a sign of bad  news.

"I thought that it would be nice to spend some  time with you," I
responded. "Just the two of us."

She said, "I'd like that very much."  As I drove over to  pick her up, I
was a bit nervous. When I arrived at her house, she,  too, seemed to be
nervous. She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an  angel's. "I told my friends  that I was going to go out with my son, and they  were impressed," she said. They can't wait to hear  about our visit."

We went to a nice, cozy restaurant. She took my arm.
I had to read the menu. Her eyes could read only
large print. A nostalgic smile was on her lips. "It was I who used to have to read the menu to you, when you were small," she said.

"Then it's time that you let me return the favor," I responded.

We had an agreeable conversation-- nothing extraordinary, but catching up on recent events. We talked so much that we missed the movie. We arrived at her house.

"How was your dinner date?" asked my wife when I got  home.  

"Very nice," I answered enthusiastically.

A few days later, my mother died of a heart  attack. It happened so suddenly! Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a receipt from the restaurant.

An attached note said: "I paid this bill in advance.
I wasn't sure that I could be there; but I paid for two  plates -- one for you
and the other for Sandy [my wife]. You will never know what  that night meant
for me. I love you, son."

At that moment, I understood the importance of  saying in time: "I love
you," and to give our loved ones the time that they  deserve. Nothing in this life is more important than your family. Give them time, because this cannot be put off til  "some other time."

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HEALING HAVEN: A NEW SERVICE FOR OUR FRIENDS

This month, we are starting a new service for our faithful and loyal readers. Most of us know that "distant healing" does work, and scientific studies have repeatedly verified that people who are prayed for, over long distances, do better than people for whom no prayers are offered. We believe that concentrating on a person's wellbeing, with Love in your heart, is an equivalent to more formal prayers.

Here on earth, a major challenge for almost everyone is the balancing of the forces within the physical body. Loving that physical body-- caring for it, giving it regular exercise and good food, and plenty of sleep and relaxation-- all this is a part of our Love for God. And if we are "to love our neighbor as ourselves," we must engage in selflove.

This is not selfishness or arrogance, but a concern that the bodymind do as well as it can, and so, we support it. We heal it whenever we can. And we heal each other, by loving each other.

If you have any healing-needs, we urge you to send them in, for the "Healing Haven" sections of future magazines, so that all our spiritual readers can concentrate on your needs, and send Love into your mind and body. Be specific as to the kind of healing that you need, and we will all relax and let Love do all the rest!

This month, we thought that we would get the ball rolling with the case of Richard Francis, who has many and major challenges with the body. It appears that, after over ten years of taking an immunosuppressant drug, that drug might be having some toxic effects. This Wednesday, June 6, Richard is going into the hospital and having a "renal biopsy" to determine the nature and severity of any damage done to the kidney. From 8 am that day, please send, to the area of his right kidney, a red-silver energy combined with your Love. Thanks in advance, as always, for your Love!:)

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WHO SAID?, sent in by Jim Dwyer

Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is  labor and
delivery. Somebody never watched her "baby" get on the bus for  the first day of
kindergarten. Or on a plane headed for a military camp.***Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes  closed and one
hand tied behind her back. Somebody never organized 7  giggling
Brownies to sell  cookies.***Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her  child gets married. Somebody doesn't know that marriage adds a new son-  or daughter-in-law
to a  mother's heartstrings.***Somebody said a mother's job is done when her last  child leaves home. Somebody never had grandchildren, or better yet,  great-grandchildren.***Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you  don't need to
tell her.  Somebody isn't a mother.

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TENG TSU WANTS A GURU, by Steven E. McDaniel

Teng Tsu wants a guru, One who is living In the laughing heart, and Happy to see Teng Tsu, A guru who answers All his questions With the voice of silence And who preaches silence By keeping his mouth shut.  Teng Tsu wants a guru Who is beyond time
And the world of opposites, And yet, has time For Teng Tsu, always There at his bare feet. 
Teng Tsu wants a guru Who is a guide to love, With soft, brown eyes, A guru who puts his head In Teng Tsu’s lap And looks up at him From the land of God.
Teng Tsu wants a guru With wild abandon, Who howls at the moon And runs naked in the fields.

Teng Tsu wants a guru Who teaches love with no thought, who teaches patience and being in the sweetness of the Now with every bad breath. 
Teng Tsu wants a guru With all of his fours Firmly planted on the spinning earth,
His head lifted to the scent of Spirit In the Invisible heavens of the wind.
Teng Tsu wants a guru With a black, wet nose At one end, and a big wagging tail At the other! Teng Tsu wants…you know!

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THE GOOD VERY OLD DAYS, sent in by Maureen Dwyer

What was the #1 Song the Day you were Born? Click below :http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm

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SWEET PRAYER, sent in by Carol Espelage

Father/Mother, please bless all hearts in all creatures everywhere. Bless the angry with Thy peace, and the sad with Thine unending joy. Please give aid to friends, relatives, and those for whom we care so deeply, who are reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of Thy Love and power. Holy Spirit, please minister to their Souls at this very moment. Where there is pain, give them Thy peace, enjoyment, and mercy. Where there is self-doubt, release a renewed confidence through Thy grace. Where there is need, please fulfill their needs. Bless their homes, families, friends, pets, health, wisdom, spirituality, finances,

their goings and their comings.

In Jesus' precious name.

Amen.

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WELCOME TO MYSTICISM: BASIC FACTSHEET

1. Mysticism is not a religion. It is a profound spiritual philosophy that marks the best in all faiths. Catholic saints and Protestant thinkers are often mystics. So are many Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists (the "natural" mystical faiths). Mystics in Christianity have often been called "gnostics," those of Judaism "kabbalists," and those of Islam "sufis."

(Mysticism is the shared and single Way of Jesus, the Buddha, Solomon, Lao Tzu, Patanjali, Al Hallaj and others.)***2. Mysticism is based upon a very deep understanding of the "physical, material" cosmos as a great dream created by a vast, enormous Mind.***3. Mysticism teaches that "God" is the pristine, utterly pure Mind of Love, joy, peace, and beauty that lies in the deepest region of the collective Unconscious. God is the Core and Source of a very deep (thus, obscure and unknown) Mind shared by all sentient beings. There is no "external" God. In mysticism, God is commonly called "the Mind" "Lovemind," "the One"," the Absolute", and "Reality."***4. God is Love. God is not a king, soldier, ruler, law-maker, or other human phrase that might limit Her/Him. God is magnificently vast: God is all the Love in all the hearts of all the creatures on all the planets in all the galaxies.***5. Mysticism has nothing to do with magic or the "occult." Instead, it is a practical decision-making and problem-solving form of psychology based on agapology (the psychology of Love).***6. Mysticism is based on the fact that many people have experienced a mind-exploding, soul-blossoming experience. You can also have this experience. It is an internal knowing called gnosis. It is a kind of "personal revelation." It is a direct awakening to the Mind of Infinity, the limitless and illimitable Mind that dwells deeply within your own Unconscious. This is an experience of bliss, ecstasy, utter joy, liberation, bottomless peace, and endless Love.***7. God is internal. She/He lives as Love every time that you truly love yourself or any other living creature.***8. You can also have the direct, immediate experience of God within. This occurs by and through the regular practice of meditation.***9. The goal of the mystic is to become the instrument or vessel (conduit) of this perfect interior Love-mind. This is the same Mind that dreams the universe into being. Since Love dreams up the cosmos through your mind and mine, we are co-creators with the Dreamer (Creator).***10. Only Mind is real; all other things, the entire material world, is a dream occurring within this Mind.***11. The appropriate response to this fact is humility, a realization that the cosmos, filled with challenges, is "perfect" as it is. Knowing that Love is dreaming it into being, the mystic finds serenity, tranquility, and equanimity. She is here on earth to fulfill the assignment of becoming a "mirror" of Love and Its wisdom.***12. In the form of mysticism called "Taoism" (pronounced "dowism"), the mystic does not try to change the cosmos to make it the way that she thinks that it should be. Instead, she cultivates a deep and real faith in the Power (Tao) that already runs the universe. It is not the job of any smaller mind to "play God," or pretend that it is God.***13. Every act of Love is a sacred act of worship. Every thought of Love is a "prayer." The mystic does not try to turn prayer into a method of ego-grasping or

-clinging or -craving. Instead, her prayer is always, toward God, "Thy will be done."***14. The mystic is a being of such humility that, when she sees "imperfection," she knows that there is a flaw, not in the cosmos, but in her understanding. So, she tries to cultivate "non-aversion."***15. The mystic knows that the more that she decides to like or love anything, the more "heaven" she creates in her mind. Conversely, the more that she decides to dislike or hate anything or anyone, the more "hell" she creates inside her head. So, she undergoes a radical shift in consciousness that leads to an altered state called, by the Buddha, "the all-embracing mind."***16. When she discovers this altered state, everything is beautiful, for everything serves a purpose, and everything is part of the great dream of a perfect Mind.***17. This means that the mystic is often nonserious; she "plays" her way through life. This is an acronym for "permits, lets, allows, yields, and surrenders."***18. But, because the mystic believes that God is Love, she worships Love. This causes her continuously to improve the situation in the world, improving life on our planet for all creatures, including herself.***19. The way that the mystic begins her "re-identification" with Spirit instead of with her animal-body is through the gradual abandonment of personal desires, leading to unshakeable happiness. The mystic desires very many things, but she does not allow rampant greed, desire out of control, desire as a pathology, to dominate her life. She eradicates all personal desire. Her Master is Love, and you cannot serve two masters. The mystic wants always only what Love wants.

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SOME MEMORABLE ONE-LINERS:

Heisenberg might have been here.***A closed mouth gathers no feet.***A penny saved is ridiculous.***It has recently been discovered that research causes cancer in rats.***He who hesitates is sometimes saved.***Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.***Life is what happens to you while you are planning to do something else.***Mediocrity thrives on standardization.***Today is the last day of your life so far.***Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.***A camel is a horse designed by committee.***Is a book listing the definitions of habitual substances known as an "addictionary"?***There are two rules for success in life: Rule 1: Don't tell people everything you know.***When a cow laughs, does milk come out of her nose?

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LOVING GEORGE BUSH

A conservative friend commented the other day, with a skeptical tone, "I thought that you were supposed to love everybody. But it's pretty clear to me that you do not love George Bush."

His words could have been simply ignored, but they precipitated a cascade of deep thoughts. As enlightened people, it is true that we are supposed to "love everyone." That is undeniable. But this by no means implies that we are supposed to stick our heads in the sand, and just pretend that everything is "hunky-dorey."

To love a person does not preclude that you might simultaneously hate her actions/behaviors. And loving george bush is on a par with loving any other misled,

possibly evil, and surely incompetent, person. We can indeed love the person without gullibly loving his every activity, word, or behavior. We can love the goodness deep within him while still speaking out against policies or actions that are anti-human, or anti-life, anti-peace, etc. In fact, it is possible to wish him well (the absolute minimum in

universal "love") and, at the same time, decry his behavior. We can, and must, recognize that, someday, he will be an enlightened being of Love, wisdom, Light, and peace.

But it is also the job of the enlightened to point out to others actions of an objectionable and immoral character. Enlightened people in Germany had the major challenge of loving Hitler, but you can bet, and history proves, that they regularly shouted about, cried out against, and even condemned, his atrocious behavior.

A political leader who claims to love, or to be a loyal follower of, Jesus Christ multiplies his responsibility. For his evil activity drags down his own reputation, plus that of the Lord of Love. So, in ignoring his bad behaviors, a person would be demonstrating that she cared for neither God nor human beings.

It is an intrinsic and necessary, indispensable aspect of a good teacher's teaching to contrast evil with good, and to point out the evils of society, or its leaders.

George bush is not only unskillful, but inept and incompetent. He is also uneducated in the rules of diplomacy, and knows very little about politics, debate, or other intellectual aspects of his career. What might be far more important, spiritually, is that he could well be a sociopath. He might well be evil. For the teacher, this triggers a whole new set of responsibilities.

He is, in a word, massively and spectacularly unqualified to lead. Much evidence indicates, at least, to me and to many others, that he is a psychopath (sociopath)-- a person without a guiding conscience. He goes so far as to claim that "God" somehow told him to kill what might have been a million of his Middle Eastern brothers and sisters. Those whom he murdered, often with the most hideous weapons, included thousands of small children, infants, and toddlers, as well as women. Then, there were all the good and innocent, some wise and very spiritual, men and women caught in his shameful "Shock and Awe" campaign of mass-murder.

It is true that george bush will go down in history, but not in the way he thinks, as the "greatest president in history." In fact, many scholars have already concluded, and it is quickly becoming the consensus, that he is the worst president in the history of the world.

So, my sad and angry friend, boo-hooing for george bush, has very much indeed about which to cry. For bush has single-handedly made a disaster of the formerly proud and fine Office of the President, and a sham of our fine and beautiful country. Millions now hate the United States, who before bush were neutral towards, or even liked, our country.

He has given a black eye to the US by attacking a third-world country that uses twelve-year-olds as "soldiers" in its "army." He has spilled rivers of innocent blood; with Iran, he has done the unthinkable: threatened the use of nuclear weapons. He believes that this makes him look strong. But he is not "tough" or "strong," for he does not have to go out onto the battle-field and fight; neither do, by the way, his daughters. No, it is the very best of our society and civilization-- our young and bright girls and boys (not men and women) who are being slaughtered. They have been sacrificed on the burning fires of the altar of greed for oil. And bush seems unaware, or even careless, about these terrible losses. For these young kids have given their all; they will never enjoy anything, create anything, be with family or friends, ever again on this earth.

Yet bush continues to adopt postures and facial expressions that commentators regularly and routinely, consistently, describe as "arrogant," "smug," "selfsatisfied," "conceited," or just plain "confused." In everyday policies, he acts more like a "king" or

"dictator" than a man who serves at the pleasure, and mercy, of the people.

In short, and so much more needs to be said, george bush has ruined so very much about our great country. In the name of greed, he has started a bloody war based on lies; he has ignored, and reversed, ecological laws that seek to preserve the very planet; in awesome ignorance, he has denied global warming; he has made life worse for the

average person, while sucking up shamelessly to the rich, and to corporations. Almost everything that any president could have done wrong, george bush has done-- and he has been wrong.

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